On the 8th of October last, the members of the Supervisory Board of the Carmel Foundation visited our Curia. The Foundation is an association that coordinates 24 colleges with more than 35,000 students in the Netherlands. The origins of the association go back to 1922, when Bl. Titus Brandsma and other Dutch Carmelites began to work in education by setting up the first Carmelite colleges in that country. The members of the Board were accompanied by Fr. Falco Thuis O.Carm. and Fr. Kees Waaijman, O.Carm. as the representatives of the Carmelite Order. They explained to the members of the General Council the nature and objectives of the association. The Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., in reply reiterated the commitment of the Order to the field of education, telling the group about the various initiatives that are in train in this area. On behalf of the Order, he thanked the group for the work they are doing.

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Moncion, Dominican Republic, was held 27 September 2011. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. Consuelo  Rivera , O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:  Sr. M. Josefina Luna, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr .M. Assunta Mura, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. Josefina Luna, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. M. Rosanna Serrata , O.Carm.

Electoral Chapter of the Monastery of Fontiveros, Spain
The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Fontiveros, Spain, was held 5 October 2011. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. del Pilar Felipe García, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:  Sr. Rosa M. Pérez Arias, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr . Fátima M. Luna Ceballos, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. Fátima M. Luna Ceballos, O.Carm.

Electoral Chapter of the Monastery of La Vega, Dominican Republic
The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of La Vega, Dominican Republic, was held 25 August 2011. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. Cecilia Morini, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:  Sr. M. Eleida Fernández, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr .M. Lourdes Guirand, O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:  Sr .M. del Carmen Ferreira, O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:  Sr .M. Leticia Marte, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Eleida Fernández, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. Ana M. Arroyo, O.Carm.

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PCM

Most Rev. John Malley, O.Carm., former Prior General of the Carmelites, gave the homily at the funeral Mass of Father Joachim Smet, O.Carm., long-time historian of the Order. A fuller-video tribute will we posted later this week.

On Sunday 2 October the Prior General, Fr Fernando Millan Romerál, and Bursar General, Fr Kevin Alban, attended the 9th annual pilgrimage of the Society of the Little Flower in Aylesford, GB.  Thanks to some exceptional weather there was a very good crowd of nearly 400 people for the morning gathering service and this more than doubled in the afternoon for the blessing of the roses and celebration of the Mass, led by Fr Fernando.
The Society of the Little Flower raises money for the Order's missions around the world and is now in its tenth year of operation. Over this period the Society has donated over five million euro to the Curia for the various Carmelite missions around the world, including Mozambique, Kenya, India, East Timor, Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia to name just a few. Without this support it would have been impossible to finance the considerable expansion that the Order has seen over the last 20 years, taking it now to some 35 countries around the world. The funds generated by the Society of the Little Flower have also been used to support our nuns, active sisters and lay groups in their mission to bring the Carmelite charism to new territories and lands.

by Fr. Richard Copsey

Fr. Joachim Smet, O.Carm., one of the leading historians of the Carmelite Order, died on 4th October at the age of 95.

Fr. Joachim Smet, O.Carm., passed away peacefully at the Providence Hospital in Washington D.C., U.S.A., on the evening of 4th October after a brief illness. Joachim was born in Chicago on 9th October 1915, so he missed celebrating his 96th birthday by a mere 5 days.

Brought up in a very devout family, he made his first communion on 17th May 1925, the day on which St. Thérèse of Lisieux was canonised by Pope Pius XI, and Joachim attributed his religious vocation to her intercession. Soon afterwards he sat the scholarship examination for the Carmelite Minor Seminary in Niagara Falls and was notified that he had won a scholarship, once again on 17th May. This award enabled his parents to send Joachim, now 14 years of age, to a Catholic school, something which would have otherwise have been impossible at that time of economic depression.

Having completed his high school studies, Joachim entered the Carmelite Order and made his first profession on 15th August 1935. By chance, the Dutch Carmelite Blessed Titus Brandsma was visiting the United States on a lecture tour and attended Joachim’s profession ceremony. Blessed Titus was one of five Carmelites who signed Joachim’s profession paper. Sadly, after the outbreak of the Second World War, Blessed Titus was arrested for his work for the Church in Holland and died in Dachau concentration camp.

