Newsletter #85 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

We have begun to see the series of the divine perfections of God the Son mirrored in the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

THE HEART OF GOD THE SON – THE SECOND FOUNDATION
OF THE DEVOTION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

This month let us see some ESSENTIAL DIVINE PERFECTIONS of Jesus mirrored in the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The essential perfections or attributes of God means those excellences which belong to the integrity of the Divine Essence or Nature. Other attributes expressing a relation between creatures and God, such as Creator, Redeemer and Rewarder, are not essential because these relations are not in God but outside Him. Cf. Wilhelm-Scannell, A Manual of Catholic Theology (London, 1890), P. 179.

The Holy Ghost proclaims His spotless Bride that she is clothed with the Sun: “A woman clothed with the Sun” (Apoc. 12, 1). What is this Sun? It is the Sun of Divinity and of the divine perfections, according to the explanation of Several holy Fathers. St. Andrew of Crete calls her “the compendium of God’s incomprehensible perfections.” (Ora. 2 de Assumpt.)

Now if this is true of the Blessed Virgin’s sacred person, it is still more true of her Immaculate Heart, the noblest part of her being, the source and sanctuary of the virtues of humility, obedience and charity which elevate her to the sublime and divine state that she personally revealed to St. Brigid (Revel, lib. 1 , Cap. 42). Her glowing Heart is the perfect expression and marvellous compendium of all the attributes of the Divine Essence.

In the first place, His divine love most perfectly draws its own image in His Mother’s amiable Heart. Next to the infinite love burning in the immense furnace of the adorable Heart of Jesus, there can never be a love so strongly exalted, extensive, ardent and pure, as the love which always possessed, filled and inflamed the virginal Heart of His Mother. This all-compassing love in turn imprints upon her a perfect image of all the six divine attributes (Unity, Simplicity, Immensity, Stability, Eternity and Plenitude):

1- Her Immaculate Heart is, first of all, a living image of divine Unity. God is alone and unique in the infinite eminence of all His grandeurs. He is the only mighty, (1 Tim. 6, 15.) the only good, (Luke, 18, 19.) the only wise, (Rom. 16,27.) merciful (Apoc. 15, 4) just, (2 Mach. 1, 25.) immortal and blessed Being, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. (I Tim. 6, 15) Likewise there is in the whole universe only one Heart of the one Mother of God, unique in dignity, excellence and perfections. It surpasses every virtue and eminent quality of the heart of any angel or saint.

2 – The Immaculate Heart of our great Queen bears a true resemblance to divine simplicity. Duplicity, disguise, deceit, falsehood, curiosity, singularity, worldly wisdom, mundane prudence, the self-love which prompts so many faulty thoughts and reflections concerning ourselves and our actions contrary to holy simplicity never had the least part in the Heart of the heavenly Dove. She was so filled and animated with the spirit of truth, sincerity, and simplicity, that her Son bade us follow when He said: “Be ye … as simple as doves” (Matt. 10, 16).

3 – Mary’s Immaculate Heart also received an abundant communication of the immensity of God, a singular faculty to express His immeasurability. The Seraphic Doctor St. Bonaventure says: “O Mary, I behold in thee three kinds of immensity. The first is the immensity of thy blessed womb, which enclosed Him who is immense and infinite, whom the Heavens and the entire universe cannot contain. The second is the immensity of thy mind and heart, for thy virginal Heart is more vastly immense than thy sacred womb. The third is the immensity of thy grace and charity, because thy Heart being immense, replete with grace and charity, the charity and grace that fill it must necessarily be immense.”

4- -The Immaculate Heart of the Queen of Angels is likewise an excellent representation of divine stability and immutability. It remained always steadfast, firm, unalterable and resolute in its perfect love of God and all the holy dispositions which render a heart entirely pleasing to God. “O my Jesus, I beseech Thee, by the invariable love which the Immaculate Heart of Mary has always borne to Thee, deign so to establish and strengthen our hearts in Thy holy love that we may truly say with St. Paul: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . . Neither death nor life . . . nor any . . . creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8, 35, 38 and 39).

5- -The Immaculate Heart of our great Princess is a beautiful representation of the eternity of God, not only because her affections were entirely free from temporal attachments and securely fixed upon eternal things, but also because Mary was filled with the spirit of prophecy, which is a participation in the Eternity that renders all things present in the sight of the divine Majesty of God.

6- -The Immaculate Heart of the Queen of Heaven displays a perfect imitation of the plenitude and self- sufficiency of God, who bears the name of El Shaddai, meaning precisely self-sufficient. Almighty God has need of nothing, being filled with every good. The Son of God, speaking to His Father, exclaims: «Thou art my God, for thou hast no need of any goods. » (PS. 15, 2) In like manner, the virginal Heart of the Mother of God, loving God alone, being always free and empty of every alien affection, was constantly filled with God.

Hence dear friends, let us consider well how perfectly the Immaculate Heart of our Queen fulfils the mandate to “seek but one thing” and to make God her portion and her heritage forever. And in order to be happy, let each and every one of us consecrate ourselves constantly, exclaiming with Our Lady, St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Francis of Assisi: “My God and my All.”

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
September 7, 2022

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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, September 2022