Displaying items by tag: Calendar of Feasts and Memorials

July 26 | Memorial

The names of the parents of Mary are known from the apocryphal “Proto-Gospel of James” (II century). The cult to Saint Anne is documented in the East in the VI century, in the West in the X century; that of Saint Joachim in the XIV century.

The Carmelite Order celebrates, with special devotion its Saints, gathering in them the most living and genuine expression of the Charism and the spirituality of the Order throughout the centuries.

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July 24 | Memorial

John Soreth was unflagging in his efforts at renewal, during what was an especially critical period for both the Church and the Order. He dedicated himself entirely to the reform of the Order, travelling across Europe, making canonical visitations and promoting a more faithful observance of religious life both in the older Provinces and convents and in the Mantuan Reformed Congregation.

He was instrumental in the development of the Lay Carmelite Third Order.

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Books Available on John Soreth (in Italian):

Il B. Jean Soreth (1394-1471). Priore generale, riformatore e maestro spirituale dell’Ordine Carmelitano
Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm.

Expositio paraenetica in regulam carmelitarum: Un commento alla regola del Carmelo
Giovanna D’Aniello, O. Carm.

July 20 | Solemnity

Elijah made himself available for God's work and was sent into various situations to proclaim God's word. 

From Elijah, Carmelites learn to listen for the voice of God in the unexpected and in silence. We seek to allow the Word of God to shape our minds and our hearts so that the way we live and the things we do may be prophetic

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July 17 | Optional Memorial

When the full terror of the French Revolution began, a community of sixteen Discalced Carmelite nuns from the monastery of the Incarnation at Compiégne offered themselves as sacrificial victims to beg God for peace for the Church and for their country.

Arrested and imprisoned on the 24th June 1794, they continued to share their joy and their faith with others. Condemned to death for their loyalty to the Church, to their religious vows and for their devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, they were guillotined in Paris on 17th July 1794 whilst singing hymns and after having renewed their vows to their prioress, Teresa of St. Augustine.

Mother Teresa of St. Augustine and companions were beatified in 1906, the first martyrs of the French revolution. The believed what they said: "We are the victims of the age, and we ought to sacrifice ourselves to obtain its return to God."

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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

9 July Optional Memorial

Blessed Jane Scopelli was born in Reggio Emilia in 1428. Inclined to piety from a young age, she obtained permission from her parents to become a cloistered Carmelite while remaining living with the family. After the death of her parents, she joined other women and formed a community in 1480.

In the city of her birth, with the placet of Bishop Filippo Zoboli, she obtained in 1495 the house and church of the Umiliati, which she transformed into a monastery, vulgarly called "Le Bianche" and entrusted to the Congregation Mantovana. There she exercised the office of prioress. Extraordinary events are attributed to the blessed who was endowed by God with an extraordinary charism and rich in profound Marian piety.

She died on July 9, 1491. Her cult was approved by Clement XIV on August 24, 1771. When the monastery was closed in 1803 on account of the Napoleonic suppression, the Blessed's body was transferred to the city's cathedral, where it is still venerated today.

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4 July Optional Memorial in the Italian provinces

Centenary of the first exchange of letters between the Founders of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus

In the early afternoon of Sunday, June 23, 2024, a meeting was held to commemorate the first exchange of letters between the founders of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Blessed M. Maria Crocifissa Curcio and Father Lorenzo van den Eerenbeemt, O. Carm.

Their fruitful human and spiritual relationship, in fact, began with a letter that Father Lorenzo sent on June 23, 1924, writing from St. Albert's International College, where he was a professor, at the suggestion of Fr. Alberto Grammatico, a confrere and colleague: it was a proposal to start together a female Institute of "active, religious, Carmelite life" for the missions. Within a few days, on the following June 28, Mother M. Crocifissa responded with great joy from Modica (Ragusa), adhering with enthusiasm to the proposal after many years of suffering fidelity to the vocation of Carmelite religious of active life. Their purpose, which over time became clearer and more refined, was realized about a year later, on July 3, 1925, with the founding of the Congregation in Santa Marinella (Rome).

From what is now CISA and beginning with a short pilgrimage on foot from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, not far away, the event re-enacted what happened now a century ago, retracing the places from where the two letters started and delving into their words and contents.

Everything was shared online with the Congregation's communities and lay friends from all parts of the world, while the gathering in the "St. Titus Brandsma" hall of CISA was attended by numerous sisters of the Congregation of various nationalities, a representation of the Sisters of the Institute of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, some friars of the CISA community and a large representation of members of the Third Carmelite Order of Rome. We cordially thank the brothers from the communities of CISA and Santa Maria in Traspontina for their welcome.

This celebration stands as a key moment within the path of the "Year of the Founders" with which the Congregation is continuing the journey undertaken now for a year with the celebration of a year dedicated to St. Therese of the Child Jesus and which will conclude with the celebration of a Jubilee Year on the occasion of the first centenary of the birth of the Congregation.

Sr M. Nerina de Simone cmstgb

Brief Biography of Bl. M. Maria Crocifissa Curcio

June 14 | Memorial
St. Elisha, prophet

The biblical cycle of Elisha (2 Kgs) is strongly linked with that of Elijah. Elisha's calling is placed after the theophany of the Horeb (1 Kgs 19: 16-21). According to the divine order, he is the one who is to succeed the Tishbite; Elisha therefore becomes Elijah’s servant and disciple (2 Kgs 3:11).

Like Elijah, Elisha is presented by the Church Fathers as a Christ figure, as a thaumaturge. He is also presented as a model for monastic life. Numerous Church Fathers attest to Elisha's virginity following that of Elijah. The medieval Carmelites reproduced these lines insisting that Elijah and Elisha were the first to consecrate themselves to God in virginity. Prayer also plays a primordial role in Elisha's life: it is the source of the miracles the Lord performs through him. Elisha is also portrayed as someone withdrawn from society. His initial renunciation, sacrificing his oxen and plow before following Elijah, is an example to exhort him to detach himself from worldly concerns (Jer., Ep. 71:3). For Cassian, Elisha is one of the founders of monasticism and, in a more special way, a teacher of poverty (Inst. 7:14,2).

Elisha is constantly present as Elijah's disciple, his spiritual son, his heir, the disciple par excellence. Elisha is not Elijah's only disciple but within this group of disciples, Elisha occupies the first place.

Call of Elisha

Elijah set out, and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak on him.

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please, let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and I will follow you.” Elijah answered, “Go back! What have I done to you?”

Elisha left him and, taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh, and gave it to the people to eat. Then he left and followed Elijah to serve him.    (1 Kgs 19:19-21)

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Recent Publication from Edizioni Carmelitane:

Les prophètes Élie et Élisée au Moyen Âge Latin

     Tome 1. Vllle-IXe siècles. L'époque carolingienne
     Tome 2. Xe-début XIIe siècle. Des commentaires carolingiens à la
                 Glossa ordinaria
     Tome 3. La renaissance et le tournant du XIIe siècle
     Tome 4. XIIIe siècle. L'essor des universités

     Coffret:  Tome 1, 2, 3 et 4