Daily Catholic Lectio
Sat, 28 June 2025
Immaculate Heart of Mary – Optional Memorial
Isaiah 61:9-11. Luke 2:41-51
Garden of Grace, School of Silence
On the day following the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Church commemorates the Immaculate Heart of Mary—a heart that pondered everything in stillness, loved everyone without reserve, suffered in silence, and rejoiced in God.
(A) The Garden of Grace
In today’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah offers a vision of joyful flourishing: “As the earth brings forth its shoots, and a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout before all the nations” (Isaiah 61:11).
The heart of the Virgin Mary was like a garden of grace. She freely offered herself to God’s will, and her heart burned with divine love. Just as the soil receives the rain and brings forth life, Mary received the Holy Spirit with humble readiness and responded: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”
In a world consumed by pride and anger, Mary offers us a different kind of heart—a heart full of grace, rooted in humility.
(B) The School of Silence
Mary and Joseph find their lost Son in the temple. Instead of reacting with words to Jesus’ mysterious response, Mary kept all these things in her heart and pondered them.
Like assembling fragments of a broken picture, she gently joined the pieces of mystery to grasp the deeper meaning. She teaches us to listen with the heart.
Today’s world is full of noise. Silence feels uncomfortable. But Mary reminds us that the deepest truths of life are understood only in silence.
In Conclusion
Mary teaches us that a heart filled with grace and formed in silence is a heart made pure, ready to be the dwelling place of God and the source of maternal love.
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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