Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Today’s memorial is Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patroness of the Carmelite Order, begun by Christian hermits in the Holy Land. Mount Carmel was the place where Elijah both showed God’s power by calling down fire and heard God reveal Godself in the tiny whisper. The Carmelites built a chapel there in honor of Mary with the feast being observed since the late 14th century.
The first scripture for the memorial is a call to “Sing and rejoice,” for God is “coming to dwell among you.” The response is Mary’s great song, the Magnificat – sung when the reality of being pregnant with God dwelling in her midst filled her in the presence of Elizabeth. The Gospel is one that is sometimes misunderstood. When Mary and Jesus’ other family members arrive at the door where he’s teaching gathered disciples, he can seem to be dismissing them. Rather he says that what really distinguishes his mother and those who want to be closest to him is that they “do the will of God”. With Mary’s yes, she welcomed the Word into her very midst so that God had a dwelling in the world and could be enfleshed. How are we called to welcome God to dwell in our own lives and to sing and rejoice that God desires to live and walk among us? In that, we are doing God’s will and truly become his family.
—Sr. Laura Leming, FMI, PhD.