On Sunday, January 9th, the deadliest fire in New York City (USA) in three decades took place in a building 500 feet (154 meters) from the Carmelite parish in the Bronx, New York. Only one apartment had fire. However, smoke traveled throughout the building, especially the stairwells. Seventeen residents of the 19-story building were killed, including 9 children, the youngest being a 2-year-old who was visiting an apartment with his aunt and cousin, both of whom were also killed. Some 60 others were hospitalized with dozens in critical condition.

The St. Simon Stock – St. Joseph parish is providing outreach to those involved. In addition, a number of religious services were held. An ecumenical prayer service was held on Monday morning at which the Carmelites participated. A special Mass was held at St. Simon’s on Monday evening and livestreamed over the parish’s Facebook page. Auxiliary Bishop Peter J. Byrne celebrated the Mass and Michael Kissane, O. Carm., pastor of St. Simon Stock – St. Joseph, preached. Another prayer service was held on Tuesday evening. Most of the residents are recent immigrants from Gambia and are of the Muslim faith.

Two families from the parish live in the building and survived. The parish has assisted them with clothing. Catholic Charities has taken care of helping any of the other families regardless of religion.

Pope Francis sent a telegram to the Archdiocese of New York. "In offering heartfelt condolences and the assurance of his spiritual closeness to those affected by this tragedy, he entrusts the victims and their families to the merciful love of almighty God and invokes upon all consolation and strength in the Lord," the telegram said.

Fr. Michael wrote, “I do not believe any of the residents of the building who survived need any financial help, food or clothing. They have all been taken care of. There, of course, will be help needed as families relocate or come back to the building. I would say most are not interested in coming back.”

The true bridegroom (John 2: 1-11)

Weddings are usually wonderful occasions. Family and friends come together to witness to and celebrate a couples’ love and commitment. The ritual is crowned with singing, dancing, eating and drinking. It has been so for centuries. In Jewish tradition a wedding could last for days, not hours.

It’s interesting that, in John’s Gospel, Jesus begins his ministry in the warm and homely setting of a village wedding in the same region in which Jesus had grown up. Mary, Jesus and his disciples have been invited.

Disaster strikes when the wine runs out. It’s not hard to imagine how acutely embarrassing and humiliating that would have been for the wedding couple and their families. From then on the wedding would have been remembered as, ‘the one when the wine ran out’.

Mary sees what has happened and mentions it to Jesus but he seems reluctant to do anything about it: ‘My hour,’ he says, ‘has not come yet.’ In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ hour will come on the cross, when he will reveal God as God truly is, through the sacrifice of divine love for the world.

Mary is not put off by Jesus’ reply. Perhaps she knows her Son better than he does himself at this point. ‘Do whatever he tells you,’ she says to the servants.

Even though his time had not yet come, Jesus acts with kindness and compassion, saving the couple from acute embarrassment and ensuring that the wedding celebration can continue with plenty of ‘the best wine’.

In telling this story, John is drawing on Old Testament themes which picture God as the ‘bridegroom’ of Israel. The bond of love between God and Israel was meant to be deep and enduring - like a marriage. Such themes led to the expectation that the promised Messiah would restore this relationship.

In Jewish tradition it was the bridegroom’s responsibility to provide the wine for the wedding.

In John’s story it is Jesus who ends up providing an abundance of the best wine, revealing Jesus as the divine bridegroom, come to take Israel back as bride.

At the end of this Gospel passage, John tells us that Jesus’ action in turning the water into wine was the first of the signs he gave. In John’s Gospel there will be six more. All of them to do with healing, saving, restoring, feeding and giving life to human beings.

None are empty displays of Jesus’ power. The ‘glory’ of Jesus lies in revealing the God of love, especially in moments of real human need. The signs show that the power of love which comes from God is always at the service of human beings.

We, too, are called to allow the glory of God to shine out through us in loving, healing, transforming words and actions.

• pdf Celebrating At Home - 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF](845 KB)
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• pdf Celebrando En Familia - II Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(197 KB)
• pdf Celebrando In Casa - II Domenica del Tempo Ordinario(242 KB)
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This resource is presented by the Carmelites of Australia & Timor-Leste at a time when many cannot gather together as we usually do to celebrate the Eucharist. We are conscious that Christ is present not only in the Blessed Sacrament but also in the Scriptures and in our hearts. Even when we are on our own we remain part of the Body of Christ. 

In the room you decide to use for this prayer you could have a lighted candle, a crucifix and the Bible. These symbols help keep us mindful of the sacredness of our time of prayer and can help us feel connected with our local worshipping communities.

 This text is arranged with parts for a leader and for all to pray, but the leader’s parts can be shared among those present.

As you use this prayer know that the Carmelites will be remembering in our prayer all the members of our family at this time.

