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Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Novena Prayer

__________July 16__________

O Valiant Woman,

Strong-hearted and caring,

visit this earth which is still

so much a part of you.

  Quiet our frenzied living

and hush our anxieties.

Bring healing

for all our wounds

Tell Us

what our real work is

and be with us until

it is accomplished.

            Never let us yield

                       to discouragement

                              or to another gospel.

         Instead, Carry us into God's future

and allow us to experience

the joy and exhilaration which come

from walking where there is no path.

O Coolness in the Summer's Heat,



   each morning remind us that

     "the blue of heaven is always bigger

       than any cloud."*

Our Lady Of Mt. Carmel, Pray for Us.

                                                  3 Hail Marys.

                   * (Elizabeth B. Browning, adapted)

*******************************************

From the writings of Mary Jo Loebig, O.C.D.

Charleston, S.C.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. John 14.27

     We pray with and for the people of Charleston S.C. as they mourn the loss their loved ones. May God bring them peace and hope in the midst of such terrible suffering and hurt. The families of the slain helped remind us all that we all belong to the same Spiritual Father and are brothers and sisters united in God’s love.

     While I was meditating on the problems of race and injustice in our country today, an old family story came to mind. It was after my sister and brother-in-law’s house tragically burnt and they barely escaped with their child and their lives. After they had moved to another place in town, they asked the next door neighbor to watch over their home place in order to keep looters away. Of course everyone in the family (we were a family of 12 children) wanted to see what happened including my father. So he drove out to the place and met the neighbor. He said that he was my sister’s father and he wondered if it would be ok to look around the burnt out building. The neighbor seemed to hesitate and he asked if he needed to show her some ID. Her response was, “no it's ok, as I’ve met all kinds of brothers and sisters but only one father.”

     Now as I think about this terrible tragedy in our country, I am reminded again, that while we do have different earthly fathers, we all have the same heavenly father and are all brothers and sisters. As we prayerfully embrace each other in grief, may we also share in the peace of the Lord.

Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.

Ordinary Time

     There is a story that is told concerning St. Therese soon after she died. It seems that one of the Sisters in her community was asked to write her obituary. The Sister asked, “what are we going to write about her life, it was so ordinary?” Now of course we know that St. Therese, the Little Flower, was an extraordinary soul both in her love for God and for all of God’s people. While it might not have always been obvious to those around her, we know that she was striving with all of her might to do little things with much love.

     As we enter into Ordinary time ourselves, perhaps that is all that the dear Lord is asking of us also. We know from experience that life is mostly made up of little things. In our day to day activities we can choose to grow in God’s love and to seek his guidance and presence. As my novice director once said, “Our Lady must have made many a meal for Jesus and Joseph.” I find that keeping this in mind helps to transform a simple activity into an occasion of love and prayer.

     We know that we are all called to grow in contemplation and love. May St. Therese and Our Blessed Mother intercede for us that we may become increasing aware of the presence of God (Indwelling Trinity in ourselves and in others, no matter what our current occupation and day to day activities involve.)

Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.

Good Friday/Easter

One idea that almost all liturgists can agree upon is that a Good Friday reflection should be short… The readings are so rich and there are so many themes that we can develop that it is perhaps best to set them all aside and trust that the listeners will chose their own favorite topics and find a poem or theological treatise to inspire their personal devotion.

This is not to diminish the place of structured formal preaching in our lives but to enhance the need to take this time to reflect upon our personal experience of the Cross… which for everyone is different.

Yet the mystery is always the same…Life/Death/Resurrection… in a few words how does one express such universal and holy occurrences? To be frank..I DON’T KNOW!!!

In looking for a text there was nothing that seemed to especially warm my heart this year. But in reflecting further, I was deeply impressed this Lent by a dear woman in of all places Alverno (A Franciscan Rest Home)..

She was in a wheel chair next to Sr. Roseanne’s room and we stopped to talk with her for a few minutes. Now most of the time you go to the Nursing home to “minister” [I hate that word] to the patients. This experience was different however..this was a beautiful old woman. She was neatly dressed and obviously happy with the kind of interior joy that can’t be faked. She told us that she had had a good life and that it wasn’t done yet…she had a large family of six children. Then as Mary Jo left to talk with another patient, she looked up at me and said, “You know that I have always loved You!” There wasn’t a hint of anything other than love in her statement and expression. On my part I just silently accepted her tribute taking the privileged place… probably of one of her daughters.

Yet this experience penetrated to the depths of my being, for I had met CHRIST’s Spirit within her. Clear..unblemished and shining forth…she radiated love… joyfully embracing the future. It further moved me to think that Christ’s last words were also ones of love... and in putting on Christ we don’t escape death but we glory in the cross for we Are transformed in LOVE into Love…physical death is swallowed up into victory! The light of Easter Sunday can’t be controlled, contained, boxed up or hidden by time. For Love is eternal and in the end “these three remain: faith, hope and Love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor 13:12-14

Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.

