Carmelites are the signs of hope

"The common Carmelite Charism makes us one religious family even as our various personal charisms enrich it and express its multifaceted beauty. Community life is in itself both a proclamation and a challenge. A community that is full of life is both attractive and prophetic. Christ is present in the heart of our community as well as in the heart of the Church and in the hearts of so many people. We, as Carmelites, experience the beauty of community life, in which we share our common goods, and our gathering for the Eucharist nourishes our spiritual life as well as our relationships. Coming together with one another and finding communion with Christ provide the central moment of Carmelite spiritual life. The fact that we are living in community and celebrating the Eucharist together helps to nurture the spiritual life of the Church at the level of religious community. We can expand our prayer for those who, for some reason, cannot go to church themselves. Saint Therese, the Little Flower, spoke of this deep Communion with the Church and all its members as she wrote “in the heart of the Church I am love”. As a spiritual family within the Church, we Carmelites are the signs of hope, of the potential which we humans can reach with God’s grace. We respond to God’s call and to the Church’s teachings with humility. By our community lifestyle, we can inspire the world to live in peace with one another, and to share their concerns, their anxieties, and their resources with one another. Our lifestyle must be open and welcoming, inviting us to share with others the communion of hearts and the experience of God, which we are living in the community. When we live in the midst of the people, we help them to grow in their relationship with God and the Church. In the midst of the people, we bring them into the love of God, we do not shut them out."


--  The carmelite charism at the service of the church today by Peter Hoang Nguyen, OCarm

The third order of the discalced carmel

"Ideal: the union of the soul and God, a union more intimate than that of the window and the ray, of the coal and the fire. Wondrous means: surrender of the soul to the action of God by prayer, 'holy meditations and contemplations,' in a word, Love and its pursuit, those are the spiritual arms of the Order of Carmel. Its motto is that of Saint Paul, 'Ambulate in dilectione' (walk in love). The child of Carmel 'knows only one means to reach perfection... Love'; nothing troubles him, nothing affrights him - nothing is wanting to him. God alone is sufficient for him. Following the beautiful programme of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, his life must be a continual communion, 'he awakes in Love - the whole day is lived in Love in doing the will of the Good God - then, when evening comes after a dialogue of love which has never ceased in his heart, surrendering to the fire of love which consumes all his faults and infidelities, he sleeps again in love' under the gaze of Our Lady, the sweetness and glory of Carmel' -- Rev Father Eliseus of the Nativity, ocd

-- Way of Perfection for the Laity by Fr Kevin, ocd

** Picture from Digital Catholic

New link: Way of Perfection for the Laity

Follower Telesia kindly reminded me of the book Way of Perfection for the Laity by Fr Kevin, ocd. This precious book, though addressed to the laity, is excellent for anyone wishing to grow in perfection and the love of God in the footsteps of holy mother St Teresa and drawing from other great saints (St John of the Cross, St Thérèse, St Alphonsus Liguori, etc.). This book was written in 1956 but its value is timeless. Several chapters refer to the admission to the third order, related ceremonies, etc., as done prior to the changes in the Carmelite liturgical calendar and constitutions. However, I assure you that, whether you follow the 1960 or 2003 OCDS constitution (or neither), you will gain much from this book. If you wish to grow in holiness, this book is for you. I have placed a permanent link to the free online edition under "Carmelite Treasures - Free Books Online" on the left column. Just scroll down. You may also get a hard copy through Lulu, as Telesia points out. The original printing is tiny book that easily fits in the habit's pocket (if you have one!). I hope Lulu's version has a larger font.


Thank you, Telesia.


Happy reading!