Fr. Carmel Anthony Ferrante (Mel)
18-12-21
Ortus: 26-04-38
P. Temp.: 09-10-55
P. Soll.: 07-05-59
Ord.: 27-05-61

Fr. Augustine Carter (PCM)
23-12-21
Ortus: 21-07-24
P. Temp.: 08-09-47
P. Soll.: 10-10-50
Ord.: 08-07-51

The Vatican has approved a new liturgical calendar for the Order. The Order was notified on November 18, 2021, by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The calendar was approved and signed by officials at the congregation on November 6, 2021, the Feast of Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira.

Fr. Michael Farrugia, the procurator general of the Order, has written a letter to the Order explaining the changes. This letter and the new calendar as well as some accompanying documents are now posted on the Order’s website.

Some modifications were made to the 1972 Proper Calendar which has been in use until now. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments revised the levels and dates of the celebrations according to the 1999 norms. The new calendar is divided into two parts: the first is intended for celebrations in the whole Order, while the second is an Appendix, for celebrations intended exclusively for local areas. In the first part the dates and levels of the celebrations are indicated: solemnity, feast, and obligatory memorial. Some ‘optional memorials’ have been moved to the Appendix, whereas previously they could be celebrated throughout the Order. Now they are allowed in certain regions.

This is further explained in Fr. Michael's letter and in the accompanying documents:

Read pdf here (121 KB) the Letter to the Order, by Fr. Michael Farrugia O. Carm.

Read pdf here (42 KB) the Decree on the Calendarium proprium

Read pdf here (16 KB) the Approval of the Calendarium proprium

Read pdf here (68 KB) the Calendarium proprium

On January 8th we celebrate the Feast of Saint Peter Thomas. 

He joined the Carmelite Order when twenty years of age. He was Procurator General of the Order at the Papal Curia at Avignon and also an official preacher to the Curia there.

In 1354, he was appointed bishop of Patti and Lipari. He acted as papal legate to the kings and emperors of his time, seeking to promote peace and to re-establish unity with the Eastern Churches.

Read more here

Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection.

Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice, and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.

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Sisters and brothers in the Carmelite Family,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the General Council I pray that this Christmas will heal our wounds, give us new hope and reveal to us again the depths of God’s love for the world.

This is a world in which many will not celebrate Christmas because it does not mean anything to them, many would love to celebrate Christmas but cannot do so because of the difficulties in their lives, many will celebrate Christmas but without any attention to Jesus, and many will celebrate Christmas with a full sense of its meaning.

The Son of Man came for all of us, for every man and woman on this earth, but particularly for the people who recognise their need of salvation. Once again we hear the call of the prophet, urging us to make space in our lives for the One who has come in the name of the Lord. If we make space for the One who comes, we will also make space for others.

Christmas is always a time for thinking about others, not about ourselves. Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be held on to. (Phil 2,6). He emptied himself in order to show us how to be truly human, one who came for others, not for himself, standing for the dignity of his brothers and sisters, not for his own. This essential truth of living for others we see in Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

We find it also in the lives of our saints, with particular attention this year to the life and witness of Blessed Titus Brandsma.

This year, for the second time we will celebrate Christmas under the cloud of the coronavirus. Once again we are being asked to think of others, and to protect one another by doing everything that is necessary to stop the spread of the virus.

With our minds and hearts firmly fixed on Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and with the care we have for one another we will be able to celebrate Christmas with all its meaning.

May you all, in your individual lives, in your communities and in your families be blessed with all that our Saviour desires to give to all those who are open to receive his gift.

 Watch here

God is with us! (Matthew 1:18-25)

We began Advent with the cry, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. Now we end it with the joyful shout, ‘God is with us!’

Reflecting on the historical birth of Jesus, the Church proclaims the truth that God is, and has always been, with his people. And if God is with us, then God is for us. God is on our side.

God has no desire to live in houses made of wood, stone or gold. God’s deepest desire is to live in human flesh. Just as God did that in the human flesh of Jesus Christ a long time ago, God continues to do so now in us.

Like Mary, we accept God’s invitation, allowing Jesus to become flesh in us, too; to be seen and experienced in good thoughts, good words and good actions, in deeds of loving kindness which bring life, not death, to God’s people.

• pdf Celebrating At Home - Christmas - Nativity Of The Lord [PDF](3.89 MB)
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• pdf Celebrando En Familia - Navidad - La Natividad del Señor(282 KB)
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• pdf Celebrando Em Familia - Natal - Natividade do Senhor [Português](281 KB)

This resource is presented by the Carmelites of Australia & Timor-Leste at a time when many cannot gather together as we usually do to celebrate the Eucharist. We are conscious that Christ is present not only in the Blessed Sacrament but also in the Scriptures and in our hearts. Even when we are on our own we remain part of the Body of Christ.

