CARMELITE SAINTS

The Mission of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Recently it was announced by the Vatican that the Carmelite nun, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity will be canonized this year. Many people are just beginning to learn about this holy Carmelite.

Her spirituality is considered to be similar to that of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. These saints shared a zeal for the salvation of souls. While St. Therese proclaimed that her mission would be to, "Spend my heaven by doing good upon earth," Blessed Elizabeth wrote of a different mission:

I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself.

Blessed Elizabeth's "call within a call" was her mystical experience of the Divine Indwelling of the Holy Trinity. This was a gift that was given to her from her Beloved, Jesus, the Spouse of her soul. She knew this favor was a gift of love, not only for herself but for the Church. That is why she was aware of being called to spread the good news of the Divine Indwelling while she lived and accepted this mission that would follow her into eternity. 

In Blessed Elizabeth's retreat, Heaven in Faith, she quotes John Ruysbroeck numerous times. On the seventh day of this retreat she uses this quote from his writings:

The immense riches that God possess by nature, we may possess by virtue of love, by His dwelling in us and by our dwelling in Him. It is by virtue of this immense love that we are drawn into the depths of the intimate sanctuary where God imprints on us a true image of His majesty.

She told us the same thing in her own words when describing her mission...and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself.

Blessed Elizabeth was able to enter the "chapel of the heart" and find God there. This is the heart of the Carmelite vocation. It is the heart of the call of every Christian. Christ is the Bridegroom of each soul! We are called to intimate union with him. Carmelites, among other religious in the world, are called to be witnesses in the world of this intimate union. We witness to those around us by being merciful. We witness to those around us by sharing the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit that have been given to us. If we are not responding in love to those around ud, if we lose peace of heart over small matters, our prayer life is not totally authentic. We have not let the Holy Spirit totally transform us. However, we should not be discouraged. Blessed Elizabeth is here to help us. She knows the effort it takes for us to cooperate with God's grace. She prays for our transformation, but we must make the effort to meet God in solitude and silence. It is there that he speaks to us, heals us, strengthens us, and transforms us into His image. Let us be faithful to prayer!

In her final days, Blessed Elizabeth wanted to be known as " "Laudem Gloriae," "A Praise of Glory." In her writings she describes at length a Praise of Glory. Here is an excerpt:

A praise of Glory is a silent soul, a lyre beneath the mysterious touch of the Holy Spirit, from which He can draw divine harmonies. Knowing that suffering is a string which produces still more exquisite tones, this soul rejoices at having it on its instrument, that is may thus more sweetly move the heart of its God.

Some Catholics may be familiar with Blessed Elizabeth's famous prayer to the Holy Trinity that can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. On this great feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let us give thanks to God for her great witness and her great mission-her prayer and desire that we be one with the Most Holy Trinity.

Prayer to the Blessed Trinity

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of your mystery ! Pacify my soul! 

Make it your heaven, your beloved home and place of your repose; let me never leave you there alone, but may I be ever attentive, ever alert in my faith, ever adoring and all given up to your creative action.  

O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, would that I might be for you a spouse of your heart! I would anoint you with glory, I would love you - even unto death! Yet I sense my frailty and ask you to adorn me with yourself; identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, submerge me, overwhelm. me, substitute yourself in me that my life may become but a reflection of your life. Come into me as Adorer, Redeemer and Savior.  

O Eternal Word, Word of my God, would that I might spend my life listening to you, would that I might be fully receptive to learn all from you; in all darkness, all loneliness, all weakness, may I ever keep my eyes fixed on you and abide under your great light; O my Beloved Star, fascinate me so that I may never be able to leave your radiance.

O Consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, descend into my soul and make all in me as an incarnation of the Word, that I may be to him a super-added humanity wherein he renews his mystery; and you O Father, bestow yourself and bend down to your little creature, seeing in her only your beloved Son in whom you are well pleased.

O my `Three', my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in whom I lose myself, I give myself to you as a prey to be consumed; enclose yourself in me that I may be absorbed in you so as to contemplate in your light the abyss of your Splendor !

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

THREE WORDS OF WISDOM

TIME, AEVITERNITY, ETERNITY

Photo: R. Massaro

Recently, at one of our monthly Carmelite meetings in which our small groups are discussing St. Pope John Paul II's encyclical Dives in Misericordia, our discussion veered off to the topic of purgatory.  Before this meeting, I had recently read what Catholic apologist, Jimmy Akin wrote about this subject. It is an excellent article. I would suggest that every Catholic read this teaching to get a better understanding of the Catholic doctrine on Purgatory.  

