This article is an adaptation from: Charlo Camilleri, O.Carm., Carmel: A Spirituality of Beauty, Dissertation presented in part fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Licentiate in Sacred Theology, University of Malta, Malta 2002, 88-91.

In the beauty of your eyes all paradise has been pleased[1]

Carmelite mystics and authors continually speak of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the one who through her beauty and virginal purity, in some sense, merited to be filled with God in the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. In many Carmelite texts Mary is compared metaphorically to a fertile land upon which God manifests his glory. Eloquent mystical texts are given to us by St Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi (1556-1607), a fascinating personality with a love for refined and beautiful things.

This Carmelite nun, well known among the Italian mystics, give importance to the correlation between Mary and purity which in turn is understood as beauty and spiritual transparency.  The spiritual experience and writing of Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi are filled abundantly with references, both direct and indirect, to the beauty and glory of God, or the Virgin Mary, and of the soul in the state of grace.  It is impossible here to give all references to her texts, which are full of symbolism. A selection of texts have been chosen to illustrate the line of thought and the mystical experience of this saint who, because of her many ecstasies, live a substantial part of her earthly pilgrimage in a sphere of consciousness beyond that of earth. The nuns who observed her during her ecstasies declared that she would have a very beautiful face with rosy cheeks, her face resplendent with such great majesty and grace, that she would not seem to be the same person.

For Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi, those who embark on the spiritual journey in Carmel are under the maternal protection and care of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The nuns of her monastery recorded that it was on “the 5 January, the vigil of the Epiphany while that beloved soul was hearing Mass in choir and thus while she was before the altar of the chapel of the Virgin, she was rapt as usual and she saw that the Virgin places us with great love under her mantle.”[2] Our Lady puts us under her white mantle because she “desires to sanctify our body and soul, so that one can say of us what is said of her holy and immaculate virginity! The glory of a mother is the grandeur, the wealth, and the beauty of her daughter.”[3] Living in a monastery dedicated to the mystery of the Assumption under the title of Santa Maria degli Angeli, St Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi in her ecstasies frequently contemplates this mystery at the end of the life of Our Lady. For our saint, the Virgin Mary was assumed into heaven because of her purity. It is also the purity of Mary which made possible the Incarnation of the Word: “The Eternal Father, fixing his eyes upon Mary, was pleased with her very great purity, because she had been the one who had drawn the Word from the Father and enclosed Him in her small womb.”[4]

To receive the gifts of God from Mary, a pure heart is needed: “To make the heart suited to receive gifts, it is necessary for it to be pure, resplendent and strong. Into such a heart, so pure, resplendent and strong, Mary can infuse her gifts and graces.”[5] For this reason, the vow of chastity in religious life binds and joins the soul with the Eternal Father “Who is Purity Itself.”[6] Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi says that “this purity is one of the closest bonds and unions that the soul could have with God, through that conformity which the soul has with God by being pure.”[7] After her profession on 27 May 1584, Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi said that Jesus gave her “purity of the Virgin Mary.”[8] Those who enter Carmel seem to be given birth spiritually by the Virgin Mary. These are given a mantle as white as that of the Virgin Mary, taking care of it diligently so as not to ruin the purity of the most sweet Mother. It is during the religious profession that Our Lady makes the souls of the religious resplendent with this virtue. Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi sees Mary as the model of mystical purity with which the soul has to be open to receive God. Mary purifies the Carmelite soul with the blood of Christ and also by feeding them her own milk, to transform these souls into white doves who fly into the five wounds of Jesus.

