Quote of the day, 3 November: St. Titus Brandsma

The Security Office of the Reich in Berlin published the official accusation against Professor Brandsma: he had obstructed the plans of the victorious German nation for the Netherlands through his influence on the Catholic press. Providentially, all the documentation of the entire process against Titus Brandsma was preserved. It concludes:

The arrest of Professor Brandsma was necessary and it took place on January 19, 1942. The following day he was interrogated in this office concerning his activities. As Brandsma himself admits, Archbishop De Jong and he himself are the individuals principally responsible for the sabotage of the uniform orientation we are attempting to provide for the Dutch people through the press. The directive for all Catholics to cancel their subscriptions to periodicals that obeyed our orders would have a deleterious effect on the Dutch people. The security measures that we Germans have taken with regard to the press have been systematically sabotaged due to the activity of Professor Brandsma, who has no other purpose than to discredit the German government and Dutch National-Socialism. It is my recommendation that this case result in the prolonged preventive arrest (Schutzhaft) of the Professor.

In spite of his role in Titus’s condemnation, [Nazi judge Paul Hardegen] appeared to respect him. A few months later, Hardegen himself told one of Titus’ friends: “He was a real man. He was convinced that he was defending Christianity against National-Socialism.”

In all probability, Hardegen did not realize that he could have given Titus no greater praise; his words confirmed that Titus was worthy of the crown of a Christian martyr.

Miguel María Arribas, O.Carm.

The Price of Truth, ch. 8

Note: It was ten o’clock on the morning of Sunday, 3 November 1985, when Pope John Paul II proclaimed the words of beatification: “We, by our apostolic authority, declare that the Venerable Servant of God, Titus Brandsma, may from now on be called Blessed, and that his feast may be celebrated…” 

Arribas O.Carm., M 2021, The Price of Truth: Titus Brandsma, Carmelite, Carmelite Media, Darien, Illinois.

Featured image: Newsclip from the 26 February 1942 edition of the New York Daily News. Clipping courtesy of newspapers.com

#beatification #martyr #Nazism #StTitusBrandsma #WorldWarII

Corée du Sud : feu vert du Saint-Siège à la béatification du père Leo Bang Yu-ryong, pionnier de la vie monastique coréenne

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://tribunechretienne.com/coree-du-sud-feu-vert-du-saint-siege-a-la-beatification-du-pere-leo-bang-yu-ryong-pionnier-de-la-vie-monastique-coreenne/

Quote of the day, 10 September: St. John Paul II

This morning, dear Brothers and Sisters, our thoughts turn to the sixty-four French priests who died with hundreds of others on the “prison ships of Rochefort.” As Saint Paul exhorted Timothy, they “fought the good fight of faith.” They even endured a long calvary for remaining faithful to their faith and to the Church. If they died, it was for having maintained to the end their close communion with Pope Pius VI.

In profound moral solitude, they took care to maintain a spirit of prayer. “Prey to the torture” of hunger and thirst, they did not have a single word of hatred toward their executioners. Slowly, they allowed themselves to be identified with the sacrifice of Christ which they celebrated by virtue of their ordination. Henceforward, they are offered to our gaze as a living sign of the power of Christ who acts in human weakness.

In the depths of their distress, they maintained the sense of forgiveness. In their eyes, the unity of faith and the unity of their homeland were more important than anything else. We can therefore joyfully take up the words of Sacred Scripture: the souls of these righteous ones are in the hand of God. “They seemed to perish. Their departure was considered a misfortune, but they are at peace” [cf. Wis 3:1–3].

Saint John Paul II

Homily for the Beatification of 64 Victims of the French Revolution (excerpt)
1 October 1995

Note: Blessed Hubert of Saint Claude (Jacques Gagnot) was among three Discalced Carmelite martyrs imprisoned on the ship Les Deux Associés in Rochefort bay during 1794. While his two companions died aboard ship in July, Blessed Hubert endured through the summer months. When plague broke out, the survivors were transferred to Île Madame, where Blessed Hubert died and was buried on 10 September 1794. Witnesses observed that “compared to the hell of the ships, the island seemed a veritable paradise.”

