Hello Everyone: About 10 talks ago, I promised I would talk about the current trouble in the Carmelite Order. I do not claim to know the full extent of it but I will share what I know. I am certain it is worse than what I have to share. Satan would never leave Our Lady’s Order ALONE! If he has infiltrated the tiniest cracks in the Catholic Church – he has entered the big ones such as the Carmelite Order. The Scapular is a garment of protection given to us by Our Lady. Only one who knows a true Mother’s love can understand this gift. And that is what it is a gift of Our Lady. I do not know where to begin. A woman, under the advice of the late Father Hardon wrote an 800 page book on the Scapular. It should have been titled the Scapular Encyclopedia but it is titled "The Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt Carmel Authenticity and Definitive Proof" by Rosalia Vitale Kehrig and is published by Queenship Press. Every thing one needs to know about it is there from history to miracles, from controversies to Pope approvals to present day woes. In a nutshell, the Carmelites will not promote its wearing of the Brown Scapular and have said so to me as I tried to promote the use of the small Brown Scapular within my Carmelite group. I called Fr. John Grennan to ask if this was true and he stated yes. They only want to look at Mary as a sister in Christ – not an intercessor whom we can confide in. They threw away the vision of St. Simon Stock and his feast day as all fable. (not reliable and cannot be proven) They believe that it was always looked upon as “a good luck charm” and that we need to get away from such thinking. The miracles were just created stories by the friars of old to collect much needed alms. It is not to be promoted and they say – it should never have been. It belongs to the Carmelite Order as its habit and that is where it ends. The sad part is that many of the modern Carmelite Friars do not even wear their habits on a constant basis. They dress in secular clothing like the rest. My question is – when that happens, is there at least a small scapular around their neck??? If this garment was nothing – it would have died a long time ago and no one would make mention of it. But it has 750 years of miracles – some recorded and some not. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel came to St. Bernadette on her last apparition on July 16, 1858, She again appeared as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on Oct. 13th, 1917 to the Fatima children with the Brown Scapular in Her hands. But Modernists do not believe in the divine nor in private revelations. Everything must be proven scientifically (humanists = freemasonry) Quotes are written below on the two priests who changed the catechesis of the Brown Scapular in 2000. Jesus' Mother is our Mother. She loves us more than we could know. She sees our dangers more than we can know. We are all vulnerable sheep. Now more than EVER do we need Our Lady and Her protection from the enemy. Now more than ever do we need to promote enrollment in the Brown Scapular. Was not the woman who was healed in Scripture become healed by her faith and the touch of Our Lord’s garment? Well, as stated in previous talks, Freemasonry has seeped into the cracks of the Catholic Church. Freemasonry belongs to the devil. Why would he leave this Scapular alone? He HATES Our Lady!! I mean hates!! There is a book “Take This Scapular” that was done with intense love and devotion in 1949 to prepare for the 1951 celebration of the vision of St. Simon Stock. Today we do not have this zeal or this love. It is no longer in print but at times one can find it used on various sites. Worth looking for and reading!!! I made my final promise to the Third Order Carmelites in 2001 which was the 750 year celebration of the vision of St. Simon Stock. I didn’t even know of this anniversary. There was no mention, no celebration, no planned conferences, no extra prayers or novenas. The celebration was the silence and mutilation of the catechesis in 2000. I didn’t even know that the Carmelite priests had rewritten the catechesis of the Brown Scapular and changed the enrollment prayers until 2012 when I was reprimanded in my own Third Order Carmelite Group for trying to advise someone to be enrolled in it. I then started investigating what happened to the Brown Scapular and got sick over what I had found; but there was one consolation to it all. I met many heroes through my readings. May they rest in peace and may they pray and intercede for us because the Scapular devotion is dying thanks to the works of our modern Carmelite priests. The consequence is great and it is not only that we are not enrolling people anymore --- no--- the world is falling into the clutches of the enemy and Satan is very pleased – may we pray for our current