Carmelite sister, Saint Edith Stein, was a born into an observant Jewish family. However, by her mid teens, became an atheist. On January 1, 1922, Edith Stein was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.

Edith Stein was arrested in 1942 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where she died in a gas chamber.

On May 1, 1987, Stein was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II and then canonized by him on October 11, 1998.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christians living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and 13th centuries.

They built a chapel in the midst of their hermitages which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whom they conceived of in chivalric terms as the "Lady of the place."

As the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is approaching, the Prior General has written a letter to all Carmelite family expressing his best wish and inviting all members to celebrate the Feast by beginning with the Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Custom of making the Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel before the Feast is a long tradition and much observed by many Catholics.

In his letter we are reminded of the importance of the Feast and he asks the whole Carmelite family to "celebrate the Novena and the giving of the scapular, with conviction, affection and pastoral care and attention, with a sense of liturgy and catechesis."

The full text of the message and the Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel can be founded here:
http://ocarm.org/en/content/ocarm/letter-feast-our-lady-mount-carmel

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Dumaguete City, Philippines, was held 22 June 2013. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. Maria del Rosario C. Somoza, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:   Sr. M. Angelica G. Verdugo, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. M. Teresita M. Herrero, O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:   Sr. M. Melba P. Bruno, O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:   Sr. M. Joseliza B. Pagao, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Victorina C. Olmoguez, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. M. Joseliza B. Pagao, O.Carm.

Dear brothers and sisters in the Carmelite Family,

The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is approaching. As we do every year, we are now getting ready to celebrate joyfully this feast which is so important for the worldwide Carmelite Family. In different places, with a variety of religious events, we will honour the woman that we call, “Mother and Ornament of Carmel”. Processions, novenas, the giving of the Scapular, devotions, exchanges of good wishes and so on, will adorn the Carmelite landscape throughout the world. In many places, like Spain, my own country, devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is associated with the sea (sailors and fishermen) and her image shines on the waves, as a sign of hope and protection in the oftentimes more furrowed and tempestuous seas of life.

As one who shares in the joy, I offer you my best wishes: may these celebrations give life to our devotion to Mary our Mother, under the enduring and ever popular title of Mount Carmel. May she accompany us and lighten our way as an Order and as the Carmelite Family.

This year it occurs to me to ask you to reflect on one of the most popular images with which we represent Our Lady of Mount Carmel: the image of the Blessed Virgin from her place in heaven setting souls free from purgatory directly or through the mediation of the angels, and those who are to be set free, engulfed in flames and a pleading look on their faces. Without wishing to dwell on the theology or on the baroque imagery and its limitations, it would be good to remember that the faithful see in this image the motherly protection of Mary, or, even more, the way in which true devotion to the Blessed Virgin leads to a life of grace and faith.

At this time of profound economic crisis, of unceasing violence, of flagrant inequalities, …. I believe that we too, as people devoted to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, are called to bring freedom to those who suffer the purgatories of our times - hunger, unemployment, war, terrorism, drugs, depression, loneliness, poor education, exploitation and abuse ….. Our devotion to Mary makes us more sensitive to the needs of the least of our brothers and sisters, to the most forgotten, and it makes us more human, more compassionate and understanding, more in solidarity with others. Compassion is perhaps the greatest test of the authenticity of our devotion to Mary which can never be limited, as the Second Vatican Council reminds us (on its fiftieth anniversary) to a sterile or transitory affection or a certain vain credulity, (LG 67)

I also invite you to make of the celebrations in honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel an opportunity for a serious evangelisation, and not just a propping up of traditions and practices from another age.  Let us celebrate our novenas and the giving of the scapular, with conviction, affection and pastoral care and attention, with a sense of liturgy and a sense of catechesis, in a way that makes true what Bishop Oscar Romero said in his famous homily of the 16^th of July, 1978: our people know that Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, is the great missionary of the people.

A Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to you! May Mary, our Mother and Sister, walk with you always.

With fraternal affection,

Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm.

Prior General

Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

• First Day: Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Second Day: Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Third Day: Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Fourth Day: Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Fifth Day : Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Sixth Day : Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Seventh Day : Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Eighth Day: Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
• Ninth Day : Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
   
  
  

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Holy Father's Prayer Intentions

World Youth Day. That World Youth Day in Brazil may encourage all young Christians to become disciples and missionaries of the Gospel.

