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Jul 16 – Homily – Fr Angelo: Our Lady of Mt Carmel

apostolate — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:02:17 +0000

Homily #080716 ( 10min) Play – On the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Fr. Angelo preaches on the spirituality of the Carmelite order including the significance of the brown scapular.
Ave Maria!
+++

The post Jul 16 – Homily – Fr Angelo: Our Lady of Mt Carmel first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Poetry from St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:00:39 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

October 1st: St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Heaven for Me!

written June 7th, 1896

To bear the exile of this valley of tears
I need the glance of my Divine Savior.
This glance full of love has revealed its charms to me.
It has made sense of the happiness of Heaven.
My Jesus smiles at me when I sigh to Him.
Then I no longer feel my trial of faith.
My God’s glance, His ravishing smile,
That is Heaven for me!

Heaven for me is to be able to draw down on souls
On the Church my mother and on all my sisters
Jesus’ graces and His Divine Flames
That can enkindle and rejoice hearts.
I can obtain everything when mysteriously
I speak heart to Heart with my Divine King.
That sweet prayer so near the Sanctuary,
That is Heaven for me!

Heaven for me is hidden in a little Host
Where Jesus, my Spouse, is veiled for love.
I go to that Divine Furnace to draw out life,
And there my Sweet Savior listens to me night and day.
“Oh! What a happy moment when in Your tenderness
You come, my Beloved, to transform me into Yourself.
That union of love, that ineffable intoxication,
That is Heaven for me!

Heaven for me is feeling within myself the resemblance
Of the God who created me with His Powerful Breath.
Heaven for me is remaining always in His Presence,
Calling Him my Father and being His child.
In His Divine arms, I don’t fear the storm.
Total abandonment is my only law.
Sleeping on His Heart, right next to His face,
That is Heaven for me!

I’ve found my Heaven in the Blessed Trinity
That dwells in my heart, my prisoner of love.
There, contemplating my God, I fearlessly tell Him
That I want to serve Him and love Him forever.
Heaven for me is smiling at this God Whom I adore
When He wants to hide to try my faith.
To suffer while waiting for Him to look at me again
That is Heaven for me!

Song of Gratitude to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

By St. Therese of Lisieux— July 16, 1894

From the first moments of my life,

You took me in your arms.

Ever since that day, dear Mother,

You’ve protected me here below.

To preserve my innocence,

You placed me in a soft nest.

You watched over my childhood

In the shade of a holy cloister.

Later, in the days of my youth,

I heard Jesus’ call!?

In your ineffable tenderness,

You showed Carmel to me.

“Come, my child, be generous,”

You sweetly said to me.

“Near me, you’ll be happy,

Come sacrifice yourself for your Savior.”

Close to you, 0 my loving Mother!

I’ve found rest for my heart.

I want nothing more on earth.

Jesus alone is all my happiness.

If sometimes I feel sadness

And fear coming to assail me,

Always supporting me in my weakness,

Mother, you deign to bless me.

Grant that I may be faithful

To my divine Spouse Jesus.

One day may his sweet voice call me

To flyaway among the elect.

Then, no more exile, no more suffering.

In Heaven I’ll keep repeating

The song of my gratitude,

Lovable Queen of Carmel!

My Song for Today

(written June 1, 1894)

My life is but an instant, a passing hour.
My life is but a day that escapes and flies away.
O my God! You know that to love you on earth
I only have today!…

Oh, I love you, Jesus! My soul yearns for you.
For just one day remain my sweet support.
Come reign in my heart, give me your smile
Just for today!

Lord, what does it matter if the future is gloomy?
To pray for tomorrow, oh no, I cannot!…
Keep my heart pure, cover me with your shadow
Just for today.

If I think about tomorrow, I fear my fickleness.
I feel sadness and worry rising up in my heart.
But I’m willing, my God, to accept trial and suffering
Just for today.

O Divine Pilot! whose hand guides me.
I’m soon to see you on the eternal shore.
Guide my little boat over the stormy waves in peace
Just for today.

Ah! Lord, let me hide in your Face.
There I’ll no longer hear the world’s vain noise.
Give me your love, keep me in your grace
Just for today.

Near your divine Heart, I forget all passing things.
I no longer dread the fears of the night.
Ah! Jesus, give me a place in your Heart
Just for today.

Deign to unite me to you, Holy and sacred Vine,
And my weak branch will give you its fruit,
And I’ll be able to offer you a cluster of golden grapes
Lord, from today on.

I’ve just this fleeting day to form
This cluster of love, whose seeds are souls.
Ah! give me, Jesus, the fire of an Apostle
Just for today.

O Immaculate Virgin! You ware my Sweet Star
Giving Jesus to me and uniting me to Him.
O Mother! Let me rest under your veil
Just for today.

My Holy Guardian Angel, cover me with your wing.
With your fire light the road that I’m taking.
Come direct my steps… help me, I call upon you
Just for today.

Lord, I want to see you without veils, without clouds,
But still exiled, far from you, I languish.
May your lovable face not be hidden from me
Just for today.

Soon I’ll fly away to speak your praises
When the day without sunset will dawn on my soul.
Then I’ll sing on the Angels’ lyre
The Eternal Today!…

The post Poetry from St. Therese of the Child Jesus first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Song from the Scaffold

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:00:24 +0000

A worthy encore:
Ave Maria Meditations
July 17th,Martyrs of Compiegne: “Song from the Scaffold”

Blessed Teresa of Sf. Augustine and Companions (1794)

Blessed Teresa and fifteen other Carmelite nuns were guillotined during the “Reign of Terror” of the French Revolution. Two years earlier they had made an Act of Consecration by which they offered themselves as a holocaust to bring peace to the Church and the country.

When they were arrested Sister Henriette exclaimed, “Let us rejoice in the joy of the Lord, that we shall die for our Holy Religion.” As each Sister ascended the guillotine, her companions sang the Veni Creator Spiritus. The normally noisy crowd was strangely silent, and a witness remarked, “They looked as if they were going to their wedding.” Within ten days of their death, the Reign of Terror ended.

Veni, Creator Spiritus

1. Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

2. Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas
et spiritalis unctio.

3. Tu septiformis munere,
digitus paternae dexterae
tu rite promissum Patris
sermone ditans guttura.

4. Accende lumen sensibus,
infunde amorem cordibus,
infirma nostri corporis,
virtute firmans perpeti.

5. Hostem repellas longius
pacemque dones protinus;
ductore sic te praevio
vitemus omne noxium.

6. Per te sciamus da Patrem
noscamus atque Filium,
te utriusque Spiritum
credamus omni tempore.

7. Deo Patri sit gloria,
et Filio qui a mortuis
Surrexit, ac Paraclito,
in saeculorum saecula.
Amen.

V. Emitte Spiritum tuum, et creabuntur:
R. Et renovabis faciem terrae.

Oremus
Deus qui corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti: da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere, et de eius semper consolatione gaudere. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate eiusdem Spiritus Sancti Deus. Per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

(This is a famous Catholic Gregorian chant hymn, actually the Vespers hymn for the feast of Pentecost. This is not to be confused with another of the Church’s beautiful chants, Veni Sancte Spiritus, which is the Sequence of Pentecost.)

The sixteen Carmelites guillotined on July 17, 1794, had explicitly consecrated their lives to Christ in order to end the Reign of Terror that surrounded them. Somewhere between six months and two years before their death, they recited a daily prayer in which they offered themselves as martyrs in order to save the lives of their country-men. These were not melodramatic women fulfilling a dream of heroism. This was a Christian community who prayerfully and painstakingly discerned and verified a vocation to martyrdom. History itself has verified this vocation for, ten days after their martyrdom, Robespierre himself was guillotined and the Reign of Terror ended shortly thereafter.

On the day of their martyrdom the prioress, Mother Teresa of Saint Augustine, stood at the foot of the scaffold. Before climbing the steps, each sister interrupted her singing of Laudate Dominum to ask Mother Teresa, “Permission to die, Mother?” Mother Teresa responded to each, “Go, my daughter!” In front of a violent power, the sisters made it clear who had true authority over their life and death: Jesus Christ, who himself said, “No one takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own free will.”

LAUDATE DOMINUM

Laudate dominum
Omnes gentes
Laudate eum
Omnes, omnes populi
Quoninam confirmata est
Super nos misere cordia ejus
Et veritus, veritus Domini
Manet, manet in aeternum
Amen, amen

+CARMELITE MARTYRS OF COMPIEGNE Martyrs (+ 1794)

In June 1794 the anti-Catholic regime of the French Revolution arrested the Carmelite nuns of Compiegne for continuing to observe their religious life despite a government ban on religious orders. Subsequently they were deported to Paris for trial. Other nuns imprisoned with them observed their departure: “We saw them embrace each other before they set off, and they took an affectionate leave of us by the motion of their hands and other friendly gestures.”