Carmelite priests and their souls and the souls lost. Pope St. Pius X wrote against Modernism. Below is pertinent to what we are experiencing in the Carmelite Order: Concluding paragraph of Motu Proprio “Sacrorum Antistitum” written by Pope St. Pius X “Moved by the seriousness of the evil that is increasing every day, an evil, which we cannot put off confronting without the most grave danger, we have decided to issue and to repeat these commands. For it is no longer a case, as it was in the beginning, of dealing with disputants who come forward in the clothing of sheep. Now we are faced with open and bitter enemies from within our own household, who, in agreement with the outstanding opponents of the Church, are working for the overthrow of the faith. They are men whose audacity against the wisdom that has come down from heaven increases daily. They arrogate to themselves the right to correct this revealed wisdom as if it were something corrupt, to renew it as if it were something that had become obsolete, to improve it and to adapt it to the dictates, the progress, and the comfort of the age as if it had been opposed to the good of society and not merely opposed to the levity of a few men.” To counter such attempts against the evangelical doctrine and the ecclesiastical tradition, there will never be sufficient vigilance or too much severity on the part of those to whom the faithful care of the sacred deposit has been entrusted.” Below are some quotes found on the internet at the time of my investigation. The friars may have taken this down since then as they knew about this: Here is what I found: First - this message before the quotes to prepare you for what will come: Scapular Message With Mary The Mother of Jesus by Fr. Chalmers, O Carm and Fr. Maccise OCD both Superior Generals in 2001 “There is a widespread concern in all branches of our Carmelite Family to renew the theology and spirituality, devotion and love of Mary…..Clearly the way in which the Mother of God is understood, preached and shared with God’s people will vary from one country to another, just as in the past it has been diverse from one century to another.” “Carmelites in time sought to draw from their title the fact that if they are brothers of Mary, she is surely their Sister…Moreover, in certain cultures the idea of Mary as Spiritual Mother is difficult for some people; the title of Mary as Sister can be more attractive for them. Mary’s sisterhood is an insight that can be shared with the wider Church.” “The time since Vatican II has been one in which we have been encouraged to seek a devotion to Mary that is firmly based on the Sacred Scripture. If in the past, Carmelite writers and preachers were too prone to focus on the miraculous and extraordinary, we have also in our living tradition a sobriety that enables us to give our contemporaries a vital, and above all scriptural image of Mary.” (I took the above quotes to prove that they were putting emphasis on the fact that it is better to look at Mary as our sister – not Mother who helps with supernatural graces) QUOTES FROM THE TWO PRIESTS WHO CHANGED THE CATECHESIS OF THE BROWN SCAPULAR IN 2000 FR. MCMAHON, O CARM Taken from Carmelite Spirituality – 7 Parts – Carmelnet.org Regarding the Future – Part 7 “…in much popular imagination Mary was becoming an alternative savior to her Son. This was particularly comforting to some whose Christology – influenced by a variety of heresies – emphasized a wrathful Christ ready to abandon the world He had redeemed and recall His mercy in favor of a divine wrath. It was as if the merits of the cross had suddenly run dry and the eternal sacrifice of Christ was no longer sufficient for redemption. In this ghastly sotierology it was now Mary who save the world by holding back the arm of her Son from visiting His anger upon us in a great cancellation of the new and eternal covenant in His blood. The scapular in this theological nightmare, was an escape hatch for a world destined en masse for hell…..The major question for us is not how do we recover the scapular, but rather how can we recover the best of Marian devotion of which the scapular is such an important outward sign. I think one of the challenges facing us with Marian devotion today is that people want Mary in her mediatorial role—they want her as intercessor, but they do not want a healthy and complete Marian devotion.” “I would propose that before we concentrate on the scapular, we need to follow the example of the evangelists and look to Mary as a model of discipleship….we must be a people who are attentive to God’s word…This piety directed to the Mother of God must be a serious devotion and one that is theologically consistent with the faith of the Church. It must, therefore, center not in a multiplicity of pious practices that have little or