Please pray for our nuns in Bangkok

"ALTHOUGH WE WERE FRIGHTENED WE CONTINUED PRAYING" The Discalced Carmelite nuns in Bangkok pray for peace in the midst of the revolutions within the country Communicationes - UCANews BANGKOK - THAILAND (27-04-2010).- “During evening prayer we felt the strong blast of various explosions. Although we were frightened we continued praying”, recounts Sr Therese of the Child Jesus, Prioress of the monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns, situated barely 200 metres from the place where five bombs exploded on 22nd April, shaking the financial district of Bangkok. According to information from the Union of Asian Catholics (UCANews), this statement from the Prioress of the monastery was made a few hours after the explosion of five grenades near the Sala Daeng intersection, where there exists a tense clash between the “Red Shirts” and the government security forces. In the middle of last month, the Red Shirts, supporters of the overthrown former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, took possession of the centre of Thailand’s capital, seeking the immediate dissolution of Parliament, accusing the government of having illegally seized power. Sr Therese pointed out that people regularly come to the monastery seeking prayers for the education of their children, for good health, to find work. Since the explosions, the number of people visiting the monastery has decreased while the requests for prayer by telephone has increased. Sr Therese explained that, “the majority of people call to request prayers for peace in the country.” “Some seek prayers in support of the Red Shirt and others for the government. However we cannot take sides. We pray for peace and unity in the country,” and she added, “Our work is to pray for the world and its needs, particularly in times of chaos, such as is now happening across the country”. This Carmelite monastery in Bangkok has 16 nuns and is one of the four monasteries of Discalced Carmelite nuns in the country. -- From the Discalced Carmelite Generalate

Memorial of St Angelus of Sicily

"Angelus came into Sicily with the religious who emigrated to the island from Carmel and he died there, according to the traditional data — which, however, seem worthy of belief — having been killed at Licata at the hands of "impious infidels", during the first half of the XIII cent. Since he was considered a martyr, a church was erected in his honor on the site of his death, and his body was placed upon an altar in the church. These brief details are gathered from the Catalogue of Saints, which dates from the end of the XIV cent. or the beginning of the XV, while another mention, gathered, it is said, about 1370 by Nicholas Processi, a beneficiary of St. John Lateran's, speaks of a visit of Angelus to Rome.

Especially well-known and widespread is the life written by a certain Henoch, who is said to have been a Carmelite and a patriarch of Jerusalem.

According to this biography, Angelus was born of Hebrew parents, Jesse and Maria by name; he and his brother John had been foretold by the Blessed Virgin during the same apparition that decided the conversion of his parents to Christianity. When the two brothers were orphaned, the Patriarch Nicodemus educated them until their eighteenth year; they then joined the Carmelites of the convent of St. Anne, near the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, their birthplace, and after a year of probation they went on to Carmel, where they lived in rigorous asceticism for ten years. Angelus soon began to imitate the miraculous powers of his Fathers, Elias and Eliseus: he made an axe that had fallen into the water float; he crossed over the Jordan with dry feet; he healed a leper; he raised the dead to life; he made fire fall from heaven. When he was twenty-eight years old, after having gone to Jerusalem to receive his priestly ordination, he retired into the desert of the Forty Days, where he remained for five years in prayer and penance.

At the end of this period, Christ, in a vision, ordered him to go to Sicily, to work for the conversion of a sinner by the name of Berengarius, who had been living sinfully with his sister for a long time and had had three children by her. First, however, he was to pass through Alexandria and take some relics from there. At the prayer of Angelus that the Lord protect the Holy City, he was informed of the future of Jerusalem, of the Promised Land and of Christianity in Egypt, Asia Minor and Southern Europe, prophecies that he was to promulgate in his preaching. Having returned to Jerusalem, where his brother John had meanwhile become patriarch, Angelus preached to 60,000 people and then, with three companions, he went to Alexandria, where he received the relics that the Patriarch Athanasius consigned to him.

He set out for Sicily on April 1, 1219, on a Genoese ship. Near Sicily he ran into four ships loaded with Saracens, who maltreated him and his companions. At the prayer of the saint, fire came down from heaven and killed seventy of the attackers. The others, about 300 in number, were struck blind, but were for the greater part miraculously cured after their conversion. After a stop in Messina, he went on to Civitavecchia, where he consigned the relics to Frederic of Chiaramonte, and then continued on to Rome. Here, during a visit of the holy places, he met St. Francis and St. Dominic in St. John Lateran's. On this occasion Angelus foretold the stigmata to St. Francis, and St. Francis foretold his own early martyrdom. He returned to Palermo in Sicily and was the guest of the Basilians of St. Mary of the Grotto. He preached there for forty days, after which he went on to Agrigento. In passing through the baths of Cafalà he healed seven lepers (whose names and places of birth are given), as well as the Archbishop of Palermo, Godfrey by name. He preached in Agrigento for fifty days and ended his tour at Licata.

