Ascending Mt. Carmel

Pray the Rosary!!!

2008-10-16T11:00:00.000-04:00

One day, through the Rosary and the Brown Scapular, I will save the world!
--Our Blessed Mother to St Dominic

St. Teresa of Avila

2008-10-15T23:13:00.003-04:00

Happy Feast Day of St. Teresa, founder of the Discalced Carmelites!!!

From the Divine Office

Regis supérni núntia,
Domum patérnam déseris,
Terris, Terésa, bárbaris
Christum datúra aut sánguinem.

Sed te manet suávior
Mors, pœna poscit dúlcior :
Divíni amóris cúspide
In vulnus icta cóncides.

O caritátis víctima !
Tu corda nostra cóncrema,
Tibíque gentes créditas
Avérni ab igne líbera.

Sit laus Patri cum Fílio
Et Spíritu Paráclito,
Tibíque, sancta Trínitas,
Nunc et per omne sæculum. Amen.

In Anglice
To herald him, the King divine,
A maid-child flees her home benign,
Intent with savages to live,
To them her blood, for Christ, to give.

But sweeter death awaits her far,
Whence all her pains the kinder are,
For love's consuming, fiery dart,
Would smite, and set on fire, her heart.

O Victim, whom God's love did claim,
Teresa, pray that love inflame
Each soul which fain would follow thee,
And from unholy fire be free.

To thee, O Father, as is meet,
With thy blest Son and Paraclete,
The Three in One and One in Three,
Be praises now and endlessly. Amen.

BTW, more to come!! I have to start doing this more often...

The Map of the Ascent

2008-07-30T10:43:00.004-04:00

The path, as developed by St John of the Cross

To reach satisfaction in all
desire satisfaction in nothing.
To come to the knowledge of all
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
desire to be nothing.

To come to enjoy what you have not
you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not
you must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not
you must go by a way in which you possess not.
To come to be what you are not
you must go by a way in which you are not.

When you delay in something
you cease to rush toward the all.
To go from the all to the all
you must deny yourself of all in all.
And when you come to the possession of the all
you must possess it without wanting anything.

In this nakedness the spirit
finds its quietude and rest, for in
coveting nothing, nothing tires it
by pulling it up, and nothing oppresses it
by pushing it down, because it is in
the center of its humility.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, and even on the Mount, nothing.

Flos Carmeli

2008-07-29T10:08:00.002-04:00

Flos Carmeli,
Vitis florigera,
Splendor caeli,
Virgo puerpera
Singularis:

Mater mitis,
Sed viri nescia,
Carmelitis
Da privilegia,
Stella maris.

Mater mitis
sed viri nescia
Carmelitis
esto propitia
stella maris.

Radix Jesse
germinans flosculum
Nos ad esse
tecum in saeculum
patiaris.

Inter spinas
quae crescis lilium
Serva puras
mentes fragiluim
tutelaris.

Armatura
Fortis Pugnantium
Furunt bella
tende praesidium
scapularis.

Per incerta
prudens consilium
Per adversa
jugie solatium
largiaris.

Mater dulcis
Carmeli domina,
plebem tuam
reple laetitia
qua bearis.

Paradisi
clavis et janua,
fac nos duci
quo, Mater, gloria
coronaris.
Amen

-Sequence for the feast of St Simon Stock and Our Lady of Mt Carmel

Interesting Quote on the Priesthood

2008-05-08T15:10:00.001-04:00

I found a neat quote by Saint John Chrysostom from one of his works discussing the priesthood (find it here)

"...when one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task,and the majority of men also;..."

Quo vado, Domine?

2008-05-04T15:40:00.000-04:00

No, that is not a typo. The title means "Where am I going, Lord?" Things have not been resolved in my struggles since I took this website offline a while back. I am still trying to discern where God wants me, and Carmel, more specifically in Wyoming, seems to continually call me. Why, you ask me, do you wish to leave the world when so many men are needed? I wish to leave so that I may be used for whatever God wishes to use me for. In the monastery, enclosed from the cares and concerns of the world, I can offer a life of prayer and intercession for those working on the outside. Just as Saint Therese, though she spent her whole spiritual life within Lisieux, became a patron of the missions, I too can pray for those who strive to restore the Church in the face of Modernism and the numerous heresies that followed. Only my debt hangs over me, and if I am able to do something about it...

Oremus pro invicem!

+JMJ+

Back Online!

2008-05-02T09:35:00.002-04:00

After a hiatus for a few months, I am back online!! I hope to write more often, as the school year ends and summer begins. Look for more to come!!