O.Carm
St. Albert of Trapani, Priest
7 August | Feast
There are three general practices to which our profession obliges us: obedience, chastity, and the renunciation of ownership. These are common to the profession of all Orders. As far as these practices are concerned there is no difference between the Orders except in their dress; they are all essentially one, as it were, as long as they are equally strict, and all who observe the same practices with equal strictness are worthy of equal merit.
But in our Order, as in every other, these general practices are reinforced by others that are more particular, and by these the Orders are distinguished one from another, some being stricter than others. With regard to these practices any religious who has asked permission, even if it has not been granted, is allowed by common law to transfer from one Order to another to gain the benefit of a more perfect way of life.
“How great are your works! Your thoughts are very deep.” “The dull man cannot know these things indeed, nor the fool understand them.” “Who has known the mind of the Lord whose wisdom is beyond measure, or who has been his counsellor?” For the Lord, whose providence is unerring in its dispositions, designedly set some in the desert with Mary, when it was his purpose to array the garden of the Church Militant with a diversity of Orders, and others with Martha in the city. Those endowed with learning, industrious in the study of the Scriptures, and of adequate moral probity, he established in the city, so that they could exercise their zeal in nourishing the people with his word. Those of a simpler cast, however, those with whom he holds secret colloquy, he marked out to be sent into the desert with the Prophet who said: “Lo, I have journeyed afar in flight; I fixed my abode in the wilderness. I awaited him who saved me from faintheartedness, and from the tempest.”
He uses the word 'Lo' demonstratively, to draw attention to his words, as if to say: “See what I have done, and do likewise yourself. In my flight from the turmoil of the world I did not stay to dwell within the walls of the city, nor in its suburbs, nor amid its outlying gardens nor anywhere in the neighborhood, but I journeyed afar in flight, and ‘fixed my abode in the wilderness.’ And I ‘fixed my abode;’ there is truth: I did not return to the city after a few days, as they do now, but I fixed my abode in the wilderness, awaiting ‘him who saved me from faint-heartedness and from the tempest.’”
With such special care has the Lord provided for the guidance of all religious, whether in the desert or in the city, that in his infinite wisdom he has given them all, through those best qualified to draw up their Rules, their own distinct ways of life, the ways he knew to be best suited to each of the Orders in the circumstances its members would find themselves in.
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Carmelite Nuns Celebrate Elective Chapter in Madrid
The Monastery of Our Lady of Maravillas in Madrid, Spain Celebrated Its Elective Chapter July 24-25
On July 24-25, 2025, the Carmelite nuns of the monastery of Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas in Madrid, Spain, held their elective chapter.
The monastery was founded by Joanna de Baraona in 1612 as a place for pious women to gather in order to practice Christian perfection. With the help of Antonio Pérez, prior provincial of the Castille Province, the beateria became an official Carmelite monastery with its reception of the papal enclosure.
The monastery founded San José de las Matas (1954) and Dumaguete (1958).
The monastery belongs to the Mater Unitatis Federation.
Those elected to leadership are:
Prioress | Priora | Priora:
Hna. Ma Brunilda Rodríguez Velasco
1st Councilor | 1ª Consejera | 1ª Consigliera:
Hna. Ma Inmaculada Ochoa Blázquez
2nd Councilor | 2ª Consejera | 2ª Consigliera:
Sr. Ma. Antonia Domínguez Cortés
3rd Councilor | 3ª Consejera | 3ª Consigliera:
Hna. Ma Luisa Ruiz Cerro
4th Councilor | 4ª Consejera | 4ª Consigliera:
Hna. Ma del Carmen Martínez Pérez
Treasurer | Ecónoma | Economa
Hna. Ma Cristina Gil Moreno
Formator | Formadora | Formatrice
Hna. Ma Antonia Domínguez Cortés
Sacristan | Sacristán | Sacrestana:
Hna. Ma del Carmen Ruiz Navas
Celebrating At Home - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
False Security
(Luke 12:13-21)
All too often we are made aware of the vulnerability and uncertainty of life. Things can suddenly change. We don’t know what will happen today, tomorrow or even in a few moments’ time. Such experiences can make us profoundly anxious, and we look for ways to protect ourselves and what we own against life’s adverse events. It is not only a problem for wealthy people like the rich man in the Gospel today. It can be a problem for all of us. We seem to have an instinctive need to build a sense of security by amassing goods and wealth.
A strong focus in the Luke’s Gospel is that nothing is more destructive of life and humanity than the need to acquire, hold on to and increase wealth. The problem is not the riches we possess but that our need to possess them gets in the way of our relationship with God, our only true security. That same need also gets in the way of our concern for others. We become reluctant to share what we have in case we may need it one day.
In many ways the Gospel is about the fundamental orientation of a disciple’s life - do we live for ourselves and our possessions, or for God and the Kingdom? Do we own our possessions, or do they own us? What do we value most in life?
Thirsting after material things distorts us, narrows our focus and corrupts our moral sense. As disciples of Jesus, we try to keep God at the centre of our lives. In Baptism and Confirmation we pledge ourselves to be willing workers with God in making God’s dreams and hopes for us all a reality.
