Newsletter #74 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Apostacy, war, diseases, the ‘mark of the beast’ – truly we live in apocalyptic times. During this holy season of Lent of 2022, Our Lady has received the spotlight both in the Church and in the world. As the Russia-Ukraine war (some claim it is actually a USA-Russia war) gets uglier, even non-Catholics are hoping for peace when the Vatican tries again to perform the consecration (properly – as Our Lady of Fatima requested) of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Meanwhile, in the background, the elite/globalists continue their agenda to roll out, in the near future, the ‘mark of the beast’.
The ‘mark of the beast’ is mentioned in the last Book of the Bible, the Apocalypse (13:16-18):
“And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.”
This ‘mark of the beast’ may be coming to this nation sooner than most people think. For example, Sweden has already microchipped several thousand people with vaccine passport/digital ID chips. This is implanted in the palm of the hand (mark on the right hand?). Furthermore, the US Pentagon revealed that it developed a chip to scan for vaccines, and the United Nations Program ID 2020 are working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make a biometric connected to a vaccine.
Also note that there is a patent titled ‘WO2020 06 06 06′ detailing nanotechnology and its transmission links to cryptocurrency. Notice the 3 ’06’ in the patent title. It seems as if God is warning us beforehand using the title of the patent.
Furthermore, Our Lady receives the spotlight, during this time of the liturgical year, due to two special feasts: 1. the Annunciation (March 25) and 2. the Seven Dolours (Friday in Passion Week).

THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE ANGELUS PRAYER
The Angelus prayer (so called from the Latin word with which it begins, namely, ‘Angelus Domini …’ – The Angel of the Lord declared onto Mary … etc.), as explained by Father William Barry (1858), is one of the most popular in use amongst the faithful and it has moreover received the approbation of several Popes. It is said three times a day, morning, noon and evening, in honor of the Incarnation of our Lord. It is composed of three Hail Marys, preceded by a versicle and response taken from the words which Holy Scripture uses in describing the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, announcing to her that she was to become the Mother of God. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary – and she conceived of the Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, etc. Behold the handmaid of the Lord – be it done unto me according to thy word. Hail Mary, etc. And the Word was made flesh – and dwelt among us. Hail Mary, etc. (the entire prayer is below).
The Incarnation is both the basis and the completion of Christianity. Without that mystery, Christ would not be, and therefore His Religion could have no existence. Christ is the name – not of the Eternal Word – but of the Eternal Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, made Man.
If there had been no Incarnation, human nature would not have been assumed, and there would have been no Christ. What the world would have been without an Incarnate God we do not know, but we do know that it is now in possession of infinite treasures of grace, each of which is the germ of many degrees of heavenly glory, all of which proceed from the merits of Jesus Christ the Man-God. Hence all practical religion can be reduced to faith in the Incarnation and love of it.
He who believes this Adorable Mystery with a living supernatural belief is irresistibly impelled by the religious cravings of his mind and heart to admit an infallible Church and the Mystery of the Blessed Eucharist. God’s works of love succeed each other in an increasing ratio; each seems to surpass its predecessor in its manifestation of divine beauty and condescension.
The Law of Moses, though one of fear, was a greater revelation of love than the Law of Nature. Christ’s Law of Grace is the reality and the substance of which the Mosaic Dispensation was the type and the shadow. There are these three – Nature, Grace and Glory, and of these the greatest is Glory.
Let us apply this canon of divine action to the Incarnation. Earth was once blessed with the presence of the God-Man. The mountain winds of Judea had heard the breathings of His midnight prayer, the storm-lashed waves of its lakes had obeyed His voice and lulled themselves to rest, His feet had wandered through its fields and villages and towns, His words of peace and hope and love had echoed in the ears and spoken to the hearts of its people.
But He stayed not always; He passed away from earth to His rest in the Bosom of His Father. Was God’s usual loving mode of procedure to be reversed? Were the world’s future ages to look upon the Incarnation as a past historic fact, just as the Patriarchs and the Prophets had looked forward to it as future? Men once had their Jesus amongst them, were they and their children to lose Him? Ah no! our Lord is too good. He would not leave His children orphans.
The Incarnation is an abiding fact on earth, in the divine and a human element in the Church, just as there is the Divine and the Human Nature in Jesus Christ. Its divine element is its Infallibility and its Sacraments, or, in one word, the Papacy; its human element, its individual human members. And what is the Blessed Sacrament but Jesus Himself, the Incarnate God, dwelling with His own unto the end!
The Angelus is the prayer of the Incarnation; this suffices to recommend it to the reverence and love of the faithful. The thrice-renewed daily sound of the Angelus bell is, in Catholic countries, the signal for general prayer. From the soaring spire of Gothic Cathedral, from the modest belfry of the village church, from convent, school and hospital, the blessed notes of the Angelical salutation float out on the breezes of heaven.
For a moment “labor ceases to knock with her hundred hands at the portals of morn, noon and even.” Prince and people, rich and poor fall on their knees and bend their heads in prayer; they hail the advent of the Word made Flesh.
This beautiful devotion prevails to a great extent even among us, though so far removed in distance, but not in love, we trust, from the associations and traditions of Catholic Europe. The Angelus is regularly rung from our steeples, but still, we do not obey the holy invitation to the extent we might.
It is not required, of course, that we should expose ourselves and our religion to insult by kneeling down in the streets of a Protestant or infidel city at the sound of the Angelus bell, but does any valid reason exist why we should not say the prayer at home, faithfully and devoutly? Could we not say it when walking along the streets, and even take off the hat at the versicle: The Word was made Flesh, without at all attracting observation?
Pope Benedict XIII, by a brief, dated Sept. 14, 1724, granted a plenary indulgence once a month, on the usual conditions, to those who say the Angelus three times a day, and a partial indulgence of one hundred days for each recitation.
Pope Benedict XIV had decided that the Angelus is to be said standing on Saturday evening and the whole of Sunday, but at all other times kneeling. In Lent, however, it is to be said standing on Saturday at noon, because first Vespers have already begun.
The anthem ‘Regina caeli’ is to be said, in standing posture, in place of the Angelus, during the Paschal time, that is from Vespers of Holy Saturday to the First Vespers of Trinity Sunday.
They who do not know the Regina each may continue to recite the Angelus and gain the indulgences. Persons residing in places where the Angelus-bell is not rung, or who cannot hear it, do not lose the indulgences, if they are faithful to recite the prayer morning, noon and evening.
The Popes suspend indulgences for the living during the Jubilee or Holy Year, which occurs every twenty-fifth year. This is done in order to make the faithful more eager to gain the indulgence of the Jubilee. The Angelus, however, is exempted from this general regulation as a mark of the peculiar favor with which it is regarded by the Holy See.

THE ANGELUS BELL
Day by day, every morning, noon and evening, (as explained in ‘Christian Family’,1906) the bell of every Catholic Church sends forth, in slow succession, three times three strokes and then a longer peal.
To a Catholic the meaning of this is very plain. It is the Angelus bell inviting him to praise God in the great mystery of the Incarnation: and to ask, through the intercession of our heavenly Mother, the blessing of Him, who ripens the fruits and gives flowers to the fields.
The Angelus Prayer is beautifully composed of various scriptural passages relating to the Incarnation of the Son of God (Luke 1, 26 – 39. John I, 14.) Three times the angelical salutation is repeated: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” (Luke 1, 28.)
Everyone has heard of Millet’s celebrated painting called, “The Angelus” and most of you have seen copies of the picture. Two venerable peasants are standing in the foreground, with hands folded and heads bowed in reverence: and in the distance the spire of the village church peers out of the dark-green foliage. The shades of twilight are falling. The pious Catholic people are listening to the far-off peal of the Angelus bell. And as they listen their memories are carried back through the centuries to that beautiful evening of Nazareth; where the Virgin Mary kneels in silent prayer, and, on a sudden, sees before her the resplendent figure of the Angel Gabriel, who greets her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.”
And seeing this in spirit, the pious souls repeat, according to the ancient Catholic practice: “The angel of the Lord announced unto Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Ghost.” Again, the bell’s soft melody comes floating through the evening air; and they repeat the words of the Virgin: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.” (Luke 1, 38.)
At the last three strokes, they say: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1, 14.) Now the bell sends forth a long joyous peal; and they conclude: “Pray for us, O holy Mother of God: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”
This is the ancient Catholic practice of the Angelus, which seems to have been foreshadowed by the words of the Psalmist: “Evening and morning and at noon I will speak and declare, and the Lord shall hear my voice.” (Ps. 54, 18.).

THE COMPLETE ANGELUS PRAYER:
V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
R. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to thy word. (Hail Mary, full of grace,… etc.)

V. And the Word was made Flesh.
R. And dwelt among us. (Hail Mary, full of grace, … etc.)

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

(The Faithful who at dawn, at noon and in the evening, or as soon thereafter as possible, devoutly recite the Angelus, with the appropriate versicles, and prayer, may gain an indulgence of 10 years each time for themselves or the Holy Souls in Purgatory.)

ENGLAND and LADY DAY
In England, Lady Day was New Year’s Day (i.e. the new year began on 25 March) from 1155 until 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Great Britain and its Empire and with it the first of January as the official start of the year in England, Wales and Ireland. (Scotland changed its New Year’s Day to 1 January in 1600).
The Christian Feast of the Annunciation takes place on 25 March of every year. It celebrates the day when the Blessed Virgin Mary had miraculously conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost. Beginning in 1155, 25 March was celebrated as the start of the new year in England. To the Tudors, the holiday was called, “Lady Day.” Lady Day was exactly nine months before Christmas on 25 December, the birthday of Christ. How did Lady Day come to mark the beginning of the legal year?
Lady Day, as H.R. Darsie explains, was the first of four quarterly dates in the English calendar. On these quarterly dates, school terms would begin, and servants would start work. More traditional schools still observe start dates on quarter days, such as Michaelmas term, beginning on 29 September. In order, the quarter days are Lady Day on 25 March, Midsummer Day on 24 June, Michaelmas Day on 29 September, and Christmas Day on 25 December.
New Year’s Day, 1 January, was traditionally viewed as the day of Christ’s circumcision. It was included in the Twelve Days of Christmas, and was the day for gift-giving. Being set in the dead of winter, not many economic activities could take place. The days were shorter, and though work could be tended to via candlelight, it was made more difficult. Agricultural activity was over for the year or had greatly wound down. By contrast, Lady Day was a way of marking when the agricultural season started and when monies were due to be paid. There are several notations in Henry VIII’s accounts of monies being paid or coming due on 25 March each year.
Farmers and their families who worked different lands would travel to their new plot so that they could begin work on Lady Day. Lady Day is the quarter day closest to the vernal equinox, when there is the same amount of daylight as darkness. Customary in Henry VIII’s times, Lady Day would also mark when a person’s appointment to office would begin. Of note, the British personal tax day beginning 6 April is a leftover relic of Lady Day. Once the new calendar was adopted and the difference of days adjust for, it was found that the day previously known to be 25 March was in fact 6 April.
A more important holy day occurred a month later, on 25 April. This Major Rogation day was a religious holiday, observed in fasting and prayer. It was a time to ask for forgiveness of last year’s sins, and to ask for benevolence in the coming year. There were religious processions during the time of Henry VIII.
Since Summer 1542, England was experiencing what seemed like near-daily rains, making the outlook for that year’s crop rather poor. As such, England responded by engrossing its observation of the major Rogation. In his Chronicle, Holinshed records that:
“Wood was sold very dear in the winter season of this year, and likewise vittles both flesh and fish grew to a high price towards the spring [of 1543], by reason (as was thought) of intemperate wet summer last past, causing great death among cattle.”
Changes were put in place to address the issue, and there was a prolonged observance of the Major Rogation. Changes included restricting the number of dishes a person could eat. Holinshed recorded:
“Against Easter at a court of aldermen kept in the Guildhall the twentieth of March 1542 (remember, Lady Day, 25 March, was the legal beginning of the year. Thus, the court of aldermen took place in 1543 in the modern calendar), it was enacted by the Lord Mayor and his brethren, that the Mayor and sheriffs should be served at their tables but with one course at dinner and supper in their houses; the Mayor to have but seven dishes at the most at one mess for his own table, and the sheriffs and every other alderman but six dishes, upon pain to forfeit every dish [the amount of] forty shillings at every time when they offended in this ordinance.”
Some of the ordinances enacted took effect on 4 April 1543, which was Easter Sunday. Holinshed continued,
“It was also enacted, that from the feast of Easter then next issuing, neither Mayor nor his brethren should buy any crane, swan, or bustard, upon pain to forfeit every fowl by them so bought, twenty shillings….”
Though still large quantities of food, these laws show how dire the situation in England was becoming. Believing that the country was being punished by God, the necessity of everyone properly and devoutly observing the Major Rogation and Lent was of even more importance than usual.
Lady Day, with its charming name, was not a celebrated holiday. Instead, it was strictly legal, with some very rare exceptions. The Major Rogation was more important and was not observed until a month after Lady Day.