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Île Madame, Port des Barques, sunrise over the ox path, low tide. Image credit: © Thierry Llansades / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

#beatification #BlessedHubertOfSaintClaude #BlessedMartyrsOfRochefort #martyrdom #StJohnPaulII

Quote of the day, 12 August: Blessed Isidore Bakanja

“If you see my mother, or if you go to the judge, or if you meet a priest, tell them that I am dying because I am a Christian.”

Blessed Isidore Bakanja

On April 24, 1994, Blessed Isidore Bakanja, layman and martyr of the Scapular of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Today, the Order comes together to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Church’s recognition of the holiness of this Congolese Catholic who would not give up his scapular.

Isidore Bakanja was born in Bokendela (Democratic Republic of Congo) around 1885. Leaving his village, he moved to Mbandaka, where he was baptized on May 6, 1906, and confirmed a few months later, on November 25, 1906. He was heavily influenced by the witness of the Trappist missionaries, cultivating a special devotion to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Despite the difficulties he encountered at work because of his fidelity to Christ, he remained steadfast in his faith. On February 2, 1909, he suffered an atrocious scourging because he refused to get rid of the scapular of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, which he wore over his shoulders. Following a terrible beating and sensing his impending death, he received the anointing of the sick on July 24, 1909. Just as Christ died having forgiven his wrongdoers, so Bakanja died having forgiven his executioner: “The white man hit me; that’s his business. It’s up to him and God. When I get to heaven, I’ll pray a lot for him and ask God to forgive him.”

Bakanja died on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1909, at the age of 24. In imitation of Christ, whom he had followed from the moment of his baptism, Isidore Bakanja lived in his own way, like Saint Paul, who wrote: “For me, to live is Christ.” (Philippians 1:21). “For me, to live is to be a Christian.”

On June 7, 1917, his remains were exhumed and buried at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Bokote. He was proclaimed Blessed on April 24, 1994. His cause for canonization is now underway. Popes Benedict XVI and Francis have recognized and proposed Blessed Isidore Bakanja as an authentic witness and example of faith for all Christians in the world. In his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit, Pope Francis named Blessed Isidore Bakanja among the young saints who today mobilize Christians in their quest for holiness and inspire new conversions. In short, Blessed Isidore Bakanja is a spiritual and ecclesial heritage for the world.

Vice-Postulator of the Cause of Isidore Bakanja

Carmelite Family Celebrates 30th Anniversary of the Beatification of Blessed Isidore Bakanja

Vice-Postulator of the Cause of Isidore Bakanja 2024, ‘Carmelite Family Celebrates 30th Anniversary of the Beatification of Blessed Isidore Bakanja’, Order of Carmelites, viewed 10 August 2025, https://www.ocarm.org/en/item/6346-30th-anniversary-of-the-beatification-of-blessed-isidore-bakanja.

Featured image: Blessed Isidore Bakanja, image from his beatification banner. Image credit: Carmelite Order

#beatification #BlessedIsidoreBakanja #BrownScapular #DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo #forgiveness

Catholics in eastern Congo honor beatified anti-corruption martyr http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TLppf6 #Catholic #Martyr #Congo #PopeFrancis #Beatification

Quote of the day, 26 June: Blessed Mary Josephine

It has always been my heart’s burning desire to fulfill the will of God; I have never wanted anything else. I have lived and am living the divine will. It is something I need more than the food I eat and the air I breathe.
— Blessed Mary Josephine of Jesus Crucified
Autobiography

Looking more closely at the history and message of Blessed Mary Josephine, we better understand the inescapable need for a contemplative dimension in every Christian life. Her example shows us a concrete path for cultivating it. Her very existence was a true school of charity—toward her fellow sisters and, through her cloistered life, toward a wide apostolic field she served only to help others love the Lord more deeply.

She, too, like Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, did not want to “become a saint by halves.”