In our discussion, we talked about what St. Faustina teaches, that at the moment of death, God offers his mercy to the soul. Here is an excerpt from her diary concerning the Chaplet of Divine Mercy:

Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy. (Diary #687)

We continued our discussion about purgatory and "time" and purification and indulgences. Many Catholics are confused about the teaching concerning indulgences. In Catholic history, indulgences used to have a number of days attached to them. Catholics erroneously believed that this was the number of days that a person's time in purgatory was shortened.  Jimmy Akin explains this teaching extremely well. He tells us that the number of days was actually the time lessened for those doing public penance. For the full article, refer to the link near the end of this post. Here is an excerpt from his article, How to explain Purgatory to Protestants, concerning indulgences:

Third, Protestants are often confused by the number of "days" that used to be attached to indulgences. They have nothing to do with time in purgatory. Indulgences originally arose as a way of shortening a penitential period on earth. The number of "days" that were attached to indulgences were not understood as shortening time in purgatory, but as easing the purification after death by an amount analogous to the shortening of an earthly penitential period by the number of days indicated.

Fourth, because some people were confused by thinking purgatory was shortened by a set number of days with an indulgence, the Church abolished the "day" figures attached to indulgences specifically to eliminate this confusion.

In our small group discussion, we speculated that perhaps purification could take place in a "moment." After our meeting, I read Mr. Akin's article again. I was intrigued by his statement of the three different kinds of time according to Catholic teaching: Time, Aeviternity, Eternity. This is what he says about these three kinds of time:

Fifth, the reason that the "days" were never understood to be days of literal time off in purgatory is that the medieval theologians, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, those living at precisely the period when the "days" were attached to indulgences, were very clear about the fact that time does not work the same way in the afterlife as it does here. In fact, they had a special term for it, and would contrast three different temporal modalities—the ordinary flow of events we experience here on earth, called "time;"; the perpetual present that God experiences, called "eternity;" and the middle, less well understood state experienced by those in the afterlife, known as "aeviternity." So the Church has never said that purgatory involves the same kind of time as we experience here on earth, or even time at all. Thus Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, no theological liberal, writes that purgatory may involve existential" rather than "temporal" duration (cf. Ratzinger's book It may be something one , but experiences in a moment, rather than something one endures over time.

This teaching of the midpoint between time and eternity (aeviternity) can cause confusion if Catholics state that purgatory is a "middle state." According to Catholic teaching, this is false. Again Mr. Akin clarifies this:

Purgatory is not a middle destiny! First, you should explain that purgatory is a middle state between heaven and hell. This encourages the Protestant to think of it as not only a distinct region of the afterlife (something the Church does not teach) but, even worse, that purgatory is a middle between heaven and hell. This it false, and you should emphasize quite strenuously to the Protestant that everyone who goes to purgatory goes to heaven. In fact, the one goes to purgatory is so that one can be fitted for life in heaven. Purgatory thus constitutes the cloakroom of heaven, the place you go to get spiffed up before being ushered into the Throne Room. For this reason, you should totally avoid any language like, "Purgatory is where you go when you aren't bad enough for hell but not good enough for heaven." This language, besides sounding legalistic, is also going to get a Protestant thinking that purgatory is some kind of middle destiny rather than a temporary phenomenon. 

Here is the link to Jimmy Akin's Article, How to Explain Purgatory to Protestants (Jimmy Akin is an official Catholic expert for EWTN online Questions and Answers Forum in which the public can "Ask an Expert" and get a truthful answer according to Catholic teaching)

https://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/HOW2PURG.HTM

Catholic teaching also tells us that purgatory is a place of joy for the soul. In this article by Mr. Akin, he quotes 
St. Catherine of Genoa:

In fact, the souls in purgatory have a large number of reasons for joy: (a) freedom from the committing of sin, (b) freedom from the desire to sin, (c) closer unity with God and Christ, (d) certainty of one's final salvation in a way not possible in this life, (e) a final and full appreciation of just how gracious God has been to one, (f) a final and full appreciation of just how much God loves one, (g) the at last unencumbered and pure love we will feel for God and for others, (h) partial rewards which may be given in anticipation of one's entrance into the full glory of heaven at the end of purgatory.

If you wish to read more about this subject, there is a book by former Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) 
entitled Eschatology. You can purchase it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Eschatology-Second-Death-Eternal-Life/dp/0813215161/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8
&qid=1461508582&sr=8-1&keywords=eschatology

St. Thomas Aquinas on Aeviternity

As secular Carmelites, let us follow the teaching and example of St. Therese, the Little Flower. She stated that one does not have to go to purgatory if they love. Let us ask God to purify us in this life, so that we may immediately see him face-to-face when this life of time is ended. May he welcome us to praise him for all eternity in heaven. And may we pray on a daily basis for all those in urgatory. May God quickly purify them and welcome them into his Kingdom.