Even the Marian texts of St Mary Magdalene’s writings are highly Christological and deep in their theological content. In a Marian text found in The Probation, she contemplates the beauty and glory of the Word Incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She puts forward a parallelism between the womb of Mary and Mount Calvary. In the virginal womb of Mary, Jesus Christ has a beautiful face resplendent more than the sun, whilst on Calvary this beauty is hidden. In the womb of Mary, Christ is clothed with humanity, but in his passion he is clothed with a white cloak by those who scourged him and laughed at his innocence. Perhaps unconsciously, St Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi had in mind the Gospel text of the Transfiguration of our Lord. All through the text there is a continuous reference to the mystery of the kenois of the Word Incarnate:

“He descended into you, and the Holy Spirit formed and ordered the beautiful body of the Word, so small as it was. Nevertheless, that Word was and is so great the heaven cannot contain Him; yet he wished to be contained in the small womb of the little Virgin! But what creature has ever been able to understand Your grandeur, O Word? Those beautiful little eyes, which constantly saw that union which exists between the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the Word Himself existing in the union, what creature could ever comprehend their beauty? I see You at the same time so little, little in the womb of Mary, and on the cross. Please tell me, O Word, where did You stay more willingly, on the cross or in the womb of Mary? The cross was planted on a dreadful mountain, in earth that was arid, dry and sterile; and the womb of Mary was that so joyous, pleasing, blessed and fruitful earth which was to produce You, the fruit of life. You were naked in the womb of Mary, and naked on the cross. In the womb of Mary Your face was more resplendent than the sun; on the cross You no longer had beauty or comeliness. Remaining in the bosom of the Father, You aspired to the womb of Mary; and remaining in the womb of Mary, you aspired to the cross! Mary clothed You in the garment of humanity; they (those who mocked Jesus) clothed You in a white robe, in mockery, making Your innocence manifest in spite of themselves. Mary veiled Your divinity; and they veiled your resplendent face! Mary melted in looking at Your beautiful face; and they deformed it with their fetid spitting.”[9]

The Blessed Virgin Mary is almost always contemplated by St Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi as a companion in our spiritual journey towards Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity. Mary’s presence in the spiritual and mystical life of the saint is outstanding. The saint teaches us that we have to follow the Virgin Mary in her lifestyle so that we can participate with her in glory.

“O glorious Mary, and glorious the one who follows you! But then, to want to preserve our gifts and graces as Mary did, it is necessary to have what Mary had, whom after she was assumed into heaven, live a life lasting and eternal. The soul must have a perfect sight, in seeing God alone, it must have an unbelievable hearing, so that the soul through it may be doing whatever work you wish, great or small, or the most distracted that can be found, always takes its place before God and never leave aside what God seeks of it. Then it must have an agreeable and savour taste by which the soul, no matter what is placed before it whether sweet or bitter, goes on to taste everything in Christ crucified; for in this way one savours God, but crucified ….. I would wish to that such a soul, which has done what Mary does with the Word, that soul will crown Mary which will offer up all the merits of Mary, together with all the praise that has ever been given to her soul and with the merits of all the saints, with the desire of increasing her glory, however glorious that glory may be.”[10]

Living the same life as Mary, is to become beautiful and glorious as Mary is. This entails letting oneself to be mystically purified by God through suffering. Participation in the sufferings of Jesus grants the disciples participation in the glory of their Lord. St. Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi contemplates this in the life of the Virgin Mary, Queen of martyrs. It is Mary also who clothed us in the path of suffering following the footsteps of Christ on her example:

“The other mantle of her sacred martyrdom we must adorn by following her good example, her persevering faith, and living faith, because faith without works is dead. We must load it with the jewels of our anxious desires, when we have need of suffering all that she suffered – and much more, if it were possible (which it is not). For there is no creature that loves God as much as she loves Him. Who shares in Mary, let him become like Mary! Who shares in glory, let him become like in glory! Who shares in God, let him become like God!”[11]

[1] The Probation, II in The Complete Works of Saint Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi, Carmelite and Mystic (1566-1607), II, translated by the Very Rev Gabriel N. Pausback, O.Carm., (England 1973, 26-27). Hereafter CWMP

[2]  The Colloquies, I: CWMP, II, 26-27.

