O.Carm
Carmelite NGO Present at COP29 in Azerbaijan
Carmelite NGO Present at COP29 to Discuss Environmental Concerns
In this issue of CarmeNGO, Dr. Renato Francesco Rallo reports on Azerbaijan’s climate summit and offers a personal reflection on the COPs (Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change of which the Carmelite NGO is a member) taking place in various parts of the world. He writes “As long as the COPs continue to exist, that alone is already a success because humans have historically been much more accustomed to waging wars than holding conferences.” He calls the COPs “the rarest experience of humanity as a whole.”
COP29 was hosted by Azerbaijan, a country with significant fossil fuel interests, resulting in little expectation of positive results from the conference. However, two steps forward were taken: a carbon credit market agreement and a new agreement on the financial contributions that the countries would make towards energy transition.
There was also a seven-point plan from a group from Rome, proposals to change some of the processes employed by COP making it more efficient.
Renato Rallo holds a PhD in Energy Engineering and was the COP29 Observer Delegation head of the Carmelite NGO. The first COP was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995.
pdf To read the issue of CarmeNGO 2024 Vol 17 # 5 (4.29 MB) ...
Celebrating At Home - 4th Sunday of Advent
The Promise Fulfilled
(Luke 1:39-44)
The great Christmas feast is almost here. As always in Advent, what is promised in the first reading is brought to fulfilment in the Gospel reading. We began Advent with the cry, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. We will end it with the joyful shout, ‘God is with us!’ Beautiful words from the Prophet Micah form the first reading today which looks forward to the birth of a leader for Israel who, as a shepherd king gathers the people and feeds them with the power of the Lord and the majesty of God. His powerful reign will bring about an era of security and he himself will be peace.
What Micah looks forward to in words becomes flesh and blood in the person of Jesus.
Luke’s touching story of the meeting of the pregnant cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, is full of joy, warmth and love.
It’s not hard to imagine the joyful greetings and embrace at Mary’s surprise visit. Mary greets Elizabeth with the usual greeting, Shalom (‘Peace!’) which is exactly what she brings with her - the One Micah talks about in the first reading, the Messiah. In his very first act of witness to the presence of the Messiah, John leaps in his mother’s womb which releases within her the power of prophecy. Filled with the Holy Spirit Elizabeth proclaims Mary as blessed, wonders at why she, herself, should have been found worthy to give hospitality to the mother of the Lord, and blesses Mary’s faith that the promises of the Lord would indeed find fulfilment in her.
Can we dare to imagine that we, too, carry within us the Peace of God? Can we welcome the presence of God within us and one another? Can we find the ways to nourish our awareness of that presence, let it grow stronger and deeper until our whole life is filled with God, immersed in God and overflows in every word, thought and action of ours?
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Cuarto Domingo de Adviento (1.03 MB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - IV Domenica di Avvento (515 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Quarto Domingo Do Advento (1.11 MB)
OCARM and OCD General Councils Meet in Rome
The two General Councils (OCARM and OCD) met for their biannual meeting in the General Curia of the Discalced Carmelites (Rome) on December 10, 2024.
The meeting began with Midday Prayer in the Community Chapel, after which, the Councils met together to plenary session.
Together, the members of the Councils discussed the topic of safeguarding and shared various standards and structures (especially at Order-level) that are fundamental and necessary.
Time was spent discussing how the formation documents of the Orders (Ratio Institutionis Vitæ Carmelitanæ, Ratio Institutionis) were currently being revised. In particular, attention was given to the accompaniment necessary for friars who are in the early years after their solemn profession or priesthood. Different approaches were reviewed by the General Councils.
During the meeting, the various initiatives that both Orders have planned to celebrate the Jubilee Year of 2025 were spoken about. It was agreed that the two General Councils would make a joint pilgrimage through the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica in June 2025. In addition, it was agreed to celebrate a Eucharist together at Santa Maria in Traspontina (Via della Conciliazione, Rome) on June 2, 2025, together with all the members of the Carmelite Family present in Rome at that time. Building on the work done by the joint commission in 2000, both Orders will collaborate to prepare a map for pilgrims pinpointing significant Carmelite locations in Rome.
The General Councils then discussed how Marian devotion and Marian theology could be deepened and strengthened in both Orders.
During the meeting, various gifts were exchanged between the two councils including scapulars made by the Discalced Nuns in Haifa (Israel) and some recent publications in both Orders.
