Mary, Mother of Transforming Union
My soul has been employed,
and all my wealth in His service,
I no longer keep flocks
nor have I any other occupation,
for now my only exercise is loving
(Spiritual Canticle, 28).
Most Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, Mother of Beautiful Love, a creature wholly transparent to the light of the Father, entirely conformed to your Son Jesus Christ and fully possessed by the Holy Spirit; Most Pure Virgin, in whom grace found no resistance; most spotless mirror in which the Blessed Trinity beheld the radiance of its own beauty; draw my soul toward that fullness of love to which you called your son John of the Cross and all the children of Carmel, so that I may never be content to serve God from afar, but may long to live hidden in Him and allow Him to live fully in me.
The soul was created for Love, and nothing can satisfy it apart from infinite Love. All the goods of the earth become small once the heart has glimpsed the beauty of the Beloved; all creatures prove insufficient when the Father awakens in us the desire for His Son; all human joys remain but a pale reflection when the Holy Spirit allows us, even for an instant, to feel the gentle touch of His living flame. Make me never diminish my vocation by seeking passing comforts, fleeting successes, or securities that will vanish tomorrow. May my only wealth be Christ; my only knowledge, Christ; my only hope, Christ; my only glory, Christ, loved and contemplated for the glory of the Father.
Blessed Mother, teach me to let God work. Often I wish to sanctify myself by my own strength, measure the path by my own standards, or hasten the work that only the Holy Spirit knows how to accomplish. You, however, surrendered yourself entirely to the divine will. You neither advanced the Father’s hour nor resisted His designs. You lived in absolute availability, allowing grace to shape your soul with infinite delicacy. Obtain for me that humble docility, so that I too may permit the Divine Artist to erase little by little all that disfigures in me the face of Jesus Christ.
Lead me to the inner wine cellar where the Bridegroom communicates His secrets. There may I learn the holy forgetting of myself; may my vanities, fears, calculations, and attachments disappear; may my whole life be simplified into a single desire: to love. To love the Father with the same filial love of Christ; to love Jesus Christ with the spousal love sung by the holy Doctor of Carmel; to love the Holy Spirit by letting myself be moved docilely by His inspirations; to love the Church, to love my brothers and sisters, to love even those who do not know how to love, because true love does not spring from the merit of creatures, but from the abundance of God’s Heart.
Mother of Carmel, help me understand that transforming union does not consist in experiencing extraordinary things, but in coming to will only what God wills; in seeing with the eyes of Christ, serving with His hands, forgiving with His Heart, offering oneself with His very obedience to the Father, and allowing the Holy Spirit to turn all existence into a silent liturgy of praise. Then, even amid ordinary occupations, the soul will remain recollected; even in trial it will keep peace; even in the night it will radiate a light that is not its own, but that of Him who lives in it.
And when the earthly journey reaches its end and the veil of faith falls away forever, lead me, Most Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, to the eternal embrace of the Blessed Trinity. May the Father receive me as a son; may Jesus Christ present me as brother and friend; may the Holy Spirit introduce me into the infinite ocean of Love where there will no longer be seeking because all will be finding, nor desire because all will be possession, nor night because the Lamb will be the only light. There I will understand that all of life was but a long apprenticeship in allowing myself to be transformed by grace, until that simple and sublime confession of the little brother John might be fully fulfilled in me: “Now my only exercise is loving.”
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, make my life a continual growth in love, until I am fully transformed in Christ for the glory of the Father, by the action of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
By: Msgr. Alberto José González Chaves