ENGLAND – OUR LADY’S DOWRY
Speaking of England, we should mention one more important fact. “Our Lady’s Dowry” is a title of the country of England. Why is England called “Our Lady’s Dowry”?
The expression “Our Lady’s Dowry” describing England’s close relationship, even consecration to Mary, seems to be first and foremost fruit of a strong devotion of this country to the Mother of Jesus. This is what T.E. Bridgett, CSSR, believes and explains in his book “Our Lady’s Dowry: How England Gained That Title” (London, 1890). The key text he uses to support this contention reads as follows:
“The contemplation of the great mystery of the Incarnation has drawn all Christian nations to venerate her (Our Lady) from whom come the first beginnings of our Redemption. But we English, being the servants of her special inheritance and her own dowry, as we are commonly called, ought to surpass others in the fervour of our praises and devotions.”
Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote these sentences in 1399 to the Bishop of London and the rest of his suffragan bishops. Arundel describes how the power of England has augmented thanks to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. At the special request of King Henry IV, he enjoins that henceforth the bells should invite people to prayer not only at the ringing of the curfew but also early in the morning. The prayers to be said on these two occasions were the Lord’s Prayer and the Angelic salutation five times (Wilkins, Concilia, vol. III, 246).
There is however also the hypothesis that the origin of this title arose from an act of donation or consecration by King Richard II (1367-1400). The conclusion rests mainly on a picture which was formerly in the English College of Rome (see Bridgett, fourth ed., preface, V).
Some say it goes back to Edward the Confessor in the 11th century. It was certainly in common use by the mid-fourteenth century.
In regards to the meaning of the term “dowry,” some say that in the context of medieval England, it refers to a portion of property set aside by a husband for the care of his bride in the event of his death. Others identify it as a similar gift provided by the bride’s family, as we normally understand the word. Either way, it is a particular possession of the lady, belonging specifically to her.
King Richard II dedicated England to Our Lady around the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1381. This event was depicted in a painting showing the king and queen handing a globe of England to Our Lady, with the inscription: “Dos tua Virgo pia haec est, quare rege, Maria”. (This is thy Dowry, loving Virgin, therefore rule over it, Mary).
This painting has, unfortunately, been lost, but the Wilton Diptych—painted in the late 1390s—is similar and we still have that one. (It is in the National Gallery in London). Note the angel holding the flag of England. The orb at its apex contains a miniscule map of England.
A number of consecrations of England to Our Lady have taken place since the late nineteenth century. Just two years ago, on March 29th, 2020, the country was re-dedicated as Our Lady’s Dowry. The dedication followed a nation-wide tour of a pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, England’s most famous shrine to Our Lady.
Although England and the other countries of the West have wandered far from their ancient faith, hope always flourishes for those who know the power of Our Lady. May the prayers of her faithful children in Great Britain and throughout the world bring this once-devoted country back to its original fervor.

THE SEVEN DOLOURS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Friday of Passion Week is consecrated, in a special manner, to the sufferings which the Holy Mother of God endured at the foot of the Cross. As the renowned Dom Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger explains (he was a French priest and Benedictine monk, who served for nearly 40 years as the Abbot of the monastery of Solesmes in the 1800’s) the entire Holy Week is fully taken up with the celebration of the mysteries of Jesus’ Passion; and, although the remembrance of Mary’s share in those sufferings is often brought before the Faithful during Holy Week, yet, the thought of what her Son, our Divine Redeemer, goes through for our salvation, so absorbs our attention and love, that it is not then possible to honour, as it deserves, the sublime mystery of the Mother’s Compassion.
It was but fitting, therefore, that one day in the year should be set apart for this sacred duty; and what day could be more appropriate, than the Friday of Passion Week, which, though sacred to the Passion, admits the celebration of Saints’ Feasts.
As far back as the 15th century, (that is, in the year 1423,) we find the pious Archbishop of Cologne, Theodoric, prescribing this Feast to be kept by his people. It was gradually introduced, and with the connivance of the Holy See, into several other countries; and at length, in the last century, Pope Benedict the Thirteenth, by a decree dated August 22nd, 1727, ordered it to be kept in the whole Church, under the name of the Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for, up to that time, it had gone under various names.
We will explain the title thus given to it, as also the first origin of the devotion of the Seven Dolours, when our Liturgical Year brings us to the Third Sunday of September, the second Feast of Mary’s Dolours. What the Church proposes to her children’s devotion for this Friday of Passion Week, is that one special Dolour of Mary, her standing at the Foot of the Cross.
Among the various titles given to this Feast, before it was extended, by the Holy See to the whole Church, we may mention, Our Lady of Pity, The Compassion of our Lady, and the one that was so popular throughout France, Notre Dame de la Pamoison. These few historical observations prove that this Feast was dear to the devotion of the people, even before it received the solemn sanction of the Church.
That we may clearly understand the object of this Feast, and spend it, as the Church would have us do, in paying due honour to the Mother of God and of men, we must recall to our minds this great truth: that God, in the designs of his infinite wisdom, has willed that Mary should have a share in the work of the world’s Redemption.
The mystery of the present Feast is one of the applications of this Divine law, a law which reveals to us the whole magnificence of God’s Plan; it is also, one of the many realizations of the prophecy, that Satan’s pride was to be crushed by a Woman. In the work of our Redemption, there are three interventions of Mary, that is, she is thrice called upon to take part in what God Himself did.
The first of these was in the Incarnation of the Word, Who takes not Flesh in her virginal womb until she has given her consent to become His Mother; and this she gave by that solemn Fiat which blessed the world with a Saviour. The second was in the sacrifice which Jesus consummated on Calvary, where she was present, that she might take part in the expiatory offering. The third was on the day of Pentecost, when she received the Holy Ghost, as did the Apostles, in order that she might effectively labour in the establishment of the Church.
We have already explained on the Feast of the Annunciation, the share Mary had in that wonderful mystery of the Incarnation, which God wrought for His own glory and for man’s redemption and sanctification. On the Feast of Pentecost, we shall speak of the Church commencing and progressing under the active influence of the Mother of God. Today we must show what part she took in the mystery of her Son’s Passion; we must tell the sufferings, the Dolours, she endured at the foot of the Cross, and the claims she thereby won to our filial gratitude.
On the fortieth day after the Birth of our Emmanuel, we followed, to the Temple, the happy Mother carrying her Divine Babe in her arms. A venerable old man was there, waiting to receive her Child; and, when he had Him in his arms, he proclaimed Him to be the Light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel.
But, turning to the Mother, he spoke to her these heart-rending words: Behold! this Child is set to be a sign that shall be contradicted, and a sword shall pierce thine own soul. This prophecy of sorrow for the Mother told us that the holy joys of Christmas were over, and that the season of trial, for both Jesus and Mary, had begun. It had, indeed, begun; for, from the night of the Fight into Egypt, up to this present day, when the malice of the Jews is plotting the great crime, what else has the life of our Jesus been, but the bearing humiliation, insult, persecution, and ingratitude? And if so, what has the Mother gone through? what ceaseless anxiety? what endless anguish of heart? But, let us pass by all her other sufferings, and come to the morning of the great Friday.
Mary knows, that on the previous night, her Son has been betrayed by one of his Disciples, that is, by one that Jesus had numbered among his intimate friends; she herself had often given him proofs of her maternal affection. After a cruel Agony, her Son has been manacled as a malefactor, and led by armed men to Caiphas, His worst enemy. Thence, they have dragged Him before the Roman Governor, whose sanction the Chief Priests and the Scribes must have before they can put Jesus to death.
Mary is in Jerusalem; Magdalene, and the other holy women, the friends of Jesus, are with her; but they cannot prevent her from hearing the loud shouts of the people, and if they could, how is such a heart as hers to be slow in its forebodings? The report spreads rapidly through the city that the Roman Governor is being urged to sentence Jesus to be crucified. Whilst the entire populace is on the move towards Calvary, shouting out their blasphemous insults at her Jesus, will His Mother keep away, she that bore Him in her womb, and fed Him at her breast? Shall His enemies be eager to glut their eyes with the cruel sight, and His own Mother be afraid to be near Him?
The air resounded with the yells of the mob. Joseph of Arimathea, the noble counsellor, was not there, neither was the learned Nicodemus; they kept at home, grieving over what was done. The crowd that went before and after the Divine Victim was made up of wretches without hearts, saving only a few who were seen to weep as they went along; they were women; Jesus saw them, and spoke to them. And if these women, from mere sentiments of veneration, or, at most, of gratitude, thus testified their compassion, would Mary do less? could she bear to be elsewhere than close to her Jesus?
Our motive for insisting so much upon this point, is that we may show our detestation of that school of modern rationalism, which, regardless of the instincts of a mother’s heart and of all tradition, has dared to call in question the Meeting of Jesus and Mary on the way to Calvary.
These systematic contradicters are too prudent to deny that Mary was present when Jesus was crucified; the Gospel is too explicit, Mary stood near the Cross (St. John 19:25): but, they would persuade us, that whilst the Daughters of Jerusalem courageously walked after Jesus, Mary went up to Calvary by some secret path! What a heartless insult to the love of the incomparable Mother.
No, Mary, who is, by excellence, the Valiant Woman, (Prov. 31:10.) was with Jesus as He carried his Cross. And who could describe her anguish and her love, as her eye met that of her Son tottering under his heavy load? Who could tell the affection, and the resignation, of the look He gave her in return? Who could depict the eager and respectful tenderness wherewith Magdalene and the other holy women grouped around this Mother, as she followed her Jesus up Calvary, there to see Him crucified and die? The distance between the Fourth and Tenth Station of the Dolorous Way is long: it is marked with Jesus’ Blood, and the Mother’s tears.
Jesus and Mary have reached the summit of the hill, that is to be the Altar of the holiest and cruelest Sacrifice: but the divine decree permits not the Mother as yet to approach her Son. When the Victim is ready, then She that is to offer him shall come forward.
Meanwhile, they nail her Jesus to the Cross; and each blow of the hammer was a wound to Mary’s heart. When, at last, she is permitted to approach, accompanied by the Beloved Disciple, (who has made amends for his cowardly flight,) and the disconsolate Magdalene and the other holy women, what unutterable anguish must have filled the soul of this Mother, when, raising up her eyes, she sees the mangled Body of her Son, stretched upon the Cross, with His Face all covered with blood, and His Head wreathed with a crown of thorns!
Here, then, is this King of Israel, of whom the Angel had told her such glorious things in his prophecy! Here is that Son of hers, whom she has loved both as her God and as the fruit of her own womb! And who are they that have reduced Him to this pitiable state?
Men, for whose sakes, rather than for her own, she conceived him, gave him birth, and nourished him! Oh! if, by one of those miracles, which his Heavenly Father could so easily work, He might be again restored to her! If that Divine Justice, which He has taken upon Himself to appease, would be satisfied with what He has already suffered! – but no; He must die; He must breathe forth His blessed Soul after a long and cruel agony.
Mary, then, is at the foot of the Cross, there to witness the death of her Son. He is soon to be separated from her. In three hours’ time, all that will be left her of this beloved Jesus will be a lifeless Body, wounded from head to foot. Our words are too cold for such a scene as this: let us listen to those of St. Bernard, which the Church has inserted in her Matins of this Feast:
