Day 7 of the Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel

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Day 7 of our Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel which will conclude on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mt Carmel on July 16th. We are offering up our intentions for the protection and growth of the Traditional Roman Rite all over the world.

O most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendour of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity.

(Mention your intentions here)

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me in this that thou art my Mother. O holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth, I humbly beseech thee, from the bottom of my heart, to help me in this necessity; there are none that can withstand thy power. O show me in this that thou art my Mother!

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Sweet Mother, I place this cause in thy hands.
Sweet Mother, I place this cause in thy hands.
Sweet Mother, I place this cause in thy hands.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be three times in Thanksgiving…

The statue above is from Our Lady of Mt Carmel Shrine in East Harlem, NY. There are only three images of the Blessed Virgin that have been coronated by Pontifical Authority: the above Our of Lady of Mount Carmel on 115th Street in New York, Our Lady of Perpetual Help in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.

Around 1880, East Harlem was the center of immigration from southern Italy. These poor people left family, language and culture behind them. But they did carry their religious fervor with them. They longed for some comfort from home. Gradually a group of men, remembering the festivals formerly celebrated in the southern Italian Kingdom of Two Sicilies, formed themselves into the Mount Carmel Society, to hold a religious “Festa” or Feast to Our Lady. This was hoped to become similar to the ones they had known. In a very humble setting, the men and their families venerated a painting of Our Lady, and prayed a Rosary in Her honor. They had no priests available for Mass, and thusly they celebrated the Lady. Gradually word of the devotion began to attract pilgrims. The Society felt enabled to replace the painting with a Statue of Our Lady, the one enshrined in our church today. Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, realized the need for a church for this community and invited the Italian, German and English speaking Pallottine Fathers to construct such. The Pallottines sent the very able Father Kirner, who raised the money, bought the land and supervised the construction. The Statue was eventually purchased from the Society for an exorbitant-for the times- $100.00! The area selected for construction was surrounded by the East Harlem “Little Italy” then the largest in the US, with some earlier Germans who had moved north from Yorkville. One must also remember, Italians were not always welcome in other Catholic churches. In fact, they often had to worship in the basements of established Catholic churches, as they were “too rough”, or “unclean”, or unable to “understand” the preaching at main Masses. Many times, these basements did not provide chairs or kneelers for the congregants. Mt Carmel, as a parish, was born to attend to their spiritual needs. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was declared the original Italian National Shrine Parish for the United States and the Americas. It long has provided spiritual comfort, and a sense of home for the Italian Community. The church was built at night during 1884 by Italian men, who had finished a hard day’s work. The women, so devoted to the Blessed Mother, prepared food, carried bricks and even helped push the wheel barrows. Each had a private reason, some asked for a favor, some worked in Thanksgiving: All saw their work as prayer. Unfortunately, dear Father Kirner, so devoted to our Shrine lost his life, during the construction of the first parish school, when an unfinished wall collapsed upon him. It is important to remember that Mt. Carmel became the center of Italians in New York City. Gradually, celebrations of the many towns of Southern Italy, the Madonna Incoronata, Madonna Addolorata, Saints Cosmo and Damiano, San Felice, St. Joseph, St. Anthony, Santa Elena di Laurino, etc. were added to the yearly celebrations held at the Shrine. In the current years, devotions of other ethnics, such as the Virgin of the Cloud from Ecuador, Our Lady of Providence from Puerto Rico, Our Lady of Guadalupe from Mexico, and Santa Nino and the Black Nazarene from the Philippines have become at home here. Today, increasing numbers of Haitians, Filipinos, Asians and Latinos have joined in the yearly celebrations in honor of Our Lady. The Shrine remain a house of devotion and prayer.

• 1880-1881 Beginnings of Festa in New York by Private Mount Carmel Society

• 1883 Statue ordered from Italy to replace paper painted image

• 1884 Church built by Pallottine Fathers (Father Kirner) during the night by local residents, ownership of statue transferred to church. Statue enshrined in lower church.

