Third Day
O Queen of Heaven, you gave us the Scapular as an outward sign by which we might be known as your faithful children. may we always wear it with honor by avoiding sin and imitating your virtues. Help us to be faithful to this desire of ours.
(pause and mention petitions) s)
Say: Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
Second Day
Most Holy Mary, Our Mother, in your great love for us you gave us the Holy Scapular of Mount Carmel, having heard the prayers of your chosen son Saint Simon Stock. Help us now to wear it faithfully and with devotion. May it be a sign to us of our desire to grow in holiness.
(pause and mention petitions)
Say: Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
An interesting music video set to a song from Mr. T – yes, I said a song from Mr. T (h/t: Saint School):
Paul, at Alive and Young, also has a great “Word Made Fresh” satire of Mr. T on Mary and the Rosary.
Speaking of your Mother, today starts the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena:
First Day
O Beautiful Flower of Carmel, most fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, holy and singular, who brought forth the Son of God, still ever remaining a pure virgin, assist us in our necessity! O Star of the Sea, help and protect us! Show us that you are our Mother!
(pause and mention petitions)
Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
A great meditation from St. Josemaria:
Here is a point for your daily meditation: Have I allowed an hour to pass, without talking with my Father God? Have I talked to Him with the love of a son? You can! ~The Furrow, 657
I must have been reading Pope Benedict’s mind when I wrote the post, Be Imitators of Christ, on Tuesday. His June prayer intention: “That all Christians may cultivate a deep and personal friendship with Christ, in order to be able to communicate the strength of His love to every person they meet.” (h/t: American Papist).
June mission intention: “That the International Eucharistic Congress of Quebec in Canada may lead to an ever greater understanding that the Eucharist is the heart of the Church and the source of evangelization.”
I got word today that our dearly beloved nursing home resident, Dorothy, finally passed away yesterday afternoon at the ripe old age of 92. Doctors gave her no more than a day to live on May 23. So she really fought to remain here as long as she could! And that’s just like her, too. Mom and I visited her in the hospital last Saturday and her daughter told us that that morning Dorothy told her, “grab my hand and pull. I want to get out of here.”
Fr. Lueckenotte, the most humble and gracious priest who is in charge of visiting all of our nursing homes and hospitals, has been constantly at Dorothy’s side over the last week and a half. This morning he told me that he used to say to Dorothy a quote from St. Thomas More to his wife before he was martyred, “Pray for me as I will for the that we may merrily meet in heaven.” Unable to remember the exact quote, Dorothy’s version went, “I’ll pray for you, you pray for me and we’ll hippity hop up to heaven.”
Dorothy is better known as “Grandma” of Grandma’s Cool and Zesty Salad Dressing. Always a shameless self promoter, I’m sure Grandma would be delighted if bottles of this great tasting cole slaw and salad dressing (her very own recipe) were purchased in her honor. She often starred in her own TV commercials, and did regular TV and radio interviews (even during the last few years) promoting what she called her “dream come true.” You can purchase Grandma’s dressing or find it in a store near you.
She was as faithful, as spirited and as stubborn as they came and I’m sure she is hippity hopping her way into the arms of the Lord as we speak.
v. Do not remember my sins, O Lord,
r. When you come to judge the rold by fire.
v. Direct my way in your sight, O Lord, my God,
r. When you come to judge the world by fire.
v. Give her eternal rest, O Lord, and may your light shine on her forever,
r. When you come to judge the world by fire.
v. Lord, have mercy.
r. Christ, have mercy, Lord have mercy.
all:
Our Father…
v. From the gates of hell,
r. Deliver her soul, O Lord.
v. May she rest in peace.
r. Amen.
v. Lord, hear my prayer,
r. And let my cry come to you.
