O.Carm
Blessed Angelus Mazzinghi, Priest
17 August Optional Memorial
The year of birth of Bl. Angelus Mazzinghi in Florence, Italy, or nearby, is unknown but it was certainly before 1386. He was received into the Order in 1413 and was the first member of the reform at Santa Maria delle Selve.
He was prior there from 1419-30 and again in 1437, and in Florence from 1435-37. A lector in theology, he was particularly noted for his preaching of the word of God. He died in Florence in 1438.
A Brief History of World Youth Day
World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023
At the conclusion of the Holy Year of Redemption in 1984, Pope St. John Paul II invited young people from around the world to join him in St. Peter’s Square for an International Jubilee of youth on the following Palm Sunday. Some 300,000 young people attended. The first World Youth Day was announced in 1985 and the first official World Youth Day was held in 1986.
Its tradition comes from the practice in the Polish Church to have 13 day summer camps for young adults. It provides an opportunity for young people to meet people of the same faith and to share various prayer experiences over the weeklong “Day.”
Pope John Paul II explained his project at his final World Youth Day in Toronto. “When, back in 1985, I wanted to start the World Youth Days… I imagined a powerful moment in which the young people of the world could meet Christ, who is eternally young, and could learn from him how to be bearers of the Gospel to other young people.
The Carmelite Order inaugurated a Carmelite Day within the larger World Youth Day event after 2007. Although most young people were attending World Youth Day through their local diocese, the idea was to bring those from Carmelite ministries around the world together for one day to celebrate the Carmelite family.
The closing Mass for the 1995 World Youth Day in the Philippines, attended by 5 million people, set a world’s record for the largest number of people gathered for a single religious event. (That record was surpassed when 6 million people attended a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis 20 years later in the Philippines.)
The Cross of Christ is a Message of Hope Says the Pope
World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023
Pope Francis met with some 800,000 young people in Lisbon’s Eduardo VII Park, the hub of many of the events during the 2023 World Youth Day. The Stations of the Cross were focused on prayer for those suffering the effects of mass shootings, wars, abuse, anxiety, eating disorders and persecution. The pope assured those who joined him in the park that Jesus never fails to be present, despite the hardships the youth of today's face.
"Jesus weeps with us," the pope said during the Way of the Cross. Speaking without a script, he said, "All of us in life have cried and we cry still. And there is Jesus with us. He cries with us because he accompanies us in the darkness that leads us to tears."
During the Way of the Cross, video were shown indicating some of the situations today’s youth find themselves in. There were also meditations and reflections on the everyday lives of young people in today’s world. "We live in a world of mirrors where all that matters is our appearance, our image. Selfies after selfies. The tyranny of the right body and the perfect smile," read one reflection. "Photos of us on social media in carefully studied poses. Artificial posts waiting for likes."
The cross of Christ, Pope Francis said to the young people, is a message of hope, one of victory over death, and shows that sacrificial love, while risky, is always worth it. The pope told the young people that despite these temptations, fears and distractions, Christ and the Church offer a message of inclusion and renewal.
It has been reported in various new media that the priests have been hearing more than 10,000 confessions a day. The pope has participated as well, beginning his day by hearing the confessions of three young people from Guatemala, Italy, and Spain. The event organizers have provided makeshift confessionals with simple wooden benches. The pope opted to sit in one of these rather than a larger confessional complete with a cushioned, high back chair.
The pope later went to meet charity workers. Here too he opted to speak spontaneously rather than read through the prepared remarks. He blamed the change being necessary because he was having difficulties with his glasses. However, the pope often put aside prepared remarks to speak to his audience.
"When I shake the hand of someone in need, or a sick person, or a marginalized person, do I do this right after so they don't infect me?," the pope asked while rubbing his hand on his cassock.
"Concrete love," he told the aid workers, "is that which gets one’s hands dirty."
Pope Francis and His Hopes for the Youth of the Church
World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023
Pope Francis flew from Rome to Lisbon, Portugal, to participate in the mega gathering of Catholic youth taking place these days in Lisbon. While the official theme of the gathering of hundreds of thousands of Catholic youth from around the world is Mary Went With Haste, a second but often repeated theme are the pope's words “Everyone is welcome in the Church.”
At his opening address to an estimated 500,000 young people on August 3 during the official welcoming ceremony, the pope said, "There is room for everyone in the Church and, whenever there is not, then, please, we must make room, including for those who make mistakes, who fall or struggle.
