O.Carm
Saving the Maltese Carmelite Library
Alfred Mizzi Foundation and Notarial Archives Foundation Join to Save Maltese Carmelite Library
In February 2022, a powerful storm hit the country of Malta. Small islands situated in the Mediterranean Sea, the country endured showers of hail and rain as well as winds at the beginning of the month. The historic Carmelite library in the Carmelite prior in Valletta, suffered severe damage. Besides numerous manuscripts and books being heavily damages, the wooden structure of the library itself was heavily damaged as well.
According to published reports, the Alfred Mizzi Foundation and the Notarial Archives Foundation have joined efforts to save the library. Since February 2024, the NAF and its team of volunteers have been carefully removing the books and manuscripts from the shelves of the library. This will allow the wooden library structure to undergo the necessary restoration as well as the books.
Warranted wood conservator Josef Aquilina has been entrusted with this job. While emptying the shelves, NAF volunteers are also superficially dusting the books and making an inventory. The books are then placed in archival boxes and temporarily stored in a different area of the priory. Besides the water damage, many of the books suffer from biological and chemical damage accumulated over the years. The conservation of the books is being done under the supervision of the NAF's warranted book and paper conservators Chanelle Mifsud Briffa and Maria Borg.
Carmelite Alex Scerri, the prior of Valletta, contacted the Dean of History from the University of Malta to seek help. The NAF got involved and with their help and the volunteers, the Mizzi Foundation became involved.
The Alfred Mizzi Foundation has committed to sponsoring the preliminary works and surveys for the conservation of the wooden library structure. This will guarantee that the structure is professionally reconstructed to last for many years.
The monastery in Valletta and its library houses many items of interest. The majority of the books deal with either theology or philosophy. But there are also works on Carmelitana and Melitensia which are of particular interest because they go back to the period of the Knights of Malta in the 15th century. The holdings include 7 incunabula, books using metal type and created before the printing press was invented. They differ from manuscripts, which are documents written by hand. The oldest of these incunabula in the Carmelite library in Valetta dates from 1471.
Fr. Alex spoke about the task ahead. “Quotes are still being studied by the architect, but the cost will be thousands of Euro. The plans are to restore the main roof of the bibliotheca which has to be built again as well as the furniture. So the cost of the project will be very large.”
The Carmelite Order arrived in Malta in 1418. The Carmelites agreed to serve at a chapel and minister to the people in the area around Lunzjata (Rabat). The church and convent in Valletta were founded in 1570.
Valletta’s Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel underwent various transformations over the centuries. Damaged during the Second world War, it was rebuilt from 1958 to 1981 providing a new skyline for the city with its striking dome. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Fr Alex expressed his thanks to the Notarial Archives Foundation, The Alfred Mizzi Foundation, and the volunteers for their hard work and dedication in preserving the historic library and the patrimony of the Carmelite library. “The community and I are very grateful to all the volunteers who make the sacrifice to come each week to remove the books and make sure they are properly cared for. We are also grateful to everyone who has taken an interest in this major project so that our Carmelite heritage in Malta and especially in Valletta, dating back to 1570, will be restored and preserved for future generations.”
The Alfred Mizzi Foundation funds projects related to Maltese culture, its heritage, education, the environment and social solidarity. It promotes and assists the presentation and development and the public manifestation of Maltese heritage, including culture and the environment. The Notarial Archives Foundation is a non-governmental voluntary organization which seeks to preserve and raise awareness of the 600-year-old collection of notarial deeds of the Notarial Registers Archive. Since these records document the history of Malta, their availability to future generations is of paramount importance.
(Pictures courtesy of the Valletta Priory)
Exhortations of Bl. Frances of Amboise to the Nuns
November 5 | Optional Memorial
Temptation Stimulates Virtue
From the Exhortations of Blessed Frances of Amboise to the Nuns
Whatever sorrow or discomfort you have in your hearts, bear it as patiently as you can, and think of it as your cross. Help our Lord and bear it with him, willingly, good-humoredly, for you must always bear the cross, and if you reject one, you may find another heavier one. With faith and hope in God's help, temptation is overcome. We must not lose heart and stop on our way, but always take courage. Think of the pains and great temptations that the holy fathers had to endure in the desert. The pains they suffered in the spirit, were without comparison much harder than the penances and austerities they imposed on their bodies. He who is not tempted acquires no virtue. So accept what pleases God, who never sends suffering that is not for our good. He says in the Gospel: Whoever wants to come after me, begin to deny himself, that is, to forget himself, to have no self-esteem, to despise himself and to desire to be despised by others. Our Lord says we must take up the cross in order to follow him, that is, accept penance and torments for his sake, as he bore the cross for our sake.
