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

A Prayer by St. Claude Colombiere

Feast Day: February 15

Photo Source: Wikipedia

My Jesus, you are my true friend,
my only friend,
you take part in all my misfortunes;
you know how to change them into blessings.

You listen to me
With the greatest kindness
When I tell you all my troubles
And you always have something
With which to heal my wounds.

I find you at any time of the day or night
For I find you wherever I happen to be
You never leave me;
If I change my dwelling place
I find you wherever I go
You never weary of listening to me;
You are never tired of doing me good.

I am certain of being loved by you,
If I but love you.
My worldly goods are of no value to you
But by bestowing yours on me
You never grow poorer.

However miserable I may be,
No one more noble or cleverer or even holier
Can come between you and me
And deprive me of your friendship;
And death,
Which tears us away from all other friends,
Will unite me forever to you.

All the humiliations attached to old age
Or the loss of honour
Will never detach you from me;
On the contrary
I shall never enjoy you more fully
And you will never be closer to me,
Than when everything seems to conspire
Against me to overwhelm me,
And cast me down.

You bear with all my faults
With extreme patience,
And even my want of fidelity
And my ingratitude
Do not wound you to such a degree
As to make you unwilling to receive me back
When I return to you.

O Jesus,
Grant that I may die loving you,
That I may die for the love of you.

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

Photo: R. Massaro Loyola Retreat House Clinton, Ohio

Here is an excerpt from one of my all time favorite books: Poustinia (desert) by Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Often people say that they have no time for prayer. Where is the place for prayer? Prayer is inside. I am a church. I am a temple of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They came to me. The Lord said that he and his Father would come and make their dwelling with me. I don't have to go anywhere. Neither does this mean that you shouldn't render glory to God in church where everybody else comes to pray, but it means that you should pray constantly. There should be no break in our prayer. There is a poustinia of the heart. Why should my heart be removed from God while I am talking to you? When you are in love with someone, it seems that the face of the beloved is before you when you drive, when you type, when you are taking out insurance, and so on. Somehow or other we can encompass these two realities, the faces of the beloved and whatever we happen to be doing. 

My friends, prayer is like that. If you fall in love then it's impossible to separate life and breath from prayer. Prayer is simply union with God. Prayer does not need words. When people are in love they look at each other, look into each other's eyes, or a wife simply lies in the arms of her husband. Neither of them talks. When love reaches its apex it cannot be expressed anymore. It reaches that immense realm of silence where it pulsates and reaches proportions unknown to those who haven't entered into it. Such is the life of prayer with God. You enter into God and God enters into you, and the union is constant.

The day I was baptized my little feet made the first step toward that union with God for which I was born. I can walk through my life and never remember. Such will be an arid life. It will be an unhappy life. But no matter what happens to me, if I remember that I exist to be united with God, and that I am united with God every minute, all I have to do is think about it. In fact, I don't even have to think. His face is always before me.




Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS