He writes, “Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a special call to the interior life, which is preeminently a Marian life. Our Lady wants us to resemble her not only in our outward appearance but, far more, in heart and spirit. If we gaze into Mary’s soul, we shall see that grace in her has flowered into a spiritual life of incalculable wealth: a life of recollection, prayer, uninterrupted oblation to God, continual contact, and intimate union with him. Mary’s soul is a sanctuary reserved for God alone, where no human creature has ever left its trace, where love and zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of humankind reign supreme. […] Those who want to live their devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel to the full must follow Mary into the depths of her interior life. Carmel is the symbol of the contemplative life, the life wholly dedicated to the quest for God, wholly orientated towards intimacy with God; and the one who has best realized this highest of ideals is Our Lady herself, ‘Queen and Beauty of Carmel’.”
The first Carmelite monks looked to our Lady as a model of contemplative prayer. For, Scripture tells us that Mary through contemplation and prayerful listening to God, kept and pondered in her heart the words of God.
In many paintings of the Annunciation, Mary is depicted with the scriptures open on her lap, to show that she had made her mind, her body, her heart a sanctuary for the Eternal Word to dwell even prior to Him becoming incarnate in her womb. St. Augustine put it this way, he said, "Mary, full of grace, first conceived Jesus in her heart before she conceived him in her womb."
So too every Christian is to follow Our Lady’s example, in making our hearts a sanctuary for God. There needs to be time, every day, where we can be found, like her, with the scriptures upon our lap, pondering the promises of God and the mysteries of God, a point every day where we become quiet enough to hear the tiny whisper of God’s voice in the silence of our hearts for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
That all Christians may grow in prayerfulness and fidelity to the Divine Will through the intercession and example of Our Lady.
For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, and for blessings upon the Carmelite Order as it works and prays for the good of the Church.
That our young people on summer vacation may be protected from all physical and spiritual harm, shielded from the errors and perversions of the world, and kept in closeness to God through prayer and virtue.
For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, for all those recovering from or undergoing surgery today, and for the consolation of the dying.
For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.
Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord
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