ARCHBISHOP FOLEY, IN U.S., CELEBRATES OUR LADY OF MT. CARMEL

VATICAN CITY, JUL 17, 2003 (VIS) - Yesterday, the liturgical memory of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Archbishop John Foley concelebrated Mass at the shrine of the same name in Brooklyn, New York. The president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications noted that "the origins of this celebration go at least to the establishment of the Carmelite Order on Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land in the 12th century."

His homily focussed on prayer and on Mary, the Mother of God to whom we pray, asking her intercession "to reach Christ in this life through faith and at the end of our lives in the Beatific Vision, when we shall see Him as He is." We ask Mary to protect us from physical and spiritual harm, and from "the danger of temptation and the evil of sin." He suggested we petition Mary to help us "imitate her - in her openness to the will of God in all things; in her example of prayer; in her kindness and thoughtfulness to Elizabeth, her cousin; in her complete dedication to Jesus, her Son; in her presence with her Son in His moments of greatest suffering, when almost all others had abandoned him."

Archbishop Foley stressed that what we should truly be seeking in prayer is to do God's will. "Nothing else - pleasure, wealth, power or fame - is worth seeking or having if it does not help us to do God's will, if it does not help us on our road to heaven."

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