A successful life in God’s eyes is not about storing up material treasure for ourselves (the parable of the rich man in this Sunday’s Gospel) but about being a source of real treasure for others (the servant parable in next Sunday’s Gospel). Quite often, the prayers of the Mass ask God to help us to use wisely the good things of the earth.
God’s wisdom always directs us towards using who we are and what we have to enrich the lives of others.
Living according to the heart of God helps us keep all things in their right order and opens us up to God’s wider vision of reality.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF](2.78 MB)
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - XVIII Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(452 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - XVIII Domenica del Tempo Ordinario(444 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - XVIII Domingo do Tempo Comum(436 KB)
Lectio Divina August, 2025
Opening Prayer
God our Father and protector, without You nothing is holy, nothing has value.
Guide us to everlasting life by helping us to use wisely the blessings You have given to the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
St. Titus Brandsma, priest and martyr
July 27 | Memorial
A new awareness of Thy love
Encompasses my heart:
Sweet Jesus, I in Thee and Thou
In me shall never part.
No grief shall fall my way but I
Shall see thy grief-filled eyes;
The lonely way that Thou once walked
Has made me sorrow-wise.
All trouble is a white-lit joy
That lights my darkest day;
Thy love has turned to brightest light
This night-like way.
If I have Thee alone,
The hours will bless
With still, cold hands of love
My utter loneliness.
Stay with me, Jesus, only stay;
I shall not fear
If, reaching out my hand,
I feel Thee near.
Translated by Fr. Gervase Toelle, O. Carm.
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The Story of Anne and Joachim in Apocryphal Sources
26 July Memorial
According to some of the apocryphal traditions, Joachim was a very wealthy and generous man. However, he and his wife, Anne, were childless until they were advanced in years. One day, before Anne conceived Mary, Joachim arrived at the Temple to make an offering. It was rejected by a man named Rubim, most likely a Levitical priest, because Joachim was childless. Rubim rebuked Joachim for bringing offerings before he had a child. Children were exceedingly important at that time and someone childless was seen as in disfavor with God.
Distressed, Joachim left the Temple and studied the Scriptures to see if he could find anyone of importance who, like he and Anne, were childless. When he came upon Abraham, he recalled that Abraham was only given a child in his old age. Rather than returning home to Anne, Joachim embarked on a forty-day period of fasting and praying in the desert, beseeching God for a child.
Anne, for her part, also went to pray, asking God for a child. As she prayed, an angel appeared to her and communicated that God had heard her prayer and she would have a child who “will be spoken in all the world.” An second messenger from God appeared to Joachim and assured him that God had heard his prayer and that his wife would conceive. Nine months later, the child arrived and was names Mary.
Because of a vow Anne and Joachim had made, when Mary was only three, they brought her to the Temple where she took up residence until it was time for her to be married. She was educated by the priests and holy women and spent her days in prayer and union with God.
Though this story of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s birth and presentation in the Temple comes from apocryphal sources, the Presentation of Mary in the Temple is a liturgical feast first celebrated in the Eastern Church as early as the sixth century and the Western Church in the eleventh century. In the old city of Jerusalem, there still stands an ancient church next to the Temple Mount in which it is believed that the Blessed Virgin Mary was born and might have lived during her early days after being presented in the Temple.
Though not much more is known about Saints Joachim and Anne, devotion to them, especially to Saint Anne, began to grow as early as the sixth century. Churches were built in her honor, prayers were offered for her intercession, devotions were formulated, and patronages were attributed to her. It wasn’t until the sixteenth century that devotion to Saint Joachim began to grow when his feast day was placed on the General Roman Calendar.
St. Anne is now the patron saint of grandparents, grandmothers, mothers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, dressmakers, equestrians, expectant mothers, homemakers, housewives, lace workers, seamstresses, miners, old-clothes dealers, Canada, and France. Saint Joachim is also patron saint of grandparents as well as grandfathers, fathers, married couples, cabinetmakers, and linen traders.
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Nuns in Guiguinto Celebrate Elective Chapter
The Monastery of the Holy Family in Guiguinto, Philippines Celebrates Elective Chapter
On Friday, June 9, 2025, the Carmelite community of the monastery of the Holy Family in Guiguinto (Philippines) held their elective chapter under the presidency of the Bishop of Malolos, Dennis C. Villarojo.
During the Chapter, the nuns confirmed that their activites are ordained in and subordinate to contemplation. The decision was made to form a community centered in the presence of Christ among us and whose relationships tend toward a deeper union in charity. The nuns confirmed their intent to intensify their prayers and sacrifices in communion with the present needs of humanity.
In 1966, the nuns of the Monastery of St. Anne landed in the Philippines and first established a monastery in the city of Meycauayan in the Diocese of Malolos and then in the city of Guiguinto. In 1983, seven nuns from Guiguinto went to the Diocese of Cabanatuan and established a monastery there. In 1993, seven nuns of the Guiguinto community went to the Diocese of Alaminos to found a new monastery in Burgos. Then, four nuns founded a new monastery of the federation of nuns in Tanay, in the Diocese of Antipolo. Finally, on December 7, 2001, seven nuns founded a new community in the town of Sta Ignacia in the Diocese of Tarlac. In 2017, five sisters were sent to seek a new foundation in the village of San Fabian, in the Province of Pangasinan, in the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan.
