Saints' Discussion Forums

In today's Memorial for St John, Fr Foley comments that Pope Pius XI declared St John the Father of the liturgical cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  St John, pray for us.

     

Great question; the phrase is Foley's, but I glossed right over it without question.  Just the word cult alone is a frustration for me, because it is used in a wide variety of ways.  New Advent Encyclopedia does not provide a definition.  CCC lists the word cult in its index, but simply refers to worship, with several separate references, and I can't find any specific reference to cult.
I've left my pocket dictionary to last because it's usually the least helpful, and so it is again today.  Getting three (and often more) definitions annoys me deeply, especially in many cases, including this case, when the so-called definitions are almost fully in contradiction:
1-formal religious veneration
2-religious system-also adherents to it
3-faddish devotion-also adherents
I think it would much better for dictionaries to indicate first a traditional definition, and cite its epistemology.  It is useful to indicate if there is a frequent modern alternative usage or a previously common but now obsolete usage.  When science, or poetry, or religion invents other definitions (which I strongly discourage in preference to finding new words for new concepts, and the church using Latin when possible) I recommend that dictionaries refer to the other uses but not present separate definitions.
I presume Foley meant a relatively small and new veneration (which of course subsequently grew enormously) without making any implication about error or heresy.

Principally a cult is the worship or veneration of a person's body, either while living or dead. The first and most important Christian cult being the worship of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.
All of the Saints have cults which are offered veneration by seeking intercession, imitation and offering Mass in their honor.
Subsequently, the largest cult after the cult of Jesus in the Catholic Church is the cult of the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary which is given the superveneration which is based upon the favor God showed to Mary and the perfect virtue of humble obedience seen in Mary.
The interesting component of the cult of Mary is that Mary and Jesus share exactly the same humanity in terms of nature, what Jesus was by nature, Mary was by grace. Thus Mary constantly was united in a union of grace, where as Jesus was constantly united by a unity of nature. For the holy flesh of Mary, was like the stone which received the Word of God carved by the Holy Spirit. Mary's holy heart itself had already received the Word of God carved by the Holy Spirit and thus was singly immaculate even in the womb, when God shaped her little heart in the womb of Saint Anne. Now the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, was formed, after the likeness of the heart of the Father.
This great miracle is foretold through the Apostle Paul Acts 13: 20-23
"21And after that they desired a king: and God gave them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, forty years.
22And when he had removed him, he raised them up David to be king: to whom giving testimony, he said: I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills.
23Of this man's seed God according to his promise, hath raised up to Israel a Saviour, Jesus"
Now David's heart was wrought in a manner that was a type of the perfection that was to come in the heart of Jesus Christ.
For David's heart was not yet pure, but the heart of Jesus never knew impurity nor allowed corruption within its walls.
Indeed, the heart of Jesus is itself heaven, for within the heart of Jesus is the Kingdom, the Pearl of Great Price, the Hidden Manna, the Life-Giving Spirit, the Treasury of the Divinity, the Unfading Star, the Lamp of the Commandments, the Throne of Justice, the Seat of Mercy, the seven Spirits of God, the prayers of all the Saints, the names of all the Elect, the glory of the Lord, the infinitely holy name which no man knows and the Paradise of Eternity.
Within the Immaculate Heart of Mary was the Word of God, on which she continually meditated and pondered and treasured above all things, and within the Word of God was the Holy-Living-Life-Giving Spirit of God which had shaped Mary in the womb and fashioned her perfectly and wonderfully and formed her soul with a unique character and made her a perfect creature, a perfect creation, a perfect wonder and her heart a perfect throne, a perfect temple, a perfect palace.
Thus, in the Liturgy these salutary devotions are offered every first Friday for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and first Saturday for the Immaculate Heart of Mary with appropriate promises attached to each of the devotions by worthy reception of the Eucharist and both following the teachings of the devotions, preaching of the devotion and spread of the devotions.