no ecclesial approbation, but must be founded --- as the best of prayer is always founded – in the liturgy of the Church.” (The above information presents a Mary that is from Scripture as a mere model and deficient of what the Church has taught that She is an intercessor who leads us to Jesus) “In this process we need to define the scapular as different from other sacramentals in that the scapular is not blessed to the wearer, but the wearer is blessed to the scapular as a religious habit. “We need people to understand that the scapular is not like a medal (even when it takes the form of the scapular medal) but that it is a habit that signifies membership in the Order. We certainly need to develop and disseminate catechetical materials that restore this awareness. Perhaps we should consider asking the Holy See to revoke the universal faculties to enroll people in the scapular and find ways to put the enrollment back in the context of affiliation to the Order.” “The scapular is the most popular devotion in the Catholic Church, yet it is widely misunderstood. Our “knowledge” of this sacramental is a confusion of popular legends, papal forgeries, stolen stories, and “can you top this” approach to the Blessed Mother.” Our Christian faith is not unreliable legends or incredible stories. Our Christian faith is soundly rooted in sacred scripture and reliable tradition…. This shift fails to please many people, however, as the excitement of a vision is far more appealing than the soundness of a doctrine.” (Goes on and on and even talks about the Rosary vision as bunk as well. Notice the emphasis on faith soundly rooted in sacred scripture and reliable tradition – the vision of St. Simon Stock is no longer reliable and we are to be like the Protestants – sola scriptura) QUOTES FROM - Fr. Sam Morello OCD Taken from [email protected] Topic – Brown Scapular The article starts out with “The Holy See had been anxious to have an update on the scapular from the Carmelites for years, especially since Vatican II. Well, an awful lot of work has been done on the project in Rome by friars of both Observances. The great historians Luigi Saggi, O Carm and Valentino Macca OCD had collaborated for some years to gather the basic historical facts and come up with a sound orientation for the future partial update of the scapular. “Both the Holy See and the Carmelites knew that it was time to set in place in relation to the scapular devotion what some theologians call the “Mariological correctives” of Vatican II. “ “The new catechesis presents the scapular more in the framework of our baptism in and allegiance to Jesus Christ. We wear the scapular as a reminder of our having “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”. (This is the emphasis in the new catechesis – it is to remind us to live our Baptismal promises – all good – but it denies Catholic teaching of the intercessory power of Our Lady) “The Order has long looked upon Mary as its “sister in faith and prayer and virtue.” “We do well to strengthen our motion of Christ as the one and only Mediator. There is no mediator with the mediator. Rather in Christ we live with this “great cloud of witnesses” that spurs us on, Mary being the first and most prominent.”…”So the new catechesis shifts gears and presents the scapular in this light, more faithful to scripture and liturgy and patristic thought.” “It is important that we register the ecumenical times we live in. They purify our notion of God and religion. We are solidly re-established in Scripture and liturgy since the Council…. That is the way we should approach the scapular.” St. Therese has once and again caught our special attention with the conferral of the doctoral title on her and the international tour of her relics. When John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, he made special mention of her Marian orientation. He stated that she came to similar conclusions as of the Second Vatican Council. This is a remarkable thing. St. Therese only wanted to know the biblical Mary, Mary of the Gospels, woman of faith that we can imitate even more than admire at a distance from our own experience and condition.” “had Therese known the older Carmelite tradition of Mary our sister and the Marian slant of the Second Vatican Council, she would have danced for joy! Yes, she would have been delighted with what’s going on. All of us can rest confident that the new way is more spiritually mature and on target. And it is a matter of Carmel’s integrity to realign and adjust to the lead of holy Church.” (St Therese – pray for us and all Carmelite priests! Clearly he is distinguishing the difference of Tradition from the Second Vatican Council as being different from each other – no need to explain here but it is sad for St. Therese to be dragged into this mud) MY CONCLUSION ON