Jean Khoury

The primary impulse of Lectio Divina is to introduce us into a relationship of divine friendship with the Lord, to allow him to speak to us and to (progressively) tell us all things: "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you" (Jn 15:15). Telling everything to another person truly is a sign of love. "(...) the Father loves the Son, and shows to him all what he himself is doing" (Jn 5:20a). lectio Divina is the eminent place where Christ-God will be able to speak to us, today, and tell us what he wants us to do. He will explain it to us: "and beginning from Moses, and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things about himself" (Lk 24:27).

It is impossible to assert that one should live by blind faith alone, opposing it to the understanding we get from the Word of God. Faith finds its sustenance in God's Word. If this Word is absent, faith becomes very meagre. Conversely, the Word of God, above all else, can fortify it. Faith is, firstly, the belief in a word that has been given. God speaks every day, he wants to speak to us: that is the basis of our faith. He will not say anything to us other than his Son, his Word, that he will give to us by little mouthfuls, in packages of light. We have a right, that of listening each day to the Lord who speaks to us and guides us. He wants his Word to remain in us; on this condition alone can we bear fruit that will remain for eternal life, "if you remain in me, and my words in you may remain, you may ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done to you. In this way my Father will be glorified, that you will bear much fruit, and you shall become my disciples" (Jn 15:7-8). We need to maintain a living and daily contact with the Word so that it may be active in our lives. People (and I am thinking particularly of those consecrated to God) who do not frequent the Word of God assiduously and on a daily basis let their faith and their dynamism die down, and easily slip away toward a human project and human thoughts. Their joy of living for God and of giving themselves to him, recedes before a lifestyle, which may be very active but where there is no place for God, it is without sap and without light. One's faith is directly proportional to one's contact with the Word of God. As the Psalm says: "Those who look to Yahweh, are radiant" (Ps 34:5). Looking to God means seeing His Face; now, His Face is His Son, the Son who speaks in the Scriptures; His Face can only be seen securely in the Scriptures. This is how the life of God shines forth. Listening to God implies becoming familiar with his way of thinking, getting used to thinking like him, seeing things as he does.

We have been informed in the Curia of a number of significant events taking place throughout the Carmelite world in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus. Our General Curia, through its International Formation Commission, will hold an on-going formation course in Spain from the 7th  - 17th of September 2014. Details of this course will be sent to the provincials, commissaries and delegates in the near future.

In the English speaking countries, the Carmelite Forum of Britain and Ireland (O.Carm./O.C.D. friars and nuns) are holding a series of important events, including conferences in London and Dublin. The former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Rowan Williams, is among the speakers taking part. A joint letter of the provincials and presidents of the two nuns associations can be read at www.teresaofavila.org. The Carmelite Institute in the United States has already begun a programme that will lead up to the 500th anniversary, entitled “Walking in her shoes for a day”. The will also hold a symposium on St. Teresa in Chicago in June 2015.

The Neapolitan Province held a congress in Bari on the 12th of October, 2013, with the title "Il Cielo è dentro di te" (Heaven is within you): Five lay people gave a presentation of the “Way of Perfection”, from the stand-point of lay people. The previous year, in the month of October, as always, a congress was held on "L'attualità pastorale del Libro della Vita di S. Teresa" (the pastoral relevance of the Autobiography of St. Teresa) with talks by Aniano Alvarez Suarez, O.C.D., in Bari, and Luigi Borriello, O.C.D. in Foggia.

In Portugal, a committee was set up for the Centenary. This committe includes the O.C.D. Province of Portugal, and O.Carm. General Commissariat of Portugal, and other Carmelite Congregations. The first event to be organised was a congress held in Fatima from the 17th to the 19th of October, last, on the Carmelite-Teresian school of prayer. A very good number of people from various Portuguese speaking countries attended.

Similarly, with a view to the Centenary, the publishers of the collection, Textos para un Milenio (Texts for a Millennium) published the work of Tomás de Jesus (d. 1582), the “Suma y compendio de los grados de oración” ( Summa and Compendium of the Stages of Prayer), one of the first attempts to systematise the thought of St. Teresa, as well as the "Sermones en honor de Santa Teresa de Jesús” (Sermons in honour of St. Teresa of Jesus) by the Carmelite Cristóbal de Avendaño (d. 1629). In addition, Edizioni Carmelitane in Rome, published the second edition, with many additions, of “Santa Teresa, San Juan de la Cruz y los Carmelitas Españoles” (St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross and the Spanish Carmelites) by Pablo Garrido, O.Carm.

My mission to make God loved will begin after my death. I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will send a shower of roses.

(St.Therese of Lisieux)

Sisters and Brothers in Carmel,

As you know, Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines last weekend.  As the Carmelite Family, we want to express our solidarity and closeness to our Brothers and Sisters in this tragic situation.  The Prior Provincial of the Province of Blessed Titus Brandsma, Christian “Toots” Buenafe, has let us know that our Carmelites are safe, but there is destruction to some of the convents and priories, along with devastation to the people they serve.

The Carmelites in the Philippines have set up Task Force Carmel Cares. If you wish to donate through the Curia in Rome please send your donations via your provincial bursar and we will make sure it reaches our Carmelites in the Philippines.  We recognize some provinces and countries will be donating through their local charities.

Please keep all the people of the Philippines in your prayers as they work to rebuild their lives and mourn the loss of loved ones.

General Council