Virgo Potens

Sequence: Flos Carmeli ~ Flower of Carmel Flower of Carmel, tall vine blossom laden; splendour of heaven, child-bearing yet maiden. None equals thee. Mother so tender, who no man didst know, on Carmel's children thy favours bestow. Star of the Sea. Strong stem of Jesse, who bore one bright flower, be ever near us and guard us each hour, who serve thee here. Purest of lilies, that flowers among thorns, bring help to the true heart that in weakness turns and trusts in thee. Strongest of armour, we trust in thy might: under thy mantle, hard pressed in the fight, we call to thee. Our way uncertain, surrounded by foes, unfailing counsel you give to those who turn to thee. O gentle Mother who in Carmel reigns, share with your servants that gladness you gained and now enjoy. Hail, Gate of Heaven, with glory now crowned, bring us to safety where thy Son is found, true joy to see. Amen. ~ Traditional Translation Inno Flos Carmeli Flos Carmeli, vitis florigera, splendor caeli, virgo puerpera singularis. Mater mitis sed viri nescia Carmelitis esto propitia stella maris. Radix Iesse germinans flosculum nos adesse tecum in saeculum patiaris. Inter spinas quae crescis lilium serva puras mentes fragilium tutelaris. Armatura fortis pugnantium furunt bella tende praesidium scapularis. Per incerta prudens consilium per adversa iuge solatium largiaris. Mater dulcis Carmeli domina, plebem tuam reple laetitia qua bearis. Paradisi clavis et ianua, fac nos duci quo, Mater, gloria coronaris. Amen.

July 16th ~ Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Sequence: Flos Carmeli ~ Flower of Carmel Originally the Sequence for the Feast of St. Simon Stock (c. 1165-1265), this hymn became the Sequence for the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in 1663. It is said to have been written by St. Simon Stock himself, to whom Our Lady gave the Brown Scapular.

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 16th The Mystery of the Precious Blood We know what an intense pleasure men take in looking at beautiful scenery. When we feel this pleasure, we ought to feel that we are looking at a little revelation of God, a very true one although a little one, and we ought to think of God’s complacency when He beheld the scenery of the primaeval earth, and rejoiced in what He saw. There was no sin then. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

ITE INCENDITE INFLAMMATE GO IGNITE INFLAME Dómine, ad quem ibimus? verba vitæ æternæ habes Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life ~ John 6, 69

July 15th ~ St. Bonaventure (Bishop, Doctor) "Meditation on Christ in His humanity is corporeal in deed, in fact, but spiritual in mind. . . . By adopting this habit, you will steady your mind, be trained to virtues, and receive strength of soul. . . . Let meditation of Christ's life be your one and only aim, your rest, your food, your desire, your study." ~ St. Bonaventure, ‘The Seraphic Doctor’ (1221 - 1274)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 15th The Mystery of the Precious Blood God made the stars; and, whether the earth was made by itself from the first, or was once part of the sun, and thrown off from it like a ring, God made the earth also, and shaped it, and adorned it, and filled it with trees and animals; and then looked upon His work, and it shone forth so beautifully with the light of His own perfections, that He blessed it, and, glorying in it, declared that it was very good. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 14th The Mystery of the Precious Blood But the sight of sin was also with God from the beginning, that is, through all His unbeginning eternity; and thus the Precious Blood also, as the ransom for sin, was with Him from the beginning. It was one of His eternal thoughts. If we may dare to say so, it was an idea which made Him more glorious, a thought which rendered Him more blessed. That same dear Blood, the thought of which makes us so happy now, has been part of God's happiness for ever. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

‘Do not let your falls, however many, trouble you. It is trouble and worry that keep a soul from God.‘ ~ Our Lord to Sister Josefa Menéndez in The Way of Divine Love, 1949, pg. 126 Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love” (Pamphlet) Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

ON SACRIFICE (The Second Apparition of the Angel, 1916) ‘How must we sacrifice?' I asked the Angel. 'Offer God a sacrifice of anything you can as an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and as a supplication for the conversion of sinners. Draw peace upon your country by doing this. I am its guardian angel – the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and endure with submission whatever suffering the Lord sends you.' Then he disappeared. The angel's words were impressed upon our souls like a light that made us understand Who God is, how much He loves us and wishes to be loved, the value of sacrifice and how sacrifice pleases God, and how He converts sinners because of it. ~ Lucia dos Santos

