O.Carm
St. Mary of Jesus Crucified (OCD), Virgin
25 August Optional Memorial
Selection from the Homily of Pope Francis for the Canonization of Mariam of Jesus Crucified Baouardy
The Acts of the Apostles have set before us the early Church as she elects the man whom God called to take the place of Judas in the college of the Apostles. It is has to do not with a job, but with service. Indeed, Matthias, on whom the choice falls, receives a mission which Peter defines in these words: “One of these men... must become a witness with us to his resurrection”, the resurrection of Christ (Acts 1:21-23). In this way Peter sums up what it means to be part of the Twelve: it means to be a witness to Jesus’ resurrection. The fact that he says “with us” brings us to realize that the mission of proclaiming the risen Christ is not an individual undertaking: it is to be carried out in common, with the apostolic college and with the community.
An essential aspect of witness to the risen Lord is unity among ourselves, his disciples, in the image of his own unity with the Father. Today too, in the Gospel, we heard Jesus’ prayer on the eve of his passion: “that they may be one, even as we are one” (Jn 17:11). From this eternal love between the Father and the Son, poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5), our mission and our fraternal communion draw strength; this love is the ever-flowing source of our joy in following the Lord along the path of his poverty, his virginity and his obedience; and this same love calls us to cultivate contemplative prayer. Sister Mariam Baouardy experienced this in an outstanding way. Poor and uneducated, she was able to counsel others and provide theological explanations with extreme clarity, the fruit of her constant converse with the Holy Spirit. Her docility to the Holy Spirit made her also a means of encounter and fellowship with the Muslim world.
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St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (OCD), Virgin and Martyr
9 August Memorial (Feast in the provinces of Europe: Patron of Europe)
Selection from the Homily of St. Pope John Paul II for the Canonization of Edith Stein
Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholic Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: “Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed.”
From now on, as we celebrate the memory of this new saint from year to year, we must also remember the Shoah, that cruel plan to exterminate a people — a plan to which millions of our Jewish brothers and sisters fell victim. May the Lord let his face shine upon them and grant them peace (cf. Nm 6:25f.).
For the love of God and man, once again I raise an anguished cry: May such criminal deeds never be repeated against any ethnic group, against any race, in any corner of this world! It is a cry to everyone: to all people of goodwill; to all who believe in the Just and Eternal God; to all who know they are joined to Christ, the Word of God made man. We must all stand together: human dignity is at stake. There is only one human family. The new saint also insisted on this: “Our love of neighbor is the measure of our love of God. For Christians — and not only for them — no one is a ‘stranger.’ The love of Christ knows no borders.”
5. Dear brothers and sisters! The love of Christ was the fire that inflamed the life of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Long before she realized it, she was caught by this fire. At the beginning she devoted herself to freedom. For a long time Edith Stein was a seeker. Her mind never tired of searching and her heart always yearned for hope. She traveled the arduous path of philosophy with passionate enthusiasm. Eventually she was rewarded: she seized the truth. Or better: she was seized by it. Then she discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the incarnate Word was her One and All. Looking back as a Carmelite on this period of her life, she wrote to a Benedictine nun: “Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
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St. Albert of Trapani, Priest
7 August Feast
The word of the Lord came to Elijah saying: Depart from here and go eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith near the Jordan, and there you will drink from the brook. Now these salutary commands which the Holy Spirit prompted Elijah to obey, and this promise of good things which he was moved to desire, ought to be weighed word by word with the greatest care by us, monks and solitaries, and this in a mystical sense, for they contain the full meaning of our vocation. Indeed they point the way to prophetic perfection, which is the goal of our religious, eremitical life.
It will be seen that this type of life has two aims. One of them we can, with the help of God’s grace, achieve by our own efforts and the practice of virtue. This aim is to offer God a heart holy and pure from all actual stain of sin, and we achieve it when we become perfect and hidden in Cherith—that is, in charity, of which the Wise Man says: Charity covers all offenses. It was to bring Elijah to this state that God said to him: Hide yourself by the brook Cherith.