St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church
14 December Feast
Saint John was born, probably in 1540, in Fontiveros, near Avila in Spain. His father died when he was very young and he had to move with his mother from one place to another, while he tried as best he could to continue his education and, at the same time, to earn a living. In Medina in 1563 he was clothed in the Carmelite habit and, after a year's novitiate, was given permission to follow the unmitigated Carmelite Rule.
He was ordained priest in 1567, after studying philosophy and theology at Salamanca, and, in the same year, he met Saint Teresa of Jesus who, a little while before, had obtained permission from the Prior General Rossi to found two communities of contemplative Carmelite Friars (later called the Discalced) in order that they might help the communities of nuns that she had established. A year later - during which he travelled with Teresa - on the 28th November 1568, John became part of the first group of Reformed Carmelites at Duruelo, changing his name from John of St. Matthias to John of the Cross.
To read more on the life of St. John of the Cross ...
For more on John of the Cross and His Eucharistic Spirituality ...
Publications by Edizioni Carmelitante available at the Webstore
"Within This Living Bread": Exploring the Eucharistic Spirituality of St. John of the CrossDr. John D. Love, STD, 2022.Celebrating At Home - 3rd Sunday of Advent
What Must We Do?
(Luke 3:10-18)
We continue to focus on John the Baptist in the Gospel today. Last week we heard about John’s ministry of preaching repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins. The idea of repentance is about turning around and facing in a new direction. John’s call to the people was to turn away from the old ways of life and to turn towards God.
The Gospel opens with the people, the tax collectors and some soldiers, having heard the call to change their lives, all asking John, ‘What must we do?” These three groups would normally be very suspicious of each other. The Roman soldiers, occupying the country, the locals who collected tax on behalf of the Romans, and the crowd, often the victim of both.
Yet somehow John’s preaching has brought them all together in a community of sorts.
Notice how practical John’s advice is. And, at the same time, it is a call to live by the values of compassion (to the crowd), justice (to the tax collectors), and the promotion of peace (to the soldiers). Values and behaviours opposite to these hinder relationship with God, dehumanise others and ruin life in community.
What results from conversion is a new way of life. In the Gospel, John spells out what that new way of life might look like for these groups of people.
John’s teaching and advice build a sense of expectancy among the crowd. “Is this the One?” they ask themselves.
It would have been easy for John to get carried away with his popularity, but he proves to be a true servant of the Word (like the prophets) and directs the peoples’ attention away from himself and towards the One who is to come.
Feelings of expectation and rejoicing dominate the prayers and readings of this part of Advent as we grow closer to celebrating the Christmas feast.
Our celebration of the historical birth of Jesus is the lens through which we again contemplate the enduring presence of Jesus in our lives. Accompanied by the beautiful thoughts of the first reading we can be confident in God’s love, which (as the reading says) renews us.
How do we respond to this new awareness of God’s abiding love? We ask the same question as the people asked John, “What must I do?” Our response to that question leads to a reformation of our attitudes and behaviour towards others. To be baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire is to be baptised ‘from within’, to have hearts and minds re-made in the image and likeness of Christ.
Learning the way of Christ is how we become the wheat in the Kingdom of God, not the chaff in the fire.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 3rd Sunday of Advent [PDF] (1.28 MB)
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Tercer Domingo de Adviento (504 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Terza Domenica di Avvento (502 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Terceiro Domingo Do Advento (497 KB)
Celebrating At Home - 2nd Sunday of Advent
Prepare a Way for the Lord
(Luke 3:1-6)
The sense of preparing is very strong in our readings this weekend. The Gospel highlights the role of John the Baptist as the one who prepares the way for Jesus. It was John’s ministry of preaching and baptism which laid the foundation for Jesus’ ministry. The idea of repentance has less to do with feeling sorry for individual sins and more to do with turning around and facing in a new direction. John’s call to the people was to turn away from the old way of life and to turn towards God.
The first reading from the prophet Baruch is a call to do the same. It talks about taking off the dress of sorrow and distress and putting on the beauty and glory of God. It’s a call for the people to become God’s people. God will lower the mountains and smooth the way so that God’s people can walk in safety, guided by God’s light and escorted by mercy and integrity.
