Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 Lectionary: 358/573

He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.


The Immaculate Heart of Mary calls to mind the tents which we find throughout the Bible. As a major center of caravan trade, the city knew about travellers, their animals and their tents. Jerusalem and its Temple are often called tents where God's people take refuge and offer grateful sacrifice. They are like the safe caverns around Jerusalem which suggest the safe refuge of Jesus's Sacred Heart. 

Thinking of the Bible's tents, I recall Isaiah's Jerusalem which must spread its tent to welcome the millions of pilgrims who will stream to the Holy City to worship God: 

Enlarge the space for your tent,

spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;

lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs.

For you shall spread abroad to the right and left;

your descendants shall dispossess the nations

and shall people the deserted cities. Isaiah 54: 2-3

On that Day, Isaiah prophesied, Jerusalem will be the capital city of the Earth, and all nations will stream up its steep approaches, bringing their treasures on camels and dromedaries. 

And then I find several passages among the Psalms that describe the safe, holy place of prayer: 

Better one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

Better the threshold of the house of my God

than a home in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84:10

..for you are my refuge,

a tower of strength against the foe.

Let me dwell in your tent forever,

take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Psalm 61:4-5

You hide them in the shelter of your presence,

safe from scheming enemies.

You conceal them in your tent,

away from the strife of tongues. Psalm 31:21

For God will hide me in his shelter

in time of trouble,

He will conceal me in the cover of his tent;

and set me high upon a rock.

Even now my head is held high

above my enemies on every side!

I will offer in his tent

sacrifices with shouts of joy... Psalm 27:5

Finally, Mary is a tent for us; she stretches her Immaculate Heart to receive refugees, migrants, and pilgrims into the City of God where they celebrate the Feast of Booths.  And like Grandma's Feather Bed, we gather in her wonderful Church. If we don't get much done we have a lotta fun.