#godalone — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #godalone, aggregated by home.social.
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Quote of the day, 6 September: Père Jacques
Carmel is a community of human beings who reveal God to other human beings. There should be a Carmel in every city, and then there would be no need of works. One would see God through these human beings who live for him and him alone.
A person does not withdraw to Carmel because of weariness, or to know tranquility, or to live a mediocre life, or to flee the cares of keeping a home and family, or to have a more comfortable existence.
One comes here because she is athirst for God, because she desires to find God and to reveal God to the whole world.
Servant of God Père Jacques de Jésus
Conference 1, Solitude, the Essence of Carmel
Monday morning, 6 September 1943Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: A retreat with Père Jacques, translated from the French and edited by Murphy F, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Mother María Capilla de Jesús, OCD, is seen walking down a hallway on the main floor of the Carmel of Valladolid. Image credit: Angel Cantero, Iglesia en Valladolid / Flickr (Some rights reserved)
#CarmeliteLife #GodAlone #mission #PèreJacquesDeJésus #vocations
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Quote of the day, 3 September: Brother Lawrence
Means to acquire the presence of God:
It would be appropriate for beginners to formulate a few words interiorly, such as: My God, I am completely yours, or God of love, I love you with all my heart, or Lord, fashion me according to your heart, or any other words love spontaneously produces.
But they must take care that their minds do not wander or return to creatures. The mind must be kept fixed on God alone, so that seeing itself so moved and led by the will, it will be obliged to remain with God.
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, o.c.d.
Spiritual Maxims, 30
Lawrence of the Resurrection, B; De Meester, C 1994, Writings and Conversations on the Practice of the Presence of God, translated from the French by Salvatore Sciurba, OCD, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Photographer Marko Vombergar captured this image of a pilgrim to Argentina’s 2016 National Eucharistic Congress in Tucumán. Image credit: Marko Vombergar for aleteia.org / Flickr (Some rights reserved)
#BrotherLawrenceOfTheResurrection #GodAlone #loveForGod #mentalPrayer #presenceOfGod
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New post: Festival Review: ArcTanGent 2025 – Day 1 (Wednesday 13th August) https://www.moshville.co.uk/reviews/gig-review/2025/08/festival-review-arctangent-2025-day-1-wednesday-13th-august/ #ArcTanGent #ColossalSquid #GodAlone #healthyliving
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Quote of the day, 29 June: St. Teresa of Avila
What I’ve said is enough now for beholding His great mercies, not the one time but the many times He has pardoned so much ingratitude.
Saint Peter, You pardoned once when he was ungrateful; me, You pardoned many times. With what reason the devil tempted me not to pretend to be a friend with one whom I treated publicly like an enemy.
What terrible blindness mine was! Where, my Lord, did I think I could find a remedy save in You?
What folly: to flee from the light so as to be always stumbling! Such proud humility the devil invented in me: withdrawing from the column and the staff which were my support against a fall so great!
Once while with this presence of the three Persons that I carry about in my soul, I experienced so much light you couldn’t doubt the living and true God was there.
In this state He gave me understanding of things I didn’t know how to speak of afterward. Among them was how the Person of the Son, and not the others, took flesh.
As I say, I wouldn’t know how to explain any of these things. For some of them take place so secretly in the soul that it seems the intellect understands, as in the case of a person who while sleeping or half asleep, thinks that what is spoken is understood within.
I was reflecting upon how arduous a life this is that deprives us of being always in that wonderful company, and I said to myself, “Lord, give me some means by which I can put up with this life.”
He replied: “Think, daughter, of how after it is finished you will not be able to serve me in ways you can now. Eat for Me and sleep for Me, and let everything you do be for Me, as though you no longer lived but I; for this is what St. Paul was speaking of” [1 Cor 10:31].
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Book of Her Life, chap. 19, no. 10
Spiritual Testimonies, no. 51Note: The Pauline spirituality expressed in Teresa’s vision—living “as though you no longer lived but I”—had already found poetic expression three years earlier in her famous verse from around 1572: Vivo sin vivir en mí, / y de tal manera espero / que muero porque no muero (I live without living in myself, / and in such a way I hope, / I die because I do not die). Christ’s words in this 1575 testimony seem to confirm and deepen the mystical theology Teresa was already experiencing and articulating through poetry.
Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Teresa de Jesús & Álvarez, T 1994, Obras completas, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burgos.
Featured image: “Saints Peter and Paul often assist Teresa in overcoming demons” is an engraving on paper by Adrian Collaert, engraver, and Theodoor Galle, publisher. The printer is unknown; the engraving dates to Antwerp, 1613. The banner above reads “Confide, quia a daemone nequaquam decipieris” (Trust, for you will never be deceived by a demon). The Latin inscription reads: “She sees the glorious apostles Peter and Paul often standing by her side, promising help against the demons’ illusions: nor is it a vain promise, for she was so divinely illuminated with grace that she could easily conquer all the devil’s tricks.” From the album Vita B. Virginis Teresiae A. Jesu ordinis carmelitarum excalceatorum piae restauratricis….Antverpiae, Apud Adrianum Collardum et Theodorum Gallaeum. M.DC.XIII. (BI-1904-78). Image credit: Rijksmuseum (Public domain).
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Have you ever found yourself speaking to God in prayer as naturally as thinking to yourself, without formal words or structure?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments. -
Quote of the day, 29 June: St. Teresa of Avila
What I’ve said is enough now for beholding His great mercies, not the one time but the many times He has pardoned so much ingratitude.
Saint Peter, You pardoned once when he was ungrateful; me, You pardoned many times. With what reason the devil tempted me not to pretend to be a friend with one whom I treated publicly like an enemy.
What terrible blindness mine was! Where, my Lord, did I think I could find a remedy save in You?
What folly: to flee from the light so as to be always stumbling! Such proud humility the devil invented in me: withdrawing from the column and the staff which were my support against a fall so great!
Once while with this presence of the three Persons that I carry about in my soul, I experienced so much light you couldn’t doubt the living and true God was there.
In this state He gave me understanding of things I didn’t know how to speak of afterward. Among them was how the Person of the Son, and not the others, took flesh.
As I say, I wouldn’t know how to explain any of these things. For some of them take place so secretly in the soul that it seems the intellect understands, as in the case of a person who while sleeping or half asleep, thinks that what is spoken is understood within.
I was reflecting upon how arduous a life this is that deprives us of being always in that wonderful company, and I said to myself, “Lord, give me some means by which I can put up with this life.”
He replied: “Think, daughter, of how after it is finished you will not be able to serve me in ways you can now. Eat for Me and sleep for Me, and let everything you do be for Me, as though you no longer lived but I; for this is what St. Paul was speaking of” [1 Cor 10:31].
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Book of Her Life, chap. 19, no. 10
Spiritual Testimonies, no. 51Note: The Pauline spirituality expressed in Teresa’s vision—living “as though you no longer lived but I”—had already found poetic expression three years earlier in her famous verse from around 1572: Vivo sin vivir en mí, / y de tal manera espero / que muero porque no muero (I live without living in myself, / and in such a way I hope, / I die because I do not die). Christ’s words in this 1575 testimony seem to confirm and deepen the mystical theology Teresa was already experiencing and articulating through poetry.
Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Teresa de Jesús & Álvarez, T 1994, Obras completas, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burgos.
Featured image: “Saints Peter and Paul often assist Teresa in overcoming demons” is an engraving on paper by Adrian Collaert, engraver, and Theodoor Galle, publisher. The printer is unknown; the engraving dates to Antwerp, 1613. The banner above reads “Confide, quia a daemone nequaquam decipieris” (Trust, for you will never be deceived by a demon). The Latin inscription reads: “She sees the glorious apostles Peter and Paul often standing by her side, promising help against the demons’ illusions: nor is it a vain promise, for she was so divinely illuminated with grace that she could easily conquer all the devil’s tricks.” From the album Vita B. Virginis Teresiae A. Jesu ordinis carmelitarum excalceatorum piae restauratricis….Antverpiae, Apud Adrianum Collardum et Theodorum Gallaeum. M.DC.XIII. (BI-1904-78). Image credit: Rijksmuseum (Public domain).
