Displaying items by tag: Calendar of Feasts and Memorials

12 August | Optional Memorial

On April 24, 1994, Blessed Isidore Bakanja, layman and martyr of the Scapular of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Today the Order comes together to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the Church's recognition of the holiness of this Congolese Catholic who would not give up his scapular.

Isidore Bakanja was born in Bokendela (Democratic Republic of Congo) around 1885. Leaving his village, he moved to Mbandaka, where he was baptized on May 6, 1906 and confirmed a few months later, on November 25, 1906. He was heavily influenced by the witness of the Trappist missionaries, cultivating a special devotion to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Despite the difficulties he encountered at work because of his fidelity to Christ, he remained steadfast in his faith. On February 2, 1909, he suffered an atrocious scourging because he refused to get rid of the scapular of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel which he wore over his shoulders. Following a terrible beating and sensing his impending death, he received the anointing of the sick on July 24, 1909. Just as Christ died having forgiven his wrongdoers, so Bakanja died having forgiven his executioner: “The white man hit me; that's his business. It's up to him and God. When I get to heaven, I'll pray a lot for him and ask God to forgive him.”

Bakanja died on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1909, at the age of 24. In imitation of Christ, whom he had followed from the moment of his baptism, Isidore Bakanja lived in his own way, like Saint Paul, who wrote: “For me, to live is Christ.” (Philippians 1, 21). "For me, to live is to be a Christian."

On June 7, 1917, his remains were exhumed and buried at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Bokote. He was proclaimed Blessed on April 24, 1994. His cause for canonization is now underway. Popes Benedict XVI and Francis have recognized and proposed Blessed Isidore Bakanja as an authentic witness and example of faith for all Christians in the world. In his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit, Pope Francis named Blessed Isidore Bakanja among the young saints who today mobilize Christians in their quest for holiness and inspire new conversions. In short, Blessed Isidore Bakanja is a spiritual and ecclesial heritage for the world.

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Pope John Paul II declared St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, along with St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Siena, as co-patronesses of Europe on October 1, 1999. The pope gave his rationale in a motu proprio Spes aedificandi:

Accordingly, during the celebration of the Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops, on the eve of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, it has seemed to me that the Christians of Europe, as they join their fellow-citizens in celebrating this turning-point in time, so rich in hope and yet not without its concerns, could draw spiritual benefit from contemplating and invoking certain Saints who are in some way particularly representative of their history. Therefore, after appropriate consulation, and completing what I did on 31 December 1980 when I declared Co-Patrons of Europe, along with Saint Benedict, two Saints of the first millennium, the brothers Cyril and Methodius, pioneers of the evangelization of the East, I have decided to add to this group of heavenly patrons three figures equally emblematic of critical moments in the second millennium now drawing to its close: Saint Bridget of Sweden, Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross. Three great Saints, three women who at different times—two in the very heart of the Middle Ages and one in our own century—were outstanding for their fruitful love of Christ's Church and their witness to his Cross.

We link to the full text of the motu proprio. Numbers 8 and 9 are specifically about Edith Stein-- St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. We hope you enjoy these inspiring words on St. Teresa Benedicta day.

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7 August | Feast

There are three general practices to which our profession obliges us: obedience, chastity, and the renunciation of ownership. These are common to the profession of all Orders. As far as these practices are concerned there is no difference between the Orders except in their dress; they are all essentially one, as it were, as long as they are equally strict, and all who observe the same practices with equal strictness are worthy of equal merit.

But in our Order, as in every other, these general practices are reinforced by others that are more particular, and by these the Orders are distinguished one from another, some being stricter than others. With regard to these practices any religious who has asked permission, even if it has not been granted, is allowed by common law to transfer from one Order to another to gain the benefit of a more perfect way of life.

