Sunday in the Year for Priests

From the life of St. John Vianney

Already little John Mary Vianney had the temperament of the priest he would some day become. At once practical and inspired he was both peasant and poet. He felt the peace of the trees and the languor of the day in the very fibers of his being. He loved the meadows, the ripening crops, the good smell of earth and sun. And how he delighted in the lightning flashes that crossed the horizon from end to end. Forty years later, fifty years later, even until he died, he would still speak of it all in a voice filled with nostalgia.

The fact is that John Mary Vianney was first of all a contemplative. He had the sense of prayer. He prayed just as easily as he breathed, with the naturalness, the simplicity that made him seek out solitude. What he preferred above all else was to speak to God without any witnesses, or else listen silently to Him. Dom de Laveyne, who was a great religious, once said: "Silence is the most certain sign of the presence of God in a soul." But little John Mary had to store up his provision of silence, recollection, and solitude right there and then. For when he attained manhood all these things would be denied him.

From the Remarkable Cure of Ars, by Michelle de Saint Pierre

Prayer for Priests

O Jesus, our great High Priest, Hear my humble prayers on behalf of your priest, Father [N].Give him a deep faith a bright and firm hope and a burning love which will ever increase in the course of his priestly life.

In his loneliness, comfort him in his sorrows, strengthen him in his frustrations, point out to him that it is through suffering that the soul is purified, and show him that he is needed by the Church, he is needed by souls,he is needed for the work of redemption.

O loving Mother Mary, Mother of Priests, take to your heart your son who is close to you because of his priestly ordination,and because of the power which he has received to carry on the work of Christin a world which needs him so much.

Be his comfort, be his joy, be his strength,
and especially help himto live and to defend the ideals of consecrated celibacy. Amen.

John Joseph, Cardinal Carberry (+1998)Archbishop of St. Louis 1968-1979

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie

______________________

Saturday of Our Lady

By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a "preeminent and...wholly unique member of the Church;" indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" of the Church.
Catechism #967


Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

Tabernacle of the Week

Carmelite Monastery

Lourdes, France

The Divine Praises

Blessed be God.

Blessed be His Holy Name.

Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.

Blessed be the name of Jesus.

Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the paraclete.

Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.

Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.Blessed be her glorious Assumption.

Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.

Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.

Blessed be God in His angels and in His Saints.

May the heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

____________________

Carmelite Saint of the Day

Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified

(The Little Arab)

was born of the Baouardy family, Catholics of the Greek Melkite Rite, at Abellin in Galilee in 1846. In 1867 she entered the Discalced Carmelites at Pau in France and was sent with the founding group to the Carmel in Mangalore in India where, in 1870, she made her profession. She returned to France in 1872. In 1875 she went to the Holy Land where she built a monastery in Bethlehem and began planning for another in Nazareth. Noted for her supernatural gifts, especially for humility, for her devotion to the Holy Spirit, and her great love for the Church and the Pope, she died at Bethlehem in 1878.

From the Carmelite Proper

To learn more about this saint visit

http://www.dcbuck.com/Articles/Baouardy/Baouardy2col.pdf

To learn more about the "Little Arab" and the Greek Melkite Catholic Church visit

http://www.mliles.com/melkite/indexblessed.shtml

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

_______________________

Sanctifying the Hours of our Daily Life

I recently read or heard somewhere (can't remember where) about a priest who talked about attending Catholic school as a youth. He told the story of the religious sister who taught the children the practice of "sanctifying the hour." He said that the nun had a special bell in the classroom that each child would take turns ringing at the beginning of each hour. I believed they prayed a Hail Mary to begin the new hour.

"So You could not stay awake with me for even an hour?"Matthew 26:40
This devotion may seem simple and unsophisticated to some people, but I believe there is great wisdom behind this simple practice. Anyone on the spiritual path knows that at the beginning of the prayer life it is hard to pray constantly and to remember God throughout the day. For Secular Carmelites the simple but great "little way" of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection comes in to mind when reflecting on this holy practice.

The Hour of Mercy: O, Eternal Father, I offer you the body and blood of your dearly beloved Son in atonement for my sins, and the sins of the whole world.