[3]  The Colloquies, I: CWMP, V, 243.

[4]  The Colloquies, I: CWMP, V, 20.

[5]  Ibid., 241-242.

[6]  The Forty Days: CWMP, I, 17.

[7]  Ibid., 17.

[8]  Ibid., 18.

[9]  Probation, I: CWMP., 296-298.

[10]  Probation, II: CWMP, V, 248-249.

[11]  Ibid., 246.

Meister Eckhart

The call from God to take on a particular way of life or important task can come in many different forms. I have come to integrate listening for the Presence of God into my own life experience after many years of spiritual and Carmelite formation.   Like Abraham and Moses, I should pay attention and be ready to respond when I have a sense that God is offering me a personal challenge.

This spiritual awareness prompted me to respond to the invitation of our Lay Carmelite Chaplain, Fr Paul Gurr, to undertake a life-changing visit to Timor Leste , along with several people in our local Parish of Kiama/Jamberoo, not long after the Timorese gained Independence.  Even though Timor Leste is our nearest neighbour, and one of the poorest and newest nations in the Asia-Pacific region, most Australians were not fully aware of East Timor’s history until their struggle for Independence began in earnest in the late 1990’s. 

I knew very little about the atrocities they had endured and was unprepared for that first visit -  for the overwhelming emotions I experienced - seeing the destruction and hearing the stories of persecution, carnage and terror they had faced.

The stories and locations of the violence began in Dili, but as we were guided and transported by the Carmelite friars over the mountainous terrain for a six hour journey to Zumalai, I began to feel their pain.  I witnessed the destruction in each of the districts we passed through. Their country had been occupied for over three hundred years - the disempowerment, created by hunger, poverty and death of thousands of their people was a testament to their courage and endurance.  The events of 1975 and 1999 were even more traumatic.  Names and news items we had all seen on television became a reality as our group stopped at various places of massacre and terror following the majority vote to claim Independence in 1999.

As part of my formation as a Lay Carmelite, and prior to the trip,  I had been reading our former  Prior General, Fr Joseph Chalmers’ letter “The God of Our Contemplation”.  On reflection, this little book helped me to realise that this visit was truly an encounter with God. I felt a deepening sense of anger and sorrow at what I had seen and heard: “through this experience we grow in solidarity with those who live in situations of deprivation and injustice”.  It seemed to me that the seeds of social justice were being watered by the tears of love and compassion for the people of Timor Leste and the God of Our Contemplation would place before  me the opportunities for these seeds to grow.  Following our short visit, it took many months of prayer and contemplation to try to understand the enormity of the injustice we had all been exposed to. The words of  Fr Joseph in his book ‘The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor’  threw some light on to my confusion:  this experience was a blessing, (even though it appeared to be the opposite) … a free gift to challenge us to commit ourselves to the working out of God’s plan for the world.  As we allow ourselves to be challenged by the poor and by the oppressed, we are gradually transformed and we begin to see the world with God’s eyes and to love the world with God’s heart.

It was a mistake to blame others for the situation, because each of us bore some responsibility.  As Australians, a sense of shame and guilt was developing in each of us as we gazed on their sad, stricken and traumatised faces and we wondered how we could have allowed our neighbour to suffer in this way, only 500 kms from our own shores.

Since then the fruits of our visit have continued to flourish in many areas of our local community.  We were all challenged to communicate the plight of the Timorese people to Australians at home. Our Parish Social Justice Group began raising consciousness of the injustice of previous Australian Government policy. When our Government disputed International maritime boundaries in 2006 to deny the Timorese the right to their own oil and gas in the Timor Sea, we petitioned on their behalf. Today, many Australian local government communities have been encouraged to develop friendships with another village or town in East Timor. This has happened between our own small town of Kiama and Zumalai in East Timor. Because communication from Timor even today faces so many infrastructural and technical difficulties, it is important for us to communicate information to our Australian communities, both secular and religious. I assist in whatever way I can our Mission Coordinator Sr Rosemary Patterson, to distribute regular updated bulletins to Australian and overseas Carmelites.   Assistance can be given in many ways. Our Parish Social Justice group is giving assistance to coffee growers in East Timor by selling their organic coffee. All profits are returned to the Carmelite Mission Coordinator for development projects.  Since 2005 more than $13,000 (€11,000 Euro) has been raised through the sale of Timorese coffee throughout our Diocese.  With the assistance of our Carmelite Mission Coordinator we have raised awareness and sponsorships for education and health through many Catholic schools in our area.