SAVING THE SCAPULAR Satan has attacked the Scapular all through history through various instruments. It is only wise of him to do so since the Scapular has been proven throughout the centuries as a means for our good Mother to aid souls (Her children) in their life and in their death. It is our duty as good Carmelites to defend this sacramental and to do all that we can to help restore it to its full purpose in the Church. Our Lady did not come in vain as Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Oct. 13, 1917 with the Scapular in Her hand. She came because we are in trouble and She wants us to ask Her for help by consecrating ourselves to Her Immaculate Heart through the enrolment of the Brown Scapular. She wants to lead us back to Her Son because we have drifted so far away and we continue to without Her guidance and help. The true foundation of the Scapular devotion is not to be found in the historicity of private revelation but in Catholic doctrine concerning true Marian piety. This is where our true problem lies – not in saving the belief in the vision (although getting rid of it needlessly has been damaging to the devotion) but keeping the beliefs that Holy Mother Church has taught us through the centuries about Mary. She has proven Her love and Her intercessory powers with her visits and the miracles given to us by God. We need to restore to the Carmelite Order the true Marian doctrine taught to us through the ages. We need to restore the original teaching of the Scapular and the original Rite of Enrollment. All of this has been tainted with Modernism. In defense of the Scapular and to please the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, we need to strive to restore the scapular to its original state. All of this is necessary for the salvation of souls and to keep them from the clutches of Satan. May Our Lady of Mt. Carmel give all Carmelites the zeal and the love for souls in wanting to make known this Scapular that is afforded to them by Her hands. (PLEASE NOTE: This is about the Novus Ordo Carmelite Order using the New Rule. There are communities of Friars using the Old Rule and are separated from these friars - and for good cause. Thanks be to God there are still real Carmelite Friars in existence ! Our Lady of Mt. Carmel pray for them and protect them!!)
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Hello Everyone: Tomorrow is the feast of All Carmelite Saints and it would only be appropriate to talk about the Queen and Mother of Carmel. There is too much to write about but I will briefly go over some of the points made in the Constitutions of the Carmelite Order. Marian Spirituality of the Order Mary as Model and Mother A distinctive note of the attitude of Carmelites towards the Virgin Mary is the desire to imitate Her virtues within their own religious profession whether it be priest, monk, nun or layman. The well-known Carmelite theologian, John Baconthorpe (1294-1348) in his commentary on the Rule sets out to show the parallel between the life of a Carmelite and that of the Virgin Mary. Another great lover of Mary, Arnold Bostio (1445 -1449) presented in his work the Patronage of Mary over the Order. Blessed Baptist of Mantua (1447-1516) sings sweetly of Mary in his poetic works. Fr Michael of St Augustine (1621-1684) and his spiritual daughter Mary of St Teresa (1623-1677) are faithful interpreters of the Carmelite tradition and have united a sense of intimacy with the Virgin to the thought of Her splendor. Liturgy and Popular Devotion Carmelites have expressed their consecration to the Virgin particularly through the liturgy. They have dedicated churches to Her and venerated Her image. The ancient Rituals of the Order, from the thirteenth century onwards, show the liturgical fervor of Carmel in the celebration of the Marian feasts of the Church and in the acceptance of celebrations which in other places and Orders were not received with such fervor as, for instance, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The feast of the Solemn Commemoration of the Virgin of Mount Carmel became the principal feast. The Order's ancient Jerusalem rite contained many invocations to Mary in the canonical hours, with Marian antiphons at the end of each hour and a special solemn anthem. Votive Masses were celebrated in honor of the Virgin and the name of Mary was frequently introduced into the liturgical texts for Clothing and Profession. It can be said that the Carmelite liturgy has left a profound impression of Marian spirit on the Order's spiritual tradition and has formed the interior dedication professed by the Order to Our Lady the Virgin. Together with the liturgy, characteristic devotional practices have flourished, such as the Angelus and the Brigittine Rosary and others proper to the Order, alongside the Brown Scapular