Bl Elisha of St Clement, optional memoria

Born in Bari in 1901, the third child of deeply Christian parents, Joseph and Pasqua Fracasso, she was baptized in the Church of St James by her uncle, Fr Charles Fracasso, chaplain at the cemetery, and given the name Theodora, meaning gift of God. On April 8th 1920, the feast of St Albert, author of the Carmelite Rule, she entered the Carmel of St Joseph in Bari and received her habit on November 24, the same year, taking the name Sister Elisha of Saint Clement. She made her first simple vows on December 4, 1921: “Alone at the feet of my Crucified Lord, I looked at him for a long time, and as I looked I saw that He was my whole life”. Besides St. Teresa of Jesus, she took as her guide Therese of the Child Jesus, following the “little way of spiritual childhood where I felt called by the Lord”. She made her solemn profession on February 11, 1925. She died on Christmas day 1927. On 19th December 2005 Pope Benedict XVI signed the Decree of Beatification. She was proclaimed Blessed in Bari Cathedral on 18th March 2006. After Universalis and Carmelitani Scalzi Curia Generale Del Carmelo Teresiano http://www.ocd.pcn.net/Elia1_en.htm

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St Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi, memoria

 

St Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi Born in Florence in 1566, she entered the Carmelites there where she led a hidden life of prayer and self-denial. She prayed especially for the reform of the Church. She was endowed by God with many spiritual gifts and directed her fellow sisters along the road of perfection. She died in 1607 and was canonized in 1669 by Pope Clement X. According to ST Mary Magdalen, prayer is important because through it 'the soul detaches itself from created things and is united to God'.The picture represents eching print by Giovanni Fabbri, Wellcome Collection

   O Holy Spirit, you show us what we must do to please the Trinity, interiorly through your inspirations, and externally through preaching and warnings, and that all proceeds from you, since no one can say the sweet and holy name of Jesus unless he is moved by you. 

    You are the dispenser of the treasures hidden in the bosom of the Father and the treasurer of the counsels which pass between the Father and the Word. You are that rod that strikes the rock and makes it bring forth the water that satisfies every creature. The cataracts of heaven are always open to send down grace, but we do not have the mouth of our desire open to receive it. 

    Come, come, O most gentle Spirit! Spirit of goodness! I contemplate you as you leave the bosom of the Father, and enter the side of the Word, then leaving by the heart of the Word, come to us here on earth. From the bosom of the Father, bring us power, from the Heart of the Son burning love. After Complete Works of St Mary Magdalen.

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St Joachina de Vedruna memorial, the foundress of the Carmelite Sister of Charity

Joachina was born in Barcelona in 1783, in 1779 she married Theodore de Mas, by whom she had nine children. Her husband died in 1816 after he withdraw from the army he served during Napoleonic Wars to defend Spain. In 1826 she was moved by the Holy Spirit to found the Congregation of the Carmelite Sister of Charity, which soon spread throughout Catalonia, maintaining many houses for the care of the sick and the education of the children, especially the poor. She loved to contemplate the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and the devotion characterized her life of prayer, mortification, detachment, humility and charity. She died at Vich in 1854. 

“If only we were all on fire with love of God! If we were, we should preach love, proclaim love, and yet more love, until we had set the whole world on fire. We must have great desires: then God will give us whatever is best for us”. A fragment of the reading from the Letter of St Joachina de Vedruna, after Discalced Carmelite Proper Offices.

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Pentecost Novena starts on Friday after Ascension Day!

Pray Pentecost Novena short version here
Pentecost Novena prayer for the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, after Walsingham Shrine of Our Lady here

 

And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak.Acts 2:1-4.

The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your paternity, mi padre. I hope that this Pentecost has brought you so many of his gifts and blessings that through them you may render His Majesty the service you owe him for having willed to come to the aid of his people, at so great a cost to yourself. May he be praised for everything. (On the vigil of the Pentecost Sunday, 7 June 1579, while praying in the hermitage of Nazareth, St Teresa received the four counsels for the discalced friars). From the letter 297 of St Teresa to Fr Jeronimo Gracian, written in Avila, 10th of June 1579.

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