Blog by-the-Sea

New Discalced Carmelite Superior General on YouTube

This is a YouTube address by the newly elected Superior General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. Elected at its General Chapter that just concluded, Father Saverio Cannistrà of the Sacred Heart is from Italy.  His short address is in English.

The sisters of "praythenews.com" leave the internet

The Indianapolis Carmelite sisters who have written the website "praythenews.com" since March 17, 2001, with many readers throughout the world, have decided to end their website and move to a new location.  After 75 years in their monastery in Indianapolis, they are moving to a rural campus of Franciscan sisters, where they will continue their Carmelite vocation.  An e-mail announcing plans for the move was sent to their e-newsletter list on June 16.  Here is their message sent by e-mail today announcing the move as a finality:

Dear Friends,

After 75 years of contemplative life within our Indianapolis monastery, we have made the difficult decision to move. Due to our advancing age and decreasing number (and our wish to live in quarters requiring less maintenance), we have relocated to Oldenburg, Indiana, where we will continue our contemplative lives on the rural campus of the Franciscan Sisters.

As we have said, during this transformative process we are discontinuing our website, PrayTheNews.com; its spirit, however, will live on as we redirect our energy into a new path of prayer and contemplative mindfulness that was the heart of its message. As we go deeper into the solitude and quiet of our new home, our intercession for all those we love and the world community will only expand.

Thank you from each Sister for all the ways you have supported us in this transition: through your notes, phone calls, encouraging words, prayers and the sharing at our liturgy. You have blessed us.

Peace and love in the Lord,
Sr. Jean Alice McGoff, OCD
Prioress

A special Mass will be held in their honor on July 16, the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  The Archdiocese of Indianapolis will celebrate their ministry that day at 6:00 p.m. at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.  The public is invited.

Congress on Liturgy and the Teresian Carmel

The Discalced Carmelite Curia has announced that the order will hold a Congress on from October 3 to 5, 2008 at the Teresianum in Rome, titled "Liturgy in the Teresian Carmel: The Effect It Has on Enhancing Our Personal, Community and Apostolic Lives". 

Reprentatives will be drawn from throughout the world.  The objective will be to understand the relationship between liturgy and life, with a focus on these themes:

a)The experience of liturgical prayer in the teresian Carmel;

b)The effect of the liturgy on our personal, community and apostolic lives (Const. 56);

c)The actual relationship between liturgy, Word and the contemplative dimension of our lives.

Nine conferences to be offered will include such subjects as the relationship between architecture and the liturgy, symbolism and the liturgy, and a musical presentation and animation of a typical Carmelite liturgy.

New Edith Stein Centre in Barcelona: Searching for God through Reason Thought and Experience

Today's edition of Communicationes from the Information Service of the Discalced Carmelite Curia reports that the Barcelona Delegation for University Pastoral Work has inaugurated a new "Edith Stein" Centre directed at graduate students and university professors.  The centre's director, Francesc Grané, said that they chose St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) because her search for God through reason, thought and experience "is most illustrative of the present situation with its lack of meaning, its searching, its failed and pertinent attempts."

The same edition also reports on Pope Benedict XVI's time spent praying before the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux following the general audience on November 14.  I have added that to an earlier post about the November 14 general audience.

Homily for the Beatification of 498 Martyrs

The Vatican has now posted an English translation of Cardinal José Saraiva Martins' homily for the beatification mass for 498 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.  See more at this earlier post, which has been updated accordingly.

The Beatification of 498 Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War

Here are links to some articles and blog posts about today's beatification (updated November 9 with the homily now available in English translation):

The Holy Father's words at the noonday Angelus were about martyrdom.  A separate post is devoted to that address. 

His apostolic letter raising the 498 martyrs to the glory of the altar is not yet available in English on the Vatican's website.  I will add a link later as it probably will be translated into English soon.

Cardinal Martins' homily from the Mass is now available in English translation on the Vatican website.  Here is an excerpt from it:

The Martyrs scaled the peak of heroism in the battle in which they gave their lives for Christ. The heroism to which God calls us is hidden in the thousand skirmishes of our life each day.  We must be convinced that our holiness - this holiness, let us have no doubt about it, to which God calls us - consists in achieving what John Paul II called the "high standard of ordinary Christian living" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 31).

The message of the Martyrs is a message of faith and love. We must examine ourselves courageously and make practical resolutions to discover whether this faith and this love are expressed heroically in our own lives; heroism also of faith and love in our action, as people inserted into history like the leaven that causes dough to rise properly.

Discalced Carmelite Curia

This significant statement about forgiveness is a portion of the Curia's news coverage of the beatification:

The splendid beatification ceremony took place on Sunday 28^th October at St Peter’s Square in Rome. In preparation, the Provincial of Castile sent a pastoral letter to the Province. In it he emphasized that the Carmelite martyrs died pardoning their executioners. It was this that inspired the hymn composed for the occasion by Fr Luis Miguel Sánchez, from the Toledo community, titled “Witnesses of pardon in a world thirsting for peace …” The Provincial recalled in his circular letter the words written by Fr Tirso de Jesús María in the letter sent to his family on the eve of his execution: “Pardon them and bless them and amen to everything, just as I love them and pardon them and bless them.....”

Associated Press

Reuters

UPI

BBC

Vatican Radio audio report yesterday on preparations for the beatification.

