Newsletter #51 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

So far we were learning about the object of our devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From this month onwards we are going to learn about the Foundations of this devotion according to the spirit of St. John Eudes. There are three foundations. The First Foundation of The Devotion to The Immaculate Heart of Mary Is The Heart of God The Father.
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God the Father, Identifier of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The first foundation and the primary source of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is
the adorable Heart of the Eternal Father and His unfathomable love for the Blessed Mother of His Only begotten Son. This infinite love induced our Heavenly Father to give us many beautiful images and figures of the most worthy Heart of His holy Mother.

God the Father, to whom we assign the creation of the world, lovingly prefigured Mary, the woman chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of the adorable Redeemer. “It was she whom the Prophets foretold long before her birth,” says St. Jerome (in his sermon on Assumption), “It was she whom the Patriarchs described in many figures; it was she who was announced by the Evangelists.” St. Ildephonsus (Sermon I) writes: “The Holy Ghost foretold her through the Prophets, announced her by the divine oracles, manifested her in figures, promised her by means of the things which preceded her birth, and fulfilled in her the things which followed it.” (Lib. de Virginitate Mariae)

St. John Damascene says that the earthly paradise, Noe’s ark, the burning bush, the Tables
of the Law, the Ark of the Covenant, the golden vessel containing the manna, the golden candlesticks in the Tabernacle, the table with the loaves of propitiation, Aaron’s rod, the furnace of Babylon, were all figures of the incomparable Virgin Mary.

The Eternal Father was not satisfied to foreshadow and represent the person of the Mother of His Beloved Son merely in the person of Mary, sister of Moses, in the Prophetess Deborah, wise Abigail, chaste and generous Judith, beautiful and compassionate Esther, and many other valiant women.

Beyond this, the Eternal Father designed to entrust to us special pictures and images of the mysteries and qualities of His incomparable Mother, her virtues and even the more noble faculties of her virginal body. Several passages of Sacred Scripture reveal these pictures, especially the 24th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, and the Canticle of Canticles, where her Immaculate Conception is represented by the lily growing among thorns without being wounded by them: “As the lily among thorns;”( Cant. 2, 2) her Nativity, by the rising dawn; (Ibid., 6, 9) her Assumption, by the Ark of the Covenant which St. John saw in Heaven; (Apoc. 11, 19) the sublime eminence of her dignity, her power and her holiness, by the height of the cedar of Lebanon; (Ecclus. 24, 17) her charity, by the rose; (Ibid. 39, 17) her humility, by the spikenard; (Cant, I. ii) her mercy, by the olive ; (Ecclus. 19) her virginity, by the closed gate of the Temple which God showed to Ezechiel the Prophet. (Ezech. 44, 2)

But above all else, Our Heavenly Father has willed to place before our eyes a wealth of
beautiful figures and marvellous representations of Mary’s most holy Heart. He has done this to show us how much He values and cherishes this lovable Heart and because the rare and wondrous perfections that fill it are well-nigh innumerable and can be represented and described only through a great number of figures and symbolic pictures.

Twelve Images and Representations of The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Among the many images and representations of the Immaculate Heart of Mary we can distinguish twelve of surpassing beauty. Six of them are found in the principal divisions of the universe; namely, the heavens, the sun, the center of the earth, the inexhaustible fountain of Genesis, the sea and the Garden of Eden.

The six others appear in six of the most important manifestations witnessed by the world from the time of Moses to the death of Our Lord. They are the burning bush of Mount Horeb, the mysterious harp of David, the magnificent throne of Solomon, the marvellous Temple of Jerusalem, the miraculous furnace of Babylon, and the Holy Mount of Calvary.

We shall consider one by one in the following months the first six manifestations of the august Heart of the Queen of Heaven, so that we may be inspired to bless and praise the hand of the Divine Artist who drew them, to reverence and admire the rare perfections of the prototype whose too inadequate reflection they are, and to evoke a higher esteem for the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a well-founded devotion, resting on a solid basis, because its first origin and firm foundation is the Adorable Heart of the Eternal Father.

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
April 7, 2021

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Consecration of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to Immaculate Heart of Mary
http://ourladyofmountcarmelusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Consecration-to-Immaculate-Heart-by-Our-Lady-of-Mt.-Carmel-SSPX-Marian-Corps.pdf

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Posted in Newsletters and tagged Father Pancras Raja