With her own unique character and mystical gifts—marked by extraordinary spiritual experiences—she embodied a life entirely rooted in one guiding conviction: “I want to live by feeding on the will of God… I want my will to be made one with His.”

Again, in her Diary, she wrote: “I ardently desire to live in the will of God. I know that this is how saints are made, and I want to become a saint to give glory to God.”

This program of life should be the great aspiration of every Christian, in perfect harmony with the words of Christ, our only and supreme model: “My food is to do the will of the Father” (Jn 4:34), because “whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn 2:17).

Cardinal José Saraiva Martins

Message at the Beatification of Blessed Mary Josephine of Jesus Crucified
Naples, 1 June 2008

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: A nun kneels before Blessed Mary Josephine in the cloister of the Carmel at Ponti Rossi. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (Used by permission).

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
What would it mean for you to feed on the will of God in your daily life?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#beatification #BlessedMaryJosephineOfJesusCrucified #gloryToGod #homily #willOfGod

DR Congo: Joy in Goma as local man beatified by Pope Leo XIV http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TLP9Zf #DRC #Goma #PopeLeoXIV #Beatification #FloribertBwanaChui

RDC - Goma : Floribert béatifié au Vatican [Africanews Today] http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TLNrny #RDC #Goma #Floribert #béatification #Vatican

Vatican beatifies Congolese customs worker killed in 2007 for refusing bribe http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TLNK9B #Vatican #Beatification #FloribertBwanaChui #Congo #HumanRights

Quote of the day, 5 June: Madame Acarie

Ah, how much we must love God who is so good, who has loved us so much! If we find difficulty in anything, it’s because we don’t love God.

When will we finally give him everything and hold nothing back for ourselves? There is nothing owed to us and everything is due to God. Let’s serve him for who he is.

How happy we are to be able to do something for the service of God!

Blessed Mary of the Incarnation
(Madame Acarie)

2020 Carmelite Online Advent Retreat

Note: We recall the beatification of Madame Acarie on 5 June 1791 in Rome at a liturgy presided by Pope Pius VI.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Madame Acarie kneels before Our Lady in this oil painting by Delestres, ca. 1750, which is a treasure in the Carmel of Pontoise. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites, used by permission.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Am I growing in the freedom of loving God for who He is—not what He gives?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#beatification #BlessedMaryOfTheIncarnation #CarmelOfPontoise #MadameAcarie #prayer #surrender

Quote of the day, 27 May: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Throughout her stay in Carmel, Elizabeth lived with the very real threat of being expelled from France, along with her entire community. The liturgical calendar of Carmel, composed in 1905 (for the year 1906) mentions that, out of the 117 French Carmels, 38 actually were expelled.

On 1 July 1901, one month before Elizabeth entered Carmel, the Waldeck-Rousseau government promulgated the law concerning associations, which was aimed primarily at religious congregations. They had to ask for legal authorization before October 3, present their financial balance sheet, and an inventory of their goods.

For decades, the Catholic Church in France had been facing a headwind. The painful memory of the French Revolution and its martyrs a century earlier was still alive and, in the minds of young Christian idealists like Elizabeth, the idea of martyrdom could resurface from time to time, following the example of the Carmelites of Compiègne who were guillotined. She entered Carmel with this readiness for martyrdom, as she had declared to Marguerite Gollot when they were postulants “outside the walls”: “So, what happiness to go together to martyrdom!… I can hardly think of it… it’s too good!” (Letter 57).

Conrad De Meester, O.C.D.

Chapter 22, Partir en exil à l’étranger?

Note: The Mass and rite of beatification of Mother Teresa of St. Augustine and the Martyrs of Compiègne took place in Rome on Sunday, 27 May 1906. Later that year, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity attended a triduum celebrated in mid-October by the Carmel of Dijon in their honor. Their canonization—formally approved by Pope Francis on 18 December 2024—was the final one he authorized before his death.

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How am I inspired by the Holy Martyrs of Compiègne in my own faith and witness?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#anniversary #beatification #CarmelOfDijon #history #inspiration #martyrdom #MartyrsOfCompiègne #StElizabethOfTheTrinity

Quote of the day, 26 April: Pope Francis & Blessed Anne of Jesus

These stanzas, Reverend Mother, were obviously composed with a certain burning love of God.

Saint John of the Cross to Blessed Anne of Jesus
Prologue to the Spiritual Canticle

The history of the Belgian Church is rich in examples of holiness. Let us consider Saint Gudula, the patron saint of this country (650–712 ca.), Saint Guy of Anderlecht, the pilgrim and friend of the poor (+1012), Saint Damien de Veuster, better known as Damien of Molokai, the apostle to the lepers (1840-1889), and the many Belgian missionaries who have proclaimed the Gospel in various parts of the world over the centuries, sometimes to the point of sacrificing their lives.

The witness of a Carmelite nun has also blossomed in this fertile land: Anne of Jesus, Anna de Lobera, whose Beatification we celebrate today. In the Church of her time, this woman was among the protagonists of a great reform movement. She followed in the footsteps of a “giant of the spirit”, Teresa of Avila, and helped spread her ideals throughout Spain, France, here, in Brussels, and in what was then called the Spanish Netherlands.

In a time marked by painful scandals, within and outside of the Christian community, she and her companions brought many people back to the faith through their simple lives of poverty, prayer, work, and charity. Some have called their foundation in this city a “spiritual magnet”.

She intentionally left no writings to posterity. Instead, she committed herself to putting into practice what she had learned (cf. 1 Cor 15:3), and by her way of life she helped lift up the Church at a time of great difficulty.

Let us then gratefully welcome the example she has given us of “feminine styles of holiness” (cf. Gaudete et Exsultate, 12), gentle but strong. Her testimony, together with those of so many brothers and sisters who have gone before us, our friends and fellow pilgrims, is not far from us: it is near us, indeed it is entrusted to us so that we may also make it our own, renewing our commitment to walk together in the footsteps of the Lord.

Pope Francis

Homily, Mass of Beatification of Anne of Jesus
Brussels, 29 September 2024

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Pope Francis passing through a jubilant crowd in St. Peter’s Square minutes before his Inaugural Mass, 19 March 2013 [Inizio Del Ministero Petrino Del Vescovo Di Roma]. Photo by Jeffrey Bruno (Some rights reserved).

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Is my life quietly bearing witness—or am I waiting to say something before I live it?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#beatification #BlessedAnneOfJesus #Brussels #founder #homily #PopeFrancis #StJohnOfTheCross

Come si costruisce un santo: il caso di Carlo Acutis - A tu per tu con Biagio Carrano

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3MEImPsxkKc&si=i71zzZbCTLRJs_3f

#CarloAcutis #beatification #beatificazione #chiesacattolica #ateismo #atheism

Quote of the day, 18 March: Benedict XVI

BENEDICT XVI
ON THE BEATIFICATION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD SISTER ELIA OF ST. CLEMENT

We, accepting the request of Our Brother Francesco Cacucci, Archbishop of Bari-Bitonto, along with that of many other Brothers in the Episcopate and numerous faithful, and having received the judgment of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, by Our Apostolic Authority, grant that the Venerable Servant of God, Sister Elia of St. Clement, virgin of the Order of Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, who consecrated her contemplative life to Christ in loving service to the Church, shall henceforth be called Blessed.

Her feast may be celebrated in the designated places and according to the norms of law each year on May 29.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on March 14, 2006, in the first year of Our Pontificate.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Apostolic Letter, 14 March 2006

Note: Blessed Elia of St. Clement was born in Bari, Italy, on January 17, 1901, the third daughter of Giuseppe Fracasso and Pasqua Cianci. She was baptized four days later by her uncle, Fr. Carlo Fracasso, and given the name Teodora.

In 1914, under the guidance of Fr. Pietro Fiorillo, O.P., her spiritual director, she entered the Dominican Third Order as a novice on April 20, 1914, taking the name Agnese. Despite her young age, she was granted a special dispensation to make her profession on May 14, 1915.

In 1917, her new confessor, Fr. Sergio Di Gioia, S.J., discerned that God was calling her to Carmel. She entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari on April 8, 1920, and received the habit on November 24, 1920, taking the name Sister Elia of St. Clement. She made her first vows on December 4, 1921, and professed solemn vows on February 11, 1925.

Her short yet radiant life came to an end at noon on December 25, 1927, when she died of meningitis.

She was beatified on March 18, 2006, in a solemn ceremony. The Discalced Carmelite Order observes her optional memorial on May 29.

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Blessed Elia of St. Clement holds her profession cross in this photo from the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari, Italy. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

🌹 Blessed Elia of St. Clement entrusted her life completely to Christ, even in suffering. What aspect of her Carmelite vocation speaks to you most—her contemplative love, her hidden holiness, or her unwavering surrender to God’s will?

💬 Share your reflections in the comments!

#ApostolicLetter #Bari #beatification #BlessedEliaOfStClement #PopeBenedictXVI

Quote of the day, 13 November: St. John Paul II

“Listen, daughter”… (Psalm 45:11).

1. Today the Church applies these words of the Psalm to Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified, a Discalced Carmelite nun, born in the land that saw the unfolding of the life of Jesus of Nazareth; a land situated in a region that, even today, remains at the center of grave concerns and painful tensions.

“Listen, daughter.” Behold, Sister Mary’s journey toward the divine Bridegroom is now profoundly inscribed in the memory of the People of God. Today, the Church crowns her with the act of beatification. This act bears witness to the unique spiritual “beauty” of this daughter of the Holy Land—a “beauty” that has matured in the glow of the mystery of Redemption: in the rays of the birth and teaching, the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The liturgy says to the new Blessed: “He is your Lord: bow down to him” (Ps 45:11–12).

And at the same time, with the words of the same Psalm, the liturgy manifests the joy for the elevation to the altar of the humble Servant of God.

“The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes…” (Ps 45:13–14): the golden fabric of faith, hope, and love; of the theological and moral virtues that she practiced to a heroic degree as a daughter of Carmel.

2. In this Year that the Church experiences as an extraordinary Jubilee of the Redemption, many times we have gathered around figures who have reached the glory of the altar. It is a special sign of the inexhaustible power of the Redemption, which works in the souls of the Servants of God, allowing them to continue tenaciously on the path of the vocation to holiness.

This vocation has its eternal beginning in the salvific plan of the Most Holy Trinity, of which the second reading of the Mass speaks: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:29–30).

In this grandiose Pauline vision, we penetrate, so to speak, into the very depths of divine thought, grasping in some way the “logic” of the plan of salvation, in the progression of the mysterious actions that lead to its full implementation. Thus, the vocation to holiness is God’s eternal plan with regard to man: with regard, today, to our sister Mary of Jesus Crucified.

True wisdom and intelligence presuppose “littleness,” understood as docility to the Holy Spirit. It is only through this littleness that one can, in the Son, for the Son, and with the Son, come to know the mysteries of the Father. These remain hidden from the wise and learned of this world, who are blinded by foolishness and pride (Cf. 1 Cor 1:18–21).

3. The vocation to holiness is carried out by those “infants” of the Gospel who accept divine Revelation with all their hearts. Thanks to this, they “know the Son,” and thanks to the Son, they “know the Father.”

Such knowledge is, in fact, at the same time, the acceptance of the vocation: “Come to me… Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…” (Mt 11:28–29).

And so we go to Christ just as Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified came to him, that is, taking his yoke upon ourselves, learning from him, because he is meek and humble of heart, and finding solace for our souls (Cf. Mt 11:28–29).

4. And all this is the work of love. Holiness, first of all, is based on love. It is its mature fruit. And in today’s liturgy, in a particular way, love is exalted:

• “love, as strong as death”;
• “the love that floods cannot drown”;
• “love, in exchange for which one must give all the wealth of one’s house” (Cf. Song 8:6–7).

