Flores. The malnutrition he has experienced during most of this lifehas taken its toll on his eyesight. Raul will probably suffer fromsevere myopia until he dies, but now he has glasses. He can seethings today that he never knew existed.

Again, your goodness to Carmelite Missions has let the sisterswho work with handicapped children in Sicuani make Raul’s life alittle less burdensome.

Your goodness to Carmelite Missions has made so manywonderful things possible. That is certainly reason for our prayer-filled thanks on July 16th and always.

May Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, with her Son, bless you lovingly!

With my love,

Fr. Joseph P. O’Brien, O. Carm.Director of Carmelite Missions

CARMELITE MISSIONSSA I N T O F T H E M O N T H N E WS L E T T E R • J U LY, 2 0 1 4 • WWW.C A R M E L I T E M I SS I O N S .O R G

Behold Your Mother...Dear Friend,

Each year, on July 16th, Carmelites all over the world celebratea solemn feast day in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

I promise on that day you will be remembered in a mostspecial way, not only in my own Mass and prayers, but also in thoseof Carmelite missionaries in the underdeveloped world, and in theprayers of the people they serve.

This is one small way that we have of saying “thank you” forall that you have done for us and for all that you have come tomean to our religious family.

One of the places where you will be prayed for is the Cathedralof Sicuani. In recent years the goodness of friends of CarmeliteMissions helped build that very simple yet beautiful big Church.Your same kind of goodness still helps us keep the Cathedral ingood repair so that the desperately poor Quechua Indian peoplewho come to worship have some escape from the harsh elementsin this remote town 13,000 feet high in the Peruvian Andes.

One of the little people who will be praying for you in theSicuani Cathedral of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is ten-year old Raul

Fr. Rogelio Garcia, O.Carm., helps with homework in the home for abandonedchildren in Torreon, Mexico.

The children who live in the Albergue Del Padre Manuelito in the hot, dustyand dangerous city of Torreon, Mexico. Their parents are in prison in the cityjail next door. Your goodness keeps them safe and well cared for.

Around the year 900 B.C., Elijah theGreat, prophet of Israel, lived in God’spresence on the remote heights of MountCarmel. It was an especially troubledtime in his nation’s stormy history. Acorrupt King and Queen wereintroducing the worship of pagan deitiesand immoral practices of the foulestkind.

Elijah faced the problem head-on.He would emerge from his life ofsolitude and prayer to challenge the evilthat he realized was endangering the truefaith. His fiery words and mighty deedscalled back the daughters and sons ofIsrael to the God of their fathers and tothe covenant He had made with them.

The “sons of the prophet,” as thefollowers of Elijah were called, lived forcenturies on the fertile mountain ofCarmel. With the dawn of the Christianera they added to the spirit of Elijah thecouncils of the Gospel as their own wayof life. They were probably hermits wholived most of their lives in prayer andsolitude, and only left their retreat topreach the word of God to the people.

An ancient tradition holds that theseCarmelites were deeply devoted to OurLady. They proclaimed her devotion inthe early church and, it is said, built ontheir holy mountain, with its view of theblue waters of the Mediterranean, thefirst chapel to be dedicated in Mary’shonor.

In the 12th century, one of thebrothers, Berthold, reorganized the lifeon Mount Carmel to conform with thereligious life of the Latin Church. At hispetition, the Patriarch of Jerusalem,Albert, gave the monks a rule of theirown that was formally approved by PopeHonorius III, in 1226.

The Brown ScapularIn 1238, in order to avoid annihilation at the hands of the Saracens, the Carmelites

migrated to Europe. A community was left on Mt. Carmel to preserve, if possible, itshallowed ground. The fate of this small band of faithful men is recorded in the twentiethcentury chronicle. It bears witness to their devotion to the Queen of Heaven.

Saint of the Month� OOuurr LLaaddyy aanndd tthhee CCaarrmmeelliitteess �““FFeeaasstt ooff OOuurr LLaaddyy ooff MMtt.. CCaarrmmeell””

“The Saracens…ascending the mount of Carmel…slew with the sword all the brethren theyfound there singing the Salve Regina.”

Fr. Joachim Smet, O. Carm., a former Assistant General of the Order, has beautifully told the tale of that heroic martyrdom:

Mount Carmel’s sides are tall and steepAnd bright with many a flower But not too steep for the Turk to climb At the Salve Regina hour.

The sun sank down in the western sea,Sank down in his blood-red bower,But, oh the red of the choir stallsAt the Salve Regina hour!

We heard the tinkling of swords and spears Like a Vesper bell’s brittle shower,

And the puffing of horses that rode from dawnTo the Salve Regina hour.

“Some Christian knights have come,” we thought,“To mingle their voice with ours,To pray for the weal of the Saviour’s tombAt the Salve Regina hour.”

