Rector Tom Brocks has been governing the former Carmel Lyceum in Oss, founded in 1922 by Titus Brandsma, since 2007. After WWII the school was renamed Titus Brandsma Lyceum. Titus' ideas are alive and well here, permeating the school culture. 

Rector Brocks: ''Titus 's statement about Catholic education, 'knowledge is only half [the goal],' is the name of our school plan.'' Titus is referring to the Carmelite value of humanization as the goal of education, as well as the transfer of knowledge and skills. Today it is called personality formation and socialization of young people: discovery of one's own talents, awareness that one is part of society and co-responsible, and one is able to contribute to that society. 

''Teaching from this perspective is a part of every lesson,'' says Brocks. A fellow professor of Titus’ in Nijmegen, Prof. Mohrman who taught classical languages, said that as a professor Titus distinguished himself in this respect. “Before the start of his lectures, he would go up to students and ask how they were doing.  In those days such a rapport was quite unusual between professors and students.''

Being Known  

Titus Brandsma Lyceum clears out a week three times a year without regular classes. Time is taken for reflective discussions with students and social activities such as meeting ex-prisoners, excursions to the Lower House [of Government] or social institutions, places of art and culture. Brocks says, "Another of Titus’ ideas is also a guiding principle: 'As long as the good things happen.’ It is a statement that contains a lot of meaning. The expectation is that you actively participate in society; that you think about what is good and make moral considerations. It also implies there is room for autonomy. You can choose within the framework of what is good. A core value of our school is that you may be who you want to be. Titus Brandsma Lyceum scores high on social safety. We hear this from the evaluators, and we see this reflected in student surveys. It means a safe climate for one to live respectfully one’s sexual orientation, for example. It means space is available for disabled children. Being 'known' is something adolescents are sensitive to. So especially in this most vulnerable and beautiful period of their lives, we are able to accompany them.''

Legitimate Hangout

School leadership, in the spirit of Titus, must be in agreement with this, says the rector. ''It means keeping an eye out to assist your colleagues. What are you passionate about? How can we, as school leaders, help you develop as a professional?

Before the Christmas lockdown, our mentors spent a week having online conversations with individual students and their parents. The purpose was to hear how things were going, how they see things at the school. The listening was very much appreciated. But the young students also called on us. They said things like, “Please make sure school reopens on January 10.”

The students are under pressure because of the corona pandemic. Delays in learning forced all of us to make up a lot of work in a very short period of time. This evoked some resistance as well as uncomfortable behavior. I understand that. School is also a legitimate hangout, I sometimes say. Being anchored with Titus’s values creates congruence in the school. I try to bring home that message often, at the opening and closing of the school year, at Christmas celebrations, and New Year's speeches, at parent information evenings and so forth. Hearing this gives colleagues and students a good feeling I notice.”

March 11, 2022

Dear Brothers

For more than a dozen days the whole world has been directing its eyes to Ukraine, the country which is defending itself after the aggression of the Russian army. We are also tracking, with anxiety, the development of the situation, especially in Sasiadowice and Volodymyr Volynskyj, where the Brothers from our Polish province work. Thank you for your attention to and concern about our Brothers and the people with whom they collaborate. The response has been so great that we are not able to respond immediately to all emails.

At present, the war is mainly confined to the eastern areas of Ukraine. Our convents are situated in the western part of the country near the Polish frontier. These days it is a relatively calm part of the country. Marianna Strepka, one of our parishioners who has been living in Poland for over six years now, describes the situation this way:

“On the morning of the 24^th of February the inhabitants of Sasiadowice and the whole Ukraine were woken up by a whistle. From the radio and the television, a terrible message could be heard – the war has just begun! Not everyone immediately believed it. People thought they were merely exercises. However, the reality turned out to be completely different from the usual military exercises. Nobody imagined that in the 21^st  century they would hear explosions and watch tanks passing on the streets. It was a terrible morning for every inhabitant - disbelief, shock, and fear. Men between 18 and 60 were called up to military service. Only the mothers with their children and the grandparents remained at home. Some people ran away from the war. It is a tragedy for every single family. People do not know if they will see their relatives again. But they pray and believe that God is with them. The situation with supplies is deteriorating and some products are beginning to vanish from some stores.”    

