Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Today is the new and old feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In the year 1251, Saint Simon Stock was given the Brown Scapular by Our Lady herself, this great and powerful treasure of our Faith. Our Lady of Fatima requested devotion to this sacramental. Many miracles have been associated with it. Please consider investiture (consecration) in the Brown Scapular. My parish is doing a special Mass with investiture today. Ask your pastor to consider doing this sometime soon. Especially in these difficult times, the scapular is a consoling and important sacramental.

From The New Marian Missal, Veritas Press:

This Feast commemorates the favors granted by our Lady on Mount Carmel [the vision took place in England]. The Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Simon Stock, General of the Order of Carmelites, holding in her hand the form of a scapular, and directed him to institute a pious confraternity, the members of which should consecrate themselves to her service, and wear her livery. She promised that “those who die wearing it, will not suffer hell fire.”

For more info, including the history of this devotion, please see World Apostolate of Fatima, USA.

Image courtesy https://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com

Easter Friday-A Solemnity!

Today is a solemnity-no penance required. From today’s Mass:

The Lord brought them out in hope, alleluia, and the sea overwhelmed their enemies, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Attend, O My people, to My law; incline your ears to the words of My mouth.

This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord; the Lord is God, and He hath shone upon us.

Alleluia, alleluia! Say ye among the gentiles: the Lord hath reigned from a tree.

All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth, alleluia: going teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, alleluia, alleluia!

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We have many wonderful sentiments in the above words today. First, we are reminded of the virtue of hope. God never forgets His children. The second line gives us the antidote to our current situation. Its not a vaccine. Its not a mask. Its not “social distancing.” Its not closing your business. Its living God’s Law, revealed first through the Jewish people and now, through Christ’s Church, built upon His great sacrifice, His own Blood. We also have “This is the day…,” each day this week, reminding us that no matter how difficult life gets, this is His world and He wills that it all goes on. Finally, we contemplate Our Lord’s power, knowing He’s got it all under control.

I hope you have been praying the Glorious Mysteries each day this Easter week. I know, if you are not used to praying the rosary every day, it may be hard to stay motivated. But whenever you push past that laziness and the temptation to put temporal concerns above the spiritual (“I don’t have time”), the rewards are ALWAYS extraordinary and you NEVER regret it! Last night, as my hubby and I prayed it, it was wonderful to meditate on these most beautiful of Mysteries. Visualizing Our Lord resurrected in great radiance, ascending in glory amidst the clouds and Our Lady crowned in Heaven among the angels, lifted me right out of the earthly sufferings of this hour and into a space of great wonder and joy. Its something the world does not comprehend. So let’s all try to turn over a new leaf and do as Our Lady of Fatima requested-daily rosary!

One more thought: many don’t pray the rosary because they are too perfectionistic and it overwhelms them. The answer: don’t try, just do it. 99% of the battle is getting started. Just start blurting out the Apostles Creed and you’re good to go! If your mind drifts, and it will, just gently pull it back and keep going. Its fine. Our Lady knows we are human. We NEED the rosary right now. Our Lady of Fatima foresaw these days and she told us to pray it. Its never been more important!

Holy Week: Daily Rosary / "Stabilization Mode"

Addressing the Spiritual:

We spoke of one of Our Lady of Fatima’s requests last time, the Five First Saturdays. This is a sorrowful Holy Week. For the first time in our lives, we are deprived of the Body of Christ, possibly the Sacrament of Penance and all the wonderful Holy Week devotions we always took for granted. Worst, we are deprived of Holy Mass on the Solemnity of Solemnities, Easter Sunday. Let us take more seriously, another of Our Lady’s requests, daily rosary. Families are together at home. It is a beautiful opportunity to pray the rosary together this week. If a whole rosary seems too difficult for you right now, how about one decade?

Addressing the Temporal:

I spoke previously of “Stabilization Mode.” This is the action taken when an actual crisis or difficult situation transpires. We are no longer strictly in “preparedness” mode, though preparedness issues still must be addressed. We must first do whatever the immediate situation requires of us. Once that is done thoughtfully and prayerfully, we can work on more aggressive prepping to address keeping our situation stable in addition to possible fallout from the original problem. There can be a domino effect. This is not to make anyone fearful, only to be realistic. Fear is never appropriate for the children of God!

