Light Cloud of Heavenly Rain, pray for us

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NOVELLI, Pietro
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
1641

The Carmelite Order takes it name from Mount Carmel, a beautiful mountain of Palestine where hermits were accustomed to live before Jesus Christ came on earth. Eight hundred years before Christ, the Prophet Elias had lived on Mount Carmel and had gathered around him a group of followers who lived as hermits under his guidance. 

It is a tradition among Carmelites that Elias himself had a vision about her who was to be the Mother of the Savior, and that, side by side with their desires and prayers for the coming of the Savior, his followers looked forward in a special way to the coming on earth of His Blessed Mother. We read in the Book of Kings that for two years there had been no rain in Palestine. The prophet Elias then began to pray on Mount Carmel and to intercede for his people. Suddenly there appeared above the sea a little cloud, and shortly after an abundant rain fell on the parched land. It is believed that in this little cloud, heavy with rain, which appeared on the horizon, the holy prophet beheld the image of her who was to be the Mother of the Messiah, the image of the Blessed Virgin. From that time on, the prophet honored the Blessed Virgin, and he strongly urged his disciples to consecrate themselves in a special manner to her cult. It was then that Carmel was born. Later on these hermits became known to the people as the "Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel."

For more about the Carmelite Order, go here. 

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