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Grow in Devotion to Our Blessed Mother

by Filed Under: Brown Scapular, Consecration, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Lent, Pre-Lent, Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary Leave a Comment

This one devotion was a catalyst for so many of our graces and refinements. It transformed us and brought us closer to Our Lord in ways that we never imagined possible. It also brought us to the traditions of the Faith & the Tridentine Mass.

It is why I placed it #1 on my list — devotion to the Blessed Mother. St. Louis de Montfort tells us the following.

“If, then, we establish solid devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and secure means for finding Jesus Christ. If devotion to Our Lady removed us from Jesus Christ, we should have to reject it as an illusion of the devil; but so far from this being the case, devotion to Our Lady is, on the contrary, necessary for us…as a means of finding Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving Him tenderly, of serving Him faithfully.”

Here are some ways that you can grow to know, love, and honor Our Blessed Mother.

💙Make a Total Consecration as prescribed by St. Louis de Montfort — Do it as a family if possible.

💙Pray the Holy Rosary daily — If you already pray 5 decades, pray the entire 15 decades. Pray as a family.

💙Consecrate you’re Children to the BVM — We consecrate them in utero and renew at their baptism. They make their Total Consecration when they are old enough as we renew as a family.

💙Begin First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary – Our Lady of Fatima said, “I shall come to ask… that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.”

💙Learn about & Enroll in the Brown Scapular and/or the Miraculous Medal – Both are sacramentals given you us by Our Lady, a means of disposing one’s soul to receive grace.

💙Meditate on the Seven Sorrows of Mary – The devotion consists in praying seven Hail Mary’s while meditating on the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

The BVM willingly suffered alongside her Divine Son as he gave his life to save the world, and she felt the bitterness of his passion as only a mother can. This devotion is especially remembered during September, the Month of Our Lady of Sorrows and during the season of Lent, with a specific observance on the Friday of Passion Week.

Our Blessed Mother will take us straight to the heart of Jesus!

AD JESUM PER MARIAM

All for Jesus through Mary

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

by Filed Under: 07 July, Brown Scapular, Our Lady of Mount Carmel 2 Comments

“O Mary, flower of Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, who brought forth the Son of God yet remained a Virgin, sweet and Immaculate Mother, grant the favors your children implore, O Star of the sea” ~ St. Simon Stock

COMMEMORATION OF
OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL (1251AD)

GREATER DOUBLE / WHITE
Simon Stock, a holy youth of the County of Kent in England, was told by Our Lady that he would join a religious order not yet known to the English. In due time Carmelites crossed the Channel, and Simon entered the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Carmelites in England chose Simon Stock as their prior general in 1245. Mary appeared to Simon on July 16, 1251, and gave him the scapular as an assurance of Her protection. Devotion to the scapular spread quickly throughout Christendom.INTROIT
Let us all rejoice in the Lord as we celebrate the feast in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, upon which the angels rejoice and praise the Son of God.

Ps. 44:2. My heart overflows with good tidings; I sing my song to the king.
V. Glory be . . .COLLECT
O God, the order of Carmel was singularly honored when the title of the most blessed ever-virgin Mary, Your Mother, was given to it. Grant that we who commemorate this solemn feast today may be shielded by Her protection and attain everlasting happiness; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

 

READING Eccli. 24: 23-31 [Sirach]
As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
GRADUAL
You are blessed and venerable, O Virgin Mary, for without loss of your virginity you became the Mother of our Saviour.
V. O Virgin Mother of God, He whom the whole world cannot contain enclosed Himself in your womb and was made man.

Alleluia, alleluia! V.
Through you, O Mother of God, we have received back the life we had lost, for you have received your Son from heaven and bestowed upon the world its Saviour. Alleluia!

GOSPEL Luke 11:27-28
At that time, as Jesus was speaking to the multitudes, a certain woman from the crowd, lifted up her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts that nursed Thee.” But He said,  “Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Jer. 18:20
Remember, O Virgin Mother, to speak good things in our behalf before the face of God, that He may turn away His anger from us.

SECRET
Sanctify the gifts we offer You, O Lord, and grant that they may bring us closer to salvation through the intercession of Mary the Blessed Mother of God. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON
Most worthy Queen of the world, Mary, ever-virgin, who brought forth Christ, the Lord and Saviour of all mankind, pray for our peace and safety.

POSTCOMMUNION
O Lord, help us by the prayers of Your Immaculate ever-virgin Mother Mary. Her loving care has already brought us lasting blessings; may She shield us from all dangers and unite us in heart and mind; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

 

 Divine Intimacy

Presence of God – O Mary, Beauty of Carmel, make me worthy of your protection, clothe me with your scapular, and be the teacher of my interior life.

