Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 16, 2006
(Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel)
So they went off and preached repentance.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
Children will often go to their parents and complain about a sibling.
’He pushed me.” “She kicked me.”
In that vein I will say that the woman on the front of the bulletin is following me and I don’t want her to stop. She is stalking me and I am very blessed. I wear the scapular everyday and this is what is descending from Our Lady’s hand as well as the hand of Jesus. Our Lady is calling those in Purgatory. You see the souls in the flames; those are souls being brought up into Heaven at her intercession. Our Lady is very powerful. If today, July 16th were not a Sunday, we would be celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
Click the link below to view the picture of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
http://home.nyc.rr.com/mysticalrose/purgatory3.jpg
In your weekly schedule in the bulletin, if you look under Tuesday, July 18th, you see the schedule for the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer. These prayers are part of the Liturgy of the Hours, which is also known as the Divine Office. These prayers are centuries old and are prayed by members of the Church around the world. The prayers are taken from the Bible, mainly from the Book of Psalms as well as Old and New Testament readings along with writings and thoughts of the saints. The book I am holding up is the Divine Office, the Breviary and as a priest I have to pray this Divine Office daily. The readings are set up so that everyone all over the world is on the same page on the same day. I can’t just open it up anywhere and close my eyes and let my finger fall on a reading. It is a very structured book.
The schedule for the Divine Office can be found at the link below
http://www.semperficatholic.com/page23.html
It is interesting that today and tomorrow there is a change in the First reading from the Office of Readings. We are hearing from the First Book of Kings. It speaks about Elijah, the greatest of the Old Testament Prophets, but if I flip back to July 16th, which is not used today because Sunday takes precedence over such a Feast.
July 16th, Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
Sacred Scripture celebrated the beauty of Mt. Carmel where the Prophet Elijah defended the purity of Israel’s faith in the Living God. The twelfth century hermits withdrew to that mountain and later founded the order devoted to the contemplative life under the patronage of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. (Known as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.)
So the Carmelites trace their founder to the Prophet Elijah in the Old Testament. It is interesting that today, the Feast day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Elijah just happens to pop up in the Office of Readings; the Liturgy of the Hours. It is amazing to see Elijah, who is calling Israel to repentance. God revealed Himself to Israel but Israel wanders off to follow pagan gods.
The reading for tomorrow is about a great contest between the true faith and the faith of pagan gods like Baal. The pagan priests number eight hundred fifty against Elijah and according to the Old Testament those are good odds. Elijah is going to show Israel who the True God is. There are two bulls and Elijah lets the pagan priests pick one and they slaughter it and place it on an altar, piling firewood on it but they don’t light it. Elijah does the same thing with his bull but he digs a trench around his Altar and fills it with water and pours the water over the sacrifice and the wood and the trench is of course filled. Elijah tells the pagans that this will be how they will determine who the True God is; whoever can call down fire from Heaven to consume the sacrifice, this will be the power of the True God.
Elijah allows the pagan priests to go first and they dance around, pray, and shout to heaven but nothing happens. Elijah says things to them such as,
“Maybe he is asleep maybe he is on vacation or maybe you need to yell louder.”
So they yell louder and dance around and began to cut themselves hoping it would get the attention of their god but nothing happens. Elijah, then calls upon God and immediately fire comes down from Heaven and laps up the sacrifice, burns up the wood as well as the stone Altar and laps up all the water in the trenches. As I said, this is the reading for tomorrow and it ends with the people seeing this and falling prostrate saying,
“The Lord is God!” Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let none of them escape.” They were seized and Elijah had them brought down to the Brook of Kishon and there he slit their throats.
“Well, that it terrible!”
Tell that to Elijah, he knew what he was doing! These prophets of Baal, all under the jezebel named Jezebel, were leading the people astray! I am referring to the original Jezebel, Queen Jezebel, who was the wife of King Ahab. So all jezebels after her are named for this Jezebel.
It is amazing to read these readings from the First Book of Kings on the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel because the Prophet Elijah is featured so prominently in them, but the order of the Office of Readings is not tied to the calendar. This is a providential convergence. Again, it is another way that I see that this woman is stalking me!
