Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Mount Carmel is a high promontory, accessible with ease, overlooking the city of Haifa on the eastern shores of the deep blue Mediterranean. One looks into the horizon where the blue of the sea meets the blue of the sky and cannot help but think of the traditional blue mantel given by artists over the centuries to Mary. Elijah came to Mt. Carmel to pray, with reason, for the silence and the view foster prayer. The first chapel dedicated to Mary was built there, and the ruins of subsequent monasteries and hermitages still adorn the slopes. It is here that the Order of the Carmelites came into existence, thus today is the patronal feast of the Carmelites, some of whose saintly members, such as St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux, have had a profound influence on the prayer life of countless Christians.
Today's feast also celebrates the origin of the scapular, a long piece of cloth that covers the front and back of the person who wears it (today, reduced to two small patches of brown or green cloth attached to a thin flat cord). Pious belief tells us that in 1251, Mary appeared to the General of the Carmelites, St. Simon Stock, at the Carmelite headquarters in Cambridge, England, gave him the scapular along with the promised spiritual benefits of all who wore it and lived a sincere and full Christian life. It is not a magical or superstitious token like a rabbit's foot, but is a sign that the wearer will dedicate or consecrate his or her life to Jesus and live accordingly. Today's feast was instituted in the fourteenth century and is only an optional memorial in our liturgical calendar today, but for any follower of Mary, it is a day to rededicate or re-consecrate ourselves to Jesus through her (in our Marist tradition), and although we don't have the luxury of looking out our windows to the Mediterranean, we can still stop, ponder, and give thanks for God's never failing love and renew our promises to be faithful followers and witnesses of Jesus.
Bro. Rene