The Scapular - Sign of "Eternal Alliance" With the Woman Who Shall Crush the Head of Satan (II)

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JMJ

Feast of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel

Eight hundred and sixty years before Christ, the whole of Israel, at the bidding of the fiery Prophet Elias, is assembled, with the prophets of their false god, there on the summit of the Scripturally renowned Mount Carmel. The Jewish nation has fallen into idolatry and the Prophet of Carmel – who was dwelling in one of the caves of the Mount – proclaimed before the king and the adulterous nation: How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him (3 Kings 18.21, DRV). Then the Prophet proposed a contest: Call ye on the names of your gods, and I will call on the name of my Lord, and the God that shall answer by fire [to consume the holocaust on the altars of both sides], let Him be God (v.24).

Midday at the Mount was already past, and Baal has not yet answered. The Prophet Elias then repaired the altar of the Lord, that was broken down and he built with the stones an altar to the name of the Lord...When it was now time to offer the holocaust, Elias the Prophet came near and [prayed]... then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench [around the altar] (vv. 30,36,38). And all the people... fell on their faces (v.39) acknowledging that the Lord  he is God.

However, it is not so much for the fire-contest between the prophets and the Prophet or rather between God and the false gods that we interest ourselves in this event but for the after-event. After that the Prophet Elias brought down a miraculous fire from heaven, he turns to Achab, then king of the Jewish nation, and says that there is now a sound of abundance of rain (v.41). And while the king goes to eat and drink at the Prophet’s bidding, we follow the Prophet as he proceeds to the top of Carmel. Then the Prophet Elias casting himself down upon the earth put his face between his knees (v.42) and tells his young servant to go and look out over the Mediterranean sea; six times we see the servant return only to report to his venerable master: There is nothing (v.43). At this very moment, the Prophet of Carmel is not only about to present a material salvation to the famished adulterous nation [in chastisement for their crime] but is also about to behold a prophetic vision of the spiritual Salvation of all mankind through an Immaculate Virgin.

We see the servant return the sixth time to be again sent by the Prophet to go up and look towards the sea (v.43). The seventh time, he hastens back for, rising out of the sea at the foot of the Mount, he has seen a little cloud.... like a man’s foot (v.44). In the near morrows, saintly Doctors of the true Church will explain to the world how this little cloud is a figure of an Immaculate Virgin who will rise pure out of the sea of humankind, free of its universal impurity of original stain. It was a vision of the Woman (Apocalypse 12.1) who was to arise immaculate – full of grace (Luke 1.28), all fair... and there is not a spot in [Her] (Canticle of Canticles 4.7) – and to crush with Her foot the head of Satan (cf., Genesis 3.15). As soon as the Prophet is told of the little cloud like a man’s foot ascending, we see him rise to give a command to the king. And within a short while, behold the heavens grew dark, with clouds, and wind, and there fell a great rain (v. 45).

On this blessed day, this glorious Woman of earliest prophecy and its ultimate fulfilment rises once more over that Mount to make Herself available to us in a “Sign of Salvation” and Badge of Christian Victory – the Brown Scapular of Carmel. To Her Order being racked by dissensions from within and persecutions from without [see the story in “The Scapular Vision of July 16, 1251,” consideration for the First Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel] – all being the schemed and diabolically complicated programs of the proud mind of Satan to suppress, if not to crush, the “Order of the [Immaculate] Virgin”:

"RECEIVE, MY BELOVED SON, THIS HABIT OF THY OR­DER: THIS SHALL BE TO THEE AND TO ALL CARMELITES A PRIVILEGE, THAT WHOSOEVER DIES CLOTHED IN THIS SHALL NEVER SUFFER  ETERNAL FIRE. BEHOLD A SIGN OF PEACE, A SAFEGUARD IN DANGER, A PLEDGE OF MY ETERNAL ALLIANCE."

God had not said of the Immaculate, who was to rise pure out of the human see which Satan had tainted at its very source in Paradise, that there would be enmities between Her alone and Satan alone; He also said: Between thy seed and Her seed (Genesis 3.15). So upon the appearance of the Sign of the Immaculate crushing the head of Satan – his head referring to his pride – with Her heel – Her heel referring to the humility of Our Immaculate Mother of Carmel – we naturally expect to see Her bring forth Her seed to fight and conquer with Her. And She has. The Immaculate Virgin of Carmel has clothed us today in the Scapular – a Sign of Her: the humble Mother, the Victorious Queen. For is it not at once the Sign of Her seed and a Sign of Victory? Our Immaculate Mother Herself answers this when at Her last apparition at Fatima, Portugal in October 13, 1917 She appeared as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel holding out to the world Her Scapular [see our blogpost “The Great Sign in Heaven”]. Does not Satan hate us with every bit of hatred he has for Her [And the dragon was angry against the Woman: and went to make war with the rest of Her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Apocalypse 12.17)]? Yes, and he hates this Sign which at once proclaims us to be the seed of Mary and crushes his pride by its simplicity – being a mere brown woolen pieces of cloth – and invincible power [as countless authenticated records show of the same miraculous power attached to it]. God brings to nothing the things that are by things that almost, as it were, are nothing; He places the head of the black prince of the world beneath the heel of that humble Virgin who started to defeat with Her simple words: Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum [Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.](Luke 1.38). Although Satan lies in wait here on earth to sink the fangs of cunning temptations into our hearts, Our Immaculate Mother of Carmel, through a devotion so simple, protects us and conquers Satan for us.

The readers and the Members of the Teresian Carmelite Family surely needs no urging to piously clothe themselves always in the Scapular of Our Immaculate Virgin. They know its greatness too well. But what about that aid which Mary needs to save the millions in danger of eternal perdition – an aid that only Her children can give Her? What about the fact that Our Lord said to St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi [a nun of Teresian Carmel]: “O, see how most men are within the grasp of the demon! See how his jaw is open to devour them! Far from avoiding it, they go and cast themselves in, and there is no one who will escape if My elect do not save them by their prayers.” Our Immaculate Mother said at Fatima: “So many souls are lost because there is no one to pray and to make sacrifices for them.”

