Honoring the Immaculate Heart
On October 13, 1917 at Fatima, Mary appeared to the three shepherd children as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Years later, Lucia, one of the seers, explained that to wear the Brown Scapular is a sign of one’s consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in other words, an expression of deepest devotion for her. But long before the 20th century, Carmelites had been honoring Our Lady’s Pure Heart in countless ways, as the Order was formed precisely to honor her. Examples, besides wearing the Brown Scapular, include celebrating all of her
feasts with due solemnity and defending all of her prerogatives, with a penchant for assimilating into Carmelite life whatever practice might further her honor.
Ultimately, the heart of such devotion is union, a profound relationship with Our Lady, while its fruit is imitation. And here, again, the Carmelites excelled. Perhaps the highest expression of this teaching can be found in the writings and lives of the 17th century Carmelites Venerable Michael of St. Augustine and his directee, the tertiary Marie Petyt. In the “Marian or Mariform life” expounded by Venerable Michael (and thought by some Carmelite scholars to have shaped Saint Louis de Montfort in his own “True Devotion to Mary”), one so takes on the life of Mary that one’s thoughts, words, and actions in effect become hers; and through this assimilation, the soul becomes Christ’s, for who was more surrendered to His Will than His Virgin Mother? Marie Petyt lived this way of union with Mary to a superlative degree. As she herself wrote: “It seems that Mary is my life. She is the gentle air that I breathe and that keeps me alive. In this way I live in God in an even more wonderful and sublime way than before.”
More recent Carmelites also embodied this teaching. For instance, Saint Titus Brandsma, martyr of Dachau and known for his deep devotion to Mary, wrote: “The more we are filled with love and affection for Mary the more we will be filled with the glory and beauty of her life and our tongues will proclaim her praises and our mouths will speak of her glory. Our life and devotion cannot remain lifeless or static inside us. They should shine through our lives, they should burn and burst into flame for others. In every dimension of our lives that bright flame should appear in the same way that our devotion to Mary shines forth.”
To be Carmelite, one could say, is to be Mary; that is, to honor her Pure Heart by entrusting oneself to her and living her own virtues. And this is the call also to all who wear the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – to become an “alter Maria” (another Mary) and so to hasten the triumph of her Immaculate Heart.
Next Month: The Unselfconscious Medieval Carmelites
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