By: Mother Mary Baptist and The Carmelite Sisters of the Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph
To Be a Prayer Before Thy Mystery:
In the Name of Thy own self, O my God, have mercy, I beseech Thee, on so many souls who are walking in the paths of perdition, succor Thy Church, put a stop to the numberless evils that afflict Christendom, and delay no longer to make Thy light shine in the midst of our darkness. Amen {St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila)}.
Two lamps of love burn before a bronze replica of Veronica’s Veil at the entrance to our Choir. Sentinels before the Face of Jesus, the oil consumed represents our lives of prayer expended drop by drop to light a darkened world. A request has been made to “lift the veil” to our devotion to the Holy Face, but where can one begin to tell the story of His Love? A story unique to each Nun here, to be sure, but one that has embraced our Community, indeed the Order of Carmel.
Oh, to whom shall I address Myself if not to a Carmelite whose very vocation obliges her unceasingly to glorify My Name? (Our Lord to Sr. Mary St. Peter of the Holy Family, a nun of the Carmel of Tours, France, in 1843)
From its very beginnings, the Order of Carmel has been tied to the honor and glory of God, to the seeking of His Face – the “unum necessarium” (the one thing necessary). Undoubtedly, this is (or should be) the eternal goal of each soul, and Carmel’s vigilance echoes down the centuries the cry of its father and model, the fiery Prophet St. Elijah (Elias): “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts…in Whose Presence I stand,” i.e. before His Face I stand. Taken up by Our Holy St. Teresa of Jesus in her reform of the Carmelite Order, she urged her daughters, “I am asking you only to look at Him.” This was uttered long before the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin (1898), the subject of Our Lord’s 1936 appeal to another religious, Bl. Maria Pierina: “I firmly wish that My Face reflecting the intimate pains of My soul, the suffering and love of My heart, be more honored! Whoever gazes upon Me already consoles Me.”
To be present to Him, to console Him and to win souls to His love, especially by praying for His priests – created by Him to be the intimate companions of His Eucharistic Face (In Sinu Jesu) – was the inspiration of Our Holy Mother St. Teresa that drew many of her daughters to Carmel and on to sanctity. One of these was Sr. Mary St. Peter of the Holy Family, who entered the Carmel of Tours, France, in 1839. It was of this humble Carmelite Nun that Our Lord would request reparation for the sins committed against the majesty of the Triune God, especially those which violated the first three of the Ten Commandments: denial of His existence, blasphemy against His Holy Name and the profanation (the not keeping holy) of Sundays. Through several revelations He instructed his little messenger, ultimately giving her His Holy Face on the Veil of Veronica as the visible object of devotion for this Work of Reparation, and requesting that an Archconfraternity of the Holy Face be established in France. By this work of fervent souls, He told her, His justice would be appeased and His mercy granted to the guilty: “All those who honor My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation will, by so doing, perform the office of the pious Veronica.”
Reparation for Blasphemy against the Holy Name of God
There are no coincidences with God. His first visit to Sr. Mary St. Peter came just as she was nearing the completion of a Novena to Our Holy Mother St. Teresa. It was August 26, 1843, the eve of the Feast of Our Holy Mother’s Transverberation, the transpiercing of the foundress’ heart by a Seraph’s dart of love. In His Divine Providence, Our Lord chose this day to dictate to Sr. Mary St. Peter the formula of the “Golden Arrow,” an Act of Praise for the reparation of blasphemy against His Holy Name. Sister reported seeing torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners streaming from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Who told her that He would be delightfully wounded by this “Golden Arrow.” In her autobiography, Our Holy Mother St. Teresa recorded that her heart had been delightfully wounded by the Angel’s arrow. St. Teresa burned with the desire to save souls and how she yearns to see her daughters also thus transpierced. How good of Our Lord to reveal to us that we could render love for love via the Golden Arrow Prayer! In our Monastery here in Alexandria, SD, we recite this prayer as a Community after Holy Mass, hoping thereby to delightfully wound Our Lord’s Heart on behalf of so many who do not know, who blaspheme or who even ignore His Holy Name.
Still, it was just the beginning of Our Lord’s revelations to the French Carmelite. He would return many times – even sending His Blessed Mother and St. Teresa herself to encourage Sr. Mary St. Peter in the Work of Reparation. She writes of her joy on one occasion: “Our Holy Mother St. Teresa appeared to me this morning. She has been appointed by God to combat the enemies of the Work of Reparation which the powers of darkness are trying to overthrow. She told me that this holy work would be the honor of Carmel for it was truly in conformity with the spirit of our holy vocation, whose sole object is the glory of God and the relief of the necessities of the Church; for this reason, she urged me to devote all my energies to this work, and to pray with untiring fervor. Then she recommended me to be scrupulously obedient, giving me to understand that Jesus would work miracles for the soul obedient to her superiors, that she herself had always submitted the lights and communications received from Heaven to the decision of obedience. She showed me with what fidelity I ought to acquit myself of all our religious observances, which are so agreeable to Our Lord that the fulfillment of them alone is sufficient to enrich the soul with merit. In fine, I understood that God gave to this work a most powerful protectress in the person of our holy Foundress, and to me a most powerful consoler in my afflictions. From this moment, I felt united in a most particular manner to Our Holy Mother, so remarkable for her zeal for the glory of the Most High. It is she who will succor me in my weakness, and help me to pursue my thorny path.”
Reparation for the Profanation of Sundays
Desecration, not observing the Sabbath rest, not keeping Sunday holy – refusing to set aside the day for God and to take leisure with and in Him, for going to Mass, spiritual reading, praying, learning more about the faith, spending time in visiting the Blessed Sacrament. Instead of being a day surrendered wholly to God, profane or worldly pursuits are indulged in, as well as servile work performed on Sunday. In Rome, just weeks before Jesus’ first visit to Sister, Pope Gregory XI had started a Confraternity to make reparation for blasphemy, but reparation for the profanation of Sunday was not a part of it. The Third Commandment clearly mandated that the Sabbath rest be observed and Our Lord asked Sr. Mary St. Peter to make reparation for all those who do not keep it. And the date of this visit? February 2, 1844 – Feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. The Child Jesus, strictly speaking, had no need or obligation of being presented in the Temple, nor His Mother purified, yet they obeyed the Mosaic Law on this point. And sinful mankind with regard to attending Church – entering the Temple – on Sundays? Our Lord says His delights are to be with the children of men. Do we delight to be with Him?
Here at our monastery, we strive to make our Sundays a day of rest with the Lord. In addition to a sung Mass in the morning, we have a holy hour with Benediction in the afternoon, both open to the public. God willing, once the Confraternity of the Holy Face is established here, special devotions to the Holy Face will be added to the holy hour on the fourth Sunday of the month. May our souls be pleasant to His eyes and so rejoice His Holy Face, that Our Lord will be able to say of each of us, “I looked for comforters and I found one!”
Read Part II tomorrow
