Carmelite: August 2003 Archives

A Prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

from Drink of the Stream
Compiled by Penny Hicks, O.C.D.S.

May my life be a continual prayer, a long act of love. May nothing distract me from You, neither noise nor diversions, nothing. O my Master, I would so love to live with You in silence. But what i love above all is to do Your will, and since You want me to still remain in the world, I submit with all my heart for love of You. I offer You the cell of my heart; may it be Your little Bethany. Come rest there; I love You so.

The fruit of much trial in the past few days is to reflect upon how much and how intensely I love God. To see Him once again dragged through the streets, spat upon, and crucified, reminds me of my complicity--mostly a complicity of silence, sometimes of silent agreement.

I am trying to clear the cell of my heart, to make the little Bethany Blessed Elizabeth speaks of. But it seems everytime I remove some debris, I sit down again, exhausted and create more. Entropy threatens to win, until God uses an occasion to open the windows, let in light, and remind us that despite all appearances, He is still in charge.

So though many are treading the via dolorosa because Jesus has once again been denied, they are more aware of Him. He will triumph in the end, and He will rescue us from all that would destroy us utterly. For a little while, it is Good to be the Cyrene, and help however little to carry the cross. The indignity our Precious Lord has suffered over the past few days because of the deluded enthusiasm of many and the outright diabolism of a few we can take part in.

A Meditation of St. Teresa of Avila

from Drink of the Stream Compiled by Penny Hickey O.C.D.S.

O Christians, it's time to defend your King and to accompany Him in such great solitude. Few are the vassals remaining with Him, and great the multitude accompanying Lucifer. And what's worse is that these latter appear as His friends in public and sell Him in secret. He finds almost no one in whom to trust. O true Friend, how badly they pay You back who betray You! O true Christians, help your God weep, for those compassionate tears are not only for Lazarus but for those who were not going to want to rise, even though His majesty call them. O my God, how You bear in mind the faults I have committed against You! May they now come to an end, Lord, may they come to an end, and those of everyone. Raise up these dead; may Your cries be so powerful that even though they do not beg life of You, You give it to them so that afterward, my God, they might come forth from the depth of their own delights.

On the Brown Scapular--A Retraction

In a post below I was unforgivably vague in how I phrased things, and I believe that I may have hurt many of my regular readers. I post here for all to read my apology to Mr. Jeff Culbreath, who quite rightly upbraided me about my apparent position on the matter.

Dear Jeff,

First, I owe you and everyone an apology for the apparent lack of clarity of this post. I will post something this morning that clarifies.

I think it profoundly admirable that he [Jeff's Son] is so devoted to the scapular. I don't think it particularly superstitious, and I'm certain that you are bringing him up a good Catholic. I agree with you that one should not cast aside sacramentals. But neither should one commit mortal sin thinking that wearing the scapular is going to keep you from Hell. I know that you do not teach this but it is part of the "guarantee" some rely upon in wearing the scapular. I think that what I'm saying is the teaching needs clarification for modern ears. In previous the language says that wearing the Brown Scapular would keep you from Hell. I think this could be misinterpreted as a license to sin. All would grant that this is an absurd notion. However, if one were to wear the Brown Scapular worthily, then one would be kept from the fires of Hell by the grace of God and the intercession of Our Lady. There is no supersition in this, and the language is clearer. Some would understand the original wording to mean this, but when I quizzed a person on the issue, they replied quite frankly to my question, "If you committed a mortal sin, did not confess or repent of it, and died wearing the scapular, you would go to Heaven." Their answer was, "Yes, that is what Our Lady told us." I seriously doubt that Our Lady told us that the Brown scapular was a "get out of jail free" card, or a license to commit mortal sin.

What I think needs to be done is not to abandon our Lady's Garment, but to respect it for what it is and to live the life that is required by what it is. That is all that I meant to say--not that it should be cast aside. In fact, I believe that every believing Catholic would do well to become part of the Brown Scapular Confraternity and wear the scapular worthily.

I am truly sorry if I gave the misimpression that I stood against this great and valuable gift of the church. Please forgiven me if I have caused you any pain or harm by this, it was not my intention. And while I cannot speak for him, I do not believe it is Mr. O'Rama's point either.

shalom,

Steven

On the Brown Scapular

Agonizingly slow day in St. Blog's today. But T.S. O'Rama has an interesting post on the proper approach to devotionals and indulgences--reflecting on some words here a while back. Recommended!