From their earliest days on Mt. Carmel, the Carmelites venerated Our Lady with a chapel dedicated to her honor, as members of the Order seek to imitate our Lady’s humility and her example of prayer.
The scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel has been recommended by the Magisterium throughout the centuries as a devotion for all those who wish to entrust themselves to Our Lady’s protection and seek her intercession especially in remaining mindful of the importance of the interior life and prayer.
The Collect prayer for today’s feast speaks of those two themes: Our Lady’s protection and her aid in reaching the mountain which is Christ. The scapular, in fact, was given to Our Lady to the Carmelite St. Simon Stock, when the Order was facing persecution from violent Muslim attacks in the 13th century.
Mt. Carmel is a symbol for the mountain which we must all climb throughout the Christian Life. For the Christian is called to undergo the arduous task, of conforming not simply his outward appearance, but his inner self to Christ. Growth in prayer and the spiritual life is like an upward battle, like the ascent of a steep mountain. There are no plateaus in the spiritual life, we are either climbing toward Christ or descending away from Him.
From the book “Divine Intimacy”, we read, “Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a special call to the interior life, which is preeminently a Marian life. Our Lady wants us to resemble her not only in our outward appearance but, far more, in heart and spirit. If we gaze into Mary’s soul, we shall see that grace in her has flowered into a spiritual life of incalcuable wealth: a life of recollection, prayer, uninterrupted oblation to God, continual contact, and intimate union with him. Mary’s soul is a sanctuary reserved for God alone, where no human creature has ever left its trace, where love and zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of humankind reign supreme. […] Those who want to live their devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel to the full must follow Mary into the depths of her interior life. Carmel is the symbol of the contemplative life, the life wholly dedicated to the quest for God, wholly orientated towards intimacy with God; and the one who has best realized this highest of ideals is Our Lady herself, ‘Queen and Beauty of Carmel’.” For the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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That all Christians may grow in prayerfulness and fidelity to the Divine Will through the intercession and example of Our Lady.
For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, for blessings upon the Carmelite Order as it works and prays for the good of the Church.
That our young people on summer vacation may be protected from all physical and spiritual harm, shielded from the errors and perversions of the world, and kept in closeness to God through prayer and virtue.
For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, for all those recovering from or undergoing surgery today, and for the consolation of the dying.
For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.
Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord
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