Tag Archives: faith

St. Elijah Priest and Prophet

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Watch “The Prophet Elijah Parts 1 – 5” on YouTube

Prayer to Saint Elijah- Leader and Father of Carmelites

“O glorious St. Elijah, ever a mirror of sanctity and justice, while living in this valley of tears, obtain for us of God the grace to be your followers on earth, that we may one day be partakers with you in the everlasting glory in heaven.  O great Patriarch of the Order of Mount Carmel, teacher of God’s people and the defender of their Faith, disperse, we entreat you, the darkness of our intellect, obscured by our evil passions, and preserve in our hearts the Faith which is kept living by works of charity.  O holy Patriarch of the Most high, taken into heaven in a chariot of fire, and who shall be the precursor of Christ, when He shall come in the splendor of his infinite majesty to judge the living and the dead, pray for us, that loving Him and sincerely serving Him on earth, we may have the great happiness of loving Him for all eternity in the blessed kingdom of heaven.  Amen.”

Miraculous Waters at Lourdes

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Today marks the anniversary that St. Bernadette was asked to bath in the fountain of water requested by Our Lady.  Bernadette of course was very confused but obeyed what she was asked to do. Miracles beyond our understanding, this is what Bernadette experience especially during the 9th apparition at Lourdes. In all of history God the Father has asked his children to believe in that which is difficult to understand, trust in the one that is unseen.

“Bernadette Soubirous was from a poor family in Lourdes, France, at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains. On the evening of Thursday, February 11, 1858, at the age of 14, she went to gather firewood with her sister and a friend, and stopped at a grotto by a stream. Fearful because of her asthma, she hesitated while the others crossed the chilly waters to the other side. She described in her own words what happened then:

“I had just begun to take off my first stocking when suddenly I heard a great noise like the sound of a storm. I looked to the right and to the left, under the trees of the river, but nothing moved; I thought I was mistaken. I went on taking off my shoes and stockings, when I heard a fresh noise like the first. Then I was frightened and stood straight up. I lost all power of speech and thought when, turning my head toward the grotto, I saw at one of the openings of the rock a bush – only one – moving as if it were very windy.

Almost at the same time, there came out of the interior of the grotto a golden coloured cloud, and soon after a Lady, young and beautiful, exceedingly beautiful, the like of whom I had never seen before, came and placed herself at the entrance of the opening, above the rose bush. She looked at me immediately, smiled at me and signed to me to advance, as if She had been my Mother. All fear had left me, but I seemed to know no longer where I was. I rubbed my eyes, I shut them, I opened them; but the Lady was still there continuing to smile at me and making me understand that I was not mistaken. Without thinking of what I was doing I took my Rosary in my hands and went on my knees.

The Lady made with Her head a sign of approval and Herself took into Her hands a Rosary which hung on Her right arm. When I attempted to begin the Rosary and tried to lift my hand to my forehead, my arm remained paralysed, and it was only after the Lady had signed Herself that I could do the same. The Lady left me to pray all alone; She passed the beads of Her Rosary between Her fingers but She said nothing; only at the end of each decade did She say the Gloria with me. When the recitation of the Rosary was finished, the Lady returned to the interior of the rock and the golden coloured cloud disappeared with Her.”

Bernadette met ridicule when the word spread about the episode. At first forbidden to return to the grotto, her mother gave in 3 days later, and she received a second visit from the Lady at the nearby grotto of Massabieille. She returned Thursday February 18 for a third apparition, and the Lady asked her if she would return daily for fifteen days. In all Bernadette received 18 visits from the Lady, from Thursday, February 11 to Friday July 16, 1858.

During the sixth apparition on Sunday February 21, 1858, the Lady asked her to pray for sinners, and on the eighth apparition on Wednesday February 24, Bernadette appeared sad and cried out her first public message, Penitence, penitence, penitence. It was during the ninth apparition on Thursday, February 25, 1858, that she was directed to “Drink from the fountain and bathe in it.” This was puzzling, for there was no fountain there at Massabieille. But she began digging, and a small pool began forming. By the next day, the pool was overflowing, and the water was forming a stream over the rocks.”

Source: http://www.maryourmother.net/Lourdes.html

Feast of the Annunciation

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Dear Little hearts,

Today is the transferred feast of the Annunciation. A Happy Feast to you all.

The readings for the feast of the Annunciation, known in England in times past as the, “Salutation” are in our Sunday Missal, so today we will look , with Mary at the WORD.

Mary lived ‘Lectio Divine‘ she pondered on God’s Word as no other has ever done, He was her total love, her total focus… her will was in perfect harmony with Gods, her will merged into His, and so there by making her life fruitful in abundance.                                               

In today’s readings we can see how much God desires the gift, the offering, the surrender of our will , our free will to Him, thus choosing HIM above all other things.

God does not want, external worship without the involving of the heart, he’s not interested in sacrifices that are to placate Him or merely trying to win his approval, he wants our hearts, our wills to be HIS.

And in today’s readings we see this shining through all the readings.

Choose a line from todays readings and  really ponder upon it, dwell upon it, absorb it for the essence of our  Christian life is here… to respond to His Sweet will and surrender ours to HIS, this in itself is an act of supreme trust in our Beloved.

The entrance antiphon sets the whole tone , it is taken from the letter to the Hebrews.

 

“The Lord said as he entered the world: Behold O Lord I come to do your will“     ….. IN HIS WILL IS OUR PEACE!.

(Below are the readings from Our Sunday Missal)

First reading

Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10 ©

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’

Then he said:

Listen now, House of David:

are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men

without trying the patience of my God, too?

The Lord himself, therefore,

will give you a sign.

It is this: the maiden is with child

and will soon give birth to a son

whom she will call Immanuel,

a name which means ‘God is with us.’

Psalm

Psalm 39:7-11 ©

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,

but an open ear.

You do not ask for holocaust and victim.

Instead, here am I.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

In the scroll of the book it stands written

that I should do your will.

My God, I delight in your law

in the depth of my heart.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Your justice I have proclaimed

in the great assembly.

My lips I have not sealed;

you know it, O Lord.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

I have not hidden your justice in my heart

but declared your faithful help.

I have not hidden your love and your truth

from the great assembly.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Second reading

Hebrews 10:4-10 ©

Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what Christ said, on coming into the world:

You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,

prepared a body for me.

You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;

then I said,

just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book,

‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’

Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.

Gospel Acclamation

Jn1:14

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

The Word became flesh,

he lived among us,

and we saw his glory.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

Gospel

Luke 1:26-38 ©

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

 Poor Clare Colettines, TMD.