Displaying items by tag: Calendar of Feasts and Memorials

IN SOLLEMNITATE B.V. MARIAE DE MONTE CARMELO

Flos Carmeli, vitis florigera,
splendor caeli, Virgo puerpera singularis.
Mater mitis, sed viri nescia,
Carmelitis esto propitia,
stella maris.

MÍCEÁL PRIOR GENERALIS
DOMUSQUE GENERALIS COMMUNITAS

16.VII.2024

A Video Message for the Solennity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16, 2024, from Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm, Prior General of the Order

Dear sisters and brothers in the Carmelite family throughout the world:

The celebration of the solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel this year coincides with the Year of Prayer, announced by Pope Francis as a time of preparation the celebration of the 2025 Jubilee. The desire of the Holy Father is that there should be a “symphony of prayer” throughout the world. His teaching on prayer is an invitation to the Carmelite family to play its part in praying and in helping others to pray. Our rich tradition of prayer has been an inspiration to many generations from the beginning. Never was that tradition more needed by the world than today, in order to be able to encourage and accompany all the people who already have a life of prayer and are praying, and to open new doors for people who do not yet know the meaning of Christian prayer. Our prayer gives dignity to our lives because it affirms that we are the children of God, in communication with God. Our pray is also the strength of hope because of how we place our trust in God and in the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Carmel represents a place of human dignity, where God has brought people together in his name and Jesus is there in their midst. Mary is the Lady of that place, showing us what the dignity of the human person looks like, and the people who dwell in that place are people who pray, knowing that in their lives Jesus Christ is their deepest motivation, and that there is no higher ambition than to live in allegiance to him. On a day that unites us all in joy and thanksgiving, I join with Carmelites around the world, in praying that God’s name may be held as a blessing, that God’s will may be done, that God’s kingdom may come, that our daily bread may lead to daily peace and that we will find the path to forgiveness and reconciliation for ourselves and for our sisters and brothers in a world so terribly afflicted by its own lack of faith, hope and charity.  May your celebrations this year bring you the abundance of God’s grace and an answer to your fervent prayer. 

Thank you. 

Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm

9 July Optional Memorial

Blessed Jane Scopelli was born in Reggio Emilia in 1428. Inclined to piety from a young age, she obtained permission from her parents to become a cloistered Carmelite while remaining living with the family. After the death of her parents, she joined other women and formed a community in 1480.

In the city of her birth, with the placet of Bishop Filippo Zoboli, she obtained in 1495 the house and church of the Umiliati, which she transformed into a monastery, vulgarly called "Le Bianche" and entrusted to the Congregation Mantovana. There she exercised the office of prioress. Extraordinary events are attributed to the blessed who was endowed by God with an extraordinary charism and rich in profound Marian piety.

She died on July 9, 1491. Her cult was approved by Clement XIV on August 24, 1771. When the monastery was closed in 1803 on account of the Napoleonic suppression, the Blessed's body was transferred to the city's cathedral, where it is still venerated today.

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4 July Optional Memorial in the Italian provinces

Centenary of the first exchange of letters between the Founders of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus

In the early afternoon of Sunday, June 23, 2024, a meeting was held to commemorate the first exchange of letters between the founders of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Blessed M. Maria Crocifissa Curcio and Father Lorenzo van den Eerenbeemt, O. Carm.

Their fruitful human and spiritual relationship, in fact, began with a letter that Father Lorenzo sent on June 23, 1924, writing from St. Albert's International College, where he was a professor, at the suggestion of Fr. Alberto Grammatico, a confrere and colleague: it was a proposal to start together a female Institute of "active, religious, Carmelite life" for the missions. Within a few days, on the following June 28, Mother M. Crocifissa responded with great joy from Modica (Ragusa), adhering with enthusiasm to the proposal after many years of suffering fidelity to the vocation of Carmelite religious of active life. Their purpose, which over time became clearer and more refined, was realized about a year later, on July 3, 1925, with the founding of the Congregation in Santa Marinella (Rome).

From what is now CISA and beginning with a short pilgrimage on foot from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, not far away, the event re-enacted what happened now a century ago, retracing the places from where the two letters started and delving into their words and contents.

Everything was shared online with the Congregation's communities and lay friends from all parts of the world, while the gathering in the "St. Titus Brandsma" hall of CISA was attended by numerous sisters of the Congregation of various nationalities, a representation of the Sisters of the Institute of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, some friars of the CISA community and a large representation of members of the Third Carmelite Order of Rome. We cordially thank the brothers from the communities of CISA and Santa Maria in Traspontina for their welcome.

This celebration stands as a key moment within the path of the "Year of the Founders" with which the Congregation is continuing the journey undertaken now for a year with the celebration of a year dedicated to St. Therese of the Child Jesus and which will conclude with the celebration of a Jubilee Year on the occasion of the first centenary of the birth of the Congregation.

