Devotion to Our Lady: Guard of honor to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

1917 is the year that opens a new period in the history of the Church and humanity.

The Immaculate Conception points out to men, in his Immaculate Heart, salvation.

Our Lady, in the apparitions that took place in Fatima from 13 May to 13 October 1917, asked:

The consecration of people and families to his Immaculate Heart.
The practice of the first five Saturdays of the month
The daily recitation of the Holy Rosary
Penance for the salvation of sinners

ORIGIN OF THE HONOR GUARD

While in Fatima Mary, in the name of her Son, she asks for worship to her Immaculate Heart, in Munich it is Jesus himself who inspires devotion to honor the Immaculate Heart of his Most Holy Mother.

In fact, on May 13, 1917, on the same day and at the same time in which the Virgin appeared in Fatima, Pope Benedict XV in Rome consecrated Bishop Eugenio Pacelli, who was immediately to move to Monaco as Apostolic Nuncio, with the delicate task of pleading the fate of prisoners of war.

Providence wanted the new Nuncio to choose Father Bonaventura Blattmann as his confessor and spiritual director, who for some time had been thinking about a new Marian association to consecrate people to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The meeting of these two great Marian souls determines the birth of the Pious Union of the Guard of Honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

AIMS '

The commitment that each Honor Guard assumes is to pay the Blessed Virgin Mary every honor and veneration in the light of the Message of Fatima.

In the Apostolic Brief of Pius XII we read:

The purpose and purpose of the Honor Guard consist, according to the example of the Celestial Skewers, in fervently promoting the honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, venerating and imitating its virtues and repairing the offenses caused to the Mystical Body of Christ.

DUTIES

Those who consecrate themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, by registering with the Guard of Honor, must offer the Madonna an hour of her work every day. This hour is called the Watch Hour. The Watchtower begins and ends with the small Ave: Ave Maria, full of grace, pray for us, Jesus.
During the Guard Hour, you offer your work to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who often greets you with the small Ave or with some other ejaculatory. When you forget to do the Watch Hour in the established time, it is good to do it in another hour, in order not to take away from Mary the honor that is due to her.

Hour of Mercy

The Guards of Honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who wish to help Our Lady in the salvation of souls, are advised to offer the Immaculate Heart of Mary another hour of their work, called Hour of Mercy. What the Honor Guards earn during the Hour of Mercy will be offered to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the good of souls: for the agonizing, for the conversion of sinners, for the infidels, for the souls of purgatory, for the sanctification of the clergy etc ... or for any other intention useful for the salvation or sanctification of souls.

The Hour of Mercy begins and ends like the Hour of Guard, with the small Ave: Ave Maria, full of grace, pray for us Jesus.

Both the Watchtower and the Hour of Mercy are indulgent.

Love and worship Mary

The Guards of Honor must filially love Mary as queen of their hearts; they are required to praise her often and openly with words and deeds and to seek to promote her glory. In fact, the Guard lives only for this most amiable and powerful Queen.

Atonement and Repair

How many insults and how many blasphemies against our Queen and Mother! The Guards must be a defense shield against so many insults; therefore it is their task to expiate and repair all the outrages that have gone to the Immaculate Conception, making sacrifices and practicing all kinds of mortifications for his love. For all those who do not love Mary and do not venerate her as a mother, they must often offer her the love and veneration that one day Jesus himself brought her to earth; they also commit themselves to attesting to her love and fidelity always giving her heart. In expiation and in reparation for many who offend him, members will never leave out the precious Angelus Domini prayer. They will also prepare for the Marian feasts with frequent ejaculations and will participate, if possible, in those days as well as on every Saturday, in the Eucharistic celebration, receiving holy communion.

Working with Mary for the salvation of the brothers

In the salvation of all men Mary is the first and greatest collaborator of Jesus and the Guards of Honor wish to help their Queen in this saving work. To this end they must always do everything in the name of all the brothers and for all the brothers. They are required to know that no sacrifice, no suffering, indeed no ejaculation is useless: they are incalculable spiritual riches for all humanity. It is good to fertilize the jobs, sacrifices and sufferings with the little Ave Maria. in this way everything is sanctified and made more pleasing to God, but it is also offered to him through the Mother of the Savior. It is a good thing to pray, every time the Holy Spirit suggests it, for all the brothers with the precious prayer of the little Ave. Ave Maria, full of graces, pray for us Jesus.

Imitate Maria

The Guard of Honor must become the living image of Mary and his faithful copy; she must love God and neighbor with the same ardor with which Our Lady loved her; she must be humble and obedient like her and have her faith. She wants to live within the heart of her Queen, to reproduce the virtues of this paradise of God which is the most pure Heart of Mary. The Guard of Honor sees the Heart of the Mother of Jesus, burned by the flames of the Holy Spirit and asks her to participate in her virtues, to communicate her gifts also with this particular prayer, which would appear to be dictated by the archangel Gabriel: "O Mary, channel of graces, mother of kindness and love, mother of holy Wisdom, you light of true faith, you perfect victim of love, you treasure of the highest holiness, or Mary completely conformed to the will of God, or Heart full of peace and joy, o most beloved daughter of the heavenly Father, o blessed mother of the divine Son, o chosen bride of the Holy Spirit, ooh! join us. " The immaculate Mother is our holiness, our justice, our life!

Offer to Maria

As a crowning achievement of her dedication to the Immaculate Conception, it would be very commendable for the Honor Guard to perform the heroic act of offering Mary all her works forever and, through her, offering them to God. The proposed formula could be the following: “To you, O Mary, I deliver all my works, actions and sufferings; and through you continuously, for all eternity, I offer them to the SS. trinity in the name of all brothers and for all brothers. " Thus what is lacking in our spiritual commitment is made up for by the merciful intercession of the mother of the Lord.

Membership

Any Catholic who enjoys a good reputation can register with the Honor Guard of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The request must be made to the NATIONAL DIRECTION which will send an enrollment form and then the personal card with progressive number.

Members are registered in the book of the Pious Union.

To be a Guard of Honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to be able to participate in all the benefits and privileges, registration in the National Center register is essential.