When during their trial the Carmelites were falsely accused of harboring arms, the prioress held up a crucifix and answered, “Here are the only arms that we have ever had in our house.” Sentenced to the guillotine for being adherents of what the government characterized as the “fanatical and royalist cult” of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the sixteen nuns sang on the way to the place of execution the Latin hymns Salve Regina and Te Deum and chanted the Laudate Dominum (Ps 117) while mounting the scaffold.

Salve Regina,
Mater Misericordiae
Vita dulcedo et spes nostra salve
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
In hac lacrimarum valle
Eia, ergo, advocata nostra
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui
Nobis post hoc exsilium ostende
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis, Virgo Maria

Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.
Tibi omnes Angeli, tibi Caeli et universae Potestates:
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant:
Sanctus: Sanctus: Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus:
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus:
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia:
Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium:
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem,
non horruisti Virginis uterum.
Tu devicto mortis aculeo,
aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Iudex crederis esse venturus. (Kneel)
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni,
quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum Sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
Salvum fac populum tuum Domine,
et benedic haereditati tuae.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies, benedicamus te.
Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum,
et in saeculum saeculi.
Dignare Domine die isto,
sine peccato nos custodire.
Miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri.
Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos,
quemadmodum speravimus in te.
In te Domine speravi:
non confundar in aeternum.

(This is the Catholic Church’s most famous hymn of thanksgiving. It is similar in meaning to the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, only it is much more elaborate and solemn. That is, it is more explicit, going into more detail. t is very powerful and moving, especially when the organist knows which chords and instruments to utilize.)

The post Song from the Scaffold first appeared on AirMaria.com.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus: Love is Repaid by Love Alone

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:00:46 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

I WILL SPEND MY HEAVEN DOING GOOD ON EARTH!

LOVE IS REPAID BY LOVE ALONE…

…AND NOURISHED BY SACRIFICE.

My Heaven on Earth

To bear my exile now, within this world of tears,

The holy tender glance of Christ, my Lord, I need.

That glance, surcharged with love, consoles me through the years;

His loveliness displays foretaste of heaven indeed.

On me my Jesus smiles, when toward Him I aspire-

The trial of my faith then weighs no more on me.

That love-glance of my God, that smile of holy fire,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

‘Tis heaven to have the power, great grace from Christ to win

For Holy Mother Church, for all my Sisters dear,

For every soul on earth that He may enter in,

Enflame our sinful hearts, and grant us joy and cheer.

All things my love can gain when, heart to heart, I pray,

Alone with Jesus Christ in speechless ecstasy.

Beside His altar blest with Him I gladly stay,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

My heaven within the Host safe hid and peaceful, lies,

Where Jesus Christ abides, divinest, fairest Fair.

From that great fount of love doth endless life arise;

There, day and night, my Lord doth hearken to my prayer.

When, in Thy perfect love (O moment blest and bright!)

Thou comest, Spouse most pure, me to transform in Thee,

That union of our hearts, that rapture of delight,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

My heaven it is to feel in me some likeness blest

To Him Who made me and my soul hath reconciled;

My heaven it is always beneath His eye to rest.

To call Him Father dear, and be His loving child.

Safe shielded in His arms, no storm my soul can fear;

Complete abandonment my only law shall be.

To sleep upon His Heart, with His blest Face so near,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

My heaven is God alone, the Trinity Divine,

Who dwells within my heart, the Prisoner of my love.

There, contemplating Thee, I tell Thee Thou art mine;

Thee will I love and serve until we meet above.

My heaven it is to smile on Thee whom I adore,

E’en when, to try my faith, from me Thou hidest Thee;

Calmly on Thee to smile, until Thou smil’st once more,

Oh, this is heaven to me!

“After my death I will let fall a shower of roses”.

Born to a middle-class French family. Her father, Louis, was a watchmaker and her mother, who died of cancerr when Therese was 4, was a lace maker, and both have been declared Venerable by the Church. Cured from an illness at age eight when a statue of the Blessed Virgin smiled at her. She longed to enter into religious life and her prayers were answered when she entered Carmel at age 15; she had even petitioned the Pope to be able to do so! She took the name of Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.

She defined her path to God and holiness as “The Little Way,” which consisted of love and trust in God in all the little trials and sacrifices of life. At the direction of her spiritual director, and against her wishes, she dictated her famed autobiography Story of a Soul. She was heroic in her love and trust in God despite great aridity in prayer and an extremely painful illness which would claim her life at age 24. She died in 1897. Before long, miracles were attributed to her.