We are also very grateful for the financial help which is coming from our whole Order. We realize that Ukraine will require long-term help. That is why we have created a help fund for residents of the Ukraine. A team was also established, which will coordinate and organize the aid under the leadership of the provincial bursar. At this point, the first humanitarian transport is in preparation.

Help is needed not only in Ukraine. There are approximately 1,000,000 refugees on the territory of Poland. The Carmelite Sisters from the Congregation of the Institute of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are also involved in helping the Ukrainians. Sister Agnieszka Skup, the Delegate of the Polish delegation says:

"Our house in Wola Gulowska initially hosted three people from Kharkov and Kiev. They were taken from the border and found a place to rest in our house. They left and went further when they gained strength. A family from the village Brody near Lviv has been staying with us for a week now, six people: a mother with two-year-old daughter, three sons of the age of 5, 11 and 15 and a grandmother. We are trying to find them some home in the town nearby, so that this family could live independently, and the children could attend the school and classes organized by volunteers for them."

All our convents are open and ready to welcome the refugees from the Ukraine.

Wieslaw Strzelecki

Prior Provincial

Polish Province of the Carmelite Order

Download the Letter  pdf here(34 KB)

The patient gardener
(Luke 13:1-9)

If the Gospels of the first two Sundays of Lent (temptation and transfiguration) are a parable about Christian life (a journey out of and away from temptation and into being transfigured by God’s grace), the Gospels of this Sunday and next give us the ‘road map’.

How do we get from temptation to transfiguration? Only with repentance and God’s forgiveness. That’s the road map for our Christian journey.

Oh, how we love a good story about disaster befalling someone else! The strength of Jesus reply to those who told him about the crucified Galileans seems to indicate that they shared this news with some delight.

Jesus reply tells us not to assume that bad things happen only to bad people and not to think that disasters are some kind of punishment for sin; stop thinking about the guilt of others and put your energy into repentance – turning back towards God.

The parable of the Fig Tree which follows answers the question, ‘If we do repent, what sort of reception will we get from God?’ God will work with us like the gardener in the parable. He will treat us with kindness and tenderness and nurture us back to life so that we can produce good fruit.

Quiet time for reflection

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Way of the Cross
by Titus Brandsma, O. Carm.

I DO NOT KNOW WHAT AWAITS ME, BUT I KNOW MYSELF TO BE ENTIRELY IN GOD'S HANDS

Scheveningen, January 1942

Station I - 19 January 1942

Titus Brandsma arrested by the Gestapo at the Karmelklooster in Nijmegen.

Titus: "Yes, yes, it is something to be in prison at the age of sixty.” Policeman: "Yes, Professor, You're right. But if it's your own fault, then you shouldn't have accepted the Archbishop's commission!" Titus: "I consider that an honor."

Notes: Titus Brandsma, O. Carm.

Station 2 - 20 January 1942

Titus is transferred to the prison of Scheveningen, the 'Oranjehotel', cell 577.

"It was no Inferno, my cell no. 577. And when I entered it, I didn't read above it: 'Let those who enter here now abandon all hope'. It did not look ominous and when the prison officer, who was helping the guard, apparently pointed out to the soldier that the cell was not ready, he said: "It's only for one night."

Notes: Titus Brandsma, O. Carm.

Station 3 - 21 January 1942

Beginning of the interrogation by SS Hauptscharführer, P. Hardegen.

"The attitude of the Dutch Episcopate,  I make it mine as well.”

 Notes: Titus Brandsma, O. Carm.

Station  4 - 12 March 1942

Titus is transferred to the Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort.