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Have you ever found yourself speaking to God in prayer as naturally as thinking to yourself, without formal words or structure?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments. -
Quote of the day, 29 June: St. Teresa of Avila
What I’ve said is enough now for beholding His great mercies, not the one time but the many times He has pardoned so much ingratitude.
Saint Peter, You pardoned once when he was ungrateful; me, You pardoned many times. With what reason the devil tempted me not to pretend to be a friend with one whom I treated publicly like an enemy.
What terrible blindness mine was! Where, my Lord, did I think I could find a remedy save in You?
What folly: to flee from the light so as to be always stumbling! Such proud humility the devil invented in me: withdrawing from the column and the staff which were my support against a fall so great!
Once while with this presence of the three Persons that I carry about in my soul, I experienced so much light you couldn’t doubt the living and true God was there.
In this state He gave me understanding of things I didn’t know how to speak of afterward. Among them was how the Person of the Son, and not the others, took flesh.
As I say, I wouldn’t know how to explain any of these things. For some of them take place so secretly in the soul that it seems the intellect understands, as in the case of a person who while sleeping or half asleep, thinks that what is spoken is understood within.
I was reflecting upon how arduous a life this is that deprives us of being always in that wonderful company, and I said to myself, “Lord, give me some means by which I can put up with this life.”
He replied: “Think, daughter, of how after it is finished you will not be able to serve me in ways you can now. Eat for Me and sleep for Me, and let everything you do be for Me, as though you no longer lived but I; for this is what St. Paul was speaking of” [1 Cor 10:31].
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Book of Her Life, chap. 19, no. 10
Spiritual Testimonies, no. 51Note: The Pauline spirituality expressed in Teresa’s vision—living “as though you no longer lived but I”—had already found poetic expression three years earlier in her famous verse from around 1572: Vivo sin vivir en mí, / y de tal manera espero / que muero porque no muero (I live without living in myself, / and in such a way I hope, / I die because I do not die). Christ’s words in this 1575 testimony seem to confirm and deepen the mystical theology Teresa was already experiencing and articulating through poetry.
Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Teresa de Jesús & Álvarez, T 1994, Obras completas, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burgos.
Featured image: “Saints Peter and Paul often assist Teresa in overcoming demons” is an engraving on paper by Adrian Collaert, engraver, and Theodoor Galle, publisher. The printer is unknown; the engraving dates to Antwerp, 1613. The banner above reads “Confide, quia a daemone nequaquam decipieris” (Trust, for you will never be deceived by a demon). The Latin inscription reads: “She sees the glorious apostles Peter and Paul often standing by her side, promising help against the demons’ illusions: nor is it a vain promise, for she was so divinely illuminated with grace that she could easily conquer all the devil’s tricks.” From the album Vita B. Virginis Teresiae A. Jesu ordinis carmelitarum excalceatorum piae restauratricis….Antverpiae, Apud Adrianum Collardum et Theodorum Gallaeum. M.DC.XIII. (BI-1904-78). Image credit: Rijksmuseum (Public domain).
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Have you ever found yourself speaking to God in prayer as naturally as thinking to yourself, without formal words or structure?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments. -
Quote of the day, 29 June: St. Teresa of Avila
What I’ve said is enough now for beholding His great mercies, not the one time but the many times He has pardoned so much ingratitude.
Saint Peter, You pardoned once when he was ungrateful; me, You pardoned many times. With what reason the devil tempted me not to pretend to be a friend with one whom I treated publicly like an enemy.
What terrible blindness mine was! Where, my Lord, did I think I could find a remedy save in You?
What folly: to flee from the light so as to be always stumbling! Such proud humility the devil invented in me: withdrawing from the column and the staff which were my support against a fall so great!
Once while with this presence of the three Persons that I carry about in my soul, I experienced so much light you couldn’t doubt the living and true God was there.
In this state He gave me understanding of things I didn’t know how to speak of afterward. Among them was how the Person of the Son, and not the others, took flesh.
As I say, I wouldn’t know how to explain any of these things. For some of them take place so secretly in the soul that it seems the intellect understands, as in the case of a person who while sleeping or half asleep, thinks that what is spoken is understood within.
