Celebrations
- Our Lady of Damietta (Egypt): the church was made from a mosque that had been captured in 1219. However, in 1221 the city was retaken by the Muslims. In 1249, King Saint Louis IX returned and re-captured the church, which they held until 1259. When the Sultan heard that Louis IX intended to return and capture the church yet again, he ordered it razed to the ground.[1]
Meditation:
- Again, thinking of the scapular, we can consider the words of Pope Saint John Paul II on the 750th anniversary of the reception of the scapular by Saint Simon Stock: “The sign of the Scapular points to an effective synthesis of Marian spirituality, which nourishes the devotion of believers and makes them sensitive to the Virgin Mother’s loving presence in their lives. The Scapular is essentially a ‘habit’ … Therefore two truths are evoked by the sign of the Scapular: on the one hand, the constant protection of the Blessed Virgin, not only on life’s journey, but also at the moment of passing into the fullness of eternal glory; on the other, the awareness that devotion to her cannot be limited to prayers and tributes in her honor on certain occasions, but must become a ‘habit,’ that is, a permanent orientation of one’s own Christian conduct, woven of prayer and interior life, through frequent reception of the sacraments and the concrete practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.”[2]
[1] Orsini – Barthe – Hahn, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 553; https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-damietta.html
[2] https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/2001/march/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20010326_ordine-carmelo.html