Whilst at Niagara, Joachim made up his mind that he would write a history of the Carmelite Order, but it was not until 1947 that his desire started to come to fruition. At the General Chapter that year, someone proposed that a history of the Order should be written and Matt O’Neill, the provincial of the P.C.M. Province – Joachim’s province – said, “I have just the guy to do it”. So it was that Joachim found himself on a boat sailing off to Rome and a complete change in his way of life.

Arriving in Rome, though, Joachim found that writing a history of the Order was going to be very difficult. Talking to him in later years, I remember him pointing out how little information there was available, very few of the early Carmelite texts had been printed, and even the few in print dated back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Studies of early Carmelite history were rare and many were coloured by pious preconceptions. It was no wonder that most non-Carmelite historians writing about the mendicant friars assumed that only the Franciscans and Dominicans were worthy of mention.

Once in Rome, Joachim set to work quietly and unassumedly, developing his skills and his knowledge. He became one of the key figures in a revival of Carmelite scholarship and learning. Initially, Joachim followed his own studies and his first major work was published in 1954 entitled The Life of Saint Peter Thomas by Philippe de Mézières, the subject of his doctoral thesis. This work, dedicated to Matt O’Neill, bore all the hallmarks of Joachim’s publications: a meticulously researched study, careful attention to sources, and a gentle, comprehensive introduction backed up with extensive footnotes.

At the same time, Joachim became one of the founding members of the Institutum Carmelitanum, a small team of scholars working in the Collegio San Alberto in Rome, and the first editor of Carmelus its scholarly journal, a position he held until I arrived in Rome in 1993 to relieve him. Joachim saw Carmelus as a way of stimulating Carmelite scholarship and it was due to his encouragement that many young Carmelite scholars were emboldened to publish their studies.

Joachim set himself to work on his history of the Order but the work took time and was delayed by Joachim acquiring other tasks and responsibilities, the most notable of which was his election as Assistant General of the Order, serving under Fr. Kilian Healy for six years. During this period, he edited a quarterly review in English for Carmelite sisters which contained not only articles on spirituality and religious life but also translations of some important early Carmelite texts.

In the mid 1960s, Joachim produced an offset edition of his historical notes, entitled An Outline of Carmelite History which gave a tantalising preview of the contents of Joachim’s magnus opus. Also, his article on the Carmelites in the New Catholic Encyclopedia in 1967 demonstrated his grasp of the overall development of the Order, and he contributed articles to numerous other prestigious encyclopedias.

However, Joachim’s progress on his projected four volume history was agonisingly slow, and nothing had appeared when Joachim’s provincial, Paul Hoban, visited him in 1975. Paul asked Joachim how much progress he had made and was told that volume 1 was in draft form and being corrected. Paul asked if he could borrow the manuscript to read it in his room. That was the last Joachim saw of his text as Paul took it back to America with him and sent it straight to the printers. Joachim was mortified as the footnotes had not been organised and there were many other corrections needed. However, with his customary forebearance, he accepted the fait accompli and started on the remaining volumes. Volume 2 emerged in 1976, volume 3 (in two parts) in 1982, and volume 4 in 1985. Then he returned to volume 1, finished correcting the text and footnotes, and a revised edition appeared in 1988. Thereafter, Joachim devoted himself to tracing copies of the first edition and replacing them with the revised edition.

Translations of Joachim’s work soon began to appear in other languages and the sumptious Italian edition, complete with beautiful illustrations, gave Joachim’s work the true dignity it deserved. Joachim’s somewhat dry English style was not suited to a novel or adventure story, but his skill lay in his ability to analyse a complex situation and to condense the significant elements into a readable text. This, coupled with his innate sympathy with the historical characters involved, give his history a unique value. Perhaps the best of his writing is to be found in the early chapters of volume 2 where he describes with great sensitivity and sympathy the series of events around St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross which led to the separation of the Order into two parts.

Fr. Joachim at his desk

After his history of the friars, Joachim turned his attention to the nuns and in 1987 he produced a slim volume entitled Cloistered Carmel. Then he started a project for cataloguing the surviving Carmelite manuscripts, and his volume on the manuscripts preserved in the Vatican Library - Bibliotheca Carmelitana Manuscripta. Series 1: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana - emerged in 1994. Sadly this remains the only volume so far in print, although Joachim tried without success to get other Carmelites to collaborate in this project. Another slim volume - Canons, monks, nuns, hermits, and friars in Crusader Palestine - is still awaiting a publisher. In addition to all these, Joachim completed a number of translations, among which were the autobiography of Blessed Maria Scrilli in 1995, and a volume of articles written by Blessed Titus Brandsma (awaiting publication).