When we enter into Our Immaculate Mother’s alliance we can almost feel that best of mothers folding us to Her breast to guard us in life, at death, and even after death until She has completely brought us to eternal happiness. As we stop to consider it, do we not feel a burning desire welling up in our hearts, a longing to respond to such love? Do we not feel, as it is only human for a child to feel, a spiritual thirst to answer Mary’s motherly action of fighting the ancient infernal serpent which lunges at us, to take Her very sign of salvation, and with prayer, sacrifices [an intimate union with Her Son Crucified, see consideration for the “Ninth and Last Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel], and the [traditional] Sacraments of the Church, to enter into the fray?

To return love for love. Such is the beating of the heart of  those who would enter into an “eternal alliance” with Our Immaculate Mother. A life of union with the Immaculate Virgin, so that everything one does is applied by Our Dearest Mother of Carmel to the best interests of the Sacred Heart of Her Beloved Son – the sole object of Her care and of the affections, desires, and delights of Her Immaculate Heart – is not only a state of personal perfection but one of supreme apostolate. For such a life of intimate union with the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, through the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother, ought to be the fruit of those who will be planted in the soil of Carmel – the Mount and School of Contemplative Prayer. Our Dearest Little Therese says: “Is not the apostolate of prayer higher, as one might say, than that of preaching? How beautiful is our vocation [of a Discalced Carmelite Nun]. It is for us, it is for Carmel, to preserve the salt of the earth... The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of one poor little soul to save a multitude of others, redeemed like her at the price of His blood.”

Even as the rainfall was the salvation of Israel of Old after the prophetic sign of the Immaculate, so we may cause another humble Sign of Victory to become truly the salvation of the world through Her. By using the Scapular to make frequent acts of ‘mystical’ union with Our Immaculate Mother, “Vanquisher of Satan,” we become, according to St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, “those servants, slaves, and children of Mary: a burning fire of the ministers of the Lord, who shall kindle the fire of divine love everywhere, and ‘like sharp arrows’ in the hand of the powerful Immaculate Virgin to pierce Her enemies; the sons of Levi, well purified by the fire of great tribulation, and closely adhering to God through His words, laws, and Commandments; who shall carry the gold of Christian charity in their heart, the incense of prayer in their spirit, and the myrrh of mortification in their body; and they shall be everywhere the good odour of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the poor in spirit and to the little, while they shall be an odour of death to the great, to the rich, and to the proud.

They shall be clouds thundering and flying through the air at the least breath of the Holy Ghost; who, without attaching themselves to anything, without being astonished at anything, without putting themselves in pain about anything shall shower forth the rain of the Word of God and of life eternal. They shall thunder against sin; they shall storm against the world; they shall strike the devil and his forces and dummies; and they shall strike further and further, for life of for death, with their two-edged sword of the Word of God, all those to whom they shall be sent on the part of the Most High. They shall be the true apostles of these latter times who shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross, the Crucifix in their right hand and the Rosary in their left, the Scapular on their back and on their chest, the sacred names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts, and the modesty and mortification of Jesus Christ in their behavior... But Our Dearest Immaculate Mother shall be there by the order of the Most High, to extend His empire over that of the impious, the idolaters, the heretics and schismatics, the ‘perfidious Jews’, and the Mahometans [the Moslems].”

Our Dearest Immaculate Mother has marked us for Her elect, members of Her family. Our Heavenly Mothers thirsts for souls because the Sacred Heart of Jesus thirsts and has given the mission of assuaging that thirst to Her and to us through Her. Being the Head of that divine Body, the Church, He has made His Mother the neck and us the members. His Sacred Heart is the Driving Power. Mary’s Immaculate Heart is one with It so that we, Her children, may be one with It simply by being united to Her through our total consecration to Her Immaculate Heart – of which Her Scapular is the badge of it. That is our vocation, our apostolate, our purpose.

May God bless and keep you all in His light, grace, mercy, aid, and protection through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Our Dearest Mother of Carmel! A Blessed Feast to All!

Ninth and Last Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

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JMJ

Consideration: The Scapular - The Badge of Christian Victory the Secret of Which is Being Subject to Our Blessed Mother Through Total Consecration to Her Immaculate Heart

The Scapular is a miniature habit - that is, it is the habit or garb of the Friars and Nuns of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel reduced to a form that can be worn in the daily life of the faithful who desire to unite themselves to the "Order of the Virgin" (Our Lord in His colloquy with St. Teresa of Jesus - reformer of Carmel and foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, also known as the Teresian Carmelites), to partake of our Teresian Carmelite spirit and thereby becoming sharers as well of our spiritual treasures.

Now "all our perfection consists in being conformed, united, and consecrated to Jesus Christ" (St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary) and Him Curicified (1 Corinthians 2.2): I know... the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death (Philippians 3.10). If we look at the emblem of Teresian Carmel, we see Mount Carmel surmounted by the Cross of Our Lord - being the Order instituted by Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother as the school par excellence of Christian perfection the summit of which is crowned by charity: that love of God manifested by the Crucified. And when one is granted the privilege to enter, much less to just take a peek, into the cell of a Discalced Carmelite Friar or Nun, he will see a big Cross hanging on the wall without the 'corpus' or the body of the Crucified. But why a 'corpus'-less Cross in Teresian Carmel? In the fourth Station of the Cross according to the method of St. Francis of Assisi, the Saint reflects on Our Sorrowful Mother meeting His Beloved: "How earnestly did She desire to die in place of Jesus..." A Teresian Carmelite must own such sentiment of the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother and thus is he exhorted: "Be ready to take the place of your Beloved !" for the most perfect of all devotion is, without any doubt, that which the most perfectly conforms, unites, and consecrates us to Jesus Christ Crucified. Jesus, our greatest friend, has given Himself to us without reserve, body and soul, virtues, graces, and merits. "He has bought the whole of me by whole of Himself," says St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Is it not, then, a simple matter of justice and of gratitude that we should Him all that we can give Him? He has been the first to be liberal towards us; let us, at least, be the second... "With the liberal He will be liberal."

"Whenever someone begins a new stage of life, it does not happen automatically, but rather by means of a decision and an intentional act. For example, a man decides on a career and signs a contract with his employer. Or he chooses his state in life and seals this decision with a wedding ceremony, priestly ordination, or religious profession..." (Rev. Fr. Karl Stehling, SSPX, "The Immaculata Our Ideal," p. 100). In a similar manner, those who enter also the Teresian Carmelite Family of Our Blessed Mother through the Scapular Confraternity seals their decision but through Total Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and its cause of which the Scapular is its sign.

