"Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria."

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 15th, 2012

This Monday, July 16th is the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Many Catholics don’t realize that this feast day actually has it beginnings in the time of the Old Testament prophets of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah and Elisha were filled with the Holy Spirit of God and did mighty works for the glory of God and for the conversion of sinful souls.

If you remember Elijah was one of the mightiest prophets of the Old Testament. He showed the people the way to true freedom by liberation of their sins and as such he showed them the way to God through proper worship of God. He took on the false gods of the people and showed the people the one true God. He also prophesied the virgin birth of Jesus and that this Jesus would offer to God on our behalf and act perfect adoration through His passion and death; and even more, that this Jesus would make it possible for us to be able to participate in this same perfect act of adoration after His resurrection and ascension.

Elijah's protégé was Elisha. After years of training, Elisha was told in a vision that his master, his teacher Elijah was going to be taken from him. So Elisha went to Elijah and asked that before he was taken from him, would Elijah obtain from God for him-Elisha, a double portion of Elijah's Spirit, which of course was the Holy Spirit.

After telling his young protégé that he didn’t understand what he was asking for, Elijah nevertheless said if God allows such a thing, the sign would be that he-Elijah would be taken away in fiery chariot up into heaven. And so he was; and Elisha was indeed given a double portion of the Spirit.

It is important to know however, that Elijah imparted to Elisha, and to the people of God so they would listen to Elisha as they had listened to Elijah, a sign of that the true Spirit of God was with Elisha. This sign of this double portion of the Spirit was Elijah’s woolen cloak, the same cloak that Elijah once used to strike the Jordon River causing it to turn back on itself so he could pass over on dry land. Once the cloak was imparted to Elisha and Elijah was taken away on the fiery chariot, Elisha himself immediately went to the Jordan and as Elijah had done, struck it with his cloak; and in front of the people, the river, as it had done for Elijah, turned back on itself and Elisha passed over onto dry land.

Elisha then traversed Mt. Carmel and stayed on that mountain in deep prayer, deep conversation with God. As he was looking out from the mountain over the Mediterranean Sea, Elisha witnessed a cloud rising from the sea in a shape of a foot. This cloud, in the shape of a foot, was actually an image pointing to the woman of Genesis whom God foretold to satan after the first sin of our first parents, would crush his, the devils head.

After witnessing this cloud, Elisha began a religious order of Jewish monks who for centuries spent their lives on Mount Carmel praying in the Spirit, for the coming of this Immaculate One, who would give birth to the savior of mankind; he who would free men from the greatest slavery, the slavery of sin, which stripped man not only his freedom but of the fullness of His human dignity and separated man from God and God’s love for man. The habit that these Jewish monks consisted of the brown woolen cloak of Elijah and Elisha worn as a Scapular

The story continues into the New Testament. After the death and Resurrection of Jesus, this same order of Jewish monks were in Jerusalem and among the crowd of people of many tongues who heard St. Peter at Pentecost conversed in their own language. These Jewish monks were also among the thousand who were converted to Jesus Christ. At their conversion they discovered as well, not only who Jesus was but also who was the Immaculate One for whose coming their order had prayed for all those centuries.

It is this group of these converted Jewish monks who were the beginning of the religious Order of Mount Carmel, better known as the Carmelites. The Camelites continued to wear the “Cloak of Elijah” as their habit. This cloak is called the Brown Scapular and is a sign of their consecration to Jesus through the heart of the Immaculate One, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the woman of Genesis who will crush the head of Satan through Her Son, Jesus.

As you know the Virgin Mary later appeared to St. Simon Stock. Her reason for appearing was that she wished all her children to receive a “double portion” of the Spirit, like the prophet Elijah and Elisha, in order to be prophets of truth and life to the current sinful world, so enmeshed in the net of the slavery of sin and false worship.

But instead of having these faithful remnant of hers wear the large scapular of the Carmelites, which covered them from front to back and neck to foot, she handed to St. Simon and smaller woolen scapular that the faithful could wear around their necks as a sign of their true devotion to her and through her to her Son.

At Fatima centuries later as she again appear as “Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” the Immaculate One whose heart would triumph over the enemies of God. Holding out her hand containing a rosary and a scapular, she called all of her faithful remnant to pray the rosary daily and to wear the scapular as a sign of their total consecration to her in order to be totally consecrated to her Divine Son Jesus. Through this faithful remnant, her Immaculate Heart would triumph and an era of peace would be come upon the world, but not before a time of great distress resulting from a great apostasy, a great worldwide loss of the true Catholic and Apostolic faith.

