PathToHoliness

This was a great source of comfort to me during my adoration earlier this week:

You’re not alone. Suffer tribulation cheerfully. It’s true, poor child that you don’t feel our Mother’s hand in yours. But have you never seen the mothers of this earth, with their arms out-stretched, following their little ones when, without anyone’s help, they venture to take their first shaky stems? Your not alone: Mary is beside you. The Way ~900

And Christ, our Lord, is with us, even to the end of time (Mt. 28:20):

What we cannot do, our Lord is able to do. Jesus Christ, perfect god and perfect man, leaves us , not a symbol, but a reality. He Himself stays with us . He will go to the Father, but he will also remain among men. He will leave us, not simply a gift that will make us remember him, not an image that becomes blurred with time, like a photograph that soon fades and yellows, and has no meaning except for those who were contemporaries. Under the appearances of bread and wine, He is really present, with His body and blood, with His soul and divinity. Christ is Passing By, essay on the Eucharist

It doesn’t get much more beautiful than this:

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
Lo, you were within,
but I outside, seeking there for you,
and upon the shapely things you have made
I rushed headlong – I, misshapen.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
They held me back far from you,
those things which would have no being,
were they not in you.
You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;
you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you;
I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst;
you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

Also check out: Augustine, Pelosi and Abortion

Today we celebrated the feast of the mother of one of the Church’s most celebrated saints. St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine (whose feast day is tomorrow), prayed unceasingly for the conversion of her famous son, and, as we all know, was happily obliged by Our Lord. Not only that, but her husband, Patricius, a pagan with a terrible temper, converted to Christianity and was baptized a year before his death thanks to her prayers as well. She is a wonderful example for married couples and parents who are called to care above all for the spiritual well being of their spouse and children. I believe that it was not only her prayers, but also her example as a pious Christian woman that also won over her husband and son. This passage from 1 Peter makes me think of St. Monica and the example that all married women should give:

Likewise, you wives should be subordinate to your husbands so that, even if some disobey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct when they observe your reverent and chaste behavior. Your adornment should not be an external one: braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or dressing in fine clothes, but rather the hidden character of the heart, expressed in the imperishable beauty of a gentle and calm disposition, which is precious in the sight of God.
1 Peter 3:1-5

She is also an example to all of us of our call to persevere in prayer. The conversion of St. Augustine did not happen overnight. It was a long, turbulent journey (20 years or more) during which the reluctant saint fell in and out of serious sin and his mother deeper and deeper into a conversation with Christ on behalf of her son, storming the gates of heaven with her constant tears and prayer. In the end this great mother witnessed the baptism of one of our greatest saints and spent the last days of her life reflecting with him and longing for the joys of heaven:

“Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?”
from St. Augustine’s Confessions

Her final request was that her son, who became a priest and bishop, remember her “at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.”

Last Friday’s feast of the Assumption of Mary body and soul into Heaven is always an extra special feast day for me. On this day, roughly every year for the last 10 years I renew my Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary. St. Louis De Montfort calls True Devotion to Mary an “easy, short, perfect and secure way of attaining union with our Lord.”

This is the devotion consists in making oneself a slave of Mary, doing all our actions by Mary, with Mary, in Mary and for Mary. We offer to the Blessed Mother every thought, word, deed and desire so that she might purify them and present them to our Lord to be distributed where they are most needed. It is a total abandonment to the Blessed Virgin Mary who will in turn lead us into a perfect union with Christ, her Son.

By Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ we can do all things; we can render all honor and glory to the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost; we can make ourselves perfect and be for our neighbor a fragrance of eternal life.

If, then, we are establishing sound devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only in order to establish devotion to our Lord more perfectly, by providing a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ. (True Devotion, n. 60-61)

What I love about this devotion is that it is nothing short of a perfect imitation of Christ who spent almost His entire life on earth completely subject to His Blessed Mother. I think of the finding in the temple, when Jesus, ready begin his public ministry at age 12, left His parents in Jerusalem to go preach to the elders in the temple. Seeing how this upset his Mother, Jesus returned home and was “obedient” to her, living hidden in Nazzareth with his mother for another 18 years. This devotion echoes not only Christ’s love for His Mother, but also His sublime humility.

If you have not yet read St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion, I highly recommend it! But don’t just take my word for it. JP II said:

“St. Louis de Montfort! I have long studied his doctrine and I like it. Besides, it’s from Montfort that I have taken my motto, “Totus Tuus” (I am all thine). Some day I’ll have to tell you Monfortians how I discovered de Montfort’s treatise on TRUE DEVOTION to Mary and how often I had to reread it to understand it.”

Indeed, rereading it has helped me to gain greater insight into the richness of this devotion and how to live it out in my daily life. The next (suggested) Total Consecration preparation begins on Nov. 5 and ends on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Order the Total Consecration book, or use this website which offers a very thorough explanation of how to proceed and includes links to all readings and prayers so that ordering books is not necessary.

In today’s Gospel reading our Lord encourages us to have childlike confidence in and dependence on God:

Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven (Mt. 18:3-4)

Not only did Christ tell us to enter the Kingdom of heaven as little children, he showed us the way by litterally becoming a little child himself – even an infant in the womb, completely dependent on His mother for everything.

This is how St. Therese articules what she called her “Little Way” of spiritual childhood (from Story of a Soul):

I look upon myself as a weak little bird, with only a light down as covering. I am not an eagle, but I have only an eagle’s EYES AND HEART. In spite of my extreme littleness I still dare to gaze upon the Diving Sun, the Sun of Love, and my heart feels within it all the aspirations of an Eagle.