But I recommend, do not carry it as Simon of Cyrene did! To our Lord, exhausted from the beatings and torments he had endured, the Jews, fearing that he would die before reaching the place where he was to be crucified, took down the cross and loaded it on Simon. Simon took it reluctantly and although he carried it, he did not die on it like our Lord, who carried it of his own choice and willingly, and died there rendering his soul to God his Father.
Do as he did, following his example. You have the cross of penance; bear it willingly to the end: in it you will die and render your souls to him. Praise and thank God for calling you to his service. Despise no one. Think that God's command is that you love your neighbor as yourself and all your [brothers and sisters], even those who do or want to harm you.
Above all, have charity for one another and concern yourselves about overcoming your passions. Take one remedy today and another tomorrow. Thus you will gradually come to overcome your temptations, and when our Lord sees your good will and perseverance, He will give you His grace and help you to carry the burdens of religious life to the end. Nothing will be difficult for you to bear for His sake.
(Carmelus,11 [1964] 254-255)
Bl. Frances d’Amboise, Religious
5 November Optional Memorial
Bl. Frances D'Amboise was born in 1427, probably at Thouars, France. At fifteen years of age, she was married to Peter II, Duke of Brittany and crowned with him in the cathedral at Rennes in 1450. She was widowed in 1457 and, not wanting a second marriage, she turned towards religious life. For this purpose, she built a Carmel for sisters at Bondon in 1463 following the advice of Blessed John Soreth, Prior General of the Carmelites.
Carmelite Students Broadcast School’s Football Team
Sporting Event Between Two Carmelite Secondary Schools
Mount Carmel Chicago Students Broadcast School’s Football Team Nationally
Education in the various tools of communications has been a major part of the curriculum in secondary schools in the United States. Most schools have a regular newspaper which was in some cases replaced by livestreamed announcements. Students produce and publish Yearbooks, a physical record of the year’s events and pictures of the school community. Many schools produce poetry or book of the students’ writings. Perhaps the most recent developments have been made in television production.
But a new level was reached when two Carmelite secondary schools, Mount Carmel in Chicago, Illinois and Joliet Catholic Academy in Joliet, Illinois, faced off in a game of American football. Already a long established rivalry, this year’s meeting was a memorable experience for both schools—on and off the playing field.
On October 11, the student-run Mount Carmel media team streamed their football contest against their brother school from nearby Joliet on national television. According to reports in local newspapers, senior student Matthew Malloy, the play-by-play announcer, and the “color commentator” (the analyst who fills in background when play is not in progress), senior Christos Dimas, were key players in making the production a great success. They were backed up by their behind-the-scenes team, under the guidance of Mt. Carmel’s media moderator Ellie Menke.
Months of preparation, including rehearsals, paid off the night of the game. For a number of years, the students streamed the games and commentary on YouTube. There were some challenges going national, however. Dimas was the leader on a school retreat and absent from school the week before the broadcast. A few technical problems showed up during the game.
During the halftime period of the game, a very special segment for both schools played out before the nation. Mount Carmel honored a popular former teacher, Kevin Hansen, who died in 2015. Hansen was also the class valedictorian and Man of the Year of the Class of 1999 at Joliet Catholic. Since his death, the student body at Mount Carmel annually chooses a teacher that embraces the values and virtues of Hansen. The recipient is awarded a green jacket. A video, produced by the students, with interviews of former recipients of the award speaking was shown.
The game’s winning team is awarded the Carmelite Classic trophy. The game between the two powerhouses was once an annual event. However, 2024 is the first time in 17 years that the game was played. The trophy always goes home with the winning team, to sit in a place of honor until the next game between the two Carmelite schools. Mount Carmel took home the trophy this year, winning the game 35-21.
(Pictures were provided by the school and are not from the October 11, 2024, event)
Formation Program in Spain’s Mater Unitatis Federation
On September 28 members of Spain’s Mater Unitatis Federation held a course on finances given by José Mª Herranz, O.S.A., at the monastery of Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas in Madrid.
The first part of the course dealt with the way of living and concretizing the vow of poverty in the consecrated contemplative life, starting from the following of Christ and dealing with practical questions.