In the Gospel, Luke refers to a similar text found in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. Making straight paths for the Lord can be understood as the radical change of behaviour away from sin and towards God. The loving action of God gently fills in the valleys and lowers the mountains and straightens and smooths the roads so that we can be fully open to the living and transforming presence of Jesus so that ‘all mankind shall see the salvation of God’ in and through us.
Our Advent readings help us realise God’s profound love for us and his presence within us through the Holy Spirit. Knowing that God will always treat us with love and tender care helps us to turn again towards him and to trust in the depth of his mercy.
Our Advent journey is showing us how to prepare our hearts for a fresh discovery of God’s presence in our lives; how to recognise the hidden presence of Jesus among and around us; how to turn around and face towards God with faith, hope and love; and how to be the living presence of Jesus in our moment of history.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 2nd Sunday of Advent [PDF] (1.18 MB)
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Segundo Domingo de Adviento (295 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Seconda Domenica di Avvento (291 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Segundo Domingo Do Advento (290 KB)
Blessed Bartholomew Fanti, Priest
5 December Optional Memorial
Christ Is Truly 'God With Us'
From the encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI, The Mystery of Faith
IN A MOST SUBLIME manner, Christ is present in his Church as she offers in his name the sacrifice of the Mass. He is present in her as she administers the sacraments. But there is yet another manner in which Christ is present in his Church, a manner which surpasses all the others; it is his presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is for this reason “a more consoling source of devotion, a more lovely object of contemplation, a more effective means of sanctification than all the other sacraments.” The reason is clear: it contains Christ himself and it is “a kind of perfection of the spiritual life; in a way, it is the goal of all the sacraments.”
This presence is called “real”—by which it is not intended to exclude all other types of presence as if they could not be “real” too—but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, the God-Man, is wholly and entirely present.
Moreover the Catholic Church has held on to this faith in the presence in the Eucharist of the Body and Blood of Christ, not only in her teaching but also in her practice, since she has at all times given to this great Sacrament the worship which is known as Latria and which may be given to God alone. The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers the cult of Latria to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving Consecrated Hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to solemn veneration, and carrying them processionally to the joy of great crowds of the faithful.
In the ancient documents of the Church we have many testimonies of this veneration. The pastors of the Church, in fact, solicitously exhorted the faithful to take the greatest care in keeping the Eucharist which they took to their homes.
It is to be desired that the faithful, every day and in great numbers, actively participate in the sacrifice of the Mass, receive Holy Communion with a pure heart, and give thanks to Christ our Lord for so great a gift.
In the course of the day the faithful should not omit to visit the Blessed Sacrament, which according to the liturgical laws must be kept in the churches with great reverence in a most honorable location. Such visits are a proof of gratitude, an expression of love, and acknowledgment of the Lord's presence.
No one can fail to understand that the Divine Eucharist bestows upon the Christian people an incomparable dignity. Not only while the sacrifice is offered and the sacrament is received, but as long as the Eucharist is kept in our churches and oratories Christ is truly the Emmanuel, that is, “God with us.” Day and night he is in our midst, he dwells with us full of grace and truth. He restores morality, nourishes virtues, consoles the afflicted, strengthens the weak. He proposes his own example to those who come to him that all may learn to be, like himself, meek and humble of heart and to seek not their own interests but those of God.
Anyone who approaches this august Sacrament with special devotion and endeavors to return generous love for Christ's own infinite love, will experience and fully under-stand-not without spiritual joy and fruit-how precious is the life hidden with Christ in God and how great is the value of converse with Christ, for there is nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road of holiness.
Further, you realize, venerable brothers, that the Eucharist is reserved in the churches and oratories as in the spiritual center of a religious community or of a parish, yes, of the universal Church and of all of humanity, since beneath the appearance of the species, Christ is contained, the invisible Head of the Church, the Redeemer of the World, the Center of all hearts, “by whom all things are and by whom we exist.”
From this it follows that the worship paid to the Divine Eucharist strongly impels the soul to cultivate a “social” love, by which the common good is given preference over the good of the individual. Let us consider as our own the interests of the community, of the parish, of the entire Church, extending our charity to the whole world, because we know that everywhere there are members of Christ.