"Between the evening meal and the moment the lights went out, you had half an hour for yourself. But you were not allowed to leave the barracks. That was strictly forbidden. Titus did it anyway. While others were spending those paltry thirty minutes on themselves, he risked his life to see if anyone else needed his spiritual support. In particular, he looked for prisoners of whom it was known would  be executed shortly afterwards. That made a big impression on me as well. He was a true shepherd of souls.

Prisoner: Max Kohnstamm

Station 5 - 3 April 1942

Good Friday. Titus offers an instruction on suffering in Dutch mysticism.

"Titus' words made an enormous impression on all present. That someone in those bizarre circumstances could talk about something like that - not about hunger, not about pain, not about exhaustion, but about mysticism. That was amazing! He taught you that even in inhuman circumstances you could keep “embrace” your humanity.”

Prisoner:  E. Wellenstijn

Station 6 - 28 April 1942

At the prison in Scheveningen, cell 623.

"Late in the evening one day in April, our cell door no. 623 in the barracks is thrown open and with a "Los, Los! (Come on. Come on)

In the evening, after dinner, we would always play cards for an hour. During that time, the professor would pray again, and it was time to forget our worries in our sleep. On Sunday mornings, we had a meditation and prayer. Also, on Ascension Day, the professor held a service. Those were really great moments in our lives."

Prisoner:  Cornelis de Graaf

Station 7 - 6 May 1942

Sentence: deportation to Dachau, Germany, for the duration of the war.

When Titus heard his verdict he was allowed to call his monastery. "Yes, Father Prior ,this really is Father Titus! At the moment I am at the SD-office in The Hague. I've been interrogated again. They have decided to send me to Dachau, one of the biggest concentration camps in Germany. This means that I will be kept there until the end of the war. (...) No, don't worry about me.

Testimony: Prior Verhallen

Station 8 - 16 May 1942

Titus is transferred to the prison in Kleve.

"His virtue had nothing striking about it, but seemed to be self-evident. It did not give the impression that he had to make an effort to be equable, patient, content, cheerful and just in his judgement. I am convinced that Father Titus considered heaven as the only goal of his life, that he always had eternity in mind.  Otherwise his whole attitude cannot be explained."

Prison Chaplain:  L. Deimel

Station 9 - 13 June 1942

Departure from Kleve to Dachau concentration camp, via Frankfurt and Nüremberg - a five day’s journey.

 "On the Friday before his departure for Dacha  the following Saturday, I gave him Holy Communion for the last time. I was very impressed to have been able to give the Body of the Lord to such a special person,so full of holiness."

 Prison Chaplain:  L. Deimel

Station 10 - 19 June 1942

Arrival at the concentration camp, Dachau.

"The anger of the Stubeälteste knew no bounds, he hit and kicked Titus wherever he could, so that he rolled over on the ground and tried to crawl to the threshold of the dormitory. (...) But Titus doesn't want a word of comfort. He looks at me, smiling, and says in a whisper: "Oh brother, I knew who I was carrying. He points to the glasses box, in which a piece of the consecrated host is hidden."

Prisoner: Raphael Tijhuis, O. Carm

Station 11 - 18 July 1942

Titus is transferred to the sick barracks due to weakness and total exhaustion.

"I say goodbye to Titus, who thanks me for all the help and gives me greetings for the others on our block. "It's only for a few days," he says. "By the way, brother, by August we'll all be back home," he adds, laughing. This was always his saying. They were the last words I heard out of his mouth. We did not see him again."

Prisoner: Raphael Tijhuis, O. Carm.

Station 12 - 26 July 1942

Notice of death, signed at 2 p.m.

Way of the Cross with Titus Brandsma, O. Carm.

Hidden God

Many of us experience God as hidden. There is nothing new in this. It is not something unique to our time. Already, two and a half thousand years ago, Isaiah sighed in exile: “Truly, You are a hidden God”. (Is 45:15). Throughout the centuries, people of faith have repeated such words to the Lord, up to and including Titus Brandsma. For Titus, the hiddenness of God was a deeply lived reality.

