Mary, Queen of Carmel, Gate of Eternal Union with the Most Holy Trinity
In the evening you will be examined in love; learn to love as God wants to be loved and leave your condition behind.
(Sayings of Light and Love 60)
Most Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, Queen and Beauty of the Holy Mountain, glory of the Church, joy of the children of Carmel, most beloved Daughter of the Father, Mother of the eternal Word and most faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit: as I conclude this novena, I once again prostrate myself before You, not to end this journey, but to truly begin it. For climbing the Mountain does not consist in reaching a height, but in allowing God to descend to the center of the soul to transform it entirely in His Love.
Thank You, Mother, for leading me step by step along the paths Your son John of the Cross walked; for teaching me that detachment does not impoverish, but rather enlarges the heart; that the night does not destroy the light, but purifies it; that silence is not absence, but the dwelling of the Word; that the cross is not defeat, but the throne from which Jesus Christ draws all things to Himself; that the flame of the Holy Spirit does not consume life, but everything that prevents us from living fully for the Father.
All the teaching of the Doctor of Carmel can be summed up in allowing oneself to be loved by God until responding with a love without reserve. That was Your path in Nazareth, in Bethlehem, in Cana, on Calvary, and in the Upper Room. That was also the path of the little saint of Fontiveros, who learned to lose everything in order to find the All, to become small in order to be exalted by grace, and to disappear so that only the Beloved might shine forth. Lead me also along that narrow path, where the soul seeks nothing else but to please God, where the will rests solely in His will, and where the heart can truly say that it lives only for Christ.
Do not allow me, once this novena is finished, to settle back into spiritual mediocrity. If ever the world again seduces me with its fleeting promises, show me once more the beauty of Your Son’s face. If my strength falters, sustain me with Your maternal tenderness. If faith enters the night, remind me that You continued to believe at the foot of the Cross. If love grows cold, draw my soul near to that living flame which the Holy Spirit keeps burning in the Heart of Jesus Christ and which never ceases to burn for those who desire to belong entirely to Him.
Mother of Carmel, make my whole life become an interior pilgrimage toward the Most Holy Trinity. May every confession be an advance in conversion; every Holy Mass, one more step toward the summit; every Communion, a visit of the Bridegroom to the garden of the soul; every hour of adoration, an anticipation of eternal contemplation; every act of charity, a reflection of the love with which the Father loves the Son in the Holy Spirit; every cross, a sharing in the Paschal Mystery of Christ; every hidden day, another stone in that living temple which God desires to build within me.
And when the final twilight of my life arrives, when the Beloved comes forth definitively to meet me and the thin veil of faith is torn, come Yourself, Lady of the Scapular, Virgin of the white mantle, to seek this child of Yours. Take my hand, as You so often took it during the ascent of the Mountain; present me to Jesus Christ, that He may wash me in the Blood of His sacrifice; entrust me to the Holy Spirit, that He may complete in me the final purification of love; and lead me to the Father, source and end of all life, so that, introduced into the inner wine cellar where nights cease, tears fall silent, and the eternal music of heaven begins, I may join the ceaseless canticle of the saints of Carmel and contemplate forever the glorious face of the Most Holy Trinity.
Then I will understand that everything I lived, suffered, hoped for, and loved in this world was but the learning of a single lesson: that God is infinitely more beautiful than all His gifts; that He alone suffices; that He alone remains; and that, as the holy Doctor of Your Sacred Order taught, when the evening of life falls, nothing will truly weigh except the love with which we have responded to Love.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Queen of the Holy Mountain, lead me to Jesus Christ; through Jesus Christ, to the Father; and, set ablaze by the Holy Spirit, make me live already on earth as a citizen of heaven, until I am forever transformed into the Beloved.
Amen.
By: Msgr. Alberto José González Chaves