From November 16 to 21, 2015, 38 young Carmelites from the Asia-Australia-Oceania geographical area who are in their 1st to 5th year in ministry gathered in Malang, Indonesia, in order to know each other, to share their experiences on ministry among themselves and extract the lessons from them, and to dream for the Order as they continue their journey being the future leaders of the region and of the Order. The gathering was guided by the theme: Nurturing Carmelite Vocation in the Year of Consecrated Life.

To lead them in their discussion and helping them to make sense of their experiences, various speakers were invited. Fr. Christian Buenafe, O.Carm, Prior Provincial of Carmel Philippines, came to share his views about the reality, gifts and challenges of religious living in community and doing ministry as he talked about Sharing Our Lives with Others: Finding the Balance in the Tension of Community and Ministry. Fr. Noel Deslate, a diocesan priest from the Philippines and a director of the Galilee Institute devoted to helping priests and religious with problems, came to talk about Boundaries and Intimacy in the Ministry. Fr. Robert Puthussery, O.Carm., Prior Provincial of St. Thomas Province of India, came to talk about Consecrated Religious in the Midst of the People. The participants, being young Carmelites and confronted with the lures of the modern world, Fr. Stephanus Buyung, O.Carm., Director of Marian Center based Jakarta, Indonesia, came to share about Reclaiming and Nurturing Our Contemplative Gift as Carmelites in Today's World. Fr. Benny Phang Khong Wing, O.Carm, General Councilor for Asia-Australia-Oceania and for Formation, capped the course by suggesting to the young Carmelites that they are the future of the Order in his discussion about Building the Theotokoi Community: Carmelite Lifestyle in the Changing World.

The course was a mixture of prayer, study, relax and fraternal sharing as well as dreaming for the future of the Order. All the participants were grateful for the opportunity to gather together as brothers in the geographical area. They went home to each of their own province wiser, hopeful and inspired to do more in the ministries in the name of the Order, and looking forward to their next gathering!

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Ravenna, Italy, was held 21 November 2015. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. Anastasia Cucca, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:   Sr. M. Elisabetta Mambelli, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. M. Barbara Stella, O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:   Sr. M. Paola Teresa Laudicina, O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:   Sr. Hilda Maria Duran, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Elisabetta Mambelli, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. M. Pia Malmesi, O.Carm.
• Sacristan:  Sr. M. Barbara Stella, O.Carm.

With joy and fraternity we offer you a new edition of E-Bulletin for the Carmelite Laity. This time around, you will find some testimonies from people who have come closer to God through the Carmelite spirituality that we offer in our various groups and institutions.

Likewise, we will read the news of the re-foundation of the Third Order in Sergipe, in northeastern Brazil, where this group had almost disappeared, and was reborn due to the interest of the local bishop and the friars who returned to work with the faithful of this place.

We are also happy to learn about the constancy of the Carmelite Family in the Philippines that met last July completing 23 years of consecutive annual meetings. One of its members offers us a short reflection on Saint Teresa, and with it, we close the V Centenary of the birth of this great saint and our sister.

Lay Carmelites also participate in many ministries in the Church. In this issue we highlight some of the apostolates of the Lay Carmelite and their great experience in these places.

We are pleased to announce the new official website of the Lay Carmelites. The Website provides the latest news, activities and events of the Carmelite Laity around the world, and also features many articles and lectures from and for the laity. Please bookmark and visit it at www.ocarm.org/lay/en

We welcome your comments and suggestions, and would like to ask you to contribute news, articles and activities from your communities to enrich this website.

Please click here to download the E-bulletin

http://ocarm.org/ebook/laybulletin/no4/no4en.pdf

From 4-7 November 2015, a total of 50 bursars from each province, commissariat, and delegation, gathered in Fatima, Portugal, at Hotel Casa Sao Nuno, for the Triennial Bursar's Meeting. This included 12 lay people who also work and collaborate in this ministry in their given provinces.

The Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., opened the meeting with a talk pertaining to some issues on the economy of our Order and thanked the bursars for their participation. He also presided at the opening Mass.