Two years before I was Ordained, in 1987, I went down to the family farm in Leroy just outside of West, Texas, which is on the road to Waco. This farm had been in the family for over one hundred years. At the time my three bachelor uncles were still alive and we were sitting in the kitchen at the new house, which was built in 1959. I’d sat in that kitchen many times but this time my uncles were telling me about the year they built the new house, which was the year I was born. They told me how they had taken all the pictures off the wall and put them in one of the sheds on the farm. I asked them what they had done with the pictures and they told me they were in “the shed”! These pictures had been there since 1959, right? Winter came and then summer came many times bringing rain and snow and things like that.
My uncles got the pictures and brought them in and of course they were full of dirt dobber nests and were dusty and dirty. I asked them if I could take all these pictures. Some were family pictures, the kind that peer down at you from the wall of Cracker Barrel as you are trying to eat. [Laughter] There were also religious pictures from the original homestead. I asked to take them with me so I could get them cleaned up and restored the best I could and get negatives made of the pictures. I told them I would return them but it wouldn’t be soon. Of course they agreed; they wouldn’t have minded if the pictures had stayed out there another twenty or thirty years.
So, it was July 16th, 1992 before I got around to doing something with them. I moved them around a lot but at least I got them out of the shed. On the evening of July 16th I was watching one of the presidential conventions and I was taking the picture frames apart to have professional negatives made of the pictures. I remember there was a beautiful picture of Our Lady and around her were the beads of the Rosary. I was taking this picture frame apart and hidden behind that picture of Our Lady and the Rosary was this picture.
Father holds up the picture of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel that is on the front of the bulletin.
The picture had been behind there for decades; pardon the pun. [Laughter] She’d been hidden for all those years and I just happened to discover her on July 16th. Again, she is following me! Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is tremendous.
In the year 2000, Fr. Christopher Henderson of the Fathers of Mercy gave a Mission at Blessed Sacrament when I was there. He was quoting a very short book called “Song of the Scaffold”, by Gertrude von LaForte. It was about the 16 Carmelite Martyrs and July 17th is the Feast of the 16 Blessed Carmelite Martyrs of the French Revolution. This year is the 100th Anniversary of these Carmelite sister’s Beatification by Pope St. Pius X. The year 2000 was my first introduction to these sisters.
After Fr. Henderson left I got online and I ordered the book. I told no one and when it came in the mail I read it in one night, which is amazing for me. I usually read as fast as I do art restoration. The next day I did something I rarely do because it is so costly. I got in my car and drove to Sacred Heart bookstore. It isn’t the gas that makes it so costly, I spend money at Sacred Heart books. When I got there I went to the back to see Janet and still had not mentioned the book I read or my mission. While Janet and I were talking she stopped all of a sudden, walked over to a wall full of books, which is their inventory. She pulled this book down from the shelf and told me that I just might like it. It was the historical facts behind the “Song of the Scaffold” by Gertrude von Laforte. Laforte’s book is fact and fiction mixed together. That is the problem with the Da Vinci Code; where does fact end and fiction begin…the same with the “Song of the Scaffold”.
Janet had shown me the book that I had gone there is search of in the first place but no one knew. Again I can see that “she”, Our Lady, had a lot to do with all of this. She heard me talk about these sisters numerous times, and their death at the guillotine July 17, 1794, which is tomorrow. Nathan Hale, a hero of the American Revolution said that his only regret was that he only had one life to give for his country. These Carmelite martyrs of the French Revolution regretted that they had only one life to give to Christ to stop the terror unleashed by the French Revolution to bring peace to France and to the Church.
These Carmelite sisters were just north of Paris in a little town called Compiegne. They were minding their own business and doing what Carmelites have done for centuries; they were praying and working inside the walls of their convent. They weren’t bothering anyone but in fact were praying for everyone else. This is typical of Carmelites at heart. The French Revolution freed these sisters and told them they had to get out because they wanted to sell the convent and scoop up the money. The told the sisters they would provide an apartment for them, as well as money for their convent but this never came about. The sisters had to leave the convent and the first thing they were told by the authorities was that they couldn’t wear the habit. The brown dress that you see on Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is exactly what the Carmelites were wearing. It was religious dress and the authorities during the French Revolution said “NO” to religious habits.