Brother Lawrence wrote the book, The Practice of the Presence of God. This book is a great help to those seeking union with God.
Excerpts from The Third and Fourth Conversations from the book:
Br. Lawrence told me--

...When a considerable period went by without his thinking about Him, he did not disquiet himself, but acknowledged his wretchedness and returned to God with the more confidence for having experienced such sadness when he forgot Him.

From the Fourth Conversation:

He told me that it (his way of going to God) consisted in one good act of renunciation of all those things which we recognized did not lead to God, so that we might accustom ourselves to a continual communion with Him...We need only to realize that God is close to us and to turn to Him at every moment, to ask for His help to learn His will in doubtful things, and to do gladly those which we clearly perceive He requires of us, offering them up to Him before we begin, and giving Him thanks when they have been finished for His honor.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives the official definition of prayer:


"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God."
#2559

We can see that raising our hearts and mind to God is prayer itself. No words are necessary. Let us learn from Brother Lawrence and the age-old practice of sanctifying the hour to remember God each day. We know, too, that the religious throughout the world, and we as Secular Carmelites are called to sanctify the hours by praying the Liturgy of the Hours each day. If we are faithful to prayer and the remembrance of God in the hours of our earthly life, we need not be afraid of the Hour of our death, for we will have already offered and sanctified the hour to Our Father.

May Our Lady, pray for us now and at the Hour of our death. Amen.

We can sanctify the week as well:

Sunday-Devoted to the Holy Trinity

Monday-to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Souls in Purgatory

Tuesday-to the Holy Angels

Wednesday-to St. Joseph

Thursday-to the Blessed Sacrament

Friday-to the Passion of our Lord and to His Sacred Heart

Saturday-to the Blessed Virgin Mary


Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
______________________

Sunday in the Year for Priests

An excerpt from the Life of St. John Vianney

by Michel de Saint Pierre

The official website of St. John Vianney in Ars, France

The incorrupt body of St. John Vianney

Another day, when he was still only four, he disappeared mysteriously from the house. Marie Vianney noticed it, looked for him, called him. All in vain. In a panic, she sought him all over the farm, weeping and despairing. Suddenly fear struck terror to her heart as she remembered a certain water hole, dark and deep, where the child might have drowned. But at last she found John Mary in the stable praying, with his hands on the famous wooden satuette. Perhaps Marie was edified, good Christian that she was. But she did not let him know it. Instead, she chided: "Why did you run away? Why did you cause me so much worry? And why do you hide to say your prayers? You know very well that we all pray together."

John Mary Vianney owed a great deal, and would continue to owe a great deal to this woman who was his mother. Concerning his own filial sentiments, he later on expressed himself in a way that left no room for doubt:

My love of prayer and of the altar? After God, I owe it to my mother." "Virtue passes easily from the hearts of mothers into the hearts of their children!"

Fr. Monnin, a very reliable witness and one of the confidants of the last years of his life, has declared: "We remember hearingh him say on several occasions that a child should not be able to look at his mother without weeping."

Prayer of St. John Vianney:

I love You, O my God,
and my only desire is to love You
until the last breath of my life.
I love You, O my infinitely lovable God,
and I would rather die loving You,
than live without loving You.
I love You, Lord
and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally...
My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You,
I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath.

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
_______________________

Saturday of Our Lady

The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

She is a bride, so gentle and affectionate, and the mother of the only true bridegroom. In her abundant goodness she has channeled the spring of reason's garden, the well of living and life-giving waters that pour forth in a rushing stream from divine Lebanon and flow down from Mount Zion until they surround the shores of every far-flung nation. With divine assistance she has redirected these waters and made them into streams of peace and pools of grace. Therefore, when the virgin of virgins was led forth by God and her Son, the King of kings, amid the company of exulting angels and rejoicing archangels, with the heavens ringing with praise, the prophecy of the psalmist was fulfilled, in which he said to the Lord: At your right hand stands the queen, clothed in gold of Ophir.
An Exerpt from a homily by St. Amadeus of Lausanne, bishop
From the Office of Readings for today's feast.

 My Queen! My Mother! I give myself entirely to you; and to show my devotion to you, I consecrate to you this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my whole being, without reserve. Wherefore, good Mother, keep me, guard me, as your own property and possession. Amen.
(photo: The crowned virgin at Lourdes)

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
_____________________