Evangelization – Priests
That priests, through the modesty and humility of their lives, commit themselves actively to a solidarity with those who are the most poor.
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Electoral Chapter of the Monastery of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic
Written byThe Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, was held 20 May 2019. The following were elected:
- Prioress: Sr. Grecia del Carmen Abreu Báez, O.Carm.
- 1st Councilor: Sr. María del Carmen García Collado, O.Carm.
- 2nd Councilor: Sr. Silveria María García Durán, O.Carm.
- 3rd Councilor: Sr. M. Ramona Ramos Hernández, O.Carm.
- 4th Couniclor: Sr. M. Concepción Solano Ureña, O.Carm.
- Director of Novices: Sr. Silveria María García Durán, O.Carm.
- Treasurer: Sr. M. Nieves Tavárez Tavárez, O.Carm.
In cooperation with the German Carmelite Institute (Forschungsinstitut der Deutschen Provinz der Karmeliten) the 5th Bi-Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Philosophy of Edith Stein (IASPES) will take place at the University of Cologne, Germany, August 15-17, 2019.
The subject is "Edith Stein's Itinerary: Phenomenology, Christian Philosophy, and Carmelite Spirituality". There will be 60 papers given by international researchers in four languages (German, English, French, and Spanish) and two keynotes from Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. phil. h. c. Andreas Speer, University of Cologne, and Sister Prof. Dr. Anneliese Meis Wörmer SSpS, Pontificial University of Santiago de Chile / Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile.
The congress program includes i. a. a visit of the Edith-Stein-Archives in the Cologne Convent of the Carmelite Sisters (o.c.d) and possibilities to visit special places of memory of Edith Stein in Cologne.
For further information please contact: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.
Carmelite General Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
Click here for the Lectio Divina of the Ascension of the Lord (c)
The Glory of the Son: That all may be One
John, 17:20-26
1) OPENING PRAYER
Lord Jesus send your Spirit to help us interpret the scriptures with the same insight with which you interpreted them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. Through the light of God’s written word, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the overwhelming events of your condemnation and death. Thus, the Cross, which seemed to be the end of all hope, appeared to them as the source of life and resurrection.
Create in us a silence, so that we can listen to your voice in creation, scripture, daily events and in persons especially those who are poor and suffering. May your Word guide us, so that we, like the Disciples of Emmaus, may experience the strength of your resurrection and witness it to others. We ask this of you, Jesus, Son of Mary, who revealed the Father to us and sent us the Holy Spirit. Amen.
2) LECTIO: THE READING
a) A Key to the Reading
This gospel passage concerns all who have come believe in Jesus. Jesus prays that all may be one. The unique model for such a union is the intimate bond which exists between the Father and the Son. The unity among Christians testifies to the world that Jesus is the one sent by the Father.
b) A division of the text to facilitate our reading
Jn 17: 20 – 23: The prayer of Jesus about His own mission.
Jn 17: 24 – 26: The prayer of Jesus that the love of the Father be in the disciples.
c) The Text - John 17:20-26
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."
3) A MOMENT OF SILENT PRAYER
So that the Word of God can penetrate our hearts and enlighten our lives.
4) SOME QUESTIONS
To assist our meditation and prayer.
During the reading of this Gospel passage, what impression of Jesus did you formulate?
Did you experience Jesus’ immense desire for unity and love?
Bishop Don Pedro Casaldáliga once said “the Trinity is truly the best community.” In your community, can you see any sign of the Trinity?
Ecumenism: What does it mean? Am I interested in ecumenism?
Love: What type of love does the world propose? Is it compatible with the love taught by Christ?
5) FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO GO DEEPER INTO THE TEXT
a) The Context
Today’s Gospel gives us the third and last part of the Priestly Prayer, in which Jesus looks toward the future and manifests His great desire for unity among us, His disciples, and that all may remain in the love which unifies, because without love and without unity we do not deserve credibility.
b) A commentary on the text
John 17:20-23: The prayer of Jesus about His own Mission: So that the world may believe it was You who sent Me.
Looking into the horizon, Jesus prays to the Father: “I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me. May they all be one, just as, Father, You are in Me and I am in You, so that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe it was You who sent Me.” Here, Jesus displays His concern for unity which should exist in the communities. Unity does not mean uniformity, but rather to remain in love in spite of tension and conflict. Such love reflects the profound unity which exists between Jesus and the Father. The unity in love revealed in the Trinity is the model for all communities. By loving one another, communities reveal to the world the profound message of Jesus. People said of the first Christians “see how they love one another!” The present day division among Jews, Christians and Moslems, all of whom came from Abraham, is truly tragic. Even more tragic is the division among us Christians who claim to believe in Jesus. If we are divided, we have no credibility. Ecumenism is at the center of Jesus’ farewell prayer to the Father. It is His testament. To be a Christian and not be ecumenical is a contradiction. We are violating the final wish of Jesus.
John 17:24-26: The prayer of Jesus that the love of the Father be in the disciples: “So that the love with which You loved Me may be in them.”
Jesus does not want to remain alone. He says “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am so that they may always see My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” Jesus is happy when we are all together with Him. He wants His disciples to have the same experience of the Father which He enjoyed. He wants us to know the Father and be known by Him. In the Bible, knowledge of God is not merely rational and theoretical but an experience of the living God who loves His people.
c) Further Information
That they may be one as We are one. (Unity and Trinity in the Gospel of John)
The Gospel of John helps us to understand the mystery of the Trinity, the communion of Father, Son and Spirit. Of the four Gospels, John stresses the profound unity that exists among the Father, Son and Spirit. From the text, we see that the mission of the Son is the supreme manifestation of the love of the Father (Jn 17: 6-8). This unity between the Father and the Son makes Jesus exclaim “the Father and I are one” (Jn 10:30). Between Son and Father, there is such unity that one who sees the face of one sees the face of the other. Fulfilling this mission of unity, Jesus reveals the Spirit. The spirit of Truth comes from the Father (Jn 15:26). At the bidding of the Son (Jn 14:16), the Father sends the Spirit to each one of us in such a way that He will remain with us, encouraging us and giving us strength. The Spirit also comes to us from the Son (Jn 16:7-8). Thus, the Spirit of Truth, who journeys with us, is the communication of the profound unity which exists between the Father and the Son (Jn 15:26-27). The Spirit cannot communicate a truth which is different from the truth of the Son. Everything which is in relationship with the mystery of the Son, the Spirit makes known to us (Jn 16:13-14). This experience of unity in God was very strong in the communities of the Beloved Disciple. The love which unites the Divine Persons allows us to experience God through union with people in a community of love. This was also the experience of the first communities in which love was a sign of God’s presence in their midst (Jn 13:34-35). This love builds unity in the community (Jn 17:21). They looked at the unity in God in order to understand the unity among themselves.
6. PRAYER (Psalm 8)
O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the world!
Whoever keeps singing of your majesty higher than the heavens,
Even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms,
you make him a fortress,
firm against your foes, to subdue the enemy and the rebel.
I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers,
at the moon and the stars you set firm.
What are human beings that you spare a thought for them,
or the child of Adam that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god,
you have crowned him with glory and beauty,
made him lord of the works of your hands,
put all things under his feet,
sheep and cattle, all of them, and even the wild beasts,
birds in the sky, fish in the sea, when he makes his way across the ocean.
Yahweh our Lord,
how majestic your name throughout the world!
7. FINAL PRAYER
Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your word which has helped us better understand the will of the Father. Grant that your Spirit enlightens our actions and gives us the strength to carry out what Your word has made us see. Grant that we, like Mary Your Mother, can, not only listen to, but also put Your Word into practice. You who live and reign together with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
Evangelization – Church in Africa
That the Church in Africa, through the commitment of its members, may be the seed of unity among her peoples and a sign of hope for the continent.
