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Novena Ninth and Final Evening

Today’s Sunday gospel reading from Luke of the Martha and Mary story was the inspiration for the final homily of the Novena.  Father LaRocca built upon the teachings he gave us this week and said:

“The burning furnace of charity hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Spirit, the Living Flame of Love, wishes to purify, ignite and unite our hearts and souls through Christ, with God and with one another.  But before we get to this ardor, this zeal and run the risk of becoming anxious and upset – even in doing good works as Martha did.  We need to be like our dear Carmelite Sisters who take as their model the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the model of the contemplative life. Passively, and in purity and humility of heart, receiving the Word made flesh.”

It is so very hard to believe that this novena has come to its completion.  Gathering together each evening has been so beautiful as certain wonderful graces have been laid down upon the Garden of Mount Carmel here in St. Louis.  To have a Carmelite presenting to us a retreat through his uplifting and encouraging homilies has been a great blessing.  Near the closing of his talk he gave us some final words of wisdom on the principals of the spiritual life as we “move our way in prayer and in faith.”

Father said, “When this novena ends the pilgrimage to glory continues.  Always under the patronage of the holy Mother of God.  Always walking in humility and truth and faith – praying our way up Mount Carmel.  Not yielding to the temptations of stress and worry and fear and anxiety.  On the contrary, experiencing the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding.  That peace that the Lord wants us to receive.”

We hope that in sharing this novena with you that peace of Christ will flow across the bounty of this earth. We have been given this time in the world as the beginning of our eternal journey to live and love with God forever and ever.  AMEN!

Praise be Jesus Christ! - Now and Forever!

You may hear Father’s entire homily here.

You may listen to the choir, pray the rosary and listen to Benediction here.

The hymn (our Novena theme song!) can be heard here.

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Novena Eighth Night

Feast day of Blessed Teresa of Saint Augustine and Companions,  Virgins and Martyrs during the French Revolution.

The novena mass began with a short explanation of the martyrs from Compiègne which we celebrated in the day’s memorial calendar.  The martyrs were sixteen Carmelite nuns who were beheaded in France during the French Revolution.  They were known as enemies of the state for nothing more than their love of God and love of neighbor.  They  mounted the scaffold singing Laudate Dominum omnes gentes.  Marie of the Incarnation, who happened to be away at the time of the arrest of the nuns, escaped execution and she became the martyrs first historian.  She collected eyewitness accounts of the nuns deaths. After the peoples of France realized the tragedy of the nuns sacrificial deaths hearts were changed.  Their martyrdom helped to bring about the end of the Reign of Terror and end of the bloody revolution.

Father Chrisopher LaRocca took the opportunity of this blessed feast day to speak about the life and mission of every Carmelite nun.  The Carmelite nuns are:

“consecrated in a special way to loving and venerating the holy mother of God and they seek to obtain evangelical perfection in union with her.  Mary’s presence among her daughters and sisters pervades the entire Carmelite vocation.  It imparts a special Marian tone to their contemplation, sisterhood, evangelical self-denial and apostolic spirit.

The history of the Order overflows with the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  They present her as a model of prayer and self-denial in faith’s pilgrimage.  She humbly and wisely welcomed the Lord’s word and pondered it in her heart.  She was wholly responsive to the impulses of the Holy Spirit.  She is the valiant woman who follows Christ faithfully and shares in the joys and sorrows of His paschal mystery.

In Our Lady we contemplate the ideal of the Order lived to perfection. Her example inspires us to follow in her footsteps.  She takes the lead among the worlds poor and little ones.  She best exemplifies contemplative life in the Church.  Every sister will find in Mary a Mother and teacher in the ways of the Spirit who will conform her in Christ and lead her to the heights of holiness.”

You may hear Father’s homily here.

You may meditate with the music of the Ave Crux Ensemble choir and pray the Rosary from the chapel here.

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Novena night 7 – Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The novena Mass was so appropriately celebrated outside as the most solemn Carmelite feast day dedicated to Our Lady was prayed under the most amazing backdrop of a gorgeous setting sun and evening sky.  The cicada’s were chirping, frogs singing in the pond and swallows were heading back to their cloistered nest as Our Lady’s children gathered together under the mantle of her love.

Carmelite Friar and homilist Father Christopher LaRocca took the opportunity of this feast day to present the concept of the Garden of God, His dwelling place on Mount Carmel and souls arduous journey to meet Him there.