Let us pray
Lord, welcome into your presence your daughter Dorothy, whom you have called from this life. Release her from all her sins; bless her with eternal light and peace; raise her up to live forever with all your saints in the glory of the Resurrection. Through Christ our Lord.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
The other day I read this passage from 1 Corinthians:
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you. (1 Corinth 11:1-2)
It immediately caused me to examine my conscience and discern whether I, too have been an imitator of Christ and ask God how I can bring the love of Christ to others. The answer came as I read in the Gospel of St. John:
Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me…As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. (Jn. 15:4, 9)
We cannot radiate what we do not possess within us. In order to imitate Christ, we must always seek an intimate union with Him. This comes through constant prayer and fidelity to the Sacraments.
The following Prayer in Union With Jesus has become a favorite of mine as I strive to empty myself so as to be filled with Christ:
Lord Jesus, grant me the grace to empty myself and be filled with Your love, peace, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and understanding. Let every beat of my heart and every breath that I breathe be for You. Let every word that I speak be reflective of You. Let every glance I give be a mirror of You. Let every hand I touch feel Your gentle care. Let every step I take be on Your path toward Your Light. Let every word of praise I may receive be directed to You in humble thanksgiving. Let every angry word said to me or against me be returned with words of love and mercy not anger and revenge. Let every desire I have be for You. Let my will conform to Yours. Touch every cell of my body, Lord, and make me the person, the servant You want me to be. Amen.
I found this prayer on the back of a prayer card from the from Hopedale, OH. The prayer can be found online here.
Today’s office of readings featured that famous and beautiful passage from the Confessions of St. Augustine that is always worth reading and meditating upon:
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.
When at last I cling to you with my whole being there will be no more anguish or labour for me, and my life will be alive indeed, alive because filled with you. But now it is very different. Anyone whom you fill you also uplift; but I am not full of you, and so I am a burden to myself. Joys over which I ought to weep do battle with sorrows that should be matter for joy, and I do not know which will be victorious. But I also see griefs that are evil at war in me with joys that are good, and I do not know which will win the day. This is agony, Lord, have pity on me! It is agony! See, I do not hide my wounds; you are the physician and I am sick; you are merciful, I in need of mercy.
Is not human life on earth a time of testing? Who would choose troubles and hardships? You command us to endure them, but not to love them. No-one loves what he has to endure, even if he loves the endurance, for although he may rejoice in his power to endure, he would prefer to have nothing that demands endurance. In adverse circumstances I long for prosperity, and in times of prosperity I dread adversity. What middle ground is there, between these two, where human life might be free from trial? Woe betide worldly prosperity, and woe again, from fear of disaster and evanescent joy! But woe, woe, and woe again upon worldly adversity, from envy of better fortune, the hardship of adversity itself, and the fear that endurance may falter. Is not human life on earth a time of testing without respite?
On your exceedingly great mercy, and on that alone, rests all my hope.
Today we remember those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom, the protection of their country and their fellow man. That includes some priests! I saw an interesting documentary last week about a military chaplain who was killed in Vietnam, Servant of God Fr. Vincent Capodanno, The Grunt Padre:
In a very special way today I remember Lance Cpl. Darin Settle, a very good friend of mine from high school who died in Iraq two years ago:
And Lee McCoy who lost his battle with cancer last week. Lee was a Vietnam Vet who served on the USS Pomodon SS486 submarine. He was a good friend and collegue of my parents’ in the ag media industry. See a tribute to Lee here and here.
For more on Darin see my previous post Lance Cpl. Darin Thomas Settle. You can also view and sign Darin’s legacy guest book or his fallen heroes guest book.
For our fallen soldiers:
God our Father,
Your power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by Your command we return to dust.Lord, those who die still live in Your presence,
their lives change but do not end.
I pray in hope for my family,
relatives and friends,
and for all the dead known to You alone.In company with Christ,
Who died and now lives,
may they rejoice in Your kingdom,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Unite us together again in one family,
to sing Your praise forever and ever.Amen.
