A Cell of Prayer, the Transverberation, and the Virtues of Mary

Prayer is to the soul what air is to the lungs.  If we don’t pray, we die spiritually.  St. Mary of Jesus Crucified, a Discalced Carmelite Mystic, talked about how we can be a “cell for Jesus”  and how Jesus wants to come to you.  In the depths of prayer, the Lord sometimes grants supernatural graces, which leads us to the deep prayer of 3 great Carmelites:  St. John of the Cross, St. Mary of Jesus Crucified, and St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila).  One great grace that both St. Mary of Jesus Crucified (Mariam, the Little Arab) and St. Teresa of Avila experienced was the transverberation of the heart, a wound of the heart.  St. John of the Cross gives us a great explanation of this grace, then the descriptions of this experience from St. Mary of Jesus Crucified and St. Teresa of Avila is given. It is interesting to compare their accounts.  Then we turn to some quotes on the Blessed Mother and a meditation on the Virtues of Mary from St. Mary of Jesus Crucified.