Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Mary, overshadowed by the Spirit of God, is the Virgin of the brand new coronary heart, who gave a human face to the Word made flesh. She is the Virgin of clever and contemplative listening who stored and contemplated in her coronary heart the occasions and the phrases of the Lord. She is the trustworthy disciple of knowledge, who sought Jesus, God’s Wisdom and allowed herself to be shaped and molded by his Spirit, in order that in religion she is likely to be conformed to his methods and decisions. Thus enlightened, Mary is introduced to us as one in a position to learn “the good wonders” which God achieved in her for the salvation of the standard and of the poor.

Mary was not solely the Mother of Our Lord; she additionally turned his excellent disciple, the girl of religion. She adopted Jesus, strolling with the disciples, sharing their demanding and wearisome journey — a journey which required, above all, fraternal love and mutual service.

At the wedding feast in Cana, Mary taught us to consider in her Son; on the foot of the Cross, she turned Mother to all who consider; with them she experiences the enjoyment of the Resurrection. United with the opposite disciples “in fixed prayer,” she obtained the primary presents of the Spirit, who stuffed the earliest Christian group with apostolic zeal.

Mary brings the excellent news of salvation to all women and men. She is the girl who constructed relationships, not solely inside the internal circle of Jesus’ disciples, however, past that, with the folks: with Elizabeth, with the bride and bridegroom in Cana, with the opposite ladies, and with Jesus’ “brothers.”

Carmelites see within the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and archetype of the Church, the right picture of all that they need and hope to be. For this cause, Carmelites have all the time considered Mary because the Patron of the Order, its Mother and Splendor; she is consistently earlier than their eyes and of their hearts as “the Virgin Most Pure.” Looking to her, and dwelling in non secular intimacy along with her, we study to face earlier than God, and with each other, because the Lord’s brothers. Mary lives amongst us, as mom and sister, attentive to our wants; together with us she waits and hopes, suffers and rejoices.

The scapular is an indication of Mary’s everlasting and fixed motherly love for Carmelite brothers and sisters. By their devotion to the scapular, trustworthy to a convention within the Order, particularly for the reason that sixteenth century, Carmelites categorical the loving closeness of Mary to the folks of God; it’s a signal of consecration to Mary, a method of uniting the trustworthy to the Order, and an efficient and well-liked technique of evangelization.