The monastery of the Holy Family belongs to the Stella Maris Federation. The monastery has a Facebook page.
Those elected to leadership are:
Prioress | Priora | Priora:
Sr. Mary Jenicca L. Mariano
1st Councilor | 1ª Consejera | 1ª Consigliera:
Sr. Mary Ruth Alethea C. Clavio
2nd Councilor | 2ª Consejera | 2ª Consigliera:
Sr. Ma. Liza G. Jeremias
3rd Councilor | 3ª Consejera | 3ª Consigliera:
Sr. Mary Josephine B. Faustino
4th Councilor | 4ª Consejera | 4ª Consigliera:
Sr. Ma. Teresa E. Santos
Treasurer | Ecónoma | Economa
Sr. Ma. Fatima B. Faustino
Formator | Formadora | Formatrice
Sr. Mary Josephine B. Faustiono
Sacristan | Sacristán | Sacrestana:
Sr. Mary Ruby Ann D. Aurelio
Prior General's Schedule for August 2025
Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of August 2025:
August 1–4: Brazil, Aparecida, Lay Carmelite Congress
August 7-21: Holidays in Ireland
August 21-25: Rome
August 25-28: Hong Kong
August 29-31: Maumere, Indonesia: Inauguration of the new province of East Indonesia.
John Soreth and the Carmelite Nuns
24 July Memorial
Important to the life of the Carmelite Order was the foundation of female monasteries by John Soreth. As soon as he was elected prior general on November 1, 1451, Soreth himself affiliated the beguinage of Ten Elsen near Geldern in 1452, confirming it the following year by appealing to the papal bull Cum nulla (October 7, 1452), with which Pope Nicholas V recognized the Carmelites' right to have female monasteries like other mendicant orders. It is unknown who requested the bull. Certainly, a decisive role, at least in speeding up the process, was played by the community of the Carmine in Florence, which boasted a long history of bringing women into the Order and perhaps wished to clarify and formalize the situation of some women who had joined the Order on August 15, 1450.
Soreth used the bull to found monasteries in Flanders, Germany, and Britain, in which he wanted cloistered life from the outset. The special bond with the reformed friars requested by Soreth confirms his plan to entrust the female communities with a role of spiritual support for the difficult project of reforming the Order. After the Beguines of Ten Elsen, Soreth incorporated the sisters of Nieukerk (1455), and at the same time the community of Dinant was founded, followed by Liège (1457) and Bondon in Brittany, where in 1468 the Duchess Françoise d'Amboise entered. In 1466, Harlem and Huy were founded, followed by Namur in 1468 and Vilvoorde in 1469. (Giovanni Soreth, by Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm. in Dizionario Carmelitano)
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Celebrating At Home - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Hospitality of God
(Luke 11:1-13)
Many people struggle with a name for God. For some, ‘Father’ is fine. For others, the image of God as Father evokes traumatic memories of their childhood experience of pain, suffering, neglect and even abuse.
Alternatively, some prefer terms like, ‘Creator’, ‘Redeemer’, and ‘Sanctifier’. But these terms describe functions, not persons, and they seem to lack the warmth and intimacy that we intuitively feel marks our relationship with God.
In today’s Gospel, one of the disciples, having seen Jesus at prayer, asks him to teach them. The prayer that Jesus teaches them is probably very close what he, himself, prayed.
The prayer has none of the formality of those used in Temple and Synagogue worship. Instead, it begins with a more informal, warm and intimate addressing of God as ‘Abba’ - not as formal as ‘Father’ and not as childish as ‘Daddy’, but somewhere in between.
However we choose to name God, the term we use needs to have the same sense as ‘Abba’ had for Jesus. The disciples also live in the same warm and intimate relationship which God and Jesus share. And it is out of this relationship as members of God’s household that Jesus teaches them to pray.
The focus of the prayer is initially on God alone (‘may your name be held holy’), then moves to what the world needs (‘your kingdom come’), then to what the disciples need (sustenance, forgiveness and rescue from trial, persecution and temptation).
A community which prays this prayer recognises its privileged closeness to God. But it also recognises that the hospitality of God calls the whole human race into this same closeness experienced as the coming of the Kingdom.
The shamelessly persistent knocking on a friend’s door is an encouragement not to be afraid to continually ask God for what we need to live as members of the kingdom. God will not fail to share God’s life and love through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If human beings, as flawed as we are, know how to give good things to our children, then how much more will the loving and gracious God give the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask? The Holy Spirit who is the bond of love between God, Jesus and us - the Holy Spirit who helps us sense and experience that we are deeply enfolded in God’s love, care and concern.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF](2.85 MB)
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - XVII Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(481 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - XVII Domenica del Tempo Ordinario(476 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - XVII Domingo do Tempo Comum(472 KB)