Throughout his life, Joachim never forgot the needs of his own province and he devoted himself to collecting books for the Carmelite Library in Washington. His efforts were crowned with success when the collection was moved to a new specially-designed location, funded from the Rogge Foundation. This Carmelite Library is unique in the U.S.A. and now attracts many scholars doing research.

For many of us, though, Joachim will be remembered as a very unassuming, delightful companion, a most generous friend, and someone whose faith shone through all his actions. His generosity was done quietly and very humbly and, throughout his life, he used money given to him for personal needs to pay the school fees for a number of boys in India and, on his trips to England, he would always make sure that he left a gift for the person who did his laundry or cleaned his room. In Rome, his room was always open and many of us learning the trade of history benefitted greatly from the pre-prandial conversations in his room - lubricated, it must be confessed, with a glass of whisky.

Joachim was extremely generous in sharing his knowledge, his notes and the results of his researches. He was quite content for others to use his material; for him, what mattered was not his own reputation but the good of the Order. Much of what I have written on Carmelite history owes its origins to conversations with Joachim and material which he has shared with me. We did not always agree on the conclusions that I drew, but Joachim remained a good friend and a great example of the Christian virtues. He will be greatly missed.

Fr. Joachim Smet, O.Carm.

May He Rest In Peace

http://www.carmelite.org

Father Joachim Smet, Order of Carmelites, the oldest Carmelite in the Chicago Carmelite Province, died Oct. 4, 2011. He was 95. Father Joachim was born in Chicago, IL, on Oct. 9, 1915.

He entered the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, Order of Carmelites, and was ordained a priest in 1942. He held a bachelor's degree in Library Science from the University of Chicago, a master's degree in Latin from the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Ecclesiastical History from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.

Among his assignments: Latin and English teacher at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, IL, Assistant Novice Master at New Baltimore, PA, founding member of the Institutum Carmelitanum at the Collegio Internazionale de Sant' Alberto in Rome, Italy, editor of Carmelus, a journal of Carmelite Studies, President of the Institutum Carmelitanum in Rome; Assistant General of the Carmelite Order at the Carmelite General Curia in Rome. A gifted writer, he is well-known for his four-volume work The Carmelites and his Life of Saint Peter Thomas.

Among his other works: Familiar Matter of Today-Poems (2007), The Mirror of Carmel: A Brief History of the Carmelite Order, (2011), various publications on Carmelite Nuns, Carmelite Liturgy, Carmelite Libraries of Spain and Portugal and the Carmelites of Medieval England.

 Last September 29th, in the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid, a Spanish translation of the pastoral letter of Bishop Donal Lamont, O.Carm. (1911-2003) called Purchased People was launched. Bishop Lamont wrote the letter in 1959 and it was one of the first official documents of the Catholic Church in Africa against racial discrimination.

The book, which includes two studies on the pastoral letter, its role in the Second Vatican Council and the importance of Bishop Lamont, as well as a translation of his biographical Speech from the Dock, is part of a collection titled “Textos para un Milenio”, (Texts for a Millenium) sponsored by the joint committee of the Carmelite Iberian Region.

The Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm attended the book launch, along with  Martin Kilmurray, O.Carm. Prior Provincial of the Irish Province, Michael Troy, O.Carm. Prior of Terenure College, and a number of professors from the University of Commillas who helped in the work of publication. This is the centenary of the birth of Bishop Lamont. This book was offered as a tribute to this important and significant Carmelite of the 20th century.

by John F. Russell, O.Carm.

As we celebrate the centenary of the death of St. Therese of Lisieux in 1997 we remember that she took her Carmelite identity and gave it to the world in a narrative that reveals depth of commitment to Jesus Christ. For many ordinary people Therese spoke a word of life and of holiness that seemed attainable. Thomas Merton admired her everyday kind of faith. French novelist George Bernanos read her autobiography many times and used her line "everything is grace'1 in his Diary of a Country Priest. He kept a relic of Therese on his night table. Theologian Hans Urs von Baltasar wrote a book length study of her life as did social activist Dorothy Day. Dominican Yves Congar, who played a significant role in the work of Vatican II, wrote that in an age of anxiety and discouragement Therese offers the wisdom of the gospel: live in love and you will be transformed. Or to paraphrase, "Do it right and do it well and you will be changed".

