Our Lady “The Peak Of Man’s Encounter With God”

Sunday, 16 July 2006

Benedict XVI dedicated his first public meeting during his vacation at Les Combes in the Valle de Aosta, to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, highlighting Mary on this feast day as model and intercessor.

“Through a happy coincidence, this Sunday falls on 16 July, the day when the liturgy commemorates Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The slopes of Carmel, a high ridge that runs down the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea at the altitude of Galilee, are dotted with numerous natural caves, beloved by hermits.

The most famous of these men of God was the great Prophet Elijah, who in the ninth century before Christ strenuously defended the purity of faith in the one true God from contamination by idolatrous cults. Inspired by the figure of Elijah, the contemplative order of Carmelites arose. It is a religious family that counts among its members great saints such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (in the world: Edith Stein).

The Carmelites have spread among the Christian people devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, holding her up as a model of prayer, contemplation and dedication to God. Indeed, Mary was the first, in a way which can never be equalled, to believe and experience that Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is the summit, the peak of man’s encounter with God. By fully accepting the Word, she “was blessedly brought to the holy Mountain” (cf. Opening Prayer of the Memorial), and lives for ever with the Lord in body and soul.

Today, I would like to entrust to the Queen of Mount Carmel all contemplative life communities scattered throughout the world, especially those of the Carmelite Order, among which I recall the Monastery of Quart, not far from here, that I have had the opportunity to visit in these days. May Mary help every Christian to find God in the silence of prayer.”

After the Angelus:

“Today, as I said, is dedicated to Our Lady of Carmel, a Mountain in the Holy Land only a few kilometres from Lebanon that dominates the Israeli city of Haifa, which has also recently been hit. Let us pray to Mary, Queen of Peace, to implore from God the fundamental gift of harmony, redirecting political leaders to the path of reason and opening up new possibilities for dialogue and understanding. With this in view, I invite the local Churches to raise special prayers for peace in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East.”