July is definitely the month of Carmel. Of course, the focus appropriately is on July 16th each year. The solemn feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated literally around the world. Wherever Carmelites are, the feast is a major celebration. We saw that this year, even in our covid world, with special Masses celebrated live and livestreamed over the internet.

Some of those—from Brazil, Kenya, North America, Australia-Timor Leste— were listed in the July 7 CITOC email. Carmelites were good enough to send us news about additional celebrations which we would like to highlight here.

In the Philippines, the members of the Province of Titus Brandsma had a novena and series of Masses. These were streamed over the province’s Facebook page (CarmelitesPhCom) as well as on the Facebook page of Dominus Est, the new evangelization website of the Archdiocese of Manila. The page was started by Cardinal Tagle.

One of the first Carmelite foundations in Europe, Aylesford, also joined in celebrating Mary with a Pilgrimage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Sunday, July 11. An 11:30 Mass was held at the main shrine and included Third Order professions and renewal of promises. Later in the day a Holy Hour was celebrated.

In southern Spain, the Province of Bética transmitted an online novena from July 7-15 from the Minor Basilica of the Crowned Virgen of Carmel in Jerez de la Frontera. The prior provincial, David del Carpio Horcajo, preached. At midnight on July 15, the people of Jerez joined together to greet the day of Our Lady. Later in the morning, a series of Masses were celebrated. Then at 8:30 PM the beloved statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Carmelite church was processed through the streets of the city. Some of these celebrations can be viewed on the Facebook page of the Real Hermandad de Damas y Caballeros de Ntra. Sra. del Carmen Coronada (HdadCarmen) which livestreamed some of the celebrations. See the picture courtesy of Real Hermandad de Damas y Caballeros de Nuestra Señora del Carmen Coronada. 

Perhaps the most dramatic of all the celebrations is that held in Naples, Italy— the Incendio del Campanile di fra’ Nuvolo. The ancient tradition calls for the lighting of explosive fireworks contained in and around Carmine Maggiore’s bell tower which, at 75 meters high, is the tallest in the city. The result is a colorful and noisy rain of fiery explosions. This continues until a painting of Our Lady, under the title “La Bruna,” arrives to extinguish the fire.

Recalling a real fire and the salvation of the city by the Carmelites’ Madonna, the annual celebration the night before the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a testimony of the entire city’s devotion to “Mamma d’o Carmene.” See the pictures courtesy of napolidavivere.it

The Province of Malta provided a novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. While the Masses were not livestreamed, the homily for each day was posted on the Facebook page of the Carmelite priory in Valletta. On the app NITOLBU prayers in Maltese were available each day of the novena. In addition, the app daily provided an excerpt from the book Forty Days of St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi. On July 15th and 16th, a number celebrations took place which were livestreamed. Among these were the solemn translation of the relic with Vespers and a Eucharistic blessing. On the morning of the feast, the Carmelite prior provincial, Joseph Saliba celebrated a solemn Mass. Later in the evening, Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta, celebrated the Mass. Following that Mass, there was a solemn prayer vigil which concluded the feast day with the singing of the Flos Carmeli and a Eucharistic blessing.

Many Carmelites find themselves traveling to conduct novenas and to accompany the people on the actual day of the feast. Fernando Milán, our former prior general, found himself in Tomelloso a town of La Mancha. The Carmelites of the Province of Bética sponsored a school there from 1942-1987. Today the Carmelite presence continues in Tomelloso through a very active and flourishing Third Order. Each year someone from the province goes for the novena and the assemblies of the Carmelite Third Order. The statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is now in the main parish of Tomelloso. The town continues to reflect the Carmelite presence, perhaps most concretely with a neighborhood named for Our Lady— barrio del Carmen—which has a procession with the statue of Our Lady each year.

In addition to the celebration of Mary under the title of Our Lady of Carmel, the Church and Carmelites in particular celebrate Blessed Maria Crocifissa Curcio (July 4), foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (Suore Carmelitane Missionarie di S. Teresa del Bambino Gesú); Blessed Jane Scopelli (July 9) an Carmelite mantellata who formed an early community of Carmelite women; St. Elijah (July 20), along with Mary, a major inspiration to the lifestyle and spirituality of the Carmelites; Blessed John Soreth (July 24) reforming prior general and “founder of cloistered Carmel and the Third Order”; Sts. Joachim and Anne (July 26) protectors of the Order; and Blessed Titus Brandsma (July 27) martyr for the faith in the Dachau concentration camp.

On 27th July, we celebrate our annual memorial of a famous Carmelite martyr.

Anno Sjoerd Brandsma was born at Bolsward, The Netherlands, in 1881, and joined the Carmelite Order in 1898 taking the name ‘Titus’, being ordained priest in 1905. In time he became a professor and then Rector Magnificus at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. He was also a journalist.

During the 1930s he gave a famous series of lectures in the United States on Carmelite mysticism. Throughout the 1930s Nazi propaganda was on the rise but Fr Titus refused to support or print anything in support of the Nazi regime.

Fr Titus was arrested by the Gestapo on January 19, 1942, and imprisoned in his native country before being sent to the concentration camp at Dachau where he brought comfort and peace to his fellow prisoners. In Dachau he was experimented on in the medical wing and was finally put to death by lethal injection on July 26, 1942.

He was beatified in 1985 and the cause for his canonisation continues which, we pray, will soon be successful.

Please avail yourself of the resources prepared for the celebration of Blessed Titus Brandsma on July 27th.

Liturgical Resources Blessed Titus Brandsma

• pdf Letter to the Carmelite Family (400 KB)
• pdf Mass Leaflet (287 KB)
• pdf Prayers of the Faithful (216 KB)
• pdf Homily Notes (81 KB)
• pdf Newsletter/bulletin insert (253 KB)

Today we commemorate the parents of the Virgin Mary, Saints Joachim and Anne.

Pope Francis referred to Saints Joachim and Anne on his Apostolic Journey to Rio de Janeiro on the occasion of the XXVIII World Youth Day on July 26, 2013:

Today the Church celebrates the parents of the Virgin Mary, the grandparents of Jesus, Saints Joachim and Anne. In their home, Mary came into the world, accompanied by the extraordinary mystery of the Immaculate Conception. Mary grew up in the home of Joachim and Anne; she was surrounded by their love and faith: in their home she learned to listen to the Lord and to follow his will. Saints Joachim and Anne were part of a long chain of people who had transmitted their faith and love for God, expressed in the warmth and love of family life, down to Mary, who received the Son of God in her womb and who gave him to the world, to us. How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith!

There is also something to be said for grandparents’ roles as repositories of wisdom and history. Their experience in faith and life has enriched their judgment, rendering them invaluable counsels for the generations that follow. They remember the heritage of the family and share it with future generations. As Pope Francis has also related:

How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society! How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family.

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After undergoing the Novitiate Program for two years, on Tuesday July 13, 2021, sixteen Novices professed their first vows in the Carmelite Order to the Prior General before the East Indonesia Prior Commissariat, Rev. Fr. Stefanus Buyung Florianus, O. Carm., as the representative of Prior Provincial of Indonesia, Rev, Fr. Ign. Budiono. The celebration took place in the Novitiate House in Maumere-Flores-Indonesia.

The sixteen brothers are Br. Simplianus Geli Nono, Br. Daniel Sai, Br. Marianus Seka Meo, Br. Ferdinandus H. Detu, Br. Siprianus Ngonggo Bili, Br. Maksimus Seto, Br. Mikael Riba, Br. Hendilinus, Br. Oktavianus Yoman Nende, Br. Viktorianus Beda Lebunga, Br. Januarius Dosa, Br. Dino Kada Maghi, Br. Mikael Kornelis Aja, Br. Wilibrodus Aji, Heraklius Mango, Br. Albertus Flavianus Bhala.
The Mass was presided over by Rev. Fr. Buyung and concelebrated by Fr. Francesco Berto as Master Novice and Fr. Leonardo as the first council. In his homily, Rev. Fr. Buyung encouraged the brothers to always faithfully carry out their three vows. By saying these vows, it “does not mean automatically becoming a perfect human without any more struggle, but it is getting more and more challenged”, added Fr. Buyung.

The Brothers are also requested to replicate St. Therese of Lisieux as patron of this Novitiate House. St. Therese always gave all the struggles of her life in Providentia Dei. She really believes in her friend 'Jesus' who is always with her in living her three vows. The depth of her spirituality, of which she said, "my way is all confidence and love," has inspired many believers. In the face of her littleness and nothingness, she trusted in God to be her sanctity. She wanted to go to Heaven by an entirely new little way. "I wanted to find an elevator that would raise me to Jesus." The elevator, she wrote, would be “the arms of Jesus lifting me in all my littleness.”

Due to the increasing spread of the coronavirus and the strict lockdown, the attendance of the families of the brothers was very limited. Only families living near the novitiate were allowed to attend while others did it online. After this celebration, the brothers will take ten days for vacation with their family. Upon their return, they will begin studying philosophy for four years at STFK Ledalero Maumere.
“We pray that our young brothers will always be strengthened in their journey. May with the intercession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Prophet Elijah, and all the saints of Carmel, our brothers can be faithful forever and ever”, added Fr. Yanto Ndona, O. Carm.

For several years, the General Commissariat of “Santa Maria La Bruna”, located in the incomparable city of Naples, Italy, worked to establish the Order in the United Republic of Tanzania in Africa’s Great Lakes region in East Africa. For several years, young men from Tanzania studied in Naples, living in the Carmine Maggiore.

Finally in 2009, the first Carmelite community of Tanzania was inaugurated on October 1st. The community was made up of two brothers in perpetual vows, one already ordained priest, and three brothers of temporary vows.

Today, there are eight brothers. Six of these men have professed solemn vows and have been ordained priests. The other two men are in formation, having professed temporary vows. In addition, the community has two students who are candidates for the novitiate. African Carmel has two novitiates: one for those who speak French and the other is in Zimbabwe for those who speak English. This month the students will begin their novitiate year at Kriste Mambo in Rusape, Zimbabwe. They have all completed their studies in philosophy, and one has completed a year of theology. But the house will not be empty. Another three aspirants will arrive to start their studies in philosophy in October 2021.

Construction of the Church
Currently, the main activity the community is focused on is the building of a church in Bunju where the Carmelites have a parish. The new church will accommodate around 2200 people.

Sacrament of Matrimony
Every year the Carmelites in Tanzania celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel by administering the sacrament of marriage. This year 63 couples celebrated the sacrament on the feast day.

Experience of Living with the Poor and the Muslims
The territory where our house is situated in ecumenical in that it is an area with people professing various religions. Therefore, any of the outreach efforts of the Carmelites, helping the poor by providing them with essential supplies such as food, for example, will mean we are also serving our Muslim brothers and sisters. “People appreciate our services and praise our Virgin Mary and are grateful for our presence. We pray that Our Lady of the Mount Camel may continue to protect us with her mantle,” says Victor Biramata, a member of the founding community.

Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, then archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, offered the Carmelites the not yet existing parish of Bunju. His hope was that that it would someday become a Marian center for the diocese. The General Commissariat set about building a priory for the new community which was dedicated a week after the Carmelites return to their native country. The parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel was created on August 25, 2012, by the Cardinal. This ceremony took place during the ordination of Carmelite John Dominic Somola.

It was a long-awaited step. The mission in Tanzania was actually being planned for as early as 1988. All in God’s time! And God has wonderfully blessed the work of the Carmelites and the people of Bunju.

On 20th July Carmelites throughout the world celebrate the Solemnity of the Old Testament Prophet, Elijah. In the Carmelite tradition Elijah is regarded as the spiritual father of and a source of inspiration for Carmelites.

Fr. Míceál O'Neill, O.Carm., Prior General of the Order, invites all the Carmelite Family members to have a joyful and prayerful celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the 16 July 2021.

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Our Lady of Mount Carmel

There is nothing new in saying that the various Marian titles all speak essentially of a relation to Mary as Mother of Christ and Mother of Christians. The various names all speak of relation to her in the mystery of Christ and the Church. This is the case of the devotion to Mary of Carmel, who has dominated the Order throughout its history, from the earliest times of its foundation until our own days.

To say “Mary of Mount Carmel” is to say “Mary as venerated by the Carmelites.” And in saying “Carmelites” we must understand the whole Carmelite family: male and female religious, tertiaries, and those enrolled in the Scapular, because this enrolment also involves an aggregation to the spiritual benefits of the Order and a commitment to live up to its spirituality.

It was the conviction of Carmelites that they had a quite special relationship with Mary, their Patron, under the title “of Mount Carmel.” In honor of their Patron, Carmelites celebrated in a special way the feast of the Annunciation, that of the Immaculate Virgin, and then the Solemn Commemoration in July. This July celebration, the Solemn Commemoration, was instituted to thank Mary, its Patron, for all the benefits given to the Order: that is, as a remembrance of the descending action of Mary towards the Carmelites (protection) and as an ascending action of the Carmelites to Mary (thanksgiving). The feast began in England towards the end of the 14th century. The feast, therefore, is a manifestation of the “person” of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: of the Virgin Mother of God, advocate, patron of the Order.

The Solemn Commemoration of the glorious Virgin Mary, which is called the Feast of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel or the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was rightly instituted to be solemnly celebrated: because her holy company of Carmel was founded on Mount Carmel..., brought together for the sake of her name, by which it is especially ennobled; because of the special adoption of her sons, brothers, and confrères; because of the clothing with her glorious habit; because of her repeated protection of her own Order; and because of the endless benefits given to this her Order from the beginning until the present day.

