Feast of St. Elijah - Carmelite Feast day

Greetings in Jesus and Mary....
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Today is the feast day of St. Elijah...a feast in the Carmelite calendar. We consider St. Elijah the Father of the Carmelite Order. He stood in the Old Testament against the false god Baal. May we seek his intercession today as we battle against Baal in our own day. Below is a link to the new video posted on The Remnant. We seem to be up against Baal even in the Catholic Church. May we seek Our Lady's help in combatting the evils within.

​The following Carmelite history is taken from the website...carmelites.org.au....A little homily on it is linked below from Sensus Fidelium. Have a blessed feast day!

The Order of Carmelites has its origins on Mount Carmel, in Palestine, where, as we read in the first Book of Kings, the great prophet Elijah defended the true faith in the God of Israel, when he won the challenge against the priests of Baal. It was also on Mount Carmel that the same prophet, praying in solitude, saw the small cloud which brought life-giving rain after the long drought. From time immemorial, this mountain has been considered the lush garden of Palestine and symbol of fertility and beauty. Indeed, "Karmel" means "garden".

In the 12th century (perhaps after the third crusade, 1189-1191), some pilgrims who had come from Europe, came together near the "spring of Elijah", in one of the narrow valleys of Mount Carmel, to live out their Christianity as hermits after the example of the prophet Elijah in the very land of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then and in later times, the Carmelites did not acknowledge anyone in particular as their founder, but remained faithful followers of Elijah who was associated with Mount Carmel through biblical events and through Greek and Latin patristic tradition which saw in the prophet one of the founders of the monastic life. In the middle of the cells they built a chapel which they dedicated to Mary, Mother of Jesus, thus developing a sense of belonging to Our Lady as Patroness, and they became known by her name as "Brothers of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel". Thus Carmel is deeply associated with Elijah and Mary. From Elijah the Carmelites inherited a burning passion for the living and true God and the desire to make His Word intimately their own in order to witness to Its presence in the world; with Mary, the Mother of God, they are committed to live "in the footsteps of Jesus Christ" with the same intimate and deep feelings which were Mary's.

In order to have some juridical stability, this group of lay hermits turned to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert Avogadro (1150-1214), who was then living at St John of Acre near Mount Carmel. Between 1206-1214, Albert wrote for them a formula of life. Successive approvals of this formula of life by various Popes helped the process of transforming the group into a Religious Order, a fact which took place at the time of the definitive approval of the text as a Rule by Innocent IV in 1247. Thus the Carmelite Order took its place alongside the Mendicant Orders.

However, about 1235, the Carmelites were forced to abandon their place of origin due to the incursions and persecutions of the Saracens who were reconquering the Holy Land from the crusaders. Most of them went back to their country of origin in Europe.

Soon they increased and flourished in the sciences and in holiness. Later some women  in 1452 became cloistered nuns living in their own communities near the friar monasteries.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us!
Prophet Elijah, pray that we may return to the One True God!

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The need to Fight Baal in the Catholic Church

Prophet Elijah