devotion. Marian Spirituality in the Teresian Carmel The second part of number 54 of the Constitutions presents the logical continuation of the Marian experience of Carmel in Saint Teresa and Saint John of the Cross in these words, "Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross confirmed and renewed Carmel's devotion to Mary". There follows a brief and compact synthesis of the Marian thought of St Teresa and St John of the Cross. As all things since Vatican II - there have been changes to the Constitutions. Pope John Paul II allowed some communities to preserve the Old Rule while others chose to update it. Those who chose not to update did not because of the words of St. Teresa herself which are: "Let them beware, for the devil through very small things, drills holes through which very large things enter. May it not happen that those who are to come say: 'These things are not important; don't go to extremes.' Oh, my daughters, everything that helps us advance is important!" St. Teresa of Jesus [i]Foundations[/i], ch.29, 32 Since the late 1970s many laxities had been introduced into the Order. While the Friars were working with the nuns on drafting the new Constitutions, this minority group was working with the support of priests and bishops, to preserve the original Constitutions of St. Teresa, updated according to the present Code of Canon Law and the directives of Vatican II. We can conclude with this little knowledge presented that Carmel is wholly Mary's or at least SHOULD BE. The Constitutions stress this fundamental aspect of the Order's spirituality in all its aspects from the most profound life in communion with Mary and imitating Her to the simplest personal and community devotion. Fidelity to this aspect of our life is a guarantee of continuity with the purest tradition of Carmel. It renews the covenant of love which the Virgin has sought to have with the Order of Carmel in the Church. In Mary, Carmelites scattered throughout the world are united in a commitment to serve Christ and His Church with the guidance, prayers and graces sent by Our Lady to Her children. Thus, Carmelites not only live to imitate the Virgin, Handmaid of the Lord, but also seek Her guidance and grace to be able to serve God by their prayers and sacrifices for the good of souls and that of the Church. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel pray for us! All You Carmelite Saints, pray for us! Hello Everyone: As we know - there is no greater love for souls after Christ than His Mother Mary. Her prayers and good works are the most efficacious. Our Queen and Mother is the most powerful intercessor for the souls in Purgatory. How dear these precious children must be to Our Queen and Mother – Mary. Some saints tell us that She Herself visits them in their place of suffering. This must, indeed, comfort them. What great joy to see Mary and the maternal light of love in Her eyes. She comes to comfort them but it also likewise adds to their pain by causing them such grief when She must leave them and they cannot follow. Imagine the joy when the day finally comes when She takes that soul with Her back to Paradise! Saint Peter Damian, Saint Ildefonse, and Saint Frances of Rome assure us that it is the feast of the Assumption of Mary (Aug 15) on which the most souls are released from Purgatory each year. Moreover, her role is especially confirmed by the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding the Brown Scapular given by Mary to Saint Simon Stock in 1251. Enrollment in the Brown Scapular and faithful living will draw graces from Mary in this life as well as the next. She will constantly keep watch over souls and lead them to Her Son. She delivers all those who faithfully wear Her Scapular from Purgatory. Saint Teresa received a vision in which the souls in Purgatory received a spray of cool water whenever the Holy Rosary is prayed for them. Saint Alphonsus Liguori, also a Doctor of the Church, confirmed that praying the Rosary is a great means to bring relief to souls in Purgatory. Saint Pio, when giving a Rosary to someone said, “Let us empty Purgatory.” Mary has a special and tender place in Her Heart for those who suffer most. Let us rely on our sweet and stainless Mother as an intercessor for our brothers and sisters being purified for the eternal happiness of Heaven. Let us say our Rosaries for those who have gone before us so that they may reach Paradise and in turn ask Our Mother and Queen to help us here on earth to reach our goal – Heaven! |
AuthorBernadette Porter is a Traditional Catholic, a wife of 42 years with 6 adult home-schooled children and 6 grandchildren. A sincere devotion to Mary, the Mother of God leads me to want to share "The Church's best kept secret" - Mary! Archives
March 2023
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