Thus speaks the author of the Song of Songs. And Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, teaches that “all things work together for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). Precisely this cooperation traces the path of holiness, one might say, day by day throughout one’s life. On this path, holiness is realized as the eternal vocation of those “who have been called according to God’s plan” (Cf. Rom 8:28).

5. The readings of today’s Liturgy are a splendid commentary on the life of Sister Mary, who was born near Nazareth and died in the Carmel of Bethlehem at the age of 33. Her love for Christ was as strong as death; the most painful trials did not extinguish it, but on the contrary, purified and strengthened it. She gave everything for this love.

The entire life of the little Arab girl, filled with extraordinary mystical gifts, was, in the light of the Holy Spirit, the conscious and irrevocable response to a vocation of holiness, that is, to that eternal plan of salvation, of which St. Paul speaks, which divine mercy has established for each of us.

Her whole life is the fruit of that supreme evangelical “wisdom” with which God delights in enriching the humble and the poor, confounding the powerful. Endowed with great clarity of mind, a fervent natural intelligence, and that poetic imagination characteristic of the Semitic peoples, little Mary did not have the opportunity to gain access to advanced studies, but this did not prevent her, thanks to her eminent virtue, from being filled with that “knowledge” that has the greatest value, and to give us the knowledge that Christ died on the cross: knowledge of the Trinitarian Mystery, such an important perspective in that Eastern Christian spirituality in which the little Arab girl had been educated.

6. As we read in the Canonical Decree of Beatification, “the humble servant of Christ, Mary of Jesus Crucified, belonging by lineage, rite, vocation, and wanderings to the peoples of the East and being in some way a representative of them, is like a gift from the peoples of the East to the universal Church. These peoples, suffering in miserable conditions of struggle and bloodshed, especially now, turn with great trust to her fraternal intercession, in the hope that, thanks also to the Servant of God’s prayers, peace and harmony finally will be restored in those lands where ‘the Word became flesh’ (Jn 1:14) since he himself is our peace.”

Blessed Mary was born in Galilee. That is why our prayerful thought wants to go today in a special way to the Land where Jesus taught love and died so that humanity might have reconciliation. “That Land,” as I recalled on another occasion, “for decades has seen two peoples opposed in a hitherto irreducible antagonism. Each of them has a history, a tradition, a story of their own, which seem to make it difficult to reach an agreement” (John Paul II, Allocutio occasione oblata orationis dominicae Angelus Domini habita, 5, domenica 4 aprile 1982: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, V/1 [1982] 1110).

Today more than ever before, the threats looming over us urge us to make love and brotherhood the fundamental law of social and international relations, in a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness, taking inspiration from the way of life of which Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified is an example not only for her people but for the whole world. May this new way of life give us peace based not on terror, but on mutual trust.

7. We rejoice today at the altar of the Confession of St. Peter for the beatification of Sister Mary. We inscribe this joy of the Church in the record of the Jubilee Year of Redemption. Together with Christ, we praise the Father, who revealed to the soul of Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified the mystery of truth and love, making her a sharer in the glory of his Kingdom.

With the Psalmist, let us pray to the new Blessed that the Lord may grant peace to her land: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.’ For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good” (Ps 122:6–9).

Saint John Paul II

Homily, Beatification of St. Mary of Jesus Crucified
13 November 1983, St. Peter’s Basilica

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified (Mariam Baouardy). Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#beatification #DiscalcedCarmelite #homily #mariamBaouardy #nun #StJohnPaulII #StMaryOfJesusCrucified

At Mass in Brussels, Pope Francis beatified Blessed Anne of Jesus, praising her witness of holiness through poverty, prayer, and charity. #Beatification #Carmelite

http://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/29/beatific-anne/

The Mass at Brussels’s King Baudouin Stadium on Sunday morning was the final public event of Pope Francis’ 4-day Apostolic Journey to Luxembourg and Belgium.

