Newsletter #79 – 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 Fiery Furnace of Babylon is the eleventh symbolic picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the Queen of heaven and earth.

MARY’S HEART, THE FIERY FURNACE OF BABYLON

Another symbolic picture of the Immaculate Heart of the most Holy Mother of God is the miraculous furnace described in the third chapter of the Prophet Daniel. St. John Damascene and many other holy doctors affirm that the fiery furnace was a figure of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its burning fire a reflection of the heavenly fire in the holy heart of the Mother of God. Here are St. John Damascene’s words: “Is it not true,” he says addressing Our Lady, “that this furnace, filled with a fire at once burning and refreshing, was a faithful image of Thee and an excellent picture of the divine and eternal fire dwelling within Thee?” (Orat. 1 de Dormit. B. Virg.)

In the furnace of Babylon we behold many marvels wrought by God’s omnipotence. In the midst of the furnace filled with fire and flame, there was a refreshing wind, likened to fragrant dew. “The angel made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew.” (Dan. 3, 50) What a marvel it is to behold a burning furnace whose flames protect those inside its crucible, while they destroy those who remain outside! What a miracle to see fire comforting and refreshing those cast into the sevenfold heat of its flames, while burning to death those standing at a safe distance! How miraculous for three young men to survive in a furnace whose flames leapt to a height of forty-nine cubits, not suffering injury but walking about with joy as in a place of delight! The three gladly sang the praises of Almighty God and emerged from their ordeal with greater strength and vigor than before while the fire could not so much as burn a single fiber of their clothing. Great indeed are the marvels to be found in Babylon’s furnace; yet they merely foreshadow the miracles which we find in the furnace of the Immaculate Heart of the Queen of Angels.

It is a great miracle, to witness fire and water subsisting side by side in the furnace of Nabuchodonosor. The fire did not turn the cooling water into steam nor did the water quench the burning heat of the fire. What manner of fire is this? It is the fire of divine love burning in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. What is the cooling dew? It is the water of tribulation, which so often flooded the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of Sorrows. The fire of love did not dry up the waters of affliction; and the waters of tribulation were unable, we shall not say to extinguish, but even to diminish in the least degree the divine ardor of that heavenly fire: “Many waters cannot quench charity.” (Cant. 8, 7) On the contrary, the excess of love produced the abundance of affliction, and the waters of tribulation were like inflammable liquids that augmented still further the fire of Her love.

Is it not a great miracle to see a fire possessing at once the virtue of fire and the properties of water? Love has the virtue of fire, that it may unceasingly inflame the Virgin Mother’s Immaculate Heart with its sacred ardour, and also the properties of water, as it extinguishes entirely the fire of self-love and of attachment to vain and perishable things.

Is it not a great miracle to behold a fire refreshing, consoling and fining with joy the children of the Mother of God, while it pursues, burns, devours its enemies? Her Immaculate Heart, which is ablaze with love for her true children, directs the fire and flame of its anger against those who injure or scandalize her loved ones.

Only three Hebrew boys were thrown into the furnace of Babylon, but all children of the admirable Mother of God can enter the furnace of her Immaculate Heart and dwell there as in a paradise of delights where they praise and glorify God forever in company with their heavenly Mother, and their hearts are filled with joy and consolation. “Me dwelling in thee is as it were of all rejoicing,” (Ps. 86, 7) O holy Mother of God.

Three Hebrew children walked safely in the first furnace; yet the prophet saw there four, and “the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Dan. 3, 92) Actually it was an angel, representing, according to Daniel, the Only begotten Son of God in the Babylonian furnace, but this same Son of God resides and dwells in person in the Immaculate Heart of His most holy Mother. He is all fire and flame of love and charity. “The Lord thy God is a consuming fire.” (Deut. 4, 24) He possesses a throne of fire. “His throne like flames of fire,” (Dan. 7, 9) and a “fiery chariot.” (4 Kings 2, 11) In like manner, He wills to have a dwelling of fire and flame in the Heart of His most worthy Mother.

We also notice that the three young men were bound hand and foot when thrown into the furnace, but immediately their bonds were consumed by the fire, and they were freed within the furnace. Come, come, poor slaves of sin and of the world! Come, slaves of passion, of self-love and self-will, chained in the irons and fetters of Babylon! Fear not to plunge into our sacred furnace! These flames will not harm you; instead they will destroy your fetters and establish you in the holy liberty of the children of God and of His loving Mother. They will inflame our hearts with the fire of heavenly love, they will transform them into divine fire itself. Our hearts will become holy furnaces heated seven times with the fire and flames that leap from the Immaculate Heart of our heavenly Mother. Our hearts must become furnaces of eternal love, if they would avoid being ranked with the miserable hearts of the wicked against whom the terrible sentence was uttered: “Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire, in the time of thy anger” (Ps. 20, 10).

This is what we must become if we profess a particular obligation to work for the salvation of souls. We must be made of fire like Elias, and of flame like St. John the Baptist. Each of us must be a burning furnace, a fiery, radiant torch; aglow within, shining without; ardent before God, and shining before men: ardent in prayer and brilliant in action; ardent with the love of God, and luminous with charity for our neighbor.

In order to light our torch and obtain the fire which we must kindle in the hearts of men, we must approach the holy furnace of the Immaculate Heart more frequently with respect and veneration. We should concentrate upon the divine fire inflaming Her Heart; imitate its all-glowing love and charity and humbly beg of our Mother most merciful that she may kindle in our hearts sparks of the celestial fire which burns in her own.

O divine fire burning in the furnace of the Immaculate Heart of our glorious Mother, come, come into the hearts of all men! Extinguish every other fire, destroying whatever would resist Thee. Burn, inflame, set on fire, transform into Thyself the hearts of men that they may become all fire and flames of love for Him Who created them that they might love Him and Him alone!

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
June 10, 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