Essentially, total consecration would be a way for her children to get on the “ark of the new covenant” and be led to safe harbor during the purification of the world which would occur either by grace (if enough people would live the message of Fatima) or by fire (if mankind would refuse to heed the warnings and so refuse to stop sinning and so offending God). Those consecrated to her would be true sons and daughters of loving Father who did not wish the destruction of the world or the lost of souls.

This Total Consecration would assist then all those who make it and seriously commit to it; and it would give them the grace to become true adorers of her Son in the Holy Eucharist, thus becoming those whom the Father wish to adore Him in Spirit (the scapular a sign of the Spirit being with them) and Truth (Jesus the Incarnate Mercy of the Father). These true adorers would then bring down God’s Divine Mercy upon us and upon the whole world by being transformed into living images of Jesus to the world, living lives of holiness and becoming living proclamations of the Truth of the Gospel, and so being channels of grace for the conversion of souls and for the conversion of the Whole world. In this the brown scapular is connected to the revelations of Divine Mercy given to St. Faustina.

And so as you can clearly see, The Brown Scapular of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not some outdated pious old devotion no longer needed by us more modern enlightened Catholics; its not just for children and it is not an extra-biblical add on by us Catholics; it is totally Scriptural. The brown Scapular and the Consecration it signifies is essential for all those who take their faith seriously and who are concerned about the “signs of the times.”

However it is important to know as well, that the scapular is not magic, it is meant to be sign, a “wedding ring,” if you will, not only of our dedication to God, but also sign of our total yes to God, a sign of our Fiat, of our total gift of self to God in return for the gift of His total Self to Us in the person of His Divine Son. This consecration is an exchange of persons, human and divine, that actually takes place at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, better known as the Holy Mass.

The Scapular is a sacramental from heaven, not only to symbolize this exchange of persons in the holiest of matrimonies, but to assist the faithful who struggle to give themselves totally to Lord and holy Mass to live out this consecration, this gift of self, in all aspects of their daily lives…in other words to assist them to make their “I do” to God at the Wedding of the Holy Mass and then to live out their “I do” to God in their daily lives by striving to live out all the truths of God as found in His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The brown scapular is a help to those who wear it with faith to participate more fully, actively, consciously and fruitful in the Holy Mass and to participate and share in the act of perfect adoration of the Son to the Father for our good and our salvation.

As you can now also see, the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is really a key component in helping us to confront the “Culture of Death” which is a “Culture of Sin” which is really a culture of false worship, which stems from a failure of us creatures to adore, worship and so love our Creator with our whole mind, body, soul, mind and strength. And so the scapular should also be taken seriously by all who are fighting for our Religious Liberty-one of the foundational rights of the Human Person.

The gift of our selves to God in Total Consecration and living this gift of self in our everyday lives by living the truths of our Catholic Faith is really the key to winning the fight for “religious freedom;” for ultimately, True freedom is not something that comes from outside of you, but from within. Freedom is not something that occurs from removing all obstacles that prohibit freedom; it must come from an interior act of the will of man. And this act of the will must be directed to moral truth, to accepting and living the truth from God about God and about man, the truth that sets men free.

This act of the will in order to choose this truth, the Truth and live it, must be assisted by God’s truth and grace, must be assisted by His Holy Spirit, a double portion of which will be given to those who wear the scapular faithfully and with trust. It is freedom that comes from leaving sin behind through repentance and converting more fully to God by living His truth out in our daily lives of sanctity (living and proclaiming the truth in Charity). It is this freedom in the truth that promotes and protects the dignity of the human person, of every human person, born or unborn, sick or healthy, poor or rich, black or white, conscious or unconscious. It is freedom in the Spirit to live as true sons and daughters of the Almighty Father God through Jesus Christ His Son.

Today in a special way then, let us turn to Our Lady of Mount Carmel to assist us in our struggle to be truly free and so to live truly human lives. If you would like more information on the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and total consecration to Jesus through Mary, I would suggest the book, “Total Consecration” by Louis De Montfort. If you would like a copy please contact the parish office. And then once instructed more fully on the meaning of the Total consecration and being so prepared, we will give you an opportunity on the first available feast day of our Lady to make your Consecration and if necessary to be enrolled in the Brown Scapular of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel. "Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria." ("I belong entirely to you, and all that I have is yours. I take you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart")