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Displaying items by tag: Calendar of Feasts and Memorials

Monday, 14 November 2022 07:48

Celebration of All Carmelite Saints

November 14 | Feast

From "De Patientia" of Bl. Baptist of Mantua

"I will say something, however, to urge you to desire to see those things that mortal eyes are unable to see. Such desire, by raising the mind from earthly things to heavenly things, causes them, while still remaining earthly and mortal, at least in part to become heavenly. If it is true that where your treasure is, there will also be your heart, if our treasure is in heaven it is necessary that our heart also be in heaven. If it is in heaven, it has heavenly dimensions, and we need the desires of our heart to be heavenly, through the commitment to meditate on great and infinite things starting from the smallest."

For more information, go to ocarm.org

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Friday, 11 November 2022 13:17

Memorial of Bl. Maria Teresa Scrilli

On November 13th the Carmelite Order celebrates the memorial of Blessed Maria Teresa Scrilli.

Mother Maria Teresa was profoundly connected to Carmelite spirituality which she knew, since childhood, from her reading of St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi. The spirit of contemplation, total abandonment to the will of God, and deep union with the Lord were the characteristics of her spiritual life. Her prayer added the aspect of reparation for offences inflicted on God, of praise, of joy in Him, of profound union, of faith. The "pure love" for God pushes one to the generous offering of oneself to others, "to leave God for God," even to the point of making a fourth vow: "to give oneself over to neighbour by means of both Christian and civil moral instruction."

Read more here

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Monday, 07 November 2022 15:39

Elizabeth of the Trinity and St. Paul

On November 8 the Carmelite Order celebrates the Memorial of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity.

Elizabeth had been reading St. Paul more and more from the beginning of 1903, the time of her profession. Her former novice mistress, Sr. Marie of the Trinity, would say that, from that time on, Elizabeth grounded herself in two authors: John of the Cross and St. Paul. With regard to the former, Elizabeth had begun by dipping into John’s works, and it was only in 1902 that she started to read him with depth and thoroughness. It was a similar case with St. Paul, who at first nourished her mind with occasional quotations like choice drops of water, until they fused into a continuous stream.

St. Paul had already had some influence on Elizabeth because his epistles include striking, meaningful phrases which, encountering them in the liturgy or in homilies or in spiritual books, she had readily made her own. One example is the words from Galatians which she had quoted or referred to in the last few months before entering Carmel and had had engraved on the back of her profession crucifix: ‘I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20). For Elizabeth, keenly aware of the indwelling God, this passage would have made an immediate impact. By the beginning of 1904, however, she was, as mentioned, already fairly well acquainted with the writings of St. Paul. She was no longer mentioning a passage she had happened to hear at Mass that day but showing a proper reading knowledge. In a letter to a friend and relative, André Chevignard, who was preparing for the priesthood, she even gives a chapter reference in brackets, which was unusual for Elizabeth and shows an element of study.
But most of all, she reveals her absorption in St. Paul’s writings as a whole, referring to them collectively as “his magnificent epistles.”


From Joanne Mosley, “Elizabeth of the Trinity as a Reader of Scripture” in Sentire Cum Ecclesia: A Festschrift in Honour of Christopher O’Donnell, O. Carm. Edited by Patrick Mullins, O. Carm., and Simon Nolan, O. Carm. (Rome: Edizioni Carmelitane, Vocare Deo, 27) 2018.

To access this and other fine publications at Edizioni Carmelitane visit: https://carmelitani.com/ To place your order please send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Friday, 30 September 2022 10:20

Feast of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (OCD)

1 October Feast

Saint Thérèse was born at Alençon in France on 2nd January 1873. Her parents were Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin. After the death of her mother on 28th August 1877, Thérèse and her family moved to Lisieux. 

Read more

9th Day Novena to St. Therese of Child Jesus

An opportunity for prayer and reflection on the feast day of a patron of the General Commissariat of St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Albert of Jerusalem, India

Watch here

The Canonization Process of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

a dramatic re-enactment produced by Rai-Tre (Italian Television)

Watch here (in Italian with English subtitles)

 

 

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Friday, 30 September 2022 09:45

Recalling St. Thérèse’s Shower of Roses

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face promised, “I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens; I will spend my heaven doing good upon the earth.” Many thousands of people recall receiving roses after praying to St. Thérèse for some intercession. It may have been actual roses, a card with a rose, or the scent of roses. It does not matter. Each is taken as a sign of St. Thérèse’s hearing the person prayer.

The Blessed Rose Petal Project run by members of the Flos Carmeli Choir at the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is an attempt to recall that promise of St. Thérèse. The choir provides music at the monastery’s midday Mass on Wednesdays and feast days. They volunteer in various other ways at the monastery.

