PENTECOST

In the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, "Peace be with you", and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you". After saying this he breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained." (St John 20-19-23)

In the heaven of her soul, the praise of glory has already begun her work of eternity. Her song is uninterrupted, for she is under the action of the Holy Spirit, who effects everything in her; and although she is not always aware of it, for the weakness of nature does not allow her to be established in God without distractions, she always sings, she always adores, for she has so to speak, wholly passed into praise and love in her passion for the glory of her God. In the heaven of our soul let us be praises of love of our Immaculate Mother. One day the veil will fall, we will be introduced into the eternal courts, and there we will sing in the bosom of infinite Love. And God will give us "the new name promised to the Victor." What will it be? 

LAUDEM GLORIAE

(Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity "Heaven in Faith", Tenth Day)

PENTECOST

With your pure and burning flames,

Holy Spirit, deign to enkindle my soul;

Consume it with divine love,

O you whom I invoke each day!

Spirit of God, brilliant light,

You fill me with your favours,

You inundate me with your sweetness

Burn, annihilate me completely!

You give me my vocation,

Oh, lead me then to this intimate,

Interior union, to this life

Wholly in God, which is my desire,

May my hope be in Jesus alone,

And while living in the midst of this world,

May I long for, may I see only Him,

Him, my Love, my divine Friend!

Holy Spirit, Goodness, supreme Beauty!

O you whom I adore, you whom I love!

Consume with your divine flames,

This body and this heart and this soul!

This bride of the Trinity

Who desires only to do your will!

(Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, 'Poems')

O my God, I want to work for Your glory and for that I must be wholly filled with You and You are love. Then I shall be all-powerful. A look, a desire will become a prayer that cannot be resisted and that can obtain everything. Apostle, Carmelite, it is all one! (Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, after Carmelite Meditation, Flemington Carmel)

O Mary, you are the one created being who knew the gift of God, and lost no particle of it; a creature so pure and luminous that you seemed to be the light itself. "Mirror of justice": your life was so simple, so lost in God, that there is but little to say of it; "faithful virgin": who kept all these things...in your heart." You were so lowly, so hidden in God in the seclusion of the temple that you drew upon yourself the complacent regard of the Holy Trinity. "For he regarded the low estate of his handmaid, for behold, henceforth all generation will call me blessed."
The Father, bending down to you, a creature so lovely, so unaware of your own beauty, chose you for the Mother in time of him whose Father he is in eternity. Then the Spirit of love, who presides over all the works of God, overshadowed you, and O Virgin, you uttered your "Fiat": Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word," and the greatest of all mysteries was accomplished. By the descend of the Word into your womb, you became God's own for ever and ever. (Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, "Heaven in Faith", Tenth Day)

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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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THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Jesus, who ascended into heaven, grant that I, too, may live there in spirit.

MEDITATION1. The central idea in the liturgy today is the raising of our hearts toward heaven, so that we may begin to dwell in spirit where Jesus has gone before us. "Christ's Ascension" says St Leo, "is our own ascension; our body has the hope of one day being where its glorious Head has preceded it" (RB). In fact, Our Lord had already said in His discourse after the Last Supper, "I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself; that where I am, you also may be" (Jn 14:2,3). The Ascension is, then, a feast of joyful hope, a sweet foretaste of heaven. By going before us, Jesus our Head has given us the right to follow Him there some day, and we can even say with St Leo, "In the person of Christ, we have penetrated the heights of heaven" (RB). As in Christ Crucified we die to sin, as in the risen Christ we rise to the life of grace, so too, we are raised up to heaven in the Ascension of Christ. This vital participation in Christ's mysteries is the essential consequences of our incorporation in Him. He is our Head; we, as His members, are totally dependent upon Him and intimately bound to His destiny. "God, who is rich in mercy," says St Paul, "for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us...hath quickened us together in Christ..., and hath raised us up...and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places through Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:4-6). Our right to heaven has been given us, our place is ready; it is for us to live in such a way that we may occupy it some day. Meanwhile, we must actualize the beautiful prayer which the liturgy puts on our lips: "Grant, O almighty God, that we, too, may dwell in spirit in the heavenly mansions" (Collect)."Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also" (Mt 6:21), Jesus said one day. If Jesus is really our treasure, our heart cannot be anywhere but near Him in heaven. This is the great hope of the Christian soul, so beautifully expressed in the hymn of Vespers: "O Jesus, be the hope of our hearts, our joy in sorrow, the sweet fruit of our life" (RB).

2. Besides the hope and the joyful expectancy of heaven so characteristic of the Ascension feast there is a note of melancholy. Before the final departure of Jesus, the Apostles must have been very much disturbed: each felt the distress of one who sees his dearest friend and companion going away forever, and finds himself alone to face all the difficulties of life. The Lord realized their state of mind and consloed them once more, promising the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter: "He commanded them," we read in the Epistle (Acts 1:1-11), "that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father....you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence." but even this time the Apostles did not understand! How much they neede to be enlightened and transformed by the Holy Spirit, in order to accomplish the great mission which was to be entrusted to them! Jesus continued: which was to be entrusted to them! Jesus continued : "You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me...even to the uttermost part of the earth". For the moment, however, they were there, around the Master, weak, timid, frightened, like little children watching their mother leave for a distant, unknown land. In fact, "while they looked on, He was raised up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." Two angels came to distract them from their great amazement and to make them realize what had happened. Then, placing their trust in the word of Jesus, which would henceforth be their only support, they returned to Jerusalem where, in the Cenacle, they awaited in prayer the fulfillment of the promise. It was the first novena in preparation for Pentecost: "All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with...Mary, the Mother of Jesus" (ibid 1:14).
Silence, recollection, prayer, peace with our brethren, and union with Mary: these are the characteristics of the novena we too should make in preaparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

COLLOQUY
..."Ah! my works are poor, my God, even if I could perform many! Then why should I remain in this life, so full of misery? Only to do Your will. Could I do anything better than that? Hope, therefore, my soul, hope. Watch carefully, for you know not the day nor the hour. Everything passes quickly, even though your desire makes you struggle, the greater the proofs of love you will be giving to your God, and afterwards the more you will enjoy your Beloved in happiness and felicity without end" (T.J. Exc., 15). 

Text after 'Divine Intimacy' - Ven Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, OCD

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