“O Blessed Mother! a sword of sorrow pierced thy soul, and we may well call thee more than Martyr, for the intensity of thy compassion surpassed all that a bodily passion could produce. Could any sword have made thee smart so much as that word which pierced thy heart, reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit: ‘Woman! behold thy son!’ What an exchange! John, for Jesus! the servant, for the Lord! the disciple, for the Master! the son of Zebedee, for the Son of God! a mere man, for the very God! How must not thy most loving heart have been pierced with the sound of these words, when even ours, that are hard as stone and steel, break down as we think of them! Ah! my Brethren, be not surprised when you are told that Mary was a Martyr in her soul. Let him alone be surprised, who has forgotten that St. Paul counts it as one of the greatest sins of the Gentiles, that they were without affection. Who could say that of Mary? God forbid it be said of us, the servants of Mary! (Sermon On the Twelve Stars.)”
No, the undaunted Mother keeps close to the Body of her Son. She watches them as they take it down from the Cross; and when, at last, the friends of Jesus, with all the respect due to both Mother and Son, enable her to embrace it, she raises it upon her lap, and He that once lay upon her knees receiving the homage of the Eastern Kings, now lays there cold, mangled, bleeding, dead! And as she looks upon the wounds of this divine Victim, she gives them the highest honour in the power of creatures, she kisses them, she bathes them with her tears, she adores them, but oh! with what intensity of loving grief!
The hour is far advanced; and before sunset, He, Jesus, the author of life, must be buried. The Mother puts the whole vehemence of her love into a last kiss, and oppressed with a bitterness great as is the sea (Lament. 1:4; 2:13), she makes over this adorable Body to them that have to embalm and then lay it on the sepulchral slab. The sepulchre is closed; and Mary, accompanied by John, her adopted son, and Magdalene, and the holy women, and the two disciples that have presided over the Burial, returns sorrowing to the deicide City.
Now, in all this, there is another mystery besides that of Mary’s sufferings. Her Dolours at the Foot of the Cross include and imply a truth, which we must not pass by, or we shall not understand the full beauty of today’s Feast. Why would God have her assist in person at such a scene as this of Calvary? Why was not she, as well as Joseph, taken out of this world before this terrible day of Jesus’ Death? Because God had assigned her a great office for that day, and it was to be under the Tree of the Cross that she, the second Eve, was to discharge her office.
As the heavenly Father had waited for her consent before He sent His Son into the world; so, likewise, He called for her obedience and devotedness, when the hour came for that Son to be offered up in sacrifice for the world’s Redemption. Was not Jesus hers? her Child? her own and dearest treasure? And yet, God gave Him not to her, until she had assented to become his Mother; in like manner, he would not take Him from her, unless she gave Him back.
But, see what this involved, see what a struggle it entailed upon this most loving Heart! It is the injustice, the cruelty, of men that rob her of her Son; how can she, His Mother, ratify, by her consent, the Death of Him, Whom she loved with a twofold love, as her Son, and as her God? But, on the other hand, if Jesus be not put to death, the human race is left a prey to Satan, sin is not atoned for, and all the honours and joys of her being Mother of God are of no use or blessing to us. This Virgin of Nazareth, this noblest heart, this purest creature, whose affections were never blunted with the selfishness which so easily makes its way into souls that have been wounded by original sin, what shall she do?
Her devotedness to mankind, her conformity with the will of her Son Who so vehemently desires the world’s salvation, lead her, a second time, to pronounce the solemn Fiat: she consents to the immolation of her Son. It is not God’s justice that takes Him from her; it is she herself that gives Him up; but, in return, she is raised to a degree of greatness, which her humility could never have suspected was to be hers: an ineffable union is made to exist between the two offerings, that of the Incarnate Word and that of Mary; the Blood of the Divine Victim, and the Tears of the Mother, flow together for the redemption of mankind.
We can now understand the conduct and the courage of this Mother of Sorrows. Unlike that other mother, of whom the Scripture speaks, the unhappy Agar, who, after having sought in vain how she might quench the thirst of her Ismael in the desert, withdrew from him that she might not see him die; Mary no sooner hears that Jesus is condemned to death, than she rises, hastens to Him, and follows Him to the place where He is to die. And what is her attitude at the foot of His cross? Does her matchless grief overpower her? Does she swoon? or fall?