• 1902-1903 Due to immense devotion, and favors granted at Shrine, Canons of St. Peter’s Basilica, at behest of Leo XIII, conduct investigation and declare Image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, be formally incoronated (crowned with a golden crown). Leo orders it done, but dies before finalization. Pope St. Pius X reviews decree and publishes it under his name. To truly show his support for the coronation, he sends two emeralds from the Vatican to be fitted into the crown.

• 1904 Image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is crowned on July 10th, making it the third formal incoronation outside of Europe. Shrine is ranked in the incoronation decree as a Sanctuary to Our Lady

• 1906 Pius X grants plenary indulgence in perpetuity from July 6th -23rd.

• 1923-24 Pius XI approves transfer of the Sanctuary to upper church, affirming the status of Sanctuary (major Marian Shrine)

• 1953 Pope Pius XII declares high altar of the Sanctuary a privileged major Marian altar.

• 2004 Special 100th anniversary public reenactment of the coronation 2015 Complete artistic and physical restoration of the Crowned Madonna, including Statue, dress and hair.¹

This year marks the 140th anniversary celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel in East Harlem, NY!

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Although not commemorated today because it falls on a Sunday, today is the Feast Day of St Bonaventure, born Giovanni di Fidanza. He was a Cardinal, Theologian, Philosopher, and Doctor of the Church known as the Seraphic Doctor. Pope Leo XIII, in his Papal Encyclical, Aeterni Patris, On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy writes of St. Bonaventura²:

Later on, the doctors of the middle ages, who are called Scholastics, addressed themselves to a great work — that of diligently collecting, and sifting, and storing up, as it were, in one place, for the use and convenience of posterity the rich and fertile harvests of Christian learning scattered abroad in the voluminous works of the holy Fathers. And with regard, venerable brethren, to the origin, drift, and excellence of this scholastic learning, it may be well here to speak more fully in the words of one of the wisest of Our predecessors, Sixtus V: “By the divine favor of Him who alone gives the spirit of science, and wisdom, and understanding, and who though all ages, as there may be need, enriches His Church with new blessings and strengthens it with new safeguards, there was founded by Our fathers, men of eminent wisdom, the scholastic theology, which two glorious doctors in particular, the angelic St. Thomas and the seraphic St. Bonaventure, illustrious teachers of this faculty, . . . with surpassing genius, by unwearied diligence, and at the cost of long labors and vigils, set in order and beautified, and when skillfully arranged and clearly explained in a variety of ways, handed down to posterity.

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Give an occasion to the wise man, and wisdom shall be added to him. This sentence was placed by Bonaventure at the head of his treatise on “the Six Wings of the Seraphim,” wherein he sets forth the qualifications necessary for one called to the cure of souls; and well did he fulfil it in himself in the government of his immense Order, scattered by its missions throughout the whole Church. The treatise itself, which Father Claud Aquaviva held in such high estimation as to oblige the Superiors of the Society of Jesus to use it as a guide, furnishes us with a portrait of our Saint at this period. Let us listen to Bonaventure’s own words: “The Seraphim exercise an influence over the lower orders, to draw them upwards; so the love of the spiritual man tends both to his neighbor and to God; to God that he may rest in Him; to his neighbor to draw him thither with himself. Not only then do they burn; they also give the form of perfect love, driving away darkness and showing how to rise by degrees, and to go to God by the highest paths.”³

Wing 1: Contemplation of the Trinity The first wing represents the contemplation of the Trinity, where the soul seeks to understand the mystery of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Wing 2: Contemplation of Creation The second wing symbolizes the contemplation of creation, where the soul reflects on the beauty and wonder of the world, created by God.

Wing 3: Contemplation of Redemption The third wing represents the contemplation of redemption, where the soul contemplates the sacrifice of Christ and the redemption of humanity.

