As a child I remember references to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. How is the concept portrayed and from where does this thinking originate?
The cult of the Sacred Heart of Mary is analogous to the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In her case the heart is held to symbolise her love to God and to her son. The idea is to have the faithful imitate this devotion. The cult may also be traced back to the 12th century but papal recognition in a partial form did not occur until 1799. This follows a similar pattern to the post-revolutionary French problems and the Bible illiterate masses that were prevented from genuine and serious Bible study (cf. ERE, Vol. 6, p. 558). An Office and Mass were appointed by the Congregation of Rites in 1855, but these were not imposed on the whole Church nor was any universal feast granted. The idea of the heart as source of virtue and an object of cult focus, stems from the ancient pagans in Europe and elsewhere. The Celts kept heads preserved in jars of cedar oil and we see in the Mabinogian that Gwynn forced Kyledi to eat his fathers heart. “The Wends believe that the heart of a maiden or an inf
