For Catholics, August marks the dedication to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and while many North American parishes have seen traditional devotions — and the closely paired Sacred Heart of Jesus — become something of a lost art, Toronto’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish remains committed to keeping that very flame alive. 

Martina Anaweokhai, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help since 2020, has taken it upon herself to bring this practice, long remembered from her childhood in Nigeria, to Toronto. Raised in a third-generation Catholic family where daily Rosary and Sacred Heart of Jesus devotions were simply part of life, she developed a personal love for the Rosary during university, citing how it brought her a profound sense of peace. 

On every first Wednesday of the month, faithful groups gather for a powerful hour of reparation, prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, with this month once again returning as a particularly fitting time to renew two of the Church’s most significant expressions of Catholic spirituality and devotion to our Holy Mother and her Son. 

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When pastor Fr. Frank McDevitt arrived in 2023, Anaweokhai approached him with a simple request to begin a monthly devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He readily agreed, and the first Wednesday Holy Hour was born.

“For that one hour, we make prayers of petitions, prayers of reparation, thanksgiving prayers, intercessory prayers for ourselves, our family members, the Church and world,” she said. “We do it to bring ourselves closer to Mary, her virtues and her deep love for Jesus and (all of) humanity.”

Even as the practice has become less visible in communal and parish life in the modern day, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is supported by ancient scriptural roots that have developed gradually over centuries. Initially drawn from the Gospel of Luke, where Mary is described as pondering God’s words in her heart, early Church Fathers wrote of Mary’s interior life, virtues and maternal love. 

By the 17th century, through the work of St. John Eudes, a French Catholic priest, public veneration was promoted and established as an early feast. The 20th century then brought worldwide attention to the devotion, largely through the 1917 apparitions at Fatima, where Mary was said to have appeared to three shepherd children, asked for prayers of reparation to her Immaculate Heart, the conversion of sinners and the consecration of Russia, promising peace in return. In 1944, Pope Pius XII instituted the universal feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, traditionally observed in August, the month dedicated to her.

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Even as recently as 2013, Pope Francis renewed the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as part of the Marian Day celebration, and in March 2022, he consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with Catholic bishops and priests from across the globe to implore an end to the Russo-Ukrainian war.

While still popular in different forms in places like Portugal, France and heavily Catholic regions in Latin America and Africa, the traditional practice of devotion to Mary as Spiritual Mother and guide has become sparse in North America.

At Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in just a few short years, a core group of regular attendees each month has sustained this devotion, and it continues to attract more faithful with new parishioners joining almost every month.

For Anaweokhai, the spiritual fruits and graces that she has seen have become a powerful testament to the importance of these devotions. 

“ Apart from feeling energized and refreshed spiritually, I’ve seen (attendees) who are truly growing deeper in their faith and wanting to pray and serve more in the Church. I’m hearing about women praying the Rosary regularly as a family. There is just a deep spiritual involvement that comes when people allow Mary into their lives more deeply,” she said. 

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For those reasons alone, Anaweokhai is hopeful that more parishes across the Greater Toronto Area and the country at large return to the practice — especially during this month dedicated to Mary.

“ I do want more people to have devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary. We had a woman in her 50s from Canada who said she had never heard about it before,” she said. “ This is something that can leave us grounded and reminded that you are not walking alone.”