I chose this for my Carmelite name: “of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” It’s all there. Everything we need to know, all that draws us, is contained in that wounded Heart, poured out for us. It encompasses the Incarnation, Mercy, the Eucharist, the whole of salvation history. I won’t wax poetic, or I’ll destroy what good sentiments you might have (some things are so sublime, words only crush them).

I want to remind you that this day is also the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests. That was John Paul II’s doing, and a profound doing it is.

Because St Therese is one of my patrons (have I already said how it seems I should be a lot smarter, having been named after the only three women to be designated Doctors of the Church?!), I will share her prayer for today:

‘O Holy Father, may the torrents of love flowing from the sacred wounds of Thy Divine Son bring forth priests like unto the beloved disciple John who stood at the foot of the Cross; priests: who as a pledge of Thine own most tender love will lovingly give Thy Divine Son to the souls of men.

May Thy priests be faithful guardians of Thy Church, as John was of Mary, whom he received into his house. Taught by this loving Mother who suffered so much on Calvary, may they display a mother’s care and thoughtfulness towards Thy children. May they teach souls to enter into close union with Thee through Mary who, as the Gate of Heaven, is specially the guardian of the treasures of Thy Divine Heart.

Give us priests who are on fire, and who are true children of Mary, priests who will give Jesus to souls with the same tenderness and care with which Mary carried the Little Child of Bethlehem.

Mother of sorrows and of love, out of compassion for Thy beloved Son, open in our hearts deep wells of love, so that we may console Him and give Him a generation of priests formed in thy school and having all the tender thoughtfulness of thine own spotless love.’

Amen, my sister in Carmel.

You want us to be grateful for all You have given for our salvation (Yourself), but also to accept wholly what You continually give (Yourself). You eagerly give Yourself to us, desiring to be wholly ours and to be ONE with us – and this eagerness is so vehement, this love so passionate, this longing so uncontainable that it burns and overflows from Your gentle Heart and drives You (as it were) to continually pour Yourself out for us, to give Yourself as FOOD to be EATEN. Take and EAT; this is My Body, given up for you.  The force of these words is too often lost to us…

The Sacrament is inseparable from the Sacrifice. When we look on the Cross, we should also see the continuous Gift of the Eucharist. When we look on the Eucharist, we should  also see the Cross, where this Gift was given.

You long to become one with us, and we must long to become one with You, for others.

We pray:
Lord Jesus, Your friends pull the iron from your mangled hands and feet and balance your stiffened body down from the cross. They must look on your closed eyes in bitter confusion, seeing their beloved friend, the one they have come to know as the Messiah, silenced by those who opposed him. Bitter grief and a kind of hopelessness is their only food now; they do not understand that they will soon see You alive again.Your lifeless body is anointed and wrapped in a sheet and then laid in a borrowed tomb, sealed from sight, from those who love You, in darkness. Your friends are grieving and Your enemies are celebrating uneasily. But the stone tomb is like a womb that will give birth to everlasting life. Because You accepted even death, death on a cross, death is never the end. Death is always a new beginning. 

All:

Lord, through the cross You have conquered death, and made it flow into life. You are placed alone in the tomb to show us that the grave’s utter aloneness is not the end for which we are created. You will soon rise, triumphant over death and sin, with the power to draw all of us to You in everlasting joy and unity. You are living eternally, and You created each of us to live forever with You. Help us to remember that only our bodies enter the tomb; our souls are always alive in You. Give us this deep knowledge of salvation, so that we will be moved to offer our lives as a sacrifice of praise and gratitude.

May we see past the cross and past the tomb to the light of the Resurrection, knowing that the silence and darkness of death is only the crossing ground to an eternal song of praise, and the Day that will never end.

We pray:
Lord Jesus, we can only look with wonder at this moment that changes all of history and changes us, this moment of our salvation. At the sight of Your Body tortured and pierced for us, we see clearly that redemption is not a business transaction (sins in exchange for prayers and penance) but the result of love that, in immolating itself wholly, transforms darkness into light, hate to love, selfishness into gift. The altar of the Cross defines God for us, and redefines Love. In contemplating this moment, we come to understand that You will spare nothing to bring us to the radiance for which we are created. We begin to see more clearly that our own activity must be united to Your one saving action. At every Mass, we are here at this moment anew, and as the drop of water poured into the chalice is completely absorbed into the Blood of Christ and transformed, so our own ordinary offerings are transformed within the Chalice of Your heart by your immense love to become something worthy of the Father.  

All:

Lord, You are always reaching down to us, offering Yourself to us wholly, and these open arms, this love, is only revealed to most people through our own open arms. We must be Christ to others. This is our own inescapable role in the revelation of love. Your heart transformed acts of malice and hate into moments of grace and the victory of love; renew our hearts with Your love, so that we can continue this transformation in the world.

May we come to know through this apparent defeat, as the last drops of blood and water pour out from Your Heart onto the ground, that Love has the final victory. Love gives all.

We pray:
Lord Jesus, though You seem to have nothing now, you are still giving.You give mercy and forgiveness to all, You give Your promise of salvation to the Good Thief, and now you give Your Mother to us.Mary’s Heart, pierced with the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon so many years ago, is now open to the whole world. She stands at the foot of the Cross, consumed with grief, yet looking straight into the face of suffering, strong in hope. She accepts this as she has accepted every detail of her life: as the Father’s perfect will, which she need not understand. She must only trust. She does not waver, does not draw back from her fiat, “Be it done to me as you have said.” (Lk 1:38 ) She places no limits or conditions on her Yes, because she trusts fully that nothing is impossible for God.She is confident that You will reign, that this is necessary, and that Love will conquer all.  

All:

Lord, bring us beyond our woundedness to the place where we know that our peace and our joy are to be found only in doing the will of the Father wholeheartedly. Help us to remember, like Mary, that the Mystery of God does not require our understanding, but rather our trust; we must trust God’s loving plan for His creation, and do all we can to spread the Fire You came to enkindle on earth. 

May this entrusting of Your mother to the beloved disciple, and of Your beloved disciple to Mary, be a sign to us that You do not want us to walk alone, and inspire us to support one another as we journey toward You.