I was reflecting upon how arduous a life this is that deprives us of being always in that wonderful company, and I said to myself, “Lord, give me some means by which I can put up with this life.”
He replied: “Think, daughter, of how after it is finished you will not be able to serve me in ways you can now. Eat for Me and sleep for Me, and let everything you do be for Me, as though you no longer lived but I; for this is what St. Paul was speaking of” [1 Cor 10:31].
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Book of Her Life, chap. 19, no. 10
Spiritual Testimonies, no. 51Note: The Pauline spirituality expressed in Teresa’s vision—living “as though you no longer lived but I”—had already found poetic expression three years earlier in her famous verse from around 1572: Vivo sin vivir en mí, / y de tal manera espero / que muero porque no muero (I live without living in myself, / and in such a way I hope, / I die because I do not die). Christ’s words in this 1575 testimony seem to confirm and deepen the mystical theology Teresa was already experiencing and articulating through poetry.
Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Teresa de Jesús & Álvarez, T 1994, Obras completas, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burgos.
Featured image: “Saints Peter and Paul often assist Teresa in overcoming demons” is an engraving on paper by Adrian Collaert, engraver, and Theodoor Galle, publisher. The printer is unknown; the engraving dates to Antwerp, 1613. The banner above reads “Confide, quia a daemone nequaquam decipieris” (Trust, for you will never be deceived by a demon). The Latin inscription reads: “She sees the glorious apostles Peter and Paul often standing by her side, promising help against the demons’ illusions: nor is it a vain promise, for she was so divinely illuminated with grace that she could easily conquer all the devil’s tricks.” From the album Vita B. Virginis Teresiae A. Jesu ordinis carmelitarum excalceatorum piae restauratricis….Antverpiae, Apud Adrianum Collardum et Theodorum Gallaeum. M.DC.XIII. (BI-1904-78). Image credit: Rijksmuseum (Public domain).
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Have you ever found yourself speaking to God in prayer as naturally as thinking to yourself, without formal words or structure?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments. -
29 May: Blessed Elia of St. Clement Fracasso
May 29
BLESSED ELIA OF SAINT CLEMENT FRACASSO
VirginOptional Memorial
Blessed Elia of St. Clement was born in Bari, 17th January 1901, to deeply Christian parents. At her baptism, she was given the name Theodora, gift of God. In the brief course of her life on earth, she lived up to her name. On 8th April 1920 (then Feast of St. Albert, author of the Carmelite Rule), she entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari. She received the habit on 24th November of the same year, the feast of St John of the Cross. On 8th December 1924, she wrote in her own blood her act of total and definitive offering to the Lord with the vow to embrace the “most perfect”. She died on Christmas day 1927. On 19th December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI signed the Decree of Beatification. She was proclaimed Blessed in Bari Cathedral on 18th March 2006.
From the Common of Virgins
Office of Readings
Second Reading
From the Writings of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement
(Ed. O.C.D. 2001: pp. 282, 295, 322)The desire to lose herself in God and her apostolic zeal
O sweet hiddenness, I love to pass my days in your shadow and to consume thus my existence, for love of my sweet Lord. At times, thinking of those eternal rewards, so great compared to the slight sacrifices of this life, my soul remains in wonder, and seized by an ardent longing, it throws itself on God, exclaiming: “Oh my good Jesus, I want to reach my goal, the gates of salvation, no matter what the cost. Do not deny me anything; give me suffering. May this be the most intimate martyrdom of my poor heart, hidden from every human glance: a rugged cross is what I ask of you. I want to pass my days here below hanging from this cross.”
When we suffer with Jesus, the suffering is delightful; I long to suffer with all my heart, beyond this I no longer want anything.
My Delight, who could ever separate me from You? Who could be capable of breaking these strong chains that keep my heart attached to yours? Perhaps the abandonment of creatures? It is precisely this that unites the soul to its Creator. Perhaps tribulations, suffering, crosses? It is in these thorns that the canticle of the soul that loves you is freest and lightest. Perhaps death? But this will be nothing other than the beginning of true happiness for the soul. Nothing, nothing can separate this soul from You, not even for a brief moment. It was created for You and is lost if it does not abandon itself to You.
