Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!

See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord.

Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day,

  and they shall be his people,

  and he will dwell among you,

  and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

The Lord will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land,

  and he will again choose Jerusalem.

Silence, all, in the presence of the Lord!

  for he stirs forth from his holy dwelling.

 

From The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger

 

'In the day of My love, I brought thee out of Egypt into the land of Carmel,' [Cf. Jer. 2:2, 7] said the Lord to the daughter of Sion, taking the name of Carmel to represent all the blessings of the Promised Land; and when the crimes of the chosen people were about to bring Judea to ruin, the prophet cried out: 'I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of His indignation.' [Ibid. 4:26] But from the midst of the Gentile world a new Sion arose, more loved than the first; eight centuries beforehand Isaias recognized her by the glory of Libanus, and the beauty of Carmel and Saron which were given her. In the sacred Canticle, also, the attendants of the Bride sing to the Spouse concerning His well-beloved, that her head is like Carmel, and her hair like the precious threads of royal purple carefully woven and dyed. [Cant. 7:5]

When Eternal Wisdom was playing in the world, forming the hills and establishing the mountains, she destined Carmel to be the special inheritance of Eve's victorious daughter. And when the last thousand years of expectation were opening, and the desire of all nations was developing into the spirit of prophecy, the father of prophets ascended the privileged mount, thence to scan the horizon. The triumphs of David and the glories of Solomon were at an end: the sceptre of Juda, broken by the schism of the ten tribes, threatened to fall from his hand; the worship of Baal prevailed in Israel. A long-continued drought, figure of the aridity of men's souls, had parched up every spring, and men and beasts were dying beside the empty cisterns, when Elias the Thesbite gathered the people, representing the whole human race, on Mount Carmel, and slew the lying prophets of Baal. Then, as the Scripture relates, prostrating with his face to the earth, he said to his servant: Go up, look towards the sea. And he went up, and looked and said: There is nothing. And again he said to him: Return seven times. And at the seventh time: Behold, a little cloud arose out of the sea like a man's foot. [3 Kings 18]

 

Blessed cloud! Unlike the bitter waves from which it sprang, it was all sweetness. Docile to the least breath of Heaven, it rose light and humble, above the immense heavy ocean; and screening the sun, it tempered the heat that was scorching the earth and restored to the stricken world life and grace and fruitfulness. The promised Messias, the Son of Man, set His impress upon  it, showing to the wicked serpent the form of the heel that was to crush Him. The prophet, personifying the human race, felt his youth renewed; and while the welcome rain was already refreshing the valleys, he ran before the chariot of the king of Israel. Thus did he traverse the great plain of Esdrelon, even to the mysteriously-named town of Jezrahel where, according to Osee, the children of Juda and Israel were again to have but one head in the great day of Jezrahel (i.e., of the seed of God), when the Lord would seal His eternal nuptials with a new people. [Osee 1:11, 2:14-24] Later on, from Sunam, near Jezrahel the mother whose son was dead crossed the same plain of Esdrelon, in the opposite direction, and ascended Mount Carmel to obtain from Eliseus the resurrection of her child, who was a type of us all. [4 Kings 4:8-37]  Elias had already departed in the chariot of fire, to await the end of the world, when he is to give testimony, together with Henoch, to the son of her that was signified by the cloud; [Apoc. 11:3, 7] and the disciple, clothed with the mantle and the spirit of his father, had taken possession, in the name of the sons of the prophets, of the august mountain honored by the manifestation of the Queen of prophets. Henceforward Carmel was sacred in the eyes of all who looked beyond this world. Gentiles as well as Jews, philosophers and princes, came here on pilgrimage to adore the true God; while the chosen souls of the Church of the expectation, many of whom were already wandering in deserts and in mountains, [Heb. 11:38] loved to take up their abode in its thousand grottos; for the ancient traditions seemed to linger more lovingly in its silent forests, and the perfume of its flowers foretokened the Virgin Mother.

 

 

 

 

 

Lord God,

let the gracious prayer of the glorious Virgin Mary

come to our aid,

so that, protected by her care,

we may reach the holy mountain,

which is Christ the Lord,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever. Amen. (Our Lady of Mt. Carmel; July 16)