Daily Reflections

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Traditional)

Commemoration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

TRADITIONAL

Almighty God, through His Son, Our LORD Jesus Christ, Who is Wisdom itself, attracts all souls, for His Divine Providence is unerring in the ordering of His Divine Plans. The words of Psalm 46 [Introit], exhort all nations to come and praise their God.

Shame and Eternal death are the results of sin, says, St. Paul, whilst by serving God, we produce fruits of holiness and win Eternal life. (Rom 6:19-23).

“ Those who do the Will of My Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.“ (Mt 7:15-21).

COMMEMORATION OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

Today are commemorated, the favours granted to the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, successors to those early Christians, who built a chapel in her honour on Mount Carmel. The institution and habit of the Carmelite Order as now known, are due to our Lady’s instructions first to Saint Simon Stock and later to Pope Honorius III. She promised special protection in life, and after death to all who adopted the Tertiary’s rule of life and wore her habit.

Sacred Scripture celebrated the beauty of Carmel where the prophet Elijah defended the purity of Israel’s Faith in the Living God. In the twelfth century, hermits withdrew to that mountain overlooking the Plain of Megiddo and later founded the Order devoted to the contemplative life under the patronage of Mary, the Mother of God.

THE BROWN SCAPULAR

The scapular has a long and rich tradition – full of miracles, the promotion of the Saints, and approval of many popes.  Even Our Lady Herself reaffirmed this practice when at the final apparition at Fatima, during the Miracle of the Sun, she appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, holding the Scapular.  Despite this, there has been a more recent and modern effort on the part of some to diminish her message and dampen the devotion.  To do this, of course, is to diminish devotion to the Blessed Mother herself, since the scapular is a symbol and sign of consecration to her and reliance on her help and protection.  

The Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel has promised to save those who wear the scapular from the fires of hell; she will also shorten their stay in purgatory if they should pass from this world still owing some debt of punishment.

This promise is found in a Bull of Pope John XXII. The Blessed Virgin appeared to him and, speaking of those who wear the Brown Scapular, said, “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in purgatory I shall free so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”

The Blessed Virgin assigned certain conditions which must be fulfilled:
1.Wear the Brown Scapular continuously.
2.Observe chastity according to one’s state in life (married/single).
3.Recite daily the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin OR Observe the fasts of the Church together with abstaining from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays OR With permission of a priest, say five decades of Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary OR With permission of a priest, substitute some other good work.

Pope Benedict XV, the celebrated World War I Pontiff, granted 500 days indulgence for devoutly kissing your scapular.

The Morning Offering

O my God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary (here kiss the scapular as a sign of your consecration), I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from all the altars throughout the world, joining with It the offering of my every thought, word and action of this day. O my Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can, and I offer them, together with myself, to Mary Immaculate, that she may best apply them to the interests of Thy most Sacred Heart. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

THE ROSARY AND THE SCAPULAR ARE INSEPARABLE.

PRAY THE ROSARY DAILY.

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, Pope
(Sermo 1 in Nativitate Domini, 2.3: PL 54, 191-192)

Mary conceived in her soul before she conceived in her body

A royal virgin of the house of David is chosen. She is to bear a Holy Child, one who is both God and man. She is to conceive Him in her soul before she conceives Him in her body. In the face of so unheard of an event she is to know no fear through ignorance of the Divine Plan; the angel tells her what is to be accomplished in her by the Holy Spirit. She believes that there will be no loss of virginity, she who is soon to be the Mother of God. Why should she lose heart at this new form of conceiving when she has been promised that it will be effected through the power of the Most High? She believes, and her Faith is confirmed by the witness of a previous wonder: against all expectation Elizabeth is made fruitful. God has enabled a barren woman to be with child; He must be believed when He makes the same promise to a virgin.

The Son of God who “was in the beginning with God, through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made,” became man to free him from eternal death. He stooped down to take up our lowliness without loss to His own Glory. He remained what He was; He took up what He was not. He wanted to join the very nature of a servant to that nature in which He is equal to God the Father. He wanted to unite both natures in an alliance so wonderful that the glory of the greater would not annihilate the lesser, nor the taking up of the lower diminish the greatness of the higher.