Craig Morrison, O.Carm., began the meeting with a Lectio Divina on Acts 5 and spoke about "Luke, Pope Francis, and the Economy." He pointed out the numerous parables in Luke that have a reference to money and the poor, and shared Pope Francis' interpretation of these parables. Bernadette Porter, RSCJ, gave a talk on "The Community of Goods," and shared her experience of central financing with regards to missions and developing areas of the world. Albert Anuszewski, OSST, a member of the General Finance Commission, spoke about the Vatican document on the "Guidelines for the Administration of Assets in Institutions of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life." Time was also set aside for Jurek Borucki, advisor to the Curia, to give a global picture of the finances of Carmel throughout the world.

The meeting was held in a spirit of transparency and honesty, while also taking time to share together in language and regional groups. Masses, prayer services, and meals highlighted a spirit of openness to one another, including a mass at The Shrine and the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima.

Special thanks to Ricardo Rainho, O.Carm., and Agostinho Castro, O.Carm., and members of the Portugal Commissariat for their warm hospitality throughout the gathering.

By Ann Schneible

On the 500th anniversary of St. Teresa of Avila's birth, Pope Francis praised the Spanish mystic and reformer for her witness of self-gift to God, as well as her particular relevance during this Year of Consecrated Life.

“How much goodness does the testimony of her consecration – born directly from the encounter with Christ, her experience of prayer as continuous dialogue with God, and her community life, rooted in the motherhood of the Church – do for us!” the Pope said, according to Vatican Radio's translation.

In a March 28 letter addressed to Fr Xavier Cannistrà, superior general of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, the pontiff wrote that it is providential that the anniversary of the saint's birth should coincide with the Year of Consecrated Life, which began late last year.

St. Teresa of Avila, the Holy Father said, “shines as a sure and attractive model of total self-giving to God.”

Born March 28, 1515 in Avila, Spain, St. Teresa is known as a mystic and reformer. Entering the Carmelite order in 1535, she became disillusioned by the laxity of monastic life within the cloister, and committed herself to reforming the order. She is considered one of the founders of the Discalced Carmelites.

During her lifetime, St. Teresa wrote several important works on the spiritual life, such as Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection. Canonized 40 years after her death in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, she was declared as one of the first ever female doctors of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

St. Teresa of Avila remains relevant for consecrated men and women, Pope Francis wrote, as demonstrated by her prayer life, her proclamation of the Gospel, and her understanding of the importance of community life.

Describing her as “primarily a teacher of prayer,” the pontiff said that “the discovery of Christ's humanity was central to her experience.”

For St. Teresa, prayer arose in all occasions, not simply in times and places of seclusion, the Pope said. Moreover, she believed that “continuous prayer” – even when it was imperfect – had value.

“The saint asks us to be steadfast, faithful, even in times of dryness, personal difficulties or urgent needs that call us.”

The “concrete proposals” and methods of prayer left by St. Teresa offers “us a great treasure to renew consecrated life today,” the Pope said.

“Far from closing us in on ourselves or leading us only to inner balance, (they) always make us start again from Jesus and constitute a genuine school to grow in love for God and neighbor.”

Pope Francis went on to describe St. Teresa as a “tireless communicator of the Gospel,” at a time when the Church was in the midst of difficulties. Instigator of the “Teresian reform” of the laxities demonstrated by the Carmelite cloister in which she lived, she demonstrated a “missionary and ecclesial dimension has always marked the Carmelites and Discalced Carmelites,” he said.

“Even today the saint opens new horizons for us, she calls us to a great undertaking, to see the world with the eyes of Christ, to seek what He seeks and to love what He loves.”

Finally, St. Teresa recognized the importance of “authentic community life” in sustaining both prayer and the evangelical mission, the Pope said.

Warning against “the danger of individualism in fraternal life,” he added, the saint commends those living in community to place themselves “at the service of others,” with a humility consisting “of self-acceptance, awareness of one’s own dignity, missionary courage, gratitude and trust in God.”

“Teresian communities are called to become houses of communion, capable of witnessing to fraternal love and to the motherhood of the Church, presenting to the Lord the needs of the world, torn by divisions and wars.”

Pope Francis concluded by imparting his Apostolic blessing, praying that the Carmelite community's “witness to life” would allow “the joy and beauty of living the Gospel to shine and attracts many young people to follow Christ closely.”

