Each year, the Carmelites deliver prayer cards for Our Lady of Mount Carmel throughout the entire country of El Salvador. Seven routes were drawn up for five teams to cover on July 1 and 2. Teams comprised of four Carmelites left from both Centro Xiberta Formation House and St. Alberto de Jerusalem Formation House. Two of the routes were specifically for locations with JUCAR (Carmelite Youth Groups). Other routes visited ten or so parishes each day. Cards were left at each location for distribution to the parishioners to celebrate the feast.

“An genuine presence of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is always an occasion of joy, fraternity, and sharing with the community,” said Juan Carlos Meléndez who was professed this past January. Noé Marcelo Girón, who also professed vowed in January of 2023, added, “To celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the best way to bring the love that we have to fullness.

A Video Message for the Solennity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16, 2023, from Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm, Prior General of the Order

A Novena by the Province of Australia and Timor Leste:  

The Province of Australia and Timor-Leste has made available nine days of prayer intentions which will be available online throughout the year. The prayer intentions are directed at  the needs of people throuhout the world.

Access the Novena here

Weekly Reflections from the British Province: 

Beginning on July 10, the British Province will be posting a weekly reflection on Carmelite Spirituality focusing on different aspects of our way of life and charism. The first reflection is on Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Access the Weekly Reflections here

Distribution of Prayer Cards for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Throughout El Salvador 

              Each year, the Carmelites deliver prayer cards for Our Lady of Mount Carmel throughout the entire country of El Salvador. Seven routes were drawn up for five teams to cover on July 1 and 2. Teams comprised of four Carmelites left from both Centro Xiberta Formation House and St. Alberto de Jerusalem Formation House. Two of the routes were specifically for locations with JUCAR (Carmelite Youth Groups). Other routes visited ten or so parishes each day. Cards were left at each location for distribution to the parishioners to celebrate the feast.

            “An genuine presence of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is always an occasion of joy, fraternity, and sharing with the community,” said Juan Carlos Meléndez who was professed this past January. Noé Marcelo Girón, who also professed vowed in January of 2023, added, “To celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the best way to bring the love that we have to fullness.

The Interesting Story of a Statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Huelva, Spain

            The story of the beautiful 16th century statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel maintained in the Carmelite church in Huelva, Spain. The anonymous work is from the Seville school of art. Our Lady is holding a scapular that is contained in a silver reliquary as the scapular was worn by St. Pope John Paul II. 

Watch the video here

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We would like to hear how others are celebrating the feast in their local communities or ministries. Please send a short writeup and pictures to the Communications Office (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Brothers and sisters in the Carmelite Family,

The 16^th of July unites people all around the world in celebration and thanksgiving for the gift of our love for Mary, the Mother of God, under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

In our tradition we recognise Mary as both Mother and Sister.  Under both of these titles I would like to reflect with you this year on the world in which we live, that world which God so loves and has always loved that he sent his only Son into it to be its Saviour.

Now that world is in pain, the very earth itself is in pain, and people in all parts of the world live each day without any security or hope in the future. Their conditions are determined, not by good or bad fortune, not by their own willingness or lack of willingness to work and be responsible, but by conditions that are determined by the social and economic policies of those who hold power and the greed and avarice of those who have used their talents to gain more and more for themselves and their immediate circles without any consideration for the people outside those circles. 

That is our world as it is today, or rather, that is but one dimension of the world as it is today. The other dimension is the one in which we see how individuals and organisations work hard to build a world of justice and equality. These people are many and they come from different schools of formation, from different religions and no religions, people who have a sense of equality and who act with justice in their own lives and seek justice from our institutions and governments.  We Carmelites are there. We are there because of our Carmelite calling that teach us the values for which Jesus gave his life, and which Mary and Elijah and our Carmelite saints exemplified in their openness to God and their love for their brothers and sisters living in the world.

My Soul Glories the Lord  Lk 1,46

Our life is made up of relationships. No one lives alone, and we live in a common home that has to be fully a home for all. All that we  try to do is aimed at building and maintaining a good relationship with God, with neighbour, with family, with all other human beings and with the earth itself. Good relationships are those in which the participants grow to maturity. Even God “grows” if we believe that the glory of God is the human person fully mature. The earth too grows to maturity, when it is able to fulfil the plan made for it by the Creator. Right and good relationship is a good way of understanding justice. It is what we have to build all the time in order to live in a way that respects the dignity of every human person as a child of God created in God’s image and likeness.

