Feast of the Transverberation of the Heart of St Teresa

Brethren: the word of God is living and affectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thought and intents of the heart (Hebrew 4).

Amid the other virtues of Teresa, the love of God shone forth with particular lustre. It burned in her heart so strongly that the confessors of Theresa marvelled thereat, and extolled it as the love belonging to the Cherubim rather than to man. Our Lord Jesus Christ increased it, in a wonderful manner, by many visions and revelations, for once he adopted her as His spouse, giving to her His right hand, and holding forth to her a nail. He moreover vouchsafed to speak to her in these words: "Henceforth thou shalt be zealous for my honour like a true Spouse; now I am wholly thine, and thou art wholly mine".
At another time she saw an angel, who pierced her heart with a fiery dart. She herself narrates the vision as follows: "I saw an angel standing at my left hand in bodily shape. He was not large, but small, and most beautiful in form. His countenance was so bright and shining that he seemed to belong to the highest choir of angels, who are all on fire, or, in other words, to those who are called Seraphim. I saw that he carried in his hands a long golden dart, even to my entrails, which he seemed to me to carry away with him when he drew forth the dart, thus leaving me all on fire with the love of God. The pain of the would was so violent that it forced me to break forth into repeated groans; and yet so excellent is the sweetness to which this intense pain gives rise, that one desires not to be freed from it, and naught is pleasing to the soul save God Himself".
In consequence of these heavenly gifts, the flames of divine love burned in her heart so strongly that, under God's guidance, she made a very difficult vow. She bound herself always to do that which she should see to be the more perfect, and that which might tend to the greater glory of God. After her death, moreover, she made known to a certain nun, in a vision, that she had died of the unbearable burning of divine love, and not from the attacks of illness.


Her heart, which was incorrupt and adorned with the marks of the piercing, was placed in the Church of the Most Holy Incarnation, belonging to the nuns of the Order of Barefooted Carmelites in Alba de Tormes, and it has been venerated down to the present day by the large and devout crowds of Christian who flock thither. All these things having been carefully examined, the Sovereign Pontiff Benedict the Thirteenth, in order to recall the remembrance of this great miracle, permitted the celebration of this feast each year in that Order.

The text after Traditional Carmelite Breviary Matins Lessons (1887 edition)

To view the previous post commemorating the Feast please follow the LINK

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Bl Maria Sagraria of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, optional memoria

 

She was born Elvira Moragas y Cantarero in Lillo near Toledo, on the 8th January 1881, the third of four children of Ricardo Moragas, a pharmacist, and his wife, Isabel. Like her father she became pharmacist by trade, and one of the first women in Spain to be admitted to this qualification. After her younger brother became qualified pharmacist and took over the pharmacy in 1915, she was able to answer her religious vocation and entered the Carmel of St Anne and St Joseph in Madrid and took the name of Maria Sagrario of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. Through her spirit of prayer and her love for the Eucharist she was a perfect embodiment of the contemplative and ecclesial ideal of the Teresian Carmel. She was re-elected Prioress of her community and several days after she was martyred on August 15 1936 by Republicans. It was a grace she longed for and accepted in perfection and ardent love for Christ. 

   May Jesus reign in my heart. The Lord asks me to be humble, to weep over my sins, to love him much, to love my sisters much, to mortify them in nothing, not to mortify myself uselessly, to live recollected in him wanting nothing for myself, completely surrendered to his divine will. 

   In this vale of tears, suffering will not be lacking and we should be content to have something to offer to our most beloved Jesus who wanted so much to suffer for love of us. The most direct way to unite ourselves to God is that of the cross, so we should always desire it. May the Lord not permit that I be separated from his divine will. Blessed be he who arranges everything for our good! In possesing him, we possess everything. . Fragment of the writing of Blessed Maria Sagrario of St Aloysius Gonzaga, all text after Discalced Carmelite Proper offices.

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Assumption of Our Lady

Peter Paul Rubens 'Assumption of Our Lady'

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet. 