This young woman who did not leave the Carmel, merited such graces for souls that she was declared the patroness of the missions and she who knew only a few people on earth during her lifetime, is now known the world over. She was canonized in 1925 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997. She had promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth and she keeps her promise.

A Prayer to the Holy Face of Jesus:

O Jesus, Who in Thy cruel Passion didst become the “Reproach of men and the Man of Sorrows,” I worship Thy Divine Face. Once it shone with the beauty and sweetness of the Divinity: now for my sake it is become as the face of a leper. Yet in that disfigured Countenance I recognize Thy infinite Love, and I am consumed with the desire of loving Thee and of making Thee loved by all mankind. The tears that streamed in such abundance from Thy Eyes are to me as precious pearls which I delight to gather, that with their infinite worth I may ransom the souls of poor sinners.

O Jesus, Whose Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I may not behold here upon earth the sweetness of Thy Glance, nor feel the ineffable tenderness of Thy Kiss. I bow to Thy Will – but I pray Thee to imprint in me Thy Divine Likeness, and I implore Thee so to inflame me with Thy Love, that it may quickly consume me and I may soon reach the Vision of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.

Cured of a mysterious illness as a girl by “Our Lady of the Smile”,

St. Therese had a very tender and deep love for the Mother of God.

SONG OF GRATITUDE TO OUR LADY OF MT. CARMEL:

From the first moments of my life,

You took me in your arms.

Ever since that day, dear Mother,

You’ve protected me here below.

To preserve my innocence,

You placed me in a soft nest.

You watched over my childhood

In the shade of a holy cloister.

Later, in the days of my youth,

I heard Jesus’ call…

In your ineffable tenderness,

You showed Carmel to me.

“Come, my child, be generous,”

You sweetly said to me.

“Near me, you’ll be happy,

Come sacrifice yourself for your Savior.”

Close to you, 0 my loving Mother!

I’ve found rest for my heart.

I want nothing more on earth.

Jesus alone is all my happiness.

If sometimes I feel sadness

And fear coming to assail me,

Always suppor’ting me in my weakness,

Mother, you deign to bless me.

Grant that I may be faithful

To my divine Spouse Jesus.

One day may his sweet voice call me

To flyaway among the elect.

Then, no more exile, no more suffering.

In Heaven I’ll keep repeating

The song of my gratitude,

Lovable Queen of Carmel!

From “Why I Love You, 0 Mary!”:

Oh! I would like to sing: Mary, why I love you! Why your sweet name thrills my heart,

And why the thought of your supreme greatness Could not bring fear to my soul. If I gazed on you in your sublime glory, surpassing the splendor of all the blessed, I could not believe that I am your child. O Mary, before you I would lower my eyes!… If a child is to cherish his mother, she has to cry with him and share his sorrows. O my dearest Mother, on this foreign shore How many tears you shed to draw me to you in pondering your life in the holy Gospels. I dare look at you and come near you. It’s not difficult for me to believe I’m your child, For I see you human and suffering like me …

When an angel from Heaven bids you be The Mother of the God who is to reign for all eternity, I see you prefer, 0 Mary, (what a mystery!) the ineffable treasure of virginity. O Immaculate Virgin, I understand how your soul is dearer to the Lord than his heavenly dwelling. I understand how your soul, humble and sweet, can contain Jesus, the Ocean of Love!…Oh! I love you, Mary, saying you are the servant of the God whom you charm by your humility. This hidden virtue makes you all-powerful. It attracts the Holy Trinity into your heart…then the spirit of Love covered you with his shadow, the Son equal to the Father became incarnate in you. There will be a great many of his sinner brothers, Since he will be called Jesus, your first-born! …

IN THE HEART OF THE CHURCH, I SHALL BE LOVE!

” I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places…in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love…my vocation, at last I have found it…My vocation is love!”

ACT OF OBLATION OF ST. THÉRÈSE OF THE CHILD JESUS

OF THE HOLY FACE TO THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD

J.M.J.T.

Offering of myself as a Victim of Holocaust to God’s Merciful Love. 9th June 1895

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to love You and make You loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! To be Yourself my Sanctity!

Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Saviour and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with love.

I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints(in heaven and on earth), their acts of love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! The love and merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of His mortal life: “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you!” I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! That the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-pwerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.

I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.

I thank You, O my God! For all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.

After earth’s Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.

In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Lovee the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other throne, no other crown but You, my Beloved! Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a victim of holocause to Your Merciful Love, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!

May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.

I want O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!

Marie, Francoise, Thérèse of the Child Jesus

and the Holy Face, unworthy Carmelite religious.

This 9th day of June,

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity,

in the year of grace, 1895.