In his prison cell at Scheveningen, Titus prayed the well-known hymn Adoro Te after lunch. In his account of his time in prison, 'My Cell', he tells us about this: “The Adoro Te has become my favourite prayer. Frequently I sing it softly and this helps me to make a spiritual communion”.

Titus knew this song by heart. He prayed it daily and every Saturday evening he sang it with his fellow brothers during the Saturday Station of Our Lady. The hymn touched Titus deeply. He was familiar with it. He carried it with him into prison. There Titus sang it ‘softly’, on his knees, after his lunch of soup and bread. Prayerfully it dawned on him: really, God is hidden. Not now and then. Not here and there. Always and everywhere, God is hidden.

After this moment of worship, Titus lit a pipe, walked to and fro in his small cell, and filed his nails, which by now had become “too long and I could not find the scissors.” God, for Titus, is hidden in the most ordinary things: a pipe of tobacco, walking to and fro, filing his nails.

God’s hidden presence is hopeful for those who have come to know it and to live from it. Seeing his hiddenness can even become so familiar to us that it makes us happy. Our God does not come like a jack-in-the-box. He is not an Easter egg hidden somewhere or a magic trick.

In the Dachau concentration camp, Titus’ hidden relationship with God is severely tested. Adoro Te drags him through it. When the camp guard has beaten him, he prays the Adoro Te together with his fellow brother, Rafaël Tijhuis. Hurt in his frail body, he remained standing in God’s hidden presence.

Adoro Te

Godhead here in hiding whom I do adore

Masked by these bare shadows,

shape and nothing more.

See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart

Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;

How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;

What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;

Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.

On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men;

Here thy very manhood steals from human ken:

Both are my confession, both are my belief,

And I pray the prayer made by the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,

But I plainly call thee Lord and God as he:

This faith each day deeper be my holding of,

Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O thou, our reminder of the Crucified,

Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,

Lend this life to me, then; feed and feast my mind,

There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Like what tender tales tell of the Pelican,

Bathe me, Jesus Lord, in what thy bosom ran--

Blood that but one drop of has the pow'r to win

All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesus whom I look at shrouded here below,

I beseech thee, send me what I thirst for so,

Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light

And be blest forever with thy glory's sight.

Attributed to St Thomas Aquinas; translation G.M. Hopkins.

Prayer

We ask you, Lord,

that, in the imitation of Saint Titus Brandsma,

we may know how to be close to you, near to the cross,

and that we may always feel you near to us in our crosses, both large and small,

as our Friend, our Companion on the journey, and our Redeemer.

May the cross always be for us a sign of love,

of generous and total surrender to the cause of life,

of solidarity and compassion for all.

May we always say, in all the circumstances of life,

with joy and full confidence in you…

Ave Crux Spes Unica…

Amen.

Mary, Mother of Carmel, pray for us.

Titus Brandsma, Carmelite martyr, intercede for us.

Download the Leaflet 6. Adoro Te - Hidden God  pdf here(4.23 MB)

Titus’ Education

Titus was a good student who understood from early on the value of education. As a child he read widely and had a particular liking for literature and history.
After entering the Carmelite Order in 1898, Titus continued to read widely and began to publish. Taking his doctorate in philosophy at Rome’s Gregorian University, he also took courses in modern sociology.

Catholic Education

Titus reformed the programme of studies for Carmelites in the Netherlands. Education for the laity was a priority for Titus. At Oss a library with attached reading room and lecture hall was established which was open to the general public. Through Titus’ efforts, two Carmelite schools became the very first private schools in Holland to receive government support. He founded the Union of Secondary Schools in 1925, serving as its President.

University Professor

With the founding of the Catholic University at Nijmegen in 1923, Titus was nominated Professor of Philosophy and the History of Mysticism. In 1932 he became its Rector Magnificus. Titus’ courses left an ‘unforgetable’ impression; he was effectively rediscovering the spirituality of their country. Titus was kind and students at the university constantly sought him out. He sought scholarship funding for the less well off. Titus subjected National Socialism to rigorous critique as part of his university teaching. He kept his feet firmly on the ground. Titus was known to assist an old man in pushing his junk wagon up the hill between the university and the Carmel, placing his professorial briefcase on top while he did it.