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The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Fisciano, Italy, was held 26 April 2019. The following were elected:
- Prioress: Sr. Regina Di Serafino, O.Carm.
- 1st Councilor: Sr. M. Elisabetta Giliberti, O.Carm.
- 2nd Councilor: Sr. M. Giuseppina Albano, O.Carm.
- Director of Novices: Sr. M. Arcangela Parisi, O.Carm.
- Treasurer: Sr. M. Arcangela Parisi, O.Carm.
- Sacristan: Sr. M. Carmela Massaro, O.Carm.
Christus resurrexit!
Resurrexit vere! AlleluIa!
In Pascha Domini
A.D. 2019
Fernando Prior Generalis
Domusque Generalis Communitas
Image: Icona, Monastero carmelitano di Sogliano al Rubicone, Italia
The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Barcelona, Spain, was held 6 April 2019. The following were elected:
- Prioress: Sr. M. Pilar Simón Blasco, O.Carm.
- 1st Councilor: Sr. M. Carmen Izquierdo Marín, O.Carm.
- 2nd Councilor: Sr. M. Jacinta Mutio Muithya, O.Carm.
- Director of Novices: Sr. M. Carmen Izquierdo Marín, O.Carm.
- Treasurer: Sr. M. Jacinta Mutio Muithya, O.Carm.
- Sacristan: Sr. M. Carmen Izquierdo Marín, O.Carm.
Lent is here. Not exactly the favorite time of the liturgical year for most people. Lent calls us to slow down and take stock, to evaluate our progress on our pilgrim journey back to God, our progress in our ascent of Mount Carmel. Lent challenges us to remember that we are dust and unto dust we shall return.
Lent is a period of fasting and penance. This is true. It is good to fast and to do penance. Fasting and penance remind us of our sinfulness, our falling short of the mark, our distance from God. Fasting and penance, or other Lenten observances, remind us of our need for continual repentance, continual conversion.
In the old days before the second Vatican Council, most Carmelites did not look forward to Lent because it was a period of fast and abstinence. Except for Sunday, Carmelites fasted every day during lent and abstained from meat three days a week. But the first and third readings for Ash Wednesday tell us that Lent is not really about what is going on on the “outside,” about external performances, though these can play a role, as mentioned above. Lent is really about what is going on on the “inside,” about inner repentance or conversion.
In the first reading for Ash Wednesday from the prophet Joel, who lived around 375 B.C.E., there is a great locust plague, which Joel interprets as the final attack by God’s enemies against Judah. So he calls for repentance or conversion to turn back the plague. This call for repentance or conversion is the traditional biblical summons to “turn around.” The Hebrew word used here (shub or metanoein in Greek) is the command a General gives to his troops to do an about face, to turn one hundred and eighty degrees, to make a total change in direction.
So repentance or conversion in the scriptures is not just a matter of performing some external practice or religious observance, e.g. fasting or abstaining, saying extra prayers, or even charitable giving, though these are not excluded. Joel tells us that true repentance demands that we rend our hearts, not our garments. Repentance is to “return to me (God) with your whole hearts.” And so repentance or conversion in the biblical sense (shub, metanoein) is a radical turning around, i.e. one which goes right to the root (radix) or heart of a person, the very depths of a person, the depths in which lurks the sarx, usually translated “flesh.” Sarx is the old person of which Paul speaks, the insecure self which is in love with itself, fascinated with itself, tripping over itself, seeking to seize divinity so as to secure its own existence and autonomy. The sarx is the old self which resists abandoning itself and living according to a new self, the Pneuma or Spirit. Repentance involves putting off that old self and putting on the new.
The Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday from Mt.6 shows us that for Jesus also repentance means much more than mere external observances. Jesus tells us to be on guard against performing religious acts for people to see and to applaud. We are not to be like the Pharisees, the hypocrites, who change merely the appearance on their faces. When we give alms, we are not even to let our left hand know what our right hand is doing. We are to keep our deeds of mercy secret, pray in private and comb our hair and wash our face so that no one knows that we are fasting.
Lent is a season of great opportunity. It is a season which reminds us, however, that Lent is not just a period of forty days. Lent is a dimension of our lives which must be present every day. Lent is not so much a temporal season as it is a way of being. Lent is a kenotic or self-emptying way of being to which we are all called every day. One’s whole life, and not just forty days, is to be a life of rending our hearts, of questioning and purifying that “old self,” which can and often does create “on the outside” the subterfuge, the illusion of dying through penitential observances but “within” remains filled with deceit and hypocrisy. Within, despite all the externals and observances, the “old self” remains just the “old self,” the self which runs from and hides from a true turn of heart, a true repentance, a true abandonment to God.
During Lent we must not deceive ourselves, much less attempt to deceive others. What is most important is not what appears, what others can see, the external observances. What is most important is what occurs within the “old self,” in the depths of our being. What is most important is our dying to the “old self” so that we can rise through the power of the Holy Spirit to the “new self,” the new creation, which the Father through the power of the Spirit fully achieved in raising Jesus from the dead.
There is something very Carmelite about the season of Lent, especially when Lent is seen as not just a forty day period but as a way of being, the way of kenosis, of self-emptying. Carmelite spirituality is very much a desert spirituality, a spirituality of continual self-emptying, of being empty before God (vacare Deo) as the Reform of Touraine says, so as to be filled with the Spirit of the Risen Christ.
April, 2019
Fr. Donald Buggert, O.Carm
Professor Emeritus – Washington Theological Union
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A topic of which we speak little, but which has an important relevance in the life of our Order, is the management of the cultural assets that we have received from past generations. Our houses, even those of more recent foundation, are rich in memory. Libraries, archives, art objects and even handicrafts for daily use fill our homes. All this memory must be recognised, preserved and made available to many people who, in different ways and for different reasons, are interested in knowing our history and our life.
For this reason, at the end of February and in the first days of March (27 February - 2 March), a training course for archivists, librarians and directors of Carmelite museums was held at the Sant'Alberto International Center in Rome, which saw the participation of about thirty people, friars O.Carm. and OCD, nuns and lay people present in various capacities. The conferences focused on theoretical and practical aspects of the management of archives and libraries. Much appreciated were the presentations of the Carmelite library in Krakow and the museum of the monastery of Granada. Participants were also able to visit the Order's historical archive and the Carmelite General Library, located at CISA, the current archive at the General Curia and the Theological Faculty of the Discalced Carmelites with the rich specialized library in spirituality.
The initiative proposed by the "Institutum Carmelitanum", in continuity with what has already been done in the past by the Association of Carmelite Librarians, has been much appreciated and we hope to continue with other similar events.
Universal – Workers in War Zones
For doctors and their humanitarian collaborators in war zones, who risk their lives to save the lives of others.
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“A voice cries out in the wilderness ‘in the desert prepare
the way of the Lord.’ Make straight in the wasteland a highway
for our God. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain
and hill made low ” Isaiah 40: 3-4
Their hearts must have sunk. When the Jewish people saw where their homeland, they must have let out a collective gasp. In the quotation above from Isaiah, the Jews are facing the frightening prospect of freedom. Soon, the Persian king Cyrus will come and liberate them from captivity in Babylon. He will free them from their enslavers, so that they can return to Jerusalem. You would think they’d feel overjoyed. You would think they’d feel exhilarated.
Nevertheless, as they awaited their liberation, the Jewish people probably felt a little uneasy. For they had become comfortable living in slavery. The Babylonians were not a particularly cruel people. Moreover, the Jews were getting enough to eat. They were starting to make some money. Sure, being home in Jerusalem sounded wonderful. After all, Jerusalem was where God dwelled.
Unfortunately, in order to get home, the Jews would have to cross the desert. Trudging across miles and miles of waterless wasteland, the sun would scorch them by day. Bitter winds would bite them at night. There would be scorpions hiding under rocks, bandits lurking in the hills.
“In the desert prepare the way of the Lord.”