In the second part he presented the document of the Sacred Congregation Boni dispensatores multiformis gratiae Dei which deals with the fundamental criteria that should govern the relationship between the different institutions that make up the consecrated life and material goods, essential for the survival and development of their own goals and charism.
The professor showed great experience and knowledge on the subject and gave us valuable guidance.
From October 7 to 11 the sisters took part in the ongoing formation course in the monastery of the Incarnation in Zaragoza. Salvador Villota, O. Carm., prior provincial of the Province of Aragon, Castile and Valencia, and doctor of Sacred Scripture presented the Wisdom and prophetic books.
According to the possibilities of each monastery, sisters from Valencia, Madrid and Huesca attended in person. The rest of the sisters received it online, so all the monasteries of the federation participated.
This year the Carmelite Nuns of the Federation of America also participated in this transmission, according to their possibilities and schedule compatibility, at the request of their president, M. Consuelo. Consuelo.
According to chronicler, Carmelite Sister Mª Brunilda Rodríguez, “As every year, we all received an abundance of spiritual fruits that Fr. Salvador, with his wisdom and humility, served us from the abundant table of the Word of God.”
Celebrating At Home - 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Great Commandment
(Mark 12:28-34)
The first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel today are linked by the words of the Shema – the creed which observant Jews pray every morning and evening. These words come from the Book of Deuteronomy: Listen, Israel: The Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. The title, Shema, comes from the Hebrew word for ‘listen’, the very first word of the prayer.
In a way, Shema is a call to conversion: to listen deeply with the heart and to respond to God’s grace and mercy with love, faithfulness and obedience.
When a scribe asks Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”, Jesus replies by quoting the Shema and then adds a quotation from the Book of Leviticus (19:18), “You must love your neighbour as yourself”.
According to Jesus, there is no commandment greater than these.
The scribe is impressed by Jesus’ reply. His words to Jesus show he has grasped what Jesus means. In repeating what Jesus has just said in his own words, the scribe also adds, “this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice”. Now it is Jesus who is impressed with the scribe’s depth of understanding: that love is the very heart of obedience to God and more important even than ritual worship. The scribe’s correct understanding of the Old Testament Law means he is very close to the Kingdom of God.
It also means that true faith, as Jesus teaches it, is about being in loving relationship with God and other human beings. Religious rituals are meant to be ways of reflecting on, savouring, remembering, celebrating and expressing that love. Sometimes they just end up as ‘empty’ rituals, when love has been replaced by fear, when we are trying to bargain with God, or when we are just ‘going through the motions’.
The Kingdom of God is not some far off place, but the moments when God’s life breaks into the human story. Those moments bring love, wisdom, grace, compassion, generosity, forgiveness and peace.
Those practiced in the things of God recognise God’s presence most of all in loving relationships. If our rituals grow out of and express our sincere love for God and neighbour then they have value. We are always at risk of putting ritual above the practise of love, of thinking that we are at rights with God just by attending a liturgy, by ‘paying God off’, in a sense.
The words of Jesus remind us of the importance of the other part of our religious lives – the liturgy of everyday life in which we make present and visible the love, mercy and compassion of God.
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - XXXI Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(287 KB)
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- pdf Celebrando em família - XXXI Domingo do Tempo Comum(290 KB)
Lectio Divina November, 2024
Opening Prayer
Lord, the meaning of our life is to seek your Word, which came to us in the person of Christ. Make me capable of welcoming what is new in the Gospel of the Beatitudes, so that I may change my life. I would know nothing about you were it not for the light of the words spoken by your Son Jesus, who came to tell us of your marvels. When I am weak, if I go to Him, the Word of God, then I become strong. When I act foolishly, the wisdom of his Gospel restores me to relish God and the kindness of his love. He guides me to the paths of life. When some deformity appears in me, I reflect on his Word and the image of my personality becomes beautiful. When solitude tries to make me dry, my spiritual marriage to him makes my life fruitful. When I discover some sadness or unhappiness in myself, the thought of Him, my only good, opens the way to joy. Therese of the Child Jesus has a saying that sums up the desire for holiness as an intense search for God and a listening to others: «If you are nothing, remember that Jesus is all. You must therefore lose your little nothing into his infinite all and think of nothing else but this uniquely lovable all…» (Letters, 87, to Marie Guérin).
