June 16th: Our Lady of Mount Carmel - St. Josemaria was a Carmelite!

Apuntes, no.838. On September 12, 1932, Father Josemaría went to the Carmelite monastery in Madrid to request admission to the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites. "For two purposes (besides love) I want to become a Carmelite tertiary: to put more pressure on my Immaculate Mother, now that I see myself weaker than ever; and to provide suffrages to my good friends the blessed souls in purgatory" (Apuntes, no.823). The date of his entrance into the Third Order was, as he requested, October 2, 1932 (see Apuntes, no.838).

But the story goes even earlier than that: Just before his 16th birthday, in January 1918, walking down the street one morning during those Christmastide holidays, he came upon prints in the snow made by bare feet. His curiosity piqued, he stopped and stared at those white imprints so obviously left by one of the Discalced Carmelite fathers. Moved to the very depths of his soul, he asked himself, "If others can make such sacrifices for God and neighbour, can't I offer him something?"

The footprints had been made by Father Jose Miguel de la Virgen del Carmen. Following that snowy trail, the boy sought out the Carmelite for spiritual direction. He now had, very deep inside, " a divine restlessness" that moved him to a more intense life of piety, manifested in prayer, mortification, and daily Communion. (from Vasquez de Prada).

The founder's thoughts about the origin of his vocation are communicated in other testimonies as well. A few examples:

• "In 1964, speaking to me about his vocation to the priesthood, Monsignor Escriva said to me, but more as a question addressed to himself, 'What was the origin of my priestly vocation? Something apparently trivial: prints left in the snow by the bare feet of a Carmelite.' He then explained to me how, thinking about the sacrifice made by that religious for the love of God, he had asked himself what he himself was doing for our Lord. He had thought that perhaps God was calling him right then and there, on the street, and that if this was the case, then because of his love for the Eucharist, he would be called Brother Amador de Jesus Sacramentado [Lover of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament]" (Jesus Alvarez Gazapo, Sum. 4279).

• "The founder told us that it made a profound impression on him to see in the snow the footprints of a Discalced Carmelite, that it made him think about how little he himself was doing for the Lord, and that he realized then and there that our Lord wanted something specific from him" (Encarnación Ortega, PM, fol. 30).

• "The Father, as he himself confessed to me, began to experience desires for a more perfect and committed Christian life when, during the winter of 1917-1918, he contemplated tracks left in the snow by the bare feet of a Carmelite religious. ...He told me he had felt the call to the priesthood right after seeing those footprints in the snow" (Jose Luis MUzquiz, PM, fol. 35Ov).

From St. Josemaria: "Our Lady of Mount Carmel was pushing me to become a priest. Up until I was sixteen years old, dear Mother, I would have laughed at anyone who said I would one day be wearing a cassock. It happened all of a sudden, when I saw that some Carmelite friar had walked barefoot in the snow. ...How obliged you are, sweet Virgin of the Kisses, to lead me by the hand like a little child of yours!" (Apuntes, no.1637).