Nuestra Senora del Carmen
Today of course, is the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, my patroness since earliest childhood - 4 or 5 years old. Therefore I want to thank Our Lady for the extraordinary graces she has given to me and my family. I did not post on her because others have done so much better than I could.
This is one of the few years I wasn’t able to attend Mass or visit the Carmelite monastery for Our Lady’s feast. There is a poignancy about the feast this year, unlike any other year. Seeing as I am the same age as my mother when she died, I recall on this day - now 25 years ago - how my mom found out she had cancer, only to die on the feast of St. Teresa of Avila a couple of months later. She had a remarkable reconciliation with the Church on the octave of this feast, Our Mother of Divine Grace, and died a very holy death. (My mother’s death removed my own fear of the transition.)
A blessed feast of Our Lady to all who wear her holy habit - that “mouse-bib” thingie Catholic’s wear. (That is what a non-Catholic friend of mine teasingly calls the Scapular of Mt. Carmel.)
Art: Image from an antiques gallery; it is actually Our Lady of Mercy and not Mt. Carmel - nevertheless it is beautiful.
July 16th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Thank you.
Happy Feast Day, Sr. Nelson.
July 17th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Sorry to hear about your mother and the anniversary of her death. These are always hard occasions. My mother died 20 years ago this September, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. She had cancer come and go for a decade. Not an easy thing. I will remember you and your mother in my prayers. Wonderful to hear she died reconciled to the Church. That must be very comforting.