Carmel Cloud

 from the Avila Institute newsletter:

Do you know that devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is tied to the story in 1 Kings when the prophet Elijiah implored God to send rain? Elijiah told his servant to look toward the sea and watch for a sign that his prayer had been heard. The servant came back, saying, “There is nothing.” Elijah sent him back seven times, and on the seventh time, the servant returned saying, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And it began to rain. 

 

The small cloud is seen by many Christian saints and mystics—especially in the Carmelite tradition—as a symbol of Mary, who brings the hope of salvation just as the cloud brought rain to the dry land. 

 

In preparation for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, I invite you to pray with the first stanza of the poem, “The Cloud of Carmel” by Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit, OCD) and meditate on how Our Lady encloses us within herself like a cloud, hiding us in her tender motherhood: 

 

The Cloud of Carmel

 

Symbol of star or lily of the snows,

Rainbow or root or vine or fruit-filled tree:

These image the Immaculate to me

Less than a little cloud, a little light cloud rising

From Orient waters cleft by prophecy.

And as the Virgin in a most surprising 

Maternity bore God and our doomed race,

I who bear God in mysteries of grace

Beseech her: Cloud, encompass God and me.