Mother Teresa, as the responsible leader of the group, answered, as far as she was allowed, the charges brought against her Community. Among the crowd of people, who invariably assisted at the trials during these last days of the reign of Terror, were some few unknown friends and well-wishers, who gave Sister Mary of the Incarnation a faithful account of the proceedings. With great calmness and dignity the Prioress disclaimed the charge of having meddled in politics and, on being accused of having concealed firearms in her monastery, "Here," she said, producing a crucifix, “is the only weapon we ever possessed." With no less courage she assumed the entire responsibility of whatever offences might be brought forward against her sisters, and she endeavored, failing all else, to screen the outside Sisters who, as "paid servants," were obliged to obey orders. "If," she added, "it is a crime to have corresponded with our chaplain on purely spiritual matters, I alone am guilty and should alone be condemned."

This brave protest availed nothing; the sixteen Carmelites were condemned to death as "fanatics," which meant, explained the president, "that they were devoted to silly practices of religion."—" My dear mother," exclaimed one of the nuns, Annette Pelras, "do you hear, we die for our holy faith! What happiness it is to die for God!"

The execution was to take place that same day, and the Carmelites had only a few hours left to prepare for the end. They were, said Pierre Blot, "radiantly" happy when they returned to the prison; but they had eaten nothing since the previous day, and, with motherly foresight, the Prioress sold a cloak to procure money enough to give each one a cup of chocolate. Then, kneeling down, they began to recite the Office for the Dead.

The executions since the previous month of June were appointed to take place at the "Place de la nation," which is situated at the extremity of the city, towards Vincennes. As the carts in which the Carmelites were seated, with their hands tightly bound, jolted over the rough pavement, a strange, sweet sound of singing echoed through the air. The "Te Deum," the "Salve Regina" floated above the feverish crowd that followed the procession, and, for once, no coarse jest or brutal insult was hurled at the prisoners. These calm, happy women, with their sweet voices and smiling eyes, exercised a unique power of fascination over the frenzied multitude. On arriving at the "Place," the Carmelites knelt down and quietly renewed their baptismal vows and their religious promises, while the executioner and the guards looked on in silence. Then the Prioress took up her station at the foot of the guillotine; the novice Sister Constance was the first to ascend its bloody stairs; her clear, young voice chanted the "Laudate," in which her Sisters joined; then, as one after another they followed on her footsteps, the singing grew fainter, till at last the Prioress was alone! Her task was fulfilled; her daughters were safe. With an eager step, Blessed Teresa of St. Augustin followed them, and, the last of the devoted band, laid her head beneath the knife.

St. Alexis of Rome

IMITATION OF THE SAVIOUR.-Alexis, born at Rome, in 350, of a family bearing senatorial rank, quite as illustrious by its Christian virtues as for its nobility and opulence, chose as his portion that part of our Saviour's life in which He has found fewest imitators, namely, in His humiliation. Having been urged by his family to turn his thoughts to marriage, he profited by this to carry out his design, and fled to Edessa; where, during seventeen years, he remained unknown, seeking for humiliations and the contempt of men with as much eagerness as others exhibit in pursuit of fortune and honours. But at length, becoming admired for his sanctity, he once more fled; and, the course of events leading him back to Rome, he went to his own father's house to crave an asylum as the veriest beggar. He there ended his days, after having been for seventeen years made the object of scorn to the entire household. His family at length discovered who he was by means of a paper found upon him containing his name and the main events of his life. The pope, the emperor, and sovereign princes came to render homage to him who had so profoundly humbled himself amongst men.

MORAL REFLECTION.-"Every one that hath left house or lands for my sake shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting."-(Matt. xix. 27.) Pictorial Half Hour with the Saint by Abbe Lecanu

"A FEAST in honour of our Blessed Lady is kept on this day, on which, as we are assured by several writers of the Carmelite Order, St. Simon Stock, general of the Carmelites, was admonished by the holy Mother of God in a vision, to establish the confraternity of the Scapular. This confraternity has been approved, and favoured with many privileges by many popes. The object of it is to unite the devout clients of the Blessed Virgin in certain regular exercises of religion and piety.