Visit to Carmelite Family in Tanzania and Kenya
The Prior General, Míceál O’Neill, and the General Councilor for Africa, Conrad Mutizamhepo held the formal visitation of the Carmelites in Tanzania and Kenya. Tanzania is a foundation of the General Commissariat of La Bruna in Naples begun in 2009. Kenya is a General Delegation started by the Upper German Province (now the German Province) with brothers from its former Provincial Commissariat of India (now the Province of St. Thomas). After the construction of the house Bustani ya Karmeli, Kenyan brothers from the Provinces of Catalonia and Arago-Valentina (now the Aragon-Castile-Valencia Province) continued the foundation.
Following the visit, the prior general reflected on their visit:
A visit to Africa is a visit to a continent that is teeming with life. The Carmelites have been in Tanzania since 2009 and in Kenya since 2001. Conrad and I enjoyed our two visits, getting a chance to talk to every member in the two countries and on some occasions, to take part in their wonderful liturgies. In Dar es Salaam the building of a Marian Shrine with a very large Church is underway. In Kenya the building of a new retreat and spirituality centre is well underway as well.
We were also impressed by the presence of the wider Carmelite Family in these countries. In Tanzania the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus has a province of some seventy members, and there are the beginnings of a Carmelite Third Order. In Kenya, on the other hand, as well as the friars there are three monasteries of nuns, two affiliated Congregations, Donum Dei, and the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and a very well organised Carmelite Third Order.
Vocations for the friars are encouraging even if the numbers are not enormous. The commitment to providing good formation is very strong, but is a constant challenge because of the shortage of resources.
In Tanzania, they visited the communities of Bunju, Mabwepande, and Morogoro along with some houses of the sisters in Boko and Mapinga secondary school. In Kenya one celebration was for the 15th anniversary of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Charles Lwanga parish. Thirteen couples exchanged wedding vows during the Mass which was followed by a huge celebration into the evening. On the feast of St. Teresa of Jesus the Carmelite Family, with representation from Third Order commemorated the Diamond Jubilee of the establishment of the Third Order in Kenya. This took place at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Naromoru Retreat Centre. Palm trees were planted to mark the significant anniversary.
Let us remember these men and women, religious and lay, as they work to build Carmel in new places.
Prior General's Schedule for November 2024
Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of November 2024:
- November 1 - 11: Canonical Visitation of Ireland
November 11 - 13: Triennial meeting of the Bursars of the Order - Fatima
November 13 - 20: The Curia - Rome
November 20 - 22: Assembly of the Union of Superiors General - Rome - November 24 - 30: Canonical Visitation of the Neapolitan Province
Celebrating At Home - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
What Do You Want Me to Do for You?
(Mark 10:46-52)
There are all kinds of blindness - physical, lack of insight or perception, an unwillingness to see a confronting reality, and so on. For many weeks now we have travelled with Jesus and the disciples as they head towards Jerusalem. Many times, the disciples have seemed almost wilfully blind to understanding the mission of Jesus. Time and again, their own egos seem to get in the way – arguments about which is the greatest, wanting to be people of high status, powerbrokers and princes and rulers in the kingdom. On this journey Jesus has been instructing the disciples about his mission and their call to be true followers of his. As we have seen, they have largely resisted both.
We are nearing the end of the journey. Today’s Gospel episode, the cure of blind Bartimaeus, is the last before Jesus enters the Holy City.
Bartimaeus may be blind, but he sees more clearly who Jesus is than the sighted disciples. In terms of faith, it is the disciples who are blind, and it is Bartimaeus who sees.
Even in his blindness Bartimaeus recognises who Jesus is. When Jesus calls him, his reaction is full of energy and enthusiasm. He throws off his cloak, jumps up and makes his way to Jesus, in contrast to the rather hesitant attitude of the disciples.
Jesus restores Bartimaeus’ sight with the words, ‘Go, your faith has saved you.’ But Bartimaeus does not go; he stays and follows Jesus.
Not only has Jesus restored Bartimaeus’ sight, he has also removed the taint of sinfulness which surrounded people with disabilities in those days.
This story is a parable about discipleship.
Bartimaeus is an image of the true disciple. He recognises his blindness and asks for healing. He comes to Jesus with great faith and enthusiasm and not much else. With sight restored he becomes a follower of Jesus on the journey to Jerusalem.
The presence of Jesus in our lives heals and restores us to our true calling as the People of God so that we can truly follow Jesus in our lives.
What Jesus asks Bartimaeus, he asks us, too:
What do you want me to do for you?
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - XXX Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(284 KB)
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- pdf Celebrando em família - XXX Domingo do Tempo Comum(284 KB)
