Decor Carmeli (The Beauty of Carmel)

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JMJ

Feast of all the Saints of the Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

"Graciously grant, O Almighty and Merciful God, that, by their example and merit in the practice of the yoke of Thy law and in living for Thee alone with perfect abnegation, we may be able to attain to the joy of eternal life with them... through Christ Jesus Our Lord... Amen" (from the Collect of today's Feast).

".... The practice of the yoke of God's law and... living for God alone with perfect abnegation...." Thus the Holy Church summarizes the exquisite beauty with which the Queen and Beauty of Carmel, Our Immaculate Mother, makes to distinctly reflect on Her Order. We learn in the Holy Gospel that the yoke of God's law is only one: the charity that overflows from the pierced Heart of the Crucified - to love God in all things and above all things with our whole mind, with our whole heart, with our whole soul, with our whole strength; and, next in order, to love others but as Christ hath loved us on the Cross. Therefore, this is the vocation of the Christian; he must become a Saint to attain to the joy of eternal life (which is God's life, strictly speaking a share or a participation not in superhuman or angelic life but in God's life): Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5.48). 

It is to live for God alone that is the atmosphere for a Christian. And to live for God alone with perfect abnegation - with that generous disposition of the Heart of the Crucified to take the place of His miserable beloved and the same disposition of the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother to take the place of Her suffering Beloved (cf., reflection for "The Ninth and Last Day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel") - is the atmosphere in Carmel (cf., our post "The Teresian Carmel"), indeed the science (cf., our post "The Measure of Loving God") which the Church, in her traditional prayer for this blessed day, looks to her Carmelite Saints for.

A blessed Feast to all!