Asia. That throughout Asia doors may be open to messengers of the Gospel.

Lectio Divina July - Julio - Luglio 2013

• Monday, July 1, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 8,18-22
• Tuesday, July 2, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 8,23-27
• Wednesday, July 3, 2013  
  Lectio: St. Thomas, Ap - Jn. 20,24-29
• Thursday, July 4, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 9,1-8
• Friday, July 5, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 9,9-13
• Saturday, July 6, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 9,14-17
• Sunday, July 7, 2013  
  Lectio: 14th Sunday of ordinary time (C)
• Monday, July 8, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 9,18-26
• Tuesday, July 9, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 9,32-38
• Wednesday, July 10, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 10,1-7
• Thursday, July 11, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 10,7-15
• Friday, July 12, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 10,16-23
• Saturday, July 13, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 10,24-33
• Sunday, July 14, 2013  
  Lectio: 15th Sunday of ordinary time (C)
• Monday, July 15, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 10,34 - 11,1
• Tuesday, July 16, 2013  
  Lectio: The B.V. Mary of Mount Carmel - John 19,25-27
• Wednesday, July 17, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 11,25-27
• Thursday, July 18, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 11, 28-30
• Friday, July 19, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 12,1-8
• Saturday, July 20, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 12,14-21
• Sunday, July 21, 2013  
  Lectio: 16th Sunday of ordinary time (C)
• Monday, July 22, 2013  
  Lectio: Saint Mary Magdalene
• Tuesday, July 23, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 12,46-50
• Wednesday, July 24, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 13,1-9
• Thursday, July 25, 2013  
  Lectio: Saint James, apostle
• Friday, July 26, 2013  
  Lectio: Saints Joachim and Ann, parents of Mary
• Saturday, July 27, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 13,24-30
• Sunday, July 28, 2013  
  Lectio: 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)
• Monday, July 29, 2013  
  Lectio: St. Martha - Lk. 10,38-42
• Tuesday, July 30, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 13,36-43
• Wednesday, July 31, 2013  
  Lectio: Matthew 13,44-46

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Guiguinto, Philippines, was held 21 June 2013. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. Theresita A’Jose, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:   Sr. M. Rescelia Garcia, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. M. Carmeli Hilario, O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:   Sr. M. Fatima Faustino, O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:   Sr. Benedicta Mary Jenifer Navales, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Rescelia Garcia, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. Benedicta Mary Jenifer Navales, O.Carm.
• Sacristan:  Sr. Mary Ruth Alethea Clavio, O.Carm.

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Machakos, Kenya, was held 10 June 2013. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. Winifred Katunge Mbui, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:   Sr. M. Magdalena Medrano Jimenez , O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. Margarita Maria de Cristo Rey Vargas , O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:   Sr. M. Christine Syombua Mbindyo , O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:   Sr. M. Justine Nduku Muia, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Therese Ndinda Mutisya, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. M. Jacinta Wayua Mulwa, O.Carm.
• Sacristan:  Sr. Dorothee Ndomo, O.Carm.

On 6 and 7 June in the offices of FOVOG - the "Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte -   (This is an institute in the University of Dresden, Germany, which specialises in the comparative study of religious orders.) a symposium was held entitled Historiography and Identity. Responses to Medieval Carmelite Culture organised by Dr. Coralie Zermatten and Dr. Jens Röhrkasten (University of Birmingham). Among the speakers were Edeltraud Klueting who spoke on Carmelite decorations in the churches, chapters houses and refectories of the houses of the medieval Lower German province; Johan Bergström-Allen: "Religious and Secular Order: The Poetry of Richard Maidstone, O.Carm."; Andrew Jotischky (University of Lancaster): "Crusading and Crusaders in Medieval Carmelite Texts: William of Coventry and the Holy Land"; Hans-Joachim Schmidt who spoke on the Carmelites' relations with other mendicant orders in the late medieval period; Christa Gardner von Teuffel: "The Invention of History: Altarpieces for the Carmelites circa 1300-1550"; Helmut Flachenecker, who spoke on Carmelites in Franconia; Kevin Alban: "Thomas Netter, Identity through Orthodoxy". On the evening of 6th June the participants were treated to a concert of madrigals by Bartolino da Padua O. Carm. performed by Federico Truffi. The proceedings will be published later in the year.