The other aim of this kind of life is something that can be bestowed on us only by God’s generosity: namely, to taste in our hearts and experience in our minds, not only after death but even during this mortal life, something of the power of the divine presence and the bliss of heavenly glory. And this is to drink from the brook of the enjoyment of God—the reward God promised Elijah when he said: There you will drink from the brook.
The prophetic, eremitical life must be undertaken by the monk with both these aims in view, as the Psalmist makes clear when he says to God: In a desert land where there is no road and no water I have come before you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. By choosing to live in a desert land where there is no road and no water as the means of coming before God in the sanctuary—with a heart, that is, free from sin—he demonstrates the first aim of the solitary life he has chosen, which is to offer God a heart that is holy, or pure from all actual sin. By adding the words to see your power and your glory he declares the second aim, which is in some measure to experience or see the power of the divine presence mystically in one’s heart and to taste the bliss of heavenly glory here already in this life.
The first aim, purity of heart, can be achieved with the help of God’s grace by effort and the practice of virtue. The second aim, experimental knowledge of divine power and heavenly glory, can be realized through purity of heart and perfect love; for our Lord said: Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.
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Maltese Celebrate 150 Years of Anastasju Cuschieri
Maltese Honor 150th Anniversary of Carmelite Anastasju Cuschieri
On July 27, 2026, the Maltese Carmelite Province in conjunction with the Akkademja tal-Malti (Academy of the Maltese Language) commemorated the 150th anniversary of the birth of Carmelite priest, Anastasio Cuschieri (1876-1962). July 27 also marked the 64th anniversary of his death and funeral.
Fr. Cuschieri studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and resided at St Albert’s International College (CISA). He was a close friend of Hubertus Driessen, O. Carm. and acquainted also through him with St Titus Brandsma. As a philosopher, he held the Chair of Logic, Aesthetics and Ethics at the Royal University of Malta (1902-1939). He also served as a Senator, elected to Parliament, pitching him against the Protestant British colonial government of Malta. His political commitment had a pronounced social edge. Cuschieri was instrumental in the promotion of the Maltese Language during the local language question, defending the Maltese language both with persuasive arguments and the writing of fine poetry in the Maltese language. This gained him the title of “Il-Poeta tal-Kelma Maltija” (The Poet of the Maltese Language). His poetry also is marked by Marian lyricism gaining him the title of “Il-Poeta tal-Madonna” (Our Lady’s Poet).
The commemoration opened with a speech by the president of the Akkademja, Dr. Sergio Grech. The speech focused on “Communication: A Powerful tool in Anastasju Cuschieri.” Daniel Attard and Rita Saliba, members of the Council of the Akkademja, recited some of his celebrated poems, while violinist Elena Muscat graced the evening with classic musical pieces.
Fr. Charlò Camilleri, O. Carm., associate professor at the Faculty of Theology, Deputy Dean and Senator within the University of Malta, as Member of the Akkademja tal-Malti, serving also on its council, delivered the main speech: “The Spirit, Duty, and the Rights of the Weak: The Dream of Anastasio Cuschieri for a Strong Democracy in the Light of Christian Civilization.” Finally, the Carmelite provincial, Fr. Charles Mallia, and Grech, the president of the Akkademja, placed floral wreaths on Cuschieri’s grave, in the cloister of the Carmelite Church in Mdina.
Lectio Divina August, 2026
Opening Prayer
God our Father and protector, without you nothing is holy, nothing has value.
Guide us to everlasting life by helping us to use wisely the blessings you have given to the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
St. Titus Brandsma, priest and martyr
July 27 | Obligatory Memorial (Feast: Ger, Phil, Del Colombia)
A noted writer and journalist, in 1935, St. Titus was appointed adviser to the Dutch bishops for Catholic journalists. In the period leading up to and during the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, he argued passionately against the National Socialist ideology, basing his stand on the Gospels. He continually defended the right to freedom in education and for a free the Catholic Press. As a result, he was imprisoned.
He passed from one prison or camp to another until he arrived in Dachau where he was killed on July 26, 1942. He was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on November 3, 1985 and was canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, in St Peter’s Square.