In Carmel, we honour our Lady as the Lady of the Place. We have understood Carmel to be a place of beauty, a garden full of beautiful flowers, pleasant odours, glorious colours and constant growth and harmony. Mary is the Lady of that place, made holy and beautiful by the lives of people who live in that place under the mantle of Mary.  Just as Carmelites are called to a life of prayer, they are called to dedicate their lives also to the cultivation of the place that belongs to Mary.

If I take a look at the world I will see where people are fulfilling that calling. It is there in all that we do. It is there in the lives of our cloistered sisters, in their monasteries, in the lives of Carmelite sisters working with the sick, or in schools, or in parish ministry, it is there in the lives of lay people who live good lives and do their best to create environments in which people can live in dignity and friendship, it is there in the lives of friars in their communities, their parishes, schools, prison chaplaincy, care for the sick, spiritual accompaniment and the list continues. It is true that sometimes we keep working without a great consciousness of the good we are doing and the difference that exists between our world and the world of the greedy and ruthless and uncaring. But the difference is there and it is motivated by our prayer and by our life in community. 

This quest for justice is also to be seen in the work of people on the margins. In many instances Carmelites around the world have reached out in a particular way, to people who are homeless, people caught up in the tyranny of chemical dependence or in the web of human trafficking, to people who have no access to education or to healthcare and need the help of those who know how to love with a gospel love. Our history speaks to us of a constant commitment to the poor. In that place that Mary watches over, the poor have pride of place. In that place the poor teach us how to hold on to hope when there is very little sign of hope other than our trust in God and our trust in people. It is remarkable that having been so badly treated by people the poor continue to hope in people.  The world of the poor, the place that belongs to Mary, is a welcoming place, the gates, security cameras, guard dogs have been removed, there is nothing to defend. That is our poverty too, that we have nothing to defend, because God is the one who defends us and all we are called to do is defend the name of God so that it is not used to justify selfish interests, and to defend the image of God on the face and in the lives of every one of our brothers and sisters.

If for some reason there are Carmelites who live in a world that is built around themselves and their own needs and ideas, a selfish world that purports to be a religious world, then the celebration of the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel may be a moment to reflect, and to move out of the pursuit of our own selfish interests. Mary’s Yes is an example for everybody of the person who listens to the voice of God. That voice today comes to us through the Word, the Church and the world, where the cry of the poor is as strong as ever, awaiting a response from people consecrated to living in allegiance to Jesus Christ. Today Mary, our sister, makes that cry her own. She weeps for her sons and daughters who find it difficult to say no to all forms of war, to the pursuit of selfish ends no matter what the cost to others. She weeps to see so much disregard for the elderly, the offering of so many unhealthy values to the young and so many arbitrary decisions about the lives of the unborn.

We cannot any longer be indifferent to the reckless use of weapons, expensive weapons, around the world. There has to be a way of recognising that a gun has no other purpose than to injure or destroy the life of a living organism, more often than not a human person. We cannot see the talents of so many young people go to waste while they live on the streets and find their way into gangs who out of cruelty and desperation destroy the lives of their members and of others who get in their way. We cannot close our hearts to the children who are forced to grow up in refugee camps or on the banks of dried up rivers, with nothing to eat and nothing to drink and lives that only last a few days.  For all who have the kind of commitment and sensitivity that will build a just and peaceful world,  Laudato si. Let God be praised! Let him be praised in our lives and all our actions aimed at building the world that God has prepared for us. To achieve that God will continue to put forth his arm in strength, to scatter the proud hearted, to cast the mighty from their thrones and raise up the lowly, to fill the starving with God things and send the rich away empty. 

May these days of celebration be for all of us an inspiration to do all that we can, knowing that if we do more the Lord will reward us on his return.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us. 

Fraternally,

Míċeál O’Neill, O.Carm

Prior General

pdf Download the Message here (76 KB)

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.