Education in the Call to Mysticism

Titus was always keen to educate people regarding their call to be mystics. He defined mysticism as: ‘a special union of God with human beings, whereby they become aware of God's presence and also become one with God.’ Titus understood mysticism as a call directed to all and spoke of an everyday mysticism, convinced that God is the ground of our being and can be encountered always and everywhere and in our neighbour. His lectures on Carmelite mysticism, delivered in the United States in 1935, are a true classic of twentieth-century spirituality.

The Journalist as Educator

Titus undoubtedly saw journalism as a form of education. His accessible articles in the Catholic press were effectively ‘short courses’ of their own.

Titus’ Philosophy of Education

For Titus it was important for the educator to respect each student individually: ‘…people are not simply all alike and do not comply with a casual construction or idea. The human being, and even the child, is in each person different in nature and it does not help us when we would like to see beyond all the differences…We must take young people as they are.’ It was important for Titus that students thought for themselves, saying to one group: ‘We do not impart philosophical knowledge to you, because you must first and foremost develop it in yourselves… We do not ram the truth or knowledge of the truth into you, we only draw on the wondrous passion for knowledge of what is true, which lies hidden in you.’

Resourcing Education

Titus was convinced of the importance of the proper resourcing of education. He also underlined the need for the continuous professional development of teachers: ‘a justified ideal for the teacher is continuous further development… A trained teacher is a blessing.’ Titus had a particular concern for providing for children from underprivileged backgrounds: ‘Attention at school to the underprivileged child, that is where true love reveals itself.’

Titus’ care for Jewish Students

Titus took a particular stand on Jewish students, refusing to remain silent when they were excluded from attending Catholic schools, even making enquiries about placing them in the care of the Carmelites in Brazil.

The Apostolate of Carmelite Mysticism - Carmel as School

The Apostolate of Carmelite Mysticism - Carmel as School Titus speaks of ‘the apostolate of Carmelite mysticism’, using the image of a school. Carmelites are to teach people to pray, helping them know they have been found and loved by God. For Titus, Carmel is like a school, ‘a school of mystical life’, and insists: ‘in the spiritual life, no more than in ordinary life, can we dispense with education, with teachers and with guidance.’

Prayer to Titus Brandsma

God our Father, your servant, Titus Brandsma, laboured zealously in your vineyard

and gave his life freely because of his faith in you.

Through his intercession I ask for your mercy and help.

Father Titus never refused when he was asked for help by your people.

In his name, I come to you with my needs...
Lord, help me always to imitate the great faith, generous love and burning zeal of Titus.

Glorify your servant as he strove to glorify you.

Amen.

Mary, Mother of Carmel, pray for us.

Titus Brandsma, Carmelite martyr, intercede for us.

Download the Leaflet 2. Education  pdf here(3.46 MB)

‘In the Blessed Sacrament He gives us Himself again, and not only Himself as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, no, He tells us that all three Persons will take up their residence in our hearts, if we are united with Him.’

Titus Brandsma

The Eucharistic Life of Carmel

Being of central importance to the Christian life, it is no surprise to find the Eucharist at the heart of Carmelite life from its earliest beginnings. The first Carmelites built an oratory in the midst of their cells on Mount Carmel to facilitate common prayer and common celebration of the Eucharist. This sacred space was to be a focal point for encounter with one another and with the risen Lord. Until the reforms of Pope Pius X in the early twentieth century, daily receiving of Holy Communion was unusual. However, taking inspiration from the Rule of Carmel, daily reception of the Sacrament was already common in Carmelite communities long before this and was to be a constant of the life and spirituality of Titus Brandsma who entered the Carmelite Order in 1898 at Boxmeer, in the Netherlands, a town long associated with Eucharistic devotion.