Sr M. Nerina de Simone cmstgb

Brief Biography of Bl. M. Maria Crocifissa Curcio

June 14 | Memorial
St. Elisha, prophet

The biblical cycle of Elisha (2 Kgs) is strongly linked with that of Elijah. Elisha's calling is placed after the theophany of the Horeb (1 Kgs 19: 16-21). According to the divine order, he is the one who is to succeed the Tishbite; Elisha therefore becomes Elijah’s servant and disciple (2 Kgs 3:11).

Like Elijah, Elisha is presented by the Church Fathers as a Christ figure, as a thaumaturge. He is also presented as a model for monastic life. Numerous Church Fathers attest to Elisha's virginity following that of Elijah. The medieval Carmelites reproduced these lines insisting that Elijah and Elisha were the first to consecrate themselves to God in virginity. Prayer also plays a primordial role in Elisha's life: it is the source of the miracles the Lord performs through him. Elisha is also portrayed as someone withdrawn from society. His initial renunciation, sacrificing his oxen and plow before following Elijah, is an example to exhort him to detach himself from worldly concerns (Jer., Ep. 71:3). For Cassian, Elisha is one of the founders of monasticism and, in a more special way, a teacher of poverty (Inst. 7:14,2).

Elisha is constantly present as Elijah's disciple, his spiritual son, his heir, the disciple par excellence. Elisha is not Elijah's only disciple but within this group of disciples, Elisha occupies the first place.

Call of Elisha

Elijah set out, and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak on him.

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please, let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and I will follow you.” Elijah answered, “Go back! What have I done to you?”

Elisha left him and, taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh, and gave it to the people to eat. Then he left and followed Elijah to serve him.    (1 Kgs 19:19-21)

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Recent Publication from Edizioni Carmelitane:

Les prophètes Élie et Élisée au Moyen Âge Latin

     Tome 1. Vllle-IXe siècles. L'époque carolingienne
     Tome 2. Xe-début XIIe siècle. Des commentaires carolingiens à la
                 Glossa ordinaria
     Tome 3. La renaissance et le tournant du XIIe siècle
     Tome 4. XIIIe siècle. L'essor des universités

     Coffret:  Tome 1, 2, 3 et 4 

May 25 | Feast
St. Mary Magdelen de' Pazzi, Virgin

Born into the noble family of Pazzi in Florence in 1566, Mary Magdelene had a deep sense of the presence of God, a great love of the Eucharist, and a longing to live a penitential life. She entered the cloistered Carmelite monastery of St. Mary of the Angels in Florence, near the Carmelite church. She underwent continuous physical suffering and severe spiritual trials but also experienced God's mercy with extraordinary graces. She died on May 25, 1607.

She was keenly aware of the need to reform the Church. She offered herself to that clergy would once again be a witness to Christ in the world and that the lapsed would return to the Church. The central theme in her spirituality is love: we are created by God with love and by love and is the means by which we must turn to him. She had a great devotion to Our Lady.

She was beatified in 1626, 19 years after her death, and was canonized in 1669.

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16 May Optional Memorial (Obligatory Memorial the province of Great Britain)

As far as can be ascertained from the earliest references, Simon Stock was an English Prior General, known for his holy way of life, who died about 1265 in Bordeaux in France. After his death, miracles were recorded by those visiting his tomb and during the 14th century a local cult developed in Bordeaux.

Around 1400, a separate legend emerged in the Low Countries of a "holy Simon" who had a vision of Our Lady, in which she appeared to him bearing the scapular and promised: "This is a privilege for you and your brethren: whoever dies wearing it, will be saved." Within a few years, the two accounts had been merged and Simon Stock, the Prior General, was credited with having the vision of Our Lady. The combined account quickly became elaborated with imaginary biographical details of Simon's life, such as his birth in Kent, his living for some years as a hermit in the trunk of a tree and his authorship of the Flos Carmeli, a beautiful Carmelite hymn to Our Lady (which is, in fact, found in the 14th century and hence predates the legend).

The Carmelite Scapular and Its Confraternities

The scapular consists basically of two pieces of cloth, tied by thin cords, which rest one on the shoulders (between the "scapulae") and the other on the chest. The object, nowadays used for devotional purposes, originates from the "night" scapular used by religious so that they would never have to not be wearing their proper habit, not even at night.

By the middle of the 13th century, lay people began to be affiliated to the Order in order to share in the spiritual benefits. It was also offered by the Order as an expression of gratitude and recognition to benefactors. The scapular ended up constituting a customary means of handing over the habit to the laity and the consequent juridical-spiritual aggregation to the religious family. The white cloak, the sign of the Order in the Middle Ages, was given to lay people at the moment of their association.

