Sunday, March 10, 2024

Novena to St Joseph starts today - click to read

Novena to St Joseph should be prayed between 10th of March and 18th of March - vigil of the Feast.





Read whole post......

Sunday, February 18, 2024

St Therese and the sword - Arbp Fulton Sheen meditations

Lent has just began and we may need to think about our spiritual needs, imperfections, wants etc. What is the better way than to enjoy a crush course in the Little Way of our beloved Carmelite Saint, St Therese, the Little Flower, given by her disciple and third Order Carmelite, Archbishop Fulton Sheen? Let us see what he has to say....



The new way of St Therese is not to start thinking about how wicked you are, how sinful, but to begin looking at our Lord. And from that, you will see that you are not as good as you ought tobe, but yo will try to please the one you love. Let me give you some of her words along these lines. She said:

Jesus! i would so love Him, love Him as he has never been loved in the history of the world.

And one of the novices - for she was the Mistress of Novices - came to her one day, and she said, "Oh, I have so many virtues to aquire."

The Little Flower said, "No, you've got a lot of things to lose!"

That's the trouble. Our spiritual books tell us how to acquire humility. I told you about the 12 ways of St Bernard. Well now, you'll go crazy trying to develop those 12 ways. One of them is to love to be stomped on and trampled on. The Little Flower says, no, start loving the Lord, and then you'll no longer be proud. You cannot start acquiring, for example, the virtue of humility or fortitude. You can never fall in love with abstraction. You can only love a person. No one in the world ever fell in love with a theorem of geometry.

This is the trouble with secular humanism and materialism: There's no person to love. So then the new way of the Little Flower is....fall in love. Love the Good Lord, and then you will strive to please Him. And because you see that there are imperfections in you, you will love Him more so that they may washed away. This is not a little way, it's the new way because we've forgotten it. It's buried in Scripture. It's buried in Isaiah, buried in Psalms, buried in Zechariah, and she digs it out for us.

Now we come to the second point. What effect did it have on her? Now when we look at the picture of this frail little French girl, we think of her, yes, as the little Therese, frail, meek, humble. But does love make one that way? Real lovers are courageous.

Do you know what she wanted to be? She wanted to be a soldier. She used to dream about it. In one of her dreams, someone was conscripting soldiers for an army. And she heard a voice saying, "Maybe we ought to ask for Therese." And she said, "Well, I'm ready." She said, "I'm sorry it's not a holy war, but I'm ready to fight anyway."

Now we never think of the Little Flower as having a saint whom she wanted to be like more than anyone else, but she did. Do you know who that was? Joan of Arc. Can you imagine her seated on a horse clad in armour? And she said: "If I were Joan of Arc, it would not be voices from heaven. It would be only the voice of my Beloved."

One of her favourite texts of Scriptures, therefore, was "I came not to bring peace, but the sword." (Matt 10:34)...And then St Therese said: "A sister showed me a photograph representing Joan of Arc, consoled by an interior voice. The saints encourage me from above, and they say to me, "So long as you are in fetters, you cannot fulfill your mission. But after your death, then will be the time of your conquest."

In other words, she said, "I'm going to be a warrior and a soldier after my death, I am in no battlefields, now except the battle of the spiritual life."

This figure gives you some idea of, for example, her powerful intercession. This, too, accounts for her love of missions. She is the patroness of the Propagation of the Faith, though she was never in mission lands. The reason she is the patroness of the Propagation of the Faith was because she loved missions, and she corresponded all her life with two missionary priests and offered up her sufferings for them.

Yes, that is true, but there is a deeper reason still. This woman was in love, and she wanted her Beloved known all over the world. That's why she loved the missions! As she put it:

"Like the prophets and the doctors, I would enlighten souls, I would travel the whole world to preach Your name and set up Your glorious cross in pagan lands. But one mission could never suffice for me. Would that I could, at one and the same time, proclaim the gospel to the world, even to the remotest of its islands. I  would desire to be a missionary not only for a few years but to have been one from the creation of the world and to continue to the end of time."

Love makes one a missionary. When we cease to love, we cease to be a missionary. Now it is sometimes asked, for example, why is there a decline of conversions today? It is  due to ecumenism? No, it's not due to ecumenism. It's due to the fact that we're not making Christ the center of our lives. And if we were deeply in love with Christ instead of with social programs and the like (all which have their place, but here I am speaking of primacy), if we gave the primacy to Christ, then we would be on fire to save souls. After all, the reason we are tired in body is because we are already tired in mind. We have no love. The fires have gone out. We are cinders, burnt out cinders floating in the immensity of space and time. And here is a young girl. It is almost as if she is locked up in a gilded cage, absolutely straining at the leash in order to become a missionary. Why? Simply because she loved!

As I told you, love does not mean just simply to have and to own and to possess. It's not sitting on the throne waiting for others to serve. It's the going out, the spending of oneself. Love is not the circle circumscribed bt self. It's like a cross outstreched to embrace the whole world.

Love isn't Buddha, fat, sleek, a well-oiled body, hands folded across the breast intently looking inward, thinking only of self. It's the picture of thin saints looking out for the mission to the world, as Therese looks out in many of her photos. And therefore, she loved this text, the sword. And she says many times in her writings that "I am entering Carmel to bring the sword to the monastery of Carmel." In other words, it needed a little fire. She entered it to change it. And her reason for doing so was right.

We are fond of talking peace today, but all we mean by peace is lack of disturbance. Our Lord said, "I came not to bring peace." God HATES PEACE in those who are destined for war! And we are destined for war, spiritual war. We've forgotten that we're in a combat. We are in genuine combat. When our first parents were driven out of the garden of Paradise, God stationed an angel with a flaming sword, a two-edged sword that turned this way and that. Why? To keep our first parents from going back to eat of the Tree of Life and thus immortalize their evil. And the only way we can ever get back again into paradise is by having that sword run into us. It's flaming because it's love. It's two-edged because it cuts, and it penetrates. It's not the sword that's thrust outward to hack off the ear of the servant of the high  priest as Peter did. It's the sword that's thrust inward to cut out all of our seven pallbearers of the soul, the pride and covetousness, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth.

This was the sword she loved. And this sword is what we've forgotten in our modern world with the dripping away of discipline, the ascetic principle. The disciplinary principle of the Christian world had moved to the totalitarian countries. And concerning the sword, I quoted the sword in relationship to the Garden of Eden, but in the prophecy of Zechariah, we read this:


"This is the very word of the Lord of Hosts: Oh sword, awake against my shepherd." (Zech 13:7)

Who is the shepherd? Our Lord. So Zechariah is having the heavenly Father say, "Sword awake! Awake against My shepherd, against My Son, against Him who works with Me." So when our Blessed Lord came to this earth, the sword of Herod was raised against Him. Did anyone ever raise a sword against a two-year-old Caesar? Or a six-month-old Stalin? Why the sword against Him? because He plays a role in salvation. It belongs to warriors. And as the heavenly Father ran the sword into His own Son, the Son ran the into His own Mother. Simeon said to Mary, "You, too, shall be pierced to the heart." (Luke 2:35) So the Father ran a sword into His Son, the Son into His own Mother, and Our Lord into us.

"I have come not to bring peace, but the sword." This , then, is the way of the warrior and the little girl who wanted to be a soldier. And there was not much difference in her mind between a soldier and a missionary.

to be continued...



Read whole post......

Sunday, February 11, 2024

OUR LADY OF LOURDES

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, perfect moment to think about virtue of humility, and this virtue is most dear to God and Our Lady. St Bernadette, poor peasant girl, to whom Our Lady appeared in Lourdes, was made a very holy person through many trials in particular when she lived a hidden life of a nun. Her incorruptible body is preserved in the convent where she died in 1879. I recommend reading a very edifying story of her life written by Abbe Trochu more than fifty years ago in the book 'Saint Bernadette Soubirous' which may be found in some internet bookstores.

No sudden splendour broke the grey
And even tenor of your days,
No ecstasy made you forget
Your poverty in its high rays.


Mary, the lowliest can tread
With confidence the path you trod,
Your life the bright and shining star
That leads wayfarer to God. (St Therese)

"I was twelve years old when I first went to Lourdes, and the sight of some of those sick people was hard for me to bear. I wondered what the use was for some of them to travel, people who, logically, would have been much more comfortable in their beds.

Each day my father, as a doctor, went to the office of medical findings. On the third day, he came back very upset. In that office, he had seen a man seated at a table before a ham sandwich. Everybody watched with a sense of wonder a man who, that very morning, could not walk or eat normally. A few moments earlier he had stood up from his wheelchair and walked into the office. The medical certificates stating his condition declared that he was incurable.

The Church, being very cautious, acknowledged the authenticity of the miracle only later. "This man," I told myself, "was right to leave his room and come to implore Our Lady of Lourdes."

However, I later witnessed some events that in my mind were just as supernatural. As we boarded the train for our return journey, I saw some sick people embark, many of whom were very seriously ill. Overwhelmed with pity, I imagined that they felt some despair about not having been cured. But, on the contrary, many of those people had smiles on their faces. They looked happy, at peace, and a few of them even exchanged jokes.

And, in a more serious tone, a terribly crippled woman confided to her stretcher-bearer: "This trip did me so much good that I plan to come back next year... Maybe I'll see you again."

By Germaine Acremant and Jean Barbier in "For You, What Does Lourdes Represent?" After 'A Moment With Mary'
Photo credit to Fr Lawrence 
Read whole post......

Friday, February 02, 2024

The Presentation of Our Lord


When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord...and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord (Lk 2:22-24) 

Jesus, your arms are the elevator which will lift me to heaven! To achieve this, I must not grow; just the opposite, I must remain small, I must become smaller and smaller. Oh Lord, you have gone beyond my expectations, and I want to sing of your mercies (St Therese, The Story of a Soul)
Read whole post......

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Conversion of St Paul


'Let Thy name be praised, not mine, let Thy work be extolled, not mine; let Thy holy name be blessed, but to me nothing be attributed of the praises of men. Thou art my glory; Thou art the joy of my heart. In Thee will I glory and rejoice all the day; but for myself I will glory in nothing but in my infirmities (2 Cor.12; 5) (Imitation of Christ, B 3 ch 11) 

Someone had said to her: "You are a Saint!" "No, I am not a saint, nor have my deeds ever been those of a saint. I am a very little soul whom God has overwhelmed with graces. In Heaven you will see that I am speaking the truth" St Therese, Novissima Verba
Read whole post......

Monday, January 01, 2024

Mary, the Holy Mother of God




“Mother of God, tell me your mystery; of how your earthly life was spent: the way, right from the time of ‘Fiat – how you’d be buried in adoration, Mary! (Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity) 


Read whole post......

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Christmas Novena - 16-24 December, starts today, click for link

Read whole post......

Thursday, December 14, 2023

St John of the Cross solemnity


Today is the Feast of St John of the Cross, a man of exalted sanctity, called the "prince of mystic theology", who was the chief co-labourer of St Teresa, in the establishment of the Reform, in Spain.

He was an ardent lover of the Cross, and on one occasion, when Our Lord asked him what he desired as a reward for his labours and great austerity, he answered: "Lord, to suffer and to be despised for Thy Sake."In the Office of his feast, the Carmelites sing of Saint John of the Cross:

"Saint of the eagle eye,
Gazing enrapt on high,
Mid dread abysses of Divinity;
Martyr by heart's intent,
Virgin yet penitent;
Prophet and guide in realms of mystery!
Clearly dost thou reveal
Secrets the clouds conceal,
For thou hast steeped thy soul in rays above,
Pondering the mountain height,
Darkness of faith's long night,
And the reviving flame of mystic love."

St John of the Cross' writings rank high in literature, and the more outstanding of his work are: "Spiritual Canticle, "The Ascent of Mount Carmel", "The Living Flame of Love", "The Dark Night of the Soul", "Precautions". Saint John of the Cross knew well how to "keep festival with unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth" even in the midst of excruciating trials, imitating therein the meek Lamb of God in His bitter Passion. This valiant disciple of the Cross affords encouragement with this consoling truth: "When God is really loved, He bears most readily the cry of the soul that loves Him".

Father John de Yepez, youngest son of Gonzales de Yepez, was born in 1542, at Fontibera, a small town between Avila and Salamanca in Old Castile. From his earliest childhood he had a particular inclination to piety, and several times experienced the protection of Divine Providence, and the watchful care of the Blessed Virgin, for whom he ever had a marked devotion. At the age of twenty-two he entered the Carmelite Monastery of Medina del Campo, and there practiced great austerities. He studied Theology at Salamanca, and was ordained Priest at the age of twenty-four. When he met St Teresa at Medina del Campo, she immediately recognized the treasures of grace his heart possessed, and unfolded to him her plans with her usual candour and simplicity. he understood her, and promised to join the good work if he might do so promptly, for his soul was longing for a more rigid life, and he had determined to go and join Carthusians. St Teresa lost no time, and having obtained the permission of the Provincial, and of the Diocesan Bishop, she founded at once the first Monastery of the Friars, in a poor little house, which had been given her for the purpose, at Durvelo. Thus was sown the tiny mustard seed, whence was to spring the mighty tree, upon whose ever spreading branches innumerable souls would rest in contemplation throughout future ages. While Father Antonio was tall and portly, Father John of the Cross was very small of stature, and the Saint, whose sense of humour was irresistible, used to say, that God had given her a friar and a half to begin her Reform. The latter was the first professed, and the saint cut and made his habit with his own hands. The house at Durvelo was poor and very small. It belonged to a nobleman of Avila, Don Raphael, and was kept for the use of his bailiff, who received his corn rents there. Their penances and austerities were such that the saint had to urge them to use moderation, fearing they would kill themselves and thus destroy the good work they had began, but they made light of all their sufferings and God so blessed their labours, that the Order spread with a rapidity truly miraculous.

Dom Prosper Gueranger OSB, writes beautifully about the Saint in 'The Liturgical Year':
Let us go with the Church to Mount Carmel, and offer our grateful homage to John of the Cross, who following in the footsteps of Teresa of Jesus, opened a safe way to souls seeking God. The growing disinclination of the people for social prayer was threatening the irreparable destruction of piety, when in the sixteenth century the divine goodness raised up saints whose teaching and holiness responded to the needs of the new times. Doctrine does not change: the asceticism and mysticism of that age transmitted to the succeeding centuries the echo of those that had gone before. But their explanations were given in a more didactic way and analyzed more narrowly; their methods aimed at obiating the risk of illusion to which souls were exposed by their isolated devotion. It is but just to recognize that under the ever-fruitful action of the Holy Ghost the psychology of supernatural states became more extended and more precise.

