O.Carm
Memorial of Bl. Àngel Prat Hostench and 16 Companions
May 4, 2024 | Optional Memorial | Obligatory Memorial in Spain
PRAYER
Almighty God, you who gave your blessed Ángel Maria Prat Hostench, Lucas de San José Tristany Pujol, presbyters, and companions, the grace to confront death so to confess your word and bear witness to Jesus, grant us the power of the Holy Spirit, to remain steadfast in faith and strong in the confession of your name. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
International Workshop on John Baconthorpe
Despite his importance in the history of the Carmelite Order, John Baconthorpe (c. 1290 – c. 1350) is still relatively unknown to modern scholars of medieval thought. Active in the Universities of Oxford, Paris, and Cambridge, Baconthorpe was later chosen by his order as a doctrinal guide, which resulted in multiple printings (from the late 15th to the mid-18th centuries) of his Parisian questions on I-III Sentences, a later version of his IV Sentences, and his Quodlibeta. Although only a handful of experts have delved into his works, whether in print or in manuscript, Baconthorpe’s intellectual project was ambitious and fascinating in the context of fourteenth-century philosophy and theology, with surviving commentaries on Matthew (in a Cambridge manuscript) and (in Paris, BnF, lat. 9540) on Augustine’s De Trinitate and De civitate Dei and on Anselm’s De incarnatione and Cur Deus homo. In his writings, the Doctor Resolutus employed an impressive variety of sources and engaged in dialogue with towering contemporary figures, such as Peter Auriol, Thomas Bradwardine, and some of his Carmelite confrères, while he was critically independent of the leading mendicants and seculars of previous generations, such as Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, Giles of Rome, Godfrey of Fontaines, and John Duns Scotus. In addition, Baconthorpe was sensitive to Averroes’s thinking but also to ideas from Jewish sources.
Sponsored by INSTITUTUM CARMELITANUM
Taking place: CISA, Rome, MAY 9-11 2024
THURSDAY 9 May 2024
16:00 – 17:30
16:00 – 16:30
WELCOME
16:30 – 17:00
Monica BRINZEI:
(IRHT, Paris)
Presentation of the Project
17:00 – 17:30
Stephen METZGER
(Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana)
The Manuscripts of John Baconthorpe in the Vatican Apostolic Library
FRIDAY, 10 May 2024
9:45 - 17:00
9:45 – 10:30
Christopher SCHABEL
(IRHT, ERC Debate n° 771589, Paris)
The Carmelite John Baconthorpe's Parisian Questions on the Sentences
10:30 – 11:15
Wouter GORIS
(Bonn University, Bonn)
Baconthorpe on the First Adequate Object of the Intellect
Coffee Break: 11:15 – 11:30
11:30 – 12:15
Maria SOROKINA
(IRHT, Paris)
John Baconthorpe on Celestial Causality: A Dialogue with Henry of Ghent
12:15 – 13:00
Monica BRINZEI
(IRHT, ERC Debate n° 771589, Paris)
Seduction, Blasphemy, Heresy and the Danger of Exercitatio Sophistica according to John Baconthorpe
LUNCH
14:30 – 15:15
Ioana CURUT
(Babes-Bolyai University, RABY-MSCA
Seal of Excellence Project, PNRR-III-C9-2022-I9, No° 760130, Cluj-Napoca)
Jewish Authorities in John of Baconthorpe's Questio determinata in Ms. Paris, BnF, lat. 16 523
15:15 – 16:00
Andrei MARINCA
(Babes-Bolyai University, ERC Nota n°948152, Cluj-Napoca)
John Baconthorpe and Avicenna
Coffee Break: 16:00 – 16:15
16:15-17:00
Sylvain ROUDAUT
(KU Leuven, Leuven)
John Baconthorpe on the Intension of Forms
SATURDAY 11 May 2024
10:00 - 15:45
10:00 – 10:45
Niccolò BONETTI
(Università degli Studi di Udine)
Essence and Being in Baconthorpe
Coffee Break: 11:00 – 11:15
11:15 – 12:00
Mădălina PANTEA
(Babes-Bolyai University, ERC Nota n°948152, Cluj-Napoca)
The Definition of Vestigium Trinitatis in John Baconthorpe’s Commentary on Augustine’s De Trinitate
LUNCH
14:00 – 14:45
Matteo ESU
(EPHE-PSL, LabEx-Hastec, Paris)
The Theologian’s Pigeon. Baconthorpe’s Discussion of a Feudal Matter in Quodlibet III, question 4
14:45 – 15:30
Alfredo STORCK
(Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre)
Bartolomeu do Pilar and the Reception of Baconthorpe in Colonial Brazil
Coffee Break: 15:30 – 15:45
Conclusions
Organized by: Monica BRINZEI
Mario ALFARANO, O. Carm.
Giovanni GROSSO, O. Carm.
Connexion Zoom: contact Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.
May Schedule of the Prior General
May 2024
1-3: completion of the canonical visitation in the DR Congo
7-8: plenary meeting of the General Council
10-12: centenary celebrations of the foundation of the Hermanas Carmelitas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, by Madre Asunción Soler Gimeno, 13th of May, 1924, in Malaga.