The sisters were moved into four apartments and they had to start wearing secular clothes. The sisters had no money so they had to beg from the people around them for clothing. Nothing matched but they wore what they were given. They couldn’t even wear a veil. Can you imagine a nun without a veil? That is just not possible! So they wore a bonnet. In case a hurricane just might come through and pull the bonnet off, they wore another bonnet on top of that bonnet. So they had a bonnet on top of a bonnet. The sisters were not going to be caught short in that respect. They looked to be street people, like they had been dressed during a visit to Goodwill. I know, you can find good things at Goodwill…don’t stop me after Mass! [Laughter] The sisters looked like they were dressed in a hodge podge fashion.
The Carmelites lived in the apartments for a while. One of the sisters, the 17th sister went along with the Mother Superior to Paris on some business. The 17th sister had access to decent clothing in Paris because she had family there. Instead of just taking off the hodge podge and throwing it away as we would do, she gave the clothes to Mother Superior, who took them back to Compiegne. When Mother Superior returned there in mid June, leaving the 17th sister in Paris, she and the other 15 sisters were arrested and thrown into jail and their fate was uncertain.
While in jail, the Carmelites were on one side and 17 Benedictine sisters were on the other side. The Carmelites only spoke French and the Benedictines only spoke English. They were from England and had come over at the wrong time to pay a visit to their sisters in France. So, here are the Benedictine sisters on one side dressed in their Benedictine habits that spoke only English and on the others side were Carmelites that only spoke French but, again these are women and women are incredible communicators; we all know this. Somehow all the sisters were able to communicate and even switch recipes and all that stuff, I am sure.
After the Carmelites had been there two or three weeks the jailer came in and Mother Superior told him that they had been there a long time and that their fates was uncertain and then she asked permission to wash their clothes. They’d been in the same clothes for weeks so the jailer told them he would let them wash their clothing. The jailer had tubs brought in and they filled them with water and allowed their clothing to soak. Remember that they couldn’t wear the habit but there was no law against carrying it around so each sister had carried their habit to jail. They also had to bring their own secular clothing because they didn’t issue an orange jumpsuit like they do today. They took off their street clothes and put them in the tubs to begin soaking. Then they put on their Carmelite habits. They had to get these secular clothes washed because it was against the law to wear a religious habit and if you were caught in a habit they could throw you…in…jail. Oh that is right, they were already in jail.
The next day word was sent to Compeigne to send the Carmelite prisoners to Paris for trial immediately. The jailer went in and told the sisters to get ready because that very day they would be loaded onto carts and taken to Paris. This was on July 16, 1795, which was five years after the beginning of the French Revolution. When the jailer saw the sister in their habits he told them that they could not go to Paris dressed in them. He told them to put on the secular clothes but the sisters showed them to him and they were still wet. He knew if he delayed sending the nuns that it might mean his own death so they were loaded up in their habits.
The nuns arrived in Paris on the morning of the 17th of July and they were taken before the court and convicted. It is interesting that their sentence had been signed the night before, on July 16th. I know what you are thinking…but it was a very impartial trial. They had been convicted on July 16th even though they went before the court on the 17th. When the sisters realized all of this they rejoiced and went willingly to their death. They tried everything they could to avoid this but it was happening, and happening in conjunction with the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
The way the nuns went to their deaths was, as any other normal prisoner would have; they were loaded into carts and taken through the streets of Paris to the guillotine. A mob would line the streets on both sides. It was kind of like the mob you would see on any WWF wrestling match. People would laugh at the condemned and throw things and curse at them in a vile manner, but there was silence on this day. When the nuns were loaded into the carts they were of course dressed in their habits except they had their bonnets on. Even the bonnets were to serve a purpose. Mother Superior had made sure to cut the hair of each one of the sisters so that between the bottom of their bonnets and the top of their white mantle, there was just a tiny space left. If the Mother Superior had not done this, the executioner would have taken them one by one and touched each sister and cut their hair. No, no no! These were brides of Christ and they would not be touched by the men. So, the Mother Superior had prepared everything.
The sisters went joyfully to their deaths; everything had prepared them for this time. They sang hymns that they sang all their lives; they chanted the Office of the Dead in Latin. Their lives had prepared them for this moment of tragedy, which they turned into a glorious moment for Christ and as a witness to Him. Starting with the youngest sister, one by one they went to the Mother Superior knelt before her and asked for her permission to die. Permission was granted and they each bent and kissed the hand of the Superior. In the Superior’s hand was a small image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. If the authorities had found this image they would have killed…. oh, that is what they did! Anyway, you can see how these French were so intent on subtracting God from France. Fortunately before the Mother Superior went to her death the image was passed to someone in the crowd. It is now in a museum in France. The sisters went to their death forgiving people and being a witness to Christ.