Speaking of the Our Lady as a typological enclosure of the garden of he quoted from the fifth chapter of the Song of Songs as Jesus calls to the soul enraptured:  ”I have come into my garden, my sister my spouse.”  He continued to speak of the spiritual fruits from the Holy Spirit, “In graces silent shining spectrum the soul says I am captured.  But oh how free this slavery with time and will suspended, this revelry of charity will go on un-ended.”

Father then spoke of the way the garden of our souls must be tended and he turned to the advice of St. Teresa of Jesus.  Teresa tells us how we must be good gardeners who must pick the weeds, till the soil and water it.  With the “help of God we must strive like good gardeners to get these plants to grow and take pains to water them so that they don’t wither but come to bud and flower and give forth a most pleasant fragrance to provide refreshment for this Lord of ours.” [listen to some more of her good advice here]

Father reminds us however, the Carmel is not just a garden but it is a desert.  He quoted from the prophet Hosea saying, “I will allure you into the desert and speak to your heart.  I will espouse you to me.  And so the desert is not just a place of temptation and purgation but it is the place also of the nuptial and transforming union.  The desert indeed shall bloom!”

Well, just when the soul has thought they have traveled far we must remember that though we have been good gardeners and have managed to navigate the desert there is still more.  ”Just as we enter in the the Garden to be refreshed an reposed, we have our desert to cross and the mountain.  Who can climb the mountain of the Lord?  Who can ascend to the dwelling place of God?” asked Father.

Father’s homily continued as a fine son of Our Lady of Mount Carmel spoke so beautifully of the spirituality of Carmel.  His love for Our Lady so apparent in every word.  If you do not have time to listen to each of Father’s homilies from this novena, this is the one you should NOT miss.  You may listen to it in its fullness here.

You are also invited to share in praying the Rosary and benediction in the Carmelite Nuns’ chapel here.  So joyfully did we sing that most famous novena “theme song”, the hymn “Queen and Lady of Mount Carmel” at the end of the liturgy.  You may sing along with the words here:

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The gentle breeze which had softened the heat fell still this night but as Father La Rocca, OCD referred to the book of Revelations this evening we were graced with something equally wonderful.  Like the great sign which “appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” a beautiful crescent moon appeared over top of the tall pine trees which line the monastery grounds.

The big news tonight is to report the St. Louis Review (our local Catholic newspaper) has presented a multimedia story on the Novena.  The story features an interview with one of the Carmelite nuns who found strength in determining her vocation through attending the novena before she entered Carmel.  Also featured is an interview with the Rector of our local Seminary who was invited to serve the novena 30 years ago and has never missed one since.  He talks about being ordained on the feast day of St. John of the Cross!  You can visit the story at:

http://stlouisreview.com/multimedia

(Please note you’ll have to click the little white triangle play button on the lower left side of the image to play the story.)

You can listen to Father Christopher’s homily in its entirety here.

In the peace of Christ and his most beautiful mother we wish you all a blessed feast day (in advance!)

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Novena fifth night.

Father Christopher LaRocca graced us with a homily he called the “MOM & POP” homily.  The words were his acronym for “Mother of Mercy” and “Power of Prayer”!

Father’s wonderful oratory expounding on the Hail, Holy Queen prayer to our Holy Mother was so beautiful. Speaking about the beautiful eyes of our Mother’s mercy he pointed out the unfathomable ocean of Divine Mercy.  He said, “When we look in the light of humility upon our weakness and our woundedness and weariness and at the same time understand the unfailing power of God’s Divine Mercy then we are encouraged to move forward.”

Father pointed to Jesus’ words from the cross to “behold your Mother”.  He said that as we behold our merciful mother and pray the Ave Maria with faith, “She who is full and overflowing with grace fills our souls with graces.  The specific and particular graces that we need today, now and at the hour of our death to gain heaven.”

You may listen to Father’s complete homily here.

The Choirboys were the guest choir this evening.  Their barbershop-style harmonies bring such a fresh sound to familiar hymns.  I think perhaps I will not be the only one blessed with the recessional hymn running about in my head tonight.  What a great melody to sing over and over. – Dance then, wherever you may be… I am the Lord of the dance said he… And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be… And I’ll lead you all in the dance said he

Along with music and benediction you may pray the rosary along with us from the chapel this evening here.