“How great are your works! Your thoughts are very deep.” “The dull man cannot know these things indeed, nor the fool understand them.” “Who has known the mind of the Lord whose wisdom is beyond measure, or who has been his counsellor?” For the Lord, whose providence is unerring in its dispositions, designedly set some in the desert with Mary, when it was his purpose to array the garden of the Church Militant with a diversity of Orders, and others with Martha in the city. Those endowed with learning, industrious in the study of the Scriptures, and of adequate moral probity, he established in the city, so that they could exercise their zeal in nourishing the people with his word. Those of a simpler cast, however, those with whom he holds secret colloquy, he marked out to be sent into the desert with the Prophet who said: “Lo, I have journeyed afar in flight; I fixed my abode in the wilderness. I awaited him who saved me from faintheartedness, and from the tempest.”

He uses the word 'Lo' demonstratively, to draw attention to his words, as if to say: “See what I have done, and do likewise yourself. In my flight from the turmoil of the world I did not stay to dwell within the walls of the city, nor in its suburbs, nor amid its outlying gardens nor anywhere in the neighborhood, but I journeyed afar in flight, and ‘fixed my abode in the wilderness.’ And I ‘fixed my abode;’ there is truth: I did not return to the city after a few days, as they do now, but I fixed my abode in the wilderness, awaiting ‘him who saved me from faint-heartedness and from the tempest.’”

With such special care has the Lord provided for the guidance of all religious, whether in the desert or in the city, that in his infinite wisdom he has given them all, through those best qualified to draw up their Rules, their own distinct ways of life, the ways he knew to be best suited to each of the Orders in the circumstances its members would find themselves in.

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July 27 | Memorial

A new awareness of Thy love
Encompasses my heart:
Sweet Jesus, I in Thee and Thou
In me shall never part.

No grief shall fall my way but I
Shall see thy grief-filled eyes;
The lonely way that Thou once walked
Has made me sorrow-wise.

All trouble is a white-lit joy
That lights my darkest day;
Thy love has turned to brightest light
This night-like way.

If I have Thee alone,
The hours will bless
With still, cold hands of love
My utter loneliness.

Stay with me, Jesus, only stay;
I shall not fear
If, reaching out my hand,
I feel Thee near.

Translated by Fr. Gervase Toelle, O. Carm.

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26 July Memorial

According to some of the apocryphal traditions, Joachim was a very wealthy and generous man. However, he and his wife, Anne, were childless until they were advanced in years. One day, before Anne conceived Mary, Joachim arrived at the Temple to make an offering. It was rejected by a man named Rubim, most likely a Levitical priest, because Joachim was childless. Rubim rebuked Joachim for bringing offerings before he had a child. Children were exceedingly important at that time and someone childless was seen as in disfavor with God.

Distressed, Joachim left the Temple and studied the Scriptures to see if he could find anyone of importance who, like he and Anne, were childless. When he came upon Abraham, he recalled that Abraham was only given a child in his old age. Rather than returning home to Anne, Joachim embarked on a forty-day period of fasting and praying in the desert, beseeching God for a child.

Anne, for her part, also went to pray, asking God for a child. As she prayed, an angel appeared to her and communicated that God had heard her prayer and she would have a child who “will be spoken in all the world.” An second messenger from God appeared to Joachim and assured him that God had heard his prayer and that his wife would conceive. Nine months later, the child arrived and was names Mary.

Because of a vow Anne and Joachim had made, when Mary was only three, they brought her to the Temple where she took up residence until it was time for her to be married. She was educated by the priests and holy women and spent her days in prayer and union with God.

Though this story of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s birth and presentation in the Temple comes from apocryphal sources, the Presentation of Mary in the Temple is a liturgical feast first celebrated in the Eastern Church as early as the sixth century and the Western Church in the eleventh century. In the old city of Jerusalem, there still stands an ancient church next to the Temple Mount in which it is believed that the Blessed Virgin Mary was born and might have lived during her early days after being presented in the Temple.

Though not much more is known about Saints Joachim and Anne, devotion to them, especially to Saint Anne, began to grow as early as the sixth century. Churches were built in her honor, prayers were offered for her intercession, devotions were formulated, and patronages were attributed to her. It wasn’t until the sixteenth century that devotion to Saint Joachim began to grow when his feast day was placed on the General Roman Calendar.

