Offer Him your life
The least that any of us who has truly begun to serve the Lord can offer Him is our own life.
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Way of Perfection, Chapter 12
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity Novena – Day 9
When I am up above, will you let me help you, scold you even, if I see you are not giving everything to the Master? because I love you!
Intention
For the grace to give everything to the Master: It was the end of October when St. Elizabeth wrote the letter that has served as the prayerful foundation for our novena meditations. She was certain that she would die soon, and this letter to a dear friend served as her “spiritual testament.” At the head of the letter, she wrote this inscription: “Deus charitas est (God is love),” [I Jn 4:16] and she continued: “the hour is drawing near when I am going to pass from this world to my Father…” Totally surrendered to God, in an attitude of complete abandonment and self-giving to the Lord, she was prepared to meet her Spouse, the Bridegroom of her soul. Emptied of self, she was overflowing with divine love. She describes this as she writes: “Never was the heart of the Master so overflowing with love as at the supreme moment when he was going to leave his own! It seems to me as if something similar is happening in His little bride at the evening of her life, and I feel as if a wave were rising from my heart to yours! Dear Antoinette, in the light of eternity, the soul sees things as they really are.” And so, our novena comes full circle. Like St. Paul at his farewell to the elders of Ephesus, [cf. Ac 20:17-37] St. Elizabeth knows that what is essential counts. And, the example of self-giving and abandonment to Christ that she offers to us is the same example that we are called to offer to others. This is our vocation: to become great saints like Elizabeth of the Trinity. And to ensure that we are on the path to sainthood, she wants to help us in her own Totus Tuus way. Why not say yes? Say yes to holiness, yes to Elizabeth, say yes to Christ!
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity Speaks
“When I am up above, will you let me help you, scold you even, if I see you are not giving everything to the Master? because I love you! … May He keep you wholly His, wholly faithful; in Him I will always be WHOLLY YOURS.”
Meditation
In silent prayer, turn to Saint Elizabeth in your need. She is up above, ready to help you because she loves you. Ask her to show you how to give everything to the Master, Jesus Christ, in trust and love. Entrust yourself entirely to him as she did – he will keep you entirely his own!
NOVENA PRAYER
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of your mystery! Pacify my soul! Make it your heaven, your beloved home, and the place of your repose; let me never leave you there alone, but may I be ever attentive, ever alert in my faith, ever adoring and all given up to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, would that I might be for you a spouse of your heart! I would anoint you with glory, I would love you — even unto death! Yet I sense my frailty and ask you to adorn me with yourself; identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, submerge me, overwhelm me, substitute yourself in me that my life may become but a reflection of your life. Come into me as Adorer, Redeemer, and Saviour.
O Eternal Word, Word of my God, would that I might spend my life listening to you, would that I might be fully receptive to learn all from you; in all darkness, all loneliness, all weakness, may I ever keep my eyes fixed on you and abide under your great light; O my Beloved Star, fascinate me so that I may never be able to leave your radiance.
O Consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, descend into my soul and make all in me as an incarnation of the Word, that I may be to him a super-added humanity wherein he renews his mystery; and you, O Father, bestow yourself and bend down to your little creature, seeing in her only your beloved Son in whom you are well pleased.
O my ‘Three’, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in whom I lose myself, I give myself to you as a prey to be consumed; enclose yourself in me that I may be absorbed in you so as to contemplate in your light the abyss of your Splendour!
Excerpt from Letter 333, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel Copyright © 2003 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars, Inc. Published by ICS Publications, Washington DC Closing Prayer from the official St. Elizabeth of the Trinity website
St. Edith Stein Novena – Day 6
SCRIPTURE READING
Mark 8:31-38
31 Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life.” 32 He made this very clear to them. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But Jesus turned around, looked at his disciples, and rebuked Peter. “Get away from me, Satan,” he said. “Your thoughts don’t come from God but from human nature!”
34 Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. “If any of you want to come with me,” he told them, “you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. 35 For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it. 36 Do you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! 37 There is nothing you can give to regain your life. 38 If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
MEDITATION
The Science of the Cross 1.I.(6)
Content of the Message of the Cross
We have considered by what ways John penetrated the message of the cross. The following sections wish to show how this message was incorporated into the doctrine and life of the saint. To do so, it is necessary to set the content of the message before our eyes—for the time being, in a brief outline. We set it down here exactly as we find it expressed by the master of the science of the cross: “‘How narrow is the gate and constricting the way that leads to life! And few there are who find it’ (Mt 7:14). We should particularly note the exaggeration and hyperbole conveyed by the word how in this passage. This is like saying: Indeed the gate is very narrow, narrower than you think. . . . This path on the high mount of perfection is narrow and steep, it can only be trodden by wanderers who carry no burden that could drag them downwards. . . . Since in this, God alone is the goal that one should seek and gain, then only God ought to be sought and gained. . . . Our Lord, for our instruction and guidance along this road, imparted to us that wonderful teaching—I think it is possible to affirm that the more necessary the doctrine the less it is practiced by spiritual persons—. . . . ‘If anyone wishes to be my disciple let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life, will lose it but whoever loses it for my sake, will save it’ [Mk 8:34-35]. Oh, who can make this counsel of our Savior on self-denial understandable, practicable, and attractive! . . . Annihilation of all sweetness in God . . . dryness, distaste, and trial. . . . the pure spiritual cross and the nakedness of Christ’s poverty of spirit. . . . A genuine spirit seeks rather the distasteful in God than the delectable, leans more toward suffering than toward consolation, more toward going without everything for God than toward possession, and toward dryness and affliction than toward sweet consolation, for it knows that in this consists the following of Christ and self-denial, while the other is nothing further than seeking oneself in God . . . Seeking God in God [sic] means. . . for love of Christ, to choose all that is distasteful whether in God or in the world.”
