Newsletter #107 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors,
THIRD FOUNDATION OF THE DEVOTION:
THE HEART OF GOD THE HOLY GHOST

“ALL THE GLORY OF THE KING’S DAUGHTER IS WITHIN”

Infinite goodness compels God the Holy Ghost to disclose to us the inestimable treasures hidden in the marvellous Heart of Mary and to proclaim them through Sacred Scripture, the inspired word of God. The first significant text is taken from the forty-fourth psalm: “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within”, (Ps. 44, 14) where the Holy Ghost reveals that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a source of benefactions without number and of every kind.

To explain this truth, there are three thoughts that are most glorious for the magnificent Heart of our great Queen and founded on these divine words: “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within,” and from her Heart. Who is this daughter of the King? We know full well that she is the Queen of Heaven and earth, the daughter of the King of kings. But why does all her glory proceed from her Heart? It is because her Heart is the source and principle of all the grandeur, excellence and prerogatives that adorn her, of all the eminent qualities that exalt her above every creature, namely her position as eldest daughter of the Eternal Father, as Mother of the Son, as Spouse of the Holy Ghost, as the Temple of the most Holy Trinity, as Queen of angels and men, as the Mother of Christians, and as Empress of the Universe. It also means that this most holy Heart is the source of all the graces that accompany the privileges bestowed on her, of the holy use she made of those graces, and of all the sanctity of her thoughts, words, works, sufferings and of the other mysteries of her life. It means, finally, that her Heart is the source of the eminent virtues she practiced on earth, of her perfect exercise of the faculties and powers of her soul and of her body, and of the glory and felicity she now enjoys in heaven.

How is her Heart the source of all these things? In the following ways. Firstly, We know that the humility, purity, love and charity of her Heart have rendered her worthy to be made Mother of God, and consequently have enriched her with all the advantages and privileges that belong to so high a dignity. We know further that the Heart is the Seat of love and charity, and that love, and charity are the principle, rule and measure of all the sanctity on earth, and therefore of all glory in Heaven. Hence, God, Eternal Truth, tells us in the Gospel that, as the heart of man is the origin of all evil, so it is also the source of every good. The Son of God teaches us that from the heart proceed evil thoughts, homicides, and blasphemies (Matt. 15, 19.) Our Saviour further tells us that the heart of the good man is a treasure from which He draws all sorts of good things, and the heart of the wicked man a treasure from which He draws all evil things. (Luke 6, 46) We may conclude therefore that the supremely good Heart of God’s most loving Mother is the source of all that is great, holy, glorious and admirable in her.

Secondly, Mary’s Heart is the source, after God, of all the excellence, Sanctity, glory, felicity and other great and precious marvels to be found in the Church Militant, Suffering and Triumphant. The reason of this is clear. We all agree that every grace and blessing possessed by the Church, all the treasures of light, holiness and glory that abide in her, on earth as well as in Heaven, arc due to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “All graces,” says the learned and devout Abbot Rupert, “every gift that the world has received from Heaven, are as streams which issue from that sacred fountain, as fruits belonging to that holy tree.” (Emissiones tuae paradisus. In illa verba Cant) “It was decreed by God in His eternal counsel,” writes St. Bernard, “to give nothing to anyone except through Mary’s hands. Through her He was pleased to give us every good. Yes, indeed, because through her He gave the first principle of every good, Jesus Christ, Our Lord.” (Totum nos habere voluit per Mariam. Serm. de Aquaeductu.)

But how did Mary make herself so holy and so pleasing to the divine Majesty, that He should choose her to be the intermediary of this infinite gift, from which are derived all the other gifts ever made to His Church? It was by the sanctity of her most humble, pure and charitable Heart.

Let us acknowledge, then, that her Heart is the origin of everything noble, rich and precious in all the holy souls which form the universal Church in Heaven and on earth. We can therefore Say of her marvellous Heart, and with greater reason, what St. John Chrysostom Says of the heart of St. Paul, when he calls it the fount and principle of numberless graces: Fons et principium innumerorum bonorum. (In Act. 22, homil. 55; et in Rom. 141, homil. 32, in fine)

Shall we stop here? No, we must go further and explain the third truth that I promised you, which is that the Heart of the Mother of the Saviour is, in a certain sense, the fountain and source of all that is holy, and admirable in the life and the successive mysteries of our Divine Redeemer Himself.

Was not this represented by the river described in the second chapter of Genesis, which came out of the fountain created by God at the beginning of the world. (6) This fountain is a figure of the Holy Heart of Mary, and Jesus, the Son of Mary, is designated by the river springing from the fountain. Do we not hear Eternal Wisdom, that is, the Son of God, saying: “I came out of paradise,” out of the Virginal Heart of Mary, which is the true paradise of the new Adam, “like a channel of a river,” (Ecclus. 24, 41) that is, like the river that flowed out of the earthly paradise.

Let us acknowledge, then, that her Immaculate Heart, being the fountain from which that great river originated, is the miraculous Source of all the treasures and of the great and priceless wonders contained in that divine stream. We must conclude that Our Lady’s Heart is the fountain and principle of numberless goods: Fons et principium omnium bonorum. St. Irenaeus asking why the mystery of the Incarnation did not take place without Mary’s consent, answers that it was because God sought her to be the principle of every good. What does he mean by that, if not. (Quia vult illud Deus omnium bonorum esse principium. S. Ireneus citatus apud Salazar, in cap. 31, Proverb, vers. 29. num. 179.) God wished the Heart of His Blessed Mother to be the source and origin of all the blessings and graces derived from the Incarnation, and that He wished to become man only by her consent. “She is the perennial fount of every good,” declares St. Andrew of Crete. (In Sem. de Dm. B. Virg.)

O most loving Heart of Mary, O abyss of miracles, who can tell the unfathomable marvels that God has worked in and through thee! O boundless Sea, God alone can know the inestimable riches hidden in thee! O Heart most Holy, thou art Heaven’s own heaven, for, after the Heart of the Eternal Father, thou are the most magnificent and glorious abode of Jesus, who is Himself the highest Heaven: “The Heaven of heaven is the Lord’s.” (Ps. 113, 16.) Next to the Heart of Jesus, thou art the highest throne of glory and majesty of the Blessed Trinity. What honor and praise should be rendered unto thee! Oh, may every human and angelic heart recognize and honor thee as its Sovereign after the adorable Heart of our Saviour!

Dearest Jesus, what thanks we owe thine infinite goodness for having given thy Blessed
Mother to us, and for having endowed her with a maternal Heart so full of love and tenderness towards her most unworthy children! Grant, dear Saviour, that we may have truly filial affection for so good a Mother, and may the hearts of her children bear the image and likeness of the love, charity, humility and all the other virtues that reign in the Heart of their most loving Mother!

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
August 10, 2023

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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 2023, August Newsletter, Father Pancras Raja