The Order’s petition to have the celebration of St. Titus Brandsma changed from an optional memorial to an obligatory memorial for the whole Order was accepted. The Provinces of Germany and the Philippines as well as the General Delegation in Columbia who have St. Titus as their patron celebrate the day as a feast.
Read more about the life of St. Titus Brandsma
Edizioni Carmelitane offers an incredible collection of writings, speeches, and letters by Tito Brandsma, the Carmelites’ most recent saint, including a play, a professional television production on DVD, and books in various languages.
St. Joachim and St. Anne, Protectors of the Order
26 July 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. In the Byzantine rite the 25 of July reminds us the dedication in Constantinople of a Basilica in honour of Saint Anne.
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Blessed John Soreth, priest
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 on John Soreth (in Italian) from Edizioni Carmelitane, the Carmelites' online bookstore:
Expositio paraenetica in regulam carmelitarum: Un commento alla regola del Carmelo
Giovanna D’Aniello, O. Carm.
Il B. Jean Soreth (1394-1471). Priore generale, riformatore e maestro spirituale dell’Ordine Carmelitano
Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm.
Celebrating At Home - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Close Encounters with the Kingdom of God
(Matthew 13:44-52)
In the Gospel, Jesus compares the Kingdom to treasure hidden in a field, to a merchant on the lookout for fine pearls and to a fisherman’s dragnet which brings in a very mixed catch.
The point of the parables is the behaviour of the people in them.
In the first parable someone stumbles across the treasure by chance. Sometimes that can happen to us, too. We are happily living our lives when, by chance, something happens or we meet someone and our lives change for ever. On reflection we discern the presence of God in that encounter.
In the second parable the Kingdom is found after a long search. It is a reassurance that those who seek always find, and those who knock on the door will always have it opened.
The third parable introduces a note of reality: the Kingdom is a mixture of all kinds of things and some sorting out is needed.
In the first two parables the joy and delight of those who find (experience) the Kingdom is obvious. It is so strong that nothing is spared in order to posses the Kingdom.
The purpose of parables is not to provide answers to questions but to get us to think.
As we know, the Kingdom of God is not a ‘thing’ or a ‘place’. It is an experience or an encounter with the life of God.
In the life and ministry of Jesus many people experienced the Kingdom through their encounter with him which brought dignity, love, forgiveness, release from illness, disability, guilt, shame and even death. Jesus made present the reign of God’s grace for people in all kinds of need.
While we are sometimes overwhelmed by the experience of the presence of God within our hearts, more often we experience the reign of God’s grace through others. These people, like Jesus, somehow make present, make real the presence and action of God especially (but not only) in our moments of need. Having experienced that, we too, want to possess, to find and hold onto, the Source which touched us so deeply and brought us hope, comfort and freedom.
The kingdom, as we are reminded in the third parable, is a mixed bag of good and rotten fish, saints and sinners. It is not the task of members of the kingdom to judge; the final sorting out belongs to God alone. In the meantime, patience and tolerance must guide the practice of those in the kingdom.
The people of the kingdom seek the things that are of real value in life. They are prepared to make great sacrifices in order to make them their own. They live their lives with virtue and wisdom and their lives are a blessing for others as they draw from their rich store of values and virtues, of wisdom and grace. They never stop seeking the things of real value, the riches of the kingdom and they never stop making God present for those around them.
Video History of the Carmelites in Zimbabwe – Part 2
Video History of the Zimbabwean Commissariat – Part 2
The second video of this excellent series produced by the Carmelites in Zimbabwe as part of their 80th anniversary celebration has been released. It is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWixb2EvTFw
This second part of the Commissariat’s history is entitled A Church Finds Its Voice. It covers the years 1966-1986. The story of Bishop Donal Lamont’s opposition to the racist government of Ian Smith is recalled. This included the bishop working to get the Zimbabwean Church hierarchy to speak out and stand firmly alongside the people. The Carmelites adoption of a ministry of presence with the people is recalled in some detail. The founding and ministry of the Handmaids of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and the Mount Carmel Guild for women were also presented.
