OUR MISSION STATEMENT
We, the members of the Holy Rosary Parish family, are the living sign of Christ’s Presence, reconciling life, light, hopefulness, and healing within our community. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to realize the full potential of our creative energies to be about the work of God in our commitment to the Lord, each other, the Church and our world. We are a community sharing responsibility and celebration. We seek to reflect the love of Jesus in such a way that we burn with desire to be at one with Him. We pray that we are open to hear an understand the good news, while we reach out to those who have not heard it. We come together as one, sharing the Word, the Eucharist, and the Spirit which is our Gift from God.
August: The Month of the Immaculate Heart
The month of August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart. Since the 16th century Catholic piety has assigned entire months to special devotions. The month of August is traditionally dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The physical heart of Mary is venerated (and not adored as the Sacred Heart of Jesus is) because it is united to her person and is the seat of her love (especially for her divine Son), virtue, and inner life. Such devotion is an incentive to a similar love and virtue.
This devotion has received new emphasis in this century from the visions given to Lucy Dos Santos, oldest of the visionaries of Fatima, in her convent in Tuy, in Spain, in 1925 and 1926. In the visions Our Lady asked for the practice of the Five First Saturdays to help make amends for the offenses committed against her heart by the blasphemies and ingratitude of men. The practice parallels the devotion of the Nine First Fridays in honor of the Sacred Heart.
On October 31, 1942, Pope Pius XII made a solemn Act of Consecration of the Church and the whole world to the Immaculate Heart. Let us remember this devotion year-round, but particularly through the month of August.
Pope Paul VI, on the floor of the Vatican Council at the close of the third session, renewed publicly the consecration of the Church and the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. He said that his thoughts turned to the whole world “which our venerated predecessor Pius XII . . . not without inspiration from on high, solemnly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. . . . O Virgin Mary, Mother of the Council, to you we recommend the entire Church.” When he visited Fatima on May 13, 1967, the same Pope recalled this “consecration which we ourselves have renewed on November 21, 1964 — we exhort all the sons of the Church to renew personally their consecration to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of the Church and to bring alive this most noble act of veneration through a life ever more in accord with the divine will and in a spirit of filial service and of devout imitation of their heavenly Queen.“
Before making a consecration it is most desirable to make a careful preparation extending over some period of time. One good way to make that preparation is described in the last part of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion book.
The most essential thing is not making an act of consecration, with or without some solemnity, though that is important. The essential thing is to live that consecration.
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/08_1.cfm
PRAYERS
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
I, N., a faithless sinner– renew and ratify today in thy hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.
In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day, for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen.
*****
Litany to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy
Christ, hear us Christ, graciously hear us
God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us
God the Son, redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us
God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us
Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on us
Heart of Mary, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, after God’s own Heart, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, in union with the Heart of Jesus, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, the vessel of the Holy Spirit, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, shrine of the Trinity, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, home of the Word, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, immaculate in your creation, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, flooded with grace, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, blessed of all hearts, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, Throne of glory, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, Abyss of humbleness, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, Victim of love, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, nailed to the cross, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, comfort of the sad, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, refuge of the sinner, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, hope of the dying, Pray for us
Heart of Mary, seat of mercy, Pray for us
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
L: Immaculate Mary, meek and humble of heart.
A: Conform our hearts to the heart of Jesus.
Let us pray:
O most merciful God, who for the salvation of sinners and the refuge of the wretched, has made the Immaculate Heart of Mary most like in tenderness and pity to the Heart of Jesus, grant that we, who now commemorate her most sweet and loving heart, may by her merits and intercession, ever live in the fellowship of the hearts of both Mother and Son, through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Church of the Holy Rosary, Edgewater, NJ 