From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness   
      
   Only God can change our hearts and make them clean and whole through   
   the power of the Holy Spirit. Like a physician who probes the wound   
   before treating it, God through his Word and Spirit first brings to   
   light our sinful condition that we may recognize sin for what it is   
   and call upon God's mercy and pardon. The Lord is ever ready to change   
   and purify our hearts through his Holy Spirit who dwells within us.   
   His power and grace enables us to choose what is good and to reject   
   what is evil. Do you believe in the power of God's love to change and   
   transform your heart?   
      
   Prayer:   
   "Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and make my heart like   
   yours. Strengthen my heart and my will that I may I choose to love   
   what is good and to hate what is evil."   
      
      
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   June 14th - St. Elisha   
      
   The mission of St. Elisha has a special importance for us since, as   
   you know, St. Elisha was the successor of St. Elijah. We may consider   
   his mission from several points of view.   
      
   First, Elijah can be considered, historically speaking, the first   
   devotee of Our Lady. Israel was passing through a terrible drought as   
   a chastisement for its sins. Elijah, who was Prophet in Israel, went   
   to Mount Carmel to ask God to forgive the guilty people and send rain;   
   otherwise all would die.   
      
   He remained there praying for a long time with the certainty that   
   Divine Providence would listen to his requests. While he prayed, he   
   sent his servant many times to look at the horizon to see if any sign   
   of rain had appeared. The servant always returned with the same   
   answer: “No, there is no sign of rain.”   
      
   Elijah did not give up. He continued to pray and send his servant to   
   look and report what he saw. The 7th time, the servant came and told   
   him: “There is a small cloud on the horizon the size of the palm of a   
   man’s hand.” It was the sign Elijah was awaiting. The small cloud   
   began to grow and cover the sky. In a short time a long, hard rain   
   fell that saved Israel from perishing.   
      
   This small cloud was a symbol of Our Lady, who would bear the   
   Redeemer. With the rain of His blood, humankind would be saved from   
   the death of Hell, destined for it as a consequence of Original Sin.   
      
   Elijah, then, was the first one to pray and await the coming of Our   
   Lady on Mount Carmel. Elisha was the one who succeeded Elijah in this   
   devotion. After Elijah, and certainly under the encouragement of   
   Elisha, hermits established themselves on Mount Carmel, continuing to   
   pray for the coming of Our Lady and the Messiah. This is the origin of   
   the Carmelite Order, which is the first Religious Order in the   
   Catholic Church.   
      
   As the first successor and perfect disciple of Elijah, Elisha played a   
   fundamental role in the establishment of the Carmelite Order.   
      
   Second, a very trustworthy tradition tells us that Elijah made the vow   
   of chastity, thus becoming the pioneer of the religious life from this   
   perspective as well. In the Old Covenant this vow was rare, since to   
   be in the ancestral line of the Messiah was justly considered the   
   greatest honor a Jew could have. Therefore, no one considered making   
   this vow.   
      
   However, in this sphere Elijah also had a prophetic understanding. He   
   realized what St. Thomas would express perfectly centuries later: By   
   means of marriage mankind continues to grow; by means of chastity   
   mankind continues to see the great panoramas and discern the direction   
   it should take. The first state of life, St. Thomas taught, is   
   symbolized by man’s feet, which allow him to walk; the second state,   
   that of chastity, is symbolized by his eyes, which allow him to see.   
   Elijah understood this. Since he was called to comprehend, judge, and   
   fight for the greatest causes of God during his life and at the end   
   time, he sensed the need to be chaste. So he took the vow of chastity.   
      
   Here also, Elisha maintained the vow of chastity, which would become   
   one of the most sublime marks of the religious life.   
      
   Third, as the founder of devotion to Our Lady, Elijah most probably   
   had that special form of devotion taught by St. Louis Grignion de   
   Monfort, who was himself the founder of the Apostles of the Last   
   Times. This true devotion to the Virgin Mary consists of the complete   
   deliverance of one’s will to her will so that she can do with him   
   whatever she pleases. This is what St. Louis de Monfort called Sacred   
   Slavery. I think that Elijah and Elisha and those who followed them   
   would have known this devotion, at least in its germination stage.   
      
   Elijah, as the Church teaches, must return in the Last Times. He must   
   return not only in the Last Times, generically speaking, but in the   
   last days of History to fight against the Antichrist. He will be the   
   greatest and most expressive Apostle of the Last Times.   
      
   It is interesting to consider the mystical relation of these two great   
   Saints and Prophets with Our Lady and also their relation to each   
   other. Elijah was her first devotee; St. Grignion de Monfort brought   
   her devotion to an apex. St. Louis foresaw the Apostles of the Last   
   Times, and the culmination of the Apostles of the Last Times will be   
   Elijah. Both are mysteriously linked to her and to one another.   
      
   The fight Elijah had during his mission in Israel, and principally the   
   fight against the Antichrist that he will direct at his second coming   
   make him the precursor of the Counter-Revolution and the one who will   
   conduct it to its most important battle. Everything that we do today   
   fighting the Revolution in the temporal and religious sphere are   
   related in one way or another to that apex which will be the   
   confrontation of Elijah and the Antichrist.   
      
   Now then, Elisha asked and received the spirit of Elijah when he left   
   this earth in a chariot of fire. In this request there was a mystical   
   and beautiful reality that is the transmission of the spirit. How is   
   the spirit of a man transmitted? How can a grace that is   
   characteristic of one man pass to another, making the latter the alter   
   ego of the former?   
      
   Here is not the place to delve into this mystical concept. But one can   
   say that the spirit of a founder of an institution can be transmitted   
   to his successors just as Elijah transmitted his spirit to Elisha. In   
   the Church we can speak about the spirit of the Carmelites,   
   Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, etc. Each one of these   
   religious institutions has its own spirit that is the spirit of its   
   founder, which was passed to his disciples.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)