The first reflection about the paintings by Michele Bellanti in the Church of the Annunciation, Mdina

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

For your love is better than wine;

your anointing oils are fragrant;

your name is perfume poured out;

therefore the maidens love you.

Draw me after you; let us make haste.

Song of Songs 1:2-4

As you leave the main square of the Silent City, dominated by Malta’s Metropolitan Cathedral, and make your way towards the bastion to revel in one of the most scenic panoramic views of Malta, you cannot avoid noticing a niche and a majestic statue of the Madonna with the Child Jesus. A couple of feet further along is the Church of the Annunciation. It is the church of the Priory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Its door is always open.

As soon as you enter, you will be overcome by the contrast between the rather dark church, built to an elliptical plan, and the spectacular dome, likewise elliptical in shape but bathed in natural light and decorated with a painting of Our Lady of Mount Carmel encircled by angels. Light also suffuses the choir in the church, creating the sense of a beam cascading down from Heaven to illuminate the scene of the Annunciation of the Virgin to which this church is dedicated.

But if you sit down for a while and let your eyes adjust, you will see that above the side altars there are two most beautiful paintings that are intimately related to Carmelite Spirituality. These two paintings by Michele Bellanti (1807-1883) depict the Blessed Virgin Mary giving the Carmelite habit, the Brown Scapular, to Saint Simon Stock, and Elijah on a chariot taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind. One could say that these two images capture the essence of this Spirituality which sprang up at Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. The spirit of Elijah and the Marian spirit, signifying the yearning for God and the mystic union with Him.

As we begin the month of July, characterised by the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the middle of the month—and the many titular, secondary and devotional feasts associated with this title—we will be dwelling a little on these two works of art that, like wicks smouldering in the darkness of this valley of tears that is the human condition, light up our footsteps on the way to Paradise. And, why not, perhaps you might even pay a visit to this church in Mdina to have a look and, sat in silence, let this radiance of the yearning for God and the mystic union with him be kindled in your heart.