Learn from the Blessed Mother of God clothing her devout children with the humble scapular, a thorough contempt of the world. She proclaims to us: Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. Love not its riches, its fine apparel, or other vanities; but having food, and wherewith to be clothed, learn to be content. For they that would become rich fall into temptation and the snares of the devil. Despise the honours of the world; and keep not a high and proud heart beneath an humble garment. Be not greedy of power and pre-eminence above others; but willingly sit down in the lowest place, by far the most secure. Equally dangerous, and to be shunned by every faithful follower of Jesus and Mary, are the pleasures of the world. You are called in this life to labour and penance. The time of rest and enjoyment will not fully arrive till you have passed through the gate of death. To live in pleasures and sensual enjoyments, is a life full of danger, and too often leads to eternal death; but by a life of mortification, you secure joy everlasting. This is that holy violence which carries away victoriously the kingdom of heaven. And be not disturbed or fearful about the judgments of the world. Men of the world fear where there is no fear: but for your part, fear only him who has power to cast into hell. Place yourself under the patronage of the holy Mother of God; she will protect you by her powerful intercession, and procure for you the true fear and love of God." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

Prayer to the Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel:
O Most Blessed and Immaculate Virgin, ornament and splendor of Carmel, thou who regardest with an eye of special kindness those who wear thy blessed habit, look down also benignly upon me and cover me with the mantle of thy special protection. Strengthen my weakness with thy power; enlighten the darkness of my mind with thy wisdom; increase in me faith, hope, and charity. Adorn my soul with such graces and virtues as will ever be pleasing to thy divine Son and to thee. Assist me in life, and console me in death, with thy most amiable presence, and present me to the most august Trinity as thy devoted servant and child; that I may eternally bless and praise thee in paradise. Amen 2 Hail Marys and Glory be to the Father.  The New Raccolta 1903

Links:

Carmelites of Fairfield, Pennsylvania

Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, Wyoming

Seven Carmelite Nuns of the Strict Ancien observance of the Mother-Carmel at Lanark, Allentown, Pa., will soon be transferred to Asheville, N.C. , to found a new Carmelite Monastery there under the title of "Carmel of St. Joseph and the Holy Child."
The nuns are going to North Carolina at the invitation of the Most Rev. Vincent S. Waters, Bishop of Raleigh. Their establishment in the Raleigh Diocese will be the first monastery for strictly cloistered nuns in North Carolina.

Bishop to Pontificate
Solemn opening services and the first Mass will be celebrated at the new Asheville Carmel by Bishop Waters on March 19..
Authorization for the new monastery has come from Pope Pius XII through the Sacred Congregation for the Religious, since the nuns are members of a Papal Institute. Previous approval had been granted by the most Rev. John F. O'Hara, C.S.C., Archbishop of Philadelphia.
This will be the second Carmelite monastery to be founded in the United States from the Allentown Mother-Carmel. In November 1954, seven nuns left there to establish a new Carmel in Wahpeton, North Dakota.

Departure Ceremonies
Special departure ceremonies were conducted at the Allentown Monastery on March 7. The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Leo G. Fink, P.A., V.F., presided and presented Mission Crosses to the seven nuns who will form the new North Carolina community. They are: Reverend Mother M. Bernadette of Our Lady of Lourdes, a native of Philadelphia, who entered the Allentown Carmel on March 5, 1934. She will serve as Mother Prioress to the new community.
Sister Mary Magdalen of Jesus, of Allentown, who entered the Allentown Carmel on July 16, 1933, Assistant to the Mother Prioress.
Also, Sister Mary Anne of St. Bartholomew, of Philadelphia; Sister Mary Veronica of the Holy Face, Jersey City, N.J.; Sister Mary Patricia of the Nativity, of Philadelphia; Sister Mary Genevieve of the Holy Face, of Philadelphia; and Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, candidate for the new novitiate of New Bedford, Mass.

Note 25th Anniversary
The Allentown Carmelites are currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of their establishment in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which marks their first foundation in the United State, under the leadership of the late Reverend Mother Therese of Jesus and her companion, Mother Clement Mary of the Guardian Angel. The Carmelites were established by the General of the Carmelite Order, Blessed John Soreth, Ord. Carm. , on October 14, 1453, at Guelder, Holland. About 26 years before, St. Teresa of Avila began her reform of the Carmelites, in Spain, a branch of the original monastery was founded in Naples, Italy, in 1536. it was from this Carmelite Monastery of Naples in Italy that Carmel of the Strict Ancient Observance extended to American soil its first Foundation on May 22, 1931, at Lanark, near Allentown.

