Dear Friends,

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We move the Mass from July 16th to its nearest Sunday so that we can celebrate the patronal feast of our parish with due solemnity.

If you are able to join us consider joining our procession this year. After the 11:00am Mass outside we will carry a statue of Our Lady through the surrounding streets, praising God as we go. When we return to the front of the church we will share a little physically-distanced social time.

This year we walk in thanksgiving of Mary’s motherly care for us during these challenging times, and we beg God for the healing our hearts, homes, and neighborhoods need to better reflect his glory and goodness!

Christ’s Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ

The Blessed Virgin Mary - Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The Feast of the Brown Scapular

The story

+ This title of Mary refers to the origins of the ancient Carmelite Order, whose first members lived as hermits on Mount Carmel in Palestine.

+ The hermits’ first chapel on Mount Carmel was dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. In time, the hermits left Mount Carmel and became itinerant beggars, spreading their way of life and spirituality throughout Europe.

+ According to legend, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint Simon Stock, a Carmelite priest, in England on July 16, 1251, presenting him with the brown Carmelite scapular. In time, devotion to “Our Lady of Mount Carmel” and the brown scapular spread throughout the world.

+ Although this is the patron feast of the Carmelite Order, the Church’s liturgy on this day focuses more broadly on Mary’s role as intercessor and protector of Christians.

For prayer and reflection

“The Scapular is essentially a habit which evokes the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this life and in the passage to the fullness of eternal glory. The Scapular also reminds us that the devotion to her must become a ‘uniform,’ that is a Christian life-style, woven of prayer and interior life.”—Pope Saint John Paul II

https://aleteia.org/daily-prayer/thursday-july-16/