It is therefore of great importance in the  acquiring of perfection (Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect ), which it must be remembered is only acquired by union with Our Lord and Him Crucified, to empty ourselves of everything that is not Him. In order to empty ourselves of ourselves, we must die to ourselves daily (1 Corinthians 15.31) by our conformity to God's will just as the Mother of God had said:  Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to thy word.  Here we hand over our whole life to Our Lord by the hand of Our Blessed Mother: all the powers of our soul, that is, our understanding, our will, and our memory, along with all the powers of the body, namely, all the senses and energies, health and sickness of our whole life we commend to her with all its pleasant, unpleasant and indifferent incidents . If we die not to ourselves, and if our holiest devotions do not incline us to this necessary and useful death, we shall bring forth no fruit worth anything, and our devotions will become useless.

Often we come to know Our Blessed Mother's wishes through inner promptings, but we can almost never be sure whether these come from her or from our self-love or even from the devil. Satan in the form of an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11.14) is sometimes able to deceive us with the holiest things, which could perhaps be good for someone else, but which God does not want of us. Even if we were to have a vision and thought that the Mother of God was appearing to us and assigning us the most exalted task, how do we know for sure that it is really She and not a deception or a diabolical snare? "The best test is obedience to one's superiors" (St. Maximilian Kolbe, Militia Immaculatae). "One carries out a command," continues the Saint, "not because it is pleasant, reasonable, wise, or holy in itself, but rather because the command is the will of the superior and accordingly the will of Our Immaculate Mother, and therefore ultimately God's will. Without this attitude one is not an instrument in the hand of Our Blessed Mother, but rather - I declare it openly - an instrument in Satan's hand, however many spiritual books one may read, however many Rosaries one may pray, however many great deeds one accomplishes." The living Teresian Carmel, and the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel attached to it, in practice, consists of this 'holy' obedience (that is, grounded on the truths of the Faith for we walk by faith, 2 Corinthians 5.7).

Opening Prayer

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy  faithful, and
kindle in them the fire of Thine love. Send forth Thy
Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shall renew the
face of the earth.

O God, you instructed the hearts of the faithful by the
light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us by the same Spirit to be
truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena Prayer
“Flos Carmeli” by St. Simon Stock

Flos Carmeli Flower of Carmel
Vitis florigera Vine blossom-laden
Splendor Coeli Splendor of Heaven
Virgo puerpera Child-bearing Virgin
Singularis! None equals thee

Mater mitis Mother benign
Sed viri nescia Who no man didst know
Carmelitis On Carmel’s children
Da privilegia Thy favors bestow
Stella Maris! Star of the Sea

(Mention your petitions here.)

Concluding Prayers

Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity.
Show us herein that you are our Mother.

Sweet Mother, I place this cause into you hands.
There are none that can withstand Your power.

O Most Holy Mother of Mount Carmel, when asked by a saint to grant privileges to the family of Carmel, you rather granted an assurance of salvation to the whole world. Behold us your children, kneeling at your feet. We glory, dearest Mother, in wearing your holy habit, that habit which makes us members of your family of Carmel, that habit through which we shall have your powerful protection in life, at death and even after death. Look down with love, O Gate of Heaven, on all those now in their last agony! Look down graciously, O Virgin, Flower of Carmel, on all those in need of help! Look down mercifully, O Mother of our Saviour, on all those who do not know that they are numbered among your children.Look down tenderly, O Queen of All Saints, on the poor souls! 

O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

The Litany of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel


Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world...
God the Holy Ghost...
Holy Trinity, One God...

Holy Mary, pray for us sinners.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Queen of heaven...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Vanquisher of Satan...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Dutiful Daughter...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Pure Virgin...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Devoted Spouse...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Tender Mother...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Perfect Model of Virtue...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sure Anchor of Hope...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Refuge in affliction...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Dispensatrix of God's gifts...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Tower of strength against our foes...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our aid in danger...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Road leading to Jesus...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our light in darkness...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our consolation at the hour of death...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Advocate of the most abandoned sinners...

For those hardened in vice,
with confidence we come to thee O Lady of Mount Carmel.
For those who grieve thy Son...
For those who neglect to pray...
For those who are in their agony...
For those who delay their conversion...
For those suffering in Purgatory...
For those who know thee not...

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Hope of the Despairing
Intercede for us with thy Divine Son.

(Let Us Pray)

O God, who has honored the Order of Carmel with the
special title of thy Blessed Mother Mary, ever Virgin,
grant in thy mercy that we who keep her memory this day
may be shielded by her protection and be found worthy
to attain unto joy eternal. Who livest and reignest with
God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,
world without end. Amen.

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our Mother, penetrated with the most lively
confidence in your all-powerful and never failing
intercession, manifested so often through the Scapular, we
your loving and trustful children implore you to obtain
for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena, if
they be beneficial to our immortal soul, and the souls
which we pray.

You know, O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, our Immaculate Mother
and Queen of Carmel, how often our souls have been the
sanctuaries of your Son Who disdains iniquity. Obtain for
us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which
will attach us to God alone so that our every thought,
word, and deed, may tend to his greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we
may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at
length attain to that blessed abode where you are Queen of
angels and of people. Amen.

Eighth Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

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JMJ

Consideration: On the Characters of True and False Devotion to Our Blessed Mother
by St. Louis-Marie de Montfort

After having laid bare [what essentially consists true Christian devotion to our Blessed Mother], we must, in a few words, characterize the true and false devotion. True devotion must be (1) interior, (2) tender, (3) holy, (4) constant, and (5) disinterested.

1. True devotion to Our Blessed Mother is interior, that is to say, it comes from the spirit and the heart. It flows from the esteem we have of Her, the high idea we have formed of Her greatness, and the love which we have for Her.

2. It is tender, that is to say, full of confidence in Her, like a child's confidence in his loving mother. This confidence makes the soul have recourse to Her in all its bodily or mental necessities, with much simplicity, trust, and tenderness. It implores the aid of its good Mother, at all times, in all places, and about all things; in its doubts, that it may be enlightened; in its wanderings, that it may be brought into the right path; in its temptations, that it may be supported; in its weaknesses, that it may be strengthened; in its falls, that it may be lifted up; in its discouragements, that it may be cheered; in its scruples, that they may be taken away; in its crosses, toils, and disappointments of life, that it may be consoled under them. In a word, in all its evils of body and mind, the soul's ordinary refuge is in Mary, without fearing to be importunate to Her or to displease Our Lord.