Life of a Carmelite
These Carmelite nuns take Solemn Vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, and observe strict Papal Enclosure. The choir religious chant the Divine Office in common. In addition to the Divine office, the cloistered religious observe perpetual adoration of the Holy Sacrament. Day and night, one or two Sisters kneel before the tabernacle, adoring, praising, petitioning for the needs of Mother Church throughout the world, for the Vicar of Christ on earth, for personal sanctification, and for the sanctification of all. The greater part of the day and night of the cloistered nuns is spent in prayer, meditation and other spiritual exercises. A certain part of the day is devoted to manual labor.

Source: The Catholic Standard and Times, Vol. 61, 9 March 1956

Henry II

"PIETY, MEEKNESS, AND BRAVERY.- Henry II., anointed emperor of Germany on the 8th July, 1002, showed by his life that piety is a royal virtue, because it had justice as its companion, and that piety and justice sanctify bravery when allied with mercy. Though four times compelled to fight against his revolting subjects, he as often pardoned them. Great wars gave full employment to his arms. He subdued Poland, Bohemia, and Moravia, the populations whereof had made incursions into the empire. He drove out the Saracens from Italy, whose presence had been disturbing Rome and Christendom in general. Being at length at peace on every hand, he journeyed through his dominions in order to impart new life while repressing abuses, establishing justice, and protecting religion. He expelled all flatterers from the imperial court, and loaded with favours such as reproached him for any fault. He died at Halberstadt, on the 14th July, 1024, and was canonized in 1152. Werinhair, the bishop of Strasbourg, prevented him from relinquishing the sceptre, as he had intended, with the aim of seeking greater perfection.

MORAL REFLECTION.-Happy would it be for nations were those invested with the governing power true saints; and saints they would be, did they but remember that they hold the place of God.-(Prov. viii.) Pictorial Half Hour with the Saints, by Abbe Lecanu

Whence came her unflinching strength to make such daily sacrifices to God? From her love of the Divine Eucharist. Jesus in the tabernacle, Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus in her heart through Holy Communion, Jesus was her life, Jesus was her delight. To Him she went as often as she could. It was a saying in the village that Kateri's only place was in her cabin or in church. Thither she dragged herself, despite her infirmities, and remained whole hours, seraphlike. The lives of the greatest saints do not reveal a more ardent love than burnt in the heart of the saintly Iroquois for the august Sacrament of our altars."

Source: Kateri Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawks, 1656-1680  By Edouard Lecompte (S.J.) 1927

"The quiet retreat which Kateri has chosen for herself is near the pathway leading to the stream, and made by the women of the hunting-camp in tramping back and forth for water. There, in her rustic oratory, she is accustomed to kneel amid the snow. She does not raise her head except to look at the cross she has cut on the trunk of a tree. Her hands are crossed on her breast, and her blanket hangs loosely down from her head and shoulders in many a careless fold. The rivulet close beside her is crusted with ice, and the bushes are heavy with snow. The water runs freely and swiftly a little beyond her where there is a break in the line of bushes along the brink of the stream. They have been thrust aside, and the snow has fallen from them. Here it is that the women come to dip water for the camp. Kateri was there in the morning, and among the very first. She helped to prepare the breakfast for the hunters. She was present also at the morning prayers which were said in common. It was not until the men were busily engaged in eating a meal that would last them the greater part of the day, and the women, with nothing special to do, were hovering about seeking a chance to join in the good cheer and see the hunters off, that Kateri slipped away, and now is hiding among the trees, as though she were nothing else than a little white rabbit that makes his home in a snow-bank.

One would scarcely notice the print of her moccasins where she passed along by the bushes. The snow is tufty and light. The long, low branches of Kateri's tree the one on which she has marked the cross – are bowed with its weight. They almost touch the ground, and shelter her motionless figure on the side towards the moccasintrail that leads to the water's edge. Little wavy lines on either side of the interlacing footprints of the women show where their blankets and skirts with shaggy fringe disturbed the even surface of the new-fallen snow as they passed along. Kateri brushed away the freshest of the snowy mass in front of her cross, before she be gan her prayers. She kneels on the hard-packed snow that is fast frozen to the ground. Her figure is sharply outlined against a little white mound of feathery flakes. Her thoughts are many miles away, though her eyes are fixed on the cross, which is suddenly lit up by a flash from the rising sun. She knows that the moment has come for Mass to begin in the village chapel at the great rapid of the St. Lawrence. In spirit she kneels with the few who are gathered there, and follows the Mass from beginning to end with appropriate prayers. She begs her guardian angel to fly away to the chapel and bring her back the fruits of the sacrifice there being offered." Source: The life and times of Kateri Tekakwitha by Ellen Hardin Walworth 1893

