Tag Archives: Carmel

Don’t miss the boat!

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sail heart

Photo source unknown

 

The world today needs saints—hundreds, thousands, and millions of saints! Hate, fear, despair vanish like mist in the sun before men and women in love with God, men and women of sanctity.

Sanctity comes from much loving. For this we have been created: to love our neighbor, and through him, to love God. Loving is fun. Loving is joy. Loving brings peace. loving means serving and forgetting oneself for others. Learn how to love and you will receive everything you need.

We are all called to be saints. Not to be a saint is the greatest tragedy that can befall a Christian today!

~ A Meditation by Catherine De Hueck Doherty

 

“You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love.”
~ Colossians 3:12-14 

 

Pax et Bonum!
❤

Contemplation

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lavender

Photo source unknown

 

The path to the prayer room
runs beside a bed of herbs —
rosemary, sage, holy basil,
chervil, chives.

Lavender. Walking,
I pluck a stalk and crush
the woolly flowers lightly in
my hand, pausing
to inhale the fragrance.

I carry the sprig down
the steps, into the place of 
contemplation. My body stills,
but thumb and finger lift
the purple flame, an oblation.

The aroma is itself a prayer,
a reaching, a receiving. I sit
in silence, breathing what God is
telling me: he is in me
as he is in the flower.

Thanks be to God.
❤

~ A poem by Luci Shaw 

 

God’s Grandeur

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Bird flying

Photo taken by me at sunset today. . .

 

❤

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared
with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell:
the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright
wings.

 

~ A poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.

 

Canticle to Saint Rita

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saint rita by unknown artist

Art source unknown

 

Though your life was filled with pain…
Though your soul was torn apart…
Never once did you complain.
Faithful ever was your heart.

As a child you served God well.
You were always good and kind.
On holy things you did dwell
Within your heart, soul, and mind.

When your parents asked for you
To be a mother and a wife…
You did all they asked of you;
Gave up your will and your life.

When your husband treated you
Most harshly and cruelly.
You served him faithful and true.
Converted him lovingly.

When your sons did seek to kill
The man who slayed your husband.
You placed your trust in God still,
And He in turn stayed their hand.

When your head was pierced into
With a thorn from Our Lord’s Crown.
It increased your fervor true.
Never was your soul let down.

Grant to me a small token,
Through the merits of your heart.
Grant that I be soft spoken.
Please ask God to take my part.

~ A poem by Rita Marita 

 

Saint Rita of Cascia ❤ Patron Saint of the Impossible, pray for us! 

A Poem to My Mom

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my mom

Mom & I (photos taken by me)

 

My mom is always near
even though we live miles apart.
She lives in my heart.
She is with me all the time. . .
In my daily walks around the neighbourhood.
She is the music I enjoy listening,
that brings me calm and peace.

She is the joy and the sunshine
when I contemplate the beauty of God’s creation.
She is the fragrance of fresh flowers.
She is in my mind when I’m not feeling well.
She holds my hand and reassures me
that all will be well.

She is my warmth and my rest.
She is the sound of the birds chirping at dawn
when I awake.
She is the colors of the rainbow, reminding me
of the promises of God.
She is in the clouds that are slowly passing by.

She is in the day and the night.
She is in my heart, you know.
She is the place where I came from,
my first home, my childhood memories.

She is the one leading me into Mary,
Our blessed and heavenly Mother.
She placed me under Her care and protection.
She is my first love, my first friend.
She is my mom!
❤

~ My personal reflection

 

Wishing you all a very Happy & Blessed Mother’s Day! ⚘

Ad Mariam

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Madonna 1609

The Madonna, art by Giovanni Battista Salvi – called Sassoferrato (1609-1685) Rome

 

When a sister, born for each strong month-brother,
Spring’s one daughter, the sweet child Mary,
Lies in the breast of the young year-mother
With light on her face like the waves at play,
Man from the lips of him speaketh and saith,
At the touch of her wandering wondering breath
Warm on his brow: lo! where is another
Fairer than this one to brighten our day?

We have suffered the sons of Winter in sorrow
And been in their ruinous reigns oppressed,
And fain in the springtime surcease would borrow
From all the pain of the past’s unrest;
And May has come, hair-bound in flowers,
With eyes that smile thro’ the tears of the hours,
With joy for to-day and hope for to-morrow
And the promise of Summer within her breast!

And we that joy in this month joy-laden,
The gladdest thing that our eyes have seen,
Oh thou, proud mother and much proud maiden —
Maid yet mother as May hath been —
To thee we tender the beauties all
Of the month by men called virginal.
And, where thou dwellest in deep-groved Aidenn,
Salute thee, mother, the maid-month’s Queen!