Blessed Denis of the Nativity and Redemptus (OCD)
29 November Optional Memorial
Truly Deny Yourself and Carry the Cross of Christ
If anyone wishes to follow my way let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For he who wants to save his soul must lose it, and he who for my sake loses it will gain it. Oh! Would that there were someone capable of making spiritual people understand, practice and taste the meaning of the advice to renounce ourselves, given by Our Lord so that they would understand how different the way to behave on this path is from what most of them believe! Some are convinced that any kind of retreat and reformation of life is enough, others are content to practice the virtues in some way, to devote themselves to prayer and to practice mortification, but neither of them achieves the naked poverty, abnegation or spiritual purity, which are one and the same, recommended by Our Lord. For they are still concerned with nourishing and clothing their nature with spiritual consolations and feelings rather than stripping and depriving it for the sake of God of everything.
In doing so, they become spiritually enemies of the cross of Christ, for the true spirit seeks in the Lord more the bitter than the sweet, inclines more to sufferings than to consolations, feels impelled for the sake of God more to renunciation than to the possession of every good, tends more to barrenness and afflictions than to sweet communications, knowing well that only in this way does one follow Christ and renounce oneself, and that to act otherwise is to seek oneself in God, which is very contrary to love. If man resolves to bear this cross, that is, if he resolves steadfastly to go seeking and to endure for the Lord travails in everything, he will find in this great relief and great suavity.
In no way does one progress except by imitating Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by Him. And the way consists in dying to nature.
To read more on the life of Blessed Denis and Redemptus (OCD) ...
Celebrating At Home - 1st Sunday of Advent
Stay Awake! Your Liberation Is Near
(Luke 21:25-28, 34-36)
The great Advent journey begins. The Advent readings are a rich tapestry of images centered on the truth that God has come among us. We do not pretend that we are waiting for Jesus to be born in a stable. That happened once, a long time ago, and it will not happen again. We remember that birth as we remember our own birthdays. The God who came among us is still among us.
Advent’s invitation is to become aware of the all-pervading presence of the risen Jesus as Emmanuel – God among us.
In the first reading this Sunday Jeremiah looks forward to the coming of one who will save God’s people, one who acts with honesty and integrity. In the second reading St Paul encourages the people of Thessalonica in their following of Christ. He prays that their love will grow and that their hearts will be ‘confirmed in holiness’. The early Christians believed that Jesus would return very soon as the Lord of Glory.
As time passed, they had to re-think this belief and work out how to live in the meantime, the time in between the first and final comings of Christ. That’s our challenge, too.
Today’s Gospel from St Luke warns Christians not to be distracted by the cares and snares of the world, but to be ready to stand confidently before the Son of Man when he comes. Remaining constant in love and attentive to our calling we become the living presence of Jesus until he comes again.
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Primer Domingo de Adviento (500 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Prima Domenica di Avvento (512 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Primeiro Domingo Do Advento (518 KB)
Triennial Chapter of the Nuns in Aracena Held
Triennial Chapter of the Carmelite Nuns of the Monastery of Santa Catalina in Aracena, Spain Held
The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Santa Catalina in Aracena, Spain was held on November 18-19, 2024. Fr. Emilio Rodriguea Claudio, OSA, vicar general and episcopal vicar for Contemplative Life in the Diocese of Huelva presided. Eight nuns of the community participated.
Various decisions were taken. Among these was to work on ongoing formation and within it to deepen the community's identity according to the charism and the teachings of the Carmelite saints.
The Aracena monastery was founded when two pious sisters of the Castilla Infante family, with the assistance of a religious, opened a house on their property. On Feburary 21, 1536, the house became official, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. It was annexed to the church of St. Catherine by Cardinal Alphonso Manrique, the Archbishop of Spain. The monastery has founded other monasteries in Andalucia (Southern) Spain, Portugal, and Kenya.
The monastery belongs to the Mater et Decor Carmeli Federation. The website for the monastery is www.monjascarmelitasaracena.es
The following nuns were elected:
Prioress | Priora | Priora:
Sor Elena M. López Font, O. Carm.
1st Councilor | 1ª Consejera | 1ª Consigliera:
Sor Ma. Remedios Álvarez Soríano, O. Carm.
2nd Councilor | 2ª Consejera | 2ª Consigliera:
Sor Ma. Victoria Escamilla Martín, O. Carm.
Treasurer | Ecónoma | Economa
Sor Ma. Victoria Escamilla Martín, O. Carm.
Formator | Formadora | Formatrice
Sor Elena Ma. López Font, O. Carm.
Sacristan | Sacristana | Sacrestana
Sor Ma. Remedios Álvarez Soríano, O. Carm.