May all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.


Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

CARMELITE QUOTE

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Feast Day: August 9

Since the Mother of God is among women the most intimately bound to Christ, she is the heart of the Church of which Christ is the head. Mary helps those who strive to unveil Christ in the heart of another. Thus, woman's mission is to imitate Mary. She must further the life of faith by providing secure and enduring foundation. As teacher, she must be the maternal, loving educator for Christ. She must nourish a rich life of faith in young persons through their intellectuality and voluntariness. By so consecrating herself to supernatural maternity, the Catholic woman becomes an organ of the Church.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us!

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

TODAY IN CARMELITE HISTORY

Today in Carmelite History

 April 12, 1920

Her Motto: God is my joy!

The death of 

St. Teresa of Jesus 

of the Andes 

Born: July 13, 1900

Entered Carmel: May 7, 1919

Died: April 12, 1920

Beatified: April 3, 1987

Canonized: March 21, 1993

Juanita Solar entered Carmel in 1919 at the age of 19. St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes had a mystical experience in which she was given the knowledge that she would die soon,"within 30 days" as she explained it to her confessor. 

She contracted typhus and died at the age of 19-one month after she confided her experience to her confessor. She was canonized by St. Pope John Paul II on March 21, 1993. 

Read more about this Saint

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

THREE WORDS OF WISDOM

WITH UNVEILED FACES

Photo: Catholic News Agency

Catholics around the world mourn the loss of Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, the Founder of EWTN Catholic television network and Foundress of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery.  After the funeral, when Mother's body was being processed to the crypt for burial, an image of her headstone was shown in which her favorite Scripture passage was inscribed:

And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit.

(2 Cor 3:18) This translation is from the Jerusalem Bible.

The preceding text of this passage refers to Moses. Moses veiled his face when he descended Mount Horeb after having conversed with God. St. Paul, sees this veiling as a failure of the Jews to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. He exhorts us to act boldly, because we have our hope in Christ. He states again in his Letter to the Corinthians:

Therefore, since we have such hope, we act very boldly and not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not look intently at the cessation of what was fading... 

(2 Corinthians 3:12-13), St. Paul refers to the glory of the Lord that endures forever.

Mother Angelica was bold in proclaiming the Gospel. She didn't seem to have any fears in regard to the network, because she had such great trust and confidence in God who would accomplish his will through her. 

As secular Carmelites, we are called to be witnesses in the world of God's love. We must boldly travel up and down the "mountain" in prayer, with unveiled faces to proclaim this love to the world. This is the heart of our Carmelite vocation. As Carmelites, we should be very familiar with Carmelite Friar, Fr. Aloysius Deeney's description of a secular Carmelite:

A Secular Carmelite is a practicing member of the Catholic Church, who, under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and inspired by Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross, makes the commitment to the Order to seek the face of God for the sake of the Church and the world. 

Our Lord tells us We are the light of the world...A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket... (Matthew 5:14-15)

We must let our light as Carmelites shine in this world. If we never make an effort to evangelize, whether at home, at work, or in the marketplace, we are not being true to the prophetic roots of our Order. Our main call of evangelization is to be a witness to prayer, then sharing the fruit of our prayer with our neighbor. This is lived out on a daily basis in the spirit of the Beatitudes.

The Israelites were shielded by a veil from seeing the fading of glory in Moses' face.  Sometimes, we fall into this in regard to spiritual consolations. St. John of the Cross teaches us that many people give up the life of prayer when spiritual consolations cease, "the fading of glory," we could say. We have to be true prophets in this world, witnesses who will bravely ascend the mountain, whether we feel like it or not. It is the Spirit's gift of perseverance that keeps us on the road of prayer despite dryness, temptation to complain, and no spiritual consolation. These are not punishments from God, these are necessary for purification. For this is where we live-we are a pilgrim people on this earth, travelling through the desert with God before us, leading us to the promise land. 

Mother Angelica knew this. May God reward her perseverance and trust in him. And may we follow her bold example of being a witness to the love of God in this world.

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

Meditation on Death

Photo: R. Massaro Cathedral of the Incarnation Nashville, Tennessee





MEDITATION ON DEATH
IMITATION OF CHRIST, CHAPTER 23

The hour of death will soon come for you. See to it that you spend your time here well. There is a common saying that human beings are here today and gone tomorrow. And once they are out of sight, they are soon forgotten.

How dull we are and hard of heart, for we think only of the present and make little provision for the life hereafter! If you were wise, you would so order your life as though you were to die before the day is over.

If your conscience were clear, you would not be afraid of death. Better to give up sin than to fear death. If you are unprepared to face death today, how will you be tomorrow? Tomorrow is uncertain and you may not be here to see it.