3. True devotion to our Blessed Mother is holy, that is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin, and to imitate in the Blessed Virgin particularly Her profound humility, Her lively faith, Her ever ready and willing obedience to God's will - whatever it may be - Her continual prayer, Her universal mortification, Her divine purity, Her ardent charity, Her heroic patience, Her angelical sweetness, Her prudence and divine wisdom, [and Her modesty]

4. True devotion to our Blessed Mother is constant. It confirms the soul in good, and it does not let it easily abandon its spiritual exercises. It makes [the soul] courageous in opposing the the world and its fashions and maxims, the flesh in its weariness and passions, and the devil in his temptations. So that a person truly devout to our Blessed Mother is neither changeable, irritable, scrupulous, nor timid. It is not that such a person does not fall, or change sometimes in the sensible feeling of devotion, or in the amount of devotion itself, But when he falls, he rises again by stretching out his hand to his good Mother. If he loses the taste and relish of devotion, he does not disturb himself because of that; for the just and faithful client of Mary lives on the faith of Jesus and Mary, and not on sentiments and sensibilities.

5. Lastly, true devotion to our Blessed Mother, is disinterested. That is to say, it inspires the soul not to seek itself but God only, and God in His Holy Mother. A true client of Mary does not serve that august Queen from a spirit of lucre and interest, nor for its own good, whether temporal, corporal, or spiritual; but exclusively because She merits to be served, and God alone in Her. He does not love Mary precisely because She does him good, or because he hopes in Her; but because She is so worthy of love. It is on this account that he loves and serves Her faithfully in his disgusts and drynesses, as in his sweetness and sensible fervors. He loves Her as much as in Calvary, as at the marriage in Cana.

Now, there are seven kinds of false devotees and false devotions to Our Blessed Mother:

1. The critical devotees are, for the most part, proud Christian scholars, rash and self-sufficient spirits, who have at bottom some devotion to Our Blessed Mother, but who criticize nearly all the practices of devotion to Her, which simple people pay simply and holily to their Good Mother, because these practices do not fall in with their own humor and fancy. They call in doubt all the miracles and histories recorder by authors worthy of our faith, or drawn from the chronicles of religious orders; narratives which testify to us the mercies and the power of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary... These kind of false devotees and of proud and worldly people are greatly to be feared. They don an infinite wrong to the devotion to Our Blessed Mother; and they are but too successful in alienating people from it, under the pretext of destroying its abuses.

2. The scrupulous devotees are those who fear to dishonor the Son by honoring the Mother, to abase the one in elevating the other. They cannot bear that we should attribute to Our Blessed Mother the most just praise which the holy Fathers of the Church have given Her... They are unwilling that we should speak so often of Our Blessed Mother, and address ourselves so frequently to Her. These are the favorite sentences constantly in their mouths: "We must have recourse to Jesus Christ; He is our only Mediator. We must preach Jesus Christ; this is the solid devotion." What they say is true in a certain sense, but it is very dangerous, when, by application they make of it, they hinder devotion to Our Blessed Mother and it is, under the pretext of a greater good, a subtle snare of the devil. For never do we honor Our Lord more than when we are  most honoring His Blessed Mother. Indeed we only honor the Blessed Mother that we may the more perfectly honor Our Lord, inasmuch as we only go to Her as to the way in which we are to find the end or goal we are seeking, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church, with the Holy Ghost, blesses the Virgin Mary first, and Our Lord second: Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus (Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus). It is not that Our Blessed Mother is more than Our Lord, or even equal to Him. That would be an intolerable heresy; but it is that, in order to bless Our Lord more perfectly, we must begin by blessing the Blessed Virgin Mary.

3. External devotees are persons who make all devotion to Our Blessed Mother consist in outward practices. They have no taste except for the exterior of this devotion, because they have no interior spirit of their own. They will say quantities of Rosaries with the greatest speed or precipitation; they will assist at many Masses distractedly; they will go without devotion to processions; they will enroll themselves in all sorts of Confraternities, without amending their lives, without doing any violence to their passions, or without imitating the virtues of the Most Holy Virgin... If they have not sensible sweetness in their practices, they think they are doing nothing; they will get all out of joint, throw everything up, or do everything at random.

4. Presumptuous devotees are sinners abandoned to their passions and vices, or lovers of the world, who under their fair name of Christians and clients of the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceal pride, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction, injustice, or some other sin. They sleep in peace in the midst of their bad habits, without doing any violence to themselves to correct their faults, under the pretext that they are devout to the Blessed Mother. They promise themselves that God will pardon them; that they will not be allowed to die without confession and Viaticum; and that they will not be lost eternally because they say the Rosary, because they fast on Saturdays [which in the Liturgical calendar of the Church is the day dedicated to the commemoration of Our Blessed Mother], because they wear the Scapular [and enrolled in the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (the Brown Scapular Confraternity), or because they belong to the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, or are enrolled in other congregations.

They will not believe us when we tell them that their devotion is only an illusion of the devil, and a pernicious presumption likely to destroy their souls. They say that God is good and merciful, that He has not made us to condemn us everlastingly [the error now being inculcated by the "New 'Catholic' Theology" - which supplanted the traditional Catholic Theology according to the School of St. Thomas Aquinas - in the seminaries of the "New 'Catholic' Order" ("Novus Ordo" in Latin) since Vatican II and the same poisonous 'theology' being silently fed to the faithful through the "New Mass"]... Nothing in Christianity is more detestable than this diabolical presumption!

In order to be truly devout to Our Immaculate  Blessed Mother, it is not absolutely necessary to be so holy as to avoid every sin, though this were to be wished; but so much at least is necessary, and lay it well to heart: (a) to have a sincere resolution to avoid, at least, all mortal sin, which outrages the Mother as well as the Son; (b) and to do violence to ourselves to avoid sin, to enroll ourselves in Confraternities [especially the Scapular Confraternity] to [pray] the Rosary [and meditate on its mysteries], to fast on Saturdays [which is a request also of Our Blessed Mother at Fatima], and the like, is wonderfully useful to the conversion of a sinner, however hardened: and if my reader is such a one, even if he has his foot in the abyss, I would counsel these things to him. Nevertheless, it must be on the condition that he will only practice these good works with the intention of obtaining from God, by the intercession of [Our Immaculate Mother of Carmel] the grace of contrition and the pardon of his sins, to conquer his evil habits, and not to remain quietly in the state of sin, in spite of the remorse of his conscience, the example of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Saints, and the maxim of the Holy Gospel.

