The Living Waters Connection to Mt. Carmel!

Elijah had predicted the drought would last three and a half years. (That's HALF of SEVEN, the number of the Covenant, showing how it had been broken in two!) It was a symbol of the spiritual drought of Israel, where her leaders had sinned, separating themselves from the Source of Living Waters, turning to idols & power & pleasure.

But now, Elijah had defeated the prophets of Ba'al and Jezebel, confronting King Ahab. Now, as he prayed at Mt. Carmel he saw "a small cloud as a man's hand rising from the sea". This was the first sign of the coming rains that would wash away the dryness, bringing back faith

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Centuries later, the early Christian Fathers saw the connection to the Messianic prediction in Isaiah 45:8, when the ultimate Drought would be decisively slaked by the coming of the Messiah: 

"Drop down dew, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Savior".

The small cloud which brought this Living Waters was universally associated by the early Fathers with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Messiah, raining down the Just One. This was the origin of the mendicant monks who gravitated to Mt. Carmel, the Carmelites, honoring Mary as the one who bore for us life-giving grace in Jesus the Lord. We in Living WATERS can FLOW with this apostolic insight!