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CHAPTER I

The Gift and the Mission of the Order

1.

Through Jesus Christ,

Son of the Father

and “firstborn of all creation”,[1]

we live in union with God

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6%. Estimates are that the remaining forests could disappear in less than 40 years. Yet approximately 80% of the developed world's diet originates in the tropical rainforests. Some 70% of the plants that are active against cancer cells are found in the rainforest. Preserving the rainforest intact and harvesting its many plants has a greater economic impact than if they were cut down to make grazing land and its timber used.

A Position of the Carmelite NGO on Climate Change

A statement from the Carmelite NGO on our position on climate change. Written by Eduardo Agosta Scarel, O. Carm., the paper was discussed and approved by the Carmelite NGO's Coordinating Committee and has been endorsed by a number of organization and individuals of faith.

Foreword

Yesterday in our monastery church we had perpetual adoration [forty hours devotion].

Why has our time developed such a fondness we might even call it a craze for jubilees? Could it be the oppressive burden of misery that arouses the desire to withdraw again and again for a short breathing spell from the gray, oppressive atmosphere of the present time and to warm oneself a little in the sun of better days? But such flight from the present would be an unproductive way to celebrate jubilees, and we may assume that a deeper, healthier desire, even if not clearly conscious of itself, motivates these glimpses into the past.

Until a few years ago, very little from our silent monasteries penetrated into the world. It is different today. People talk a lot about Carmel and want to hear something about life behind the high walls. This is chiefly attributable to the great saints of our time who have captivated the entire Catholic world with amazing speed, for instance, St Therese of the Child Jesus.(2) Gertrud von le Fort's novel about Carmel(3) has vigorously directed German intellectual circles to our Order as has her beautiful foreword to the letters of Marie Antoinette de Geuser.(4)