"The Lord does not point a finger, but opens wide his arms: Jesus showed us this on the cross," Francis continued. "He does not close the door, but invites us to enter; he does not keep us at a distance, but welcomes us."
"Let these be days when we fully realize in our hearts that we are loved just as we are," the pope told a sea of young people, many draped in their country's flags. Many waited several hours to greet the pontiff.
This theme of the Church being a wide tent, allowing everyone to have a place, came up during the pontiff’s talk to some 7,000 students at the Catholic University of Portugal as well. "Christianity cannot be lived as a fortress surrounded by high walls, one that raises the ramparts against the world," Pope Francis said.
When the pope was speaking with the Portuguese clergy and religious, he again pointed out that it is everyone’s responsibility to welcome everyone into the Church.
Although the pope recently spent time at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, students affiliated with Carmelite schools and parishes who are attending the weeklong event have described Pope Francis as energetic and enthused. It has often been noted that the pope appears most relaxed and smiling when he is meeting with the everyday people of the Church.
It has been reported that the pope took the opportunity during his time in Portugal to meet with some victims of the earthquake in Turkey, youth from war torn Ukraine, and victims of the sex scandals that have rocked the Portuguese Church.
The Prior General and His Thoughts from Lisbon
World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023
You could not but be impressed by the hundreds of thousands of young people who have come to Lisbon for the 2023 World Youth Day. Like Mary who got up and went in haste into the hill country because she wanted to be with her cousin Elizabeth, these young people have travelled because they want to be here and it looks very much like they are enjoying every moment of it.
They walk for hours. They stand and sit and form human chains and dance all in the heat of the Lisbon sun. They join in the music provided by very good musicians as they wait for the religious ceremonies to begin and in every case once the call to prayer is heard silence, respect and participation take over. That’s the way it was at the opening Eucharist on Tuesday evening, the welcome for Pope Francis on Thursday evening, and the Stations of the Cross on Friday. Now we wait for the Vigil and the Mass for World Youth Day, also referred to as the Mass of Sending Out, on Sunday morning.
The Carmelite Youth Day on Wednesday gave us the same experience of excitement at seeing young Carmelites accompanied by sisters, friars, and older lay Carmelites, converging on the Parish of Sao Antonio dos Cavalheiros, some distance from the centre of Lisbon. They came from the four corners of the earth, Australia and Timor Leste, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, Malta, UK, Italy, Spain and the host country Portugal.
The hospitality provided by the parish was wonderful, which lent to the joy that people felt just in being together as people for whom Carmel is their spiritual home. We were all blessed by this way of visiting one another, attentive to one another, with words and expressions that are born of the faith and love we have received.
Photographic memories will abound, including those taken by a drone. The other memories of feelings and inspirations will also last for a long time.
Carmelite Family Celebrates Together at World Youth Day
World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023
On Wednesday, August 2nd, the Carmelite family from around the world—Carmelite friars, sisters, youth animators, and young people—gathered at Lisbon’s St. Antonio of Cavalerios, a Carmelite parish of the Portuguese Commissariat. They came to celebrate the Carmelite Day—a day for the Carmelite family to be together during the World Youth gathering in Lisbon, Portugal. There were 150 people representing each of the four geographic areas of the Order, along with prior general Miceal O'Neill, Richard Byrne, the general councilor for Europe, and Robert Thomas Puthussery, the president of the International Carmelite Youth Commission and general councilor for Asia, Australia, and Oceania.
“It was a grace filled occasion, with a diverse group of young people, all coming together to celebrate what it means to be a Carmelite in the world today,” said Fr. Robert. “Everyone was proud to be a Carmelite and delighted to be together. They shouted in different languages "Long Live Carmel," a great testimony to their joy and enthusiasm.”
The day began with a warm welcome from the Portuguese Commissary Agostinho Castro. There was then an opening prayer and a video presentation on the 600 year presence of Carmelites in Portugal. The prior general, Miceal O'Neill, gave a short but meaningful presentation on what it means to be a Carmelite today in the context of the WYD theme of Mary Went With Haste. He invited all to be "generous and determined" as Mary was to help those in need. He shared the stories of Carmelite saints, St. Nuno Alvares Pereira of Portugal, St. Titus Brandsma, and also referred to the inspirational example of Pablo Maria de la Cruz Alonzo Hidalgo, a young Carmelite from Spain, a model for young people today, who died on July 15 at the age of 21. He had just been professed on June 15 “in articulo mortis" and had hoped to be able to attend the Lisbon event.