MEDITATION

The Blessed Virgin is a Mother who clothes us with grace and takes our supernatural life under her protection, in order to bring it to its full flowering in eternal life. She, the Immaculate, full of grace from the first moment of her conception, takes our souls stained by sin, and with a maternal gesture, cleanses them in the Blood of Christ and clothes them with grace, which, together with Him, she has merited for us. We can truly say that the garment of grace was woven by the blessed hands of Mary, who day by day, moment by moment, gave herself entirely, in union with her Son, for our salvation. Legend tells of the seamless robe which the Blessed Virgin wove for Jesus; but, for us–and in reality–she has done much more. She has cooperated in obtaining the garment of our eternal salvation, the wedding garment in which we shall enter the banquet hall of heaven. How she longs that this robe be imperishable! From the moment we received it, Mary has never ceased to follow us with her maternal gaze, to safeguard within us the life of grace. Each time we are converted and return to God or rise again after falling into sin–be it great or small–each time we increase in grace, all, everything, is effected through Mary’s mediation. The scapular, the little habit, that our Lady of Mount Carmel offers us, is only the external symbol of her unceasing, maternal care: the symbol, but also the sign, the pledge of eternal salvation. “My beloved son,” Mary said to St. Simon Stock, “take this scapular … whoever dies clothed in it will not suffer eternal fire.” The Blessed Virgin gives the assurance of the supreme grace of final perseverance to all who wear worthily her little habit.

“Those who wear the scapular,” said [Venerable] Pius XII, “profess to belong to Our Lady.” Because we belong to Mary she takes special care of our souls. One who belongs to her cannot be lost or be touched by eternal fire. Her powerful maternal intercession gives her the right to repeat, for her children, the words of Jesus: “Holy Father … those whom Thou gavest Me have I kept; and none of them is lost” (John 17:12).

COLLOQUY

“O Mary, flower of Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, who brought forth the Son of God yet remained a Virgin, sweet and Immaculate Mother, grant the favors your children implore, O Star of the sea” (St. Simon Stock).

“O most Blessed Virgin: has anyone ever invoked your aid without being helped? We, your little children, rejoice with you for all your virtues, but particularly for your mercy. We praise your virginity, we admire your humility; but for the needy, mercy has even a sweeter savor. We have a more tender love for mercy, we recall it more often, and we invoke it more frequently. Truly your mercy has obtained the redemption of the world; together with your prayers, it has secured the salvation of all mankind. Oh Mary, who can measure the length, breadth, height and depth of your mercy? Its length reaches to the end of time, to help all who call upon it; its breadth encompasses the whole world, for all the earth is full of your goodness! The height of your mercy has unlocked the gates of the heavenly city and has obtained the redemption of those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. By you, O Mary, the erring are brought back to the right road and heaven is filled. Thus your most powerful and merciful charity is poured over us like a compassionate and helpful love” (St. Bernard).

 

The Brown Scapular was given to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite, in 1253.

HISTORY AND PROMISES: During the last Fatima apparition (October 13, 1917), the Blessed Mother held in her hand a Brown Scapular while she presented herself as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. When asked why Our Lady held it, Sr. Lucia answered… “because she wants everyone to wear the scapular… because it is our sign of consecration to her Immaculate Heart.”

The Brown Scapular worn by people today is a miniature form of the large scapular which is part of the Carmelite habit; a large Carmelite scapular was presented by Our Lady to St. Simon Stock, General of the Carmelite Order, about the year 1253. During this apparition, the Blessed Mother told him:

PROMISE: “This shall be to you and all Carmelites a privilege, that anyone who dies clothed in this shall not suffer eternal fire; and if wearing it they die, they shall be saved.”

THE SABBATINE PRIVILEGE: During another apparition, this one to Pope John XXII (1316-1334), the Blessed Mother generously granted what is known as the Sabbatine Privilege: that those who fulfill certain conditions will be freed from Purgatory on the first Saturday after death. This promise was also mentioned in a bull issued on March 3,1322, by Pope John XXII. It was Pope Paul V (1605-1621) who settled a controversy concerning the Privilege when he issued an official statement in which he gave priests permission to preach that the Blessed Virgin of Mt. Carmel
…will aid the souls of the Brothers and Sisters of the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel after their death by her continual intercession, by her suffrages and merits and by her special protection, especially on the day of Saturday which is the day especially dedicated by the Church to the same Blessed Virgin Mary…”

To receive the Scapular privileges one must be enrolled in the Brown Scapular. One should ask a priest to make this enrollment.

The conditions for obtaining the Sabbatine Privilege are:

  • Wear the Brown Scapular faithfully.
  • Observe chastity according to one’s state in life.
  • Recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin daily, or, with permission, substitute for this another pious work, e.g., the daily recitation of five decades of the Rosary.
    Any priest with faculties to hear confessions (this includes most priests) has the faculty to commute (change) this third requirement.

 

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