5. The inconstant devotees who are devout to the Blessed Mother by intervals and whims. Sometimes they are fervent and sometimes lukewarm... They begin by taking up all the devotions to Her, and enrolling themselves in the Confraternities, and then they do not practice the rules with fidelity. They change like the moon; and Our Blessed Mother puts them under Her feet with the crescent, because they are mutable, and unworthy to be reckoned among the servants of that faithful Virgin, whose clients have for their special graces fidelity and constancy. It were better for such persons to load themselves with fewer prayers and practices, and to fulfill them with faithfulness and love, in spite of the world, the devil, and the flesh.

6. The hypocritical devotees, who cloak their sins and sinful habits under Her mantle, in order to pass in the eyes of men for what they are not.

7. There are also the interested devotees who have recourse to Our Blessed Mother only to gain some lawsuit, or to avoid some danger, or to be cured of some illness, or for some other similar necessity, without which they would forget Her altogether.

Opening Prayer

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy  faithful, and
kindle in them the fire of Thine love. Send forth Thy
Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shall renew the
face of the earth.

O God, you instructed the hearts of the faithful by the
light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us by the same Spirit to be
truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena Prayer
“Flos Carmeli” by St. Simon Stock

Flos Carmeli Flower of Carmel
Vitis florigera Vine blossom-laden
Splendor Coeli Splendor of Heaven
Virgo puerpera Child-bearing Virgin
Singularis! None equals thee

Mater mitis Mother benign
Sed viri nescia Who no man didst know
Carmelitis On Carmel’s children
Da privilegia Thy favors bestow
Stella Maris! Star of the Sea

(Mention your petitions here.)

Concluding Prayers

Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity.
Show me herein that you are my Mother.

Sweet Mother, I place this cause into you hands.
There are none that can withstand your power.

You give us hope, O Mother of Mercy, that through your Scapular promise we might quickly pass through the fires of purgatory to the Kingdom of your Son. Be our comfort and our hope, grant that our hope may not be in vain but that, ever faithful to your Son and to you, we may speedily enjoy after death the blessed company of Jesus and the saints.

O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

The Litany of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel


Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world...
God the Holy Ghost...
Holy Trinity, One God...

Holy Mary, pray for us sinners.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Queen of heaven...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Vanquisher of Satan...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Dutiful Daughter...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Pure Virgin...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Devoted Spouse...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Tender Mother...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Perfect Model of Virtue...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sure Anchor of Hope...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Refuge in affliction...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Dispensatrix of God's gifts...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Tower of strength against our foes...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our aid in danger...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Road leading to Jesus...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our light in darkness...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our consolation at the hour of death...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Advocate of the most abandoned sinners...

For those hardened in vice,
with confidence we come to thee O Lady of Mount Carmel.
For those who grieve thy Son...
For those who neglect to pray...
For those who are in their agony...
For those who delay their conversion...
For those suffering in Purgatory...
For those who know thee not...

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Hope of the Despairing
Intercede for us with thy Divine Son.

(Let Us Pray)

O God, who has honored the Order of Carmel with the
special title of thy Blessed Mother Mary, ever Virgin,
grant in thy mercy that we who keep her memory this day
may be shielded by her protection and be found worthy
to attain unto joy eternal. Who livest and reignest with
God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,
world without end. Amen.

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our Mother, penetrated with the most lively
confidence in your all-powerful and never failing
intercession, manifested so often through the Scapular, we
your loving and trustful children implore you to obtain
for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena, if
they be beneficial to our immortal soul, and the souls
which we pray.

You know, O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, our Immaculate Mother
and Queen of Carmel, how often our souls have been the
sanctuaries of your Son Who disdains iniquity. Obtain for
us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which
will attach us to God alone so that our every thought,
word, and deed, may tend to his greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we
may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at
length attain to that blessed abode where you are Queen of
angels and of people. Amen.

Seventh Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

+

JMJ

Consideration: Discernment of the True Devotion to Our Blessed Mother (I)

by St. Louis Marie de Montfort

Jesus Christ Our Savior, true God and true Man, ought to be the last end of all our devotions, else they are false and delusive... Jesus Christ is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end (Isaias 41.4; Apocalypse 1.17; 22.13], of all things... It is in Him alone that the whole plenitude of the divinity dwells, together with all the other plenitude of graces, virtues, and perfections; because it is in Him alone that we been blessed with all spiritual benediction; and because He is our only Master, Who has to teach us; our only Lord, on Whom we ought to depend; our only Head, to Whom we must belong [as Its Body]; our only Model, to Whom we should conform ourselves; our only Physician, Who can heal us [especially our spiritual infirmities]; our only Shepherd, Who can feed us [with His Flesh and Blood in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, our heavenly food giving us eternal life]; our only Way, who can lead us; our only Truth; our only Life, Who can animate us; and our only All in all things, who can suffice us. There has been no other name given under heaven, except the name of Jesus, by which we can be saved. God has laid no other foundation of our salvation, of our perfection, and of our glory, except, Jesus Christ. Every building which is not built upon that firm rock is founded upon the moving sand, and sooner or later will fall infallibly. Every of the faithful who is united to Him, as a branch to the stock of the vine, shall fall, shall wither, and shall be fit only to cast into the fire....

If, then, we establish the solid devotion to Our Blessed Mother, it is only to establish more perfectly the devotion to Jesus Christ, and to put forward an easy and secure means for finding Our Lord Jesus Christ. [And if, then, we establish the solid devotion to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel - of which the Scapular is the sign of our consecration - which the Most Blessed Trinity requests of us at Fatima, Portugal, it is only to establish more perfectly the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord]. If devotion to our Blessed Mother removed us from Jesus Christ, we should have to reject it as an illusion of the devil; but on the contrary, so far from this being the case, there is nothing which makes devotion to Our Blessed Mother more necessary for us... than that it is the means of finding our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving Him tenderly, and of serving Him faithfully.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Head [Ephesians 1.22; 5.23] wished to form Himself, and so to speak, to incarnate Himself, every day in His members. He speaks through His Apostle St. Paul: My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you  (Epistle to the Galatians, 4.19) so that we may exclaim with the same Holy Apostle: And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me (Epistle to the Galatians, 2.20) - the goal or purpose of the whole of our Christian Spiritual Life. But He wishes to form Himself in us through our dear Mother. He said to Her: This man and that man is born in her  (Psalms 86.5, chapter and verse follow the Sacred Latin Vulgate Bible). According to the explanation of some of the Church Fathers, the first man that is born of Mary is the God-Man, Jesus Christ; the second is a mere man, the child of God and Mary by adoption. If Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is born in Her, the predestinate, who are the members of that Head, ought also to be born in Her by necessary consequence. One and the same mother does not bring forth into the world the head without the members, nor the members without the head; for this would be a monster of nature. So in like manner, in the order of grace, the Head and the members are born of the same Mother; otherwise, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but simply a monster in the order of grace.

Besides this, Our Lord being at present as much as ever the Fruit of Mary - as heaven and earth repeat thousands and thousands of times a day, "And blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus" - it is certain that Our Lord is, for each man in particular who possess Him, as truly the fruit if the womb of Mary, as He is for the whole world in general; so that if any one of the faithful has Jesus Christ formed in his heart [see our considerations for the Fifth and Sixth Days of Novena: "Jesus Christ, the Ideal of True Christian Virtue"], he can boldly, All thanks be to Mary! what I possess is Her effect and Her fruit, and without Her I should never have had it. St. Augustine... affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin; where they are guarded, nourished, brought up, and made to grow by that good Mother until She has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just.

... [It is] particularly at the end of the world, and indeed presently [see our post "The Great Sign in Heaven"], because the Most High with His holy Mother has to form for Himself great Saints, who shall surpass most of the other Saints in sanctity, as much as the cedars of Lebanon outgrow the little shrubs... These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Mother, illuminated by Her light, nourished by Her milk, led by Her spirit, supported by Her arm, and sheltered under her [Scapular], so that they shall fight with one hand and build with another. With one hand they shall fight, overthrow, and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idols, and the sinners with their impieties. With the other hand they shall build the temple of the true Solomon, and the mystical city of God... By their words and examples, they shall bend the whole world to true devotion to Our Blessed Mother [especially through Her Scapular and Her Rosary]. This shall bring upon them many enemies; but it shall also bring many victories and much glory for God alone.

Opening Prayer

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy  faithful, and

kindle in them the fire of Thine love. Send forth Thy

Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shall renew the

face of the earth.

O God, you instructed the hearts of the faithful by the

light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us by the same Spirit to be

truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena Prayer

“Flos Carmeli” by St. Simon Stock

Flos Carmeli Flower of Carmel

Vitis florigera Vine blossom-laden

Splendor Coeli Splendor of Heaven

Virgo puerpera Child-bearing Virgin

Singularis! None equals thee

Mater mitis Mother benign

Sed viri nescia Who no man didst know

Carmelitis On Carmel’s children

Da privilegia Thy favors bestow

Stella Maris! Star of the Sea

(Mention your petitions here.)

Concluding Prayers

Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity. Show me herein that you are my Mother.

Sweet Mother, I place this cause into you hands.

There are none that can withstand Your power.

O Mary, help of Christians, you assured us that wearing your Scapular worthily would keep us safe from harm. Protect us in both body and soul with your continual aid. May all that we do be pleasing to your Son and to you.

O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

The Litany of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world...

God the Holy Ghost...

Holy Trinity, One God...

Holy Mary, pray for us sinners.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Queen of heaven...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Vanquisher of Satan...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Dutiful Daughter...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Pure Virgin...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Devoted Spouse...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Tender Mother...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Perfect Model of Virtue...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sure Anchor of Hope...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Refuge in affliction...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Dispensatrix of God's gifts...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Tower of strength against our foes...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our aid in danger...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Road leading to Jesus...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our light in darkness...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our consolation at the hour of death...

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Advocate of the most abandoned sinners...

For those hardened in vice,

with confidence we come to thee O Lady of Mount Carmel.

For those who grieve thy Son...

For those who neglect to pray...

For those who are in their agony...

For those who delay their conversion...

For those suffering in Purgatory...

For those who know thee not...

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Hope of the Despairing

Intercede for us with thy Divine Son.

(Let Us Pray)

O God, who has honored the Order of Carmel with the

special title of thy Blessed Mother Mary, ever Virgin,

grant in thy mercy that we who keep her memory this day

may be shielded by her protection and be found worthy

to attain unto joy eternal. Who livest and reignest with

God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,

world without end. Amen.

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ

and our Mother, penetrated with the most lively

confidence in your all-powerful and never failing

intercession, manifested so often through the Scapular, we

your loving and trustful children implore you to obtain

for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena, if

they be beneficial to our immortal soul, and the souls

which we pray.

You know, O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, our Immaculate Mother

and Queen of Carmel, how often our souls have been the

sanctuaries of your Son Who disdains iniquity. Obtain for

us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which

will attach us to God alone so that our every thought,

word, and deed, may tend to his greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we

may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at

length attain to that blessed abode where you are Queen of

angels and of people. Amen.

Sixth Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

+

JMJ

Consideration: Jesus Christ, the Ideal of True Christian Virtue (II)

Jesus Christ had a most tender compassion for sinners who were sincerely humble and repentant for their sins. I came for sinners, the Lord said, and not for the just – who trust in their own justice. The publican who stood afar off, Mary Magdalen, the woman taken in adultery, the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, were all treated by Him with a kindness and tenderness which astonishes us. But the pride of the Pharisees, their hypocrisy, their avarice, these were the objects of His most severe censure and malediction. The sins of the mind [obstinacy in error] and the spirit [pride from which flows presumption, vanity, and the like] just the sins to which the falsely devout are more subject than any others, are those which He condemned with the greatest severity, because they are a sign of more blindness of the mind and more corruption of the heart.

