O, My Savior Jesus Christ, only object of my desires.

Come and participate in the body and blood

 of the victim immolated for us; come and remember 

that this death is our life.
Jacques Benigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux in France

Basilica of the Precious Blood

Basilica of the Precious Blood in Bruges

JESUS ​NOURISHES OUR SOUL WITH HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD  

What greater proof of love could Jesus give us than the sacrifice of himself?

Basset

Let us draw from this divine source 

that always overflows and never runs out.

Sanctuary of Love

What can I do to imitate You?

Give.

St. Martha: Feast Day, July 29

Martha, Martha,
one thing only is needful.
Luke 10:41-42 
 
St. Augustine's sermon
on Martha and Mary

Feast of St. Martha

SACRED HEART OF JESUS, SAVE US!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, be my Love!

It is Jesus Christ who is given to us!

It is Jesus Christ Who is Given to Us

St Anne with Virgin and Child

Flemish engraving St Anne with Jesus and Mary
Jesus Maria Anna

Sts. Joachim and Anne

Small Album:
St. Joachim and St. Anne

He has freed all those who, through fear of death,
throughout their whole lives were subjugated to bondage.

Feast of St. James, July 25

The Precious Blood

Mother of Divine Grace: Feast Day July 23

Mother of Divine Grace 
( Our Lady of the Bowed Head )
Vienna, Austria
Link
to story of the miraculous image.

I am the Fountain of Living Water...

Letaille

This is the true Bread of Heaven

Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, July 22

Holy Joys of God's Returning.


In the first post-resurrection encounter, Jesus appears to Mary of Magdala in the garden who does not recognize Him until, hearing Him speak the name, Mary, her eyes are opened and she turns to Him.  Look at the beautiful space between their outstretched hands. Reminiscent of Michaelangelo's painting of the Creation of Adam in the Garden of Eden, the space is filled with Life and Love. The work of our return to Life begins when, like the Penitent, each of us who has recognized the Risen Lord as our personal Savior turns to Him and receives Eternal Life through the action of the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father into the disorder of our lives, He begins the work of our sanctification and, through us, the restoration of paradise.  Through the metaphor of the garden, we can picture the Divine Gardener as He asks us to wait in expectation for the action of the Spirit whose work and whose joy it is to restore within the seeming isolation and disorder of the human condition, the true image of the Triune God. By divine grace, it is here in the heart that we are being healed, put into right relationship with God and with one another. As the Penitent runs to tell the others, so we bring Christ to one another and to the whole of creation.

From the small album:
A Garden Enclosed

Your hearts are gardens precious to the Lord.

Sprinkle the life-giving waters of the Cross on the lilies that are planted there. 

Bouasse Lebel 1344

St. Elijah: Carmelite Solemnity - July 20

Please visit:
~Elijah Album~  for other engravings and devotional images of the prophet and links to the Bible narrative

The Holy Prophet of God Elias, Leader and Father of the Carmelite Order

Inscription in cave where, according to Carmelite tradition, Elijah stayed: "Hanc aliquando speluncam incoluit Maguns illa Prophetarum Dux et Pater Elias Thesbites". Latin for "in this cave stayed occasionally the great leader and father of the prophets Elijah the Tishbite ".

Carmelite Series III no.33

The Blood of Christ

 hand colored Lejeune

May your Precious Blood purify my soul.

Blood of Jesus!

The Lamb conducts to the fountains of Living Water 

those whose robes are washed white in His Blood.

Love.

Jesus, my God,
make it that I may love you 

as you love me.

Maison Basset

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: July 16

O.L. of Mount Carmel Pray for Us

K. van de Vyvere - Petyr Brugge

Novena Prayer

Free Brown Scapular  

8th Day Novena of O.L. of Mt. Carmel

Novena Prayer

It is the Blood of the Son of God

that opens for us the door of heaven. 

Blot, Paris

7th Day Novena of O.L. of Mt. Carmel

 Novena Prayer

The Blood of Jesus Christ

Lejeune, Paris

6th Day Novena of O.L. of Mt. Carmel

 Novena Prayer

FOUNTAINHEAD OF ALL MERCY
SOURCE OF GRACES

O my Jesus, how dry the heart that moves away from you.

5th Day of Novena to O.L. Of Mt. Carmel

 Novena Prayer

La Bruna: Crowned by Vatican decree on July 11, 1875

Link to: La  Bruna (The Virgin of Tenderness, or Eleousa)  the earliest image venerated by the Carmelite Order with  history of the miraculous icon from the writing of Carol Cruz.

References to La Bruna on the internet often link to The Marian Library at Dayton Universiy. Unfortunately, the author of the article cites no sources to support his subjective interpretation of La Bruna.

For those who want sound teaching on the meaning of icons, the following books are foundational: Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty by Paul Evdokimov and Fr. Steven Bigham   
The Meaning of Icons, by Vladimir Lossky with Léonid Ouspensky
Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying With Icons by Henri J.M Nouwen

St. Benedict, Father of Monasticism: Feast Day March 21 / July 11

St. Benedict's Summer Feast Day

Fr. Lawrence reminded us to leave all and enter the monastery of the heart.
Formed there, one is made ready to take Christ into the world.  "The message is the messenger,"  he said. But only through prayer and meditation does this become possible.

4th Day Novena to O.L. of Mt. Carmel

 Novena Prayer

O, Good Pelican

3rd Day Novena to O.L. of Mt. Carmel

Novena Prayer

...Jesus himself gives us the food divine.
He bleeds for us, his blood pouring milk to wash and feed his children.

2nd Day Novena to O.L. of Mt. Carmel

 

Novena Prayer

July 8, First day of Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Novena Prayer

The faithful sheep quenches its thirst 

at the life-giving sources of the Savior.

O Most Sweet Jesus

You are not my judge but my Savior.
Indugenced Prayer

This holy card was touched to the relic of
the Precious Blood in the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges, Belgium.

Look at the Blood flowing down his cheeks 
and then at the Blood flowing from the Crown of Thorns and you will see
that the artist allows us to imagine the eyes of our Savior opening and closing

Christ loves us and washes us in His Blood.

hand-painted illumination

THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT

HE OFFERED HIMSELF WITHOUT BLEMISH TO GOD

TO THE ONE WHO LOVED US
WHO  WASHED OUR SINS THROUGH HIS BLOOD  

AND MADE US KINGS AND PRIESTS OF GOD HIS FATHER  

TO HIM BE GLORY AND POWER. AMEN

 A Powerful Prayer 
(to be said before praying)

"Almighty Father, I place 
the Precious Blood of Jesus 
before my lips before I pray, 

that my prayers may be purified 
before they ascend 
to Your divine altar."

~St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi

St. Thomas the Apostle, Feast Day, July 3

It is by the virtue of my blood,

that the heart is purified 
 and absolved.

Turgis