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J.M.J.
Feast of the Prophet Elias
Father and General of the "Order of the Virgin"
To the Discalced Carmelite Tertiaries and the Scapular Confraternity of Catholic Resistance
(by Rev. Friar John Marie-Therese of the Holy Eucharist, C.D.)
“Clothe me, O God, with the green garment of hope. A living hope in You gives the soul such ardor, so much courage and longing for the things of eternal life that, by comparison with what it hopes for, all things of the world are without value. Give me then, a strong hope, O my God, so that it may strip me of all the vanities of the world, that I may not set my heart upon anything that is in the world, nor hope for anything, but live clad only in the hope of eternal life. Let hope be the helmet of salvation which will protect my head from the wounds of the enemy, and will direct my gaze to heaven allowing me to fix my eyes on You alone, my God. As the eyes of the [Great Prophet of Carmel and his descendants and their followers on the fruitful plantation of the Blessed Virgin] are set upon the hands of [their Mistress, Mother, and Chief of Your elite army], even so are my eyes set upon You, until you take pity on me because of my hope. Grant that I may set my eyes on naught but You, nor be pleased with aught but You alone. Then you will be pleased with me, and I shall be able to say in all truth that I receive from You as much as I hope for” – St. John of the Cross, Dark Night, II.21,6-8
As the Lord of hosts lives, before Whose Face I stand… (3 Ki. 17.1) When we place ourselves in the presence of the true God of our Catholic Tradition with the intention of uniting ourselves to Him, we sense immediately that the great obstacles which separate us from Him are our sins with all the subtle errors, contrivances, schemes, and snares in and out* of us prepared by the head of our infernal enemy, which our Immaculate Mother of Carmel, intimated to our Father Elias on Mount Carmel in that little cloud [arising] out of the sea like a man’s foot (3 Ki. 18.44), shall crush (Gen. 3.15), to lead us to his service and worship; followed by our frailty, and our wretchedness – all of which make it so difficult for souls to live in a manner worthy of God. But our blessed hope comes to assure us, on the part of infinite mercy, of both the pardon of our sins and the graces necessary to live not just a good but rather holy life in intimacy with our Blessed Mother of Carmel which intimacy is the foundation of our intimacy with Her Little Jesus. What consolation then floods our soul when we think that to the few of us gathered under though the little cloud of Carmel has, more than ever, it so seems, greatly expanded to cover souls with Her garment of salvation God wants to be not only our eternal possession and our eternal beatitude, but even here below He desires now to be possessed by us through charity and grace – through their same uncompromised cisterns with Catholic Resistance, that is, through the traditional ministry of His ministers by the unalloyed Word and ever valid and legitimate Sacraments and blessings together with our Traditional life of prayer. May the Immaculata and Her Great Prophet diffuse liberally this blessed dew of hope in and around us.
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*Especially that bondwoman (Gen. 21.10) clothed round about with purple and scarlet… mother… of the abomination and filthiness of [ecumenical] fornication (
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A most blessed Feast to everyone!
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