Fr Ben Garren
Dear Siblings in Christ,
Hermits had found little places to live and pray on the mountain before the Hebrew people came to the area after being freed from enslavement in Egypt. This tradition continued century after century and it was here that the prophet Elijah found his cave to live within.
It was from this cave he came forth to challenge the priests of Baal and called down fire to set alight the fires doused with water so that sacrifices could be made to God, and the drought that plagued the land was brought to an end. This was a mark of holiness which made the mountain even more desirable to hermits as generations passed.
There were hermits there in the time of Jesus, throughout the early church, going about their lives of prayer as nations vied for power all around them. It was there that a group of Christian Hermits gathered and began to build a chapel above what they hoped was the very cave in which Elijah had lived.
This church was dedicated to the Mother of God, and a connection was made to the caves in which Elijah and the other hermits lived and being carried by the Mother of God so that we may be prepared for prayer and Christian living. This is how devotion of Our Lady of Mount Carmel began amidst the first Carmelites.
On this day it is good to ask where our space of hermitage, a quiet space where we can pray, is in our lives. Where can we be carried by Blessed Mary as Jesus was so that we may be better prepared to bring the Light of God into the world as Elijah did so long ago?
Pax,
—Ben