Mary, Mother Of Hope

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Representatives of the entire Carmelite Family, made up of the two traditions of the Carmelite Order (OCARM and OCD), gathered to celebrate the Jubilee Year in Rome on June 2, 2025.

In the afternoon, the members of both General Councils undertook the pilgrimage way to pass through the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica. Starting from the new Piazza Pia, the group moved along Via della Conciliazione chanting the psalms, singing the litany, and listening to Scripture and other reflections until they passed together through the Holy Door.

Inside St Peter’s Basilica, the group was led to the Tomb of St Peter. There, everyone recited the Apostles’ Creed and were blessed by the Preposito General of the Discalced Carmelites, Miguel Márquez Calle, OCD.

After a short break, everyone gathered again for the celebration of the Eucharist in the Church of Our Lady in Traspontina. The church was full to capacity as many members of the Carmelite Family who were present in Rome at that time gathered to celebrate the Jubilee Year together.

The prior general of the Carmelite Order, Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm., presided at the Eucharist and the preposito general, Miguel Márquez Calle, OCD, preached the homily. Giuseppe Midili, O. Carm., and the other members of the community at Traspontina guided the celebration liturgically and musically. Two members of the Carmelite community at Albano also assisted. After Communion, the choir from the Teresianum sang a hymn that they had composed especially for the Jubilee Year.

Afterwards, Tadeusz Popiela, O. Carm., prior of the community, welcomed both General Curial communities (along with some guests) to a supper in Saint Albert’s International College (CISA) with the rest of the community there.

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of June 2025:

June 2 – 6: General Council plenary session.

June 2: Jubilee pilgrimage and celebration OCARM and OCD together.

June 6: Celebration of the closing of the bicentennial year of the birth of Madre Teresa Scrilli, Montevarchi, Arezzo.

June 9-13: Provincial Chapter in the Province of Germany

June 27 - 30: Convocation of Lay Carmelites in Washington, DC, via zoom. 

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of May 2025:

May 1-4: Completion of Chapter and visit to Australia.
May 5 -10: Congress on Liturgy in Sassone, Italy.
May 7: Address to the Meeting of Formation Directors in Lima, Peru.
May 12 -15: Chapter of the General Commissariat of La Bruna, Naples, Italy.
May 16 - 20: Rome, Italy.
May 21 - 23: Assembly of the USG, Rome, Italy.
May 24 - 26: Canonical Visitation in Romania.
May 27 - 31: General Council, plenary meeting.

Message for Carmelite Brothers and Sisters on the Death of Pope Francis

Brothers and sisters in Carmel,

The world mourns the passing from this world of Pope Francis, on the morning of Easter Monday. On Easter Sunday he was fully alive in mind and heart, in a body that could not give any more. It is like a death in our family. He was so close to us.

His vision and his spirituality were very clear. They came from the Gospel. They were inspired by Mary and the holiness of the saints, the great saints and the saints next door. Salvation,  mercy and peace are in Jesus Christ and the are given to those who look to Him and see in him the truth that can make us free. Children of the one Father, every one of us, we are sisters and brothers to one another. That is our greatest dignity and everything we need to know about one another, in order to build and live in a world where that dignity is the rule of law and no other. There is a cry in the human heart, and in the created world itself, that the followers of Christ, the pastors and the political leaders needs to hear. There is a way to treat other human beings and it is not the way of devious interests or the recourse to arms of violence but the way of tenderness and mercy for all. When we recognize that the Eucharist is not the reward for holiness but the greatest help we have towards holiness, we recognize the heart of Pope Francis’ ministry and the way he himself celebrated every time he stood at the altar.

Carmelites around the world, let us give thanks to God for the life, witness and teaching of Pope Francis and pray for his eternal happiness, as we treasure our own vocation to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and preach his Gospel. Mary, mother of the word incarnate, salus populi, pray for us in our sorrow, and open our hearts in thanksgiving for the wonders of God's mercy shown to us in the life of Pope Francis. May he rest in peace.

Míċeál O’Neill
Prior General
24^th of April, 2025

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of April 2025:

April 1-8: Canonical visitation of the Dutch Province
April 9: Celebrate the Eucharist at the Assembly of the Italian Federation of Nuns
April 13-19: Canonical visitation of the Province of Betica
April 22-30: Australia—Fraternal visit and Provincial Chapter

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of February 2025:

February 1: Venezuela, celebration of the centennary of the affiliation of the Carmelite Sisters of Madre Candelaria to the Carmelite Order
February 3-7: Canonical visitation of the Italian Province (Part 1)
February 9-23: Provincial Chapter of the Indonesian Province; Visit to Carmelites in Sumatra
February 25-28: Fatima: Congress of the Carmelite Third Order

Prior General Marks the World Day for Consecrated Life with a Reflection for the Carmelite Family

On Sunday, February 2, the Church celebrated the feast of the Presentation of the Lord as well as the 29th World Day for Consecrated Life. The celebration for Consecrated Life began in 1997 under St. John Paul II. Pope Francis joined with religious men and women for the celebration of First Vespers. He spoke of the three evangelical counsels: poverty, chasstity, and obedience. He said, “They manifest the goodness of those things in the order of love, rejecting everything that can obscure their beauty— selfishness, greed, dependence, violent use and misuse for the purpose of death and destruction—and embracing instead all that can highlight that beauty: simplicity, generosity, sharing, and solidarity.” 

To mark the celebration within the Carmelite Family, Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, the prior general, has written his reflections on three themes-- consecrated life, fraternal affirmation and correction, and the significance of the jubilee year for us, Carmelite religious. He says that he writes these words “not as the answer to all our challenges but as part of a reflection that is ongoing in our Order.”

