Newsletter #59 – 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 inexhaustible fountain is the fourth symbolic picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the Queen of heaven and earth.

MARY’S HEART, THE INEXHAUSTIBLE FOUNTAIN (Part 1)

The fourth symbolic picture of Our Lady’s most blessed Heart is the wonderful fountain that God caused to spring from the ground at the beginning of the world, as described in the second chapter of Genesis. “A spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth.” (Gen. 2, 6) St, Bonaventure tells us that this fountain was a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “She was prefigured in the fountain that sprang from the earth.” (In opus. inscripto Laus Virg.) But we have equal reason to say that this represented her Immaculate Heart, which is truly a living fountain whose heavenly waters irrigate not only the whole earth, but every created thing in Heaven as well as on earth.

Mary is the sealed fountain of the holy Spouse, which her divine Bridegroom calls “a fountain
sealed up,” (Cant. 4, 12) for it remained sealed not only against the world, the devil and every kind of sin, but it was closed even to the Cherubim and Seraphim, who could not penetrate the marvellous secrets or comprehend the inestimable treasures hidden by God in Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.

Sacred Scripture states that the heart of man is evil and inscrutable. (Jer. 17, 9) But the Heart of the Queen of Heaven inspires these words: “God created her in the Holy Ghost, and saw her, and numbered her, and measured her.” (Ecclus. 1, 9) In other words, so holy and impenetrable is the Heart of Mary that only God Who enclosed within His treasures of grace and put His seal upon it, can know the quality, quantity and price of the graces hidden in this sealed fountain. All we can say is that Mary’s immaculate Heart is a fountain of light, a fountain of tears, a fountain of holy and blessed water, a fountain of living and life-giving water, a fountain of milk and honey and a fountain of wine. It is the source of a great river, nay, of four miraculous streams, and finally, it is the source of an infinity of blessings and goodness.

The Heart of Mary is a true fountain of light

The Heart of Mary, as well as her name, which means “enlightened” or “the one who
enlightens,” and also “star of the sea,” is indeed a true fountain of light. Holy Church considers and honors her as the resplendent door of pure light; Tu porta lucis fulgida, and salutes her as the portal through which divine Light entered the world: Salve porta, ex qua mundo lux est orta. Truly the Heart of Mary is the fountain of the sun, because Mary is the Mother of the Sun of Justice, and this divine Sun is the fruit of Mary’s Heart.

O incredible wonder! O inconceivable miracle! Who could ever have thought that the sun could
be born of a star, or that a fountain could be the source of the sun, fons solis. Thus, then, the virginal Heart of Mary is a true fountain of light.

Mary’s Heart is a fountain of tears

It is said of the innumerable tears that poured from this sacred fountain and, united with those of the Redeemer Himself, cooperated in our redemption. O Mary, how many streams of tears have poured from thine eyes, with their source in thy loving, charitable, devoted and merciful Heart. Tears of love, tears of charity, tears of joy, of sorrow and of compassion! How often did not the ardent love of the maternal Heart for thy infinitely lovable Son cause thee to shed bitter tears, beholding Him so little loved, so much hated, offended and dishonored by the majority of men, although it was the duty of man to serve Him? How often thy burning charity for souls caused thee to weep because through their own malice, millions of precious souls would be lost, notwithstanding all that He did and suffered in order to save them? How many times have the holy angels witnessed tears of sublime devotion coursing down thy beautiful face, as thou wast absorbed in holy communion with the Divine Majesty? All the saints were granted the gift of tears, which could not possibly have been wanting in the Mother of Sorrows who has assured us that she possesses the fulness of gifts bestowed on all the saints. In plenitudine sanctorum detentia mea.(Ecclus. 24, 16)

O Mother of Jesus, the joy which filled thy peerless Heart on so many occasions while thou
wast on earth with thy beloved Son caused sweetest tears to flow from thine eyes. Those were tears of joy and consolation, for example, when He assumed our human nature in thy sacred womb, when thou didst visit thy saintly cousin Elizabeth, when thy dear Son was born in Bethlehem, when the three Holy Kings came to adore Him, when, after having lost Him for three days, thou didst find Him in the temple among the Doctors, when He visited thee after the resurrection and when thou didst watch His triumphant ascension into Heaven.

Alas, thy consolations in this life were negligible compared to the sufferings thou didst have to
endure. If the joys of thy Heart caused tears of rapture to flow from thine eyes, the poignant sorrows that were so often thine, especially at the time of the passion and death of thy beloved Son, made thee shed floods of bitter tears. Then were the sacred words fulfilled in thee: “Let tears run down like a torrent day and night: give thyself no rest, and let not the apple of thy eye cease.” (Lam. 2, 18)

Now then are not all these tears of joy, love, charity, devotion, sorrow and compassion like so
many waters streaming from the holy fountain of Mary’s Immaculate Heart? Oh, with what good
reason, therefore, do we call her admirable Heart a fountain of blessed, holy and precious water!

Mary’s Heart is a fountain of living water

The most pure Heart of Mary is also a fountain of living water, which means a fountain of
grace. This ought not to astonish us, for the Archangel Gabriel declared long ago that the Mother of the Saviour was full of grace, gratia plena, and the Church calls her Mater Gratiae, Mother of Grace, and Mater Divinae Gratiae, Mother of Divine Grace. The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, affirms that Our Lady is so full of grace that out of her abundance she can dispense graces to all men. (Opus. 8)

Her most generous Heart is indeed a fountain of living waters whose salutary streams flow on
all sides, over the land of the wicked as well as of the just, in imitation of the all-good and all-merciful Heart of our Heavenly Father who causes His providential rain to fall on the good and the bad alike. This is the reason why the Holy Ghost calls the charitable Heart of the Mother of Mercy “the fountain of gardens,” fons hortorum. (Cant. 4, 15) In another passage He names it the fountain that “shall water the torrent of thorns.” (Joel. 3, 18)

What are these gardens, what is this torrent of thorns, watered by this beautiful fountain?
The gardens are all the Orders of the Church that lead a truly Christian and holy life. They are
delicious gardens for the Son of God, blooming with flowers and fruit that the Spouse longs for when she exclaims: “Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love.” (Cant 2, 5) These mystical gardens likewise represent all holy souls, no matter, what their state or condition, in whom the heavenly Bridegroom finds His delight among the flowers of holy thoughts, desires and affections, and among the refreshing fruits of virtues and good works.

These gardens of delight are constantly watered by the fountain which is called by the Holy
Ghost “the fountain of gardens,” according to many holy Doctors who apply these words to the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Cf. Rupen. in Cantio)

Mary’s Immaculate Heart is, therefore, not only a fountain of living waters but a fountain of life, and of life eternal.

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
August 11, 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 August 2021, Father Pancras Raja