They noticed that after big celebrations, the flowers in the chapel would be unceremoniously discarded in the garbage. Around 2018, Carmelite priest Chris Kulig, who occasionally celebrates the Mass, began collecting the old flowers, drying them out, and putting them in bags as a remembrance of Thérèse promise to shower roses down from heaven. As the demand for the rose petals grew so did their volunteer list. Mt. Carmel supplied the little bags. The people supplied the flowers. The Flos Carmeli folks provided the finger power to fill the bags.

Soon it was not enough. “We just ran out of rose petals,” said Yolanda Bartley, one of the steady volunteers. But someone, while driving through nearby St. Catherine, noticed a field of roses at a wholesale of rose bushes. They were willing to sell roses at a discounted price for use at the monastery. Then they discovered three fields belonging to another wholesale plant nursery. They supply rose bushes to large stores like Cosco and Walmart.

After a conversation with the sales manager and the sales manager’s conversation with the owner, choir members were told they could have “all the roses we could pick,” said Angie Walledor, another member of the choir. After securing permission to park in a nearby non-Catholic church lot (the choir is very ecumenical in its work!), the members descended on the fields. Of the three fields, the smallest has about 30,000 plants.

“They grow in rows like corn,” said Angie. The fields bloom every second year as the nursery rotates through the fields to maintain a large number of plants to sell each year.

“It is St. Thérèse and Mother Mary at work,” said Yolanda. “It isn’t a shower of roses anymore. It is pouring roses.”

The small packages of roses are ready for the crowds expected to come to the Monastery of Mount Carmel in Niagara Falls for the October 1 celebrations. But after the crowds have gone back home, there will be more roses to pick, remove the petals, dry the petals, and then put in the small bag. It is all done with love in an effort to recall St. Thérèse’s magnificent promise to continue to do good works on earth.

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Friday, 30 September 2022 09:22

Thérèse of Lisieux Celebrated in Canada

A long-time partnership between the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary and the Society of the Little Flower has been of great benefit to both. With a branch in the United States and a branch in Canada, the Society promotes devotion to St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She is also known by her religious name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.

For the saint's feast on October 1, thousands of people from around Canada are expected to visit the campus of the Monastery of Mount Carmel where the Canadian Society of the Little Flower is located. A variety of events and opportunities are scheduled so that members of the Society and friends of the Saint will spend the feast day in a prayerful way.

Due to the Covid pandemic, 2022 is the first celebration of the feast day on this scale since 2019.

The feast day features a blessing of roses in the beautiful monastery chapel. This is followed by a Mass celebrated in the gymnasium, with ample space to accommodate the crowds. Following the Mass, there will be a blessing of a new outdoor statue to St. Thérèse. The statue, a gift from the members of the Society, is made of Italian marble.

Following these formal events is an opportunity to enjoy the grounds as well time at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, a parish church with tradition of pilgrimage for peace dating back to the civil war in the nearby United States. The Our Lady of Peace community hosted the delegates and their families of the ABC Peace Conference to avert war between the United States and Mexico in 1914.

Relics of the French saint will also be accessible throughout the day in the main chapel of the monastery. Later in the day a second mass will be celebrated in the gymnasium.

Through prayers and donations, the Canadian friends of St. Thérèse are partners with the Carmelites, making a difference in people’s lives in Canada and throughout the world according to the Society’s website. Members of the Society join with the Carmelites in the ministries of the Gospel and the education of young men studying to be Carmelites, fulfilling Thérèse’s mission to “make God known and loved to the ends of the earth” in the most concrete ways of charity and justice.

The Society of the Little Flower continues to pay a significant portion of the costs of the Most Pure Heart of Mary Province’s formation program. Young men wanting to become Carmelites and ordained ministers in the Church study in four countries throughout the Americas: in the United States with pre-novitiate, novitiate, and theology program; in Mexico with a pre-novitiate program; a pre-novitiate and theology program in El Salvador; a pre-novitiate, novitiate, and theology program in Perú.

Just six years after the cause for sainthood of St. Thérèse was introduced in Rome, the Carmelites in Chicago conducted the first Little Flower Novena service at St. Cyril Church in 1912. One of the Carmelites, Fr. Albert Dolan, a renowned preacher and writer, introduced the Little Flower to millions. To ensure that the work would continue, he founded the Society of the Little Flower in 1923. Fr. Dolan’s work of promoting devotion to St. Thérèse and her spirituality of the spiritual childhood is continuing almost 100 years later.

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Thursday, 15 September 2022 12:24

Feast of St. Albert of Jerusalem

17 September Feast

There are very few facts known about the birth of Albert. The first biographical data comes from the Canons of Mortara. Albert entered into this order around 1170. Around 1180 Albert began developing connections with the pope and the Roman curia. Between 1181 and 1183 he undertook two missions at the behest of Alexander III and Lucio III. The following year he was nominated bishop.

