XVI — OUR LADY OF CARMEL

July 16

Presence of God. — O Mary, beauty of Carmel, make me worthy of your protection, clothe me with your garment, be the teacher of my interior life.

Meditation

1 — Our Lady is the mother who clothes us with grace, who takes under her protection our supernatural life until she secures its flowering into eternal life. She, all pure, full of grace from the first instant of her conception, takes our souls stained by sin and with maternal gesture washes them in Christ’s Blood, clothes them with the grace which, together with Him, she merited for us. We can truly say that the garment of grace was woven by Mary’s blessed hands, she who day by day, moment by moment, gave all herself, in union with her Son, for our redemption. Legend speaks of the seamless tunic that Our Lady wove for Jesus; but for us - and this is reality - she did much more: she cooperated in obtaining for us the robe of our eternal salvation, the wedding garment by which we shall be introduced into the hall of the heavenly banquet. And how she desires this robe to be imperishable! From the moment we received it, Mary has never ceased to follow us with her maternal gaze to safeguard in us the life of grace. Every conversion of ours to God, every rising again from fault - great or small - every progress in grace is always effected through Mary’s mediation. The scapular, the little habit that Our Lady of Mount Carmel offers us, is only the exterior symbol of this her assiduous maternal work; symbol, but also sign, and also pledge of eternal salvation. “Take, most beloved son,” she said to St. Simon Stock, “this scapular... whoever dies wearing it shall not suffer eternal fire.” Our Lady assures the supreme grace of final perseverance to all who worthily wear her little habit.

“Whoever wears the scapular,” Pius XII said, “makes profession of belonging to Our Lady.” Precisely by force of our consecration to her, Our Lady takes wholly special care of our souls: what is hers cannot be lost. And such maternal intercession gives her the right to repeat for her children Jesus’ words: “Holy Father, those whom You gave me I have kept, and none of them has perished” (Jn. 17:12).

2 — Devotion to Our Lady of Carmel is also a way to interior life, which is in most special fashion Mary’s life. Our Lady wants us similar to her much more in heart and spirit than in outward habit. If we penetrate Mary’s soul, we see that grace flowered in her in an immense richness of life: life of recollection, of prayer, of uninterrupted adhesion to God, of continuous contact, of intimate union with Him. Mary’s soul is a sanctuary reserved to God alone, where no creature ever impressed its shadow. There reign love and zeal for God’s glory and for the salvation of souls.

Those who wish to live fully devotion to Our Lady of Carmel must follow Mary into the depths of her interior life. Carmel is in fact contemplative life, life wholly dedicated to seeking God, wholly stretched toward divine intimacy; and the one who best realizes this most lofty ideal is precisely Our Lady, Virgo decor Carmeli. “In the desert shall righteousness dwell, and in Carmel justice shall sit. And the work of justice shall be peace; and the fruit of justice shall be silence and security forever. My people shall dwell in the beauty of peace, in tabernacles of confidence” (cf. Is. 32:16-18). These verses, reported in the proper Office of Our Lady of Carmel, delineate very well the contemplative spirit and at the same time are a beautiful portrait of Mary’s soul, true “garden” (Carmel, in Hebrew, means garden) of virtues, oasis of silence and peace, full of God.

Every soul of interior life, even while living amid the noise of the world, must strive to reach this peace, this interior silence that make continuous contact with God possible. It is passions and attachments that make noise within us, that disturb the peace of our spirit, that interrupt intimate commerce with the Lord. Only the soul completely detached and fully mastering its passions can, like Mary, be a solitary and silent “garden” where the Lord finds his delights. This is the grace we ask today of Our Lady, choosing her as patroness and teacher of our interior life.

Colloquy

“O Mary, flower of Carmel, blossoming vine, splendor of heaven, Virgin and Mother unique, sweet and intact mother, grant your favors to your children, O star of the sea!” (St. Simon Stock).

“O blessed Virgin! Who is he who, having invoked you in his necessities, has not received your help? We, your little servants, rejoice with you for all your other virtues, but for your mercy we rejoice with ourselves. We praise virginity, admire humility, but for one who is miserable mercy has a far sweeter savor. Mercy we embrace with greater tenderness, remember more often, invoke more frequently. Indeed, your mercy itself obtained the redemption of the world, drew by your prayers the salvation of all men. Who then, O blessed one, can measure the length and breadth and height and depth of your mercy? Its length reaches to the end of time to help all who invoke you. Its breadth envelops the whole world, so that all the earth is full of your goodness. The height of your mercy has opened the gates of the heavenly city, and its depth has obtained redemption for those who dwell amid darkness and shadow of death. Through you, O Mary, heaven is filled, hell is emptied, the lost way is restored to those who had lost it. Thus your most powerful and most pious charity pours itself over us as compassionate and helping love at once” (St. Bernard).