Pope Benedict XVI on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

From the Holy Father's Angelus talk yesterday:

By a happy coincidence, this Sunday is July 16, day in which the liturgy
remembers the Most Holy Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Carmel, high promontory
that rises on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, at the altitude of
Galilee, has in its folds numerous natural grottoes, favorites of hermits.


The most famous of these men of God was the great prophet Elias, who in the
9th century before Christ, courageously defended the purity of the faith in
the one true God from contamination by idolatrous cults. Inspired in the
figure of Elias, the contemplative order of Carmelites arose, a religious
family that counts among its members great saints such as Teresa of Avila,
John of the Cross, Therese of the Child Jesus and Teresa Benedicta of the
Cross (in the world, Edith Stein).


The Carmelites have spread in the Christian people devotion to the Most Holy
Virgin of Mount Carmel, pointing to her as a model of prayer, contemplation
and dedication to God. Mary, in fact, before and in an unsurpassable way,
believed and felt that Jesus, the incarnate Word, is the culmination, the
summit of man's encounter with God.


Fully accepting the Word, "she happily reached the holy mountain" (Prayer of
the Collect of the Memorial), and lives forever, in soul and body, with the
Lord. To the Queen of Mount Carmel I wish to commend today all the
communities of contemplative life spread throughout the world, especially
those of the Carmelite Order, among which I remember the convent of Quart,
not far from here. May Mary help every Christian to meet God in the silence
of prayer.


[After the Angelus, the Holy Father said the following words:]


In recent days the news from the Holy Land is a reason for new and grave
concern for all, in particular because of the spread of warlike actions also
in Lebanon, and because of the numerous victims among the civilian
population. At the origin of these cruel oppositions there are, sadly,
objective situations of violation of law and justice. But neither terrorist
acts nor reprisals, especially when they entail tragic consequences for the
civilian population, can be justified. By such paths, as bitter experiences
shows, positive results are not achieved.


This day is dedicated to the Virgin of Carmel, Mount of the Holy Land that,
a few kilometers from Lebanon, dominates the Israeli city of Haifa, the
latter also recently hit. Let us pray to Mary, Queen of Peace, to implore
from God the fundamental gift of concord, bringing political leaders back to
the path of reason, and opening new possibilities of dialogue and agreement.
In this perspective I invite the local Churches to raise special prayers for
peace in the Holy Land and in the whole of the Middle East.

Was this the talk that elicited those snide comments from Bill O'Reilly yesterday on television? I wonder what he found wrong with it. What a strange man.