Queen of Carmel
“Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the patroness of the interior life, the Virgin who brings us aside from the crowd and leads us gently towards the summits where the air is purer, the sky clearer, and God closer. There we can live in intimacy with him.”
– Fr. Delage, Priest of St. Sulpice
Dear Friends of Carmel,
Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Today we celebrate our intercessor, our Mother, and our Queen. And while Carmelites celebrate July 16th with special solemnity, it is a day of celebration for all of her children, for the entire Church. She calls us to the safety of her heavenly protection. She clothes us in the virtues necessary for salvation. She invites all of us to great intimacy with her divine Son Jesus Christ.
How shall we then show our solid devotion to the Blessed Virgin? By striving to imitate her interior life, her lowly opinion of herself, her love of obscurity, of silence and of retirement; her attraction to little things, her fidelity to grace, the beautiful simplicity of her recollection and prayers, the only object of which was God and His holy will, Jesus Christ and His love, her continual sacrifice of herself and of all she loved most earnestly. Let us ask her every day that she may serve us as our guide and model in the interior life.
— Manual for Interior souls by Father Nicholas Grou, S .J.
Please know we remembered all of you in our novena preparing for this great Feast. May Our Lady spread her mantle of protection over us all!
In Our Blessed Lady,
Your Carmelite Sisters
“You make me feel it’s not impossible to follow in your footsteps, O Queen of the Elect. The narrow way to Heaven you have made visible by always practicing the humblest virtues. Close to you, Mary, I like to stay small, I see the vanity of worldly grandeur … In Nazareth, Mother full of grace, I know You lived in great poverty, wanting nothing more. No raptures, no miracles, no ecstasies adorned your life, O Queen of the Elect! The number of little ones on earth is very great; they can raise their eyes to you without trembling. It is the common path, incomparable Mother, you were pleased to tread, so you can guide them to Heaven.”
– St. Therese of the Child Jesus
* The Brown Scapular *
We cannot send a newsletter on the Feast without at least a short word about the Brown Scapular. This sacramental is the great gift Our Mother offers to Her children. The devotional practice of wearing the scapular has been promulgated and encouraged by numerous popes, has been attested to by many miracles, and is at the center of so many stories of grace and conversion. We even have our own miraculous stories about this sacramental, which perhaps we can share with you someday.
We would only like to remind you of one of the greatest modern miracles performed by Our Lady herself: the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. During the approximately ten minutes of the miracle, she showed the three children several visions. One of them was to reveal herself as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, once again offering her scapular to the world and linking the message of Fatima, so important for our days, to the devotion of the Brown Scapular.
We always encourage you to learn more! Whether you have never heard of this devotion before, or you are a long time devotee….this is the day for all of us to re-dedicate ourselves to Our Lady’s army. You can read more on our website, as well as in several of our past newsletters on the topic (especially this one) which go into great detail about the history, practice, and privileges of this devotion.
* Images of Our Lady *
The image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is an ancient one, with a beautiful history and rich symbolism. We spoke in great detail about the history of the image of Our Lady under this title in a past newsletter. While we offer several versions on our site, we chose to add another. This picture is not a replica of the original icon as are the others, but a representation of Our Lady Queen of Carmel, surrounded by the multitude of Carmelite Saints, which she prophesied would be as numerous as the stars of Heaven.
* Christmas in July *
As we are preparing our shelves for some new Christmas items later this year, some of the Christmas sacramentals that we still have on hand from Christmas 2024 have unfortunately been discontinued with some of our suppliers. So we thought it would be wonderful to offer them to you at a discount to make room for some new offerings for Christmas 2025. See the entire selection of Christmas items on our discounted items page…Maybe you can get some of your Christmas shopping done extra early this year!