The early Christians, praying with the Church, living daily and hourly the life of her liturgy, kept her stamp upon them in their personal relations with God. Thus it came about that, under the persevering and transforming influence of the Church, and participating in the graces of light and union, and in all the blessing of that one beloved so pleasing to the Spouse, they assimilated her sanctity to themselves, without any further trouble but to follow their mother with docility and suffer themselves to be carried securely in her arms. Thus they applied to themselves the words of our Lord: 'Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'. We need not be surprised that there was not then, as now, the frequent and assiduous assistance of a particular director for each soul. Special guides are not necessary to the members of a caravan or of an army; it is isolated travellers that that stand in need of them; and even with these special guides, they can never have the same security as those who follow the caravan or the army.
This was understood, in the course of the last few centuries, by the men of God who, taking their inspiration from the many different aptitudes of souls, became the leaders of schools, one, it is true, in aim, but differing in the methods they adopted for counteracting the dangers of individualism. In this campaign of restoration and salvation, where the worst enemy of all was illusion under a thousand forms, with its subtle roots and its endless wiles, John of the Cross was the living image of the Word of God, 'more piercing than any two-edged sword, reaching unto the divisions of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow'; for he read, with unfailing glance, the very thoughts and intentions of hearts. Let us listen to his words. Though he belongs to modern times, he is evidently a son of the ancients.:
'The soul' he says, 'is to attain to a certain sense, to a certain divine knowledge, most generous and full of sweetness, of all human and divine things which do not fall within the commonsense and natural perceptions of the soul; it views them with different eyes now, for the light and grace of the Holy Ghost differ from those of sense, the divine from the human. (Dark night of the soul, book 2, ch 9) The dark night through which the soul passes on its way to the divine light of the perfect union of the love of God - so far as it is in this life possible - requires for its explanation greater experience and light of knowledge than I posses. For so great are the trials, and so profound the darkness, spiritual as well as corporal, which souls must endure if they will attain to perfection, that no human knowledge can comprehend them, nor experience describe them. (The Ascend of Mount Carmel - Prologue)

The journey of the soul to the divine union is called night for three reasons. The first is derived from the point from which the soul sets out, the privation of the desire of all pleasure in all the things of the world, by every desire and sense of man. The second, from the road by which it travels - that is, faith; for faith is obscure, like night, to the intellect. The third, from the goal to which it tends, God, incomprehensible and infinite, who in this life is as night to the soul. We must pass through these three nights to attain to the divine union with God.
They are foreshadowed in holy Scripture by the three nights which were to elapse, according to the command of the angel, between the betrothal and the marriage of the younger Tobias. (Tob 6;16) On the first night he was to burn the liver of the fish in the fire, which is the heart whose affections are set on the things of this world and which if it will enter on the road that leadeth unto God, must be burned up, and purified of all created things in the fire of this love. This purgation drives away the evil spirit, who has dominion over our soul because of our attachments to those  pleasures which flow from temporal and corporal things.

'The second night, said the angel, thou shalt be admitted into the society of the holy patriarchs, the fathers of the faith. The soul having passed the first night, which is the privation of all sensible things, enters immediately into the second night, alone in pure faith, and, and by it alone directed; for faith is not subject to sense.
The third night, said the angel, thou shalt obtain a blessing - that is, God, who in the second night of faith communicates Himself so secretly and so intimately to the soul. This is another night, inasmuch as this communication is more obscure that the others. When this night is over, which is the accomplishments of the communication of God in spirit, ordinarily effected when the soul is the Wisdom of God, immediately ensues. ('The Ascent of Mt Carmel' Book I, Ch 2)





Read whole post......

Sunday, December 03, 2023

ADVENT WITH ST THERESE


IT is Jesus alone, content with my feeble efforts, who will lift me to his side. Covering me with his infinite virtue, he will make a saint of me (Story of the Soul)

I have understood that Our Lord's love will reveal itself as well in the simplest soul which offers no resistance, as in the most noble (Story of the Soul)

Like a mother caressing her child, in this way I will comfort you, I will carry you at my breast and caress you in my lap...Having said this, there's nothing else to say all that's left is to wrap in gratitude and love (Story of the Soul). 

I understand that to become a saint, one must suffer a great deal, always seek perfection and forget one's self (Story of the Soul)

Now nothing surprises me, I am not concerned when i see that I am weak. On the contrary, it is that weakness which glorifies me. Every day I expect to discover new imperfections within myself.

God wanted to create great Saints who could be compared to lilies and roses, but also created lesser Saints. They should be content to be daises and violets, destined to simply enjoy God's glance as they lie humbly at His feet. 

I do not know if you are still feeling as you did when you last wrote, but I am sending you in answer this passage from the Canticle of Canticles, which describes so vividly a soul in a state of dryness, who can find no comfort anywhere: "I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valleys, and to look if the vineyard had flowered, and the pomegranates budded. I knew not: my soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab (Cant 6:10,11)." That is a picture of our souls. How often we go down to the fertile valleys where we found spiritual food, to the pleasant fields fo Scripture where we discovered so many treasures, but which now seem like a waterless desert. We no longer know where we are: instead of peace and light our lot is darkness and distress, but like the Bride we know the cause of this trial. We are not yet in our fatherland, but have still to be tried by temptation as gold in the furnace. Sometimes we feel utterly abandoned, and cannot make sure whether the chariots, that is the noise and commotion which surround us, are whitin or without. We do not know, but Jesus knows, and He sees our sorrow, and suddenly in the dark night, His voice is heard: "Return, return, O Sulamitess: return, return that we may behold thee (ibid, 6:12).

But if the son comes to know the dangers from which he has been spared, will he not love him [his Father] more? Well, I am this child, object of the provident love of a Father who did not send his Son to redeem the righteous, but the sinners.

