And Elias coming to all the people,
said: How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God,
follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not
answer him a word. And Elias said again to the people: I only remain
a prophet of the Lord: but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and
fifty men. Let two bullocks be given us, and let them choose one
bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it upon the
wood, but put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and
lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it. Call ye on the names
of your gods, and I will call on the name of my Lord: and the God
that shall answer by fire, let him be God. And all the people
answering said: A very good proposal.
Then Elias said to the prophets of
Baal: Choose you one bullock and dress it first, because you are
many: and call on the names of your gods, but put no fire under. And
they took the bullock which he gave them, and dressed it: and they
called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying: O
Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered: and
they leaped over the altar that they had hade. And when it was now
noon, Elias jested at them, saying: Cry with a louder voice: for he
is a God, and perhaps he is talking, or is in an inn, or on a
journey, or perhaps he is asleep, and must be awaked. So they cried
with a loud voice, and cut themselves after their manner with knives
and lancets, till they were all covered with blood.
And after midday was past, and
while they were prophesying, the time was come of offering
sacrifice, and there was no voice heard, nor did any one answer, nor
regard them as they prayed: Elias said to all the people: Come ye
unto me. And the people coming near unto him, he repaired the altar
of the Lord, that was broken down ... And when it was now time to
offer the holocaust, Elias the prophet came near and said: O Lord
God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, show this day that thou art
the God of Israel, and I thy servant, and that according to thy
commandment I have done all these things. Hear me, O Lord, hear me:
that this people may learn, that thou art the Lord God, and that
thou has turned their heart again. Then the fire of the Lord fell,
and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the dust, and licked
up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw
this, they fell on their faces, and they said: the Lord he is God,
the Lord he is God. And Elias said to them: Take the prophets of
Baal, and let not one of them escape. And when they had taken them,
Elias brought them down to the torrent Cison, and killed them there.
Tradition teaches that when our
Lord began His public ministry, the "Carmelites," i.e., the
descendants of the prophets Elias and his disciples, accepted the
Gospel at once and embraced the Christian faith. The Roman Breviary,
in the Office of July 16th , feast of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel, says that they were the first who carried veneration for the
Blessed Virgin to the extent of erecting a chapel in her honor,
where they joined in singing her praises. We may, therefore, trace
the origin of the title of our Lady of Mount Carmel, as will as the
famous Order of the Carmelites, back to this remote period of
Christian antiquity.
Many of the holy Carmelites
settled in England about the middle of the 13th century.
And it was in England, and the Monastery of Cambridge, that the
memorable event took place when gave rise to the devotion of the
holy scapular of Mount Carmel. It was on Sunday, July 16th,
1251, while Saint Simon Stock, superior general of the Order of
Carmelites was imploring with extraordinary fervor the protection of
the most Holy Virgin against the violent persecution being waged
against his Order, that our Blessed Mother appeared to him, holding
in her hand the scapular, and addressed to him this gracious words:
"Receive, my dear son, this scapular of your Order, in token of the
privilege which I have obtained for you and for the children of
Carmel; he who at his death shall be found clothed in this habit
shall be preserved from the eternal flames; it is a sign of
salvation, a safeguard in time of danger, and a pledge of special
protection."
The learned and illustrious
Pontiff, Benedict XIV, in his Treatise on the Feasts of the
Blessed Virgin (II, Book, c.vi.) declares that he fully believes
in the vision of Saint Simon, as well as in the revelation by which,
half a century later, the Holy Virgin promised Pope John XXII "that
she would rescue from Purgatory as quickly as possible, and
especially on the first Saturday after their decease, the members of
the Confraternity of the Scapular."
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According to the words of our
Lady, there are four main advantages to be derived from the holy
scapular: |
|
1. |
It is a
safeguard and pledge of special protection in dangers of soul
and body (which has been proved my many miracles - you may
read some of these under
Miracle Stories); |
|
2. |
It is a
sign of salvation, which means that a person wearing this
scapular at the moment of death would be saved and would not
go to hell. Thus for the just man on his death bed, our Lady
would obtain the grace of final perseverance; for a sinner,
she would obtain the grace of conversion and the restoration
of the state of grace, either by providing a priest to hear
his confession, or by obtaining the grace to make an act of
perfect contrition;
|
|
3. |
We can be
confident of a quick release from Purgatory; and |
|
4. |
We
acquire the right to a participation in all the good works,
penances and merits of the members of the Carmelite Order. |
Originally, the brown scapular
was given only to the members of the Carmelite Order. but now anyone
may benefit from it by being formally enrolled in it by a priest.
The scapular as given by our Lady originally was a full-length wool
garment that extended over the shoulders on both the front and the
back of the person, reaching almost to his feet (just like the
scapular which makes up the habit worn by religious); but now it is
very small, although it is still wool, and still must be worn over
the shoulders on the front and the back.
To claim the privilege of being
quickly released from Purgatory, according to the Bulla Sabbatina,
(The First Saturday), it is requisite that we should practice the
virtue of chastity according to our state in life, and recite every
the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (if not bound to the
Divine Office), which may be replaced by observing abstinence on all
Wednesdays and Saturdays, or by another pious work commuted by a
duly authorized priest, such as (and most commonly) by the daily
recitation of the holy Rosary.
Let us, therefore, be faithful to
the wearing of our scapular, both so that we may secure the promises
of our Lady’s protection, and also to make a clear profession of our
love, and devotion to our dear Mother in heaven. Let us also pray to
our Lord that He will soon send His holy prophet Elias to fight
against the Antichrist and to help bring about the final victory of
holy Mother the Church and the conversion of the Jewish people.
According to 4 Kings 2: 11-12, the holy prophet Elias was taken up
into heaven in a fiery chariot as he was walking with his successor,
the prophet Eliseus: "And as they went on, walking and talking
together, behold a fiery chariot, a fiery horses parted them both
asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Eliseus
saw him, and cried: My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and
the driver thereof. And he saw him no more."
In Malachias 4: 5 we read: "Behold
I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their
fathers: lest I come, and strike the earth with anathema." Our Lord
tells us that "Elias indeed shall come and restore all things. But I
say to you, that Elias is already come, and they knew him not, but
have done unto him whatsoever they had a mind. So also the Son of
man shall suffer from them. Then the disciples understood that he
had spoken to them of John the Baptist." (Matthew 17: 11-12)
