In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today we celebrate this very beautiful feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and of course, what Jesus is saying in the Gospel is that, "Be like my mother." He's actually pointing to her as the example because she did the will of the Heavenly Father. He's teaching us, "If you want to be close to me, be like my mother, who did the will of my Heavenly Father."  Today's feast day is so beautiful, and there's so much that could be said about Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This feast, of course, has its origins from Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, in which the prophet Elijah, where he slaughtered the false prophets of Baal, but also where he ended the drought that had been scourging the land at the time when a little white cloud came from the sea, and that little white cloud brought rain and often symbolized Our Lady as that white cloud who brings graces after the drought. She brings graces of salvation through her yes to God at the Annunciation.
 And the hermits began to live there on Mount Carmel in the 11th and 12th century, starting the Carmelite order there, which eventually would transfer to Europe as well. And the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is intimately tied to the brown scapular because it's on this day in 1251 that Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock in Aylesford, England, and the shrine is still there, the Carmelites are still there, friars in Aylesford, England, and they have a beautiful shrine, where she appeared to him and gave him the brown scapular, the scapular of Carmel, in which she promised that those who die wearing the scapular will not suffer the fires of hell.
 And this sacramental has been privileged by and approved by many, many popes, and of course encouraged to be worn by many, many saints. The brown scapular is Our Lady's garment, clothing us with her mantle, protecting us, and helping us. It's not a license to sin, but it's an aid to overcoming sin, and her garment clothes us and encourages us to imitate her virtues of humility, her purity, her obedience to God. And it's a great weapon against the fires of hell, against the temptations of the devils.
 In fact, I was reading many exorcists, including Father Chad Ripperger, said that during exorcisms the demons try to remove the scapular from the person that's possessed. So powerful is this garment as a protection against the evil spirits. And, of course, it's Our Lady's garment clothing us and protecting us. And so it brings both spiritual protection and physical protection as well.
 There are many, many recorded miracles. It would be a wonderful thing to have a modernized video about all the miracles of the brown scapular. So numerous are they on which people have been protected from harms in all kinds of ways, and their homes have been protected as well through the brown scapular.
 One of my favorite stories happened in 1845 when the English ship King of the Ocean, interestingly named, was on its way from England to Australia and it was going through near Cape of Good Hope, and a terrible great hurricane came at that time, a great storm, and the ship was in danger of sinking. There was a young Irish sailor on board named John McAuliffe, and he had a brown scapular on, and he made the sign of the cross. He took his scapular off and he threw it into the ocean, and immediately the wind stopped, the ocean calmed. And one more wave came onto the ship and it put the scapular back at the feet of the young sailor, of the young Irish sailor. A Protestant minister and his family witnessed this miracle and when they reached Australia, they converted and became Catholics because of it.
And so the brown scapular is a pledge of Our Lady's protection not only from spiritual dangers and temptations but physical harm. And it encourages us and inspires us to imitate Our Lady's virtues, and above all, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a reminder of the call to prayer, the call to intimacy with God through contemplation and meditation that all of us are invited to partake in, which we increase our union with God.
So this beautiful feast day is a reminder of Our Lady's motherly protection, her garment, and how much God loves us to give us so great a mother to watch over us and protect us and help us and to inspire us how much God loves us in giving us His mother to be our mother. And so we ask Our Lady, and of course, it goes without saying that we should all be wearing the brown scapular. We should be enrolled in the brown scapular, and children when they're old enough or when enabled should be enrolled in the brown scapular. It's a great protection and a great devotion that we should be renewed in and promoting because of the great promises but also the protection of Mary.
Just as a side note, I don't know if anyone knows that one of the great benefactors of the farm, Jerry Walker, passed away this morning, and pretty much everything at the retreat center was through Jerry Walker. And so I see it as no coincidence that Our Lady took him on this feast day of Mount Carmel. And so we pray and remember the repose of the soul of Jerry Walker, who was such a great benefactor to our Mother of Redeemer Retreat Center.  
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.