What belongs to each nature is preserved intact and meets the other in One person: lowliness is taken up by greatness, weakness by power, mortality by Eternity. To pay the debt of our human condition, a nature incapable of suffering is united to a nature capable of suffering, and True God and true man are forged into the unity that is the LORD. This was done to make possible the kind of remedy that fitted our human need: one and the same Mediator between God and men able to die because of one nature, able to rise again because of the other. It was fitting, therefore, that the birth which brings salvation brought no corruption to virginal integrity; the bringing forth of Truth was at the same time the safeguarding of virginity.

Dearly beloved, this kind of birth was fitting for Christ, the Power and the Wisdom of God: a Birth in which He was one with us in our human nature but far above us in His Divinity. If He were not True God, He would not be able to bring us healing; if He were not true man, He would not be able to give us an example.

And so at the Birth of Our LORD, the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to His people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. If the angels on High are so exultant at this marvellous Work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

The Ears of the Heart

The reading from the holy Gospel which you have just heard, dearly beloved, requires not a commentary but friendly admonition. Human weakness does not presume to review what Truth has commented on in person. But there is something you ought to consider carefully in the LORD’s commentary. If I were to tell you that the seed denotes the Word, the field the world, the birds demons, the thorns riches, possibly you would be reluctant to believe Me. Hence the LORD Himself deigned to explain what He was saying so that you would know how to seek the meaning of matters which He chose not to explain (cf. Mt 13:11). By explaining what He said He made it clear that He was speaking figuratively, so that you would be quite certain of the meaning while, in my weakness, I was struggling to explain His figures of speech.

Who would ever believe me if I wanted to interpret the thorns as riches, particularly as thorns pierce us and riches delight us? And yet riches are thorns. They wound our minds by piercing them with thoughts of riches, and they make it bloody when they entice it to sin, as if inflicting a wound. The evangelist is our witness that in another place the LORD called them not simply riches but deceitful riches. And they are deceitful in that they cannot remain long with us; they are deceitful in so far as they do not relieve the poverty of our minds. The only true riches are the ones that make us rich in Virtues. Therefore, dearly beloved, if you want to be rich you must love true riches. If you seek the summit of genuine honour, reach out for the Heavenly Kingdom. If you love the glories of rank, hasten to be enrolled in the court of the angels on high. Keep in mind the words of God which you hear. The word of God is our mind’s food….

Remember what the LORD said: Listen, anyone who has ears! Everyone present there had the ears of the body; but since He said to all who had ears, Listen, anyone who has ears, He surely meant the ears of the heart. Take care, then, that the word which you have received remains in the ears of your heart; take care that the seed does not fall beside the way, lest the evil spirit come and take away the word from your memory; take care that rocky ground does not receive the seed and send forth the fruit of good works without the roots of perseverance.

Saint Gregory the Great

Saint Gregory the Great († 604) was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages. [From Gregory the Great: Forty Gospel Homilies, Dom David Hurst, Tr

DAILY MEDITATION

“As in holocausts of rams and bullocks, and as in thousands of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be made in Thy sight this day” [Offertory]. May it be a sacrifice, which implies real hardship for those who sacrifice; but we have only one real gift of sacrifice, one infinitely more valuable than the most expensive holocaust of the old covenant. This gift is Christ. If we truly wish to share in the sacrifice offered at Mass, it is not enough that we utter a few formulas, repeating, “LORD, LORD.“ Sacrificing means offering one’s self, one’s will, one’s inclinations to the “Will of [the]’s Father, Who is in Heaven“ [Gospel]. It means forsaking everything that is not compatible with God’s Holy Will, such as sin, proximate locations of sin, even inclinations, evil intentions, improper words, sinful relations, and bad company of any kind. Sacrificing means becoming one with Christ in one’s thinking, and judging, striving and willing, talking and acting; it means entering into Christ’s spirit, making good the promises of our Baptism. It means living for God and His Holy Commandments in our occupations, and in our every day, life, yielding the good fruits of a good tree.

While assisting at Mass today, we evolve this sentiment, and this will. Please sing, not nearly empty words and meaningless formulas on the paten, we sacrifice ourselves, our wills, our hearts, and determine to seek in all things only what God wills just as He Wills it. We must be determined not to permit our “members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity“ but “to serve justice into sanctification“ [Epistle]. Then God, bowing down His ear from Heaven, stretches out his fatherly, and in order to make us partakers of His salvation, to which he has called us in Baptism, and the pledge of which He gives us in Holy Communion.

Dom Benedict Baur [d. 1963] – German Benedictine, respected Theologian, and archabbot of Saint Martins Abbey in Bueron.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”– Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen