Since I was raised Catholic I had heard of the Order of Carmelite Sisters but I really had no idea of their history. In doing some research I came across a website:
which gave the following history of the order:
"The first hermits
lived on Mount Carmel in Israel in the time of Elijah the Prophet,
hundreds of years before Christ. Later, many Crusaders went to the Holy
Land to free such holy places as Bethlehem, Nazareth and many other
sites associated with the Life of The Lord Jesus, from the Moslems.
After they achieved their task of freeing the Holy Land, many of them
stayed on Mount Carmel; a mountain range which juts out into the
Mediterranean Sea near the present city of Haifa, along the southern
border of present-day Lebanon.
We
can read about the Prophet Elijah in the First and Second Books of
Kings. There were also Jews and Moslem Hermits on Mount Carmel dedicated
to the life of Elijah the Prophet. This all took place between 1190 and
1206. The first written document of the Carmelites, our RULE, dates to
1206. The Christian Hermits from Mount Carmel went to the Patriarch of
Jerusalem, St. Albert, (not of Trapani) and asked for a Rule of Life.
That was the official beginning of the Carmelites. In 1245, the Moslems
recaptured much of the Holy Land. They massacred most of the Carmelites.
Those who escaped returned to their home countries of Italy, France,
England and Germany. It is from these 4 countries in Europe that the
Order spread throughout the world. Today, there are 5200 Carmelites of
all Branches of the Order, male and female, throughout the world."
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was founded to encourage and perpetuate devotion to Mary and her scapular under the special title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The Carmelites are celebrating 125 years of
service in the New York area.
La Bruna
is the oldest representation of
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. This is a reproduction of the
13th Century painting of the Tuscan school.
The stained glass windows were interesting at the shrine. Instead of depicting Christ's life, they were all windows describing the history of the Carmelites.
The Sanctuary
The image of Our Lady with the infant child of Jesus looking over the assembly is distinctive of the national shrine.
The Shrine is home to many relics of Carmelite Saints, other Saints and even of the True Cross. They are housed in a beautiful medieval style setting.
This stained glass window is over the entrance to the shrine.
St. Theresa of
Avila and other Carmelite Saints figure prominently in the history
of devotion to the Child Jesus under the title "Infant Jesus of Prague."
At the beautiful shrine of St. Patrick,
visitors are welcome and special intentions and petitions are
received. Irish Relics are venerated here.
Those devoted to St. Therese may visit her shrine and offer
prayer before her relics. St. Therese was a Carmelite nun.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Saint Therese and Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa McCrory -
Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters
The Meditation Garden is a place to sit in quiet
and reflect upon God and nature.
When we left the shrine it was starting to rain. It was still early in the day so we headed over to Kingston and took in the movie "Third Person." It was a movie about couples with issues in their relationships and was really quite depressing. We hadn't been to a movie for awhile so I was really hoping to be more entertained than having to endure all the melodrama. We'll have to try another movie one of these days.
We arrived home late and Rhinebeck had really had a storm. The campground had lots of branches down and the ground was just soaked. I guess the electricity was off for awhile too. We made the right decision when we left the area!
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