"He is surnamed the seraphic doctor. His devout mother was careful to inspire into him, from the cradle, most ardent sentiments of piety, and to inure him betimes to assiduous practices of self-denial, humility, obedience, and devotion. At twenty-two years of age, he entered into the Order of St. Francis. He referred all his studies to the divine honour, and the sanctification of his own soul, and may be said to have made them a continued prayer. When St. Thomas Aquinas asked him in what books he had learned his sacred science, pointing to his crucifix he said: "This is the source of all my knowledge. I study only Jesus Christ, and him crucified." He prepared himself to receive the holy order of priesthood, by long fasts, humiliations, and fervent prayer. At the age of thirty-five, he was chosen general of his Order. He was afterwards created cardinal, and consecrated bishop of Albano by Pope Gregory X. He assisted at the general council of Lyons, but was taken ill before its conclusion. The Pope himself gave him Extreme Unction. He kept his eyes constantly fixed on a crucifix, till he expired in great tranquillity on the 14th of July, in the year 1274, in the fifth-third year of his age. It was said of him in his funeral panegyric, that "no one ever beheld him, who did not conceive a great esteem and affection for him; for he was gentle, affable, humble, pleasing to all, compassionate, prudent, chaste, and adorned with all virtues."

Pray for all the bishops of Christ's church, that they may follow the spirit of this prelate; pray for all the college of cardinals, of which he was an honorable member; that by exemplary piety they may draw down the blessings of heaven upon them. Pray that you may be faithful in your own station. There is no condition but what has many obligations annexed to it; few are solicitous to consider them all, and fewer still perform them. Heavenly light and grace are necessary for this; reflect on your own wants, and let your prayers be proportioned to them." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

Marcantonio Bassetti - St Antony Reading

"Converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here."-I. St. Peter i. 17.

"PRINTING as an art has been of such great value to the human race that it may seem to some like an attack upon the liberty of men to say anything against the use of it. So many books have been written, so much knowledge has been spread abroad by means of them, so many evils and abuses exposed, and so many thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands, of lives made happier because of the printingpress, that it deserves a place among the greatest of God's blessings to men.

This we admit, and gladly and heartfeltly thank the Lord for the benefits He has been pleased to bestow upon us through the press. We know it has had, and still has a noble office, and has done a noble work. It has uprooted evil and righted wrong; it has advanced knowledge and has given joy to many a heart. And it has done well when it has done these things. It has done well when it has aided justice and truth and the living of a good life.

For all these reasons its influence and power are deservedly great, so great that to lightly estimate them or overlook them would be to ignore great factors in human affairs. Nor do we wish, nor do we seek to lessen this influence as long as it is exerted in the cause of what is right; but the press, like many another thing good in itself, has been misused.

Christ teaching in Capernaum, Maurycy Gottlieb

"But I say to you." -MATT. V. 22.

1. The words of Christ, the Son of God.

2. What are they? Words that countermand the law of Moses, as regards murder, adultery, swearing, revenge.

3. Finally, His word of love and forgiveness.

4. Even many Catholics careless in respecting these words of Christ.

"In this chapter of St. Matthew these words, "But I say to you," are repeated by our divine Lord six times. They occur in His first sermon on the mount; and were a bold and manifest declaration that Christ our Lord came to change the traditions and customs of the Jews, and to insist on His own doctrine.The multitude  that listened must have been amazed. Teachings and practices sanctioned for centuries were ruthlessly condemned and set aside, and a new code of conduct laid down by this new Teacher. And it came to pass, when Jesus had fully ended these words, the people were in admiration at His doctrine. For He was teaching them as one having power" (Matt. vii. 28, 29).

And if they, who heard Him for the first time, were subdued and awed, how much more reverential and obedient should we be, who know Who this is Who repeated these words so often, "But I say to you." Christ our Lord, the Son of God! Yes, that is what He claimed and proved Himself to be. But that multitude knew it not. To them He was the new Teacher from Nazareth. It was after this He claimed to be Son of God. You remember how, after He had opened the eyes of the man born blind, and who had been cast out of the synagogue for his adherence to Him, Jesus said to him: "Dost thou believe in the Son of God? He answered and said: Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him? And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen Him" (yes, with the eyes He had opened),"and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said: I believe, Lord! and falling down adored Him" (John ix. 35, 38).Yes, we also adore Him as God, and accept His words as eternal truth, for God can never change and never err. Then let us look into this chapter of St. Matthew, and find what are these words, which being the words of the Son of God must never be disobeyed, omitted, nor altered by man.