In the room you decide to use for this prayer you could have a lighted candle, a crucifix and the Bible. During Advent it is particularly appropriate to have an Advent Wreath in the place where you pray. These symbols help keep us mindful of the sacredness of our time of prayer and can help us feel connected with our local worshipping communities. 

This text is arranged with parts for a leader and for all to pray, but the leader’s parts can be shared among those present.

As you use this prayer know that the Carmelites will be remembering in our prayer all the members of our family at this time.

On December 8, the Philippine Province of Blessed Titus Brandsma celebrated an historic milestone with the ordination of the first member of the province from Papua New Guinea. Paul Kaptain Pakao, O. Carm., was ordained at the Iwai mission of the parish of Goma in the Archdiocese of Rabaul. Witnessing the ceremony were the ordinandi’s family, along with the different clans from his native village. The ordaining bishop was Archbishop Joseph Rochus Tatamai, MSC, the ordinary of the Archdiocese of Rabaul.

In his homily, Archbishop Tatamai expressed his gratitude for the Carmelite presence in in Papua New Guinea, which began in the Diocese of Bereina some 13 years ago.

The morning was filled with traditional festivities, singing, dancing, and sharing of gifts, which included crops and livestock which were later prepared into a sumptuous meal shared by everyone in attendance.

During his remarks, the Philippine Prior Provincial thanked the family of the newly ordained for allowing their son, Paul, to join the Carmelites, thus offering him to be of service to the Order and to the Church. He also thanked all the villagers and other friends of the Carmelite missionaries who graced the event, most especially the archbishop who stayed throughout the colorful celebration.

Fr. Paul Kaptain’s ordination marks the first ordination of the Philippine Carmelite foundation in Papua New Guinea. Another “Paul” from Papua New Guinea, Paul Sireh, was ordained priest but is a member of the Australian Province. 

Other young men from Papua New Guinea have answered the call of their Carmelite vocation. One student is currently undergoing his second year of theological studies in the Philippines. Three aspirants are preparing to arrive in the Philippines to begin their own formation.

Indeed, the interest and perseverance of these young men bear witness to the Filipino missionary friars’ positive contributions to the church in Papua New Guinea and the powerful impact they have made on the faithful, particularly on those who have been called to a life in Carmel -- echoing the lines of a familiar song: "Into the land of Carmel, I brought you to gather loads of charming fruits.”

Congratulations to Fr. Paul and the Philippine Province and to the Church in Papua New Guinea on this milestone!

This year, on December 29, is the 450th anniversary of the birth of Ven. John of St Samson. He was christened the following day in Sens. He had a very difficult childhood. He was blinded by an incompetent physician after contracting chicken pox and was orphaned at a young age.

He was introduced to the Parisian Carmelites in Place Maubert in 1603 and joined the Order at Dol-de-Bretagne three years later. When he was transferred to Rennes in 1612, he became the spiritual soul of the Touraine reform.

His deep mystical life made him a seasoned teacher of the spiritual life. His teachings, dictated to novices and disciples, have come down to us in over 4000 manuscript folios.

A lover of solitude made fruitful by his encounters with God, he was aflame with ardent love for humanity especially the poor and the sick to whom he ministered through his charism of healing.

He died in the odor of sanctity on September 14, 1636 at Rennes. His last words were: “With Christ, I am affixed to the cross.”

Of the Ineffable Incarnation of God made Man

But let us now, my Love and my Life, look at Your ineffable Love and Your ineffable Incarnation. It is from here on and in this vein that I am lost in an abyss within the innermost depths of all Your Deity. There I do not know where to start to reason about you, in all humility.

For, seeing Your resolution to save us, and your Love and its order to effect it, and the means which you hold fast to, that is what totally enraptures me in admiration outside of myself, where, being fixed in the enjoyment of this admirable mystery above admiration, I would not like to break into speech. And what can we say of a mystery so ineffable, which contains and comprehends contraries so opposite and so distant one from the other as are the all and the nothing, immensity and infinity and nothingness, Deity in itself and nothingness?

This is what has already detained us, occupied more in admiration of such an ineffable Mystery, than in speaking as a result of my ardent love. 

What is this? The Word is made flesh. Behold You whom all creatures cannot comprehend cut short in human nature, in the form and manner of an infant enclosed within the maternal prison of a mother made Mother of God, of the flesh with which you clothed Yourself, elevating it and uniting it to Your infinite Subject!

It is the perpetual subject of profound astonishment of all creatures. For to see You so much changed without change, so far off without distance, so much cut short and so great, so contained and so containing, so enclosed and so free, indeed so enclosed and so universal in all and by all, so high and so low, so wide and so narrow, so strong and so weak, so powerful and so powerless, so much more than all and above all and so next to nothing; all that, I say, my Love and my Life, is an eternal cause to creatures high and low, not only of eternal admiration and astonishment at the contemplation of this sight, but also of annihilating them by itself and reducing them to nothing in the action and act of their astonishment.