Holy masses would be celebrated Thursday, July 16, in several churches and Marian shrines to commemorate the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, marking the 768th anniversary of the popular devotion to Our Lady’s brown scapular.
According to Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco, a special mass would be celebrated at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Project 6, Quezon City, at 6 am. The morning mass and the 6 pm celebration will be streamed live.
In 2018, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was celebrated during the 400th anniversary of the arrival of its revered image from Mexico in 1618 as a gift from the Discalced Carmelites Nuns of Acapulco.
“The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel serves to remind the faithful of the Blessed Mother’s promise of special protection and heavenly graces to all those who wear the brown scapular, a sign of salvation and a safeguard in dangers. The Holy Mother promised that whoever dies wearing the brown scapular will not suffer everlasting fire,” the church leaders said.
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Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to the mid-13th century. They built in their hermitages a chapel which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whom they conceived of in chivalric terms as the “Lady of the place.” Our Lady of Mount Carmel was adopted in the 19th century as the patron saint of Chile in South America.
Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Brown Scapular. Traditionally, Mary is said to have given the scapular to an early Carmelite named Saint Simon Stock (1165-1265). The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated on July 16.
Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is bound to the history and spiritual values of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and is expressed through the scapular. Thus, whoever receives the scapular becomes a member of the order and pledges him/herself to live according to its spirituality under the characteristics of his/her state in life.