1 Corinthians, 15:20

On one of these same days, the feast of the Assumption of our Lady while at a monastery of the order of the glorious St. Dominic, I was reflecting upon the many sins I had in the past confessed in that house and many things about my wretched life. A rapture came upon me so great that it almost took me out of myself. I sat down; it still seems to me I couldn't see the elevation or hear Mass, and afterward I had a scruple about this. It seemed to me while in this state that I saw myself vested in a white robe of shining brightness, but at first I didn't see who was clothing me in it. Afterward I saw our Lady at my right side and my father St. Joseph at the left, for they were putting that robe on me. I was given to understand that I was now cleansed of my sins. After being clothed and while experiencing the most marvelous delight and glory, it seemed to me then that our Lady took me by the hands. She told me I made her very happy in serving the glorious St. Joseph, that I should believe that what I was striving for in regard to the monastery would be accomplished, that the Lord and those two would be greatly served in it, that I shouldn't fear there would ever be any failure in this matter even though the obedience which was to be given was not to my liking, because they would watch over us, and that her Son had already promised us He would be with us, that as a sign that this was true she was giving me a jewel. It seemed to me she placed around my neck a very beautiful golden necklace to which was attached a highly valuable cross. This gold and these stones are incomparably different from earthly ones. Their beauty is very different from what is imaginable here below. And the intellect cannot attain to an understanding of the nature of the robe that the Lord desires to have represented, nor can one imagine its whiteness; everything here on earth in comparison is like a sketch made from soot, so to speak. The beauty I saw in our Lady was extraordinary, although I didn't make out any particular details except the form of her face in general and that her garment was of the most brilliant white, not dazzling but soft. I didn't see the glorious St. Joseph so clearly, although I saw indeed that he was there, as in the visions I mentioned that are not seen. Our Lady seemed to me to be a very young girl. They were with me a little while; and I was in a state of wonderful glory and happiness, which in my opinion I had never experienced and which I did not want to see come to an end; then it seemed to me I saw them ascend to heaven with a great multitude of angels. I was left in deep loneliness, although so consoled and elevated and recollected in prayer and moved to love that I remained some time without being able to stir or speak, but almost outside myself. I was left with a great impulse to be dissolved for God and with similar effects. And everything happened in such a way that I could never doubt, no matter how much I tried, that the vision was from God. It left me very comforted and with great peace. St Teresa of Avila 'The Book of Her Life', ch.33.

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St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, feast

EDITH STEIN St. TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS, Martyr, 1891-1942 "Born in Breslau, Germany, murdered in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, Poland, Edith Stein dedicated her life to a pursuit of truth leading from her roots in Judaism, via adolescent agnosticism to the study of philosophy, to Catholicism and ultimately to life as a Carmelite. She served God with prayer, scholarship and dedication to her fellow human beings, created in God's image.  In 1933, while others kept silent, she sought help from the Vatican for her beleaguered Jewish community, an Esther who pleaded for her people. In her writings she probed the meaning of suffering and reached for closeness to God. She endured the indignities inflicted by her Nazi persecutors sustained by prayer and caring for the children around her. With her older sister Rosa, she died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Edith Stein was beatified and declared a saint by Pope John Paul II." Text by Susanne M. Batzdorff  (Poet and Writer; niece of Edith Stein) For more information and beautiful resume please follow the link to Vatican website http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints ns_lit_doc_19981011_edith_stein_en.html 

 NOVENA to St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross 

Who are You, sweet light, that fills me And illumines the darkness of my heart? You lead me like a mother's hand, And should You let go of me, I would not know how to take another step. You are the space that embraces my being and buries it in Yourself. Away from You it sinks into the abyss of nothingness, from which You raised it to the light. You, nearer to me than I to myself And more interior than my most interior And still impalpable and intangible And beyond any name: Holy Spirit eternal love! Are You not the sweet manna That from the Son's heart Overflows into my heart, The food of angels and the blessed? He who raised himself from death to life, He has also awakened me to new life From the sleep of death. And He gives me new life from day to day, And at some time His fullness Is to stream through me, Life of Your life indeed, You Yourself: Holy Spirit eternal life! Are you the ray That flashes down from the eternal Judge's throne And breaks into the night of the soul That had never known itself? Mercifully relentlessly It penetrates hidden folds. Alarmed at seeing itself, The self makes space for holy fear, The beginning of that wisdom That comes from on high And anchors us firmly in the heights, Your action, that creates us anew: Holy Spirit ray that penetrates everything! Are You the spirit's fullness and the power By which the Lamb releases the seal Of God's eternal decree? Driven by You The messengers of judgment ride through the world And separate with a sharp sword The kingdom of light from the kingdom of night. Then heaven becomes new and new the earth, And all finds its proper place Through Your breath: Holy Spirit victorious power! Are You the master who builds the eternal cathedral, Which towers from the earth through the heavens? Animated by You, the columns are raised high And stand immovably firm. Marked with the eternal name of God, They stretch up to the light, Bearing the dome, Which crowns the holy cathedral, Your work that encircles the world: Holy Spirit God's moulding hand! Are you the one who created the unclouded mirror Next to the Almighty's throne, Like a crystal sea, In which Divinity lovingly looks at Itself? You bend over the fairest work of Your creation, And radiantly Your own gaze Is illumined in return. And of all creatures the pure beauty Is joined in one in the dear form Of the Virgin, your immaculate bride: Holy Spirit Creator of all! Are You the sweet song of love And of holy awe That eternally resounds around the Triune Throne, That weds in itself the clear chimes of each and every being? The harmony, That joins together the members to the Head, In which each one finds the mysterious meaning of his being blessed And joyously surges forth, Freely dissolved in Your surging: Holy Spirit eternal jubilation! after www.cathoilcdoors.com/prayers

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