Wing 4: Contemplation of the Incarnation The fourth wing symbolizes the contemplation of the Incarnation, where the soul reflects on the mystery of God becoming human in Jesus Christ.

Wing 5: Contemplation of the Resurrection The fifth wing represents the contemplation of the Resurrection, where the soul contemplates the triumph of Christ over death and sin.

Wing 6: Contemplation of the Beatific Vision The sixth and final wing symbolizes the contemplation of the Beatific Vision, where the soul beholds the glory of God and is transformed into the likeness of the Seraphim, experiencing eternal peace and union with God.⁴

Finally, after Mass today or any day you may want to pray St. Bonaventure’s Transfige:

Pierce, o most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of your love, with true, serene, and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with love and longing for you, that it may yearn for you and faint for your courts, and long to be dissolved and to be with you.

Grant that my soul may hunger after you, the bread of angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and supersubstantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delight of taste; let my heart ever hunger after and feed upon you, upon whom the angels desire to look, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of your savor; may it ever thirst after you, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God; may it ever compass you, seek you, find you, run to you, attain you, meditate upon you, speak of you, and do all things to the praise and glory of your name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, and with perseverance unto the end; may you alone be ever my hope, my entire assurance, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my fragrance, my sweet savor, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession and my treasure, in whom may my mind and my heart be fixed and firm and rooted immovably henceforth and forever. Amen.⁵

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The month of July is very special to Carmelite religious and lay alike with the upcoming Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and Feast of St Elias! Over the next few days we will share reflections from the Sisters of Carmel on this incredibly important month for their community and our Faith.

We continue with their reflections from the The Prophet of Carmel on the life of St. Elias.

The world and the devil were never so successful as they are now in pretentiously disguising error under the garb of truth. Vices are enshrined as virtues in the attractive temple of falsehood. Immorality is idealized. Debased views of God and His creation, of the soul and the body, are openly processed in circles of rank and intellect. False doctrine is not only tolerated in the “high places” of social life, and is termed, as if in satire, “sound learning.” Presumptuous skepticism is canonized by popular acclamation, as not only a right but a duty, and the very perfection of mental and moral freedom.

These are some of the hostile elements with which our present life is perilously charged. How can this array of foes be successfully met without a clear sighted and persevering courage and how can this courage be obtained?

Every Christian is bound, according to his means and opportunity, to confront, denounce and resist the enemies of God. The war has to be waged by speech, by writing, by protests, by authority, by active and passive opposition, by sufferings, and by various other modes which need not be mentioned in detail. No class is exempt from military service in the great conflict which is perpetually raging. All are called to the ranks, no matter what may be their individual temperament or temptations. The contest is as unavoidable as it is difficult, but with the grace of God we shall succeed if we are “strong in faith.” “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even your faith.”

Our adversaries may surpass us in station, talent and accomplishments. They may be clothed in them from head to foot, and we may, like Elias, be alone and unarmed, but we shall be the real “men of God.” We shall deliver our message without quivering; and though our personal Achab, whoever he may be, may refuse to believe in our words, we shall nevertheless, have bourne testimony to the true God.” (Chapter 1)⁶

“O great Saint Elias, who was raised up by God to restore the worship of the one true God among His people, look down upon poor suffering humanity; convert those estranged from God; restore the one true Church of Christ among all nations, that by thy prayer the just chastisement due to our sins and ingratitude may be averted, and that peace and God’s justice may reign everywhere.”  

- Excerpt from Prayer to St. Elias

1. https://www.olmtc.org/about-us

2. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13cph.htm

3. https://sensusfidelium.com/the-liturgical-year-dom-prosper-gueranger/july/july-14-saint-bonaventure-cardinal-doctor-of-the-church/

4. https://bensonian.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/six-stages-of-the-souls-illumination/

5. https://primacyofreason.blogspot.com/2011/01/prayer-of-st-bonaventure-new.html

6. https://newsletter.sistersofcarmel.com/2024/07/09/prophet-of-carmel/