A special Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast Day Mass will take place at the National Shrine Museum of St. Therese on Saturday, July 16th at 11:30 AM. Call the Carmelite Campus at 800-647-1430 for more information.
Carmelites are dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. She is the inspiration of all Carmelite spirituality.
The earliest Carmelites were Crusaders from Europe who were disillusioned by the violence of the Crusades. Some were so disappointed they decided to stay in the Holy Land on Mount Carmel, the “garden of God,” or the mountain of Elijah. They yearned intimacy with God and listened to the divine whisper of hope and presence. They settled in the wadi-ein-Siah, a dry river bed, which reflected the state of their disillusioned souls. They lived as hermits in caves for a while but eventually needed the prayerful support of others in community.
In the 1180s they built a chapel and named it after “Our Lady of this Place” – amid the darkness of disillusionment, they were aware that the Lady of Nazareth was so open to God’s presence that she might rekindle the spark of faith and presence in them. Nazareth is just across the Jezriel valley from Mount Carmel. They believed that Mary, “Our Lady of this Place,” would open them to experience the God who is with us.
Within 100 years, as Islam reclaimed the Holy Land, the Carmelites gradually migrated to Europe and became a more mendicant Order, in service of and by the request of the Church. They continued to claim the “Lady of the Place” or “The Lady of the Mountain” to help them live in God’s presence. She would continue to teach them that wherever they are, God is with them. Carmelites understand Mary as “our Sister in faith” – she stands beside us making us more aware that where we are is holy ground.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, The Carmelites and many other religious orders were being suppressed. This is when St. Simon Stock had a vision of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, she told him that if the Carmelites wore their apron or habit in faith, that she would take care of them. The tradition of the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and The Carmelites survived, developed and continues to invite people to live under Mary’s mantle and have her heart, being radically open to God’s presence.
-Fr. Robert Colaresi, O. Carm
A special Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast Day Mass will take place at the National Shrine Museum of St. Therese on Saturday, July 16th at 11:30 AM. Call the Carmelite Campus at 800-647-1430 for more information.