Last Wednesday I was supposed to give the last class on these 16 martyrs of the French Revolution but as you can see it was moved to July 19th. On Wednesday last week I was called to do the Rosary and then the funeral for Sarah Anne Walker, Joe and Carol Walker’s daughter, who was forty years old. Last Saturday on July 8th she was murdered. You have seen stories about the Realtor, who was murdered. It is interesting because the Saturday after the Sunday I preached here about St. Maria Goretti and how she was murder by Alessando. The small body of little eleven year old Maria Goretti was wounded multiple times by Alessandro her attacker. Just a couple of days after St. Maria Goretti's Feast, Sarah Anne Walker was murdered - also with multiple wounds inflicted.
Years after the murder of Maria Goretti, Alessandro got out of jail and finally contrite, he went to Maria’s mother and sought her forgiveness. She told him that Maria had forgiven him so how could she not forgive him as well. All of the prayers that Mrs. Goretti had prayed in you life had prepared her for that moment. When Maria was asked if she forgave Alessandro she said,
Out of love for Jesus I do and I want him to be with me in heaven.
Maria was only 11 but all of God’s graces had prepared her for that moment.
Maybe some of you don’t know Joe Walker but he has been a member here for quite a long time. He needs a hearing aide but he wears this contraption that looks like a radio with earphones. I am always asking him what the score is. [Laughter] I asked one little girl if she knew Mr. Walker and she said no. I told her he is the one who gives the donuts every Sunday. She knew him after all. Donuts, the magic word, right? Anyway, after the Rosary I went down to preach right in front of Joe so he could pick up what was being said on his hearing device. His sisters stay on him about getting a hearing aide but Joe won’t listen. [laughter] So I began to talk about how we need to pray for Sarah Anne because she was attacked; she wasn’t prepared and we needed to pray for her. Well, Joe interrupted and said that we need to pray for the conversion of person who did this to her as well, so they will go to heaven. You know…the same thing you or I would say under similar circumstance, right? No!
You see, Joe has a great devotion to the Divine Mercy and year after year, hour after hour, Joe has prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet and if mercy is what you want, mercy is what you have to give. Joe could say those words soon after his dear daughter had been murdered and he was saying them in all honesty. He wasn’t saying them through clinched teeth. He didn’t say he hoped God had mercy on the fiend, coward or wretch who did this to his daughter. It is amazing. Everything had prepared Joe for that moment.
In the Second Reading today we hear from St. Paul that God has prepared everything for you and me to get to heaven, even before the creation of the world. So, what is the hold up? What is the problem? God has even given us a mother that watches our every step, who stalks us, if you will, because she wants all of us in heaven. Like the Prophet Elijah…that last ditch effort to get them to convert back to God and they all bowed down and prayed,
“The Lord is God!”
The Gospel today says that they were to wear sandals but not a second tunic. The Discalced Carmelites don’t wear shoes, they only wear sandals and had only one set of clothes as they went to their death. They left their secular clothes behind. The day after the sisters were martyred the chief of the jail where the sisters had been kept, walked in and saw that the Benedictine sisters were dressed in their Benedictine habits and told them to take the habits off and put on different clothes. Of course they didn’t have any other clothes and told him so. So he looked around and saw the clothes that the 16 Carmelites had left behind. Of course there were 17 Benedictines but remember there was one Carmelite sister that had gone to Paris and stayed there, sending her clothes back with the Mother Superior. So, there were 17 sets of clothes. The Benedictines finished washing the clothes, dried them and put them on. Shortly after that the Benedictine sisters were released and returned to England. Those sisters credit the sacrifice of the Carmelite sisters for their safe return to England. When the Benedictines got to England the first thing they did was to take off the clothes and they preserved them. These clothes they were ordered to wear were relics of the 16 Carmelite martyrs.
God has openly conspired to get me to heaven and to get you to heaven, even to the point of sending out Apostles. He told them to worry about nothing except getting out the message. The message that the Apostles went off and preached was the message of repentance.
What joy these sisters had in going to their death. Very soon after their death, peace was restore to France and the terror came to a halt. It appears that God accepted their sacrifice.
So they went off and preached repentance.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Amen