He was bishop of Vercelli for 20 years but continued to be involved in diplomatic activity on behalf of the popes. Some of his work was settling conflict between people or cities. But he was also very active in the area of legislation and organizational structure. He would ultimately provide these gifts in service to the hermits on Mount Carmel.

In 1204 the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre elected Albert as patriarch of Jerusalem. Pope Innocent III added the responsibilities. Of papal legate for the Holy Land and Middle East. Albert arrived in Palestine in 1206, residing at Acre since Jerusalem was occupied by the Saracens. Here too Albert became the mediator of various disputes. In fact, this role as mediator has led some to conclude that Albert became involved with the hermits on Mount Carmel because of a dispute among the members.

When exactly Albert wrote his formula vitae for the hermits is open for discussion. This document was addressed to someone named “B” which later traditions named “Brocard.” Albert becomes referred to in the Carmelite Order as “the lawgiver” for his development of a rather short document outlining the life of the hermits on Mount Carmel. Albert’s formula vitae which will eventually become the Rule of the Order.

By the 16th century Albert’s feast was celebrated on April 8. Later it was customary to celebrate his feast on September 17. There were attempts to have Albert proclaimed as a martyr but the Order continues to celebrate him as “bishop and legislator of our Order.”

Read more here

Watch here the Reflections on St. Albert of Jerusalem with Br. Patrick Mullins O. Carm.

Watch here the Interview with Br. Patrick Mullins O. Carm, an expert on St. Albert.

List of Books From Edizioni Carmelitane on St. Albert of Jerusalem.

La Regola del Carmelo: Origine, Natura, Significato – Seconda Edizione. Carlo Cicconetti, O. Carm. 

Italian. 2018. 856 pages. Euro 59.00.

A cornerstone of formation for members of the entire Carmelite Family today as in the past is the Rule.

Alberto Patriarca di Gerusalemme. Tempo – Vita – Opera. Vincenzo Mosca, O. Carm. 

Italian. 1996. 780 pages. Euro 50.00.

The book opens with a broad sweep covering the historical and religious environment of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.

The Life of St Albert of Jerusalem – A Documentary Biography – Part 1. Patrick Mullins, O. Carm.

English. 2016. 604 pages. Euro 45.00.

The large number of extant documents concerning the early thirteenth-century Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert degli Avogadri (c. 1150-1214), demonstrate both his impact on his times and the ways in which his life was shaped by his historical circumstances. Divided into two volumes, each of twelve chapters.

The Life of St Albert of Jerusalem – A Documentary Biography – Part 2. Patrick Mullins, O. Carm.

English. 2017. 603 pages. Euro 45.00.

These and more books can be purchased directly from Edizioni Carmelitane or from other webstores around the world.

Click here to access these and other many fine publications at Edizioni Carmelitane.

To place your order please contact Edizioni Carmelitane at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Wednesday, 31 August 2022 10:26

Memorial of St. Teresa Margaret Redi (OCD), Virgin

1 September Optional Memorial

Saint Teresa Margaret Redi was born in Arezzo on 1st September 1747 into the noble family of Redi. In 1764, she entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Florence, changing her baptismal name of Anna Maria to that of Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Read more

Published in Announcements (CITOC)

August 26

Like the majority of his fellow clergy, Jacques refused to accept the civil law, unilaterally introduced by the state, which decreed, among other things, the election of bishops and parish priests by the people, only afterwards to be approved by the hierarchy and the pope. In addition to this refusal, Jacques was accused of siding with a group of political emigres who had invaded the country against the revolutionaries. He was arrested and condemned, together with many other priests and religious, and sentenced to exile in French Guinea in South America. Taken to Rochefort, he was held there in a prison ship. 

     Read more

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Thursday, 25 August 2022 06:45

St. Mary of Jesus Crucified, OCD, Virgin

Optional Memorial - August 25

Mariam Baouardy was born at Abellin in Galilee on January 5, 1846 to very poor parents who were good living and devoted Greek-rite Catholics. She was left an orphan after the death of her parents at only three years of age. On June 14, 1867, she entered the Carmel in Pau.

On August 21, 1870, while still a novice, she left for India to join a new Carmel to be founded at Mangalore. On 21st November 1871, she made her religious profession there. One year later, she was recalled to Pau, from where she left as part of a new foundation, the first Carmel in Palestine.

She died on 26th August 1878 at Bethlehem from a cancer which she had contracted after a fracture caused by a fall.  

Read more from ocarm.org

Published in Announcements (CITOC)
Page 11 of 16

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