Notre Dame du Cap

When the miraculous statue of "Our Lady of the Cape" was brought by pious French pilgrims to Quebec, there confronted the priest in charge the problem of transporting the material for the chapel across the river to the Shrine location. Heeding the plea and the promise of the fervent priest, Our Lady caused the river to freeze over with such hardness that all the chapel materials could be transported across it. The statue has, through the years, been reported by pious pilgrims to have miraculously smiled and moved. The statue represents both the Queenship and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Prayer to Our Lady of the Cape

O Holy Virgin Mary, our most merciful Mother and Queen, we thy children, humbly prostrate before thee, implore thy grace and help. With confidence we come unto thee, O Immaculate Queen of the Holy Rosary; to thee do we turn our eyes. Bestow on us, we beg thee, these special graces and intentions as they are in accord with God's Holy Will. Grant us health of body and purity of soul; increase our faith and love so that we may know thy Divine Son better and serve Him ever faithfully as obedient members of His One, True, Catholic Church. O tender and merciful Mother, intercede for those who are dear to us. Heal the sick, comfort of the dying, and have pity on the faithful departed. Protect our families, guard our country, and keep Holy Mother Church safe from all who would destroy her. Our Lady of the Cape, may we love thee more and more, so that one day, united with thee in Heaven, we may praise thy Son eternally. Amen.

The Love of the Heart of Mary for the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Who was the first lover and adorer of the Sacred Heart? Mary. We do not always recollect that. We honor and venerate greatly the saint who promoted the devotion to the Sacred Heart (she was one of Mary's own), and we do rightly. But let us ever recollect that May was the first, as she was above comparison the greatest lover of the Heart of Jesus! While Mary bore It within her, she perpetually offered the Heart of her Son, with its treasure of Precious Blood, to the Eternal Father, as a continual adoration. With what content, with what ecstatic joy, did Mary thus worship the ever-blessed Trinity! When she had sung the praises of God in the temple, when her whole being had poured itself out a living sacrifice of pure love, wholly pleasing to God, yet she longed to offer more. Now she can with unspeakable contentment.

Jesus lies in His chosen tabernacle in Mary, peaceful, silent, as He lies in the tabernacle on the altar. Before Him burns a perpetual lamp. Fragrant flowers are ever before Him, and incense unceasingly offered. It is the Heart of Mary that furnishes this worship. The pure flame of love, sent forth from her Heart of love, pleased and delighted the Heart of Jesus. The beautiful flowers ever growing in Mary, "the garden of the New Paradise," were virtues and graces that other creatures of God have never possessed as Mary did. The prayer of her Heart was the incense that so pleased God. Thus was Mary happy in being able to offer what she knew rendered Jesus such unspeakable joy. He, whose delight is to be with the children of men, superabounded with delight in being with Mary.

But Mary remained not in quiet communion with Jesus, in the enjoyment of her own happiness in possessing Him. Oh, no; she had a duty to perform which she loved to perform. She had to do, through Jesus, with Jesus, and for Jesus -- Who was now before birth in complete dependence upon her, living by her breath -- what He had come to do. She had to offer to the Eternal Father the adoration and thanksgiving human nature never yet had befittingly offered; to offer atonement for the sins committed on this sinful earth; to thank the ever-blessed Trinity for all the gifts bestowed upon mankind; and to implore for human nature a restoration to its original dignity.

None felt so much as Mary did the degradation of mankind since the fall. None grieved so over it, as she thought how very beautiful God had made His creatures, and how terribly they had spoiled His work. Her own Immaculate Conception made her feel it as none other could. Therefore, she had mourned nights and days as she saw the human race, whom God had made so great, so terribly fallen. From this Mary's children must learn a lesson. They, too, must grieve and mourn, after the example of their Mother. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." God shows us plainly how dear this mourning is to Him, and how acceptable, by His promise to spare Sodom if ten just could be found who mourned for the sins of that wicked city. But they were not found. In the day when God's justice seeks to show forth and avenge itself upon a world teeming with sin, may it be stayed, may the just ones be found to stem the just anger of an all-holy God. In that day may there be those of Mary's own, after her own Heart, whom she may show to the Almighty, grieving and mourning at His goodness so greatly outraged. Ah, for the sake of His elect may God shorten the day of His anger.

Mary possessed the Sacred Heart; she was Its Mother; she had a right over It. Did she let her power, then, lie dormant? No, indeed no. A fervent priest, we know, will not omit, without the greatest necessity, the power he has to do good by offering the Holy Sacrifice. But no priest ever possessed the fervor of Mary, however saintly he may have been. Mary therefore performed, with ever-increasing fervor and love, the office, we might almost say, of priest, since she called God from Heaven by her word, and offered the Son to the Eternal Father in deepest adoration as the supreme act of worship due to Him. No priest ever offered the Precious Blood with the dispositions with which Mary offered it in the golden chalice of the Sacred Heart.

Mother, thou seemest to be all things in one: perfect creature and adorer of thy Creator, and yet Mother of the Son of God; and, though a Mother, a pure Immaculate Virgin.

What are Mary's own to learn from this thought of Mary? That they must imitate her. But how? Keep Jesus with you. He will willingly stay. "He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me and I in him." Jesus will dwell with you. He desires to do so. "I seek a pure heart, and there is the place of My abode." Why not, then, strive to keep Him? When He dwells in a soul, that soul does good wherever he goes, insensibly to himself, but so it will be. His words will have weight, his actions will fructify and produce good he had not intended, because he did not think of it. Let that soul speak to a good child for instance, telling it to pray for him, and that child will feel urged in a wonderful manner to pray. A simple soul once thought how happy it must be to be a priest, to be able to bless and do good wherever it went. But those who are not priests may bless and do good to a lesser degree wherever they go, if they carry Jesus with them. He thirsts for souls imbued with the spirit of Mary, Marylike souls whom He can draw to Himself with ineffable delight, to whom He can make Himself known as He so desires to do, with whom He can repose in peace, for there will be naught to ruffle and disturb His repose. "The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the tabernacles of Jacob." He will love to be on earth with Mary again in her children. He will love it, at times, more than in the tabernacles of churches, where He is often so neglected, so coldly treated.

Mary, Mother of the Sacred Heart, pray for us!

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