November 22 | Gregorian Pontifical University | 3 PM

The Gregorian University in Rome will host a 100 year anniversary celebration of the publication of Carmelite Bartolomé Xiberta's doctoral thesis, Clavis Ecclesiae. There celebration will take place on November 22, beginning at 3PM.

Speakers will include Josep M. Manresa Lamarca of the Universidad Abat Oliba CEU/Europa International School; Valfredo Maria Rossi of the Theology Faculty of the Pontifical Gregorian University; Joseph Carola, SJ, of the Theology Faculty of the Pontifical Gregorian University; and Fernando Millán Romeral, O. Carm., of the Instituto de Espiritualidad, of the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid.

In 1921 Fr. Xiberta defended the idea that the Sacrament of Penance is an ecclesial act, administered in the name of the Church, and that the immediate principle benefit of the sacrament (res et sacramentum) is reconciliation with the Church. This thesis was progressively assimilated by theological reflection and subsequently influenced the drafting of Lumen Gentium 11 in the Second Vatican Council.

The commemoration is sponsored by the Gregorian University and the Carmelite Order.

Seminar on Christ Our Perfection: The Christological Spirituality of Fr. Avertan Fenech, O. Carm.
Warren Borg Ebejer TOCS
October 29 | Kunvent Tal-Karmnu, Mdina

Carmelite Life revolves entirely around Christ Jesus as the only way to our union with God. The Carmelite Rule actually proposes a project of life through which the Carmelite "walks in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and serves him with a pure heart and a clean conscience" (n. 2). Every spiritual lifestyle claiming to be authentically Christian and therefore Carmelite keeps Christ at the heart of the person and the spiritual project.

In this seminar Mr. Warren J. Borg Ebejer, TOCS, explores the Christological spirituality presented in the writings and life of the Servant of God F. Avertan Fenech and shows us how Christology is not only talk and reasoning (logic) about the person and mystery of Christ, but implies also a life lived according to "the mind" or "the thought" and "the sentiments" of Christ (1 Cor 2:14-16). In one word, it implies that a person walks according to the logic of Christ. In this seminar we will have the possibility to sift through some of Fr. Avertan's writings and reflect on them.

Mr. Borg Ebejer will also launch his book, published by Edizioni Carmelitane, entitled Christ Our Perfection: The Christological Spirituality of Fr. Avertan Fenech, O. Carm.

Location: Carmelite Priory, Mdina
The seminary will be in English

There is also the possibility of following the seminar by Zoom: https://universityofmalta.zoom.us/j/99610101733?pwd=VkFPVVRGWmV3SE5OeFkyZHlFVlRlQT09

Meeting ID: 996 1010 1733
Passcode: 734107
 

Program:
October 29, 2022 from 10:00 to 01:00 p.m.

10.00 am First Session: Lecture
10.45 am Pause
11.00 am Second Session: Lecture
11.45 am Analysis of selected passages
12.30 pm Light lunch

To access this and many other fine publications at Edizioni Carmelitane, click here.

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Making assumptions
(Luke 19:1-10)

It is all too easy to make assumptions about other people which turn out not to be accurate. In the Gospel today, the crowd assumes that Zacchaeus is wicked and sinful, a traitor to his people because he is a tax collector.
The scene for the Gospel is, as usual, set by the first reading from the Book of Wisdom – in praise of a God whose love for what he has created allows him to overlook sins. God is all-powerful and all-merciful, the lover of all he creates and the lover of all life, ‘whose imperishable spirit is in all’. God corrects his people through forgiveness, drawing people away from evil and towards trust in himself.
This loving, forgiving action of God is on show in the Gospel story. Where we might have expected Jesus’ to condemn Zacchaeus, as the crowds do by excluding him and labelling him a ‘sinner’, Jesus recognises the good that Zacchaeus does even in his so-called ‘sinful’ situation (being a tax collector on behalf of the Roman government). Salvation does not lie in appearing to be good, but in being good. Such a person is truly a ‘son of Abraham’ – one of God’s chosen.
It might be helpful to note here that in Zacchaeus’ speech about intending to give half of his property to the poor and so on, the verbs are usually translated into future tense, as in the version which appears here. In the original Greek manuscripts, however, the verbs are unambiguously in the present tense. So Zacchaeus is describing how he presently conducts his life – a defence against the condemnation of the crowd that he is a ‘sinner’ and a traitor.
It is the crowd who turns out to be ‘what was lost’, not Zacchaeus.
Read against the background of Luke’s community, the story raises questions about judging on appearances, who is truly at rights with God, who is truly the sinner. An echo of last week’s parable about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
Most of all, building from the first reading, it is a story about the God who does not judge and punish as we would, but who loves, forgives, heals and reconciles people to one another.
When Jesus pronounces Zacchaeus a ‘son of Abraham’ he removes the barrier between the crowd and Zacchaeus and reconciles them.

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From October 17 to 22 the Assembly for the Mater Unitatis Federation of Carmelite nuns was held at the Casa de Espiritualidad "Santos Ángeles" of the Hermanas Angélicas in the city of Zaragoza, Spain.

The Federation was canonically erected on December 10, 1980 and comprises the enclosed monasteries of Caudete, Fontiveros, Huesca Asuncion, Huesca San Miguel, Madrid, Onteniente, Valencia, and Zaragoza.

The results of the elective chapter were as follows:

Federation President | Presidente de la Federación | Presidente della Federazione:
Rvda. Madre M^a del Sagrario Lorite Beltrán, O. Carm.

1st Councilor | 1ª Consejera | 1ª Consigliera:
Hna. M^a Mercedes de la Cruz Medina Zárraga, O. Carm.

2nd Councilor | 2ª Consejera  | 2ª Consigliera: 
Hna. Inés Nthenya Nzyuko, O. Carm.

3rd Councilor | 3ª Consejera  | 3ª Consigliera:
Hna. Ana wairimu thuo O. Carm.

4th Councilor | 4ª Consejera  | 4ª Consigliera: 
Hna. M^a Brunilda Rodriguez Velazco, O. Carm.

Director of Novices | Maestra de Novicias | Maestra delle Novizie
Sr Maria Sabina Berneschi, O. Carm.

Treasurer | Ecónoma | Economa: 
Hna. Inés Nthenya Nzyuko, O. Carm.

Secretary | Secretaria | Segretaria:
Hna. Mª Mercedes de la Cruz Medina Zárraga O. Carm.

• Lectio Divina November 2022 [PDF] Download here
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The Price of Truth: Titus Brandsma, Carmelite (in Spanish)
by Miguel Maria Arribas, O. Carm.

The biography of the Church's most recent martyr--a dangerous friar according to the Nazis--Fr. Arribas succeeds in capturing the heart and soul of St. Titus Brandsma's lessons for us today. We all know the life of Titus, but in this book Fr. Arribas explores the documentation behind the canonization process to show why Titus is so important for today.

A simple and cordial Carmelite, a multi-faceted priest who was at times a mystic, a passionate journalist, a university rector and, throughout his life, a driven witness for Christ to the point of giving his own life for the truth.

The author, now deceased, traveled to the Netherlands and Germany, to the places of birth, life and death of St. Titus, to better understand this "martyr of freedom of expression".

For more information on this book

Also available in English

A book of 30 meditations by John of St. Samson inviting us to listen in on his prayers of aspiration as the Church makes its way through the liturgical year and through the various Mysteries of Christ and His Church. John of St. Samson was a French Carmelite and mystic. He is known as the soul of the Touraine Reform of the Carmelite Order, which stressed prayer, silence, and solitude.

John was blind from the age of three after contracting smallpox and receiving poor medical treatment for the disease. He insisted very strongly on the mystical devotion of the Carmelites. After a series of healings word spread and the local bishop asked his theologian his opinion of the healings. The theologian replied, "If people had the faith of Br. John, and lived as authentically as he, the gift of healing the sick would be far more common."

Donatien of St. Nicholas, a disciple and editor of his works "it is certain that this illuminated blind brother has been chosen and given to us by God to be the teacher and director of the spiritual life of our Reform." Donatien later wrote "his face was frequently beheld to be divinely radiant, resplendent with as it were some luminous ray, as I myself and other very trustworthy brothers have witnessed." John of St. Samson has been referred to as the "French John of the Cross" by students of Christian mysticism.

The work is expertly translated from the French by Carmelite nun Sr. Veronica of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of the Wahpeton cloistered Carmel. In his preface to the book,  Fr. Charlò Camilleri writes "Notwithstanding the fact that blindness impeded him from using visual imagery to clarify his ideas, and that the texts are generally full of crowded ideas, digressions, and loosely connected concepts, his doctrine is sound and inspires the reader to live radically the call to divine transformation."

For more information on the book

On November 22, at 3 p.m., the Pontifical Gregorian University will hold an academic event to commemorate the centenary of the publication of the Clavis Ecclesiae of Father Bartolomé Xiberta.

The event is organized jointly by the Order of Carmel and the Gregorian University. Mark Andrew Lewis S.J., and the Prior General, Fr. Míċeál O'Neill, O. Carm. The speakers, Josep M. Manresa Lamarca, Valfredo Maria Rossi, Joseph Carola S.J., and Fernando Millán Romeral O. Carm, will present the figure of Father Xiberta and various aspects of his thesis. The thesis will be read in the light of the preceding ecclesiology and the patristic elements present in it. The process of reception of Fr. Xiberta's text up to Vatican II will also be presented.

Those interested in participating in person are asked to register through the website: www.unigre.it. The deadline is November 14, 2022. Those who cannot attend in person will be able to follow the event via streaming at bit.ly/gregonline. The entire event will be in Italian.

This initiative is part of the activities proposed by the Order for the commemoration of this event. The celebration of this event has been made possible thanks to the generous and assiduous support of the Catalan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer.  

On September 15, the Carmelite Centre d'études d'histoire de la spiritualité (CEHS) in Nantes started the program of Conferences on Carmelite Spirituality for the year 2022-2023, with a seminar conducted by Frère Gianfranco Tuveri on Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi.

The conferences entitled Sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi et set Oeuvres launched also the latest publication by Frère Gianfranco, of The Colloquies of the Florentine mystic. The volume, entitled Entretiens was published by the prestigious Parisian Publishing House Honoré Champion. This volume is the last one of a larger project by Frère Gianfranco: the translation of the Complete Works of St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi in French, completed with critical introductions and notes. The whole project took twenty years to complete, with the first edition of Les Quarante Jours published by Editions Jérôme Million in 2002.

The program of the conferences CEHS, Parcours "La Source du Carmel" Découvrir la Spiritualité Carmélitaine includes seminars of Blessed Françoise d'Amboise, the Rule of Carmel, The Prophet Elijah, John of Saint Samson and Titus Brandsma.

The Carmelites in France