  Oh! I love you, Mary, saying you are the servant
Of the God whom you charm by your humility
(Lk 1: 38).
This hidden virtue makes you all-powerful.
It attracts the Holy Trinity into your heart.
Then the Spirit of Love covering you with his shadow,
(Lk 1: 35)
The Son equal to the Father became incarnate in you,
There will be a great many of his sinner brothers,
Since he will be called: Jesus, your first-born!
(Lk 2: 7)

O beloved Mother, despite my littleness,
Like you I possess The All-Powerful within me.
But I don't tremble in seeing my weakness:
The treasures of a mother belong to her child,
And I am your child, O my dearest Mother.
Aren't your virtues and your love mine too?
So when the white Host comes into my heart,
Jesus, your Sweet Lamb, thinks he is resting in you! ...

You make me feel that it's not impossible
To follow in your footsteps, O Queen of the elect.
You made visible the narrow road to Heaven
While always practicing the humblest virtues.
Near you, Mary, I like to stay little.
At the home of Saint Elizabeth, receiving your visit,
I learn how to practice ardent charity.

There, Sweet Queen of angels, I listen, delighted,
To the sacred canticle springing forth from your heart
(Lk 1: 46).
You teach me to sing divine praises,
To glory in Jesus my Savior.
Your words of love are mystical roses
Destined to perfume the centuries to come.
In you the Almighty has done great things.
I want to ponder them to bless him for them.
 

("Why I love you, o Mary" from 'The Poetry of St Therese of Child Jesus')

All citation from the 'Story of the Soul' unless otherwise specified.


Read whole post......

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple


 
For a long time Carmel had been planning widespread honours for you, and in its happy caves it trains sons who in white cloaks will witness to perpetual chastity for you and will bind your name with the name of this Mount in everlasting covenant. You are purer than gold. You are whiter than snow. Your are brighter than the star of Venus. Your virginity was not vitiated by child-bearing, nor can your brightness be darkened by any stain. You certainly were not bound to this legitimate custom, and in all justice you could have renounced these gifts. Time will come when a future age will remember us and on this solemn day will offer you honour on the altars, and will carry candles in long procession of a well celebrated liturgy. Then your priest, processing in golden vestments, will chant your hymns and will sent forth a sweet smelling cloud throughout the Church and the breeze will spread the pleasant scent far and wide, and because our path cross at his point, posterity will call this day Hypante, in the Greek language, and it will be lit up with numberless torches. (Bl Baptiste Spagnoli of Mantua O.Carm)
 

Religious parents never fail by devout prayer to consecrate their children to God, His divine service and love, both before and after their birth. Some among the Jews, not content with this general consecration of their children, offered them to God in their infancy, by the hands of the priests in the Temple, to be brought up in quarters attached to the Temple, attending the priests and Levites in their sacred ministry. There were special divisions in these lodgings for the women and children dedicated to the divine service (3 Kings 6:5-9). We have examples of this special consecration of children in the person of Samuel, for example. Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is very probable that the holy prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna, who witnessed the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, as we read in the second chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke (verses 25) had known His Mother as a little girl in the Temple and observed her truly unique sanctity. It is an ancient and very trustworthy tradition that the Blessed Virgin was thus solemnly offered in the Temple to God at the age of three by Her parents, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim. The Gospel tells us nothing of the childhood of Mary; Her title Mother of God, eclipses all the rest. Where, better than in the Temple, could Mary be prepared for Her mission? Twelve years of recollection and prayer, contemplation and sufferings, were the preparation of the chosen one of God. The tender soul of Mary was adorned with the most precious graces and became an object of astonishment and praise for the holy Angels, as well as of the highest complacency for the adorable Trinity. The Father looked upon her as His beloved Daughter, the Son as One set apart and prepared to become His Mother, and the Holy Ghost as His undefiled Spouse. Here is how Mary’s day in the Temple was apportioned, according to Saint Jerome. From dawn until nine in the morning, she prayed; from 9:00 until 3:00 she applied herself to manual work; then she turned again to prayer. She was always the first to undertake night watches, the one most applied to study, the most fervent in the chanting of Psalms, the most zealous in works of charity, the purest among the virgins, her companions, the most perfect in the practice of every virtue. On this day she appears as the standard-bearer for Christian virginity: after her will come countless legions of virgins consecrated to the Lord, both in the shadow of the altars or engaged in the charitable occupations of the Church in the world. Mary will be their eternal Model, their dedicated Patroness, their sure guide on the paths of perfection.

Main text after 'Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints' a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints.





Read whole post......

Friday, November 17, 2023

Chirst the King Novena starts this year today and concludes on 29th November.

Pray Novena to Christ the King here


Christ the King, Ghent Altarpiece, Jan Van Eyck.
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom....Today, you will be with me in Paradise (Luke 23:42-43)

When she [St Teresa of Avila] came into the world, a mere twenty years had passed since the last of the Moors were driven out of Spain and the whole peninsula united in the Catholic faith. Eight centuries of continual warfare between the Cross and the Crescent lay behind the Spanish people. During these battles they blossomed into an heroic people, into a legion of Christ the King. Teresa’s more immediate homeland, the ancient kingdom of Castile, was the strong fortress from which in resolute struggle the cross was gradually carried to the South. (Edith Stein, 'The Hidden Life')
If I leave the battleground, it isn't with a selfish desire to rest; the Thought of the eternal beatitude hardly makes my heart flutter. For a long time, suffering has become my heaven here on earth....What draws me to the heavenly homeland is the Father's call. It is the hope of finally loving Him as I so wanted and the thought that I would make him loved by a multitude of souls who would bless Him eternally. (St Therese, Letter 28)

Read whole post......