Vatican Radio audio report today on the beatification.

Moniales (a blog by Dominican sisters) has a post from yesterday about a Dominican contemplative among those beatified.

Tucson Priests beatification blog concerning two of the 498 martyrs beatified today, with entries by Fr. Jose Luis Ferroni, OCD.  The two Tucson priests were Discalced Carmelites who were among a group of Spanish Carmelites living in Tucson.  They returned to Spain and were martyred after their return.  Fr. Ferroni is now studying Church history in Rome.  He was formerly at El Carmelo Retreat Center, where he was the Carmelite priest assigned to the Secular Carmelites here in San Diego.

Rorate Caeli post from October 25.

Zenit article from October 24.

Television and News Coverage of the Beatification of Spanish Martyrs

In a July 1 post I previously mentioned the 498 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War who will be beatified on October 28.  Those who will be beatified include 2 Spanish Discalced Carmelite friars who lived in Tucson, Arizona before returning to Spain, aware of the danger. 

At the time of the earlier post, the beatification was scheduled to be held at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.  The location has been changed.  It will be held in St. Peter's Square.   Cardinal José Saraiva Martins will preside.  He is the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

EWTN's special broadcasts will include a live broadcast and later re-broadcast of that 2-hour beatification Mass.  The Mass will be broadcast live on Sunday, October 28 at 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time (1:00 a.m. Pacific, 10:00 a.m. Rome).  It will be re-broadcast the same day at 12:00 noon Eastern (9:00 a.m. Pacific, 6:00 p.m. Rome).  You can watch on line with either Spanish or English commentary.

Vatican TV will also broadcast the beatification live on line.

The California-Arizona Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars has posted short biographies of both of the Arizona martyrs as well as information about the Spanish Civil War in which they died. 

ICS Tribute to Father Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D.

As much as I have obviously benefited personally from the Carmelite writings published by ICS Publications, I would be greatly remiss if I did not draw attention to the Fall 2007 ICS Publications News now online.

It is a tribute to ICS author and translator Father Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D., who has now has published modern translations of all of the works of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.  Volume 2 of the Letters of St. Teresa of Avila is his most recently published translation, just published.  Having devoted a lifetime to this work, he is still doing more, working on a Study Edition of St. Teresa's Interior Castle.  That follows a study edition of The Way of Perfection published by ICS since 2000.

Father Kavanaugh's work has contributed so much to those who read the writings of the Carmelite saints that Volume X of the ICS Carmelite Studies series is a collection of essays celebrating his work: A Better Wine: Essays Celebrating Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D..  The ten essays in the book are a tribute to his 50 years of ordination as a Catholic priest. 

His collection of writings about the Carmelite saints includes works published by ICS Publications and elsewhere.  The ICS books can be found and purchased online from the ICS website.  Those with other publishers include (among many others) Teresa of Avila: Interior Castle (editor, author of the Introduction, and co-translator with Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. of the Paulist Press' Classics of Western Spirituality series volume);  John of the Cross: Selected Writings (editor, author of the introduction and translator, Classics of Western Spirituality series); John of the Cross: Doctor of Light and Love (author, Crossroad Spiritual Legacy Series); and Francisco de Osuna: Third Spiritual Alphabet (author of the preface, Classics of Western Spirituality series).

Carmelite Competition for Musical Composers

The Order of Discalced Carmelites in Italy has initiated a new global competition for composers.  The compositions must be based upon certain poetic writings of the Carmelite saints.  Prizes will be awarded for the winning compositions ranging from  €300.00 to  €700.00 for each category, with the compositions to be no more than 10 minutes long.

The categories in the competition are:

• Composition for polyphonic choir with organ accompaniment (prize of €700.00).
• Composition for a choir of four voices a capella (prize €500.00).
• A hymn for one or many voices with organ, guitar or flute accompaniment (prize €400.00).
• An easily executed composition of pastoral and evangelistic inspiration (prize €300.00).

The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2008.  The first public presentation will follow in June.  The standards for judging consider both the musical quality of the composition and its use of the texts.

Details can be found on the OCD - Italy website.  A short article in English is available from the Information Service of the Discalced Carmelite Curia, and another short article is available from Zenit.

A Letter for the Centennary of the Rule of St. Albert

The Carmelite Superiors General (from O.Carm. and O.C.D.) today posted a Letter on the Centenary of the Formula Vitae on the website of the Information Service of the Discalced Carmelite Curia.  This year was selected for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Formula Vitae written by St. Albert of Jerusalem (1205-1214). 

The Letter discusses implications for our lives today, drawn from the Rule of St. Albert as reflected in the writings of the Carmelite saints.  Here is an excerpt from that Letter:

A relationship with Jesus Christ is the defining influence on the spiritual life of the consecrated religious, and indeed of all the faithful, and for this reason we wish to underline the importance the universal call to holiness. Our experience as Carmelites, marked by our intimacy with God, on one hand expresses a great passion for the Church, and on the other, an attentive and generous consideration of the individual. Our Saints hand down to us this double mission, which is the result of a mystical experience, that enlarges the heart and makes the proclamation of the Word efficacious.

St. Teresa of Jesus is prepared to give her life a thousand times for a single soul, encourages the sisters to pray, and tries to inspire them with love for the wellbeing of souls. Their life in the Carmel is for the Church and for humanity.