OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL, July 16th
The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel dates from the thirteenth century when St. Simon Stock, Father General of the Carmelite Order recently migrated from the Holy Land, received a vision of Mary with the small Brown Scapular and this promise:
"Whoever dies wearing this Scapular will not suffer eternal fire."
The promise of Our Lady to those who wear the Brown Scapular is a traditional sacramental of the Roman Catholic Church, believed to impart efficacious grace to those who enroll in the Scapular Confraternity or who simply choose to wear one.
For Carmelites, the titular feast (celebrated as a Solemnity) signifies Mary's intercessory role. The readings for the Mass of the day, taken from the First Book of Kings, relate the events that took place on Mount Carmel during the lifetime of St. Elijah, the great prophet who is considered the Father of the Carmelite Order. After a three-year drought, Elijah confronted King Ahab about the sins of the nation. This led to a contest on the summit of Mount Carmel between the worship of the false gods and the true God of the Israelites, whom Elijah called upon to consume a holocaust. Later, looking out to the Mediterranean sea, Elijah and his assistant Elisha saw a small cloud rising. Soon the rain came in torrents. These events have been traditionally understood by Carmelites as a prophetic vision of the coming of the Blessed Virgin Mary into human history nine centuries later.
FREE BROWN SCAPULARS
The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel dates from the thirteenth century when St. Simon Stock, Father General of the Carmelite Order recently migrated from the Holy Land, received a vision of Mary with the small Brown Scapular and this promise:
"Whoever dies wearing this Scapular will not suffer eternal fire."
The promise of Our Lady to those who wear the Brown Scapular is a traditional sacramental of the Roman Catholic Church, believed to impart efficacious grace to those who enroll in the Scapular Confraternity or who simply choose to wear one.
For Carmelites, the titular feast (celebrated as a Solemnity) signifies Mary's intercessory role. The readings for the Mass of the day, taken from the First Book of Kings, relate the events that took place on Mount Carmel during the lifetime of St. Elijah, the great prophet who is considered the Father of the Carmelite Order. After a three-year drought, Elijah confronted King Ahab about the sins of the nation. This led to a contest on the summit of Mount Carmel between the worship of the false gods and the true God of the Israelites, whom Elijah called upon to consume a holocaust. Later, looking out to the Mediterranean sea, Elijah and his assistant Elisha saw a small cloud rising. Soon the rain came in torrents. These events have been traditionally understood by Carmelites as a prophetic vision of the coming of the Blessed Virgin Mary into human history nine centuries later.
FREE BROWN SCAPULARS