My life is love: this sweet nectar surrounds me, this merciful love penetrates me, purifies me, renews me, and I feel it consuming me. The cry of my heart is: “Love of my God, my soul searches for You alone. My soul, suffer and be quiet; love and hope; offer yourself but hide your suffering behind a smile, and always move on. I want to spend my life in deep silence, in the depths of my heart, in order to listen to the gentle voice of my sweet Jesus.
“Souls, I will search for a way to cast you into the sea of Merciful Love: souls of sinners, but above all souls of priests and religious. To this end, my existence is slowly disappearing, consumed like the oil of a lamp that watches near the Tabernacle.”
I sense the vastness of my soul, its infinite greatness that the immensity of this world cannot contain: it was created to lose itself in You, my God, because you alone are great, infinite and thus You alone can make it completely happy.
RESPONSORY
R/. An unmarried woman, like a young girl, can devote herself to the Lord’s affairs. * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).
V/. God is the strength of her heart, he is hers forever: * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).Morning Prayer
Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. O Lord, how gentle is your love! Lost in your embrace I shall be blessed forever (alleluia).
Prayer
O Lord,
who were pleased to accept the self-offering
of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement, virgin;
grant through her intercession,
that, sustained by the Eucharist
we may be able faithfully to do your will.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you,
and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.Evening Prayer
Canticle of Mary
Ant. Your love, O Lord, is like a fire consuming me in the ardent furnace of your Heart (alleluia).
Blessed Elia of St. Clement (Teodora Fracasso, 1901-1927)Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.
#Bari #blessed #BlessedEliaOfStClement #GodAlone #infiniteBeing #Liturgy #LiturgyOfTheHours #love #loveAlone #loveForJesus #loveForTheLord #loveIsLoss #loveOfGod #loveWithoutLimits #martyrdom #mercifulLove #optionalMemorial #perfection #suffer #suffering #TeodoraFracasso #trueLove #virgin
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Marie du jour, 26 May: Venerable Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament
[The Mother Prioress asked Sister Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament] whether the Blessed Virgin had ever gone to visit any of her relatives or friends. She replied that she had visited no one except Saint Elizabeth, to whom the Holy Spirit had led her; that she had had no friendship or communication with anyone; that she had never taken a single step, performed a single action, or spoken a single word without purpose.
And on this subject she said that souls who take pleasure in the low things of the earth, who seek to be loved by creatures, who delight in worldly compliments, who desire anything of this world and do not seek the Son of God in truth—but try to mix the world with Him—are very far from possessing Him.
“Oh,” she said, “may they never find Him! The Infant Jesus wants to be sought alone, in simplicity of spirit; and this divine simplicity banishes from our souls all these follies and low attachments. No amusements, neither within ourselves nor with creatures. Nothing but Jesus, sought and served simply, in truth.”
She expressed this so clearly and taught it so well that the opposite practice seemed hateful to the Son of God and displeasing to the Blessed Virgin. And so she conceived a burning desire to serve Him in all simplicity.
Venerable Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament
Book VIII, Conversations on the Blessed Virgin
Note: We recall the dies natalis of Venerable Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament, the 17th-century mystic who died in the Carmel of Beaune on 26 May 1648 at the age of 29. A Discalced Carmelite formed in the spirit of the French School of Spirituality, she was known for her profound devotion to the Holy Childhood of Jesus under the title of The Little King of Grace. This devotion and the shrine at the Carmel of Beaune would influence generations of French Carmelites, including St. Elizabeth of the Trinity and Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus.
Oratorian priest 1654, La Vie de soeur Marguerite du S. Sacrement, religieuse carmélite du monastère de Beaune, Pierre Le Petit, Paris.
Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: This detail from a 17th-century French oil painting depicts Venerable Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament, born Marguerite Parigot (1619–1648), Discalced Carmelite of the Carmel of Beaune. The portrait includes a Latin inscription referencing the hidden power and suffering of the Infant Christ, whom Margaret loved with singular devotion. After her death, her Prioress sent many relics and mementos to the Carmel of Pontoise, where the full painting is preserved. Image credit: Carmel of Pontoise / Base Mérimée, Ministère de la Culture (France). Classé au titre objet, 23 June 2003.