Always There, Every Morning

     All of us have had the experience of doing the same activity day after day, even reverently, and then one day, unexpectedly, it is different. The Divine catches up with us. For example, I cannot count the number of times I have heard the greeting, “Lift up your hearts,” at Eucharist.

      The other day, I began to ponder the root meaning of this expression. Actually, a more accurate translation would be “Let your heart arise.” This is so because the heart naturally rises, if we give it a chance.

     It seems like the pre-Easter, pre-Spring, season is a good time to ponder what helps the heart arise and what hinders its natural spontaneous movement. Sometimes the heart is weighed down because it has not had a chance to grieve its loses, even the small ones. Usually, we are conscious of the big ones. The least we can do for the heart, is to articulate these loses, list them and cry over them if need be. Along this line, there is a belief that seems to be Irish in origin. It goes something like this: If we lose something or someone very precious, that person, or that something, sends back a gift or blessing to take the place of the loss. This is a very everyday understanding of the Paschal Mystery. So, it behooves us to look for the gift.

"I will spend my heaven doing good on earth" - St. Therese

From the writings of Mary Jo Loebig, O.C.D.

Lenten Connections

Return to me with your whole heart. Joel 2:12

As we begin the Season of Lent, it is perhaps good to focus on who we are doing things for. Are we staying connected with the God that we love, and are we trying to grow in this Love? Perhaps even more important are we trying to become more aware of God’s love for us?

Those of us that work with computers, Ipads, tablets, iphones etc., are very aware of the importance of a good connection. The time of Lent offers us another chance to improve our connection or to reconnect anew with Jesus in our hearts. Fortunately, as St. Therese assures us this is not difficult. She states in Story of a Soul, “for me prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.”

In conclusion, I don’t think that it was by mere accident that St. Therese gave us this beautiful definition of prayer after first writing about an incident that took place during Lent. May her wisdom help us to grow in the mystery of God's time and of ours.

“O Jesus I know it, love is repaid by love alone.”

                                                                    Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.

Pentecost and Mary the Mother of Jesus

At Pentecost, Our Lady is pictured as sitting and praying with the disciples gathered in the upper room. Most of the 120 men and women gathered there were probably of another generation (as it is popular to say today). We know that Mary was especially loved, yet even so, an older woman might have felt a little bit uncomfortable watching the followers of her Son individually struggle to identify their own purpose in life and the assembly’s future direction. In addition to facing an uncertain future she/they also knew the deepest kind of heartfelt grief over the death of Jesus. Yet, they held together and prayed together and the Church was born! For the Holy Spirit descended upon them as Jesus had promised. Fear and self-doubt were replaced with zeal to reveal his message to the world. So they went out to all the corners of the earth to preach. Historically, all of the Apostles except John and many of the disciples bore witness to Christ by being martyrs.

Mary’s witness and the witness of the women is every bit as vibrant and vital for the life of the Church. Her presence lets us discern that in addition to all the male faithful, Pentecost is also about the women and the dear grandmother figures that invite and encourage our younger generation to grow in faith.

Now, like Our Blessed Mother must have felt before Pentecost, many of us today know that the Spirit is also calling us to a deeper faith life, but how this will be expressed is for many among us, yet to be revealed. We like the disciples can be called to share our faith with others by traveling to foreign places (even communicating about Christ’s Spirit via the Internet etc.). And/or, like Mary, we can also be called to enter into the fire of deeper intimacy with Jesus in our contemplative and communal prayer life. As St. Therese states, “all is a grace.”

Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.

When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Batholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.... (Acts 1:13-15)

Easter 2014

This year especially we have known the darkness of night. Also, we have prayed for many that have had or are experiencing suffering and loss in their lives. For most of us it has been a long, hard and cold winter. While we know that God walks with us during these times, I am also reminded of something that Sr. Mary Jo once told me when I was undergoing treatment for cancer. It was Lent, and her advice was to not worry too much about how much time I was meditating on the Passion that year because it was already very close to the heart.

Now, keeping in mind, Sr. Mary Jo's recent passing (Feb. 11, 2014), the blood moon and the Easter season, I'd like to share a short passage that she wrote in 2005.

As radiant dawn breaks through the darkness of night.

As moon so fair, your beauty awes the hearts of all the world.

O Mary, most holy, be with us along life's way,

and lead us into the deep caverns holding the mysteries of God.

Thus, walking in God's presence and with Our Lady as both companion and guide, may the newness of this Easter direct our minds and hearts to Jesus and to the joy of new life and Resurrection.

Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.