Food for the Journey

Titus was convinced that our spiritual life, just as our physical life, requires food. He saw in Elijah, Prophet of Carmel, the pattern of the Carmelite life. Just as Elijah was sustained for his journey through the desert to Mount Horeb by miraculous food from heaven, so we too are strengthened by the gift of the Eucharist as we ‘walk in life’s journey here below.’ Imprisoned on account of his fearless defence of the freedom of the Catholic press and basic human rights in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, ‘walking in the strength of the divine bread’ was ultimately tested for Titus between January and July 1942 as he followed his own ‘way of the cross’ all the way to Dachau concentration camp.

Frequent Communion

Titus’ conviction concerning the importance of frequent celebration of the Eucharist was confirmed in reading Carmelite saints such as Mary Magdalene de’Pazzi and Teresa of Avila. Titus also draws out the importance of daily reception of Holy Communion when presenting the life and message of Saint Lidwina of Schiedam, one of the national saints of the Netherlands.

Prayer after Communion

In continuity with another key aspect of the Carmelite tradition, Titus emphasised the importance of taking time to pray after receiving Holy Communion. This is a true contemplative moment when, having received the risen Lord into ourselves, we seek to open ourselves to his accomplishing great things in us. Titus reflectively links prayer after Communion to the figure of Elijah: ‘In the caves of Horeb God spoke to the Prophet by the voice of the gentle, whispering wind.
The Lord was not in the storm nor in the earthquake, but in the gentle wind. So, after Communion we must contemplate under the Eucharistic species and in the depths of our spirit; for now God passes.’

Spiritual Communion

St Teresa of Avila often recommends acts of spiritual communion when reception of the sacrament is not possible. Perhaps early on Titus might not have realised how important this would prove to be in his own life, just as readers of St Teresa in our own time might not have realised how important spiritual communion would become in time of pandemic.
While Titus was able to receive Holy Communion at Dachau (including on the day of his death), there were times this was not possible. Unable to celebrate Mass at Scheveningen prison Titus describes how ‘each morning I kneel down and say the prayers of daily Mass, spiritual communion.’ In the camp at Amersfoort Titus led communal acts of spiritual communion with his fellow prisoners.

The Eucharist and Contemplation

An often-repeated spiritual teaching of Titus Brandsma is that ‘the mystical contemplative life is a fruit of the Eucharistic life.’ The Eucharist is what strengthens us to receive the gift of contemplation from God. And such contemplation leads to action.
Titus told a group of young people: ‘Good deeds no longer suffice; they must originate in the consciousness that our union with God obliges us to perform them.’

Adoro Te

In his prison cell at Scheveningen, Titus prayed the well-known hymn Adoro Te after lunch. In his account of his time in prison, 'My Cell', he tells us about this: 'The Adoro Te has become my favourite prayer. Frequently I sing it softly and this helps me to make a spiritual communion'. The first and last verses read as follows:

I devoutly worship Thee,

Hidden Godhead,

Who among these signs are

truly hidden.

O may I behold Thee

with unveiled face

and taste the happiness

to see Your glory.

Download the Leaflet 3. Eucharist  pdf here(3.70 MB)

Transfiguration
(Luke 9:28-36)

This Sunday’s Gospel of the Transfiguration completes the ‘little parable’ formed by the Gospels of the first two Sundays of Lent.

These Gospels tell us what Lent is about and what Christian life is about: a journey from temptation and doubt to transfiguration and faith. A journey away from allowing ourselves to be tempted to evil, and towards allowing ourselves to be tempted to good by the action of God’s Holy Spirit within us.

As the ‘Chosen One’ Jesus will let God’s glory be fully seen in the resurrection. On the one hand, this Gospel looks forward to the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. On the other, it invites us to reflect on our journey from temptation to transfiguration.
The journey Jesus undertakes does not end in death, but in life. Through prayer we remain in contact with the heart of God which allows God’s love to transform and transfigure us and to ‘burst forth’ in goodness. That’s how we allow the glory of God to be seen in us and through us.

