Displaying items by tag: prior general

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of September 2024:

September 1 - 14:  Canonical Visitation of Poland
September 16 - 18:  Congress for Lay Carmelites -- Rome
September 19 - 21:  Provincial Chapter (Part 2) -- Malta
September 23 - 30:  General Council Plenary Session -- Rome

A Joint OCARM-OCD Letter for the Year of Prayer and the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, 2024
"In Mary a Dawn of Hope: In Mary Our Way of Praying"

A joint letter of the two general superiors, Míċeál O'Neill, O. Carm., and Miguel Márquez Calle, OCD is being published on the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 2024 which coincides with the Year of Prayer called for by Pope Francis to mark a time of preparation for the Jubilee Year in 2025. Entitled "In Mary A Dawn of Hope: In Mary Our Way of Prayer," the letter seeks "to recall and relive the great traditions of Carmel in relation to prayer, and in relation to Our Lady of Mount Carmel." But the focus is on "the fruit of our personal experience the Carmelite charism," and not as a theological treatise.

The approximately 3,500 word letter reviews that various aspects of Mary's spirituality found in her appearances in the Gospels and Carmelite tradition. It concludes with possibilities for Pope Francis' "symphony of prayer" to become a reality, recognizing the dignity of the person who prays, and renewing our own prayer as Carmelites. By putting prayer at the center of our lives and our own will and desire to prayer, write the two leaders, will renew that prayer.

Frs. Míċeál and Miguel conclude by extending their prayer and good wishes to the entire Carmelite Family around the world.

pdf Read the letter (98 KB)

IN SOLLEMNITATE B.V. MARIAE DE MONTE CARMELO

Flos Carmeli, vitis florigera,
splendor caeli, Virgo puerpera singularis.
Mater mitis, sed viri nescia,
Carmelitis esto propitia,
stella maris.

MÍCEÁL PRIOR GENERALIS
DOMUSQUE GENERALIS COMMUNITAS

16.VII.2024

A Video Message for the Solennity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16, 2024, from Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm, Prior General of the Order

Dear sisters and brothers in the Carmelite family throughout the world:

The celebration of the solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel this year coincides with the Year of Prayer, announced by Pope Francis as a time of preparation the celebration of the 2025 Jubilee. The desire of the Holy Father is that there should be a “symphony of prayer” throughout the world. His teaching on prayer is an invitation to the Carmelite family to play its part in praying and in helping others to pray. Our rich tradition of prayer has been an inspiration to many generations from the beginning. Never was that tradition more needed by the world than today, in order to be able to encourage and accompany all the people who already have a life of prayer and are praying, and to open new doors for people who do not yet know the meaning of Christian prayer. Our prayer gives dignity to our lives because it affirms that we are the children of God, in communication with God. Our pray is also the strength of hope because of how we place our trust in God and in the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Carmel represents a place of human dignity, where God has brought people together in his name and Jesus is there in their midst. Mary is the Lady of that place, showing us what the dignity of the human person looks like, and the people who dwell in that place are people who pray, knowing that in their lives Jesus Christ is their deepest motivation, and that there is no higher ambition than to live in allegiance to him. On a day that unites us all in joy and thanksgiving, I join with Carmelites around the world, in praying that God’s name may be held as a blessing, that God’s will may be done, that God’s kingdom may come, that our daily bread may lead to daily peace and that we will find the path to forgiveness and reconciliation for ourselves and for our sisters and brothers in a world so terribly afflicted by its own lack of faith, hope and charity.  May your celebrations this year bring you the abundance of God’s grace and an answer to your fervent prayer. 

Thank you. 

Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm

Diocese of Málaga Features Interview with Carmelite Prior General to Highlight Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in July

The July issue of the magazine of the Diocese of Málaga (Spain) focused on Our Lady of Mount Carmel. As July 16 is the feast day, several of the articles focused on the devotion of the people and how they celebrate the feast marking the Christian summer calendar. The cover of the magazine showed the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel who is the patroness of Marbella.

One article featured an interview the Carmelite prior general, Fr. Míċeál O'Neill reflecting on the actuality of the Marian invocation that "unites us to her Son Jesus, unites us to the Church and unites us to heaven." Fr. Míċeál was in Málaga earlier to participate in the closing of the Jubilee of the centenary of the birth in Malaga of the Carmelite Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Malaga.

Speaking of the significance of the anniversary celebration, Fr. Míċeál said, “Today we recognize that a charism is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The family lives from a charism that we have in common, together with a variety of charisms arising in the different sectors of the family: brothers and sisters of apostolic life, nuns, friars and laity. To be able to recognize and celebrate this richness is always a reason for gratitude and also an impulse to continue responding day after day to the vocation we have received and to the mission that awaits us."

In the days prior to the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the prior general reflected on one of the most beloved Marian devotions throughout the Diocese of Málaga. He called the popularity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel “a gift for the Church."

“More than 800 years [after our founding], the Carmelite Order continues to bring this water of life to the places where it is present. Our family is a Marian family as well as an Elijah family," says the prior general. “With these two great models we live as people who have a very deep experience of God, as Mary and Elijah have. In this spirit we approach God, revealed in Jesus Christ, alongside all the people who have found in their lives the importance of the search for God. We want to accompany this search with the love and wisdom that our vocation and our formation in the Church. We want to make present in the world that the dignity of the human person is found, in the first place, in his being created by God in his image and likeness; and in his capacity to live a profound friendship with God, in the person of Jesus, following the example of Mary. Carmel lives by the Word of God and helps those who come into contact with it to know and cultivate that word of salvation in their lives."

Father O'Neill has a deep knowledge of the devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. “I have been able to get to know her both here in Spain and in Latin America, and she is a true gift that the Lord has given to the Church. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a devotion and a way for many people. It is not and cannot be "campanilismo" (competition, rivalry) of any kind. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is not the “champion of the Virgins.”

“It is the Virgin of Mount Carmel who unites us with our tradition  rom the beginning, unites us to her Son Jesus, unites us to the Church and unites us to heaven."

Regarding the popularity of the names Carmen or Maria del Carmen, which year after year tops the lists of the most popular Spanish names, Father O'Neill affirms that he feels "good with the people who are called Maria del Carmen, both on the part of Mary and on the part of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel part. The name speaks of goodness and beauty. It's hard for me to think that a person who bears this name can be anything but good and Christian. Because of the goodness and beauty of Mary, the Virgin of Carmel this name runs deep in many places and cultures. The biggest challenge today is that the Gospel penetrates the towns and cultures of today with its goodness, truth, and beauty.

Link the the full article in Spanish  (pages 8-9)

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of July 2024:

July 1-12: Holidays
July 14-17: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain in the centenary of the crowning of the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
July 20-31: USA, fraternal visitation
July 28-31: Lay Carmelite Symposium in Washington, DC.

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of June 2024:

June 01 - 05: Completion of the canonical visitation of the province of Rio de Janeiro
June 09 - 14:  Provincial Chapter of the Irish Province, in Dublin
June 16 - 22: Provincial Chapter of the Italian Province in Sassone, Roma
June 23 - 30:  Fraternal visits in Italy.

As called for in the Constitutions, the Prior General Míċeál O’Neill convoked the 2025 General Chapter by letter on May 16, the feast of St. Simon Stock. The meeting will take place September 9-26, 2025, at the Harris Convention Center in Malang, Indonesia. The letter was sent via email to all prior provincials, general commissaries and delegates, commissary provincials, and the prior of CISA. Copies were sent to the Carmelite bishops, the prioresses of the enclosed monasteries, and the superiors general of the affiliated congregations. A printed copy will be sent via regular mail, according to Roberto Sianturi, the general secretary.

The General Council chose You Must Have Some Sort of Work to Do (Rule 20): Our Contemplative Fraternity Discerns Its Mission as the theme for the Chapter. Building on previous work done studying the Order’s history and traditions, “the 2025 General Chapter will focus its attention on those chapters of our Constitutions that deal with our mission in the world and in the Church, worldwide, and local,” wrote Fr. Míċeál. Numbers 94, 97, and 101 of the Carmelite Constitutions are specifically highlighted.

The letter continues, “By discernment we will be able to identify clearly what apostolic work we are called to take on and in what manner we should perform that work as a way of giving expression to the gift we have received from the Holy Spirit, to be put at the service of God's reign, in other words, our charism and tradition.”

pdf To read the Letter (152 KB)

Triennial Meeting of the General Delegation of Bohemia and Moravia

The General Delegation of Bohemia-Moravia (Czech Republic) was erected by the General Council of the Order of Carmelites on 2^nd October 1984. It was the culmination of a ten-year period in which Fr. Metoděj Minařík secretly organized a group of people who took an interest in the Order, helped them spiritually, trained them and accepted their religious vows. After the erection of the Delegation, the confreres lived another five years in illegality, and after the year 1990 they were able to begin a regular religious life.

As this is a General Delegation within the Order, the Major Superior of the Carmelites in the Czech Republic is the Prior General. At the same time, general delegations are also headed by a superior called the Delegate General whom (along with two other councillors) the Prior General appoints every three years.

Once every three years, coinciding with the end of the mandate of the Delegate General, an assembly of the delegation takes place in order to meet, to strengthen the bonds of fraternity, to have ongoing formation and to discern solutions regarding the various issues that the Delegation faces at that time.

The most recent triennial assembly of the friars within the Delegation was held from 16^th to 17^th April 2024 in Kostelní Vydří. It was presided over by the Prior General, Míċeál O’Neill who was assisted by the General Councillor for Europe, Richard Byrne. After the Prior General’s address, the Delegate General, Norbert Žuška, OCarm, gave a report on the state of the Delegation.

During the course of the assembly, in small groups and together in assembly, the friars considered the state and health of the Delegation and identified various issues to be addressed and the concrete steps to be taken over the next three-year period. The friars also reflected on what the Czech Republic is asking of Carmelites today and gave an orientation to the new Delegate General and council. In addition, the friars shared with each other their experience and expectations for the various officials that need to be appointed within the Delegation.

A consultation was held regarding the candidates for Delegate General and for the two Councillors that will be appointed by the Prior General during the plenary meeting in May 2024 of the General Council.

On 17^th April 2024, the Eucharist was celebrated with the members of the local parish and several members of the Third Order. During his homily, the Prior General spoke about privileged place that Mary holds in the hearts and minds of Carmelites.

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.