Blog Flos Carmeli English Version: Advent

Monday, December 01, 2008

Advent

We start our preparation for this great season of Advent not with Jesus’ birth but by looking forward, to our Lord’s Second Coming. In the preceding verses of Mark 13, Jesus teaches important truths about what will happen before He returns to earth at the end of history. While we are given some clues about what will unfold, it is clear that Jesus wants to divert our attention from fruitless and divisive speculation about dates, towards faithful service. So Jesus concludes this teaching on His Second Coming with these few verses focusing on the need to stay alert and remain faithful to the task He has given us to do. Jesus uses the parable of a master leaving his servants to do their duties while he goes on a journey to help us understand this point. No one knows exactly when the master will return.

2. MEDITATIO

- What is the main message of today’s parable? Is it that Jesus expects to find us doing the work he asked us to do when he returns?- In the parable each of the servants had been given “his own work to do” (verse 34). What “work” has Jesus given to all Christians to do? What things has he given you to do personally?- Consider what can happen when debating with other Christians about when Jesus will return. Compare this to our responsibility towards our fellow servants in Jesus’ parable. Which is more constructive?- Mark 13 reminds us this world will one day come to an end. Are we spending too much time investing in temporal things?

3. ORATIO

Praise God – one day Jesus will return again in great power and glory and the end of history lies under His direct control. Pray for those who haven’t accepted God’s forgiveness yet. Pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus to them and that they will respond to His grace and mercy. Ask God to give you the grace and strength you need to serve Him and do his will. Pray that God will keep you from becoming weary or discouraged.

new update very soon.

Pax

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Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

“Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel – Be our constant hope. Mary, perfect disciple of the Lord – Make us also faithful to him. Mary, Flower of Carmel – Fill us with your joy. Virgin Mary, Beauty of Carmel – Smile upon your family Sweet Mother of Carmel – Accept me as your child. Holy, Mother beyond compare – Remember your children forever. Holy Virgin, Star of the Sea – Be our beacon of Light. Protecting Veil – Shelter us in the mantle of your love. Mary, conceived without sin – pray for us who have recourse to you.”

Prayer to Saint John Mary Vianney for the Religious Vocations

Almighty and merciful God, who didst make Saint John Marie Vianney admirable in his pastoral zeal and in his constant love of penance, grant us the grace, we implore Thee, to win for Christ, by his example and intercession, the souls of our brethren, and to attain with them everlasting glory—O, Saint John Marie Vianney, incomparable laborer in the field confided to thee, obtain for the Church the realization of Jesus’ desire. The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. Pray to the Master of the harvest to send faithful laborers into His vineyard. O, Saint John Marie Vianney ! Intercede for the clergy. May thy patronage, and thy prayer multiply the real vocations to the priesthood. May the Holy Ghost grant thee emulators; may He give us Saints! Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

SEVERAL TIMES we have suggested that the reader might be surprised at the great emphasis given to a devotion as apparently simple as the Brown Scapular. But one of the most interesting testimonies to the importance of the Scapular devotion today has so far been scarcely mentioned. In the pages of an ancient history of the Carmelite Order (written in mediaeval Latin by a forgotten writer named Ventimiglia) the author of this book found the following account: Three famous men of God met on a street corner in Rome. They were Friar Dominic, busy gathering recruits to a new Religious Order of Preachers; Brother Francis, the friend of birds and beasts and especially dear to the poor; and Angelus, who had been invited to Rome from Mount Carmel, in Palestine, because of his fame as a preacher. At their chance meeting, by the light of the Holy Spirit each of the three men recognized each other and, in the course of their conversation (as recorded by various followers who were present), they made prophecies to each other. Saint Angelus foretold the stigmata of Saint Francis, and Saint Dominic said: "One day, Brother Angelus, to your Order of Carmel the Most Blessed Virgin Mary will give a devotion to be known as the Brown Scapular, and to my Order of Preachers she will give a devotion to be known as the Rosary. AND ONE DAY, THROUGH THE ROSARY AND THE SCAPULAR, SHE WILL SAVE THE WORLD." Since he was gathering material for a book on the Scapular Devotion, the present writer was deeply impressed on finding this story in Ventimiglia's History . . . and he was especially impressed by the prophecy of St. Dominic. Yet that prophecy appears nowhere in the past sixteen chapters which (with the exception of Chapter Fifteen and a few paragraphs referring to Fatima) were for thirteen years the total of this book . . . unchanged through several printings totaling more than 70,000 copies. St. Dominic's "prophecy" was omitted repeatedly, through all those printings and years, despite the fact that the author came later to know that today a Chapel, on that very street comer in Rome, commemorates the meeting of St. Dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Angelus as described by Ventimiglia. Therefore, why the omission? Why were not the words "Through the Rosary and the Scapular She will save the world" (Taken from the Book The Sign of Her Heart by John M. Haffert)