Our local Lay Carmelite Community has consistently assisted the Carmelite Province for many years with financial contributions amounting to $3,000 (2,500 Euro); with sponsorship of Carmelite seminarians in Timor Leste.   More recently Sue Stuckey from the Jamberoo Community has been responsible for helping to establish a Library at the Timor Leste Novitiate in Hera, just outside of Dili, with books donated from many supporters throughout Australia and beyond.  Lay Carmelites all over Australia have financially contributed more than $ 90,000 (€73,000 Euro) since 2000, when Timor Leste became part of the Australian Carmelite Province. 

As Secretary of the Lay Carmelite National Council I was privileged to organise among the Lay Carmelites the sponsorship of two East Timor visitors to World Youth Day in Sydney, July 2008. Many individual Lay Carmelites and Communities were given the opportunity to personally become acquainted with the two young ladies Madalena Ximenes and Idalia Barreto from Dili, as our Lay Carmelites supported them during their month in Australia.  It was a privilege to show them Canberra, Sydney, Central Coast of New South Wales, and Brisbane.  They were treated to a Mayoral Civic Reception in our little town of Kiama along with the other Timorese Carmelite seminarians and four Hermanas Carmelitas sisters.  World Youth Day in Sydney opened up for them a global perspective as they mixed with 150,000 young people from all over the world.  They shared stories with many pilgrims from Canada, Britain, Poland and Pacific island nations and came to understand the plight of indigenous people from Australia and other nations.

I have found the most liberating aspects of this apostolate with Timor Leste involves  the mutual encounter, mutual growth and mutual transformative gift of love and teaching…we from Australia have received as much, if not more, than we have been given. Their hospitality to us, at a time when they had barely enough for themselves, was overwhelming. Their sense of love and care for their community was a sign to us of what we were losing in our own communities; the joy and fervour in their living faith was inspiring. 

The people of Timor Leste are gradually determining their own destiny …. Education has improved with many of their own people now finally trained as teachers, doctors and in trade areas. Health clinics, water, sanitation and infrastructure are slowly improving.  Our Carmelite Province has more than 29 Simply Professed Carmelite brothers in seminary training, and the Province has completed a new novitiate for this training at Hera, at present with 9 novices.

I would like to take these words from the 1965 Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity which I think summarises our intent:

“Among the signs of our times, the irresistibly increasing sense of the solidarity of all peoples is especially noteworthy.  It is a function of the lay apostolate sedulously to promote this awareness and to transform it into a sincere and genuine love of brotherhood.  Furthermore the laity should be aware of the international field and of the questions and solutions, doctrinal as well as practical, which arise in this field, with special reverence to developing nations.”

Spiritual awakenings or calls to any apostolate are never meant for us alone.  What happens to us, like an energised wave drawn to the shore, is meant to refresh and reshape the shore as needed.  For myself and Lay Carmelites in Australia, our work for justice in Timor Leste has to be grounded in our prayer life and contemplation. Just as the quest for justice and peace are intertwined, prayer and the work for justice and peace belong together.  If we attempt this work on our own without the help of God, we may begin to believe that the vision of a just and peaceable kingdom is our own.

Karl Barth, twentieth century Swiss theologian wrote: “To clasp our hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorders of the world.”  Praying for Justice and peace forces us to face the disorders of the world and ask ourselves what we can do.  