For thou, as she, wert the one fair daughter
That came when a line of kings did cease,
Princes strong for the sword and slaughter,
That, warring, wasted the land’s increase,
And like the storm-months smote the earth
Till a maid in David’s house had birth,
That was unto Judah as Mary, and brought her
A son for King, whose name was peace.

Wherefore we love thee, wherefore we sing to thee,
We, all we, thro’ the length of our days,
The praise of the lips and the hearts of us bring to thee,
Thee, oh maiden. most worthy of praise;
For lips and hearts they belong to thee
Who to us are as dew unto grass and tree,
For the fallen rise and the stricken spring to thee,
Thee, May-hope of our darkened ways!

~ A poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) ,  S.J.

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day Blessed Virgin Mary, my heavenly Mother!
Ora pro nobis!
❤

 

 

 

 

It’s My Two Year Blog Anniversary!

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Happy Two Year Blog Anniversary My Carmel!
❤

tea cup thank you

 

Thank you so much to all my followers and readers for all of your interest and support! It’s been an incredible journey for me, I feel so grateful and humbled to be part of this amazing blogging community as I continue to learn so much from all of you.

Two years ago I felt inspired to start blogging about Carmelite Spirituality and I continue to love it!

As a Lay Carmelite (O.C.D.S.) I feel so blessed in sharing the inspirational writings of many great saints of Carmel and other great spiritual writers, prayers, meditations, my own reflections and poems about this rich spiritual treasure to the soul which is the Carmelite charism.

As I mentioned before, Carmel is an ancient path for today’s pilgrim. . .

“Carmel stands for the intimate encounter which God brings about between the person and God in the midst of all that is most ordinary in life. The expression and source of this encounter, God’s gift of contemplation, is the very heartbeat of what Carmel is and what it desires to be. Saint John of the Cross described contemplation as the inflowing of God’s grace into a human being. Carmelites speak of contemplation as a gift of God that can be nurtured by a life of prayer, community, and service.”

“Our Carmelite Spirituality is focussed on Christ, and inspired in a particular way by the patrons of the Order—the prophet Elijah and the Blessed Virgin Mary—as well as by the saints of the Carmelite Family over the centuries.”

“Our mission in life is to know and love God, and to make God known and loved. And share the Good News of Christ, that God loves humanity with a deep passion.”

I’m so excited for another great year of blogging and sharing with all of you!

Wishing you all peace, joy, much love. . .and abundant blessings!

Thank you so very much!

flowers for you

Patty 🌷

The May Magnificat

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Virgin Mary meditation of the holy Virgin Mary by sarah paxton ball dodson 1889

Meditation of The Holy Virgin (1889), art by Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson

 

May is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season —

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?
Growth in everything —

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfed cherry.

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all —

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

~ A poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ

 

❤

 


“Mother of God, tell me your mystery;
of how your earthly life was spent:
the way, right from the time of ‘Fiat – how you’d be
buried in adoration, Mary!
Say how – in a peace, a silence – you could enter in
to deeps that none but you could do –
bearing the gift of God within.
Secure in God’s embrace keep me I ask.
In me his imprint may He place –
For wholly love is he.”

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, O.C.D.

As The World Turns

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purple flowers

Photo source unknown

 

Oh, my planet, I am so
in love with you. And you seem to
love me back. We are an item.
Daily, you swerve, slow-dancing
with the sun, seducing me with
new angles of interpretation
so that my peonies manifest themselves
in color swatches, shades shifting
from apricot to blood. And my lawn,
licking up necessary light, grows, greens
into a small hay field to swoon in.
Even the promiscuous dandelions
reflect the generosity of light.

Your seasons’ musical compositions,
themes and variations—apogee, perigee,
the lengthening of days, then nights.
Your planetary rhythms—the same
every year, and every year unique.

Waking, early morning ‘s heavy
shadows shorten and blanch, and then
there’s noon, and then again, a lengthening
to dusk until, complete with stars, dark
wraps me in fleece. By nightfall
in the companion dark, my desire
gives away to dreaming, the way lovers
ease into sleep after passion is spent.

~ A poem by Luci Shaw

 

 

Happy Earth Day Everyone!
❤

Christos Anesti!

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Christ Is Risen! Truly, He Is Risen! Alleluia!

 

Easter 2019 2

My Photo

 

 

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”
~ Pope Saint John Paul II

 

 

Wishing you all a very happy and blessed Easter!
❤