Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena 2009
Deacon Anthony Ochoa and Fr. Michael Houser
Last night we began the Annual Outdoor novena in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel at the Carmel of St. Joseph here in St. Louis. In an effort to let you pray this novena with us we will be sharing photos and audio from each night of the Novena. You may listen and pray along with us in the Rosary and Benediction services which are held in the chapel before the Novena begins on the front lawns of the Monastery. Then you may listen to the homilist from each mass.
The theme of Saturday evening’s mass was Mary, Disciple of the Lord. Mass was celebrated by Father Michael Houser the Associate Pastor, Holy Trinity Parish. Father Houser was assisted in mass by Transitionary Deacon Anthony Ochoa. The choir was a selection of beautiful voices from the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus who also reside in St. Louis.
Rosary and Benediction
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 2
While the day in St. Louis was quite stormy and many big thunderstorms passed over the city, early evening brought a clearing of skies. With hopeful hearts the decision was made to celebrate mass outside for the Novena to Our Lady. The faithful gathered on the front lawns after praying the Rosary and praying Benediction in chapel and as mass began a cool breeze comforted all.
Celebrating mass with the theme of “Mary, Mother of Divine Hope” the Rev. Timothy P. Elliott, Pastor, St. Gianna Parish was accompanied by the Deacon Albert Vaughn. The St. Gianna Parish Choir full of children’s voices led all in song.
You may listen and pray along to the Rosary here.
You may listen to Father’s homily here.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 3
Celebrating Mary, the Cause of our Joy, the Reverend Father David Skillman led the third night of masses in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel here at the Monastery. Father Skillman is the Associate Pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish but has been serving at the annual outdoor novena since he was a Seminarian!
The Choir tonight was from St. John the Baptist and the mass was assisted by the Deacon James Holbrook. It was another cool and beautiful evening on the front lawns of the Monastery grounds. Seeing many young souls at mass was wonderful especially to see them honor our Mother with their devotion after receiving Holy Communion. May she smile upon their young hearts as she leads them to her Son, our Lord.
Please Pray along with us to the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary and Benediction.
You may Listen to Father Skillman’s homily here.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 4
St. Louis was a busy town tonight with two big events. Downtown Busch Stadiumwas hosting Major League baseball’s All Star game. Certainly many televisions were tuned into the action, however, more wonderful than baseball, the Carmelite Nuns continued their hosting the Annual Outdoor Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel at their Monastery grounds a few miles west of the game. The faithful gathered in chapel to pray the Rosary and then spread out to the front lawns for another beautiful evening of prayer.
Tonight we were blessed to have Father Daniel Chowning, OCD from the Discalced Carmelite Hermit Community in Hinton, West Virginia celebrating the mass. We are most thankful that Father will be with us until the Feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. His homily on Mary of Nazareth was so inspiring as he demonstrated how the Blessed Virgin lived out an ordinary life of faith and discipleship. Mary, in great example to us, lived this “ordinariness” with “extraordinary holiness”. She lived a hidden daily life working, caring and loving Jesus and Joseph. She washed and cooked and cleaned and surrendered to the Holy Will of God with complete trust in His plan.
Father explained that “When we love one another, when we care for one another, when we try to live a life of patience, of gentleness and of care for the people around us in our homes … all the little things we do in our lives are charged with Divine Grace and it is there that God comes to meet us. It is there that we grow in the deepest holiness.”
His homily is inspiring and you can listen here (please excuse the occasional breeze distorting the sound — and enjoy the cicada’s singing!)
Father was assisted at Mass by Deacon Norman Werner and the choir was from St. Mark’s parish.
The Most Holy Rosary (Sorrowful Mysteries) and Benediction
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 5
Father Daniel Chowning, OCD from the Discalced Carmelite Hermit Community in Hinton, West Virginia was the celebrant again tonight for the fifth night of masses celebrated in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel at the Carmel of St. Joseph. He spoke tonight on the topic of the Mary, the Immaculate Conception.
Father wonderfully told the story of St. Bernadette in Lourdes and explained that in 1854 the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was promulgated by Pope Pius IX. Interestingly though, Father spoke of the Carmelites celebrating this tradition as far back as 1306!
Father explained how our vocation is to imitate Mary and to become transformed into the mystery of God through prayer. “To pray is to open ourselves up to God’s transformation…. For in the very depths of our being is woven an image of God of Love.”
You may listen to Father’s homily here.
You are invited to pray along the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary and Benediction here.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 6 – The Feast Day!
Happy Feast day!!!
It was just after the first reading from the Book of Kings where Elijah is upon Mt. Carmel looking for a sign across the ocean on this feast day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel when the skies upon St. Louis started to change dramatically. As Elijah witnessed a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising out of the sea, so did many of the clouds surrounding the Monastery look mysterious.
