Provincial Chapter of the Betica Province
During the Provincial Chapter of the Betica Province held on 14-16 April 2014 were elected:
- Prior Provincial: Fr. Francisco Daza Valverde, O.Carm.
- First Councilor: Fr. José Ramón Medina Madueño, O.Carm.
- Second Councilor: Fr. Pablo Herrasti Barbancho, O.Carm.
- Third Councilor: Fr. Alejandro Peñalta Mohedano, O.Carm.
- Fourth Councilor: Fr. David Del Carpio Horcajo, O.Carm.
Provincial Chapter of the Catalonian Province
During the Provincial Chapter of the Catalonian Province held on 9-11 April 2014 were elected:
- Prior Provincial: Fr. Manuel Bonilla Gutiérrez, O.Carm.
- First Councilor: Fr. Javier D. Garmón i Calvo, O.Carm.
- Second Councilor: Fr. Raúl V. Masana i Peiró, O.Carm.
- Third Councilor: Fr. Luis J. Maza Subero, O.Carm.
- Fourth Councilor: Fr. Jordi M. Gil i Costa, O.Carm.
VII Assembly of the Federation "Mater et Decor Carmeli", Spain
The VII Assembly of the Federation "Mater et Decor Carmeli", Spain, was held 25-30 March 2014. The following were elected:
- President: Sr. María Dolores Domínguez Pérez, O.Carm.
- 1st Councilor: Sr. Liliana Campos Rosa, O.Carm.
- 2nd Councilor: Sr. M. Pilar Martín Gómez, O.Carm.
- 3rd Councilor: Sr. Reinhild Maschke, O.Carm.
- 4th Couniclor: Sr. Lourdes Santos Alvarez, O.Carm.
Lectio Divina: Holy Saturday
Luke 23:50-56
The light of the Bridegroom, shines beyond the night
1. Prayer
Lord, on this day, there is only emptiness and solitude, absence and silence: a tomb, a lifeless body, and the dark of the night.
You are no longer visible, no word, no breathing. You are observing the Sabbath, in total rest. Where will I find You, now that I have lost You?
I will follow the women, I too will sit down together with them, in silence, to make ready the fragrances of love. From my heart, Lord, I will take the most delicate fragrances, the most precious, just as the woman did, when in her love she broke the alabaster jar and spread its perfume all around.
And I will call the Spirit, with the words of the bride, I will say again, “Awake, north wind, come, wind of the south! Breathe over my garden” (Song 4:16)
2. Reading
From the Gospel according to Luke (23:50-56)
Now there was a virtuous and righteous man named Joseph who, though he was a member of the council, had not consented to their plan of action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. After he had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried. It was the day of preparation, and the sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which his body was laid in it, they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the sabbath according to the commandment.
3. Meditation
“Now”, a very simple expression, full of life and truth, marking the existing of a cry that breaks through the indifference, shakes us from our paralysis, and breaks through the veil. It stands in opposition to and as an escape from the great distance taken by the disciples of Jesus throughout His passion. Peter followed Him from afar (Lk 22:54); all those who knew Him and the women who had followed Him, looked on from a distance (Lk 23:49), but Joseph of Arimathea, steps forward, introduces himself to Pilate and asks for Jesus’ body. He is there, not listed among the absent, he is near, not standing at a distance, and he will never leave.
”It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning”. This gospel is situated in that moment that divides the dark of the night from the light of the new day. The Greek verb used by Luke seems to describe clearly the movement of this holy Saturday, that little by little emerges from the darkness and rises and grows beyond the light. In this resurrection movement we too are caught up, as we approach this scripture in faith. But, we have to choose, to remain in death, in the preparation, that is only preparation and not fulfillment, or accept to enter the movement in order to rise in the light. As the Lord says, “Awake, you who sleep, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you” (Ep 5:14) using the same verb.
“who had come with Him from Galilee, followed”, These words are very beautiful, referring to the movement of the women, because they help us capture all the intensity of their participation in what was happening to Jesus. Indeed, Luke uses certain nuances, for example, using a form of the verb “to follow” that suggests greater intensity. The reference to “with Him” has the same effect. They went together, decisively, urged on by their love. Their journey, which began in Galilee, continues, even through death, and absence. Perhaps they feel that they are not alone and they begin to proclaim that He is present.
“and they saw the tomb”, It is wonderful to note that in the eyes of these women there is a light that is more powerful than the night! They can see beyond, they observe, they take note and they look intently and with real interest: in one word, they contemplate. The eyes of the heart open out to the reality of what is happening. As the gaze of Jesus reaches them, they bear within them His image, the face of that love that has visited and illumined their whole existence. Not even the drama of death and physical separation could extinguish the Sun that never sets, even though it is night.
“Then they returned”, As well as that, they still have the internal strength to make decisions, to do things, to set out once more on the way. They turn their backs on death, on absence, and they go home, like the victorious warrior. They carry no trophies, but in their hearts they bear a certainty, the courage of an ardent love.
“and prepared spices and ointments”. This was the task of the priests, as the Scriptures tell us (I Cr 9:30); it is a sacred duty, almost liturgical, almost like a prayer. The women of the Gospel, in fact, pray and succeed in transforming the night of death into a place of blessing, hope, loving and attentive care. No glance, no movement or gesture is without meaning for them. They prepare, or more precisely, as we see from the meaning of the corresponding Hebrew verb, they compose the perfumed aromas using all their wisdom to mix the necessary ingredients, in the right measure and proportion: a wholly feminine art, wholly maternal, born from within, from the womb, a privileged place of love. Holy Saturday, indeed, is like a womb that embraces life: an embrace that protects and nurtures the new creature that is about to be born.
“On the sabbath they rested”, What rest are we really talking about? What cessation, what suspension is coming about in the lives of these women in the depth of their hearts? The verb that Luke uses clearly suggests “silence”, a silence that turns into the main actor in this Sabbath, a Holy Saturday of waiting. There are no more words to be said, no declarations, no debate: all the world is silent, as the wind of the Holy Spirit blows (cf. Job 38:17) and the fragrance spreads. One song returns to the heart, in the night, (Ps 76:7): it is a song of love, repeated by the women, and with them, Joseph, and everyone, who like him, is not bound by the decisions and the actions of others (v.5) in this world. The words are the words that the Bride in the Song of Songs repeats, the last words, kept in reserve for the Beloved, when, right at the end of the book, she says: “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices”. (Song 8:14). This is the cry of the resurrection, the song of victory over death.
4. Questions for Reflection
Do I stand, perhaps, at a distance, not wanting to come any closer to Jesus, not wanting to look for Him, not wanting to wait for Him?
Would I be able to follow the women, and walk into the night, into death, into the emptiness?
Are my eyes open to see the place of the burial, the stone that hides the Lord Jesus? Can I experience contemplation, that is, can I see in some depth, beyond the surface? Do I believe in the presence of the Lord, stronger than the tomb and the rock?
Am I willing to go back, along with the women? That is, to go through a journey of conversion, change?
Is there space in me for silence, for the attention of the heart, for openness to God?
Do I feel arising within me the desire to proclaim the resurrection, the new life in Christ, all around me? Am I too, at least somewhat, like the women of the Gospel, who repeat the invitation of the Bridegroom, “Rise!”
5. Closing Prayer
Lord, for You the night is as clear as the day!
Song of Trust and Security in God
Protect me, O God, for in You I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from You.’
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
You hold my lot.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me;
because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
For You do not give me up to Sheol,
or let Your faithful one see the Pit.
You show me the path of life.
In Your presence there is fullness of joy;
in Your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
from Psalm 16
Inauguration of St John of the Cross Theological Institute
On March 25 th, 2014, the new Theological Institute of St John of the Cross, was inaugurated by His Excellency Mgr. Antonio Guido Filipazzi, the Nuncio to Indonesia, after having finished the buildings of the campus. Present at this ceremony were also 5 other bishops from different parts of Indonesia and many priests, the local Government Officials, and about 4 (four) thousands guests and local people. In this area the majority of the population are Catholics.