But the Turks rushed in with their scimitarsIn a flashing tide of power,And butchered the Brethren as they sangAt Salve Regina hour.

We pray you, Brethren, to think of us Whom the sword has sought to devour,And finish the song that we once beganAt the Salve Regina hour.

The crusaders brought some of the Carmelites to England. Others went to Cypress, andstill others to Marseilles in France, and to the Netherlands. From Mount Carmel the Orderbegan to spread throughout all Christendom.

However, their progress was attended by many difficulties. Upon their advent intoEurope, the reigning Pope had modified the Rule of Albert to conform with the way of life ofthe Mendicant Friars, but the Carmelites were not welcomed in the Western Church.

At this time, Saint Simon Stock, an Englishman, was the Superior General. Because thevery existence of the Order was threatened, Saint Simon besought our Blessed Mother toprotect her Brothers. On the night of July 16, 1251, Our Lady answered his prayers byappearing to him and giving him the Brown Scapular.

She gently said:

“RECEIVE THIS SCAPULAR AS A SIGN OF MY CONFRATERNITY; IT WILL BE ASAFEGUARD IN DANGER, A SIGN OF SALAVATION. HE WHO DIES WHILEWEARING IT, SHALL NOT SEE HELL FIRE.”

From then until the Reformation,Carmel’s history is a glorious tribute to itsQueen. Kings, princes, rich and poor,flocked to Carmelite Churches to clothethemselves in Mary’s habit. Some returnedto the world, while others aspired to theseclusion of Carmel’s cloisters. In Englandalone, the white Friars, as the Carmeliteswere called, were numbered by thethousands. At the time of its peak, theOrder included thirty-seven provinces, 700 monasteries, and many thousands ofmembers.

This golden age continued for a fewgenerations; then came the Reformation.Houses were confiscated, librariesdestroyed, and the religious weredisbanded under pain of death. When thestorm subsided, only one house of theEnglish-speaking Provinces survived, yetCarmel lived.

Carmelite MissionariesMissionaries of the Order of Mount

Carmel were among the first to enter uponthe work of evangelizing America after itsdiscovery by Columbus. Carmelite priestsand brothers were found in the personnelof many of the expeditions that wereorganized immediately after theannouncement of the finding of the greatWestern Continent.

These pioneers founded flourishingmissions at many points in the territory nowcomprised in the southern states of theUnion. Prominent among their foundationswas that of Santa Fe, in what is now NewMexico.

In the year 1563, Father FranciscoRuiz received an appointment from thesupreme council of the Order as VicarGeneral of Carmel’s American missions.Under his able direction the missionaryfathers accomplished wonders in theirefforts to plant the seed of Christ’s Gospel inthe heart of the Native people. They traveledthrough the uncharted wilds of the newcountry in the face of the hardships and theperils to lives that are still the lot of many

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missionaries. These early fathers penetratedas far north as the present city ofBaltimore.

The Carmelites, at the request of thePortuguese crown, entered the missionaryfield of South America shortly after thearrival there of the Jesuits. Here they wereentrusted with the spiritual and, in manycases, with the temporal administration ofthe inhabitants of Para and Maranhao, inthe amazon region. They founded nativeseminaries, and educated the Indians in thearts and crafts.

One of these early missionarieschecked an epidemic of small-pox among the native people by introducingvaccination, the first recorded use ofvaccine in the New World. The zeal of thesemissionaries is mirrored in the success ofthe many Carmelite foundations whichflourish in Latin America today.

CARMELITE MISSIONS8501 Bailey Road • Darien, IL 60561-8418www.carmelitemissions.org

“Thank You for Your Kindness and Love”

Province of the Most Pure Heart of MaryIn 1864, Fathers Cyril Knoll and Xavier Huber set sail from their native Germany for

English-speaking America. They would resume the work that had been begun by theirbrother missionaries of the 16th century. They settled In Leavenworth, Kansas, but somespread to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and to Niagara Falls, in Canada. There they were giventhe care of the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace. On the beautiful escarpment above the greatcataract they could again finish the hymn to their Mother begun on Mount Carmel “at theSalve Regina hour.”

Today the center of this Carmelite Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary is in Darien,Illinois. Carmelite priests and brothers minister in parishes, high schools, universities,hospitals, shopping center chapels and retreat houses throughout the United States andCanada and also in Peru, Mexico and El Salvador.

At the Salve Regina HourThe dominant theme of each Carmelite’s life, wherever he prays and works, is his

devotion to Mary, the Mother of the Lord and of the Church. Since that momentous July16th, when Our Lady of Mt. Carmel appeared to St. Simon Stock, the Brown Scapular hasbeen the special means by which her brothers have fostered their love for her in others. Inall that they pray, in all that they do, their lives attempt to finish the hymn begun so long ago“at the Salve Regina hour.”