Transfiguration means to be shot-through with the presence of God. Being transfigured is about allowing the presence of God to completely transform us; it’s a revolution of mind and heart driven by God’s Spirit and enabled by our open heartedness.
Our life as Christians is about being transfigured by the Spirit of God so that God is 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.

Quiet time for reflection

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Letter to the Order on the Occasion of the Fourth Centenary of the Canonization of St. Teresa of Jesus

Dear brothers and sisters, I believe we are living through a moment of great grace in our Order. The news that Titus Brandsma will be canonized very soon has moved hearts and minds in every Carmelite community. The next few weeks will be filled with the life and thoughts of this very saintly man. As I write this letter, I am conscious of a part of the life and thinking of Titus Brandsma that enriches the Carmelite Family in a very notable way, namely, his great interest in the life, experience, and writings of St. Teresa of Jesus.

On the 12th of March of this year, the Church will celebrate the fourth centenary of the canonization of Teresa of Avila, who was canonized on the same day as Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Philip Neri and Isidore the Farmer. On that day, on the initiative of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, there will a celebration of the five saints in the church of the Gesù in Rome. The new Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Fr. Miguel Márquez Calle, O.C.D., and myself have been invited to take part and to concelebrate with Pope Francis, as representatives of the Carmelite Family. Other members of our General Council will also participate.

This happy event is a very good occasion for building relationships with the Society of Jesus, whom I thank for their invitation, and it is also an occasion within the Carmelite Family itself, to reflect on the gift of our saints. Here, in this letter, through the eyes of Titus Brandsma, I would like to reflect on the gift of Teresa of Jesus to our Order and to the whole Church. Titus Brandsma shared some of the ways we have today of thinking about the Carmelite Family. He was aware of how the Carmelite charism is given to many people in the Church. In writing about Bl. John Soreth, he recognized the great work that Soreth had done by opening up to women the gifts of Carmel that only men had enjoyed up to then.^[1] It is in this same spirit that he recognizes the great gift of Teresa to our Order because of the way that she helps people to a fuller appreciation of the Carmelite charism by helping people to come to a knowledge of the mystery of God in their lives.

Titus made no secret of his regard for Teresa of Jesus. His mother’s name was Teresa (Titjsie). Each year on the feast of Teresa of Jesus, Titus would write a special note to his mother for her feast day. Throughout his life, he prayed with Teresa’s Bookmark, “Let nothing disturb thee”. He began the translation of her works into Dutch with the help of other Carmelites, but did not complete the work, which was a source of great regret to him. Likewise, the biography that he was writing was on his mind right up to the end, so strong was his desire to make this saint known among the Dutch. When commenting on the translation with his great friend and mentor Hubertus Driessen, they surmised how much the translation of the works of Teresa, that they had published at that time, had “given again to the name of Carmel in Holland a good reputation as an Order of prayer and mysticism”^[2].

There are two lectures of Titus Brandsma that might help us in a particular way to see the link between him and Teresa of Jesus. In the lecture that he delivered to the University of Nijmegen, under the title Godsbegrip (The Idea of God)^[3] we find that the idea of God that most appeals to him is the idea of God who enters the life of every human being and will enter more and more into the person who by their way of living and believing make space for him to enter. In his words:

What I thus defend and consider to be indispensable for our time is the contemplation of all being in its dependence on God and its emergence from God whose work we have to see in everything and whose being we have to discern in everything. We also have to recognise and venerate God in all things, and first of all in ourselves. God is revealed to us in the depths of all things and in our own depths. God wishes to be seen and to be known. Nowhere is God to be known better than in the very depth of our being. If the thought about God’s indwelling, about the total dependence of all human nature on God, on God’s guidance and revelation was alive in everything, we would act quite differently and would adjust our behaviour to be in tune with God’s revelation.^[4]

