THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL, JULY 16
" You who came to smile at me
in the morning of my life,
Come smile at me again… Mother….
It's evening now!…"
(Poem 54, Stanza 25, "Why I Love You, O Mary!",
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face)
Who is this Queen, this Mother? Saint Brandsma (OCD) once described OUR WORLD WITHOUT HER AS:
" A breeze without air,
A rainbow without color,
A heart without a beat....
Such would be Carmel without Mary".
For Pere Marie-Eugene, OCD, Mary and Spirit Lord were his whole life, filling his being. With brilliant rays shining in her and through her and for her children, Mary keeps watch in the darkness: the darkness being endured by her spiritual children. She is our shining Star in the darkest of our nights. For Pere Marie and for St Therese and for St Brandsma, Mary is nothing but MOTHER, entirely MOTHER. Mary is our Mother, entirely our Mother, loving us discreetly, silently, working especially when our soul is engulfed in darkness and weariness.
MARY MAKES OUR SOUL BEAR FRUIT.
THE FRUIT IS HER SON.
"BLESSED IS THE FRUIT OF YOUR WOMB: JESUS"
This is why St John of the Cross named Our Lady as "the Mother of Life".
Our deeply loved St Teresa of Jesus rushes to join in the accolades that proclaim the beauty of our Beloved Mother, the one filled with grace, the Woman-made-prayer, the Pre-Redeemed one who is more perfect than her prayer, the one who gave a human Body to the One Whose Name is Humility:
"There is no Lady who makes Him yield as well as Humility; it brought Him from Heaven in the womb of the virgin and with it WE will bring Him ....to our soul" (The Way of Perfection).
MARY IS THE ONE MOST CONFORMED TO JESUS CHRIST.
She can't but turn to us when in our great need we implore her:
REMEMBER, MOST GRACIOUS VIRGIN MARY, THAT NEVER WAS IT KNOWN, THAT ANYONE, WHO FLED TO THY PROTECTION, IMPLORED THY HELP, OR SOUGHT THY INTERCESSION, WAS LEFT UNAIDED.
And our Beloved Mother, being entirely our Mother, our Immaculata, takes our pleading and makes it her own property, her complete and exclusive property and offers it to Jesus as her own pleading . Our petition is now her own, now offered without stain, immaculate, like herself. AND JESUS OFFERS IT TO THE FATHER.
As we approach the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, we name our petition, our deep need, our soul's desire and we give it to her to make her own.
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face will lead our thoughts and prayers and meditations as she guides us through each day, beginning July 8 in THE NOVENA TO OUR MOTHER, OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL.
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2023/07/07/olmcnovena-intro/