Yes, the Jewish people wanted to be home with God. They just didn’t want to go through the desert to find him. It’s a dilemma we all experience. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we all want to be home with God. We all want the peace and joy His presence brings. However, we just don’t want to do what it takes to receive that peace and joy.
For like the Jews in Isaiah’s narrative, a vast desert stands between us and God. In this arid wasteland, hostile forces surround us. Our prayer feels as dry as a desert wind. Our workplace seems a hideout of corporate snakes and secretarial scorpions. Feelings of depression, fits of anxiety hover over our heads like marauding birds.
So, at all costs, we try to avoid journeying too far into our desert. As a result, when sadness over a spouse’s infidelity overwhelms us, we distract ourselves with shopping. When nervousness over an upcoming medical exam shakes us, we numb ourselves with food. Seeing an enemy in the next pew, we move away in order to avoid the awkward encounter. No, we don’t journey through the desert of our live. For we have a hard time believing God waits at the other side.
In his great poem The Divine Comedy, Dante describes the soul’s journey from hell to heaven. Interestingly, the journey starts not as an ascent but a descent. Heaven comes only after the poet has first plummeted to the bottom of hell. Similarly, God waits on the other side for those who delve deeply into the painful parts of their lives.
“In the desert prepare the way of the Lord.”
If we want to find resurrection come Easter, we must first walk through our desert this Lent. We must face our fear and talk honestly with an alienated neighbor. We must take time and feel the loneliness over the loss of a parent. We must stop rationalizing and accept the guilt for having betrayed a friend. It’s a scary prospect since it means staying present to our pain. Usually, the discomfort of the desert sends us scampering back to Babylon. We scurry back to Babylon and savor the sweet enslaving distractions of television, work and company.
Don’t seek distractions. This Lent allow time for quiet prayer. Move through the desert of your heart. We can do it. The dryness, the desolation won’t destroy us. After all, the desert didn’t destroy the Israelites. For as Isaiah later promises, the same loving God who awaited the Israelites at the desert’s end would also accompany them in the wasteland. Indeed, Yahweh walked with them. He shielded them from the sun, drove away the jackals.
Likewise, if we journey into our desert, we will find God walking with us. God give us the strength to face our loneliness and the courage to see our sins. As Isaiah declares, Yahweh makes crooked ways strait. He levels the mountains of fear. The valleys of depression He fills so that our journey becomes smooth.
“In the desert prepare the way of the Lord.”
The desert in our hearts is never as bad as we fear. If we make the journey, we will find God walking with us through the beginning, middle and end. Still, it’s easy to talk the talk. This Lent we need to walk the walk.
March 2019
Fr. Timothy Ennis, O.Carm
From the 22nd to the 24th,of March, the Second Meeting of Carmelite Laity of the Iberian Region took place at the "Casa Sao Nuno" in Fátima (Portugal). The meeting was organized by the Laity Commission of the so-called "mixed team" of the Iberian Region, composed of the three provinces of Spain (Aragón-Castilla-Valencia, Bética and Cataluña), the General Commissariat of Portugal, the three Federations of Nuns from the Iberian Peninsula and the two congregations of Carmelite Sisters of apostolic life.
One hundred and sixty people participated in the meeting (among them, the Provincials and the Superior General of the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart). The central theme was "the shared mission" and the main presentation was given by the Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., who insisted that our mission as Carmelites of the 21st century has as its subject the entire Carmelite Family . He also shared a series of keys to understanding to rethink this mission. These keys were analyzed in various groups and round tables.
Several members of the Carmelite Family shared their experience of belonging to Carmel and offered their proposals and initiatives for the future.
During the meeting there was a small pilgrimage to the various emblematic places of Fatima. Also, the musical group "Karmel" of Villarreal (which has recently completed 25 years of existence) offered a beautiful prayer-concert centered on the figure of Mary.
As always, the hospitality of the Commissariat of Portugal was exceptional and the whole meeting took place in an atmosphere of fraternity and joy.