13-17 plenary meeting of the General council
15: celebration of the second centenary of the birth of Madre Teresa Scrilli,15th of May, 1825, Montevarchi, Florence, Foundress of the Institute of Nostra Signora del Monte Carmelo.
20 - 23 provincial chapter of the Polish Province, Krakow.
26 - 31 canonical visitation in the Province of Rio de Janeiro, second part.
Celebrating At Home - Sixth Sunday of Easter
Love Among Us, Love Within Us (John 15:9-17)
As we approach the coming feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, the Gospel today helps us understand that Jesus is our bond of love with the Father and with one another.
Jesus shows us the way to live full and happy lives by living in love: “I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.” The commandments of Jesus are always about love - love of God and love of neighbour. Those who live by these commandments of Jesus abide with him, others and the Father in love.
Jesus is the reign of God in person. He is both the image of God and the model of the redeemed human being that each of us is called to be.
When Jesus says he has told the disciples everything he has learned from the Father it reminds us that Jesus was human as well as divine; that his life was a journey of learning, too; a path of facing choices and challenges. Jesus tells his disciples that they are his friends. They have become his friends because he has shared his knowledge and understanding and love of the Father with them.
We remain in Christ by remaining in his love and loving one another just as Christ has loved us. We are no longer servants but friends of Jesus because he has made known to us everything he learnt from God.
Jesus has chosen us and commissioned us to be love and to do love in the heart of the world.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Sixth Sunday of Easter [PDF](2.89 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Sixth Sunday of Easter [ePub](2.56 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Sexto Domingo de Pascua(453 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Sesta Domenica di Pasqua(458 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Sexto Domingo da Páscoa(452 KB)
Meeting of the General Economic Commission
From April 8-12, 2024, the General Economic Commission met in Rome, whose members are: Javier Domingo Garmón i Calvo (Cat), Günter Benker (Ger), Shiju Njaralampuzha (Ind), Nixon Jacobus Silfanus (Indo-laica), and Christian Körner, General Economist. Anna De Giglio (Neap-laica) was unable to attend. Also present were Elisabetta Berardi (Curia) and as translator Tobias Kraus (Curia).
The meeting began with the review of the Curia's Economic Report 2023 and continued with the discussion of the following items: the submission of economic reports and payment of the contribution by some provinces, the revision of the Economic Directory, the criteria of investments, and the reconsideration of the percentages to be presented at the bursars' meeting and discussed together. The Commission also continued to prepare for the 'meeting of all bursars of the Order to be held, from November 11 (arrivals) to November 16 (departures) 2024 at the Casa São Nuno Hotel in Fatima.
The next meeting will be held during the bursars' meeting in Fatima.
World Press Freedom Day
May 3
A day observed to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.
From an open letter from Catholic journalists to Pope Francis on the occasion of the canonization of Carmelite Titus Brandsma, May 15, 2022.
Your Holiness,
In 2018 you asked us, journalists, loud and clear, “to promote a journalism of peace”, a “journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans, and sensational headlines. A journalism created by people for people, one that is at the service of all, (…) a journalism committed to pointing out alternatives to the escalation of shouting matches and verbal violence” (“The truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:32), Fake news and journalism for peace. Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for World Communications Day, 24 January 2018).
We wholeheartedly endorse your call to action and in it we recognize a mission statement for the whole of the journalistic enterprise: for old and new media, for editors of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and internet platforms - and not only for journalists of Catholic origin, but for all journalists of good will.
Titus Brandsma has meant a lot to the Catholic community in the Low Countries, but his journalistic work stands out among all his other activities. He was editor-in-chief of a newspaper, devoted himself to the modernization and professionalization of the Catholic daily press in the Netherlands, and strove for better working conditions and the establishment of a professional training for journalists.
Father Brandsma did his work in the context of the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe. In word and deed he opposed the language of hatred and division that was becoming common at the time. In his view, what we now describe as ‘fake news' was not to be tolerated in the Catholic press; he successfully argued for an episcopal ban on the printing of National Socialist propaganda in Catholic newspapers.
[St. Titus Brandsma] paid with his life for his courageous actions.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 99 journalists were killed in 2023, 72 in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict alone.
Link to Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
Link to the Windhoek Declaration (1991)
Link to full letter of the Catholic journalists to Pope Francis (May 2022)
Publications by or about St. Titus Brandsma, include the Collected Works of Titus Brandsma in English (4 of 7 volumes completed); Un Frate Pericoloso, a play in Italian; biographies in English, Spanish, and Italian; a RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana-Tiber Cinematografica produced movie, Le Due Croci (DVD, in Italian with subtitles available in English and Spanish); and many other excellent offerings.
Lectio Divina May 2024
Opening Prayer
Lord, You are! And this is sufficient for us, to live by, to go on hoping every day, to walk in this world, not to choose the wrong road of being closed and lonely. Yes, You are forever and from all time; You are constant, O Jesus! Your being is our constant gift; it is an ever ripe fruit that feeds and strengthens us in You, in Your presence. Lord, open our heart, open our being to Your being; open us to life with the mysterious power of Your Word. Help us to listen, to eat and savor this food for our souls, which is indispensable for us! Send us the good fruit of Your Spirit so that He may bring about in us that which we read and meditate about You.