Thursday, November 02, 2023

All Souls Day

"Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom....Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23: 42-43) 

I feel it, we must go to heaven by the same route, the one of suffering united with love. When I reach the harbour, I will teach you....how to navigate on the stormy sea of the world, with the abandon and love of a child who knows that his Father cherishes him and would not leave him alone in a time of danger (St Therese, Letters)
Read whole post......

Wednesday, November 01, 2023

All Saints

 

I am He who made all the saints; I gave them grace; I have brought them to glory. I know the first and the last; I embrace them all with an inestimable love.
I am to be praised in all My saints; I am to be blessed above all things, and to be honoured in every one of them, whom I have thus glorioulsy magnified and eternally chosen, without any foregoing merits of their own.

Take heed, therefore, my son, that thouu treat nor curiously of these things which exceed thy knowledge, but rather make it thy business and thy aim that thou mayest be found amongst the number of those who inherit the kingdom of God, although thou shouldst be the least among them. 'Imitation of Christ' Bk 3.
Read whole post......

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Feast of St Teresa of Jesus

St. Teresa of Jesus
After Roman Breviary Lessons

The virgin Teresa was the daughter of a father and mother, equally honourable on account of their birth and of their godliness, and was born at Avila in Spain. She was brought up from the dawn of her life in the fear of God, and when still only seven years old she gave startling forecast of the holy earnestness of her later years. The reading of the acts of the holy martyrs so inflamed and excited her imagination, that she ran away from her father's house, with the design of going to Morocco and the hope there to lay down her life for the glory of Christ Jesus and the salvation of souls. She was met by an uncle and brought back to her mother, and was fain to slake her thirst for martyrdom by giving to the poor all the alms she could, and by other godly exercises, though still ever bewailing with tears that the highest prize had been snatched from her. Upon the death of her mother she besought the blessed Virgin to be a mother to her in her stead. This she gained ; thenceforth she lived always as a daughter under the shelter of the Mother of God. In the twentieth year of her age she withdrew herself among the nuns of St. Mary of Mount Carmel. There she dwelt for two-and-twenty years, tormented by grievous sicknesses and divers temptations, and so bravely served her time in the hardest ranks of Christ's army, starved even of that comforting knowledge of God's reconciled love, wherein his holy children are so commonly used even upon earth to rejoice.Strengthened in the graces of an angel, the wideness of her love embraced in its tender care the salvation of other souls as well as her own. To this end, under the blessing of God, and the approbation of Pius IV, she set, first before women and then before men, the observance of the stern Rule of the Old Carmelites. The blessing of the Almighty and merciful Lord did indeed rest most evidently upon this design. This penniless virgin, helped by no man, and in the teeth of many that were great in this world, was enabled to build two-and-thirty houses. The darkness of unbelievers and misbelievers drew from her unceasing tears, and she willingly gave up her own body to God to be tortured, to soften the fury of his indignation against them. His own love so blazed in her heart that she attained to see an Angel run her through with a fiery spear, and Christ himself take her by the hand, and to hear him say : Henceforth thou shalt love mine honour as a wife indeed. At his inspiration she took the extremely difficult vow to do always that which should seem to her to be most perfect. She wrote much, full of heavenly wisdom, whereby the minds of the faithful are enkindled to long for the Fatherland above.Earnest as were the ensamples of graces which she had shewn, and grievous as was the state of her body, afflicted by disease, she still burnt with the desire of tormenting it. She tortured it with sackcloth, chains of spikes, handfuls of nettles, and heavy scourging. She rolled herself sometimes among thorns, and was used to cry to God : Lord! to suffer, or to die! As long as she remained exiled from the heavenly Fountain of eternal life, her life was to her a lingering death. She was eminent for the gift of prophecy, and God did indeed so pour forth his bounties upon her, that she often cried to him in entreaty not to bless her so as to make her forget her sins. It was worn out rather by the fever of her love than by the wasting of disease that she sank upon her deathbed at Alva. She foretold the day of her own death, received the Sacraments of the Church, and exhorted her disciples to peace, love, and strictness in observing the Rule, and then her soul, like a pure dove, winged its flight to rest with God, on the 15th day of October in the year 1582, New Style, being then 67 years of age. At her death she had a vision of Christ Jesus surrounded by Angels. A dead tree hard by the cell instantly broke into foliage. Her body is untouched by corruption even unto this day, and lieth in a sort of perfumed oil, regarded with godly reverence. She was famous for miracles both before and after her death, and was numbered by Gregory XV, among the Saints.


The photos represent the view of town of Avila and the family house of St. Teresa
Read whole post......

Sunday, October 01, 2023

Feast of St Therese

Beautiful reflections from St Therese on her beloved Church - text after the "Story of the Soul".