               Our apostolate and mission in Timor Leste is continuing !!

On June 22-23, 2015 the coordinating team of the Carmelite NGO held its annual meeting at CISA, Rome. The members who participated in the meeting were:  Sr. Jane Ramson O.Carm., Fr. Conrad Mutizamhepo O.Carm., Mr. Dennis Kalob, Fr. Hariawan Adji O.Carm., Sr. Annah Theresa Nyadombo HOLMC, .Fr. Eduardo Agosta Scarel O.Carm., Fr. Arie Kuil O.Carm. and Mr. Andrea Ventimiglia. Sr. Blaise Fernando O.Carm., an NGO member, also attended the meeting.

In the meeting, Sr. Jane Ramson, the chair of the coordinating team, introduced Dennis Kalob as the new member of the organizing committee of the Carmelite NGO. Dennis Kalob takes over the responsibility of Sr. Helen Ojario O.Carm. as the representative of the Carmelite NGO at the UN. Besides discussing the regional reports, the finances, the themes of the 2016 Days of Prayer and the Carmengo bulletin, the meeting also discussed the UN programs on Sustainable Development Goals and the new encyclical of Pope Francis: Laudato Si. Sr. Jane Ramson reported that the Carmelite NGO has be asked to engage in a four year project on developing a curriculum on environmental issues. This curriculum is expected to be used in Carmelite schools in raising environmental awareness among students. A team which consists of Jane Ramson, Dennis Kalob, Eduardo Agosta Scarel, and Blaise Fernando was formed to carry out this project. The other members of the coordinating team (Conrad Mutizamhepo, Hariawan Adji, Annah Theresa Nyadombo, Arie Kuil and Andrea Ventimiglia) were asked to study how the Carmelite family deals with human trafficking issues. The result of this study is expected to be the foundation for a similar project, on the issue of human trafficking.

Fr. Noel Rosas, O.Carm.

These are the Carmelite Topics for Formation:

• Programa de Formación: del “desierto” al “jardín” de Dios
• Actividades de Formacion al Carmelo Aspirantes. Postulantes. Prenovicios
• Staying in God’s Presence
• Formation of the Temporary Professed
• Formation Route
• Contemplative Tradition of the Carmelite Order
• 30-day Carmelite Retreat

INTERESTED OF THE TOPICS?

CONTACT:

FR. ROBERTO NOEL ROSAS,O.CARM.

Administrative Secretary for Formation

Curia Generalizia, Rome

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Flos Carmeli, vitis florigera,
splendor caeli, Virgo puerpera singularis.
Mater mitis, sed viri nescia,
Carmelitis esto propitia,
stella maris.

IN SOLLEMNITATE B.V. MARIAE DE MONTE CARMELO

Fernando Prior Generalis
Domusque Generalis Communitas
16. VII. 2015

Image: Ceramic of Our Lady of Mount Carmel by Adam Kossowski at Aylesford Priory, England

Fr. Joseph Hung Tran, O.Carm.

Lay Carmelites have a lot of common characteristics with the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is a lay person, a daughter, a sister and a mother in the family like many other women in the world, therefore Lay Carmelites can learn much from her.

The devotion to Blessed Mary has been long marked by the early lay hermits. They dedicated their first Church to the Blessed Virgin and received her as Mother and Sister of Carmel.  In Carmelite spirituality her presence and role are very obvious  throughout the history. “For this reason it is said that Carmel belongs totally to Mary, which means that Carmel is eminently Marian.”[1] Indeed, she is our Patroness, Mother and Sister. In her, all Carmelites take inspiration and motivation. For the members of the Carmelite Family, Mary, the Virgin Mother of God and Mother of all people, is not only a model to imitate, but is also present as Mother and Sister in whom one can confide. Rightly, St. Teresa of Jesus wrote, “Imitate Mary and consider how great she must be and what a good thing it is that we have her for our Patroness” (Interior Castle, III, 1, 3).

