May the venerable intercession of the glorious Virgin may come to our aid, we pray, O Lord, so that, fortified by her procession, we may reach the mountain which is Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. (Collect for the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel)
Today, July 16, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, the patroness of the Carmelite Order.
As St. Paul reminds us, “If one part [of the body of Christ] is honored, all the parts share its joy” (1 Corinthians 12:26). So we praise God for the many gifts he has bestowed on the Church through the Carmelite Order. This feast is also an important day to recognize the many similarities and connections between the Carmelite and Dominican orders, principally devotion to the Mother of God as essential aspects of their lives.
Fr. Ramund Snyder, O.P., elaborates on many connections between the two orders in his reflection, “Common Threads.” Among these, the origins and symbolism of the scapulars that each order wears stands out as signs of their shared devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He observes:
But what is the reality to which both of these stories attest? Both Orders enjoy the maternal mediation of Our Lady. She intercedes as a mother and as one through whom grace comes. This is true in general for all Christians, but in a particular way for those religious who manifest her mediation in their very clothing. The Dominican tradition has affectionately spoken of Our Lady as the Vestiaria of the Order, that is, the one who clothes us, our “seamstress.” She who clothed Our Lord as a child has clothed us as well.
Another friar, Fr. John Sica, O.P., can personally attest to Our Lady’s maternal care as symbolized by the scapular. In fact, the brown scapular led to his eventually wearing the white scapular of the Dominicans. In “Under the Scapular,” a reflection on his vocational journey, he writes:
Our Lady of Mount Carmel had watched over me closely since I had returned to the faith—not just with her scapular, but also with popularized Carmelite spirituality, which gave me a desire to grow in holiness. What I came to realize is that Our Lady of Mount Carmel is not jealous of Our Lady, Queen of Preachers, and that she would not begrudge me any of her maternal affection under the white of the Dominican scapular. Rather, she had shown me the white scapular of the Dominican friars as the new way of life in which she wanted me to follow her.
Fr. John’s reflection on his path to the Dominicans reminds us of Our Lady’s role in leading us to Christ. This feast, let us pray that, through Our Lady’s intercession, “we may reach the mountain which is Christ”!
Photo: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
