Thread: The Virgin Mary And A Love Story

The Virgin Mary and a Love Story


Not more than just a few years ago, an Angel came to me and asked “Why is it that the only religious garb that Our Lady will wear is the Habit of a Carmelite Nun?” He was referring to Our Lady of Mount Carmel who has made repeated Apparitions wearing that costume. Ordinarily Our Lady appears in formal, stylish and fashionable clothes suitable for the location and for the time of day or night that She appears. She never dresses in the plain clothes of a Nun, but for those exceptional occasions when She appears in the Habit of the Carmelite Order. And I was to figure out why.

First I did some research. I had been brought into the Catholic Church by the Carmelite Order and so I already knew something about the Carmelites. Pursuing a Loophole in Catholic Procedures, I actually became enrolled in the Carmelite Suborder of the Brown Scapular before I was even officially a Catholic. You see, the Brown Scapular was established during the period when the Carmelite Order was being accepted into the Catholic Church. The Crusaders had been surprised to find an existing Brotherhood of those Devoted to Our Lady already in the Holy Land when they had arrived. They Worshipped at a Chapel dedicated to Our Lady that was said to have once been Her room when She had sought refuge at Mount Carmel during the Persecutions that Paul had been conducting against the Messianic Church (at the time when he had murdered Stephen who had risen up to challenge Peter after Peter began murdering members of his congregation while extorting money from them).

Some of the Crusaders were so impressed by this Marian Devotion, that they joined the Order and became Carmelites. When they returned to Europe they ran into the problem of their local Bishops questioning their affiliation in what was not an approved Catholic Brotherhood. So petitions were forwarded to the Pope, but the paperwork dragged on slowly. The Leader of the Carmelite’s Petition Movement was incarcerated so that he could not advance the Order before everyone was certain it would be approved. Apparently being imprisoned was very demoralizing for him and so Our Lady appeared to Him, for the first time in Her Carmelite Garb, and for Consolation presented him with The Brown Scapular saying “Those who die wearing these such Brown Scapulars will not know Hell Fire, and on the First Saturday of each month I will personally fetch those of the Brown Scapular out of ordeals of Purgatory”. Then, a thousand miles away, She appeared simultaneously to the Pope and told him “If you will not be the Pope to give approval to the Carmelite Order, then it can soon be easily arranged by Heaven to place another Pope who shall”. Thus the Order was accepted by the Catholic Church.

Also my researches upturned an interesting little Spiritual Romance Story. It seems that there had been a faction of the Temple Priesthood that knew of the Blessedness of the Virgin Mary and that She would bear The Messiah. These Priests had been in communication with a branch of the Essenes founded by the Prophet Elijah, this same Brotherhood of Monks at Mount Carmel spoken of above, who had tracked the lineage leading to Mary for 7 Generations. She was the answer to several hundred years of messianic expectations. The Priests therefore arranged to find an acceptable husband for Her (notice that an important faction of Jewish Religious Leaders were indeed well informed of the Coming of their Messiah, and would know Him at his Birth, and would see Him again at the Temple when He was 12, and so, during His Ministry some 20 years later would have had no excuse but to know that this young Man was indeed the Messiah. So it would be that their Rejection of Christ would be conscious and deliberate. “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do”, would not apply to any Member of the Temple Staff.).

In selecting a husband for little Mary they would rely upon the miraculous. All of the eligible bachelors of the House of David were assembled and were asked to turn in their walking sticks. That one who would be destined to marry the Blessed Virgin – his walking stick would have to bloom in leaf and flower. None did. The Priest in charge of ceremony was puzzled and inquired if every bachelor on the list had indeed showed up. Well, an older bachelor, Joseph David, who did not wish to be married anyway thought he could exempt himself, and so did not bother to attend. Well, he was immediately summoned and was compelled to come quickly. No sooner then when he entered the room did his beat up old walking stick bloom with these huge White Lilies, which then as now symbolize Virginity. We had a winner! It was said that Our Lady, then a 14 year old girl, asked for one of those Lilies, and saved it as a souvenir that She kept close by Herself for the remainder Her life.

Well, most of the bachelors had been there because they were asked to be, and few had entertained any great expectations for themselves, suspecting their own unworthiness. But one young man had thought that he truly had it all – noble breeding, wealth, capacity, virtue – and was heartbroken when Mary went to the relatively old man who didn’t seem to want Her anyway. This young man was so disconsolate that he ended up by selling off his estates and becoming a Member of that Order of Essenes at Mount Carmel, where he would be content to grow old.

Well, he proved to have been correct about himself – he did quite ‘have it all’ – particularly in regards to character and loyalty. He demonstrated himself to be a skilled and dedicated worker and then an inspiring leader, and after 30 some years found himself the Superior of that Order. Well, by this time Christ had been born, grown up, had His Ministry and had been Murdered. Then, during the first years of the New Messianic Cult, Paul began to conduct a Persecution in which Stephen was murdered, but also many others whom Luke somehow thought not important enough to write into History. Our Lady, now approaching 50, was in danger. So our ‘young man’, now an old man at Mount Carmel, discerns what his role must be and sends a covert delegation to quickly rescue Her from the jeopardy of being a victim to one of Paul’s murder squads. After a lifetime with a broken heart he was finally able to become the Protector to that Girl he had fallen so much in love with decades before. It is said that She recognized him instantly and asked him whether it did not seem just like ‘yesterday’ that they had met for the first time. And so it was that the Old Man, once a Young Man, entirely forgot all the years of disconsolation, loneliness, and heartbreak, and was completely enraptured in happiness while having the realization that he had been chosen for what had turned out to be such an important role in chivalrously protecting This Blessed Virgin that he had always loved. A sweet story, huh?

Which brings us back to the question the Angel asked me, why Our Lady chooses to dress as a Carmelite. I thought the answer was that She was showing Her appreciation for the Protection that Order had given Her during Her lifetime, as well as in appreciation for the Care that Order had taken of Her Line for the Seven Generations since the time of the Prophet Elijah. That seemed like a reasonable enough answer. But I felt no validation from my Angels, and so I kept it on my mind and continued to maul it over. And then one day after about a month had gone by the answer came so instantly to me that I am not at all certain whether I thought of it, or that my Angel gave up and gave me the answer as a direct whisper into my head – that Our Lady wears the Habit of the Carmelites because the Carmelites are the Only Jewish Order in the Catholic Church. It is expressive of Her first Loyalties. Yes, She has sponsored the Catholic Church for these two thousand years now, but She remembers that She is a Jewish Girl.

Do you think that my Angels were prompting me to suppose that the Catholic Church should recognize a duty to bring about some rapprochement with the Messianic Jewish Movement? But of course all traces of Paul’s “Gentile Church” would have to be eradicated.