From JPII’s “Meditations on the Book of Genesis at the Threshold of the Sistine Chapel”
This End is also the summit of transparency
such is the path of all generations.“Non omnis moriar” (Not all of me will die).
What is imperishable in me
now stands face to face with Him Who Is!
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (Jn. 15:13)
After visiting the nursing homes yesterday I found out that one of our most beloved residents, 92 yr. old Dorothy, AKA Grandma, seems to have reached her final days. Please pray for her and her family.
Find out more about Grandma on this post.
h/t Catholic Media Review – click here for more information about the video.
One of the people I heard mentioned on my recent retreat was Mathew Kelly. So, of course I Googled for him at my first chance today. The first result I looked at is an article he wrote called Classroom of Silence. I work in a profession that’s all about noise and I do mean audio. We produce a lot of it for online agricultural communications. I attend a lot of conferences where all you do all day long is talk to people and hear lots of noise. I like my music-filled iPod but I have to take time every day to just sit in silence and this article struck a personal note with me so I thought I’d share it with you. Here’s an excerpt:
Silence presents both sides of the Christian challenge. Firstly, silence introduces us to ourselves – our faults, failings, flaws, defects, talents, abilities, and potential. And secondly, silence introduces us to God – greatness, fidelity, and perfection. It is these two discoveries together – self and God – that propose the Christian challenge. Seeing ourselves as we are, and God as He is, we are always challenged to change, to grow, and to become more like God.
Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher, scientist, mathematician, and writer of the seventeenth century wrote, “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.”
How can we examine our conscience when there’s too much noise? Kind of difficult if you ask me. So, many people I work with might be surprised but this makes perfect sense to me and I highly recommend it. Silence that is.
The Chrism Mass is always one of my favorite Masses of the year because it is when all of the priests gather to renew their committment to serve. The witness of devoted priests is one of the things that makes me proud to be Catholic and I love to see them all together in one place. It is a source of hope to know that so many men have literally given their lives in service to Christ and His Church. I was not able to attend our Chrism Mass this year, but my mother was kind enough to send me this picture:
We have had our share of heartbreak over the years, of priests leaving their vocations, some who were very close friends of ours. That is why it is imperative that we pray for our priests who are not immune to temptation and human weakness.
St. Faustina’s prayer for priests:
“O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit, and give power to the words of Priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord. Lord, give us holy Priests; You yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the soul of Priests. May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of Priests, for You can do all things.” (Diary #1052)
Pope Benedict’s prayer intentions for the month of April:
Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention is: “That Christians, even in the difficult and complex situations of present-day society, may not tire of proclaiming with their lives that Christ’s resurrection is the source of peace and of hope”.
His mission intention is: “That the future priests of the young Churches may be constantly more formed culturally and spiritually to evangelize their nations and the whole world”.
H/T American Papist. Also from the Papist: The Popemobile has arrived! Be sure to check out Benedict in America for all the details of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in just 12 days!
Speaking of popes, today is the anniversary of the death of John Paul II. See my post at Reflections: JP II and the Culture of Life. Here are pics of your humble blog hosts greeting the late pontiff in 2001:
Last week’s Our Sunday Visitor had an excellent article (subscribers only) on the 
Angelus prayer and its possible contribution to the “pro-life arsenal.” The Angelus is a prayer typically repeated three times a day – 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. – recalling the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. Says OSV:
As people pray the Angelus, perhaps they will come to understand better the value of any human conception as they remember and honor the greatest conception of all time.
The words of the prayer:
JP II’s favorite passage from Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 22, says that, “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.” Indeed, as the document goes on to explain, by His incarnation, Christ has united himself with every man and therefore fully reveals man to himself. Christ not only became man, but chose to identify totally with all humankind, even in its weakest and most vulnerable state. The more we meditate on the profound mystery of the Word made flesh, the more we come to understand and appreciate the dignity of every human person, born and unborn.
Note: during Easter the Regina Caeli is said in place of the Angelus.