July 16 - Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

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MariaChristi

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our Lady of Carmel is a Feast dear to me for several reasons. First, and obviously, because I love Mary and every Feast of hers is an opportunity to honor her in some special way. Second, the Carmelite Saints and their writings have helped me to better understand prayer and the interior life. St John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Edith Stein (Sr. Benedicta of the Cross) especially by their lives and their writings have shared God’s beautiful work of sanctifying us.

Our Blessed Mother, of course excels all saints for she alone was chosen to be Mother of God and thus was full of grace from the first instant of her conception. She remains God’s humble daughter and servant even as she reigns as Queen of Heaven, Mother of Jesus and Spouse of the Holy Spirit. How Good God is in giving Mary to us as our Mother and Model. Jesus gave her to us from His Cross and she faithfully watches over us.

I wear the brown scapular of Carmel to remind myself of Mary’s love given to her by God for me, and for all her children. I wear it also to remind myself of my desire to love God and Mary more each day. It is significant to me that during the final apparition at Fatima, October 13, 1917 when the “miracle of the sun” occurred, Our Lady first appeared as she had been appearing to the three shepherd children with her sorrowful heart exposed. And then she appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel with “something hanging from her right hand.” We can safely assume that the “something” was the scapular.

You can read more about Our Lady of Carmel and the scapular HERE
Thank you, Jesus for giving Mary to us. May we learn to love her more, as you her Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit love her.
Mother of Fair Love, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
 
Kenny_Kamel said:
One of my favorite days in the Church calendar as well. I have been studying the Marian apparitions for years and never understood much about why Mary appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Fatima. Recently I read through Emmett O’Regan’s analysis on this occurrence and it was quite helpful.

Link: unveilingtheapocalypse.blogspot.com/2012/08/our-lady-of-mt-carmel-visions-of-fatima.html?m=0
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Dear Kenny,

Thanks for your reply. I started to read the blog by Emmett O’Regan but it is very long. I skimmed through many parts, stopping at the specific references to Fatima and Carmel trying to grasp the significance he was seeing. I’m not sure I understand all the symbolism he alludes to, but I agree that Fatima is a prophetic apparition that is yet to be fulfilled.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel has always been significant to me as an invitation to seek the Lord as St. Teresa of Avila wrote in her Interior Castle. This classic book which reveals God’s work in Teresa’s soul through stages of spiritual growth to union with God is a path we are all called to follow. We are all called to holiness.

I agree with Mr. O’Regan’s Old Testament and New Testament references which focus attention on the end times. We need to keep in our minds the end of our own personal journeys as well as the end of the world. None of us knows the exact time of the Lord’s Second Coming but we do need to prepare our hearts to welcome Him when He comes, by welcoming Him through Mary every day he gives us.

Our Lady of the Rosary (as she revealed herself to the three children at Fatima), told them to pray the Rosary daily, and I believe her appearance as Our Lady of Mount Carmel may be a further invitation not only for the three children to pray the Rosary but for all of us to pray and to contemplate more and more deeply the mysteries in the lives of Jesus and Mary.

We do not need to be cloistered religious or hermits to be contemplatives in this world. It may be more difficult for us laity, but the Holy Family gives us an example of persons in communion with God even in the midst of daily chores like carpentry and cooking. To the town of Nazareth, the Holy Family may have seemed very “ordinary”, but they were “extraordinary” in their union with God and with one another. Our families can be holy too!

The paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (675 - 677) are excellent. My husband and I have prayed over those passages and discussed them ourselves and at various times in our Bible Studies at our parish. Would that every Catholic read and pondered both the Scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church! What a difference that would make in the spiritual growth of the Body of Christ and how much brighter the Church’s Light would shine in this world!

May Our Lady of Mount Carmel and all the saints and angels in heaven intercede for us before God, that we may glorify Him on earth and help all our brothers and sisters to grow with us into that holiness to which we are called.
 
liturgy96 said:
Mater Dei, ora pro nobis!
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Dear liturgy 96,

Thanks for your reply. For those who may not know Latin (or simply guessed at the words):
“Mater Dei, ora pro nobis” = “Mother of God, pray for us”.

