A few days before Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s annual feast, there was some concern if the weather would hold. But at the start of Sunday’s mass, the last gray clouds were long gone — and this has happened many times before in the 135 years of the parish’s history. “If the blessed mother wants it to happen, she’ll make it happen,” said Eric Lavin, a pastoral associate of the church.

This four-day feast happens each year, culminating today — July 16 — the date when an English Carmelite purportedly had a vision of the Blessed Mother. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, now on Oliver Street in Newark after moving from its original location near Penn Station, was founded in 1890.