Lay Carmelites can learn from Mary how to pray and how to ponder God’s words in their life. The Bible tells us that Mary, through contemplation and attentive listening, knew how to keep and ponder in her heart the words of God.[2] Mary prayed constantly in her life and she lived according to the will of God. At every moment she carried out God’s will even though she faced being stoned to death.[3]  Mary always sought to live in union with her Son. From the Annunciation to the foot of the Cross she allowed God to guide her into the plan that God had made for her.[4]

Lay Carmelites can learn from Mary, the woman of faith. She allowed herself to be formed and molded by His Spirit so that in faith she might be conformed to His ways and choices.[5]  From the Annunciation to the Cross, Mary always assented with the same obedience of faith to all revelations, to all the designs of God. Every moment of her life was an invitation to act on her faith, and as a fruit of her obedience.[6] At the Annunciation she was troubled but then accepted the will of God and believed that “God will do great things for her”[7] At the event of the Visitation, Elizabeth praised Mary for her faith: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). At the marriage feast in Cana, Mary taught us how to be attentive to the needy and how to trust in her Son.[8] And at the foot of the Cross, as Mary witnessed the death of her Son, her faith was put to the hardest test, she was painfully silent but her presence manifests her fidelity, her constant abandonment to the designs of the Lord’s will, and a faith that is undiminished, unchanged and unaltered even in the darkest hours.[9]

Living the Marian charism of the Carmelites, lay Carmelites can learn from Mary how to be a disciple of God. She followed Jesus, listened to his Word, trusted in his plan. [10] She accompanied Him with the disciples; she shared their demanding and wearisome journey - a journey which required, above all, fraternal love and mutual service.[11]

Lay Carmelites can learn from Mary how to bring forth Christ for all the people especially to the members in the family. They can be a channel to build good relationships with all the members in their family, with their co-workers or with their neighbours. Lay Carmelites can learn how to pay attention, care for the needy and serve others. The Gospel tells us that Mary in haste went to the hill country of Judaea in order to visit and help her cousin Elizabeth during her pregnancy although she was in danger of being stoned to death when Joseph silently left her. By the Visitation, she also brought Christ to Elizabeth.[12]At the wedding of Cana, knowing the trouble of the couple running out of wine, she begged her Son to help them. Mary accompanied the disciples in the upper room “in continuous prayer” (Acts 1,14) with other women at the foot of the Cross and continues to be with all of us.

Lay Carmelites learn from Mary how to overcome and stand still through many trials and suffering in her life in order to keep her vocation. Her suffering when Joseph silently left her, the trial of traveling a long journey with Joseph to Bethlehem, the pain when her Son was born in the cave, the hopelessness when she lost her Son in Jerusalem and the agony when she witnessed the death of her Son were all  like a sword piercing her heart. Through all those trials and suffering, she stood still and trusted in the plan of God. Mary teaches us that through our love for others, rooted in our love for God, and faith in the resurrection and power of God's grace, we have the strength and courage to persevere through any suffering the world presents.

 *extract from the Tesina: How Lay Carmelites live Carmelite Charism in their daily lives.

[1] Emauele Boaga, O.Carm., The Lady of the Place, May in the History and in the Life of Carmel (Rome, Italy, Edizioni Carmelitane, 2001), 13.

[2] Luke 2, 19

[3] Cf. Joseph Chalmers, Mary the Contemplative (Rome, Italy, Edizioni Carmelitane, 2001), 19.

[4] Cf. Constitutions #31.

[5] Luke 2:44-50.

[6] Cf. Mother Adela, SCTJM, In the End My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph, http://www.piercedhearts.org/ accessed on May 14, 2013

[7] Luke 1, 35

[8] John 2:5.

[9] Cf. Adela,

[10] MC 17, 35; RMa 12, 19.