MIRACULOUS PRAYER TO THE LITTLE FLOWER

O LITTLE FLOWER OF JESUS, ever consoling troubled souls with heavenly graces, in your unfailing intercession I place my confident trust. From the heart of our divine Saviour, petition the blessings of which I stand in, greatest need, especially … (Here mention your intention.) Shower upon me your promised roses of virtue and grace, Dear St. Therese, so that swiftly advancing in sanctity and perfect love of neighbor, I may someday receive the crown of life eternal. Amen.

NOVENA ROSE PRAYER O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me as a message of love. O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands …. (Mention specific requests) St. Therese, help me to always believe as you did, in God’s great love for me, so that I might imitate your “little Way” each day. Amen.

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Jul 16 – Homily – Fr Bonaventure: Our Lady of Mt Carmel

apostolate — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:26:54 +0000

Homily #100716 ( 10min) Play – Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel which commemorates the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Simon Stock a Carmelite Monk. During the apparition Our Lady gave St Simon the scapular, an apron-like piece of cloth worn outside of all Carmelites’ habits (and by any lay person who wants to wear it under their clothes) as a sign of their trust in Our Lady’s intercession. Father explains the symbolism of the scapular and the importance of Marian apparitions and devotions for upholding Christian doctrine and devotion.
Ave Maria! – Mass: – Readings:
Genesis 3:9-15, 20
First Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8
Luke 2:27-35

Audio (MP3)

+++

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Dec 14 – Homily – Fr Joachim: The Crosses of St. John

apostolate — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 12:18:14 +0000

Homily #131214b ( 09min) Play – Fr. Joachim on the life of St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, how he had early mystical and miraculous experiences, entered religious life, started a reform of the Carmelites which resulted in many persecutions and wrote many classic spiritual books.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. John of the Cross – Mem – Form: OF
Readings: Saturday in the 2nd Week in Advent
1st: sir 48:1-4, 9-11
Resp: psa 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Gsp: mat 17:10-13

Audio (MP3)

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Feb 17 – Homily – Fr Johannes: Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows

apostolate — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 17:22:58 +0000

Homily #150217m ( 14min) Play – In today’s homily, Fr. Johannes stresses the importance of the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows and the role of the seven founders of the Servite order on spreading this devotion. He also elaborates on the seven promises made to St. Bridget of Sweden for those whose practice this devotion daily.
Ave Maria!
Mass: 7 Founders of Servite Order – Opt Mem – Form: OF
Readings:

1st: gen 6:5-8, 7:1-5, 10

Resp: psa 29:1-2, 3-4, 8, 9-10

Gsp: mar 8:14-21

Audio (MP3)

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May 16 – Homily – Fr Elias: Sts. Margaret and Simon

apostolate — Sat, 16 May 2015 11:28:32 +0000

Homily #150516b ( 15min) Play – Fr. Elias on the lives of two very different saints Margaret of Cortona and Simon Stock whose feasts are celebrated today. St. Margaret lived a life of sin until she converted and then lived a life of great penance in the Third Order of St. Francis and St. Simon Stock who lived a life of great holiness from early in his life and who founded the Carmelite Order and introduced the devotion to the scapular.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Margaret of Cortona – Mem – Form: OF
Readings: Saturday 6th Week of Easter
1st: act 18:23-28
Resp: psa 47:2-3, 8-9, 10
Gsp: joh 16:23-28

Audio (MP3)

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Jul 16 – Homily – Fr Alan: Mary and Mt Carmel

apostolate — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 11:42:17 +0000

Homily #150716b ( 15min) Play – Fr. Alan reflects on the role of Our Lady on the founding of the Order of Carmel through St. Simon Stock and how he was given the scapular from her.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Our Lady of Mount Carmel – Feast – Form: OF
Readings:
1st: zec 2:14-17
Resp: luk 1:46-55
Gsp: mat 12:46-50

Audio (MP3)

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Jul 20 – Homily – Fr Elias: St. Elias Prophet and Man of Action

apostolate — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:41:42 +0000

Fr. Elias on the life of St. Elias the Old Testament prophet whose feast is celebrated today by the Maronite rite in the East and the Carmelite Order in the West who claim him as their founder of sorts. He also looks at the prophecies that St. Elias will come again and exhorts us to be people of action like him. Of course, it is also Fr. Elias’ name day.

Ave Maria!

Mass: St Elias

Audio (MP3)

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The post Jul 20 – Homily – Fr Elias: St. Elias Prophet and Man of Action first appeared on AirMaria.com.