Lend Me Your Heart: Having a Heart Like Mary!
Photo by Terry Fincher/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
You might be curious about the name of this community, so I wanna dive into it! If you’ve read the “About” page, you’re going to get a little recap here. I promise it will be short and sweet!
When I was a fresh Catholic, I really struggled with the Church’s teaching on Mary. I grew up Lutheran, and only heard about Mary on Christmas and then we’d cast her to the side. I couldn’t understand why the Church was always making her “the center of attention.” In reality, my apprehension towards Mary increased my curiosity about what the Church said about her.
When I was in RCIA, I remember my “teacher,” who was also our campus minister at GW (shoutout to Julie, aka my second mother while I was in college), talking about how Jesus treated his Mother. She talked to us about the wedding at Cana and how Jesus listened to his mother’s direction. It’s a mystery, but God became man and he chose to be obedient to his mother for the entirety of his life. This really struck me. If Jesus thought she was so important, then maybe I should too.
So I started learning more and to my surprise, Catholics never worshipped Mary, common misconception among Protestants that I also believed for awhile. As Catholics, we venerate Mary, we honor her. We treat Mary with the same admiration and respect that her son, Jesus, treated her with.
The phrase “lend me your heart” comes specifically from St. Teresa of Calcutta’s devotion to the blessed Mother. There are so many great saints whose devotions to Mary were so beautiful, but this one has really stuck with me. St. Teresa was very close with the Virgin Mary and really believed in the power of her intercession and the unique role that Mary played in the salvation of souls. She acknowledged that the way Mary was able to love, was more perfect than any other human. St. Teresa would often say the prayer “lend me your heart” or “keep me in your most pure heart.” And with that, she would ask Mary to allow her to love with a heart like hers.
I decided to name this little community Lend Me Your Heart because it is a beautiful reminder to me, and hopefully will be to you, that Mary desires to lead us to holiness. Asking for her intercession will allow us to love Jesus more and more! So keep this in mind, when you are struggling to be charitable, when you feel like you have nothing left to give, when you are tempted to despair, ask Mary to lend you her heart.
Mary, Mother of God, lend me your heart!