The Commission for the Laity met for the third time from the 30th May–1st June at Sassone. The meeting was chaired by the General Delegate for the Laity, Fr. Josef Jancar.

Members discussed the organization of the next International Congress of Lay Carmelites to be held in Sassone next year. The conference, whose theme is "The Formation of Lay Carmelites for the Apostolate, " will begin on Sunday, 16th September and end on Friday, 21st September 2012. It went on to develop the Commentary on the Guidelines for the Formation of Lay Carmelites, with which it wishes to provide a tool to be used for training at an international level. Among other topics on the agenda, the Commission also attempted to offer concrete suggestions on how to finance the Permanent Secretariat for the Laity in particular, and other initiatives for our laity at the international level; finally, a structure for mor e effective communication was set up.

As part of the recent meeting of the Carmelite Family, the first meeting of the Secretariat for the nuns, an advisory body of the Delegate General for the nuns, was held on the 21st May 2011 in the Curia residence in Rome. At that meeting, chaired by the delegate Fr. Josef Jancar, O. Carm., nuns appointed by the General Council took part: Sr. Liliana de la R. Campos Rosa (ANT), Sr. Maria Pilar Simon i Blasco (BAR), Sr. M. Elena Tolentino Zarzuela (BUR), Sr. Maria Caprio (VET). The Prior General greeted them at the beginning of the meeting, stressing the importance of their work in helping the General Council in matters pertaining to the nuns, and he expressed his good wishes for their work.

In addition to the tasks set out in the six-year plan of the General Council, several issues relating to the cloistered life were discussed: vocations and formation, government, canonical visitations, criteria for foundations and the enclosure, the role of religious assistants of the Federations and provincial delegates to the nuns. The idea of organizing a meeting for the assistants and delegates in order to clarify their respective roles and share experiences was accepted. The need to revise the Constitutions and the Directory and to draw up an international economic directory was recognized. It was thus decided that the Secretariat should present suggestions to the general delegate, to be sent to all communities for study and the sharing of observations, before presenting everything to the General Council and to the Apostolic See for approval. Because of the particular situation of the cloist ered nuns, the work of the Secretariat will continue online, except when there is need for face-to-face meetings, always with the consent of the Holy See.

The International Formation Commission of the Order met in Rome from the 7th to 9th June, 2011 under the presidency of John Keating, O,Carm., Councillor General for formation. The commission, which meets annually, reviewed the issues facing formation in the Order today and finalized the updated text of the Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitana (RIVC) taking into account the recommendations made by the formators of the Order during their meeting in Camocim, Brazil in 2010. They prepared for the forthcoming on-going formation course in the Holy Land in September 2012 and reflected on the report on formation to be presented at the General Congregation of the Order in Niagara, Canada in September 2011. Finally, they prepared for the next meeting of the commission which will specifically address the role and structure of the pre-novitiate, the five-year period of formation in the post solemn profes sion/ordination period, the Order’s rites of profession and the emerging needs for both regional and international centres of formation across the Order.

 On the 25th-26th of May 2011, a meeting was held in the Titus Brandsma Institute of Nijmegen (Netherlands) regarding a Carmelite retreat project. Sanny Bruijns (Neer), Charlo Camilleri (Mel) and Günter Benker (GerS) presented three retreat models, which emerged out of a formation context and inspired by the Carmelite retreat tradition, and were developed especially in the context of the Reform of Touraine. The three models were integrated together into one final model and discussed with Hein Blommestijn (Neer). It is hoped that in the near future the final model will be developed for the Order to be used in spiritual guidance and retreat work.

(photo: Carmelite Retreat Center in Mahwah, New Jesey)