On the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a reading from the
Book of Ecclesiastes is proclaimed to celebrate our Blessed Mother as the
living icon of womanhood who shares all virtue, gifts and fruits of the Holy
Spirit with Her children:
“I am the Mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge,
and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth; in
me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that
desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet
above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. I have
brought you into the land of Carmel to eat the fruits thereof, the choicest of
them all. (Ecclesiastes 24:28-31)”
Throughout Scriptures, Mary perfectly embodies ‘the feminine
genius’ as daughter, mother, sister and bride. She fully expresses the
attributes of womanhood that St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)
describes in her Essays on Woman which include a concern for all “that
is living, personal, and whole” and lives out this fruitful femininity by
being “expansive and open to all human beings” in a spirit of quiet pondering, warmth,
clarity, humility, and self-mastery. She
has fulfilled what St. Pope John Paul II identified as the law of the gift as
presented in the Vatican II Encyclical Guadium et Spes which tells us
that, “Man…cannot fully find
himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” [GS 24]
Mary became complete gift both to God and to us as she
surrendered fully to receive the total gift God was offering to her as the woman
“full of grace”. Her capacity to love
and surrender were so profound and she was so deeply steeped in her virginal
receptivity, that the Holy Spirit was able to overshadow her in His Divine Love
enabling her to become the tabernacle and Theotokos of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This
continual receptivity between the Blessed Trinity and Our Lady resulted in ongoing
fruitful and personalistic encounters between Mary and others as we see her first
pondering all things in her heart, and then responding in service. In bringing Jesus to others, Mary is recognized
as “mother of my Lord”, the intercessor par excellence at the wedding Feast
at Cana, and the Woman who Jesus bequeaths to us in His last breaths upon the
Cross when he tells John, ”Behold your mother” and to Mary, ”Behold,
your son.”
By giving her fiat to become our spiritual mother at the
foot of the Cross, Mary becomes a vessel of grace for us as she offers her
entire being as the Mother of God to incorporate all of God’s children into Her
Immaculate Heart. Mary’s profound openness continues down the generations as we
continue to honor her and call her blessed, and as we are invited to behold
her, and encounter her in a very personal and intimate way. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross explains, “That
is why an intimate bond exists between Mary and ourselves. She loves us, she
knows us, she exerts herself to bring each one of us into the closest possible
relationship with the Lord…” [Woman p.240-241] All of this points to the promised Woman of
Genesis 3:15 who will gather her children to her side and strike at the heel of
Satan.
As a result, all of us as God’s children are invited to not
only behold this Woman but to gather around her and enter the fruitful vineyards
of Carmel within the landscape of our souls.
By approaching Mary in childlike dependence and bringing her into our
interior homes we encounter her as the Eternal Woman in whom all of us as God’s
children are conceived, following in imitation of Our Lord Jesus who was first
Redeemer in the Womb. Regardless of our unique backgrounds,
temperaments, socioeconomic status, or our past or present-day circumstances, our
Celestial Mama communicates her love for all of humanity. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s outstretched arms suggests
that she is waiting for us to come to her as she beckons each of us forward as
her children to draw close to her love and that of Her Son. She gently draws us to a physical and spiritual
space where we can go to deeper degrees in receiving her feminine maternal
blessings, and offer ourselves as a gift back to her, whereby we can cooperate
and participate more intimately in the law of the gift with her and Our Triune
God.
If we take the first steps in entrusting ourselves to her,
she will do the rest. As a starting point, we can approach Our Lady of Mt.
Carmel as follows:
- Clasp the hand of Mary as your sister and mother. Allow her to guide your steps and show you the way.
- Crawl into the lap of Our Lady so that she can hold you there in her seat of Wisdom. She desires to share her maternal love with you and share the gifts of her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, with you along with those of our Eucharistic King.
- [She will] Cover you in her mantle of protection. Our Mama wishes to keep you safe during the tempests of life, from temptations and from wandering in the wilderness. Seek refuge and shelter under her cloak as the Mother of Mercy.
- [She
will] Cradle you in her arms where you experience
her support, her strength, her maternal care, just as she and St. Joseph
comforted Jesus and held Him close.
- [She will] Comfort you at her breasts. She desires to nourish you and exchange glances with you that form a bond of trust, empathy, openness and child-like dependence. Under her gaze, you will become more like her. By donating ourselves to Our Lady in childlike trust, she will then bring us into Her interior where the Holy Three reside in a constant spiration of love.
- [She will] Configure you to her
Immaculate Heart, her school of virtue where she teaches you to know, love and
serve the Lord and one another.
- [She
will] Carry and Conform you in her Immaculate Womb where you can be in the
company of Jesus, listening to His heartbeats and being further molded into
sons and daughters of the Father who radiate and reflect the light and love of
Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Mary loves all of her children. In Our Lady we encounter a woman who
perfectly personifies “a shelter in which other souls may unfold.” She is awaiting us with arms wide open to
encounter her as gift and to teach us more fully how to do the same for God and
for others. In Carmelite fruitfulness, such a tender rendezvous will shape our
hearts and souls to become living icons of this lovely woman who is “all
things to all people” when we surrender to her loving overtures to entrust
ourselves to her as the Woman for all, whom all generations call blessed.
In summary, the 7 steps of entrustment to Our Lady:
- Clasp the hand of Mary
- Crawl into the lap of Our Lady
- Cover you in her mantle of protection
- Cradle you in her arms
- Comfort you at her breasts
- Configure you
- Carry & Conform you in her Immaculate Womb
