Newsletter #49 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

In our February newsletter we learned about the Spiritual Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this newsletter we are going to contemplate on the Divine Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Jesus Christ, the Heart of the Eternal Father, is the Heart of His Holy Mother. Is not the heart
the principle of life? And what is the Son of God to His dear Mother? He always was and will be
forever the heart of her heart, the soul of her soul, the spirit of her spirit, and the sole principle of
all the movements and functions of her most holy life. St. Paul tells us that: It is not himself
who lives but Jesus Christ who lives in him (Gal. 2: 20). Our Lord is the life of all Christians: (Col. 3: 4) so who could doubt that He abides in His holy Mother, and that He is the life of her life, the heart of her
heart, in a union incomparably more excellent even than with St. Paul and the other faithful saints?

Let us listen to what Our Lady revealed to St Brigid: “My Son was truly my Heart to me. When He left my bosom to be born, it seemed as though half of my Heart were going forth from me. When He suffered, I felt His pain as though my Heart endured the identical sorrows and torments that He endured. When my Son was being Scourged and torn with whips, my Heart was scourged and whipped with Him. When He looked at me from the Cross, and I at Him, two streams of tears gushed from my eyes; and when He saw me oppressed with sorrow, He experienced such violent anguish at my desolation that the pain caused by His sorrow was my sorrow as His Heart was my Heart. Because Adam and Eve together betrayed the world for one, single forbidden fruit, so did my beloved Son wish that I should cooperate with Him in redeeming it with one Heart, quasi cum uno Corde. (Revel. Lib. 1, Cap. 35)

Between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary there exists a union so perfect
that there never has been and never will be “a closer one aside from the hypostatic union.”
Jesus Christ, the Divine Heart of Mary, so closely united to her corporeal and spiritual
hearts is nevertheless extrinsic to her person. It therefore cannot belong to the immediate object of
the devotion to the Holy Heart of Mary because the devotion concerns Mary herself and cannot have
any object other than whatever belongs properly to her person. Thus, it is that the particular object
of the devotion to the Holy Heart of Mary must be limited to her corporeal and spiritual hearts.

Nevertheless, it must be noted that the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Saints,
when it is well understood, never confines itself to their persons; it ascends to God Who is the author
of their holiness and Who is no less adorable in what He effects in His saints than in what He is in
Himself. Without this consideration, devotion to Mary and to the saints would not be an act of
religion, for religion relates to God and if now and then the acts which it inspires are addressed to
creatures, it is because of their special union to the Divinity. “The devotion we have for the Saints,”
says St. Thomas, “never ends with them; it passes to God, for it is God Himself whom we honor in the
saints.” Sum. Theol. 2a 2ae, cl. 82, an. 2, ad 3.

Jesus lives in her soul and in her body, and in each faculty of her body and soul. He lives in
her entirely, which means that whatever is in Jesus is also in Mary, His Heart abides in her heart,
His soul in her soul, His spirit in her spirit. The memory, intellect and will of Jesus are alive in the
memory, intellect and will of Mary; his interior and exterior senses in her interior and exterior
senses. His passions in her passions; His virtues, mysteries and divine attributes are living in her
Heart. Nay, more than living, they hold sovereign sway, producing inconceivably marvellous effects
and impressing a living image of themselves as her Heart mirrors His Sacred Heart.

So it is that Jesus is the principle of life in His most holy Mother. So it is that He is the Heart
of her Heart and the life of her life. St. Brigid once heard her say: “Every homage rendered to my Son
is likewise rendered to me, and who dishonors Him dishonors me. We have always had such perfect
mutual love that we seemed to have as it were but one Heart for both. Quasi cor unum ambo fuimus.”
(Revel. Lib. I, cap. 8)

This admirable Heart it is, which receives our respect and praise, which must be esteemed an object of veneration for all Christians, for to honor Mary’s marvellous Heart means to honor countless holy and divine mysteries deserving of the eternal veneration of angels and men. It also means to honor all the functions of the corporeal and material life of the Queen of Heaven, of which the Heart is the principle, that life superlatively holy in itself and in every uses he made of it. It means honoring the perfect functions of her memory, her will, her intellect, and the highest part of her spirit. It means honoring innumerable great and ineffable mysteries which were perfected in the superior part of her soul.

This veneration of Mary means honoring the corporeal Heart, the spiritual Heart and the
divine Heart of Jesus, who are also the Hearts, or rather, the one and only Heart of Mary. It means
giving glory to Our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the Heart of the Eternal Father, and has willed to
become the Heart of His Holy Mother.

It means honoring and glorifying all the effects of light, grace, and sanctity which this divine
Heart of Mary, who is Jesus Christ Himself, has effected, and all the movements of the heavenly life
of which He was the principle in her soul, and also the great fidelity with which she cooperated, on
her part, with all that His grace accomplished in her heart during so many years. What tongue could
proclaim, what mind could conceive, what heart could worthily honor so many great and admirable
wonders of grace!

Indeed, every heart, every pen and every tongue should be employed in loving, in writing and in
speaking of the incomparable Heart of Mary. The entire universe should therefore celebrate the Feast
of Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

We must therefore realize that Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Heart of the Eternal Father, willed to become the Heart or life-principle of His Most Blessed Mother, and He likewise wills to become the Heart of our own life. Having granted us the grace to become the members of His mystical body, He seeks to share our life so that we may say with St. Paul: “Christ liveth in me!” (Gal. 2, 20) Such is the infinite plan of God, such His burning desire. Our Lord seeks to establish His life, not only in our soul, but in our body, that His spirit may become our spirit and His heart our heart, united in all its love,
thoughts and actions, by self-surrender, even as His Heart was completely and perfectly the heart of His Admirable Mother.

If the will of God is to become our will, and if the spiritual and corporeal faculties of the sacred humanity of Our Lord are to animate the faculties of our soul and body, what must we do? We must cooperate.

Above all, offer ourselves frequently to the Son of God. Beg Him to deign to exercise the
almighty power of His arm to destroy within us everything that is contrary to His Holy Will, and to
establish over us the reign of His divine Soul and His Crucified Body.

Especially useful is the most devout prayer the Anima Christi, Sanctifica Me. “Soul of Christ, sanctify me.” It will help us to attain our purpose at all times, but particularly after we have received Our Saviour within our hearts, either during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or in Holy Communion. When we are speaking to the Divine Heart of Jesus, if we realize His actual and veritable presence within us, we will pronounce this prayer with greater fervor and receive greater blessing for its recitation.

But we truly return to thee, O Mother Most Admirable, to exclaim that in thee, are accomplished all things most perfectly, most gloriously, in union with thy Divine Son. Whether it be corporeal, spiritual or divine, His Heart is thine, He is the life of thy life and the heart of thy Heart. May He be blessed, praised and glorified forever by all creatures, because of the graces imparted to thee, O Mary, and all the greatness of His humanity and His divinity!

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
March 10, 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