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How can I imitate Mary’s silence, purposefulness, and single-hearted love for God?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.#BlessedVirginMary #CarmelOfBeaune #friendship #GodAlone #InfantJesusOfBeaune #VenerableMargaretOfTheBlessedSacrament
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Quote of the day, 7 February: Saverio Cannistrà, ocd
He indeed is a miser for whom God does not suffice.
Blessed Mary of the Incarnation
Madame AcarieThree years after the fifth centenary of the birth of our Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus, Carmel celebrates the fourth centenary of Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, also known as Madame Acarie. This approximation is due to the special bond that existed between Blessed Marie and St. Teresa. In fact, St. Teresa appeared to Madame Acarie in 1601, then in 1602, asking her to implant her Reform in France.
Why did St. Teresa address herself to this married woman, mother of six children? Madame Acarie had known the Spanish reformer for some months through reading the book of her Life, translated into French in 1601.
Recognizing the depth of this foundress of communities, she remained nonetheless reserved regarding the exuberance of mystical phenomena. She certainly esteemed Teresa as a mystic and for her impassioned commitment to the cause of the Church. Hadn’t she founded St. Joseph’s at a time when she had learned of the wars of religion begun in France in 1562?
At this same time, in fact, the one whom Teresa called 35 years later to found the reformed Carmel in France was born.
Barbe Avrillot was born February 1, 1566, in Paris into a wealthy family of the nobility of the robe. For thirty years, she lived in a land where six wars took place with disastrous consequences both from a social and a religious perspective. She married against her will at the age of 16 to a 22-year-old man, Peter Acarie, a wealthy and fervent Catholic engaged in the Party of the League for the defense of the Catholic monarchy.
Thus, she found herself in the heart of the conflict linked to the last of these civil wars (1588–1594): her husband was one of the 16 members of the insurrectional government installed in Paris in 1589 after the assassination of King Henry III. During this period, she lived an intense spiritual life after a conversion in 1587 that stirred up within her a taste for prayer and concern for the poor.
Barbe Acarie’s concern thus joined St. Teresa’s great project expressed in The Way of Perfection: to restore the religious spirit of France not by weapons, but by prayer. Teresa of Jesus, after having ordered her twice to bring her Reform to France, appeared to her again in 1602 at the shrine of Saint Nicholas of Port to ask her to become a Carmelite nun with the status of a lay sister!
This she did in 1614 after the death of her husband, pursuing from this time onwards an intense activity at the service of different monasteries and accompanying the rapid expansion of Carmel in France. Her spiritual director and first biographer, André Duval, wrote that nothing important was done in the Church in France that did not pass through her.
Archbishop-Elect of Pisa
Letter from the General Superior, 18 April 2018 (excerpt)
Fourth Centenary of the Death of Blessed Mary of the IncarnationFeatured image: The Madonna and Child appearing to Blessed Marie of the Incarnation is an oil on canvas painting attributed to Pierre Delestres, ca. 1750. It is part of the collection of artworks at the Discalced Carmelite monastery of Pontoise that depicts Madame Acarie. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
#BlessedMaryOfTheIncarnation #Centenary #founder #France #GodAlone #letter #MadameAcarie #SaverioCannistràOCD #StTeresaOfAvila
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🔥 New Artist announced for ArcTanGent Festival 2025
Godalone
Listen to the current LineUp on YouTube, YTMusic and Spotify: https://fyrefestivals.co
#ArcTanGent_Festival_2025 #Godalone #fyre_festivals #livemusic #youtube #spotify #music #2025 #musicfestivals #announcement
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Quote of the day, 7 January: St. Teresa of the Andes
Mommy, there’s no need to worry, since I’m always on vacation with Jesus. Besides, from Christmas, the 25th until January 6, we had several recreation days which we might call a Carmelite’s vacation time.
Nevertheless, Mommy, nothing seems to distract a soul that’s searching for God alone. I myself am shocked when I see my indifference over what had previously filled me with enthusiasm. My only happiness now is to live for my Jesus alone. In Him I find everything my soul desires in an infinite degree.
