Sr. Maria Grazia Israel, O.Carm.
(We encounter Sister Maria Grazia’s name for the first time in the pages of our magazine. This sister from the cloistered Carmelite community in Italian Vetralle, along with two sisters of Czech descent who already live in the community, is expected to relocate to our country shortly, where the sisters wish to establish a new convent. This will be the very first convent of Carmelite nuns in our country; previously, we have only had convents of Discalced Carmelites living according to the reform of St. Teresa of Jesus.)
During the novena to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in December 2001, I decided to familiarize myself better with the events in Lourdes—through reading and meditation on some biographies of Saint Bernadette Soubirous. I had more options, but I chose the book written by René Laurentin. I was sure that this famous Marian author and experienced scholar of the Lourdes apparition would inform me about the events without excessive piety but truthfully, faithfully according to the available documents and in line with the life of the little shepherdess from the Pyrenees.
I noticed how the spirituality of Our Lady of Lourdes is similar and close to Carmel. It was a discovery for me, and I immediately wanted to describe the connections that caught my eye. Surely, there may be other relationships that I overlooked, and I apologize to the readers for this. However, I am glad that I can offer these few notes from my search and prayer, which will spiritually transport the readers to Mount Carmel, to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and simultaneously to the grotto of Massabielle to Our Lady of Lourdes.
Theme and symbolic relationships
between Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Mount Carmel:
1. Date July 16
Our Lady last appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on July 16, 1858.
From Lourdes:
Bernadette was honored with the final apparition on July 16, the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Bernadette received her first Holy Communion on June 3 of that year; before the morning of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel began, she had three or four times been nourished by the bread of angels. That afternoon, as evening approached, she prayed in the parish church. She heard the sweet voice of Our Lady, which sounded in her heart and invited her to go to the grotto. Bernadette immediately got up and ran to ask her youngest aunt Lucile to accompany her to Massabielle.
As soon as the girl turned her gaze toward the grotto on the other side of the Gave, rays of ecstasy shone upon her figure, and in rapture, she exclaimed, "She is here! She greets us and smiles at us from beyond that fence!" In an instant, there was an admirable exchange of affections between Our Lady and Bernadette, of which I have already spoken, reminiscent of a stream of light between them both. It seemed as if the little excited girl, immersed in her bliss, was trying to detach herself from the earth and soar into the arms of the Mother of God. The sun was setting on the horizon, and shadows of night began to spread over the valley of Massabielle. Our Lady last fixed her deep gaze filled with tenderness on the little chosen one and vanished.
And it was all over! Bernadette would not see Our Lady again until the brightness of heaven.1
2. The spring
From Lourdes:
Bernadette approaches the Gave. There something stops her. She turns to the niche and goes in the opposite direction, this time upright. She walks up the slope to the end of the grotto, bends down. She looks with reluctance at the ground: there is only reddish mud, water-soaked mud. She looks back at the niche in confusion, as if to say, "Why are you sending me to look here? There is nothing here."
Then suddenly she kneels on the wet ground. She digs with her right hand and digs a small hole from which she scoops up a bit of muddy water. She brings it to her lips but refuses it with disgust and turns again with a questioning look. She begins to dig for the second time, then for the third time, and always refuses to drink. On the fourth attempt, it is no longer mud but murky water, which she scoops into her hand and, with effort, swallows. She scoops once more, but this time to wash her face. Finally, she collects a few lobed leaves from the wild plants growing there and eats them. She is done. She turns and leaves...
Bernadette explains her actions without hesitation and without excitement, in the simplicity of her dialect: “Aquero (that Apparition) told me to go drink and wash at the spring. Because I saw no spring, I went to the Gave. But it showed me with a sign of the hand that I should go below the grotto. I went there and found a bit of water like mud, there was so little that I could hardly scoop it into my hand. I discarded it three times, it was so dirty. The fourth time I could drink it.
Why did it ask you to do that?
It did not tell me.
Then what did it tell you?
Bernadette concentrates her weak memory and finds the words from that morning, one by one:
Go drink from the spring and wash.2
From Carmel:
Tradition identifies the "spring" on Carmel, mentioned in Albert's Rule, with Elijah's spring. Here are the ruins of the monastery from the time of the Crusades: this is the monastery built by St. Brocard. James of Vitry calls it “Elijah's spring.” The hermits chose this advantageous location to follow Elijah, a saint, prophet, and hermit.3
The name Carmel has sometimes been interpreted in the Carmelite tradition to mean: “mercy, bursting forth like a spring.” From the mountain flows a rich fresh spring, known as Elijah's spring. Mary, of whom the mountain Carmel is an image, poured out on mankind a stream of grace and salvation. This corresponds to the dream that Mordecai had about Queen Esther, who is a prefigure of Our Lady: “A little stream became a river. (...) That river is Esther, whom the king took as a wife and made queen” (Est 10:6).
But Carmel, Mary’s beloved “garden” (which is another traditional interpretation of the name Carmel), is a “closed garden” (Song 4:12) through obedience; it is “a well of living water” (Song 4:15) through its purest purity; it is “a sealed fountain” (Song 4:12) through renunciation of earthly things.
And the fountain of Carmel is Mary. From her innermost being flow streams of water (cf. John 7:38), for Jesus sat at this well (John 4:6 – according to the Vulgate). From this spring flows mercy for all. “Streams of waters are for the joy of God’s city” (Ps 46:5). Therefore, the prophet Isaiah (12:3) says: “With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” This Carmelite spring the prophet Amos could not find in his day and lamented with the words: “The pastures of the shepherds are desolate, and the top of Carmel is dry” (1:2 – according to the Vulgate). And Solomon says in Proverbs (5:16 – according to the Vulgate): “Let your springs overflow and divide your streams in the courtyards." Just as water from the spring on Mount Carmel flows down the slope and its moisture makes flowers bloom, it is right that the brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel “brought water from this spring to the slope of the mountain,” meaning that they proclaimed God’s mercy everywhere to the glory of God and Our Lady, just as she herself, it seems, commanded them through the prophet Isaiah: “Go meet the thirsty and bring him water” (Isa 21:14).