During the Mass, the Pope beatified Anne of Jesus, a 17th-century Spanish nun who brought St. Teresa of Avila’s reform of the Carmelite Order to Belgium and other parts of Europe.

In his homily, the Holy Father praised Blessed Anne of Jesus for bearing witness to the Christian faith through poverty, prayer, and charity, especially at a time “marked by painful scandals.”

“Let us gratefully welcome the example she has given us of ‘feminine styles of holiness,’ gentle but strong,” he said.

Read more →

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/29/beatific-anne/

#beatification #Belgium #BlessedAnneOfJesus #DiscalcedCarmelite #Mass #PopeFrancis

“You have entered an Order so holy and perfect, that by keeping its rules and constitutions faithfully, one will go directly from her deathbed to her home in heaven.”

Blessed Anne of Jesus

Towards the end of the last century Madame Louise de France, Prioress of the Carmel of St. Denis, writing to Pope Pius VI, recommended to him with most filial earnestness the causes of Mary of the Incarnation, Anne of Jesus, and Anne of St. Bartholomew, wishing to see all three raised to the altar.

Pius VI made this reply:

“We recognize more and more how the interests of religion touch you, and that you live only for the glory of God. We will beg of Him to guide us by His spirit of counsel and wisdom to do that which He wills of us for His glory, for, you know full well, the issue of an affair of such consequence to the Church is not in the power of any human will.”

No; canonization is not in the power of any human will. Of the three servants of God named above, one only, Mary of the Incarnation, was placed in the ranks of the Blessed by Pius VI, the 10th of April, 1791 [Later, Anne of St. Bartholomew was beatified on 6 May 1917].

God willed that the Carmel of France should be the first to be glorified, and that the first Blessed of the Order, after St. Teresa, should be a French Carmelite.

Marcel Bouix

Preface, Autobiography of the Blessed Mother Anne of St. Bartholomew (excerpt)

Note: On the Solemnity of St. John of the Cross, 14 December 2023, the Holy Father Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of a decree regarding the miracle attributed to the intercession of Anne of Jesus (Lobera), who founded the Discalced Carmelite nuns in France and Belgium with the assistance of Mary of the Incarnation and Anne of St. Bartholomew. We rejoice at her beatification on 29 September 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. At this link, you can browse through all of our posts concerning Anne of Jesus, Carmel’s newest Blessed.

Anne of St. Bartholomew, M; Bouix, M 1917,  Autobiography of the Blessed Mother Anne of Saint Bartholomew, inseparable companion of Saint Teresa, and foundress of the Carmels of Pontoise, Tours and Antwerp, translated from the French by Michael, M A, H. S. Collins Printing Co., Saint Louis.

Featured image: This detail of a portrait of Blessed Anne of Jesus comes from a painting of a trio of foundresses: Anne of Jesus, Teresa of Avila, and Anne of St. Bartholomew. This image graces Stella Maris Church in Haifa Israel. Image credit: Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/28/anadjesus-perfect/

#AnneOfJesus #beatification #DiscalcedCarmelite #founder #heaven #nun #perfection

“If you see my mother, or if you go to the judge, or if you meet a priest, tell them that I am dying because I am a Christian.”

Blessed Isidore Bakanja

The 1994 beatification of Isidore Bakanja, a young African who died in 1909 after a brutal beating by a Belgian overseer in what was then the Belgian Congo and is now Zaire, offers a look at the twists and turns the Catholic Church faces when it elevates men and women to the status of the blessed.

Here is a discussion of the case by Redemptus Maria Valabek, O.Carm., postulator of the cause of Mr. Bakanja, published in 1984 in the Carmelite periodical “Carmel in the World,” and translated by The New York Times….

In the Report of the Particular Congress of Theologians assigned to study the cause of martyrdom of Isidore Bakanja, prepared on Dec. 4, 1992, the congress, headed by the General Promoter of the Faith, Very Rev. Antonio Petti, agreed that the cause of Isidore Bakanja was clearly proved to be a case of martyrdom for the faith even though a number of eventual difficulties to the cause were noted.