St. Therese's life story has been received within many cultures. Her STORY OF A SOUL has been translated into over 50 languages and dialects. Her "little way" appeared to make God accessible to people as a God of love and mercy. Her doctrine of spiritual childhood modeled the paschal mystery: you give yourself to life, to people, to tasks and to responsibilities with loving care. In the process you learn much about yourself and others. You experience suffering and hurt, joy and peace. And all the time you are being transformed through faith, hope and love into Christ Jesus. As Therese once put it: life is a process of "transforming nothingness into fire".

Let me briefly allow Therese to offer three of her convictions to us. It is our way of being a listening heart to a voice from our past.

I

Therese would tell us that all Christian and of course Carmelite spirituality is always evangelical. scriptural. When we attend to God's word whether personally or communally in liturgy, meditation or lectio divina, God's word needs to become more and more our word. Our interaction with God's word is critical in shaping our own identity as Christians.

She went to scripture to seek guidance in living out her own faith commitment and from time to time she sought comfort from God's word. Jesus of the gospels shaped her own consciousness in responding to the members of her community in the convent of Lisieux. "The more my life is focused in Jesus Christ the more 1 am able to love the Sisters," she wrote. She relished the Psalms and Isaias and the letters of Paul. She memorized many passages and retrieved them as prayer and consolation.

In MS B of the STORY OF A SOUL Therese recounts how she found direction in the first letter to the Corinthians. She knew that she was filled with many desires; she wanted to be a martyr, a missionary, a doctor of the church, a warrior like St. Joan of Arc, a priest. She sought a way to unify her desires. In reading 1 Corinthians 12 she learned that the body has many parts and all have a place in actualizing the body. She went on to 1 Corinthians 13 and found that love was the greatest of all virtues. Therese captured the center of her own vocation:

"I will be love in the heart of the church!" She had added the heart to 1 Corinthians 12 and had unified her dreams within the vision of love.

II

Therese would share a second conviction: community life is the setting for loving God and neighbor.

She had lived her nine years in Carmel with the same women. Therese noted in her autobiography that some women with whom she lived lacked social graces, were uneducated and lacked good judgment. Some were quite sensitive and tended to spoil even the amenities of life. Therese stated that the condition was chronic; it was not going to go away. Thus she had to face the question: "what am 1 to do in the midst of these limitations?" They do tend to be aggravating. Therese decided that she would bring to every one in her community and to every situation the commitment to love. She would try to be a good Samaritan reaching out to the roadside casualties. It need not be more at times than a smile or a good word.

Therese would suggest that a community of faith accepts a gospel call to self-emptying love. Self-focus is out of the question. Fulfillment comes in giving oneself away generously. Therese knew also that love cannot stand up straight without the companionship of justice. Justice keeps love from becoming sentimental. And thus Therese became angry when she learned that a superior was thinking of postponing the vows of one Sister for no good reason than an arbitrary exercise of authority. Therese rejected any kind of manipulation as inauthentic. She sought to know the truth and to live it.

III

Therese's third conviction would state that to be church is to be in mission. We are to be good news and to make good news in our world. She thought of her mission as working for the salvation of souls. That was the vocabulary that she inherited. That was a way to talk about ministry. She knew that priests and all those in ministry get their hands dirty in the ebb and flow of preaching the word, bringing comfort and challenge to people, serving so often when one is out of sorts and tired and on edge. She knew too that there would be failures and opposition.

Within this context Therese saw that she had a role to play. There is no reducing the mission of the church and her ministry to data, techniques or management skills. One who ministers certainly has to work with a knowledge of personal and social climates and people's needs and ways of communication. But bringing about the "kingdom of God" is ultimately God's work and so mission and ministry are rooted in the realm of grace and mystery. Thus, Therese could take her obscure life and give it for the church. Her vocational response in Carmel in prayer and sacrifice and love was offered for the benefit of missionaries and priests and countless others. God could take her life and make it part of a larger story whereby new life comes out of life given away in love in an obscure convent in Normandy. One cannot measure nor trace precisely the sweep and depth and route of grace. She believed that her life affected the outcomes of the missionary endeavor wherever it occurred.

Therese had a profound awareness that faith, hope and love form a surge that is creative of new life and holiness and peace. She chose to center all in love and for her it made all the difference in the world.

Homily at the Eucharist honoring St. Therese June 14, 1996 (Mundelein, IL)