Never fearful Our Lady’s children were wrapped safely under her mantle and as the thunder sounded and the lightning flashed, never a drop of rain fell upon her feast day outdoor mass celebration.
How awesome it was to have Father Daniel Chowning, OCD from the Discalced Carmelite Hermit Community in Hinton, West Virginia here for Our Lady’s feast. He spoke in his homily about the beauty of Our Lady noting that wherever there is beauty there is God. “Mary is resplendent with
Heavenly beauty because God dwelt within her and from her womb came Jesus Christ,” he said. He then explained how when St. Bernadette saw the Blessed Virgin Mary on July 16,
1858 which was her last apparition, she said that Mary was more beautiful than ever. And, afterwards she said,
“Once you see the beauty of the Blessed Virgin Mary, you want to die to see it again.”
Father reminds us that prayer, that intimate loving relationship with God who dwells within us and when we open ourselves up to that relationship we are transformed, we come to know that we are loved. And once we know we are loved by God, this creates beauty within us. It also allows us to see the beauty in other people and the beauty of the world around us. Intimate prayer with God allows God to imprint His beauty, and His goodness and His love in us. And, to bring out the beauty and the goodness and the love with which He has created in us. Because He created out of love and for love, woven into the very fibers of our being is an image of the Trinity, a God of love, a God of relationship.
Father’s homily was so wonderful and you can hear it here (along with some thunder-rumblings!)
The Luminous Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary and Benediction service can be heard here.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 7
The rosary is a very powerful weapon in the fight against Satan said Monsignor Cronin’s in his homily on The Blessed Virigin Mary Queen of Peace. He asked us to pray to God through the intercession of our Lady for three favors.
First, for the Spirit of Love which binds us together to live as one family in peace. Two, to give us the gifts of Unity and Peace which Christ gave, and only Christ can give, through His death and resurrection. And thirdly, for tranquility. To be able to stand before the forces within and without and to be able to have peace knowing that we are not alone.
Our Blessed Mother teaches us that one of the ways to be able to receive peace is through penance. Put simply, through self-denial. By giving ourselves in prayer and uniting ourselves to Christ on His cross. What wonder’s can take place if all of us can more perfectly love the Lord, His church and its teaching and our Blessed Mother. What gifts we have as Catholics and how much we need to proclaim them!
Monsignor’s homily here.
You can listen in and pray along to the Rosary and Benediction here.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 8
It is the second to last night of this beautiful outdoor Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and it has been an unusually refreshing July Night with cool temperatures in the high 60s! What a blessing for St. Louis!!! The Rev. Mark Chrismer Associate Pastor of Sacred Heart, Valley Park celebrated mass tonight and he was accompanied by the Filipino-American Friendship Choir and their lovely voices.
You may Listen to Father’s Homily Here.
We invite you to Pray along to the Joyful Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary and Benediction prayers here.
The Rosary is traditionally led by one of our most wonderful Seminarians from Cardinal Glennon College Seminary. You will recognize the voice tonight as seminarian, Charlie Samson.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena Night 9
It is always sad when you come to the end of a Novena like this one to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The beautiful habit of making your pilgrimage to the Carmel of St. Joseph with the prayerful intention of love and devotion to Our Lady is just so awesome and wonderful that it is a habit you don’t want to break! It is a good and generous thing that the Sisters daily invite all to their chapel for Eucharistic Adoration of Our Blessed Lord — and may the faithful know that the Holy Rosary is prayed EACH night of the year at 7:45 p.m. in the chapel so you can keep your Novena going!
Tonight Mt. Carmel was especially blessed to have celebrating the final night of Novena Masses the new Archbishop of St. Louis, his Excellency Robert Carlson. The Archbishop told a story of his recent adventure 3,000 miles away in the mountains of Columbia where on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel he celebrated another Novena. The novena was celebrated with a Carmelite Community of Nuns which have been established there since 1584! The Carmel is in a little village some 3 1/2 hours from Bogota.
“And so from South America to St. Louis we bridge two cultures and two different ways of honoring our Blessed Mother. And so tonight as we celebrate this mass we ask that Our Lady of Mt. Carmel would place the Archdiocese of St. Louis under her protective care,” said the Archbishop.
Wow! That certainly is a most wonderful blessing for our city of St. Louis. We are so very thankful for the Archbishop to call upon our Mother and her maternal care under the most beautiful title of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. It is her beautiful and loving mantle which wrap us in safekeeping and as we wear the garment of her brown scapular, we pledge our devotion to her. Surely it is known that a most important mission of Carmelites to pray especially for Priests. And so we will continue to do so for the Archdiocese and the world.
The Bishop was assisted tonight by Deacon Anthony Yates and the Rosary was led by Kenrick Glennon Seminarian, Peter Fonseca. The choir was from St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Brentwood.
You can pray along to the Most Holy Rosary and Benediction here.
You may listen to Archbishop Carlson’s Homily here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