Read more here

Lifting the burden; lightening the load
(Matthew 11:25-30)

• pdf Celebrating At Home - 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF] (3.76 MB)
• default Celebrating At Home - 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time [ePub] (766 KB)
• pdf Celebrando en Familia - 14 Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (423 KB)
• pdf Celebrando in Casa - 14 Domenica del Tempo Ordinario (425 KB)
• pdf Celebrando em familia - 14 Domingo do Tempo Comum (426 KB)

Each week Pope Francis meets with pilgrims from around the world in St. Peter’s Square. On June 7, he acknowledged the presence of the relics of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face in St. Peter’s Square which are touring the world. Highlighting Thérèse as patroness of the missions, the pope said, “It is good that this is happening as we reflect on the passion for evangelization, on apostolic zeal. Today, then, let us allow the witness of Saint Thérèse to help us.”

The year 2023 is the 150th anniversary of the Carmelite saint’s birth and the 100th anniversary of her beatification. The pope has stated that he will dedicate an Apostolic Letter to her during this anniversary year.

During his catechesis, Pope Francis stressed the missionary spirit of Thérèse even though she never went on mission. “She recounts in her “diary” that her desire was to be a missionary, and that she wanted to be one, not just for a few years, but for the rest of her life, even until the end of the world. Thérèse was a “spiritual sister” to several missionaries. She accompanied them from her monastery with her letters, with her prayer, and by offering continuous sacrifices for them. Without being visible, she interceded for the missions, like an engine that, although hidden, gives a vehicle the power to move forward,” the pope recalled.

The pope asked rhetorically and encouraged his listeners to ask themselves the same “… where did all this zeal, this missionary strength, and this joy of interceding come from?” His answer led him to conclude that all Christians are called to be missionaries. “A missionary is also anyone who lives as an instrument of God’s love where they are. Missionaries are those who do everything so that, through their witness, their prayer, their intercession, Jesus might pass by.

He then reiterated that apostolic zeal “never works by proselytism—never—or constraint—never—but by attraction. Faith is born of attraction. One does not become Christian because they are forced by someone, but because they have been touched by love.”

The worldwide tour of the relics of Saint Teresa began in 1994, and has stopped in nearly 70 countries; the relics of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, Thérèse’s parents, have traveled the world since 2015.

The Gothic reliquary will in Lisbon, Portugal during World Youth Day from July 25-August 6. It will also be in the Catalonian region of Spain from October 16-23, and in the Diocese of Nantes from October 30-November 13, 2023.

The Centenary reliquary has been visiting 53 dioceses in the Philippines, starting on January 2 and the visit will conclude on April 30, 2023. This is the 5th visit of the relics to that country. The reliquary will then go to the Diocese of Krakow in Poland from August 10-31.

From September 16-October 2, both the Centenary reliquary and the reliquary of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin will be at the National Shrine of St. Thérèse on the Aylesford Carmelite campus in Darien, Illinois. Both reliquaries will then be hosted by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis (Minnesota) from October 3-16, 2023.

Pope Francis Catechesis – June 7, 2023 General Audience

English: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2023/documents/20230607-udienza-generale.html

1. Centenary Reliquary 
2. Gothic Reliquary
3. Louis and Zelie Martin Reliquary

The Carmelite monastery of San José in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, celebrated its triennial elective chapter on June 30, 2023.

In 1642, the noble lady, Anna de Lanzós, donated her palace for a monastery in San Juan. King Philip IV issued royal permission in 1646. Efforts to import Carmelite nuns from Seville were blocked because of the dangers of sea travel. So three Dominican nuns came from Queen of Angels monastery in San Domingo came to initiate Carmelite life according to the Carmelite Rule (1651) and the monastery was canonically erected. Lady Anna, who donated her house to be the monastery, and her sister entered the monastery. After the Dominicans returned to their monastery, Anna took over as prioress. The monastery was later transferred to the cities of San Germán (1903) and Santurce (1910) and currently is in Trujillo Alto.

The results of the elective chapter were as follows:

Prioress | Priora | Priora:
Madre Carmen Noemí Marrero Marrero, O. Carm.

1st Councilor  | 1ª Consejera | 1ª Consigliera:
Sor Linda María Pérez González, O. Carm.

2nd Councilor | 2ª Consejera  | 2ª Consigliera:
Sor Lutgarda María Reyes Maldonado, O. Carm.

Director of Novices | Maestra de Novicias | Maestra delle Novizie:
Sor Linda María Pérez González, O. Carm.

July 2 - 6 Celebrations and conference on Edith Stein, at The Friars, Aylesford. 

July 10 - 18 Canonical visitation of communities in Cameroon.

July 19 - 27 Canonical visitation of communities in Burkina Faso.