This is the third meaning of the word Carmel: “A spring that brings mercy.”4
And we cannot forget the poem of John of the Cross:5
I know of a fountain that pours forth water
even in the dark night.
(...)
I know that nothing could be more beautiful in the world,
for both earth and heaven there quenches thirst
even in the dark night.
3. Repentance
The spirituality of Lourdes particularly focuses on repentance and prayer; Carmelites have identified themselves since the beginning as those who live "in holy repentance".
From Lourdes:
Bernadette trembles. She has just knelt and kissed the ground at the request of the Apparition. (...) But the Apparition has disappeared. It spoke a new word today and repeated: “Repentance!”6
“You know that people think you are crazy when you do such things?”
“For sinners!” Bernadette succinctly replies. She repeats the words she heard in ecstasy.7
Sin here on earth is a very lamentable matter. In order to help, to comfort Aquero, Bernadette is ready for everything. Nothing else has value for her. For her, Aquero, her mysterious friend, and the message of that morning are important. Concern for sinners, which just yesterday seemed distant to her, revealed itself in the gaze full of sadness that impressed her for her whole life.
From Carmel:
Another way (in the 12th century, at the beginning of the Carmelites) to express “conversion” or “to do penance” was: to go on pilgrimage, to follow “the poor Christ the poor.” This way of life could be imposed as penance or accepted voluntarily by the faithful. Thus, the Christian conviction about the temporality of all earthly things is realized.
The hermits on Mount Carmel were Christians who lived in “holy repentance”, praying with the help of Scripture and often celebrating the Eucharist, and practiced self-denial. They lived the spirituality of pilgrims to holy places and sought the kingdom of God.
The Rule definitively established the life “in holy repentance,” associated with prayer and self-denial, focused on the Bible and the celebration of the Eucharist, the spirituality of pilgrims to holy places, spiritual warfare against the devil, manual labor for daily sustenance, desire for evangelical poverty, fraternal unity, and itinerant preaching as pillars of the building that Carmelites wish to erect to realize their own following of Christ. They traverse the path of every person towards the heavenly Jerusalem, and the peace that floods their hearts spreads among the brothers.8
4. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
On March 25, 1858, at the sixteenth Lourdes apparition, Our Lady revealed her name: "I am the Immaculate Conception"; a title so beloved and defended among Carmelites.
From Lourdes:
Bernadette heard a familiar and sweet voice in her heart. Ah! For the girl, this voice was not unknown; it was the faithful messenger announcing the visit of the Lady.
As soon as it dawned, she got up, dressed properly, and disregarding the asthma that echoed in her small chest, quickly set off for Massabielle. What a humiliation it was for her! The niche was already illuminated, and the Lady was waiting for her!...
The girl described it as follows: “When I knelt before the Lady, I took my rosary in my hands. While I was praying, the thought to ask her for her name intensified within me so much that I forgot everything else. I was afraid I would be in the way again by asking a question that remained unanswered; but something compelled me to speak. Finally, I could not hold back, the words slipped from my lips, and I asked the Lady to tell me who she is. The Lady, just as before, bowed, smiled, but did not respond. I do not know why, but I felt bolder and asked her again for the grace to reveal her name. She repeated her kind bow and smile, but remained silent. For the third time, with my hands clasped and aware that I was wholly unworthy of the grace I was asking for, I repeated my prayer.” At that moment, the witnessing girl was overcome with emotion. Then she continued: “The Lady stood above the rose bushes; at my third request, she grew serious and it seemed as if she wanted to humble herself... Then she clasped her hands on her chest..., looked up to heaven..., and then slowly opened her arms, bowed towards me and said: ‘I am the Immaculate Conception.’”9
From Carmel:
The facts explaining the attention devoted to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Carmelite Order:
- In 1342, Bishop of Armagh, Richard Fitz-Ralph, invited to celebrate the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (which was then the main feast of the Order) in Avignon in the presence of the Pope, highlighted in his sermon the respect of Carmelites for the Immaculate Conception. This discourse is historically very important, as many later authors and scholars refer to it.
- When the feast of July 16 became the main feast of the Order, the feast of the Immaculate Virgin continued to be celebrated in the liturgy. The General Chapter in 1609 also declared that all religious of the Order should celebrate this feast in a grand and solemn manner.
From the Middle Ages until the 18th century, the devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its defense was very widespread in the Order. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Carmelites pledged to defend this Marian title and spread it through lectures and disputations.
Defense of the Immaculate
Manuel de Sá recalls a custom in the Portuguese province that clarifies very well the intent of this province to uphold the privilege of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: “On the night before this day (the feast of Our Lady), the religious were gathered in the choir of the presbytery and solemnly renewed their vows. Before the exposed Most Holy Sacrament, the oldest religious began to pronounce the words of the vows, then he was followed by other religious according to age. This ceremony concluded with the vow that they would defend the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Lady.” This custom was then established for the whole province in 1617.
During the provincial chapter in Valencia in 1624, the Carmelites of the Aragonese province took the following oath:
“I, brother... promise, swear, and commit myself, that I will always: in public schools, orally and in writing, and in every public sermon and in private conversations defend, that the Blessed Virgin Mary, patroness of our holy order, was, by her Immaculate Conception, always free, taken and preserved by divine power from every stain of original sin, and I fully accept everything that sacred church establishes about this.”10
continuation