The prior general asked everyone present to reflect on the question: what am I called to do or be right now? There was then time for group discussion and sharing after the talk. After lunch it was time for video presentations from each group which was enlivened by live music and dance from different groups.
At 4 pm, there was a concelebrated Holy Eucharist with the Carmelite family in the parish, complete with music and prayers in various languages of the Order.
“I want to publicly thank for Portuguese Commissariat for an incredibly well organized event,” said Fr. Robert. “Everyone enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Portuguese.”
It is quite the experience to see so many youth gathered and celebrating. Richard Byrne wrote, “There was a fantastic atmosphere through the city with all the young people around. To be honest, it was great to witness the young people.”
Pictures and Commentary on the Events:
John Toryusen
August 1
August 2: Carmelite Family Day
August 3:
August 4:
Vigil and Final Mass
Matthew Janvier, O. Carm. Daily Blog
Vitam Coelo Reddiderunt
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Celebrating At Home - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Living the Kingdom
(Matthew 14:22-33)
Trust is an essential element in the formation of faith. This section of St Matthew’s Gospel is about the Kingdom of God being seen in the Church when human needs are responded to with the life of God. Jesus is forming the faith of the disciples and helping them to understand that they can do great and unexpected things if they allow the grace of God to work in them.
For that to happen the disciples must have faith in Christ. They must learn to sense the presence of God within themselves just as Elijah learnt to recognise the presence of God in the gentle breeze in the first reading today. Jesus and Elijah remain in communion with God through moments of solitary prayer.
St Matthew uses the story of Jesus approaching the disciples across the water to illustrate the confidence and trust the disciple needs to have in Christ. The story also shows how fear can erode faith and shake confidence.
Sometimes we, too, feel like we are sinking beneath the waves. For the people in Matthew’s community this story was a call to faith, trust, courage and boldness in the midst of the hostile forces of the world. Peter’s actions in the story are a mixture of impulsive love and faith weakened by doubt. Peter and the others see clearly for the first time exactly who Jesus is.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF](3.01 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time [ePub](2.62 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - 19 Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(616 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - 19 Domenica del Tempo Ordinario(621 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - 19 Domingo do Tempo Comum(514 KB)
Celebrating At Home - The Transfiguration of the Lord
Transfigured in Christ
(Matthew 17:1-9)
In the Hebrew Scriptures high mountains were traditionally seen as holy places where one could encounter God. It was on the summit of Mt Sinai that Moses received the Law from God (Ex 19) and it was on Mt Horeb that Elijah encountered God in the gentle breeze (1Kings 19:9ff). So, it should come as no surprise that it is on a mountain that the disciples encounter the glorified divinity of Christ.
The transfigured Jesus is shown to the disciples together with Moses and Elijah who, in Jewish tradition, represent the Law and the Prophets. In Jesus, these two great traditions reach their proper fulfilment. Moses and Elijah are also the two figures in the Hebrew scriptures who have direct, personal encounters with God.
Perhaps that affirms that the disciples encounter God in and through their encounter with Christ.
Peter is delighted by this glimpse of the glorified Christ and wants to commemorate the experience by building three tents. But the voice of God interrupts Peter’s request. God seems to say, ‘Forget about building tents, Peter, the important thing is to listen to my beloved Son’.
Through our deep attention to the word of God spoken in Jesus we remain in contact with the heart of God, allowing God’s love to transform and transfigure us and to ‘burst forth’ in goodness.
Being transfigured is a revolution of mind and heart driven by God’s Spirit and enabled by our open heartedness to God’s Word. When we are ‘shot through’ with the presence of God, God can be seen in, and experienced through, us.
It takes faith and perseverance to dare to allow ourselves to be tempted by the passion, hope and vision of God rather than our own desires and wants. It takes great faith to trust in God’s word to us. But if we do, the living word of the Chosen One forms in us the heart of God.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - The Transfiguration of the Lord [PDF](2.89 MB)
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - La Transfiguración del Señor(568 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Trasfigurazione del Signore(464 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - A transfiguração do Senhor(569 KB)
Lectio Divina August 2023
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.
- pdf Lectio Divina August 2023 [PDF] Download here(828 KB)
- default Lectio Divina August 2023 [ePub] Download here(190 KB)
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Cover image: Antonio de Pereda, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
