Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 13.
Time After Pentecost.
Book IV.
Towering over the waves on the shore of the Holy Land, Mount Carmel, together with the short range of the same name, forms a connecting link to two other chains, abounding with glorious memories, namely: The mountains of Galilee, on the North, and those of Judea, on the South.
“In the day of My love, I brought thee out of Egypt into the land of Carmel”, [Jeremiah ii. 2, 7.] said the Lord to the daughter of Sion, taking the name of Carmel to represent all the Blessings of the Promised Land; and when the crimes of the Chosen People were about to bring Judea to ruin, the Prophet cried out: “I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: And all its Cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of His indignation”.
But from the midst of the Gentile World a new Sion arose, more loved than the first; eight Centuries beforehand, Isaias recognised her by the glory of Libanus, and the beauty of Carmel and Saron which were given her.
In the Sacred Canticle, also, the attendants of the Bride sing to the Spouse concerning His well-beloved, that her head is like Carmel, and her hair like the precious threads of Royal Purple carefully woven and dyed.
There was, in fact, around Cape Carmel, an abundant fishery of the little Shell-Fish which furnished the Regal Colour.
Not far from there, smoothing away the slopes of the noble mountain, flowed the torrent of Cison, that dragged the carcasses of the Chanaanites, when Debbora won her famous victory.
Here lies the Plain where the Madianites were overthrown, and Sisara felt the power of her that was called the Mother in Israel.
Here Gedeon, too, marched against Madian in the name of the Woman “terrible as an army set in array”, whose sign he had received in the dew-covered fleece.
Indeed, this glorious Plain of Esdrelon, which stretches away from the foot of Carmel, seems to be surrounded with prophetic indications of her who was destined from the beginning to crush the Serpent’s head: Not far from Esdrelon, a few defiles lead to Bethulia, the City of Judith, type of Mary, who was the true “joy of Israel and the honour of her people”; while nestling among the Northern hills lies Nazareth, the White City, the Flower of Galilee.
When Eternal Wisdom was playing in the World, forming the hills and establishing the mountains, she destined Carmel to be the special inheritance of Eve’s victorious daughter.
And when the last thousand years of expectation were opening, and the desire of all Nations was developing into the spirit of Prophecy, the father of Prophets ascended the privileged Mount, thence to scan the horizon.
The triumphs of David and the glories of Solomon were at an end: The Sceptre of Juda, broken by the schism of the Ten Tribes, threatened to fall from his hand; the worship of Baal prevailed in Israel.
A long-continued drought, figure of the aridity of men’s Souls, had parched up every spring, and men and beasts were dying beside the empty cisterns, when Elias the Thesbite gathered the people, representing the whole human race, on Mount Carmel, and slew the lying Prophets of Baal.
Then, as the Scripture relates, prostrating with his face to the earth, he said to his servant: “Go up, look towards the Sea”. And he went up, and looked and said: “There is nothing”. And again he said to him: “Return seven times”. And, at the seventh time: Behold, a little cloud arose out of the Sea like a man’s foot.
Blessed cloud !!! Unlike the bitter waves from which it sprang, it was all sweetness. Docile to the least breath of Heaven, it rose light and humble, above the immense heavy ocean; and screening the Sun, it tempered the heat that was scorching the Earth and restored to the stricken World Life and Grace and Fruitfulness.
The promised Messias, the Son of Man, set His impress upon it, showing to the wicked serpent the form of the heel that was to crush him.
The remainder of this Article can be read in full at
“The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 13.
Time After Pentecost.
Book IV.