I never tire, Mommy dear, of thanking God for having chosen me for Himself, despite my sinfulness; and may the vocation of your Carmelite always help you to love and praise Him more.
Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Letter 157 to her mother
18 January 1920Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: The Andes mountains are always a stunning view in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The Cuernos del Paine are one of the features that await tourists to the nation’s Southern Patagonia region. Image credit: Adobe Stock (Stock photo)
#Carmelite #Jesus #recreation #StTeresaOfTheAndes #vocation #monasticLife #happiness #GodAlone #Christmas
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May 29
BLESSED ELIA OF SAINT CLEMENT FRACASSO
VirginOptional Memorial
Blessed Elia of St. Clement was born in Bari, 17th January 1901, to deeply Christian parents. At her baptism, she was given the name Theodora, gift of God. In the brief course of her life on earth, she lived up to her name. On 8th April 1920 (then Feast of St. Albert, author of the Carmelite Rule), she entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari. She received the habit on 24th November of the same year, the feast of St John of the Cross. On 8th December 1924, she wrote in her own blood her act of total and definitive offering to the Lord with the vow to embrace the “most perfect”. She died on Christmas day 1927. On 19th December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI signed the Decree of Beatification. She was proclaimed Blessed in Bari Cathedral on 18th March 2006.
From the Common of Virgins
Office of Readings
Second Reading
From the Writings of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement
(Ed. O.C.D. 2001: pp. 282, 295, 322)The desire to lose herself in God and her apostolic zeal
O sweet hiddenness, I love to pass my days in your shadow and to consume thus my existence, for love of my sweet Lord. At times, thinking of those eternal rewards, so great compared to the slight sacrifices of this life, my soul remains in wonder, and seized by an ardent longing, it throws itself on God, exclaiming: “Oh my good Jesus, I want to reach my goal, the gates of salvation, no matter what the cost. Do not deny me anything; give me suffering. May this be the most intimate martyrdom of my poor heart, hidden from every human glance: a rugged cross is what I ask of you. I want to pass my days here below hanging from this cross.”
When we suffer with Jesus, the suffering is delightful; I long to suffer with all my heart, beyond this I no longer want anything.
My Delight, who could ever separate me from You? Who could be capable of breaking these strong chains that keep my heart attached to yours? Perhaps the abandonment of creatures? It is precisely this that unites the soul to its Creator. Perhaps tribulations, suffering, crosses? It is in these thorns that the canticle of the soul that loves you is freest and lightest. Perhaps death? But this will be nothing other than the beginning of true happiness for the soul. Nothing, nothing can separate this soul from You, not even for a brief moment. It was created for You and is lost if it does not abandon itself to You.
My life is love: this sweet nectar surrounds me, this merciful love penetrates me, purifies me, renews me, and I feel it consuming me. The cry of my heart is: “Love of my God, my soul searches for You alone. My soul, suffer and be quiet; love and hope; offer yourself but hide your suffering behind a smile, and always move on. I want to spend my life in deep silence, in the depths of my heart, in order to listen to the gentle voice of my sweet Jesus.
“Souls, I will search for a way to cast you into the sea of Merciful Love: souls of sinners, but above all souls of priests and religious. To this end, my existence is slowly disappearing, consumed like the oil of a lamp that watches near the Tabernacle.”
I sense the vastness of my soul, its infinite greatness that the immensity of this world cannot contain: it was created to lose itself in You, my God, because you alone are great, infinite and thus You alone can make it completely happy.
RESPONSORY
R/. An unmarried woman, like a young girl, can devote herself to the Lord’s affairs. * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).
V/. God is the strength of her heart, he is hers forever: * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).Morning Prayer
Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. O Lord, how gentle is your love! Lost in your embrace I shall be blessed forever (alleluia).
Prayer
O Lord,
who were pleased to accept the self-offering
of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement, virgin;
grant through her intercession,
that, sustained by the Eucharist
we may be able faithfully to do your will.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you,
and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.Evening Prayer
Canticle of Mary
Ant. Your love, O Lord, is like a fire consuming me in the ardent furnace of your Heart (alleluia).
Blessed Elia of St. Clement (Teodora Fracasso, 1901-1927)Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.
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