PRAYER
Lord, God of our fathers,
you brought Saint Teresa Benedicta
to the fullness of the science of the cross
at the hour of her martyrdom.
Fill us with that same knowledge;
and, through her intercession,
allow us always to seek after you, the supreme truth,
and to remain faithful until death
to the covenant of love ratified in the blood of your Son
for the salvation of all men and women.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
The Science of the Cross The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Vol. 6 ICS Publications, Washington DC © Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, Inc.
July 24: Blessed Maria Mercedes Prat
July 24
BLESSED MARIA MERCEDES PRAT
Virgin and Martyr
Optional Memorial
Mercedes Prat was born on March 6, 1880, in Barcelona, baptized on the following day, and made her First Holy Communion on June 30, 1890. From her childhood, she gave herself completely to God, whom she received every day in Communion. She displayed a great love for her neighbor and tried to foster this kind of love in others. During her years in school, she was known for her goodness and her dedication to school work, excelling especially in painting and needlework, which were areas in which she had a natural talent. Entering the novitiate of the Society of Saint Teresa of Jesus in 1904, in Tortosa, she made her temporary profession in 1907. She was a religious according to the heart of God: prudent and truthful, calm and gentle in her reactions, having a natural goodness in all her dealings with others, but firm in character. God was her one love, and her love for God kept growing to the point where she would give her life for Him. In 1920 she was assigned to the motherhouse in Barcelona. From there the path to martyrdom began on July 19, 1936, when the community was forced to give up the school and flee. On July 23, because she was a religious, Sr. Mercedes was arrested and shot; she died in the early morning of July 24.
From the Common of one Martyr or the Common of Virgins, except for the following:
Office of Readings
SECOND READING
From the writings of Saint Henry de Ossó, priest (Prologue, Escritos 3)
Conforming our life to Christ Jesus
If we are looking for an essential occupation, a consuming interest, that can be called Christian before all else, then it is to clothe oneself in Christ: to think as Christ did; to feel as he did; to love as Jesus did; to work as he did; to deal with others as Christ did; to speak as he did—in one word, to make the whole of our life resemble that of Christ Jesus. The word Christian means alter Christus—another Christ—therefore nobody can save us if we have not first of all been conformed to the likeness of Christ. But in order to conform ourselves to the life of Jesus, it is above all necessary to study him, to know him, to meditate upon him. If we are to be totally in perfect union with him, this must not be done superficially. We must enter into the feelings of Jesus, his longings, his desires, his intentions.
We ought to recollect that, to enter into the Holy of Holies of his heart, is a foolhardiness on our part; but the same Lord Jesus in his goodness, and with his own words, has called us to himself. If he didn’t, how are we to learn his meekness and humility? If we do not know the sentiments of his heart in order to practice them, how are we to place our every action before him, in imitation of him? For Christ lived, ate, slept, spoke, kept quiet, got about, got tired, rested, was hungry and thirsty, worked. To be brief: he suffered and died for our sake.
When I say Jesus Christ, I imagine a lovely baby, a fine youth, or a mature man, with all the grace and charm that the divinity was able to shower upon a human soul and body. But I also think of him, subject to all of our miseries, except sin, out of love for me. He is our brother, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, and bone of our bones. He is my Jesus, truly God and man, alive, personal, who appeared on this earth, and lived and talked with us for thirty-three years. For our sake, being the Eternal Word of the Father, he descended from heaven, was born, suffered, died, rose, ascended into heaven. He remains amongst us until the end of time, to be our companion, our consolation and nourishment in the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
I shall live, eat, sleep, talk, keep silent, work, suffer: I shall do everything, suffer everything in union with Jesus. All that Jesus desires that I suffer or do, this shall I do in union with that divine intention and those sentiments that Jesus had in all that he did or suffered. Whoever does this, will live here on earth a life of heaven, will be transformed into Jesus, and will be able to say with the Apostle: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”
RESPONSORY
R/. Because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else as loss. * For him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and look on them all as filth if only I can gain Christ.
V/. I am alive, yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me. * For him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and look on them all as filth if only I can gain Christ.
PRAYER
O God of infinite goodness,
you gave Blessed Maria Mercedes, virgin,
the courage to bring to fullness in martyrdom
her offering to you and to the Church.
Grant us, through her intercession,
the grace to be so firmly rooted in the love of Christ
that nothing can ever separate us from this love.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
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