The Vocation of a Carmelite - Love

Greetings in Jesus and Mary....

 We are almost done with May and we are approaching the date of our renewal of the Consecration to Jesus through Mary (new post under Formation for the actual prayer). Today is the Feast of a great Carmelite saint - St. Mary Magdalene dePazzi of the late 1500's in Italy and her message below is very relevant for our commitment to our Consecration. Also, today is an Ember day: a day of prayer and fasting. We can offer this day in prayer and fasting for the Church and its priests as St. Teresa of Avila said is our greatest concern. There are two videos below to explain this a little - I encourage you to search more on this.

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi passed away to her Spouse, on the twenty-fifth of May, in the year 1607, having completed the forty-first year of her age. Many miracles having been wrought by her merits, both before and after death, she was canonized by Pope Clement XI. Her body is, even to this day, preserved from corruption! Incorrupt saints are a great gift to us because it helps us to seek these chosen souls out and to see what it was that God so loved in their lives that He would grant them this grace of incorruption of their body. I believe that God allows this in order for their works or writings to be sought after so that we could find greater knowledge of the love of God and gain grace from it. 

I have written on her in the past but felt it appropriate to repeat this today........

She was a mystic who fell into ecstasy for two hours after her morning Communion. She wrote about these ecstasies and here is one I chose written below for today from the First Volume of her collected works. Of course this message is always needed because this sums up why we exist. With all the craziness going on in the Church and in the world AGAINST GOD - especially present in the Holy Eucharist, we must remain focused and cling to God, truly present among us - as long as we are in the state of God's grace. We must truly appreciate receiving Holy Communion and unite ourselves to Jesus. truly present, as St. Mary Magdalene dePazzi did. May we pray to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and to the great saints who went before us to remain focused on our true reason for existence - which is to love LOVE (JESUS) now and for all eternity - Amen!!

Taken from: The Compete Works of Saint Mary Magdalene DePazzi Volume I

"I saw that LOVE stood continually at the gate of our heart, waiting to enter therein; and in this circumstance there came to my mind those words of Jesus: "I stand at the gate and knock," (Rev. 3:20) But he cannot enter therein as long as the soul is filled with self-love, yet once self-love is removed, then He enters in.

And I understood that the soul that has LOVE within itself and shares in the merits of the blood of Jesus cannot bear to partake of any created thing, but wants only to partake of pure love and of this blood. And (it wants this) in such a way that it cannot (bear to) see God in any modal manner; that is, I mean that it does not tolerate seeing Him powerful or wise, rich or beautiful, or in any other way, but it knows Him only as pure God, God in Himself, loving Himself purely and infinitely, and loving creatures with a pure and infinite love.

And I seemed to see that our interior man, without this LOVE and without this blood, was like a dead body, with all its senses dead; but one who has this blood and this love is like a living man who has all his senses alive and active...

I seemed to understand also that LOVE united a soul with Himself so closely for three reasons:
first -- because the soul was created for LOVE

second -- so that the soul would do that for which it was created, namely, to love LOVE

third -- because the soul is to enjoy that same LOVE eternally and to be united inseparably with Him. And I saw that no creature whatsoever can be capable of this union, wherein all become as one; but only God and that same Unitive LOVE, Who is the Mediator between the soul and God (can be capable of it)."

St. Mary Magdalene dePazzi, pray for us!
Holy Mother Mary, pray for us!
Jesus, truly present in the Holy Eucharist, our true LOVE, have mercy on us!
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Ember Days

History of Ember Days