Mary, at the Foot of the Cross, Mother of the Brightest Night
To come to what you do not enjoy, you must go by a way you do not enjoy; to come to what you do not know, you must go by a way you do not know; to come to what you do not possess, you must go by a way you do not possess (Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, 13).
Most Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, Sorrowful Mother of invincible hope; faithful Virgin who remained standing when the earth trembled, the heavens darkened, and the world seemed to lose its Savior; you who beheld with eyes of faith the Lamb slain while the Father accomplished the mystery of our redemption and the Holy Spirit prepared, in the silence of that sacrifice, the birth of the Church: allow me to remain with you beside the Cross of Jesus Christ, for no one learns true love unless taught in that school where Love gives everything and reserves nothing.
There, where so many saw only defeat, you beheld victory; where so many discovered the end, you recognized the beginning; where hatred seemed to raise its final cry, you already heard the silent hymn of the Father’s mercy reconciling the whole world to himself in the blood of his Son. Teach me that clear gaze that knows how to discover the hidden light in the night, the hidden fruitfulness in sacrifice, and the hidden glory in the humiliation of Christ.
Mother of Carmel, how often I flee the small crosses of each day; how hard it is for me to accept contradiction, illness, misunderstanding, failure, forgetfulness, or poverty. I would like to reach the resurrection without passing through Calvary, to attain the flame without letting the fire purify me, to taste the fruits of the Holy Spirit without allowing the Father to prune the vineyard of my heart. You, who walked the path of naked faith, sustain my weakness so that I may never turn away from the Crucified, for I know that apart from him there is no life, no peace, no true joy.
Make it so that, by contemplating the open Heart of your Son, I may learn the language of love that gives itself without conditions. May my heart also open to forgive, to serve, to bless, to offer itself silently, without expecting reward. May the Holy Spirit continue to conform my feelings to those of Christ, until I can love with his same patience, suffer with his same meekness, and live only for the glory of the Father. Then I will understand that the Cross is not the end of the road, but the narrow door that leads to life, the tree laden with immortal fruit, the ladder by which heaven has descended to earth to raise earth up to heaven.
Most Holy Virgin, remain by my side when my own nights come. If faith falters, sustain it; if hope weakens, nourish it; if charity grows cold, draw it near to the fire of the Heart of Jesus Christ. May I never depart from Calvary, for there your motherhood over all of us was born; there I was entrusted to your care; there the Carmelite learns that contemplation springs from crucified Love and that transforming union is not attained by fleeing sacrifice, but by embracing it with the filial abandonment with which the Son surrendered himself to the Father.
And when my final hour arrives, lead me once more to the foot of the Cross, so that I may breathe my last pronouncing the holy Name of Jesus and surrendering myself, as he did, into the hands of the Father. May the Holy Spirit, who descended upon you and remained inseparably united to your soul, also be my strength in that decisive moment. Then night will open definitively into dawn, the cross will blossom into glory, love will reach its fullness, and, led by your maternal hand, I will enter the homeland where the Lamb slain lives forever, where the Father wipes away every tear, and where the Holy Spirit fills with his blessed fire all those who, by your hand, have come to be fully transformed in the Beloved.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, faithful Mother beside the Cross, teach me to embrace with Christ every night and every sacrifice, until entering with him into the glory of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.