Quote of the day, 19 May: Père Jacques

God is pure act, as the philosophers say; that is, he is the total realization of all possibility. We are not pure act; we have not realized all possibilities of being that are in us. Our being evolves as our heart intensifies its affections and perfects them. Our body grows and then declines. God himself is pure actuality, pure act. Nothing in him is in the state of possibility, passing from nonexistence to existence. All is infinite existence in him.

The human person, on the contrary, far from being this totality of realization, is a creature of infirmity and dependence. Remember what I was saying to you regarding creation? Nothing exists that cannot be annihilated instantly if the creative action ceases to operate. It is this way because we are not self-existent beings, as the words of Our Lord to Saint Catherine of Siena indicated: “You are she who is not.”

This is the foundation of our being. We are not; we have only a borrowed being, unceasingly renewed by God. The Virgin Mary shares this condition of creaturehood with us. By herself, she was not; she was totally dependent, as we are totally dependent.

Père Jacques of Jesus, o.c.d.

Virginity in God and in Mary
Retreat for the Carmel of Pontoise, Conference Six 
Wednesday evening, 8 September 1943

Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: a retreat with Père Jacques, Murphy, F (trans. & ed.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

#IDF Soldier CAUGHT #Desecrating Statue Of The #VirginMary #tyt #yt

https://youtu.be/lrqKfRa3Rhs

Quote of the day, 8 May: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

“Virgo fidelis”: that is, Faithful Virgin, “who kept all these things in her heart.” [Lk. 2:19] She remained so little, so recollected in God’s presence, in the seclusion of the temple, that she drew down upon herself the delight of the Holy Trinity: “Because He has looked upon the lowliness of His servant, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed!” [Lk. 1:48]

The Father, bending down to this beautiful creature, who was so unaware of her own beauty, willed that she be the Mother in time of Him whose Father He is in eternity.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Heaven in Faith, 39

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (detail), Pierre Mignard (French, 1612–1695), oil on canvas, 1635. Image credit: Private collection / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

Quote of the day, 6 May: St. Edith Stein

Divine virginity has a characteristic aversion to sin as the contrary of divine holiness. However, this aversion to sin gives rise to an indomitable love for sinners.

Christ has come to tear sinners away from sin and to restore the divine image in defiled souls. He comes as the child of sin—his genealogy and the entire history of the Old Covenant show this—and he seeks the company of sinners so as to take all the sins of the world upon himself and carry them away to the infamous wood of the cross, which thereby precisely becomes the sign of his victory.

This is precisely why virginal souls do not repulse sinners. The strength of their supernatural purity knows no fear of being sullied. The love of Christ impels them to descend into the darkest night. And no earthly maternal joy resembles the bliss of a soul permitted to enkindle the light of grace in the night of sins.

The way to this is the cross. Beneath the cross, the Virgin of virgins becomes the Mother of Grace.

Saint Edith Stein

Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 1941

Stein, E 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, Stein, W (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Crucifixion with Saints and a Donor (detail), Joos van Cleve and a collaborator, oil on wood, ca. 1520. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (public domain).

Anybody know of an image I can print—or a small painting or little figurine or other art, if affordable or for trade—of the Virgin/Mother Mary that might appeal to an animist pagan? I’d like one for one of my altars. No plastic unless it’s secondhand, and no AI.

EDIT: Also no Amazon or eBay or their ilk. Small (or at least ethical) businesses only.

SECOND EDIT: I found a statue at a thrift shop; see below. 💚

#VirginMary #MotherMary

Quote of the day, 5 May: Père Jacques

Let us be aware that God is here, present among us. Let us gaze upon him in and around us.

Let us likewise place ourselves in the presence of the Virgin Mary, our model of contemplation, who listened faithfully to God throughout her life. Let us ask her to teach us how to listen to God, to grasp his words, and to live them out.

Servant of God Jacques de Jésus

Conference 1, Solitude, the Essence of Carmel

Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: a retreat with Père Jacques, Murphy, F (trans. & ed.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, c. 1465–1525), The Virgin Reading, oil on panel transferred to canvas, c. 1505 (detail). It comes from the collections of the National Gallery of Art (public domain).

Quote of the day, 4 May: St. John of the Cross

The Virgin, weighed
with the Word of God,
comes down the road:
if only you’ll shelter her.

Saint John of the Cross

Poetry, 13, “Christmas Refrain”

Original Spanish text:

Del Verbo divino
la Virgen preñada
viene de camino:
¡si le dais posada!

John of the Cross, St 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, rev. edn, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: AI-generated artwork in the style of Gari Melchers, created using Midjourney.