Please email me (contact button) for anything you would like to discuss or would like help with. Please allow time for my response. If you have something interesting to share, I may post it. Let’s take this journey together. Onward Christian soldiers!

First Saturdays At Home-Never More Important!

The observance of the Five First Saturdays are one of the requests of Our Lady of Fatima, to obtain reparation to her Immaculate Heart. As humanity is now engulfed in a difficult and confusing situation, there has never been a more important time to respect this request of Our Blessed Mother. We know not how this will ultimately play out. We much beseech God’s mercy. Trust. Be at peace. But take this as a serious warning. Public masses are shut down. Even confession is gone in some places, which was previously unthinkable. Our Blessed Lord said:

“Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man.”

Luke 21:36

So we, as Children of God, are at peace.

Normally the First Saturdays are observed in church. Since many are now at home, we can still fulfill this request to the best of our ability. I am sure our dear Mother will accept this. She has requested they be observed for 5 months in a row, but it is not a bad idea to perform them perpetually. Following are the activities (and the substitutions where applicable), based on the World Apostolate of Fatima’s recommendations. This is all done with the intention of making reparation to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart and what a wonderful devotion to do with your family at home during this time!

1) Receive the Sacrament of Penance. At home: Make an intention to receive the sacrament as soon as possible. I might add, to say an Act of Contrition, trying to be sorry for the Love of God (perfect contrition), not just the fear of punishment.

2) Receive Holy Communion. At home: Make a Spiritual Act of Communion (see link below for help with this).

3) Recite the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary (some say the Sorrowful Mysteries during Lent).

4) Meditate on the Mysteries of the Rosary for 15 minutes with Our Blessed Mother. If you are unaccustomed to this devotion, this may be the most challenging aspect for you. Here are some tips: Place yourself in Our Lady’s presence (a picture or statue is very helpful). Ask her to enlighten you further on the Mysteries you just contemplated in the Rosary (I suppose you could contemplate other Mysteries as well). Let your thoughts drift. Imagine the Mysteries visually. Don’t try, just let the inspirations come to you. And they will! As you perform this exercise more, it will get easier. Your relationship with Our Mother will grow and eventually it will no longer be an “exercise,” but an intimate and wonderful conversation!

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Today is a traditional feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

Please see the World Apostolate of Fatima’s page addressing the First Saturdays during this time. Lots of great info:

https://www.bluearmy.com/first-saturday-devotion/

Categories, etc......

FYI-in case you haven't figured this out, if you click on any of the categories at the top of each post (for instance, this post has two categories:  "General" and "Spiritual Life"), you will get all posts with that category.  I realize a side-bar with a list of all the categories would be AWESOME!  And how about a "Search" button?  And there are a lot of other improvements we need to make.  The problem is, that I have had difficulty finding the time to do these things and when I do have the time, I have difficulty figuring out HOW to do these things.  It should be easy, right?  This isn't my first blog.  Yes, I agree it should be easy but for some reason, it ISN'T.  I don't want to say bad things about Squarespace-maybe I'm just not smart enough or maybe I'm not paying enough $ to get these deluxe features....I don't know!  Anyway, I want to reassure you that I am working on these improvements and you should see something happening in the coming days.......

I hope.

BTW, do you know what this coming Thursday is???

The 99th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima! 

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us! 

Dear Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, pray for us!

I also wanted to mention that my husband and I have, in honor of the feast of Saint Faustina this month, been praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet Novena.  Its also quite appropriate during this Respect Life "Moved by Mercy" Month (see previous post) and in these final days of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.  The Chaplet Novena is such a blessing to pray.  The first time we prayed it, guess what we found out on the final day....That I was pregnant with our son (after a number of "negative" tests), our only child!  (We also visited the Divine Mercy Shrine in Massachusetts on our honeymoon, which was only two months earlier.)  If you are a devout Catholic, this is no surprise to you-you already know that God often gives us these little signs!  CM:)