Pope Praised Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and Prays for Peace

INTROD, Italy, JULY 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).-

Benedict XVI dedicated today's first public meeting during his vacation in the Italian Alps to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, highlighting Mary on this feast day as model and intercessor.Over 5,000 faithful gathered in the field in front of the chalet in Introd in the Aosta Valley -- where the Holy Father is spending a holiday in prayer, study and outings -- for the usual Marian meeting with the Pope.Welcomed by the words of the local bishop -- often interrupted by the applause of those present and also by the Pope's smile and applause -- Benedict XVI shared moments of company and prayer, exchanging reciprocal applause and gestures of greeting and gratitude.

The Holy Father assured every one of his prayers, especially the sick and suffering, blessing and shaking hands with the latter.Mount CarmelThe Pontiff began his reflection this Sunday by focusing on Carmel: "high promontory that rises on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea," whose folds have "numerous natural grottoes, favorites of hermits."Of these men of God, "the most famous" was "the great prophet Elias," courageous defender of "the purity of the faith in the one true God from contamination by idolatrous cults," he said.Inspired in the figure of this prophet, "the contemplative order of the Carmelites arose, a religious family that counts among its members great saints such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of the Child Jesus and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (in the world, Edith Stein)."And the Carmelites "have spread in the Christian people devotion to the Most Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, pointing to her as a model of prayer, contemplation and dedication to God.""Mary, in fact, before and in an unsurpassable way, believed and felt that Jesus, the incarnate Word is the culmination, the summit of man's encounter with God. Fully accepting the Word, 'she happily reached the holy mountain' -- says the liturgy -- and lives forever, in soul and body, with the Lord," he explained.

The Holy Father then commended to the Queen of Mount Carmel all contemplative communities worldwide, especially the Carmelite Order, and prayed for Mary's help for each Christian to "meet God in the silence of prayer."The Pope remembered especially the convent of Quart, not far from where he is spending his vacation, because on Friday afternoon, he had the opportunity to visit that convent, home to ten nuns in the Aosta Valley, where he was received by the prioress, Mother Mary of the Angels; the chaplain, Father Giovanni Battista Minuzzo; and the parish priest of Quart, Father Sergio Rosset, among others, as the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported.Pope John Paul II also took advantage of his days of rest in the Aosta Valley to visit convents. During a pastoral visit to the diocese of Aosta in 1986, he blessed the corner stone of the Carmelite convent Mater Misericordiae of Villair de Quart.The visit to the convent in Quart on Friday was a surprise, reported Salvatore Mazza, special envoy to Introd of the Italian newspaper Avvenire.

Benedict XVI commended to the prayers of the Carmelites the suffering in the Middle East, in Lebanon and in all parts of the world."The Holy Father visited with the nuns for some 50 minutes. "Thank you for the work of charity you do, because you not only alleviate material hunger but also the hunger for God, which is a great spiritual poverty," he told them, as quoted in Avvenire on Saturday."The absence of God is also poverty. We also witness the thirst for God that exists in Europe, together with the great desire for God that we saw last year in Cologne with those one million young people."Benedict XVI recalled his recent trip to Valencia, Spain, as "something great … a most beautiful experience with over a million families from different parts of Spain and from many cities around the world."

Today, on the Pope's return to his residence, he met with journalists and stressed the need to "pray and hope" so that "all will put an end to violence."

Our Lady Queen of Peace....Pray for Us!