Lately though, I have discovered how truly empty life is without attending mass. Problems are magnified, anxiety and depression easily sets in. Life is overwhelming at times and seems hopeless. What is the point of it all?

This pandemic has caused me to not just go through the motions and routines of our faith, but to use this time to examine our faith more deeply. We’ve been cut off from practicing our religion, except for maybe mass on TV. Without all of the trappings of our religion, what’s left?

What I’m discovering is a renewed need for prayer. I can’t go at it alone, I’m not strong enough to handle my life all by myself. My feeble attempts at prayer were quickly answered. It’s like God was sitting beside me waiting to see what I would do. I chose to reach out for Him, my Father, who loves me and wants to be there with me during all of my struggles, and isolation at home. Everything else is temporary and fleeting, and if the world falls apart – He won’t. That’s one solid thing we can be sure of.

I just encourage everyone to reach out for God in a genuine, unfettered way during these trying times. We may be caught up in the turbulent river of life, but God is our Rock to cling to. He will never change.

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Mt Carmel is the biblical site where prophet Elijah battled the 450 priests of Baal in a public spiritual contest which led to their defeat and death. (1 Kings 18:19-40). It was also here where Elijah sent his servant seven times to the mountaintop to look for rain after years of drought which ended when he said, “Behold a little cloud arose out of the sea like a man’s foot.” (1 Kings 18:44).

Elijah saw the cloud as a symbol of the Virgin mentioned in the prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14). The hermits took his example and made it their spiritual mission to pray for the advent of the much awaited Virgin who would become the mother of the Messiah.

In the 13th century, during the Crusades, St. Simon Stock joined a group of hermits on Mount Carmel during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1247, he was elected the 6th superior-general of the Carmelites at the first chapter held in Aylesford, England. However, the order had difficulty gaining general acceptance and suffered much persecution which prompted the monks to have recourse to the Blessed Virgin in the year 1251.

On Sunday July 16th, 1251, as Simon Stock knelt in prayer, Our Lady appeared to him, holding the Child Jesus in one arm and the Brown Scapular in the other. She said to him: “Hoc erit tibi et cunctis Carmelitis privilegium, in hoc habitu moriens salvabitur” (This shall be the privilege for you and for all the Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall be saved). On January 13, 1252, the order received a letter of protection from Pope Innocent IV, defending them from harassment. St. Simon Stock lived a holy life for 100 years and died in the Carmelite monastery at Bordeaux, France on May 16, 1265.

Our Mother Mary chose to make her last apparition at Lourdes on July 16th 1858, the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel intercede for your weary children.