I understand that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understand it was Love alone that made this Church's member act, that if Love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and martyrs would not shed their blood. I understand that LOVE COMPRISED ALL VOCATIONS, THAT LOVE WAS EVERYTHING, THAT IT EMBRACED ALL TIMES AND PLACES....IN A WORD, THAT IT WAS ETERNAL!
Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...My VOCATION IS LOVE!
Yes, I have found my place in the Church and it is You, O my God who have given me this place; in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall love. Thus I shall be everything, and thus my dream will be realized.
What speak of a delirious joy? No, this expression is not exact, for it was rather the calm and serene peace of the navigator perceiving the beacon which must lead him to the port...O luminous Beacon of Love, I know how to reach You, I have found the secret of possessing Your flame.
I am only a child, powerless and weak, and yet it is my weakness that gives me the boldness of offering myself as VICTIM of Your love, O Jesus!
O Jesus, I know it, love is repaid by love alone, and so I searched and I found the way to solace my heart by giving You Love for Love...I presented myself before the angels and saints and I said to them: "I am the smallest of creatures; I know my misery and my feebleness, but I know also how much noble and generous hearts love to do good. I beg you to ADOPT ME AS YOUR CHILD. To You alone will be the glory which You will make me merit, but deign to answer my prayer. It is bold, I know; however, I dare to ask You to obtain for me YOUR TWOFOLD SPIRIT. 
Jesus, I cannot fathom the depths of my request; I would be afraid to find myself overwhelmed under the weight of my bold desires...Well, I am the Child of the Church and the Church is a Queen since she is Your Spouse, O divine King of kings...What this child asks for is Love. She knows only one thing: to love You, O Jesus. Astounding works are forbidden to her; she cannot preach the Gospel, shed her blood; but what does it matter since her brethren work in her stead and she, a little child, stays very close to the throne of the King and Queen. She loves in her brothers' place while they do the fighting. But how will she prove her love since love is proved by works? Well, the little child will strew flowers, she will perfume the royal throne with their sweet scents, and she will sing in her silvery tones the canticle of Love.
Yes, my Beloved, this is how my life will be consumed. I have no other means of proving my love for You other than that of strewing flowers, that is, not allowing one little sacrifice to escape, not one look, one word, profiting by all the smallest things and doing them through love; and in this way I shall strew flowers before Your throne. I shall not come upon one without unpetalling it for You. While I am strewing my flowers, I shall sing, for could one cry while doing such a joyous action? I shall sing even when I must gather my flowers in the midst of thorns, and my song will be all the more melofious in proportion to the length and the sharpness of the thorns. 
O Jesus, of what use will my flowers be to You? Ah! I know very well that this fragrant shower, these fragile, worthless petals, these songs of love from the littlest  of hearts will charm You. Yes, these nothings will please You. They will bring a smile to the Church Triumphant. She will gather up my flowers, unpetalled through love and have them pass through Your divine hands, O Jesus. And this Church in heaven, desirous of playing with her little child, will cast these flowers, which are now infinitely valuable because of Your divine touch, upon the Church Suffering in order to extinguish its flames and upon the Church Militant in order to gain the victory for it!
O my Jesus!  I love You! I love the Church, my Mother! I recall that "the smallest act of PURE LOVE is of more value to her than all other works together." But is PURE LOVE in my heart? Are my measureless desires only but a dream, a folly?Ah! If this be so, Jesus, then enlighten  me, for You know I am seeking only the truth, If my desires are rash, then make them disappear, for these desires are the greatest martyrdom to me. however, I feel, O Jesus, that after having aspired to the most lofty heights of Love, if one day I am not to attain them, I feel that I shall have taste on the bosom of the joy of the Fatherland, unless You take away the memory of these earthly hopes through a miracle. Allow me to taste the sweet bitterness of my martyrdom.






Read whole post......

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

O Mary, kind Mother! be for us the way that leads to your Son... (Latin Liturgy)


My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:47-48) 
The Blessed Virgin was also watching over her little flower. Not wanting her to be tarnished by contact with earthly things, she moved her to her mountain before she bloomed...While wanting for this happy moment, the little Therese grew in love for the Heavenly Mother (St Therese, The Story of a Soul) 

Picture represents Rubens' masterpiece 'Assumption'
Read whole post......

Sunday, August 06, 2023

Transfiguration of Our Lord


With three chosen disciples Jesus went up the mountain. Then he was transfigured by a wonderful light that made even his clothes seem to shine. Moses and Elijah stood by him and spoke with him of how he was going to complete his task on earth by dying in Jerusalem. In other words, they spoke of the mystery of his incarnation, and of his saving passion upon the cross. For the law of Moses and the teaching of the holy prophets clearly foreshadowed the mystery of Christ... The presence of Moses and Elijah, and their speaking together, was meant to show unmistakably that the law and the prophets were the attendants of our Lord Jesus Christ... They did not simply appear in silence; they spoke of how Jesus was to complete his task by dying in Jerusalem, they spoke of his passion and cross, and of the resurrection that would follow.

Thinking no doubt that the time for the kingdom of God had already come, Peter would gladly have remained on the mountain. He suggested putting up three tents, hardly knowing what he was saying. But it was not yet time for the end of the world; nor was it in this present time that the hopes of the saints would be fulfilled - those hopes founded on Paul's promise that Christ «would transform our lowly bodies into the likeness of his heavenly body» (Phil 3,21).