St John of the Cross Major Seminary was owned by the Congregation of Carmelitae Sancti Eliae (CSE) and run together with the sisters of Putri Karmel (Daughters of Carmel), both affiliated to the Order. It was started in 2012. At present they have 17 students to start with, coming from Indonesia and Malaysia. The Theological Institute is situated in a small village called Bandol in the Archdiocese of Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
125th anniversary of the North American Province of St. Elias
On the 29th of March last at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Middletown (NY) the celebration took place of the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the Irish Carmelites in New York, an event which led to the establishment of the present North American Province of St. Elias (SEL). The celebrations began on the 28th of March with Solemn Vesper at which the Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm. presided. On the 29th of March, the Mass of Thanksgiving was celebrated with the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Cardinal Dolan presiding, accompanied by the Prior General, the Councillor General for the Americas, Raul Maravi, O.Carm., the Provincial of the province of Saint Elias, Mario Esposito, O.Carm., the Provincial of the Irish province, Martin Kilmurray, O.Carm., the Provincial of the province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, William Harry, O.Carm., the former provincials of this province still living, and many other religious and priests.
The Superiors General of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm (CSAI), Mother M. Mark Louis Anne Randall, and of the Corpus Christi Carmelite Sisters, (CCC) Mother Petronilla Joseph, along with other religious and a large group of Carmelite lay people from different cities also took part, as did the local civil authority in Middletown.
In his homily, Cardinal Dolan thanked the Carmelites for their pastoral service in this local church, reminding us how the Carmelites have been working in different parishes and ministries with great generosity all this time. He likewise expressed his gratitude to the province of ireland for the missionary drive that gave birth to this province, which in turn has shown great missionary vitality in recent years, with its work in Vietnam and Trinidad.
Lectio Divina April 2014
Holy Father's Prayer Intentions for April 2014
Ecology and Justice. That governments may foster the protection of creation and the just distribution of natural resources.
Hope for the Sick. That the Risen Lord may fill with hope the hearts of those who are being tested by pain and sickness.
Lectio Divina April - abril - aprile 2014
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General Commissariat Paraná
The history of the Carmelites in Paraná begins with the history of Ulrich Goevert, a member of the Upper German Province. He went to Brazil in 1936, and joined up with the work of the Carmelites in the Northeast. After fifteen years he set out from there to begin a mission of his own in line with a project of his province that took shape in Paranavaí.
In 1951 he asked the Bishop of Jacarezinho, Dom Geraldo Proença Sigaud, SVD, to give him a parish, with the idea of developing his missionary work there. He was sent, at that time, to the parish of St. Sebastian in Paranavaí. He described the principal church as a “house made of timber, with no roof, and a small tower”. The city had no more than 60 houses.
The installation of Frei Ulrich as the new parish priest took place on the 29th of August. There was a lot of work to be done. The progress could be seen when ten years later the church had a roof. This allowed Frei Ulrich to have a tabernacle in the church. He said at that time: “Saviour, as long as the Carmelites are here, this little light must never go out.”
Here begins the story of not only Frei Ulrich, but of the Carmelites in Paranavaí and in that whole region, since the Parish at that time covered an area of 12.000km². Given the extent of the work, in 1952, a helper was sent from the Northeast in the form of Frei Estanislau José, to help in the mission and in the upkeep of the house.
As church participation continued to increase (1952) it became necessary to build another parish church. What was built was a beautiful church, 45m long and 18m wide, with three naves and a tower, all in wood, and with an altar, a tabernacle and a crucifix that were all sculpted by Frei Henrique. The crucifix is still used today in the Carmelite shrine.
Among the many difficulties there was the need to provide catechesis for children who were illiterate. In order to meet this need, Frei Ulrich set up the Parish School of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
As time went by the Province of Upper Germany sent more and more friars to the mission in Paranavaí: Frei Henrique Wunderlich 1952, Frei Boaventura Einberger 1953, Frei Burkard Lippert and Frei Alberto Först 1954, Frei Bruno Doepgen 1956 ,Frei Matias Warneke 1958, Rafael Mainka 1961, frei Joaquim Knoblauch 1962, Frei Jerônimo Brodka 1963, Frei Justino Stampfer 1965, Frei Afonso Pflaum 1966, Frei Agostinho Wolf 1968, Frei Paulo Pollmann 1971. We can see some of these friars in this photograph from 1970.