No: the Evangelist says: “There stood by the Cross of Jesus, his Mother.” (John 19:25). The sacrificing Priest stands, when offering at the altar; Mary stood for such a sacrifice as hers was to be. St Ambrose, whose affectionate heart and profound appreciation of the mysteries of religion have revealed to us so many precious traits of Mary’s character, thus speaks of her position at the foot of the Cross: “She stood opposite the Cross, gazing, with maternal love, on the wounds of her Son; and thus she stood, not waiting for her Jesus to die, but for the world to be saved (In Lucam, cap. xxiii.).”
Thus, this Mother of Sorrows, when standing on Calvary, blessed us who deserved but maledictions; she loved us; she sacrificed her Son for our salvation. In spite of all the feelings of her maternal heart, she gave back to the Eternal Father the divine treasure He had entrusted to her keeping. The sword pierced through and through her soul, but we were saved; and she, though a mere creature, cooperated with her Son in the work of our salvation.
Can we wonder, after this, that Jesus chose this moment for the making her the Mother of men, in the person of John the Evangelist, who represented us? Never had Mary’s Heart loved us as she did then; from that time forward, therefore, let this second Eve be the true Mother of the living (Gen., iii. 20)! The Sword, by piercing her Immaculate Heart, has given us admission there. For time and eternity, Mary will extend to us the love she has borne for her Son, for she has just heard Him saying to her that we are her children. He is our Lord, for He has redeemed us; She is our Lady, for she generously cooperated in our redemption.
Animated by this confidence, O Mother of Sorrows! we come before thee, on this Feast of thy Dolours, to offer thee our filial love. Jesus, the Blessed Fruit of thy Womb, filled thee with joy as thou gavest Him birth; we, thy adopted children, entered into thy Heart by the cruel piercing of the Sword of Suffering. And yet, O Mary! love us, for thou didst cooperate with our Divine Redeemer in saving us.
How can we not trust in the love of thy generous Heart, when we know, that, for our salvation, thou didst unite thyself to the Sacrifice of thy Jesus? What proofs hast thou not unceasingly given us of thy maternal tenderness, O Queen of Mercy! O Refuge of Sinners! O untiring Advocate for us in all our miseries! Deign, sweet Mother, to watch over us, during these days of grace. Give us to feel and relish the Passion of thy Son. It was consummated in thy presence; thine own share in it was magnificent! Oh! make us enter into all its mysteries, that so our souls, redeemed by the Blood of thy Son, and helped by thy Tears, may be thoroughly converted to the Lord, and persevere, henceforward, faithful in His service.
PIOUS EXERCISE IN HONOUR OF OUR LADY OF DOLOURS:
Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows became a standard devotion in the Church around the 14th century. It was revealed to St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373) that devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Seven Sorrows would bring great signal graces. The devotion consists in praying seven Hail Mary’s while meditating on the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY:

The Prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:34-35)
The Flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-21)
The Loss of Jesus for Three Days (Luke 2:41-50)
The Carrying of the Cross (John 19:17)
The Crucifixion of Jesus (John 19:18-30)
Jesus Taken Down from the Cross (John 19:39-40)
Jesus Laid in the Tomb (John 19:39-42)

SEVEN PROMISES
The Blessed Virgin Mary grants seven graces to the souls who honor her daily by meditating (i.e. mental prayer) on her seven sorrows (dolors). The Hail Mary is prayed seven times, once after each meditation.

“I will grant peace to their families.”
“They will be enlightened about the Divine Mysteries.”
“I will console them in their pains, and I will accompany them in their work.”
“I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.”
“I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.”
“I will visibly help them at the moment of their death. They will see the face of their Mother.”
“I have obtained this grace from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven, and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.”

AVE MARIA!
Father Joseph Poisson
(Note: this Newsletter was written before March 25.)

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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

Bishop Pfeiffer Sermon & Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate heart in union with Pope 3, 25, 22

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Posted in Newsletters and tagged Father Joseph Poisson, March 2022