Dear Friends of Carmel,

We have chosen another special season of Our Lady to send our greetings. The feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is Saturday...754 years to the day since she appeared to St. Simon Stock. Now, in the midst of our annual novena in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, what better time to let you know that you are remembered in our special prayers to this loving Mother? Daily we call on her as Queen, Beauty of Carmel. She is our great exemplar, ever teaching us the way of holiness, silence, sacrifice, and prayer. She offers herself as help and comfort to all—in joy and in sorrow, in temptation and anxiety, in all our efforts to please the good God and reach heaven. Knowing that you would appreciate joining with us in our prayers to so great a Mother, we share the following prayer, among those we recite during the Novena.

O glorious Queen of Angels, most pure and ever Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, powerful advocate of all those who wear your holy scapular, faithful Protectress of all the servants of your Son Jesus Christ, we who have chosen you for our Mother and Patroness beseech you that through your intercession, we may receive from Him whatsoever grace may be necessary and profitable to us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

It is our great privilege once again to have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We not only have time for silent prayer, but chant the Hours of the Divine Office before the King of Kings. And what better time to remember in our prayers the Friends of Carmel than during this time of adoration? It will be an especially welcome time, since our days have been full to the brim with sewing, rosary-making, statue repair, and keeping up correspondence with vocations and so many others who write us asking for prayers. Much of our sewing and embroidery work has been for the recent 10th Priestly Ordination Anniversary of four priests who have long been friends of our community. Since the majority of our daily works is indoors, we are all the more glad to spend at least a little time working in the yard and garden. Water rationing in dry Colorado has us carefully conserving water, but even so flowers are blooming and giving color and joy in our humble garden. When we started planting a few perennials in early June, we received a jolt—literally! The soil left near the house from last year's construction was not really soil at all, but a mixture of sand, rocks, and concrete. We felt a bit silly trying it, but a pickaxe finally got through the surface enough for us to amend the soil and plant!

The 10th Anniversary of the Profession of one of our Sisters caused interesting and behind-the-scenes planning for an out-of-town visit from her family. Grateful for her vocation and the blessings they have received from Carmel's life of prayer and sacrifice, her family wanted to surprise Sister by being here for the anniversary. So when Sister entered the speak room expecting to greet a young lady interested in a vocation and heard instead the voice of her brother, her shock was considerable! This is the kind of "little" event that can happen in Carmel, where pleasant surprises are not infrequent!

Relic badges, after scapulars, were the first sacramental we learned to make when entering Carmel. And as the years have passed, we have been pleased to be able to add many new saints, as well as images of Our Lady. Indeed, we plan to add more. The relic badges of Our Lady are the most popular, since on the back of these we place a small cloth touched to her veil. For the devoted children of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, through the remainder of the month of July, we are offering this relic badge at the reduced price of $3.95. Thanks to the fine suggestion of a customer, it's now available in brown as well as blue. When we made one for her in brown it looked nice, and we decided she was right—it should be brown too! All of our Carmelite Saints and holy forebears speak and write about the influence of Our Blessed Mother in our life, and we welcome you to peruse our books section to see the wide selection of Carmelite titles, which are both interesting and edifying. Lastly, many of our website customers have asked us for a good book that presents Catholic doctrine simply and thoroughly. Upon reflection, we realized that the best answer to that need is the old-fashioned, but never out-dated, Baltimore Catechism of Fr. Connell. We are now offering this title in a quality lay-flat paperback. You will be glad to have this book handy, as it covers every imaginable topic!

We have been able to add two useful new features to our website. First of all, at the top of every page you will find a new search field. Do you have a devotion to St. Therese and want to know about every St. Therese item we offer? Now it's easy...just type "Therese" into the search field and click "Go"! Also, at the bottom of every page, you will find a new "E-mail this page to a friend" feature...perfect for telling a friend about an item or informational page that you know will interest them.

Please know of our continual remembrance of you in our prayers. May God reward you for your support and faithful friendship to our Carmel!

In Our Lady,
Your Carmelite Sisters