Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid-13th century. They built in the midst of their hermitages a chapel which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whom they conceived of in chivalric terms as the "Lady of the place." Our Lady of Mount Carmel was adopted in the 19th century as the patron saint of Chile, in South America.
Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centred on the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Brown Scapular. Traditionally, Mary is said to have given the Scapular to an early Carmelite named Saint Simon Stock (1165-1265). The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated on 16 July.
The solemn liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was probably first celebrated in England in the later part of the 14th century. Its object was thanksgiving to Mary, the patroness of the Carmelite Order, for the benefits she had accorded to it through its difficult early years. The institution of the feast may have come in the wake of the vindication of their title "Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary" at Cambridge, England in 1374. The date chosen was 17 July; on the European mainland this date conflicted with the feast of St. Alexis, requiring a shift to 16 July, which remains the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel throughout the Catholic Church. The Latin poem "Flos Carmeli" (meaning "Flower of Carmel") first appears as the sequence for this Mass.
The first reading is from the first book of Kings (18: 42b-45a):
Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel and bowed down to earth, putting his face between his knees. 'Now go up,' he said to his servant ‘and look out to the sea.' He went up and 'There is nothing at all' he said. 'Go back seven times' Elijah said. The seventh time, the servant said, 'Now there is a cloud, small as a man's hand, rising from the sea.' Elijah said, 'Go say to Ahab, "Harness the chariot and go down before the stops you."'
And with that the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, rain fell in torrents.”
This reading was interpreted by early Carmelites in a symbolic manner. Mary is seen as the cloud of pure rain, that arose from the bitter, salty sea, which is the image of sinful humanity and that is through Mary that redemption would come (symbolised by the rain).
The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians (4:4-7) in which he presents God’s plan of redemption.
When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons. The proof that you are sons of God is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father,’ and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave anymore; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.
We see here that redemption is the work of the Trinity: the Father sends both the Son and the Spirit. We become children of God and heirs to the Kingdom. This plan cannot be described without showing the place of Mary, the Woman, who through whom the Incarnation takes place.
After the second reading we have the sequence taken from the ancient prayer Flos Carmeli. It was originally used as the sequence for the Feast of St. Simon Stock, and, since 1663, for the Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. Its composition is ascribed to St. Simon Stock himself (ca 1165 - 1265).
Flos Carmeli, Flower of Carmel,
vitis florigera, Tall vine blossom laden;
splendor caeli, Splendour of heaven,
virgo puerpera Childbearing yet maiden.
singularis. None equals thee.
Mater mitis Mother so tender,
sed viri nescia Who no man didst know,
Carmelitis On Carmel's children
da privilegia Thy favours bestow.
Stella Maris. Star of the Sea.
The Gospel from John (19:25-27) shows Mary at the foot of the Cross where she becomes the Mother of all believers.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.