In 1953 Frei Boaventura was sent to Graciosa, 18 km from Paranavaí. In order to take care of this community which would later become the parish of Our Lady of Graces, he built the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, on land donated by the families of Graciosa. This initiative dealt with the need both for a school and for Carmelite vocations all together.
The Carmelite Order in Paranavaí was greatly enriched when Carmelite Sisters arrived in 1955. Four members of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus came from Italy to help the friars in the upkeep of the house, in the work of the parish and in teaching.
The foundation Stone of the new parish church of Paranavaí was placed in 1960. However, once the Carmelite missionaries began to work, the church turned into a much larger construction of 60m in length, 24m wide and 9m internal height, a beautiful church that was ready to be blessed in 1965 and sometime later would become the postcard image of the city. The church was adorned with the paintings and sculptures of the artist Bálint Fehérkuty.
There was now a need to build a new house for the religious, which would be built beside the church. It was designed by the architects Kölg and Szylagi, in the same style as the church, spacious and practical.
Concerned about the formation of new candidates to the Order, the Carmelites had already set up the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Graciosa (1953) and the Seminary of St. John of the Cross (1969). However there was no place for a novitiate and no place to house the young Carmelite philosophy and theology students. The Carmelites therefore went to Curitiba in 1968 and began to work in the parish of Our Lady of the Conception, where they built a house for the novitiate and for studies.
In the decade of the 1980s, the Carmelite friars who were in Curitiba turned to the very poor, offering a number of services such as formation in the Bible and the liturgy and in building the church in the peripheries.
The Carmelite presence which began in Paranavaí, would extend its work in 1984 to another pastoral region by taking on the parish of Senhor Bom Jesus in Dourados, in Mato Grosso do Sul. Frei Först went to work in Dourados and in 1988 he was appointed as the Bishop of that diocese.
Contemplation, the mark of the Carmelite Order, became very clearly present with the arrival of the Carmelite nuns. In 1991 Carmel in Parana was to receive these nuns whose life is dedicated totally to prayer. Eight nuns came from the monastery of Flos Carmeli in Jaboticabal. With the help of the friars and of the faithful they founded the monastery of Mater Carmeli in Paranavaí.
In 1994 the Carmelite friars extended their work to new communities. The first was in Bairro Novo in Curitiba, which in 2000 became the parish of Elijah the Prophet. The second was a mission in the interior of Brazil in the Amazonian region in the city of Rolim de Moura, in the young state of Rondonia, where they would look after some one hundred rural communities. In that same year a new project began, to help people with a chemical dependency. This developed into the Association of Houses of the Suffering Servant.
On the 20th of October 2012 the Carmelite Order through the offices of the Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., handed over responsibility for the Carmelite Order in this region to the Brazilian friars, by erecting here a General Commissariat. If today we are a group of 33 friars, living and working in Paranavaí, Graciosa, Curitiba, Rolim de Moura and in the parishes of Navegantes and Florianopolis where a variety of ecclesial, social and educational work is being done, we owe all this to the great missionary endeavour of those first German missionaries who brought the Carmelite Order to Paraná.
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Electoral Chapter of the Monastery of Jesi, Italy
Se celebró el capítulo electivo en el monasterio de Jesi, Italia, el 15 de marzo de 2014. Fueron elegidos los siguientes cargos:
- Priora: Sor Francesca Teresa Lupo, O.Carm.
- 1ª Consejera: Sor Alma M. Joseph Sponziello, O.Carm.
- 2ª Consejera: Sor M. Chiara Sabbatini, O.Carm.
- Ecónoma: Sor M. Chiara Sabbatini, O.Carm.
- Sacristana: Sor Alma M. Joseph Sponziello, O.Carm.
