Seventh Day
O Mary, Help of Christians, you assured us that wearing your Scapular worthily would keep us safe from harm. Protect us in both body and soul with your continual aid. may all that we do be pleasing to your Son and to you.
(pause and mention petitions)
Say: Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
Sixth Day
With loving provident care, O Mother Most Amiable, you covered us with your Scapular as a shield of defense against the Evil One.
Through your assistance, may we bravely struggle against the powers of evil, always open to your Son Jesus Christ.
(pause and mention petitions)
Say: Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
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.
Signs in Ordinary Human Life
The world in which we live is full of material things which have symbolic meaning to us, such as, light, fire and water.
There are also, in every day life, experiences of relationships between human beings. These experiences express and symbolize deeper meanings in our lives. Sharing a meal is a sign of friendship; joining together in a national celebration is a sign of our identity.
We need signs and symbols to help us understand what is happening at present, or what happened before, and to give us an awareness of who we are, as individuals and as groups.
Signs in Christian Life
Jesus is the great sign and the embodiment of the Father’s love. he founded the Church as a sign and instrument of His love.
Christian life also has its signs. Jesus used bread, wine and water to help us understand higher things…things which we can neither see nor touch.
All our Christian celebrations, particularly the sacraments, are signs with special meaning. At the Eucharist the sign is bread and wine; during baptism it is water; as hands are laid on the sick it is the anointing with oil; and in the marriage ceremony it is the giving and receiving of rings. Each of these signs brings us into communion with God, Who, in different ways, is present in each of them.
The Scapular is a Sign of Mary
It is a sign approved by the Church and endorsed by the Crmelite Order as an external sign of Mary’s love for us. It confirms our love and trust in her, and our commitment to live like her.
With the passage of time,l people began to give symbolic meaning to the Scapular as a sign of commitment to follow Jesus Christ, our Savior, in the spirit of Mary.
The Scapular is not:
However the Scapular:
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
O Mother of Fair Love, through your goodness, as your children, we are called to live in the spirit of Carmel. Help us to live in charity with one another, prayerful as Elijah of old, and mindful of our call to minister to God’s people.
(pause and mention petitions)
Say: Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
Fourth Day
When you gave us, Gracious Lady, the Scapular as our Habit, you called us to be not only servants, but also your own children.
We ask you to gain for us from your Son the grace to live as you children in joy, peace and love. (pause and mention petitions)
Say: Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
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.
From St. Ambrose in today’s Office of Readings:
My father and I will come to him and make our home with him. Open wide your door to the one who comes. Open your soul, throw open the depths of your heart to see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the sweetness of grace. Open your heart and run to meet the Sun of eternal light that illuminates all men. Indeed that true light shines on all; but if anyone closes his shutters against it then he will defraud himself of the eternal light. To close the doors of your mind is to exclude Christ. Of course he is capable of entering even so, but he does not want to force his way in or seize you against your will…
You see that when the Word of God knocks hardest on your door, it is when his hair is wet with the dew of the night. In fact he chooses to visit those who are in tribulation and trial, lest one of them be overwhelmed by distress. So his head is covered with dew, with drops, when his body is labouring hard. It is important to keep watch so that when the Bridegroom comes, he is not shut out. If you are asleep and your heart is not keeping watch, he will go away without knocking; but if your heart is alert for his coming, he knocks and asks for the door to be opened to him…
It is the soul that has its door, it is the soul that has its gates. To that door Christ comes and knocks, he knocks at the door. Open to him, therefore: he wishes to come in, the Bridegroom wishes to find you keeping watch.
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.
The first part of today’s Gospel reading reminds me of this passage from Story of a Soul:
“I understood, too, that Our Lord’s love is revealed as perfectly in the most simple soul who resists His grace in nothing as in the most excellent soul; in fact, since the nature of love is to humble oneself, if all souls resembled those of the holy Doctors who illuminated the Church with the clarity fo their teachings, it seems God would not descend so low when coming to their heart. But he created the child who knows only how to make his feeble cries heard; He has created the poor savage who has nothing but the natural law to guide him. It is to their hearts that God deigns to lower Himself. These are the wildflowers whose simplicity attracts Him. When coming down in this way, God manifests His infinite grandeur. Just as the sun shines simultaneously on the tall cedars and on each little flower as though it were alone on the earth, so Our Lord is occupied particularly with each soul as though there were no others like it. And just as in nature all the seasons are arranged in such a way as to make the humblest daisy bloom on a set day, in the same way, everything works out for the good of each soul.”
I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones. (Mt. 11:25)
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
Starting today I will be heading to Atlanta, GA for the Catholic New Media Celebration sponsored by SQPN. Other bloggers attending the event include: Mark Shea, The Curt Jester, Amy Welborn, Rebecca Christian of Catholic in Film School, Clayton Emmer of The Weight of Glory, Pat Gohn of Write In Between, Heidi H. Saxton of Mommy Monsters, Sarah Reinhard of Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering, Rachel Balducci of Testosterhome. and I’m sure there are many others, but those were the only ones listed. There are also many many podcasters.
The Celebration is on Sunday so I’m starting my drive down today. I will also be visiting some of my family in GA. First I will drive down on Sunday night to meet them where they will be vacationing at Amelia Island in FL (!) and then drive back up to GA and stay with them for a few more days before heading back home next Friday. Please pray for my safe travel (and for all the other bloggers and podcasters). I’ve been neglecting this blog lately so I hope to have time to get a few posts in here and there while I’m gone.
From a sermon by St. Anthony of Padua:
The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience and obedience; we speak in those languages when we reveal in ourselves these virtues to others. Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves. Gregory says: “A law is laid upon the preacher to practice what he preachesâ€. It is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law if he undermines its teaching by his actions.
But the apostles spoke as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself! For some men speak as their own character dictates, but steal the words of others and present them as their own and claim the credit for them. The Lord refers to such men and others like them in Jeremiah: So, then, I have a quarrel with the prophets that steal my words from each other. I have a quarrel with the prophets, says the Lord, who have only to move their tongues to utter oracles. I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophecies out of lying dreams, who recount them and lead my people astray with their lies and their pretensions. I certainly never sent them or commissioned them, and they serve no good purpose for this people, says the Lord.
We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfilment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner and by keeping the commandments. Likewise we shall request that we may be filled with a keen sense of sorrow and with fiery tongues for confessing the faith, so that our deserved reward may be to stand in the blazing splendour of the saints and to look upon the triune God.
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.