Jesus Christ bore with a never-failing gentleness the faults and the roughness of His disciples. According to our way of thinking, what must He not have suffered at having to live with men so imperfect and so ignorant of the things of God? Relations with our neighbor is perhaps one of the most difficult things in this life; even the saints have felt how much it cost them. And the nearer they are to God, the more need they have of condescension, to lower themselves to others, as it were, to unbend, to conceal and excuse in others a thousand faults to which they see and feel more keenly than any one else. And this is a point upon which their practice must be continual, and it all depends upon how they acquit themselves with regard to it as to whether they will make virtue amiable or displeasing to others.

Jesus Christ suffered every kind of persecution at the hands of His enemies, but He never gave way. He only opposed to them His innocence and virtue, and He always confounded them by His spotless life. When the hour came that He allowed Himself to fall into their hands, He permitted their evil passions to act, and looked upon them as instruments of Divine Justice. He kept silence when He saw them so obstinate in their malice; He sought not to justify Himself, although it would have been so easy; He allowed Himself to be condemned; He allowed them to enjoy their imaginary triumph; He pardoned them, He prayed for them, He shed His blood for them. This is the most sublime and the most difficult height of perfection.

Whoever aspires to true sanctity, and to be guided in everything by the Spirit of God, must expect to suffer from the tongues of men, to bear their calumnies, and sometimes their persecutions. [Such is the essence of the Christian Life, a fellowship of (the) sufferings of (Him Who, we know, loved us to death), Phil 3.10].   In this, above all things, we must take Jesus Christ [and Him Crucified (1 Cor. 2.2)] as our model; we must suffer, for His sake, as much as we can, in the interests of truth; our only answer to calumny must  be the innocence of our life; we must keep silence when it is not absolutely necessary to speak; we must leave the care of our justification to God, if He sees fit to justify us; we must stifle in our heart every feeling of resentment and bitterness; we must try to soften our enemies by every kind of charitable actions; we must pray to God for their pardon; and we must try to see, in all they make us suffer, only the accomplishment of God’s designs upon us.

And when virtue can thus sustain itself in contempt, in opprobrium, in ill-treatment, then we may look upon it as perfected, as consummate virtues. Therefore, God generally reserves this trial to the last. Blessed are those who pass through it! When Our Lord comes in His glory, they will have a share in it proportionate to their share in His humiliations. To desire such a state as this, to accept it when it is offered to us, to bear it patiently and with joy when we find ourselves in it, this can only  be the effect of grace, and of an extraordinary grace. As for us, let us rest content in our lowliness; let us never think we can attain of ourselves to anything so high; and let us only ask God that human respect may never cause us to abandon His interests.

Opening Prayer

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy  faithful, and
kindle in them the fire of Thine love. Send forth Thy
Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shall renew the
face of the earth.

O God, you instructed the hearts of the faithful by the
light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us by the same Spirit to be
truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena Prayer
“Flos Carmeli” by St. Simon Stock

Flos Carmeli Flower of Carmel
Vitis florigera Vine blossom-laden
Splendor Coeli Splendor of Heaven
Virgo puerpera Child-bearing Virgin
Singularis! None equals thee

Mater mitis Mother benign
Sed viri nescia Who no man didst know
Carmelitis On Carmel’s children
Da privilegia Thy favors bestow
Stella Maris! Star of the Sea

(Mention your petitions here.)

Concluding Prayers

Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity.
Show me herein that you are our Mother.

Sweet Mother, I place this cause into you hands.
There are none that can withstand Your power.

With loving provident care, O Mother Most Admirable, you covered us with your Scapular as a shield of defence against the Evil One. Through your assistance, may we bravely struggle against the powers of evil, always open to your Son Jesus Christ.

O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

The Litany of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel


Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world...
God the Holy Ghost...
Holy Trinity, One God...

Holy Mary, pray for us sinners.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Queen of heaven...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Vanquisher of Satan...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Dutiful Daughter...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Pure Virgin...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Devoted Spouse...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Tender Mother...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Perfect Model of Virtue...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sure Anchor of Hope...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Refuge in affliction...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Dispensatrix of God's gifts...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Tower of strength against our foes...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our aid in danger...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Road leading to Jesus...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our light in darkness...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our consolation at the hour of death...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Advocate of the most abandoned sinners...

For those hardened in vice,
with confidence we come to thee O Lady of Mount Carmel.
For those who grieve thy Son...
For those who neglect to pray...
For those who are in their agony...
For those who delay their conversion...
For those suffering in Purgatory...
For those who know thee not...

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Hope of the Despairing
Intercede for us with thy Divine Son.

(Let Us Pray)

O God, who has honored the Order of Carmel with the
special title of thy Blessed Mother Mary, ever Virgin,
grant in thy mercy that we who keep her memory this day
may be shielded by her protection and be found worthy
to attain unto joy eternal. Who livest and reignest with
God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,
world without end. Amen.

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our Mother, penetrated with the most lively
confidence in your all-powerful and never failing
intercession, manifested so often through the Scapular, we
your loving and trustful children implore you to obtain
for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena, if
they be beneficial to our immortal soul, and the souls
which we pray.

You know, O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, our Immaculate Mother
and Queen of Carmel, how often our souls have been the
sanctuaries of your Son Who disdains iniquity. Obtain for
us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which
will attach us to God alone so that our every thought,
word, and deed, may tend to his greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we
may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at
length attain to that blessed abode where you are Queen of
angels and of people. Amen.

Fifth Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

+

JMJ

Consideration: Jesus Christ, The Ideal of True Christian Virtue

There are very few Christians, even amongst those who are especially consecrated to God, who have a right idea of what true virtue is. Amongst all of them imagine it to consist in a certain routine of piety and in fidelity to certain exterior exercises. If with this they have at intervals some emotion of sensible devotion, without taking care to discern whether these emotions come from God or from their own efforts, they at once conclude that they are really virtuous.

Nevertheless, they are subject to a thousand faults and imperfection, of which they take no heed to themselves, and which any one else would try in vain to make them conscious of. They are narrow-minded, scrupulously exact in their practices of devotion, full of esteem for themselves, extremely sensitive and touchy, obstinate in holding their own opinions, puffed up with self-love, constrained and affected in their manners; nothing true, nothing simple, nothing natural about them. In their own hearts they prefer themselves to all others, and often they despise, they condemn, they persecute really holy persons, and true piety, of which they know nothing. Nothing is more common in Christianity than this false and pharisaical virtue. Those who are really good have no greater enemies; and if we wish to describe them in a few words we may say, it was pretended holy persons who crucified Our Lord Jesus Christ, and they still crucify Him every day in His most perfect imitators. As soon as any one really gives himself to God and begins to lead an inner life, he is sure to draw upon himself, first of all jealousy and criticism, and then persecutions and calumnies of every king, from these devout Pharisees.