Adapted from Ludovico Saggi, O. Carm., Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Santi del Carmelo. English translation by Paul Chandler, O. Carm.

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Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
Ps 122, 2

Letter to the Carmelite Family for the Celebration of the Solemnity of the Blessed

Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel – 2021

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Carmelite Family

It is my particular desire this year to draw your attention to the bond that Carmelites have with the land of Jesus’ birth and earthly life and the land in which the Carmelite Order and Tradition was founded. It is the land that we continue to honour in our devotion to Mary, whom we recall and honour as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Lady of the Place. It is that land that pilgrims and crusaders longed to visit and to protect. It is a land that today cries out for an end to hostilities and the fulfilment of a dream of peace for the many nations and peoples who are represented among its populations.

The Place Where We Were Founded
Our Marian tradition has in roots in the dedication to Mary of the first oratory built by the hermits in the midst of their cells, close to Elijah’s spring, in one of the peaceful valleys on Mt Carmel. This meant that they were acknowledging her, the Mother of their Lord, as the Lady of the Place. Both oratory and spring, on that mountain in the Holy Land, continue to remind us that our forebears chose to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ, under the loving gaze of Mary and in imitation of her and of the prophet Elijah, whose solemnity we also celebrate in July.

Our forebears were among the many medieval pilgrims who flocked to the Holy Land. Like other pilgrims, they chose to remain there, and eventually sought to form an eremitic community on the slopes of Mt Carmel. Together they lead a life of penance, that is, of ongoing conversion, that they might «live in allegiance to Jesus Christ and serve him from a pure heart and a good conscience» (Rule, 2). The notion of allegiance as conceived and lived out in the Middle Ages, meant that these hermit-brothers of Carmel would have developed a living bond with the Holy Land that was then considered to constitute the actual patrimony and kingdom of their Lord. They committed themselves to remain in this land, in their hermitage, engaged in a spiritual battle (Rule, 18-19) in the service of their Lord.

From Mount Carmel to the Rest of the World
This commitment was put heavily under pressure when, in the 1230s, the political situation in the Holy Land became more precarious and some of the hermits of Carmel, fearing persecution, wished to leave the Holy Land and return to their native countries in Europe and make foundations there. It was not a trivial issue. Felip Ribot, in his The Ten Books on the Way of Life and Great Deeds of the Carmelites, commonly known as The Institution of the First Monks, from the title of its first seven books, gives us a vivid picture of a community chapter on Mt Carmel, in which the brothers discussed whether they could «leave the Holy Land or build houses of the Order outside it». It was so important an issue that they met to discern prayerfully God’s will for them seeking light from the Holy Scriptures. As if this were not enough, the story goes that only after being «warned by Christ and the blessed virgin Mary, his mother, in a dream», did the prior give «permission to some of the brothers to leave the Holy Land and return to their own countries and build monasteries of their Order there» (Book 9, chapter 3).

Whether or not it is historically true, this account shows how medieval Carmelites conceived their relation with the Holy Land. It was not simply their cradle, which they could leave once they grew up. They were bound to remain there by vow.

Eventually the brothers began to leave the Holy Land and settle first in Cyprus and then in various parts of Europe. Finally, in 1291, the whole of the Holy Land came under Muslim rule and the original monastery on Mt Carmel, together with two other foundations in the Holy Land, in Acre and Tyre, was destroyed. Thus the Carmelites were eradicated from Mt Carmel and from the Holy Land. But by now, they had already made numerous foundations all over Europe. Wherever they went, they carried with them the memory of Mt Carmel and the Holy Land and kept hoping that one day they would return. Mt Carmel gave them their name and became their major spiritual symbol. The pilgrimage to the Holy Land undertaken by their forebears now became a parable of their spiritual journey. They held on with some nostalgia to the memory of the Holy Land by taking with them the Rite of the Holy Sepulchre. For many centuries and up to the liturgical reform promoted by the Second Vatican Council, the Rite was the Order’s living bond with the Holy Land. Another way in which they kept alive their relation with the Holy Land was the retention of a Province of the Holy Land in Cyprus, and when even the foundations on that island were lost, the title of Provincial of the Holy Land, that, even though only titular, continued for various centuries to be given to a friar who then had the right to take part in the General Chapter. Some of the early foundations of the Order, even today, include the Latin cross of Jerusalem in the Carmelite crest.