The worldwide Year for Consecrated life began November 30, 2014 and will continue until the World Day of Consecrated Life on February 2, 2016.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com

The Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey on Monday May 20, 2009 opened an investigation into an alleged miracle believed to have been worked by Servant of God Mother Mary Angeline Teresa McCrory, the foundress of the Germantown, New York-based Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm.

Mother McCrory spent her life caring for the elderly and ailing in long-term care facilities operated by the Carmelite Sisters, who now operate 17 elder-care facilities around the country and one in Ireland. Mother McCrory died in 1984 at the age of 91. "Sometimes you hear about somebody being an imposing figure," said Sister Kevin Patricia Lynch, a Carmelite sister who knew Mother McCrory, told MyCentralJersey.com. "She was very imposing, but very warm."

At a 20-minute ceremony at the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center, Bishop of Metuchen Paul G. Bootkoski formally opened the diocese’s investigation into the alleged miracle, the details of which are not being made public.

However, Mother Mark Louis Randall, superior general of the Carmelite Sisters, told MyCentralJersey.com that the reputed miracle involves a family in the diocese’s general area that prayed to Mother McCrory to intercede with God after their unborn child was diagnosed with a genetic abnormality. When the child was born, the defect was not as severe as expected.

About twenty sisters from Carmelite elder care facilities attended the ceremony, where Bishop Bootkoski and a panel of investigators took oaths promising to put God and the Church first. They also promised to keep the details they learn in the investigation secret until the process is complete.

Lori Albanese, diocesan chancellor and notary of the investigation, said the process might take about four months. Officials will interview family and friends of the child, as well as medical experts. The medical experts will include two people who are independent of the Church and the case.

She explained that the investigative panel’s task is to collect evidence, not to determine whether the case is an actual miracle attributed to Mother McCrory.

Mother McCrory’s home diocese, the Diocese of Albany, has also extensively investigated her life.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints will decide on whether there was an actual miracle attributable to her. If the miracle is verified, Mother McCrory can be beatified. If a second miracle is then attributed to her, she may be canonized.

Those who believe their prayers for Mother McCrory’s intercession have resulted in a miracle are asked to contact the Carmelite Sisters.

Recently, from the 26th to the 32st of October, the 4th Congress of the Association of Latin American Carmelites (ALACAR) took place at the retreat house of the Sagrado Corazón de Cantón Ayagualo (La Libertad, El Salvador). This gathering is held every three years. Up to now it has been held in Lima (Peru) in 2006, in Villa Leiva (Colombia) in 2009, and in Sao Paolo (Brazil) in 2012.

On this occasion, there were 130 participants, including friars, both O.Carm. and O.C.D., cloistered nuns, O.C.D., sisters of various congregations of apostolic life, and lay Carmelites from various groups (Third Order, Secular Carmelites, Youth groups, etc.) The main theme of the congress was, “Teresa of Jesus: woman, mystic and prophet: A window of hope for Lain America”. The speakers included, the Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., who spoke about prophesy in Carmel today; the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Saverio Cannistrà, O.C.D. who spoke about prophesy in the mysticism of Teresa of Jesus;  Fr. Oswaldo Escobar, O.C.D. provincial of the Central American province, who spoke about Teresa’s conversions, and Bishop Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, Nicaragua, who spoke about the relationship between Teresa of Jesus and “Evangelii gaudium”.

On the last day, the participants visited a number of places associated with the life of Bishop Oscar Romero: UCA (The University of Central America), where the group of Jesuits and their co-worker were assassinated, and where they keep the Scapular that Romero was wearing when he died; the Cathedral in the crypt of which the remains of Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero are kept; the little hospital where the house that Romero lived in is located, as well as the chapel in which he was assassinated and where the final Mass of this year’s congress was celebrated.

The meeting was organised and coordinated by Fr. Raul Maravi Cabrera, O.Carm., Councillor General for the Americas and Bro.Luis David Pérez, O.C.D., along with Fr. Francisco Javier Mena, O.C.D., Definitor for Latin America. The joint O.Carm.- O.C.D. commission will continue to work in preparation for the next meeting in 2018.

Pope's Prayer Intentions

Universal: Dialogue - That we may be open to personal encounter and dialogue with all, even those whose convictions differ from our own.

Evangelization: Pastors - That pastors of the Church, with profound love for their flocks, may accompany them and enliven their hope.

Lectio Divina November - Noviembre - Novembre 2015