[11] John 13:13-17; 15:12-17.

[12] Luke 1, 41

The 25th Meeting of the Carmelite Family in the Betica Province, took place in the Carmelite Church in Hinojosa del Duque (Cordoba, Spain), with St. Teresa of Avila as the main theme. The church in Hinojosa (which contains the remains of some of the Carmelite martyrs beatified in 2013 in Taragona) was declared a “Jubilee Church” on account of the 5th centenary. Fr. Rafael Leiva, O.Carm., gave a lecture on the doctrine of St. Teresa to a large audience, from many different places.

The Carmelite College of José Galvez (Peru) has published a very beautiful calendar, in which there are sayings and prayers of St. Teresa, with the idea that the students can reflect on them, on their own or in a group throughout this year.

From the 28th of June to the 2nd of July of this year, in the seminary in Mundelein (Illinois. U.S.A.) a symposium was held, on the theme, “St. Teresa’ Gift to the 21st Century”. A number of experts such as Leopold Gluekert, O.Carm., Donna Orsuto, Steven Payne O.C.D. spoke at the symposium and opened up a variety of aspects of the saint’s life and doctrine. The symposium was organised by the Carmelite Institute of North America and was introduced by the Prior General Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., and by the director of the Institute, Patrick  McMahon, O.Carm.,

Lastly, from the 1st to the 4th of July, the 21st meeting of the Carmelite Family that the Iberian Region organise every year took place in Pozuelo (Madrid, Spain). This year the theme was, “Santa Teresa de Jesús, Mistica y Profeta” (St. Teresa of Jesus, Mystic and Prophet). More than a hundred Carmelites took part in the event (friars, sisters and lay people) from the whole of Spain, and Portugual, and countries of Latin America and from Africa. Talks were give on different themes connected with St. Teresa. The speakers included, Secundino Castro, O.C.D., Francisco Daza, O.Carm., and Salvador Ros, O.C.D..

photo: Symposium in Mundelein (Illinois. U.S.A.) - Fr. Fernando Millan, Prior General with a group of Carmelite Friars ans Sister from Trinidad and Tobago.

the Feast and the history of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The tradition of devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel began in the 12th or 13th century and contines to the present day.

The Carmelite Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation met in Rome from 15-20 June 2015. Those in attendance were: Jane F Remson, O.Carm (COLMC - Carmelite NGO), Annah Theresa Nyadombo, (HLMC, Zimbabwe), Eduardo Agosta Scarel, O.Carm (ACV-Arg), Mark Zittle, O.Carm (SEL) Hariawan Adji, O. Carm (Indo) Florent Dundji Dhenyi, O. Carm (Italy-Con) and Conrad Mutizamhepo, O.Carm (General Councillor and Praeses).

The meeting began with a day of reflection on the theme: The Ministry of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in Carmel: Past, Present and Future – Challenges and Opportunities led by Fr Míceál O’Neill, O.Carm. Míceál gave a historical overview of Carmelite Justice and Peace work especially since the Vatican II chronicling the important developments emerging from the Council of Provinces, the General Congregation gatherings and General Chapters.

Thereafter the meeting addressed the issues on the agenda: reflection on the insights of Miceal’s presentation; listening to regional reports; collaboration between JPIC and Carmelite NGO; planning for the forthcoming Carmelite Family Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation meeting during 2017; analysis of the questionnaire on social and environmental issues that is intended to be send to members of the Carmelite Family in the near future; a discussion on the Pope’s new encyclical Laudato Si and how Carmelites can participate in sensitizing their communities to the issues concerning social and environmental justice issues which are constitutive of the proclamation of the Gospel. The Carmelite Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of creation supports His Holiness Pope Francis on writing a very timely document to raise awareness and call the whole world community to take note of the serious questions raised by social and environmental questions. The Pope does not just highlight the challenges but also proposes a change of course for the whole of humanity to avert disaster.