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JMJ
Consideration: On True and Solid Christian Devotion (I)
by Rev. P. Jean Grou, S.I.
THE word devotion, which is derived from the Latin, answers to that of devotedness,—a vowing of oneself, a consecration of one's self. A devout person is, then, a person devoted to God, consecrated to God. There is no stronger expression than that of devotion to mark that disposition of the soul which is ready to do everything and to suffer everything for Him to whom she is devoted.
The devotion to creatures (of course, that which is lawful and allowed by God) has necessarily its limits. The devotion to God has none, and can have none. As soon as the least reserve, the least exception, intrudes there, it is no longer devotion. True and solid devotion is, then, that disposition of the heart by which we are ready to do and to suffer, without exception or reserve, everything which comes from God's good pleasure, everything which is the Will of God. And this disposition is the most excellent of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We cannot ask for it too often or too earnestly ; and we must never flatter ourselves that we have it in its perfection, because it can always go on increasing, either in itself or in its effects.
We see, by this definition, that devotion is something most interior, and which has to do with the inmost life of the soul, for it affects that within us which is most spiritual; that is to say, our understanding and our will. Devotion consists then neither in reasoning, nor in imagination, nor in anything that is sensible (such as feelings or emotions – the basis of Lutheran ‘devotion’). We are not devout because we are able to reason well about the things of God, nor because we have grand ideas or fine imaginations about spiritual matters, nor because we are sometimes affected to tears.
Again, devotion is not a thing which passes, which comes and goes, as it were, but it is something habitual, fixed, permanent, which extends over every instant of life and regulates all our conduct.
The principle of devotion is, that God being the one source and the one author of holiness, the reasonable creature ought to depend on Him in everything, and be absolutely governed by the Spirit of God. She must be always attached to God in the depths of her soul, always attentive to His voice, always faithful to accomplish what He asks of her each moment.
It is then impossible to be truly devout unless we are interior, given to recollection, accustomed to retire within ourselves, or rather never to go out of ourselves, to possess our soul in peace.
Whoever gives himself up to his sense, to his imagination, to his passions, I do not say in criminal things, but even in those which are not bad in themselves, will never be devout; for the first effect of devotion is to bring into captivity the sense, the imagination, and the passions, and to prevent the will from ever being led away by them.
He who is curious, impulsive, delighting to interest himself in exterior things, and to mix himself up to the affairs of others; he who is never willingly alone; he who is critical, speaking ill of his neighbor, satirical, irritable, contemptuous, haughty, ready to take offence at anything which wounds his self-love; he who is obstinate, believing only in his own opinions, or he who is a slave to human respect and to public opinion to such an extent that is in consequence weak, inconstant, always changing his principles and his conduct, will never be devout...
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
O Queen of Heaven, you gave us the Scapular as an outward sign by which we might be known as your special children. May we always wear it with honour by avoiding sin and imitating your virtues. Help us to be faithful to this desire of ours.
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 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.
by Rev. P. Jean Grou, S.I.
THE word devotion, which is derived from the Latin, answers to that of devotedness,—a vowing of oneself, a consecration of one's self. A devout person is, then, a person devoted to God, consecrated to God. There is no stronger expression than that of devotion to mark that disposition of the soul which is ready to do everything and to suffer everything for Him to whom she is devoted.
The devotion to creatures (of course, that which is lawful and allowed by God) has necessarily its limits. The devotion to God has none, and can have none. As soon as the least reserve, the least exception, intrudes there, it is no longer devotion. True and solid devotion is, then, that disposition of the heart by which we are ready to do and to suffer, without exception or reserve, everything which comes from God's good pleasure, everything which is the Will of God. And this disposition is the most excellent of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We cannot ask for it too often or too earnestly ; and we must never flatter ourselves that we have it in its perfection, because it can always go on increasing, either in itself or in its effects.
We see, by this definition, that devotion is something most interior, and which has to do with the inmost life of the soul, for it affects that within us which is most spiritual; that is to say, our understanding and our will. Devotion consists then neither in reasoning, nor in imagination, nor in anything that is sensible (such as feelings or emotions – the basis of Lutheran ‘devotion’). We are not devout because we are able to reason well about the things of God, nor because we have grand ideas or fine imaginations about spiritual matters, nor because we are sometimes affected to tears.
Again, devotion is not a thing which passes, which comes and goes, as it were, but it is something habitual, fixed, permanent, which extends over every instant of life and regulates all our conduct.
The principle of devotion is, that God being the one source and the one author of holiness, the reasonable creature ought to depend on Him in everything, and be absolutely governed by the Spirit of God. She must be always attached to God in the depths of her soul, always attentive to His voice, always faithful to accomplish what He asks of her each moment.
It is then impossible to be truly devout unless we are interior, given to recollection, accustomed to retire within ourselves, or rather never to go out of ourselves, to possess our soul in peace.
Whoever gives himself up to his sense, to his imagination, to his passions, I do not say in criminal things, but even in those which are not bad in themselves, will never be devout; for the first effect of devotion is to bring into captivity the sense, the imagination, and the passions, and to prevent the will from ever being led away by them.
He who is curious, impulsive, delighting to interest himself in exterior things, and to mix himself up to the affairs of others; he who is never willingly alone; he who is critical, speaking ill of his neighbor, satirical, irritable, contemptuous, haughty, ready to take offence at anything which wounds his self-love; he who is obstinate, believing only in his own opinions, or he who is a slave to human respect and to public opinion to such an extent that is in consequence weak, inconstant, always changing his principles and his conduct, will never be devout...
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
O Queen of Heaven, you gave us the Scapular as an outward sign by which we might be known as your special children. May we always wear it with honour by avoiding sin and imitating your virtues. Help us to be faithful to this desire of ours.
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 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.
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