Latin is even more beautiful when it is sung, it seems to me. Sacred Music, especially Gregorian chant lifts my soul. Be it Latin or English, however, any words which praise Mother Mary or invoke her aid are “music to my ears”. 🙂
 
Thank you so much for translating, MariaChristi! My friends and I liberally throw in Latin stuff in our conversations that it does impact my communication often! 🙂 😊 (I’ve begun to use more Latin expressions in my speech)

Latin is indeed pleasant to the ears, especially in songs. I have to confess that I’ve been teaching myself Gregorian chant as I’ve now learned to appreciate their melodies and lyrics.
I’m so blessed I have friends who are in touch with the sacred traditions of Holy Mother Church 🙂
 
Thank you for the link and for sharing your love of Our Lady. Mother Mary is largely responsible for me joining the church. I got my brown scapular in the mail a week or so ago, and I kept wanting to get it blessed, but I couldn’t find a time when I could get to a parish when there were office hours. Then, today I had to go to town to move some plants (ficus trees, lavender and a rose bush) and so I said that I would get the scapular blessed today. This morning I found out that it was the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, calendar and EWTN, and it all fell into place. I had to go to two different parishes, neither my home parish, but I did get the blessing today! I am now wearing the scapular and I feel even closer to the Blessed Mother.
 
My dad has a special preference for our Lady of Mount Carmel. We entrusted him to Her today. He is dying. Please say a prayer,Maria ,and all who can,if you can,and thank you for this loving thread.
 
graciew said:
My dad has a special preference for our Lady of Mount Carmel. We entrusted him to Her today. He is dying. Please say a prayer,Maria ,and all who can,if you can,and thank you for this loving thread.
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Dear Gracie,

I did not see this post until this morning, but please know that your Dad and you and your family will be in my prayers today – especially in my Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. While today’s feast of Our Lady is no longer on the calendar, years ago it used to be celebrated as “Our Lady of Humility” (July 17).

I remember today’s Feast Day especially because when I was in school one of the nuns who taught me chose July 17, as her special name-day feast. It was the custom among the nuns to chose a Feast which was suited to their new name in Religion. As students, in those days, we did not know what their family or actual baptismal names may have been. With them, we celebrated them as “Religious Persons” who chose a “new identity” as it were. The name this sister chose was Sister Mary Geraldine. The Feast of Our Lady’s Humility suited her very well because she was a very humble sister – even as Chair of the English Department in College. She was one of the best teachers I ever had.

Anyone who choses to love Mary our Mother in any special way, takes on some of her characteristics, I think. It is only natural for us, as human persons, to tend to imitate those we love even unconsciously. I’m sure your Dad in his devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel bears on his soul a beautiful resemblance to our Mother Mary. May his final days on this earth be spent in the “crossing of her arms” until he meets her embrace in heaven.
 
newcalling said:
Thank you for the link and for sharing your love of Our Lady. Mother Mary is largely responsible for me joining the church. I got my brown scapular in the mail a week or so ago, and I kept wanting to get it blessed, but I couldn’t find a time when I could get to a parish when there were office hours. Then, today I had to go to town to move some plants (ficus trees, lavender and a rose bush) and so I said that I would get the scapular blessed today. This morning I found out that it was the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, calendar and EWTN, and it all fell into place. I had to go to two different parishes, neither my home parish, but I did get the blessing today! I am now wearing the scapular and I feel even closer to the Blessed Mother.
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Dear new calling,

Welcome into the family! Our Mother Mary is always bring forth more brothers and sisters for Her Son, by the power of His Holy Spirit. I am not surprised by her sweetness in providing for your special blessing of your scapular on her Feast-Day. I think she simply goes to her Son as she did at Cana and tells Him our needs. She knows He will do whatever is best, for He does always what He sees the Father doing, and Our Father knows well how to give good gifts to His children.

May we always stay close to Mary our Mother and Model. Being “clothed in her scapular” is like being wrapped in her mantle.
http://www.radionewjerusalem.com/Catholic/Images/la_merced-thumb-300x574.jpg
 
MariaChristi said:
Dear Gracie,

I did not see this post until this morning, but please know that your Dad and you and your family will be in my prayers today – especially in my Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. While today’s feast of Our Lady is no longer on the calendar, years ago it used to be celebrated as “Our Lady of Humility” (July 17).

I remember today’s Feast Day especially because when I was in school one of the nuns who taught me chose July 17, as her special name-day feast. It was the custom among the nuns to chose a Feast which was suited to their new name in Religion. As students, in those days, we did not know what their family or actual baptismal names may have been. With them, we celebrated them as “Religious Persons” who chose a “new identity” as it were. The name this sister chose was Sister Mary Geraldine. The Feast of Our Lady’s Humility suited her very well because she was a very humble sister – even as Chair of the English Department in College. She was one of the best teachers I ever had.

Anyone who choses to love Mary our Mother in any special way, takes on some of her characteristics, I think. It is only natural for us, as human persons, to tend to imitate those we love even unconsciously. I’m sure your Dad in his devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel bears on his soul a beautiful resemblance to our Mother Mary. May his final days on this earth be spent in the “crossing of her arms” until he meets her embrace in heaven.
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Thank you so much. Yours are beautiful words ,he has been a kind and loving person. God bless you .
 
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