As he pronounced these words, it is possible that Titus was thinking about Teresa, from whom he learned about the union of the soul with God and the all-pervading nature of God in the life of the human person. Among the series of ten lectures that Titus Brandsma gave in his tour of the United States of America in 1935, one was dedicated entirely to Teresa of Jesus. In this lecture, in line with his understanding of the idea of God, he showed, relying mostly on the Interior Castle, how Teresa supported the idea of God entering more and more into the lives of people who know about God, accept God, and seek to know his love more and more. In the words of Titus:

St. Teresa paints the mystical life as something which develops in the soul, according to the soul’s natural ability, as the ultimate realisation of human powers. There have been implanted by God in human nature and will be realised when the soul is aware of its possibility to reach that highest degree of perfection and therefore gives up itself wholly into the hands of the Lord who alone is able to carry it to the highest of elevations. For all this, nothing else is asked of the soul than that it accomplish God’s wishes and desires, put its trust in Him, and in Him only finds its happiness. God likes to have an ordered love and he himself will order that love in the soul.^[5]

Titus admired Teresa for the wonder of her experience and doctrine. He also admired her for her work of reform, believing that her reform is of benefit not only to the Discalced Carmelites but to the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance as well. In language that is very much part of the Discalced tradition Titus says:

Certainly, Mary stands foremost in the veneration of her brothers and sisters, but they don’t deem it is derogating from that beloved mother, when they honour the most graced of her children as another mother, a mother who gave them not existence, it is true, but who regenerated them to a new life.^[6]

We now find ourselves is times and circumstances that challenge us to be aware of the true nature of our calling, and to respond to that calling with lives that give authentic witness to that calling. We are to live in a way that is faithful to what we say about ourselves, people called to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ, as contemplative people whose lives are shaped by prayer, fraternity, and service, and who follow in their lives the examples of Mary and Elijah. Titus saw in Teresa a saint who decided to return to the original inspiration of our Order, and to purify the life of the Order of all the accretions it had accrued over the centuries which served to distance its members from their original calling.

In this graced moment, as we rejoice in the prospect of Titus Brandsma being declared a saint, and honour Teresa of Jesus’ canonization, it cannot escape us that we have every reason to give thanks to God, to renew our lives, and to have confidence in the life we have chosen, as God has chosen it for us. With joy and commitment, we will share that life and wisdom with the Church as a whole and with each of our local Churches. For that reason, in the short time available, I encourage our communities throughout the world to celebrate the fourth centenary of the canonization of St. Teresa of Jesus, and to do so, where possible, in conjunction with members of the Discalced Carmelite Family.

May the remembrance and honour we give to St. Teresa of Jesus and our new saint to be Titus Brandsma, strengthen in each one of us our desire to see the face of the living God and do his will in all things.

Míceál O’Neill, O. Carm.

Prior General

5th March 2022

Download the Letter to the Order  pdf here(220 KB)

^[1]  T. Brandsma, A New Dawn, The Carmelite Nuns, Bl. John Soreth, in Carmelite Mysticism Historical Sketches, Darien, Illinois: The Carmelite Press, 1986, 36-43.

^[2]  A. Staring, Fr. Titus Brandsma and St. Teresa of Avila, in Essays on Titus Brandsma, Rome: Carmel in the World Paperback, 1985. p. 207

^[3]  T. Brandsma, Mysticism in Action, Collected Works. Edd. Joseph Chalmers and Elizabeth Hense, Rome: Edizioni Carmelitane, 2021, 95-124.

^[4]  T. Brandsma, The Idea of God, in Mysticism in Action, Collected Works. Edd. Joseph Chalmers and Elizabeth Hense, Rome: Edizioni Carmelitane, 2021, p. 121.

^[5]  T. Brandsma, St. Teresa. The Growth of the Mystical Life, in Carmelite Mysticism Historical Sketches, Darien, Illinois: The Carmelite Press, 1986, p.46.

^[6]  Quoted in A. Staring, Fr. Titus Brandsma and St. Teresa of Avila, in Essays on Titus Brandsma, Rome: Carmel in the World Paperback, 1985. p. 208.