St. Anne  is now  the patron saint of grandparents, grandmothers, mothers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, dressmakers, equestrians, expectant mothers, homemakers, housewives, lace workers, seamstresses, miners, old-clothes dealers, Canada, and France. Saint Joachim is also patron saint of grandparents as well as grandfathers, fathers, married couples, cabinetmakers, and linen traders.

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The celebration of the solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Bobo Dioulassou, Burkina Faso began with a procession at 1700hrs and finished with Mass which ended at 2100hrs followed by a meal for all attendees.

24 July Memorial

Important to the life of the Carmelite Order was the foundation of female monasteries by John Soreth. As soon as he was elected prior general on November 1, 1451, Soreth himself affiliated the beguinage of Ten Elsen near Geldern in 1452, confirming it the following year by appealing to the papal bull Cum nulla (October 7, 1452), with which Pope Nicholas V recognized the Carmelites' right to have female monasteries like other mendicant orders. It is unknown who requested the bull. Certainly, a decisive role, at least in speeding up the process, was played by the community of the Carmine in Florence, which boasted a long history of bringing women into the Order and perhaps wished to clarify and formalize the situation of some women who had joined the Order on August 15, 1450.

Soreth used the bull to found monasteries in Flanders, Germany, and Britain, in which he wanted cloistered life from the outset. The special bond with the reformed friars requested by Soreth confirms his plan to entrust the female communities with a role of spiritual support for the difficult project of reforming the Order. After the Beguines of Ten Elsen, Soreth incorporated the sisters of Nieukerk (1455), and at the same time the community of Dinant was founded, followed by Liège (1457) and Bondon in Brittany, where in 1468 the Duchess Françoise d'Amboise entered. In 1466, Harlem and Huy were founded, followed by Namur in 1468 and Vilvoorde in 1469. (Giovanni Soreth, by Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm. in Dizionario Carmelitano)

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20 July

Throughout St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, there are the statues of 34 founders of orders and congregations. On the side of the pier of St. Helena, housing the relic of the True Cross, stands the statue of Elijah the Prophet. The artist Agostino Cornacchini has Elijah pointing to the light entering the aspe. This was the third statue placed in St. Peter’s and was to honor the Order of Carmelites.

The inscription at the bottom of the statue reads: Cartouche - UNIVERSUS / CARMELITARUM ORDO / FUNDATORI SUO S. ELIAE / PROPHETAE EREXIT / A. MDCCXXVII. (The entire Carmelite Order erected this status to its founder in 1727.)

Controversy developed before the statue even reached its place in the basilica. Many denied the truthfulness of the claim of Carmelites that Elijah was their founder, certainly not in the same sense that the other thirty-seven statues around the basilica were founders.

Today Carmelites speak of Elijah, along with Mary, as an inspirational figure on whose experiences they partly base their spirituality. They had established themselves near the fountain of Elijah on Mount Carmel and now see their lives as in spiritual succession to that of Elijah.

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13 July Optional Memorial in Latin America

Juana Fernandez Solar was born on 13th July 1900 at Santiago in Chile, to Christian middle-class parents. Two days after her birth, she was baptized. The example and the teaching of her parents were the foundation of her Christian education. She was confirmed on 22th October 1909 and made her First Communion on 11th September 1910.

On 7th May 1919, to the joy of her parents, she joined the Discalced Carmelite nuns in the city of Los Andes, taking the name of Teresa of Jesus.

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July 9 | Memorial

Born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 1439, Bl. Jane Scopelli began her religious life at home living as a Carmelite mantellata (member of a Carmelite lay confraternity, wearing the white cloak or mantella). In 1480, after the death of her parents, she formed a community with a number of other like-minded women.

A few years later, in 1485, she acquired the house and the church belonging to the Humiliate in Reggio Emilia which she converted into a monastery. The nuns became known locally as "The White Nuns". The new community was affiliated to the Reformed Congregation of Mantua. Blessed Jane held the position of prioress in the community which grew to number twenty nuns. Many supernatural events were attributed to her and she was gifted with a great devotion to Our Lady, while living an intensely penitential life. She died on 9th July 1491 and her liturgical cult was approved by Pope Clement XIV in 1771.

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