At first in private and then publicly, Angelus endeavored to convert Berengarius, who grew more exasperated at the conversion of his sister. On May 5, 1220, while Angelus was preaching to 5,000 persons near the church of SS. Philip and James by the sea, Berengarius wounded him mortally with five strokes of his sword. Before dying, the saint urged the others not to avenge his death. After his death Angelus appeared to the Archbishop of Palermo and asked him for burial, which occurred eight days later accompanied by various prodigies."

-- From a biography by Louis Saggi, OCarm

New link: Traditional breviary

Regular readers know that I try to follow the current and traditional Carmelite and Church liturgical calendars. If you would like to pray the Divine Office (commonly known as Liturgy of the Hours) in part or full, there are several ways you can join in the official prayer of the Church.

You may:

• get the 1 volume Christian prayer used by many active communities, priests, and third order members, which includes Lauds, Vespers and Compline
• get the 4 volume Divine Office used by nuns and monks (any faithful is welcome to use it!), which includes Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline and Matins
• go online to Universalis and pray online any or all of the prayers in the 4 volume set
• go online to Divinum Officium and pray the traditional office (1962, 1960 or 1955), which includes Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline in both English and Latin

Baronius Press is scheduled to release the traditional Roman Breviary (1962) in English and Latin later this year. Deo gratias!

I have included a permanent link to Divinum Officium under Magisterium (scroll down, left column). I have purposely not included one to Universalis. With the recent approval of a new English translation for the Liturgy (praise God!), I'm hoping and praying that we'll soon have new breviaries that follow the new translation. It is my understanding that the English version approved is that of the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition of the Bible (see link on the left column). This is a beautiful literal translation. If you compare the psalms or the readings in the current breviaries with the RSV-CE, you will notice some major changes in the interest of musical harmony, according to the introduction to the 4 volume set (see volume I). Personally, I find this sad and sometimes difficult. 

The traditional breviary uses Challoner's Douai-Rheims and the Vulgate. 

Years ago, Vespers were prayed in Church, and often times Lauds before Sunday Mass. Would that we returned to that custom... With these online resources you may also join the thousands of priests, religious and lay faithful praying the Divine Office. 

Pray without ceasing.

Through prayer, Carmelites can help the Church and God’s people

"Our Rule calls us to contemplate the Word of God day and night (Rule 10). We let the Word of God abound in our mouth and hearts (Rule 19). The Word of God becomes comfort and strength for us, burning with passion for God, defeating the depression and temptations of surrender within us. Through contemplation, we can help the Church to discern the signs of the times and how the Spirit of God is leading us into an unknown future, our future, where the Holy Spirit will surprise and challenge our love and service. It is important for us today to experience the Word of God, to live with the Word of God, and to witness to the Word of God. The good news is that we proclaim God’s love and mercy to all creatures because God so loved the world that he offered his Son (I Jn 3:16). We proclaim Jesus Christ is our Lord, our God, and our Saviour because through his life, death, and resurrection, He desires to bring all people to God’s hands. Following the footsteps of Jesus Christ, we experience the grace of God even as we experience the disgrace of the world. We challenge the world with its sinful structures that cause injustice and which oppresses human dignity. Like Elijah, the Carmelites try to be faithful to God and to point out the injustice of the world. Through prayer, the Carmelites can help the Church and God’s people in the way of prayer, to feed their spiritual hunger for God. We can help the Church and the world to pray for God’s love and mercy and the conversion of the world in these times threatened by terrorism, and undermined by moral relativism. Our prayer, joined to the prayer of the Church, praises God, converts the sinners, and prophetically challenges the existing sinful structures of the world around us."


--  The carmelite charism at the service of the church today by Peter Hoang Nguyen, OCarm