Our Lady of Mount Carmel
One
Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
Sometime around the year 1250 Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock with a multitude of angels, holding in her hands the Scapular of the Order. (A scapular - from the Latin word for shoulders - is a garment that goes over the head and covers your front and back but has no sleeves.) Mary said, “This will be for you and for all Carmelites the privilege, that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal fire.”
Then in the early 1300s, Mary appeared to Pope John XXII with the message that all the faithful who wear a brown scapular while striving to live a life of faith and virtue will gain their purification from purgatory by her intercession on the Saturday after their death.
This feast, the Scapular, and what Mary offers us in it is a powerful reminder that she is our spiritual mother who helps us receive Jesus and forms him within us. It’s also a reminder that we too have a part to play. As she specified in her apparition to Pope John XXII, “All the faithful who wear a brown scapular while striving to live a life of faith and virtue will gain their purification.”
Two
The Scapular is a sign of Mary placing her cloak her mantle of protection over us. Her physical mantle, her cloak has protected the faithful and produced many great victories over the ages.
Almost all the Apostles were present for the Assumption of Mary in Jerusalem. But, once again Thomas was late. She later appeared to him and gave him her cloak as a sign of her affection. Before he left for India, it was entrusted to the Church and then later transferred to Constantinople. By 638 A.D. Islam had become master of the Middle East. In 718, Constantinople was surrounded by Muslim forces intent on destroying Christianity. However, the Mantle of Mary was kept in the Church of Blacherne in Constantinople.
Revelation 12 tells us Mary is the New and Everlasting Ark of the Covenant. Remember how in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant gave the Israelites protection and victory in battle. Recall how when the Israelites were outmanned and outgunned at Jericho when they were trying to enter the Promised Land (I realize they did not have guns back then but it’s a good phrase) they marched around the outside of the walls of Jericho seven times carrying in the Ark of the Covenant. The walls fell down and the Israelites gained the victory by the Ark.
Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, and her mantle offered Constantinople the same kind of protection. On August 15, 718, The Patriarch of Constantinople and the people marched around the inside of the city walls carrying the Mantle of Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant, while they chanted the Akathist hymn to Mary. With no explanation, the Muslim invaders fled and were destroyed by natural disasters in their retreat.
Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant who protects us from all danger and gives us victory in battle.
Three
The Protection of the Mother of God
This victory of Mary prevented the Muslim forces from advancing in the East for more than 700 years. This event is celebrated each year on October 1st. It’s called the Feast of Pokrov, The Protection of the Mother of God.
Today, we are still under the protection of Mary. So, we must entrust everything to her that seems impossible, seems hopeless, and is out of our control!
At any given moment I have no idea where my five kids are and I certainly cannot control what is going on in their lives. I run this organization, the Holy Family School of Faith, and I cannot anticipate or control all the variables and forces that will affect it. That is why the first thing I do when I arise each morning and the last thing I do before I go to sleep each night is to entrust myself, my wife and my kids, and the School of Faith to Mary by placing them under her Mantle of Protection!
Four
Many Titles, One Mother
Whether it is Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal or Our Lady of Guadalupe or Czestochowa it is the same Woman with the same power and the same message. The power does not reside in the scapular or in the medal. They are sacramentals, reminders of who we are and how we are to live. I belong to Christ, I am a son of Mary and I am a committed Christian.
There are two conditions that must be met to gain the graces from the Scapular, the Miraculous Medal, or any devotion to Mary.
First, truly live as a son of Mary, which means to live in a relationship with her in imitation of the relationship Jesus had with her because She is your spiritual Mother. So, relying on Mary as our spiritual mother is the key. Second, strive sincerely to live as Christ did, especially as he taught in the Sermon on the Mount.
The Scapular and the Miraculous Medal are not reminders to God. “Hey God, I’m wearing this, so you don’t forget to let me skip the line to purgatory.” The Scapular or Miraculous Medal are reminders of who we are and how we are to live: Not in pride and self-reliance, but in obedience to the teaching of Christ and trusting in Him in every circumstance because he said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Five
Benjamin, a Palestinian Catholic friend of mine in his 70s who lives in Bethlehem has had Polio for most of his life. He has had many corrective and painful surgeries and long stints of physical therapy so that he can move around a little. I asked him how he keeps going when it is difficult or seemingly impossible. He said, “I simply turn to Mary and say ‘Ya Adhra’ which is Arabic for “The Virgin” and she helps me to go forward when it is impossible. For she was the one who took the words of the Angel to heart, ‘Nothing is Impossible for God.’ She believed God and the Holy Spirit work powerfully through her to help us. So every time you are frustrated, angry, overcome with fear or despair, turn to Mary and say, “Ya Adhra” Mary – and she will help you receive Jesus so that you can do what you could not do on your own!”