The little bird wills to fly toward the bright Sun that attracts its eye, imitating its brothers, the eagles, whom it sees climbing up toward the Divine Furnace of the Holy Trinity. But alas! the only thing it can do is raise its little wings; to fly is not within its little power!

What then will become of it? Will it die of sorrow at seeing itself so weak? Oh no! the little bird will not even be troubled. With bold surrender, it wishes to remain gazing upon its Diving Sun. Nothing will frighten it, neither wind nor rain, and if dark clouds come and hide the Star of Love, the little bird will not change its place because it knows that beyond the clouds its bright Sun still shines on and that its brightness is not eclipsed for a single instant…

Jesus, I am too little to perform great actions, and my own folly is this: to trust that Your Love will accept me as a victim. My folly consists in begging the eagles, my brothers, to obtain for me the favor of flying toward the Sun of Love with the Divine Eagle’s own wings!

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I am in the middle of renewing my Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary this year so I was pleased to find this passage in The Way recently:

The love of our Mother will be the breath that kindles into a living flame the embers of virtue that are hidden under the ashes of your indifference. ~St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way n. 492

When we give ourselves completely to Mary she gives herself completely to us in return, sharing with us her own glorious virtues. She purifies all of our good works and intentions offered to her in confidence, offering them in turn to Christ who never refuses what is given to him from the hands of His Holy and Immaculate Mother (True Devotion – book, online – nos. 144, 146, 149).

From a sermon by St. Augustine – out of today’s Office of Readings:

Our Lord’s words teach us that though we labour among the many distractions of this world, we should have but one goal. For we are but travellers on a journey without as yet a fixed abode; we are on our way, not yet in our native land; we are in a state of longing, not yet of enjoyment. But let us continue on our way, and continue without sloth or respite, so that we may ultimately arrive at our destination.

No, there will be none of these tasks there. What you will find there is what Mary chose. There we shall not feed others, we ourselves shall be fed. Thus what Mary chose in this life will be realised there in all its fullness; she was gathering fragments from that rich banquet, the Word of God. Do you wish to know what we will have there? The Lord himself tells us when he says of his servants, Amen, I say to you, he will make them recline and passing he will serve them.

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and the end of the Mt. Carmel Novena:
Ninth Day

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

For more information on Our Lady of Mt. Carmel listen to this “Saint of the Day” podcast for July 16.

Here is a wonderful article/interview about Italian noble Princess Alessandra Borghese who made a dramatic return to her Catholic faith a number of years ago. Of this faith she said:

‘Catholicism is not a philosophy, neither is it a theology, but it is a meeting with a person. So the moment you meet Jesus Christ, your life can change radically. That is when I started to look at everything differently.’

She had an excellent answer to those modern Catholics who want the Church to allow women priests and other such nonsense:

‘If you’re Catholic and want to be a woman priest, join the Anglicans or the Protestants. Why do you want to change the Catholic tradition according to your point of view? If you look at Holy Mary, you see that her grandeur was not because she did anything, but because she was able to stand behind something bigger.’

Nicely done!

In 2004 she wrote a book about her return to faith titled With New Eyes that became a bestseller in Italy and throughout Catholic Europe. Now she has written a new book focusing on the early childhood and upbringing of Pope Benedict XVI. In In the Footsteps of Joseph Ratzinger, Borghese takes readers to various sites associated with the young Pope in his native Bavaria. During her extensive research into the early years of our Holy Father, Princess Alessandra has found:

‘There is nothing to defend the Pope’s reputation about. People have tried to find hidden things, relationships with Nazis, but there is nothing. He was a young boy. He was a soldier. He did his job. He did what every other young boy would have done then. And then he became a priest. There is nothing to be discovered. No scandal.’

I hope the book will be made available in the United States.

The Borghese family has a long history with the Church, producing Cardinals and even popes. Most notably Pope Paul V who the princess said was ‘so important that his name is written on the façade of Saint Peter’s Basilica itself, along with our coat of arms.’

Read: Alessandra Borghese: the prodigal daughter

Eighth Day

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

Seventh Day

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

Sixth Day

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

As you have probably noticed, much of the Mt. Carmel novena has focussed on the scapular – shown on the right. But what about the scapular? I’ve been wearing one for a few years now. Here is some information about the brown scapular that our own Carmelite sisters put together for the novena last year:

Ask someone about the “Scapular” and you will likely be told it is a religious object associated with the Blessed Virgin.
The Brown Scapular consists of two small panels of cloth joined by strings and worn over the shoulders. Generally, one panel bears a woven or printed image showing the vision of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to St. Simon Stock, while the other bears the image of Our Lady with the Child Jesus.
For centuries, the Scapular has been one of the most popular Marian devotions, second only to Our Lady’s Rosary. As a sacramental, it has been enriched by the Church with many spiritual blessings.
On July 16, 1261, at Aylesford in Kent England, according to tradition, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite, and made the Scapular a sign of her protection. With it came the promise that whoever wore her “habit” devoutly would be assured of eternal salvation. This is the Scapular promise of eternal perseverance.
Carmelites have always regarded themselves as “Brothers of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel,” and place their lives of Christ-centered prayer under her patronage.
~ Rev. Eamon R. Carroll, O. Carm.

In the art of spiritual warfare, I have often heard it referred to as a sort of shield. I think of it as an extra little sign, a personal reminder of devotion and commitment to the Blessed Virgin, through whom we strive to know and love Jesus and work for the salvation of souls.

Fifth Day

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

Fourth Day

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.