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While I am not sure of the official temperature in St. Louis this evening, the thermometer at Carmel read 103 degrees Fahrenheit at 8 in the evening! It was a scorcher! Nevertheless a special Carmelite day was to be celebrated during the novena as today is the feast of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes.

Juanita Fernandez Solar was born at Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. From her adolescence she was devoted to Christ. She entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Los Andes on May 7, 1919, where she was given the name of Teresa of Jesus. She died on April 12th of the following year after having made her religious profession. She was beatified by John Paul II on April 3, 1987, at Santiago, Chile, and proposed as a model for young people. She is the first Chilean and the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be beatified.

She wrote in a letter, “Jesus alone is beautiful; he is my only joy. I call for him, I cry after him, I search for him within my heart. I long for Jesus to grind me interiorly so that I may become a pure host where he can find his rest. I want to be athirst with love so that other souls may possess this love. I would die to creatures and to myself, so that he may live in me.”

Remarking on the death of Saint Teresa at the young age of 19 years Carmelite Father Christopher LaRocca said “she was called to the martyrdom of love.” He counseled us to “live each day seeking the perfect charity that our Lord manifests for us on the cross.”

Father encouraged us with his words, “Our ascent, although it at times it might seem like a Via Crucis, like an Exodus experience through the purifying lonely desert, it is a journey to the fullness of joy. Rejoice in the Lord always!”

Tonight as we celebrated this Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel were honored to have with us the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. The Sisters graced the mass with their voices in song as the guest choir. The Carmelite Sisters live a life of prayer, community and in their apostolate care for the elderly at St. Agnes Home in Kirkwood, Missouri. It was wonderful to see them in their beautiful brown habits and long scapulars!

You may listen and pray the rosary along with us from the chapel this evening.

You may hear Father LaRocca’s homily here.

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Novena third night – feast day of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin

(parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisiuex)

A new feature to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Novena this year has been the Crux Ave Ensemble Choir led by Mr. Jim Randazzo. Their voices have lifted up our souls with their most beautiful sacred music. The two rank Wick’s pipe organ makes such a unique sound in the chapel as Mr. Randazzo handles they keys so expertly. It is a blessing to have them at the Novena!

Carmelite Priest, Father Christopher LaRocca,  began his wonderful sermon today with the fine words: “We have set the goal of our pilgrimage the summit of Mount Carmel. Nothing short of the glory of God in Heaven. We were created to be with God forever in Heaven. We have seen His glory. We are glorified and transfigured now through our lives of prayer. And, we are called, as Saint Therese would say, to this face to face eternal embrace of merciful love.”

After his most wonderful Carmelite introductory statement, Father continued to speak about the parents of Saint Thérèse, Louis and Zélie Martin as today was the first time we may celebrate their feast day after their beatification last October at the Basilica of St. Thérèse in Lisieux France.  You may listen to Father LaRocca’s full homily here.

You may hear the Crux Ave Ensemble and pray the Rosary and Benediction with us here.

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Novena night 2

After an afternoon of tornado watches in St. Louis the skies cleared and the novena mass was able to be held outside on the front lawns of the Carmel of St. Joseph.  And with the setting of the sun came a much welcomed cool breeze!

Carmelite Friar Christopher LaRocca, speaker for the novena, began his homily by encouraging the faithful to ask the question in prayer:  ”What must I do to gain heaven?”   He summed up the spiritual life in two most important words – humility and charity.  ”No humility, no charity,” he said.  ”Humility purifies and corrects the will, our disordered will, disordered appetites, disordered affections and attachments.  And so we need humility of heart.”

Speaking about the virtue of practicing humility Father explained that “the fruit of humility is always obedience.”  Father pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a prime example of humility and obedience.  ”If we want to pray as the Blessed Virgin Mary prays,” he said, “be it done onto me according to thy word.”

The model of humility and charity comes from our Lord’s crucifixion on Calvary where he was obedient onto death on a cross.  ”The model of perfect charity of loving God and loving neighbor with all ones heart is also right there on Calvary where our salvation and our redemption was wrought – on the cross,” said LaRocca.  ”There on the cross we see humility and charity.  Our Lord’s meek, gentle and humble heart there pierced open the wellspring of sacramental life in the church, laying down his life in charity.”  The straight and narrow way to heaven is found “straight up in the vertical beam of the cross, this tree of life where the victim becomes the victor,” he said.

You may listen to Father’s full homily here.

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