Talks 2us - Totus2us

Father Iain Matthew OCD: "I find it very significant the way Our Lady of Mt Carmel gets to be honoured. Hermits were living on Mount Carmel and their way of life was enshrined in a monastic rule very early in the 13th century. And they were known as the Hermits of Holy Mary of Mt Carmel. A 13th century pilgrim guide to the Holy Land speaks of the Brothers of Carmel, 'they have a very beautiful little church of Our Lady'. And then, when they came to Europe, when the Saracens kicked them out of Palestine, they came to be identified for the scapular... So we've got a mountain, a chapel and a piece of clothing, and what all of those have in common is that they are simply there. The beautiful mountain of Carmel is there; the chapel was there in the midst of the friars; and the devotion, the scapular, you wear it, it's on you, day and night. And that speaks of a particular connection with Our Lady; that Our Lady, as Mary of Mt Carmel, is a woman who is constantly present in your life, who we might say clothes you,