Mary's Castle Library

  THE CATHOLIC FEAST 

DATE: APRIL 18

FEAST NAME:

BLESSED MARIE OF THE INCARNATION

 

PATRONAGE: 

•Against impoverishment, •against loss of parents, •against poverty, •parents separated from children, •poor people, •widows.

                

HER LIFE PROFILE

Blessed Marie was born as Barbara in France in 1566. She was married to Peter Acarie, an aristocrat, when she was seventeen. 

She and her husband loved their Catholic faith and practiced it. 

 

The couple had six children, and their family life was happy. Barbara tried to be a good wife and mother. Her family learned from her a great love for prayer and works of charity.

 

Once, when her husband was unjustly accused of a crime, Barbara herself saved him. She went to court, and, all alone, proved that he was not guilty.

 

Although she was busy with her own family, Barbara always found time to feed those who were hungry. She instructed people in the faith. She helped the sick and dying. She gently encouraged people who were living sinfully to change their ways. The good deeds she performed were works of mercy.

 

When her husband died, Barbara entered the Carmelite Order. She spent the last four years of her life as a nun. Her three daughters had become Carmelites, too. Barbara’s new name as a nun was SISTER MARIE OF THE INCARNATION. 

 

She joyfully worked in the kitchen among the pots and pans. When her own daughter became the superior of the monastery, Sister Marie willingly obeyed her. 

She wanted to be humble, as Jesus was. Blessed Marie died in 1618. She was fifty–two years old.

 

PRAYER

[By Blessed Mary Of The Incarnation]

Lord Jesus “conform my spirit to Your Blessed Humanity, filling my mind with knowledge and my memory with a continual recollection of You, my will with an ardent affection for Your Majesty, [conform] my soul to Your very Holy Soul. 

Enlighten me inwardly with the light of Your Divinity, all the more so as I believe, by it, that You are totally within me. 

By this means, I very humbly beg You to look from now on through my eyes, speak by my tongue, and accomplish by all my members and senses the things which are agreeable to You. Amen.

 

BLESSED MARIE OF THE INCARNATION, 

PRAY FOR US. 

AMEN!