While the testimonies gathered seemed to prove unequivocally that Bakanja had been beaten because he was a Christian, a fact confirmed by Bakanja himself, a few of the theological consultors expressed some doubts. The acts of the Position on the Martyrdom state:

Nevertheless, there would seem to be missing in the servant of God, in the act of torture, the note of heroic strength that is usually found in the victims of vexation for the faith. Under the blows, in fact, poor Isidore “whimpered and screamed” and his cries were so loud that they awoke Van Cauter‘s concubines who were sleeping in a den some distance from the site where the whipping took place . . . .

According to the testimonies, the medications and cures given to the servant of God in Isongu and Busira did not relieve him in any way: the wounds became gangrenous ulcers, and grew ever wider until his bones were uncovered. . . . On this point, in any case, there arise some doubts: if death was effectively provoked by the gangrene of the wounds.

The servant of God was beaten on Feb. 2, 1909, and died on Aug. 15, 1909, that is, six months later, which is a considerable length of time. And here arises — or could arise — the suspicion that perhaps a factor other than the wounds could have provoked his death, perhaps an internal disease. . . .

A few of the doubts, briefly mentioned, regarding the causal link between the wounds and the sores brought upon the servant of God during the cruel whipping inflicted upon him, and the death which followed six months after, do not seem to constitute a peremptory obstacle to beginning the cause “per viam martyrii” (by way of martyrdom) . . . Moreover, two of the theological consultors had reservations of a political nature.

One of the consultors notes:

“Given the current political situation in the ex-Belgian colony, we should ask ourselves what the reaction could be to the eventual elevation of Bakanja as a martyr (given that martyrdom will be proven) to the honors of the altar: that is, if this could suscitate a reawakening of the Zairian hatred against the old Belgian colonial masters (and, more generically, toward Europeans). . . .”

Yet notwithstanding these reservations, the nine theological consultors unanimously voted affirmatively and Isidore Bakanja was beatified in due course.

Elisabetta Povoledo

Word for Word: Martyrology; Brutalized in Colonial Africa, 1909; Beatified in Rome, 1994 (excerpts)
Sunday, January 29, 1995, page 136

Featured image: Blessed Isidore Bakanja, image from his beatification banner. Image credit: Carmelite Order

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/11/nyt-bakanja/

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This following of the Master, which should lead us to imitate him to the point of giving our lives for his love, has been almost a constant call for Christians of the earliest times and throughout history to give this supreme witness of love—martyrdom—to everyone, especially persecutors.

Thus the Church, down through the centuries, has preserved as a precious legacy the words that Christ spoke: “No disciple is above his teacher” (Mt 10:24), and “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (Jn 15:20).

Thus we see that martyrdom—the ultimate witness in defense of the faith—is considered by the Church to be an exalted gift and the supreme proof of love, by which a Christian follows in the footsteps of Jesus, who freely accepted suffering and death for the salvation of the world.

And although martyrdom is a gift granted by God to a few, nevertheless, all must—and should—be ready to confess Christ before men, especially in the periods of trial that are never—even today—lacking for the Church.

In honoring her martyrs, the Church recognizes them both as a sign of her fidelity to Jesus Christ until death, and as a clear sign of her immense desire for forgiveness and peace, harmony, mutual understanding, and respect.

The three Carmelite martyrs had, without doubt, very present, as we know from their testimonies, those words written by their Holy Mother and Doctor of the Church, Teresa of Jesus:

“If someone is a true religious or a true person of prayer… he must not turn his back upon the desire to die for God and suffer martyrdom” (Way of Perfection, 12:2).

Saint John Paul II

Homily, Beatification of Five Servants of God
29 March 1987

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.

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Detail from a historic photograph of Republican soldiers in the Church of Sigüenza, Guadalajara during the early months of the Spanish Civil War (1936). From the photojournalism collection in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/23/jp2-29mar87/

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