Only the initial stage of the divine plan had as yet been accomplished. Until its completion was it likely that Christ, who came on earth for love of the world, would give up his wish to die for it? For his submitting to death was the world's salvation, and his resurrection was death's destruction. (Saint Cyril of Alexandria (380-444), Bishop, Doctor of the Church, Homilies on the Transfiguration, 9)


Read whole post......

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Carmelite Devotion to St Elijah, the Prophet - click to read



PRAYER TO ST. ELIJAH
Holy Prophet of God Elijah, Leader and Father of Carmelites, intercede
for us and for the salvation of all.

V: Pray for us, O holy Father Elijah.
R: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that we who believe that the Blessed Elijah Your Prophet and our Father was wonderfully carried up in a fiery chariot, may by his intercession be raised to the desire of heavenly things and rejoice in the society of Your saints. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

After: “Carmel, Its History, Spirit, and Saints”


Read whole post......

Sunday, July 16, 2023

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

"I venerate you a thousand times, O true Mother of my Lord Jesus Christ, Hail Mary.

I venerate you, O sovereign Queen of the Angels, Empress of the Universe, Hail Mary.

I venerate you, most kindly Virgin Mary, most worthy mother of my one Saviour Jesus, Hail Mary."

St Teresa Margaret Redi prayer

Read whole post......

Friday, July 07, 2023

St John of the Cross Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel, 7-15th of July




Prayer for every day
Immaculate Virgin and Queen of Carmel, thou art the hope of the sufferer and the consolation of the afflicted. Look not upon my sins, but remember only that I am apoor soul redeemed by the Precious Blood of thy Son, and that my heart is sealed with thy holy scapular. Hear my prayer and if it be for the glory of God, thy honour and for the salvation of my soul, grant what I ask in this novena. Amen

July 7
First Day Prayer: The beauty of Carmel and the glory of Lebanon are given to Thee in thy Immaculate Conception, O Blessed Queen of Carmel! I also rise from the sea of this world, not like thee all pure and immaculate, but loaded with sin. Help me, look upon me with these eyes of mercy. Amen. Hail Mary (three times)


Flower of Carmel,
Blossoming vine
Splendour of heaven
Mother divine
None like to thee!
Mother of meekness
Peerless thou art
To the Carmelites
Favours impart,
Star of the sea!


July 8
Second Day Prayer:  I give thanks to thee, O Virgin Mother of Carmel, for the gift of the holy scapular, the sign of thy confraternity. O my Mother, make me worthy to wear that sacred livery and may my heart ever be pure, free from every stain of sin. Amen. Hail Mary (three times)

Flower of Carmel etc

July 9
Third Day Prayer: Virgin Mother of Carmel, remember me who am consecrated to thee by the holy scapular I place my trust in thee, O flower of Carmel, fruitful vine, ever Immaculate Queen, O Mother mild, implore thy Son to hear my prayer now and at the hour of my death. Amen. Hail Mary (three times).

Flower of Carmel etc 

July 10
Fourth Day Prayer: I thank thee, my Lady and Mother, for the gift of thy holy scapular. Thou knowest well my weakness and my malice, but I trust in thee and under thy protection I take refuge. O holy Mother of Mt Carmel, despise not my petition in my necessities, but deliver me from all danger. Amen. Hail Mary (three times).

Flower of Carmel etc 

July 11
Fifth Day Prayer: Queen and Beauty of Carmel, thy glance is love, hope, and sweetness. As the rays of the sun colour the flowers, so also thy glance gives to the soul strength and beauty. May I remain ever before thee, my Mother, turn thine eyes of mercy on me. Amen. Hail Mary (three times).

Flower of Carmel etc 

July 12
Sixth Day Prayer: O my dear Mother of Carmel, I love thee more than I can express, more than my very soul can conceive. I reverence thee, I praise thee, O sacred Virgin, whose chaste womb bore the Son of the Most High God. Bless me and deliver me from all evil. Amen. Hail Mary (three times)

Flower of Carmel etc 

July 13
Seventh Day Prayer: Most loving Virgin of Carmel, I acknowledge gratefully thine immense goodness toward me, hear my prayer and after this exile, show unto me the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O most clement, O most loving, O most sweet Virgin Mary. Amen. Hail Mary (three times)

Flower of Carmel etc 

July 14
Eight Day Prayer: O Mother of Carmel, when my last hour shall sound, when I shall take thy holy scapular into my trembling hands, fill my heart with confidence in it, and do thou, my loving Mother, receive my soul and offer it to thy sweet Jesus. Amen. Hail Mary (three times)

Flower of Carmel etc 

July 15
Ninth Day Prayer: O Mary, most holy Mother of Carmel, Virgin of virgins, sanctuary of the Blessed Trinity, mirror of angels, assured refuge of sinners! have compassion on me in my suffering, listen to my sighs with clemency and appease the anger of thy Son. Amen. Hail Mary (three times)

Flower of Carmel etc

Text from 'Carmelite Devotions and Prayers'
Alternative Novena Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel here
Read whole post......