Keeping the Original Spirit Alive
What does the Holy Land represent for the Order today? It certainly reminds us of our origins. But this should be more than a mere sentimental bond with the past. Recalling the Holy Land, we are invited to keep alive the spirit that animated those men who left their countries in pilgrimage to the Holy Land and vowed to settle there, living in allegiance to Jesus Christ. These three aspects, being on pilgrimage, remaining, and living allegiance to Christ lie at the core of our vocation. They no longer have the concrete local meaning that they had for the first Carmelites. But we still see ourselves as people on a journey, people who need a stable abode, and people completely dedicated to Christ and to his service.

A Journey of Transformation in Community
Our journey is above all an interior one, “a journey of transformation.” This is the core of our vocation and mission. But there is also another aspect. As the pilgrimage of our hermit fathers to the Holy Land was transformed into the itinerancy of mendicant friars, so journeying for us today implies our walking side by side with the men and women of our times, sharing their joys and their difficulties, sharing with them Christ and the richness of our spirituality.

With the transformation of the order from hermits to mendicant friars, settling down in one place, and even more establishing themselves exclusively in the Holy Land, was no longer the case. But the idea of «remaining», of having a stable abode, persisted and is still part of our vocation. The Rule calls us to remain in our cells, «meditating day and night on the Law of the Lord and keeping vigil in prayer» (Rule, 10). The spirituality of remaining in our cell has always been an important aspect of our spirituality and it needs to be fostered.

Abiding in our cell reminds us of Jesus’ own invitation to abide in him (cf. Jn 15: 4-10). God is our true abode, whether we are in the solitude of our cell, in community, or serving the people. The idea of settling down, «remaining», having a stable abode, reminds us also of our call to community. The first Carmelite community on Mount Carmel bore the image of the early community of Jerusalem and had it is psyche the idea of being a representation of the New Jerusalem.

These aspects form the concrete way in which we, as Carmelites, are called to live our allegiance to Jesus Christ. He is and remains the foundation stone of Carmel that cannot be replaced. As we celebrate the solemnity of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and that of the Prophet Elijah, and recall our origins on Mt Carmel in the Holy Land, we are invited to commit ourselves to live in a renewed way the propositum of our founding community.

A Question of Identity
The living memory of Mount Carmel located in the Holy Land is manifested in our continued use of that name when referring to who we are. We continue to hold that mountain in our hearts and minds. This living memory reminds us that we are still a people of that mountain, even as we find ourselves caught up in the busy-ness of the city. This tension is life-giving. It calls us back again and again to our identity as contemplatives. For that reason, we see in our saints, Angelo Paoli, the father of the poor, Teresa of Avila the wandering foundress, John of the Cross, poet and spiritual companion, Edith Stein, professor and martyr, and Titus Brandsma, a man for all season, Carmelites all of whom lived with this tension, all of whom were lovers of the name Mount Carmel.
Our July celebrations take us back, as if on a spiritual pilgrimage, to Mt Carmel and the Holy Land. This year in which we have witnessed again political unrest and war in the Holy Land, as we recall the special bond that binds us to that land, our heart goes out to all the people involved in that difficult situation. We earnestly pray that a just solution be found so that all may enjoy stability and safety and live in peace. We are also saddened by the continuous exodus of Christians from the Holy Land and from the whole Middle East, due to the great difficulties in which they live. We want to support them by our prayers and in any other possible way.

Our Prayer for Peace
As we spiritually share the joy of our pilgrim fathers and of the pilgrims of every age, whether Jews, Christians, or Muslims, on arriving in the Holy Land, and sing with them: «Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!» (Ps 122: 2), we listen attentively to the psalmist as he exhorts us: «Pray for the peace of Jerusalem» (Ps 122: 3). Let that be our special prayer intention this year as we celebrate Our Lady and St Elijah. While on the one hand we often think that it would be wonderful if the Carmelite Family and particularly the friars had a greater presence in the Holy Land, let us remember that we are there in the presence of the two communities of the Istituto di Nostra Signora del Carmelo, the Italian Carmelite Congregation founded by Beata Teresa Scrilli, and the women and men of the Discalced Tradition. Their safety and the success of their work is also a reason for us to pray.

As we renew our devotion to Mary, we honour her again as the Lady of the Place and place the people of the Holy Land under her motherly care in the confidence that the more fervently we show our desire for peace, that peace that only our God can give, then the surer we are that our prayer will be heard, and there will be peace.

A blessed and joyful Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to all!

Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm.

Prior General

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Letter to the Carmelite Family for the Celebration of the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel – 2021

Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm., Prior General of the Carmelites

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A Video Message from Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm., Prior General of the Carmelites 

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Why We Celebrate Our Lady of Mount Carmel from the writings of Ludovico Saggi, O. Carm.

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