Newsletter #77 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

The Heart of God The Father is The First Foundation of The Devotion to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Temple of Jerusalem is the tenth symbolic picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the Queen of heaven and earth.

MARY’S HEART, THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM

In the time of the Mosaic Law one of the greatest wonders of the world was the temple of Jerusalem.
Yet this stupendous temple was merely a figure and an image of the multitude of temples to be found
in the Christian world. It prefigured particularly the Sacred Humanity of the Son of God, for Christ
referring to His own body said to the Jews: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
(John 2, 19)

The temple of Jerusalem was a figure of Holy Church and a figure of each Christian. It prefigured our churches and cathedrals but was also a representation of a temple far more holy and august than any material structure. What then is the true temple? It is the Immaculate Heart of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church says of her person that Mary is “the temple of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost,” and we can apply these words with still better reason to her Immaculate Heart, having seen that it is the source of all the qualities and excellences with which she is adorned. If, according to the divine Word, the body of each Christian is the temple of God, (1, Cor. 6, 19) who will dare to deny this characterization to the most worthy Heart of the Mother of all Christians? It can be affirmed, therefore, that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the true temple of the Divinity, the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, the Holy of Holies of the Blessed Trinity.

This temple was not like Solomon’s built by a host of workmen, but was built by the Almighty Hand of God, Who can achieve greater wonders in a single instant than all the powers of Heaven and earth can accomplish during the whole of eternity.

The temple of Mary’s Heart was consecrated by the Sovereign Pontiff, Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It stood adorned with a tremendous wealth of ordinary and extraordinary graces, and by all Christian virtues practiced in the highest degree. The Heart of our amiable Mother is filled with love of God and charity towards us. The temple of Mary contains all the riches of God together with all the treasures of Heaven and earth because it keeps within its cloister all the mysteries of the life of the Son of God. “His Mother kept all these words in her heart. (Luke 2, 51) Her Heart possesses the very Son of God Himself, the treasure of the Eternal Father, Who encompasses all the wealth and beauty of the Most Holy Trinity.

The Eternal Father willed to place several remarkable objects in this temple to foreshadow and represent many great and wondrous mysteries that were to be found in the Immaculate Heart of His holy Mother. Among them we notice:
SEVEN PRINCIPAL OBJECTS

namely: the golden candlestick, the table with the loaves of proposition, the altar of perfumes, the Ark of the Covenant, the Tables of the Law, the Propitiatory, and the Altar of Holocausts.

1 – The golden candlestick: St. Epiphanius’ and St. John Damascene, (Orat. 1 de Dorn. Deiparae) together with several other Doctors, tell us that the golden candlestick is a figure of the Immaculate Mother of God. Next to Jesus, her beloved Son, Mary is the most luminous torch and the brightest light of the House of God. “O virginal candlestick,” says St. Epiphanius, “which enlightened those who sat in the shadow of death. O virginal torch, which dissipated the gloom of hell and caused the brilliance of heaven to shine in our souls! O radiant lamp, ever filled with the oil of grace and light, with the fire of divine love, lighting our minds and inflaming our hearts! This virginal light has spread its splendour throughout the world!”

Our admirable Virgin is truly the golden candlestick of the chosen temple of God, which is His Church! With excellent reason does Holy Church salute and recognize Her as the portal through which the light came into the world: “Hail, gate of morn, whence the world’s true Light was born.” (Words taken from the hymn Ave Regina caelorum)

2 – The table with the loaves of proposition in Solomon’s temple, described in the twenty fifth chapter of Exodus, was made by divine command from the wood of Selim, a most rare and altogether incorruptible wood. The table was completely covered with gold-plate and edged with a gold-plated cornice or border surrounding it like a crown while two additional golden crowns embellished it. It was designed to hold the loaves of proposition that were offered to God daily by the priests and were thus named because they lay in the temple as a perpetual sacrifice proposed or exposed to the Divine Majesty.

The Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God was the first to receive Our Lord as He came forth from the bosom of the Eternal Father. The Blessed Virgin will carry her Son in her Heart for all eternity! God the Father gave us His well-beloved Son, the Divine Word, in the Incarnation, and still gives Him to us daily in the Holy Eucharist on the altar.

3 – The altar of perfumes: This altar of the Mosaic temple represents the hearts of the faithful, which are symbolized as altars on which each one should offer a perpetual sacrifice of prayer and praise to God. Now if the hearts of the children of God were figured by this altar, how much more truly does it symbolize the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God, which is the first and holiest of all altars? In this altar the Mother of the Saviour offered to God a sacrifice of love, adoration, praise, thanksgiving and prayer far more to His Divine Majesty than all the sacrifices that ever were or ever shall be offered on all other altars.

4 – The Ark of the Covenant: We learn particularly from St. Ambrose that the Ark of the Covenant was a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and therefore of her Immaculate Heart, the first and noblest part of her person. “Yes,” exclaims the seraphic St. Bonaventure, “the Ark of Moses was merely a reflection of the Virgin’s Heart. Her Immaculate Heart is the true, ark containing within itself the secrets of the divine Word and the treasure of the law of God.” (In Exposit. Cap. 2 Lucae) A holy Abbot(Nicolaus Salicetus in Antidotario animae) of the Cistercian Order calls Mary the Ark of Sanctification, containing revelations written by the hand of God. She is the holy Ark of the Covenant, the Covenant by which God reconciled us with Himself and pledged His alliance with us forever.

5 – The Tables of the Law: St. Gregory of Nyssa states that the Tables of the Mosaic Law kept in the temple of Solomon were a figure symbolic of the hearts of the Saints. (Homil. 14) Now, if the hearts of the Saints are real tables of the evangelical law, what shall we say of the Immaculate Heart of the Queen of Saints, who is the Mother of the Saint of saints? Her glorious Heart is the first and holiest table of the Christian law. On it the Holy Ghost, the finger of God, has written and engraved in golden letters, not merely the will of God and His laws, but all the counsels, maxims and truths of the gospel as well. They are so deeply engraved that the united forces of hell and of earth could not remove a single iota or tarnish a single letter of this sacred writing.

6 – The Propitiatory is regarded as another figure symbolic of the glorious Virgin, because by her intercession the flame of God’s wrath was extinguished, His Divine Majesty was turned to look upon mankind with favor and His infinite mercy moved Him to compassion for our infirmities. For this reason St. Ildephonsus calls the Mother of Grace; “The propitiation of man’s salvation.” (Serm. 1 de Ass.) St. Andrew of Crete styles Mary: “The universal propitiatory of the entire world.” (De Dormit. Virg.) Lastly, St. Epiphanius proclaims her: “Admirable propitiatory.” (Serm. de laud. Deiparae)

It is Mary’s Immaculate Heart which is the admirable Propitiatory. Whence does her compassion for sinners spring, if not from her Heart full of mercy? What urged Mary to become our advocate before the throne of divine justice, if not the loving kindness of her Heart?

7 – The Altar of Holocausts: St. Augustine, (Serm. 255 de temp.) St. Gregory the Great, (Homil. 22 in Ezech.) and several other Fathers say that the Altar of Holocausts also symbolized the hearts of all the Saints, who are the real altars on which God is honored by the spiritual sacrifices offered day and night to His Divine Majesty. Yet much more truly can this be said of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “Her Heart is the true altar of holocaust,” says the illustrious John Gerson, “and on it the sacred fire of divine love blazed day and night.” ( Tract. 9 sup, Magnif. partit. 1)

The Mother of the Sovereign Priest constantly offered to God sacrifices of love, praise, thanksgiving, expiation for the sins of the world and every possible sacrifice. She sacrificed her being, life, body, soul, all her thoughts, words and actions, the employment of her senses and faculties, and in general, all that she was, all that she possessed and every power of her soul. She offered to the Divine Majesty the very sacrifice that her Son Jesus Christ offered on Calvary. Our adorable Saviour offered Himself to the Eternal Father only once on the altar of the Cross, but His holy Mother immolated Him thousand times on the altar of her Immaculate Heart!

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
May 12, 2022

P.S. If you would like to be added to our subscription list, please reply to the general email below with your phone number, contact information, and what major city you are near as well.
(Ourladyofmtcarmelusa@gmail.com)

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

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Posted in Newsletters and tagged 2022, Father Pancras Raja, May Newsletter