Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Feast Day

The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated on 16^th July

Dear Parishioners

Lockdown greetings. The current COVID situation means we cannot celebrate our parish feast day this Sunday. The actual feast day is 16^th July but, in the parish, we normally mark it on the Sunday closest to the date. However, you might like to join the livestream of the Mothers’ Mass at 10:30am from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Middle Park in Melbourne. This is an annual celebration and will be an excellent Mass with music etc. The livestream location details are as follows but when we get the actual link, we will publish it on the parish website so you can just click on the link and join:

The Carmelites also publish an excellent prayer service for homes for the feast day which you can find on our parish website. We will also make copies available outside the church and priory if you would like to pick one up.

Hopefully life will free up again. When it does, we will have a combined celebration of 75 years of the parish along with the feast day at the Sunday Masses on a weekend to be determined. In the meantime, on behalf of the Carmelite community at Wentworthville I wish you every peace and joy for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Please stay safe and well as we continue to live with the reality of the coronavirus.

Denis Andrew OCarm

Historical background to the Feast day

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelites. The first Carmelites were hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12^th and early 13^th century. In the midst of their little cells or hermitages they built a chapel which they dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Eventually many of the Carmelite hermits left the Holy Land and spread throughout Europe. As well as seeing Mary as “The Lady of the Place” their devotion to Mary broadened.  The Carmelites came to see Mary in various roles such as a Woman of Prayer, Mary the Contemplative, Mary: Queen and Beauty of Carmel, Mary: Mother and Sister. It was in the late 14^th century in England that the actual feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel first came to be celebrated on 16 July.