If we wish to understand what true virtue is, we must contemplate it in Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Him Crucified [1 Cor 2.2]: He is our one great Example; He gave Himself to us for that reason; He was made Man that holiness might be sensible and palpable to us. All sanctity which is not formed and modelled on His sanctity is false; it is displeasing to God; it may perhaps deceive men, but it is useless for Heaven....

Our Lord Jesus Christ sought Himself in nothing; never had He in view of His own interests, either temporal or spiritual; never did He perform one single action for the sake of pleasing men, neither did He ever abstain from any good action for fear of displeasing them. God alone [“Solo Dios basta!” says St. Teresa of Jesus], God’s glory [God’s great goodness acknowledged by His creatures], was the sole object of His thoughts and feelings, the sole rule of His conduct. He sacrificed all, without reserve, to the interests of His Father.

Jesus Christ made piety to consist in our interior dispositions, the religion of the heart [but based on truth]; not in vain and fleeting feelings [as Luther erroneously imagined it to be], but in sincere and efficacious resolutions, always followed by execution; a disposition of an entire devotion to God, a continual annihilation of self, and a boundless charity towards others. Every instant of His life was consecrated to the accomplishment of these three interior dispositions. He neglected no observance of the Law; but, at the same time, he declared, both by word and example, that this observance was only of value when it proceeded from an inner principle of charity, and that the practice of the letter of the law alone, without the interior spirit, made slaves, and not children of God.

Jesus Christ always looked upon this present life as passing; as a pilgrimage, a time of trial, simply designed to test our love for God. The things which are eternal were His constant occupation. He gave to nature what was absolutely necessary, without going beyond. Although he possessed nothing, and was always dependent on Providence for His simple bodily wants, He was never uneasy about the morrow, and His delight was to experience the effects of poverty.

Jesus Christ embraced by His own free choice that which men accept with the greatest difficulty, and to which they only submit from necessity. He did not absolutely condemn riches, but He preferred poverty. He did not condemn the rank and marks of honor which God Himself has established amongst men, but He taught us that an obscure condition, bereft of every kind of consideration, is more pleasing to God, and more favorable to salvation; and that to think one’s self better than others because one is born great, noble, or powerful, or in a position of authority, is an error and the source of countless sins. With the exception of the simple natural pleasure, especially those which men seek with the greatest eagerness, and as far as He Himself was concerned, He renounced even the most innocent pleasure. Hard work, apostolic labour, prayer, and the instruction of His disciples and the multitude filled up every moment of His life.

Jesus was simplicity itself; always the same, without affectation in His speech or actions. He taught, with the authority of God made Man, the most sublime truths, and things which had before been unknown. But He propounded His doctrine in a simple, familiar manner, without any pomp of human eloquence, and so that all minds could understand Him. His miracles, divine in themselves, are still more divine from the way in which He wrought them. He wished that the account of the Evangelists should agree with the  perfect simplicity of His own life. It is impossible to give in a more simple manner than they have done the account of a life,, and of words and actions, which bear on them they very impress of Divinity.

Opening Prayer

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy  faithful, and
kindle in them the fire of Thine love. Send forth Thy
Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shall renew the
face of the earth.

O God, you instructed the hearts of the faithful by the
light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us by the same Spirit to be
truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena Prayer
“Flos Carmeli” by St. Simon Stock

Flos Carmeli Flower of Carmel
Vitis florigera Vine blossom-laden
Splendor Coeli Splendor of Heaven
Virgo puerpera Child-bearing Virgin
Singularis! None equals thee

Mater mitis Mother benign
Sed viri nescia Who no man didst know
Carmelitis On Carmel’s children
Da privilegia Thy favors bestow
Stella Maris! Star of the Sea

(Mention your petitions here.)

Concluding Prayers

Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity.
There are none that can withstand Your power.
Sweet Mother, I place this cause into you hands.
Show us herein that you are our Mother.

O Mother of Fair Love, through your goodness we are not only your children but persons called to live in the spirit of Carmel.

Help us to live in charity with one another, prayerful as the Prophet Elias of old, and mindful of our divine call.

O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

The Litany of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world...
God the Holy Ghost...
Holy Trinity, One God...

Holy Mary, pray for us sinners.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Queen of heaven...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Vanquisher of Satan...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Dutiful Daughter...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Pure Virgin...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Devoted Spouse...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Most Tender Mother...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Perfect Model of Virtue...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sure Anchor of Hope...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Refuge in affliction...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Dispensatrix of God's gifts...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Tower of strength against our foes...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our aid in danger...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Road leading to Jesus...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our light in darkness...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our consolation at the hour of death...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Advocate of the most abandoned sinners...

For those hardened in vice,
with confidence we come to thee O Lady of Mount Carmel.
For those who grieve thy Son...
For those who neglect to pray...
For those who are in their agony...
For those who delay their conversion...
For those suffering in Purgatory...
For those who know thee not...

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Hope of the Despairing
Intercede for us with thy Divine Son.

(Let Us Pray)

O God, who has honored the Order of Carmel with the
special title of thy Blessed Mother Mary, ever Virgin,
grant in thy mercy that we who keep her memory this day
may be shielded by her protection and be found worthy
to attain unto joy eternal. Who livest and reignest with
God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,
world without end. Amen.

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our Mother, penetrated with the most lively
confidence in your all-powerful and never failing
intercession, manifested so often through the Scapular, we
your loving and trustful children implore you to obtain
for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena, if
they be beneficial to our immortal soul, and the souls
which we pray.

You know, O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, our Immaculate Mother
and Queen of Carmel, how often our souls have been the
sanctuaries of your Son Who disdains iniquity. Obtain for
us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which
will attach us to God alone so that our every thought,
word, and deed, may tend to his greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we
may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at
length attain to that blessed abode where you are Queen of
angels and of people. Amen.