For many Catholics, building a relationship with Mary can seem difficult. As the Mother of God, conceived without sin, it can be hard to relate to her. But Mary’s holiness should not be a stumbling block for us, but rather a way to better see how she loves us, and how God wants us to love others with a heart like that of our Blessed Mother.

Father Edward Looney, a priest in the Diocese of Green Bay, is the author of A Heart Like Mary’s: 31 Daily Meditations to Help You Live and Love as She Does. He stopped by Morning Air® to help us understand Mary’s heart and how we, too, can have a heart like Mary.

“A priest in the seminary told me once, ‘Edward you love Mary so much, but where is your Marian heart?'” Fr. Looney recalled. “And so I started to pray about that. Every day I pored over the Scriptures, asking what does it mean to have a Marian heart?”

It was during a visit to Fatima, where Mary appeared to three children in 1917, that Fr. Looney was given an insight into the ways that Mary’s heart is like a two-way mirror.

“One of the images that was put out for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions was this heart sculpture that the Fatima sanctuary had in a particular area of their complex,” he said. “And in that heart sculpture there was a little mirror at the bottom of the heart. So you stood up there and looking at the heart of Mary, and at the bottom of the heart of Mary you could see yourself.”

“Mary is the one who treasured all the life of Christ, all His works, in her heart,” he continued. “And in a sense, when we see ourselves in the heart of Mary, as in this sculpture, she is treasuring us. She is treasuring our moments because we are her sons and daughters as well. And just as Mary sees me in her heart, I want to see her heart in mine.”

Listen to the full conversation with Father Edward Looney below:

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