What good is a long life if we do not use it to advance spiritually? Sad to say, it often happens that a long life adds to our guilt and not to our amendment. If only we could point to one day in our life that was really well spent! Many count the years of their conversion, but often there is little to show for it.

If it is frightening to die, it may be more dangerous to live long. You are truly blessed if you keep the hour of your death before you and prepare yourself for it...

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

How St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila) performed a spiritual work of mercy: praying for the living and the dead.

St. Teresa pleading the cause of the sinners in purgatory-Image: Public Domain

In this excerpt from the Book of Her Life, look for the ways in which St. Teresa prayed for the dead:

*She went to church to pray for the soul
*She offered up all the good she had done in her life for the soul
*She prayed earnestly and intensely (beseeched the Lord) for the 
     soul
*She asked others to pray for the the departed soul
*She prayed the Office of the Dead for the soul
*She attended Mass for the soul (in other accounts of Chap. 38)

St. Teresa was blessed with many visions and mystical experiences. In this excerpt, she explains the visions she received of departed souls. 

I was told that someone who had been our provincial was dead (although when he died he was in another province). I had had some dealings with him and was indebted to him for some good deeds. He was a person of many virtues. As soon as I learned he was dead, I felt much disturbance because I feared for his salvation in that he had been a superior for twenty years. Being a superior is something I am indeed very afraid of since I think having souls in one's charge involves a lot of danger; with much anxiety I went to an oratory. I offered up for him all the good in my life, which must in fact amount to little, and so I asked the Lord to supply from His own merits what was necessary for that soul to be freed from purgatory.

While beseeching the Lord for this as best I could, it seemed to me that person came out from the depths of the earth at my right side and that I saw him ascend to heaven with the greatest happiness. He had been well advanced in years, but I saw him as only about thirty, or even less I think, and his countenance was resplendent. This vision passed very quickly; but I was so extremely consoled that his death could never cause me any more sorrow, although I saw persons who were filled with grief over his loss since he had been generally highly esteemed. The consolation my soul experienced was so great I couldn't worry about him, nor could I doubt that it was a vision; I mean that it was not an illusion. No more than fifteen days had passed since his death. However, I didn't neglect to get others to pray for him and to pray myself, except that I couldn't do so with the eagerness I would have if I hadn't seen this vision. When the Lord shows some persons to me in this way and afterward I desire to pray for them to His Majesty, it seems to me without my being able to help it, that doing so is like giving alms to the rich. Afterward I learned--for he died quite far from here--of the death the Lord had given him; it was so greatly edifying, because of the knowledge, tears, and humility with which he died, that it left everyone amazed.

Again, she tells of another experience with a departed soul:

One of the nuns in the house who had been a great servant of God had been dead a little more than a day and a half. A nun was reciting a reading in the choir from the Office of the Dead, which was being said for the departed soul, and I was standing so as to recite the verse with her. When she was half through the reading, I saw the nun who had died; it seemed to me her soul had come out at my right side just as in the previous case and was going to heaven. This was not an imaginative vision as was the former one, but like the others I mentioned; yet this kind is a certain as the imaginative visions. 
The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D., and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1987, Print.

St. Teresa tells us that the Lord was pleased to show her the degrees of glory these souls possessed. After experiencing these visions, she states, "Great is the difference that lies between the glory of some and that of others."

St. Teresa recounts several other visions of the dead in her writings. You can read them in Chapter 38 of the Book of Her Life. Let us remember that we are not to seek out these experiences. We must travel the road of pure faith in which there are no signs and knowledge of the state of a departed soul. This is part of the cross that we bear in life; that we continually pray for the living and the dead. Saint Teresa herself continued to pray for these souls even after she witnessed them going to heaven, because she still had a desire in her heart to pray for them, she states:

When the Lord shows some persons to me in this way and afterward I desire to pray for them to His Majesty, it seems to me, without my being able to help it, that doing so is like giving alms to the rich.

In the Jubilee Year of Mercy, let us increase our efforts to pray for our departed brothers and sisters in Christ, the Church Suffering, who have gone before us. Let us continue to pray for all the souls in purgatory, remembering especially those who are in most need of God's mercy.

The season of Lent is a wonderful time to begin a devotion to the holy souls in purgatory. One can pray the Stations of the Cross, the Rosary, make a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration, etc. Remember, too, that one can gain an indulgence for the Holy Souls by praying for the intentions of the Holy Father after you complete your devotion. 

Learn more about gaining a plenary indulgence during the year of mercy:

http://www.thedivinemercy.org/jubilee/thebasics/indulgence.php

May all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.


Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS