Our Lady of Mount Carmel: The Burning Bush of Divine Fire

Fr. Scott Haynes

In the shadowed wilderness of Sinai, God revealed Himself to Moses in a wonder: a bush that burned with fire and yet was not consumed (Exod. 3:2). From that unearthly flame, the Lord spoke, calling Moses to lead His people out of bondage. The Fathers of the Church saw in this miraculous bush a figure of the Virgin Mary—aflame with divinity, yet unconsumed; overshadowed by God, yet remaining ever pure.

St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote, “What was prefigured in the flame of the bush was openly fulfilled in Mary.”¹ Just as the fire of God’s presence blazed upon the bush without destroying it, so too the fire of the Holy Ghost descended upon the Virgin’s womb at the Incarnation—and she remained ever-virgin, ever immaculate. The Eastern Church even names her Our Lady of the Burning Bush, a title that proclaims the mystery of her divine maternity and her inviolate purity.

Mount Carmel, like Mount Horeb, is a sacred place where God revealed His presence. It was there that the prophet Elias, fasting forty days and nights, heard the still, small voice of God (3 Kings 19:12). There, he called down fire from Heaven to prove the Lord’s sovereignty before the prophets of Baal (3 Kings 18:38–39). Drawn to this holy mountain, early Christian hermits dwelt in caves and silence, seeking the face of God through prayer and penance. And whom did they choose as their guide? Mary—Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the living Ark of the Covenant, the contemplative Flame who bore the Word made flesh.

These desert mystics saw Mary not merely as a model of virtue, but as the very teacher of the interior life. To wear her brown scapular, then, is not merely to don a piece of cloth, but to enter into a covenant—a sacred school of prayer. The scapular is a mantle of belonging, a cry of the soul: “Mother, teach me to pray. Lead me to the mountain of the Lord.”

As Pope Pius XII said, “The scapular is a garment both signifying and calling us to a life consecrated to the Most Blessed Virgin.”² It is the spiritual garb of those who desire to learn the “secrets of prayer,” who long to be led by Mary to the heart of Christ. The scapular comes with three holy conditions:

1. To live in fidelity to one’s baptismal vows,

2. To practice chastity according to one’s state in life,

3. To pray the Rosary daily.

This is the pathway walked by the Carmelites, the saints, and countless souls hidden in the heart of the Church.

Our Lady appeared to Pope John XXII, promising a special grace to those devoted to her scapular:

“I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death, and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”³

This is why she is honored as the Patroness of the Souls in Purgatory. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in The Glories of Mary, encouraged souls with this reflection:

“If we do a little more than Our Lady asks, can we not hope that we would go to Purgatory at all?”⁴

Let us then turn to Mary, Our Lady of the Burning Bush, whose soul was ablaze with divine love. Let us wear her scapular with devotion, pray the Rosary with reverence, and ask her—every day—to teach us how to find God in the silence of our hearts.

And let us not forget the holy souls, calling out from their place of purifying fire. With the mantle of Mary upon us, let us pray with love and confidence:

“Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Star of the Sea, Flame of the Burning Bush—pray for us and for the souls in Purgatory, that we may climb the holy mountain of eternal life.”

Footnotes

1. St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Life of Moses, trans. Abraham Malherbe and Everett Ferguson (New York: Paulist Press, 1978), II.21.

2. Pope Pius XII, Letter to the Carmelites, February 11, 1950.

3. Vision of Our Lady to Pope John XXII, associated with the Sabbatine Privilege.

4. St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Part II, Discourse VIII.