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 13th The Mystery of the Precious Blood This is what we call the mystery of the Incarnation. It is this which makes creation so magnificent. It [creation] was not merely a beautiful thing which God made as an artificer, and which He set outside of Himself, and kept at a distance from Himself to look at, to admire, to pity, and to love. He always intended to be part of it Himself in a very wonderful way. So that there would have been Jesus and Mary, even if there had never been any sin: only Jesus would not have been crucified, and Mary would not have had any dolours. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Fatima’s prescription of sacrifice requires that we accept and offer in reparation for our sins and the sins of the world and the intentions of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, all the trials and vexations of our state of life. In this light, daily duty is not without heroism. It is heroic in its devotion to Our Lady and makes our lives a living rosary. Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love” (Pamphlet)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 12th The Mystery of the Precious Blood [T]here is a sense in which creation was eternal. It was eternally in the mind of God. It was one of His eternal ideas, always before Him; so that He never existed without this idea of creation in His all-wise mind and in His all-powerful intention. Moreover it was always part of His intention that the Creator should become as it were part of His own creation, and that an Uncreated Person should really and truly assume a created nature and be born of a created mother. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

On close observation, heroic acts and sacrifices are quite often done-and-over-with in an instant. Conversely, in faithful fulfillment of daily duty, there is too much time to experience the temptation to weaken, to rationalize and to anticipate, which is the scourge of fortitude. Grace has to be purchased often with dry prayer in which you sometimes feel that God and Our Lady are far away. Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love” (Pamphlet)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 11th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Salvation is through the Precious Blood. We will take that for our study of Jesus this time. When love is humble, it prays with David to be washed more and more from its iniquity. But there is no washing away of iniquity, except in the Precious Blood of our most dear Redeemer. When love is bold, it prays to be set on fire with the flames which Jesus came to kindle. But it is only the Precious Blood which makes our heart beat hotly with the love of Him. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

AT FATIMA . . . the principal request of Our Lady was for the sacrifice necessary to fulfillment of daily duty. This mission is THE FAITHFUL FULFILLMENT OF DAILY DUTY AS REQUIRED BY OUR STATE IN LIFE . . . If the faithful fulfillment of it can untie the knot of evil strangling the world, would it not be reasonable to say that man’s abandonment of daily duty was, in the last analysis, the cause of his drift from God, since this drift is always preceded by apathy which in turn is preceded by abandonment of daily duty? In this light daily duty is not mundane. It is profound. Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love” (Pamphlet)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 10th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Why are our hearts so cold? Why is our love so faithless, and our faith so unloving? We try, and still we do not love as we wish to love. We try again, and love more; and yet it is sadly short of the love we ought to have. We strive and strive, and still we only languish when we ought to burn. He longs for our love, sweet covetous lover of souls as He is. He longs for our love; and we long for nothing so much as to love Him. Surely there must be a time and a place, when both He and we shall be satisfied: but the place will be heaven, and the time nothing else than the great timeless eternity. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 9th The Mystery of the Precious Blood What depths there are in Jesus, and how wonderfully He lights them up with the splendours of His eternal love! Do we not feel every day more and more strongly, that we must be more for Jesus than we are, that of all growing things divine love is the most growing, that all idea of a limit to our love of Jesus, or of moderation in our service of Him, is a folly as well as a disloyalty? He was the brightness of innumerable lives and the sweetness of innumerable sorrows, when He was but the expectation of longing Israel. What must He be now, when He has come, when He has lived, and shed His Blood, and died, and risen, and ascended, and then come back again in all the unutterable endearments of the Blessed Sacrament? ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

(July 8th, Continued) We can think calmly of no change except from little love to much love, and from much love to more love. The right of Jesus to our love, to our best love, to all our love, is becoming plainer and plainer to us. His exceeding loveliness is growing more and more attractive, because it is revealing itself to us every day like a new revelation. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 8th The Mystery of the Precious Blood But we claim no share in any foolish happiness of sin. We are on God's side. We belong to Jesus. Sin is our great enemy, as well as our great evil. We desire to break with it altogether. We are ashamed of our past subjection to it. We are uneasy under our present imperfect separation from it. Our uppermost thought, no! not merely our uppermost thought, our only thought is our salvation. We care for no science, but the science of redeeming grace. The cross of Christ is our single wisdom. Once we wished for many things, and aimed at many things. But we are changed now. Our lives are amazingly simplified, simplified by the fear of sin and by the love of God. Our anxiety now is, that all this may remain. We fear another change, especially a change back again. (Continued below)

AUGUST QUEEN OF HEAVEN A slightly different version. AUGUST QUEEN of HEAVEN, sovereign Mistress of the Angels, who didst receive from the beginning the mission and the power to crush the Serpent’s head, we beseech thee to send thy holy Angels, that under thy command and by thy power, they may pursue the evil spirits, encounter them on every side, resist their bold attacks, and drive them hence into the abyss of woe. Most holy Mother, send thy Angels to defend us and to drive the cruel enemy from us. All ye holy Angels and Archangels help and defend us. Amen O good and tender Mother, thou shalt ever be our love and our hope. Holy angels and archangels, keep and defend us. Amen.