Stories began to circulate of the miraculous gift of the habit from the Lord or Our Lady to the founders or saints of the various Orders. As a result, numerous scapulars exist. They are distinguished by different colors and images, precisely because of the wide use made of them by the various religious families and, over time, as a sign of consecration according to the different forms of spirituality.

From the end of the 15th century, the Carmelites began to hand over the scapular, which was considered the habit of the Order for lay people to be aggregated to the Order. Thus was born the Confraternity of the Scapular, which ended up practically supplanting or replacing the previous forms of lay aggregation to the Order. These confraternities were also found in churches not belonging to the Order.

A typical element of the devotion use of the religious habit among the laity was that either Our Lord or Our Lady would give it to the religious. Two visions are associated with the Carmelite scapular—both involving Our Lady and both doubtful as historical events. In the case of the appearance to St. Simon Stock, similar vision accounts are found continually in the traditions of the different religious families.

The very origins of the Order refer, one the one hand, to the protection of Mary, and on the other hand, to the “dedication” of the Carmelites to her, who is considered to be lady, sovereign because Mary is the Mother of the Lord. Even after their departure from the Holy Land, the Carmelites continued to consider themselves as subjects to the Lord Jesus and therefore to his Mother.

Members of most confraternities in the 17^th and 18^th centuries shows they were open to people of all classes: nobles, middle-class, laborers, peasants, artisans—both the rich and the poor. This kind of unity among members from different social backgrounds lasted a long time. It was a characteristic of Scapular confraternities as distinct from other types of confraternities, even religious ones.

The suppression of religious groups in the 19th century almost entirely destroyed the network of Scapular confraternities. The ones that survived very often continues to exist without much contact with the Order. The works of mercy almost entirely disappeared with what remained being more philanthropic than Christian charity. With the Canon Law Code of 1917, the confraternities were reorganized. The scapular devotion developed more and more as a sign of the protection of Mary, with the aspect of consecration to Mary and the demands of a covenant of made with Mary now written out.

Now to enjoy the privileges attached to the scapular, it suffices to receive it from an authorized person and to have your name written in the general confraternity register of the Order. This faculty has been extended to all priests and the need to have a register of inscriptions was done away with. The so-called “Rule of the Carmelite Third Order” set out norms for a Gospel way of life. The document reflects Carmelite values, proposing a commitment to prayer, the sacraments, the works of justice, and the building up of the human person in accordance with God’s plan.

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May 9, 2024 | Optional Memorial (Obligatory Memorial in the province of Malta)

A diocesan priest, George Preca dedicated his life to preaching and catechesis. In 1907 he founded the Society of Christian Doctrine or MUSEUM (Magister utinam sequatur Evangelium universus mundus).

His prolific apostolate was the fruit of a life of prayer and constant meditation on the Word of God. His spirituality was based on humility and meekness. He became a Lay Carmelite in 1918, and in recognition of his work in spreading devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was affiliated to the Order in 1952 by the prior general at the time, Killian Lynch.

The canonical processes for his beatification were initiated in March 1975. St. John Paul II declared him “blessed” on May 9, 2001 and he was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on June 3, 2007.

The second reading for the Liturgy of the Hours is taken from the saint’s writings. He proclaims the virtues of God in contemplating the beauty of creation and His actions, full of mercy and love, towards those who seek and recognize Him in order to confess without restraint.

(from Emanuele Boaga, O. Carm., Celebrating the Saints of Carmel. (Rome: Edizioni Carmelitane, 2010).

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May 8, 2024 | Optional Memorial
Bl. Àloysius Rabatà, priest

Information about the Blessed comes from witness statements gathered for the Acts of the 1533 diocesan process for the beatification of Aloysius Rabatà. The Acts do contain, as expected, details about his character, the works he performed, and his death as well as his physical appearance and his eating habits. Five out of eleven witness knew the Blessed personally, so the information is considered quite accurate. Later hagiographies merely repeat that information and give other details that are less cetain to be accurate.

Reading the various testimonies in the Acts of 1533 makes it clear Luigi Rabatà was considered an extremely virtuous man and a saint already during his life. Indeed, there are many references to his “sanctity” and his life filled with the practices of fasting and works of charity.

In 1756 the General Chapter of the Order decreed that the approval of his cult "ab immemorabili" be sought. This was granted on December 10, 1841, by Pope Gregory XVI.

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From the book by Marco Papasidero, "A Laudi Deu." Luigi Rabatà tra storia, memoria e pratiche devozionali. (Edizioni Carmelitane, 2019) €14.00

May 4, 2024 | Optional Memorial | Obligatory Memorial in Spain

PRAYER

Almighty God, you who gave your blessed Ángel Maria Prat Hostench, Lucas de San José Tristany Pujol, presbyters, and companions, the grace to confront death so to confess your word and bear witness to Jesus, grant us the power of the Holy Spirit, to remain steadfast in faith and strong in the confession of your name. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Read more on the lives of these martyrs ....