The Jubilee of Consecrated Life will be celebrated worldwide on October 8-12, 2025, as part of the yearlong Jubilee.

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The Whole World on Parchment: The Exhibition of the Choir Books from the Mainz Carmelite Monastery

An exhibition of ancient choir book from the Carmelite monastery entitled “The Whole World on Parchment. The Choir Books from the Mainz Carmelite Monastery,” is taking place in the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum in Mainz, Germany from November 8, 2024 to March 23, 2025. The books were created from 1430 for the Carmelites to use during their religious services.

The prior general, Míceál O’Neill, O. Carm., together with the prior of the Carmelite community in Mainz, Josef Kemper, O. Carm., and with Richard Byrne, O. Carm., were invited to visit the exhibition in the week before it opened to the public, as final preparations were being made. As part of the exhibition, visitors are given the opportunity to lift up a replica of one of the choir books which, given the books weight 26kg each, most found difficult to do! They also saw the materials that were used to make the various inks and paints within the books. 

The Carmelite Choir Books: Exquisite Illumination

There are only six books, but they are impressive. Weighing up to 26 kg per volume and a total of around 1,600 parchment pages, the so-called Carmelite choir books are among the giants of medieval manuscripts. But they are not only large and heavy, they are also exquisitely beautiful and original.

Created for the Mainz Carmelite monastery, the huge books were used in services several times a day and night: the 150 psalms as well as antiphons, hymns, canticles, and responsories as well as the changing chants of the mass.

But the books go far beyond their practical needs. The melodies in square notation on four red lines and the texts in the script typical of the time are equipped with a rich world of images that are among the highest quality and most bizarre in book illumination of the 15th century. Biblical figures, countless mythical and hybrid creatures, monsters, dragons, animals, plants and people cavort in scenes that range from graceful to crude and salacious. Nothing human seems alien to these books!

It expresses the deep wish that it is not chaos but a deeper meaning that holds them together: the songs give everyday life a pleasant structure, they “sanctify time,” the texts convey wisdom, the paintings show perfection and beauty and the countless drawings show the world in all its facets: love, desire and passion, human highs and lows.

The weighty topics are presented with an impressive lightness, not with a raised index finger, but with sweeping pen drawings and subtle, humorous irony. These books do not speak of the dark Middle Ages, but rather of 600 years of cheerful hope, which culminates in the last sentence of the Psalter: “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” 

Carmelites & Mainz

The Carmelites were first mentioned in documents in Mainz in 1285 and from then on were present in the city for more than 500 years. Their monastery, with an extensive library, was a place of education and the convent contributed significantly to the founding of the university in 1477.

During secularization in 1802, the Carmelites lost their Mainz Carmel, the brothers were expelled, and the property was auctioned off. A large part of the valuable book holdings came into the possession of what is now the Mainz Scientific City Library, but also went into various archives and libraries around the world. The valuable late-medieval choir books ended up in what is now the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the late-Gothic monastery church was in such a deplorable state that the city council decided to demolish it. Many Mainz citizens protested against this. At the request of the bishop and thanks to the commitment of the Dutch Province, the Carmelites returned to Mainz in 1924.

The church building was transferred to the diocese. This was followed by renovations such as the restoration of the Gothic ceiling frescoes, the restoration of the church building after the Second World War and, most recently in 2009, an extensive redesign of the liturgical areas. Then as now, the Carmelites in Mainz are a contemplative community in the midst of people: the Carmelite Church is an inviting, spiritual place and the Carmelites are valued pastors in a diverse and colorful urban society.

Restoration, exhibition and digitisation

The restoration of the Carmelite choir books was funded by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate as part of the state funding program for the preservation of the collections. The digitization of the Carmelite choir books was carried out in the DFG project “Digitization of medieval manuscripts from Mainz, Worms and Speyer” at the Mainz University Library. The digitization project began with the Carmelites’ six large-format choir books and will be funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with 310,000 euros over the next three years.

Dr. Anja Lempges, deputy director of the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum in Mainz, has worked on these highlights of European book art with a team of scientists and is presenting the special exhibition she has curated, “The Whole World on Parchment. The Choir Books from the Mainz Carmelite Monastery,” in the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum in Mainz from November 8, 2024 to March 23, 2025.

“We would like to present the fragile, unique choir books of the Carmelites to a broad public,” explains Dr. Anja Lempges. The special exhibition is one of the highlights in the series of festivities for the 100th anniversary of the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum in Mainz. The 100th anniversary of the repopulation of the Carmelite monastery in Mainz is also to be celebrated and is another reason for the special exhibition.

These six Carmelite choir books have been completely digitised. You can see the books for yourself here: (you have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find them):

https://gutenberg-capture.ub.uni-mainz.de/mittelalterlichehand/nav/index/all?facets=place%3D%22836512%22

However, if you can make your way to Mainz, it would be well worth seeing them and the associated exhibition for yourself. The exhibition finishes on 23rd March 2025.

Website for museum: https://www.dommuseum-mainz.de/die-ganze-welt-auf-pergament/

(Source: Cathedral Museum, Mainz, Germany)

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Images credits

Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, the prior general, has the following schedule planned for the month of January 2025:

January 1-3: Philippines, fraternal visitation
January 3-11: Vietnam, fraternal visitation
January 13-14: Meeting of Europeans Provincials in Rome
January 15-19: Trinidad and Tobago, fraternal visitation
January 20-29: Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico, canonical visitation
January 30-31: Venezuela, Celebrations of the Centenary of the Affiliation of the Carmelite Sisters of Mother Candelaria to the Carmelite Order.