30th Anniversary of the Beatification of Isidore Bakanja
From the Vice-Postulator of the Cause of Isidore Bakanja
Carmelite Family Celebrates 30th Anniversary of the Beatification of Blessed Isidore Bakanja
On April 24, 1994, Blessed Isidore Bakanja, layman and martyr of the Scapular of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Today the Order comes together to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Church's recognition of the holiness of this Congolese Catholic who would not give up his scapular.
Isidore Bakanja was born in Bokendela (Democratic Republic of Congo) around 1885. Leaving his village, he moved to Mbandaka, where he was baptized on May 6, 1906 and confirmed a few months later, on November 25, 1906. He was heavily influenced by the witness of the Trappist missionaries, cultivating a special devotion to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Despite the difficulties he encountered at work because of his fidelity to Christ, he remained steadfast in his faith. On February 2, 1909, he suffered an atrocious scourging because he refused to get rid of the scapular of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel which he wore over his shoulders. Following a terrible beating and sensing his impending death, he received the anointing of the sick on July 24, 1909. Just as Christ died having forgiven his wrongdoers, so Bakanja died having forgiven his executioner: “The white man hit me; that's his business. It's up to him and God. When I get to heaven, I'll pray a lot for him and ask God to forgive him.”
Bakanja died on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1909, at the age of 24. In imitation of Christ, whom he had followed from the moment of his baptism, Isidore Bakanja lived in his own way, like Saint Paul, who wrote: “For me, to live is Christ.” (Philippians 1, 21). "For me, to live is to be a Christian."
On June 7, 1917, his remains were exhumed and buried at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Bokote. He was proclaimed Blessed on April 24, 1994. His cause for canonization is now underway. Popes Benedict XVI and Francis have recognized and proposed Blessed Isidore Bakanja as an authentic witness and example of faith for all Christians in the world. In his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit, Pope Francis named Blessed Isidore Bakanja among the young saints who today mobilize Christians in their quest for holiness and inspire new conversions. In short, Blessed Isidore Bakanja is a spiritual and ecclesial heritage for the world.
Celebrating At Home - Fifth Sunday of Easter
Jesus True Vine; Through Fellowship With Him
the Branches Bear Much Fruit (John 15:1-8)
We are still on the Easter journey. After the three day roller-coaster of emotions - from Jesus’ supper with his disciples, through trial and crucifixion, to the wonder of the women at the empty tomb - we now prepare ourselves to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
During these fifty days, our journey is steadied and enlightened by the words of the First Letter of St John.
It has a central message made clear in today’s reading: we are asked to believe in Jesus and love one another.
We are then assured that we are not alone in this challenge: “We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he has given us.” The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins echoes this in As Kingfishers Catch Fire: “For Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his.” This idea of Christ living within us is explored in today’s Gospel where Jesus likens himself to the “true vine.” He tells us: “Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty.” Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit we can hold Christ within us, not only in our thoughts, our ideas, our actions, but deep within ourselves, in our souls and in our hearts. We are helped by prayer and by reflecting on the words of scripture, maybe meditating on the images, or by spending time with the phrases that we particularly notice. Or we can sit still and simply open our hearts and listen. Jesus says: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you …”
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Fifth Sunday of Easter [PDF](2.87 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Fifth Sunday of Easter [ePub](2.65 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Quinto Domingo de Pascua(463 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Quinta Domenica di Pasqua(459 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Quinto Domingo da Páscoa(460 KB)
Carmel Celebrates World Book Day
Carmel Celebrates World Book Day Connecting People Around the World
On Tuesday, April 23, people in over 100 countries around the world will celebrate World Book Day. Melody Triumph, of The Black Curriculum website, captures the importance of the Day, "How special and exciting it is to be able to have someone’s story from the past, or from the other side of the world, in your hands. ... It reminds us that everyone has a story to tell, everyone has an experience we can get joy and learn from, and perhaps most the most important of them all, is that every reader has a story that shows them that they are not alone."
World Book Day is a perfect opportunity to remind children of the importance of reading and it really helps to spark their enthusiasm and get them excited to pick up a new book. Stories offer a child so much and play a vital role in their growth and development.
The day is not just for children!!! Carmelites can use the day as a starting point to gain new insights into the Order's history and spirituality.
The benefits of reading at all ages are multiple. For example, reading can reduce stress levels, preserves brain health and lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, helps your sleep and relieves symptoms of anxiety and depression.
There are plenty of other benefits of reading, including making you smarter. Reading provides a workout for our brains, a bit like physical activity for our bodies. Reading also increases vocabulary, helps us to understand different ideas and theories, increases knowledge and keeps our memory sharp.
In 1995, UNESCO decided that the World Book would be celebrated on 23 April, as the date is also the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare as well as that of the birth or death of several other prominent authors.
To choose a book to enjoy, see Edizioni Carmelitane
