International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking
Journeying In Dignity: Listen, Dream, Act

The Unions of Superiors and Superiors General of Religious Institutes have organized the Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking on February 8, 2024. That date is the Feast of St Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese nun, who as a child had the traumatic experience of being a victim of human trafficking.

On Sunday, Pope Francis welcomed young people from many countries who came to Rome to celebrate the the Day of Prayer and Awareness. Fifty young representatives from around the world of the partner organizations are in Rome for a week of networking and training against human trafficking.

On Thursday, February 8 there will be an Online Pilgrimage of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking entitled "Journeying in Dignity". Resources are available here

2023's Record Heat Must Spur Action, Not Despair

In an article in Earthbeat—A Project of the National Catholic Reporter news service, Carmelite Eduardo Scarel, a member of the Province of Aragon, Castille, and Valencia (ACV) suggests that Catholics and others should feel empowered to take action by the latest dire forecasts on climate change.

Numerous scientific bodies, using different data sources and analyses, all reached the conclusion that 2023 was the hottest year on planet Earth since record-keeping began in the 1850’s. Greenhouse gas emissions released from burning coal, oil and gas trap heat in the atmosphere and are the primary drivers of climate change. While factors like El Niño and declining levels of cooling aerosols in the atmosphere contributed some to 2023's record-shattering temperatures, scientists were clear the main factor was emissions from fossil fuels.

The year 2023 surpassed the previously hottest year, 2016, by the largest margin ever. The hottest 10 years on record have all occurred in the past decade. Looking ahead, 2024 has a one-in-three chance of exceeding 2023's record heat and is virtually certain to rank among the five hottest years.

In December at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, nations for the first time agreed on the need to transition from fossil fuels — a step that scientists and environmental activists have urged for years but one that had never been included within a U.N.-negotiated document.

While the text from the summit lacks specifics on how or when to end the use of fossil fuels, Catholics and other people of faith have a role to play in holding their respective countries accountable —as Pope Francis called for in a speech to heads of state and government at COP28, the U.N. Climate Change Conference on December 2 in Dubai. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, delivered the talk in the stead of Pope Francis.

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On the journey with Jesus
(Mark 1:29-39)

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1 February Optional Memorial in Latin America

Bl Candelaria was born Susana Paz-Castillo Ramírez in 1863. She enthusiastically welcomed the call of God to holiness, and since her youth, stood out in practicing living and effective charity, with which she cared for, consoled and healed the sick and wounded that strife had left on the streets of her birth city.

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Homily at the Beatification Mass for Bl Candelaria 
Cardinal José Saraiva Martins

1. Listening to the words of Jesus in the Gospel just proclaimed, the stupendous reflections of St. Augustine come to mind, when he affirms that if, unfortunately, because of a fire the four Gospels were destroyed and only the words "God is love" were saved, the substance would have remained intact. In what religion is love everything, as in Christianity? The Christian faith is an act of love, as Benedict XVI reminded us in his first encyclical. The exordium of today's Gospel passage is emblematic: "Jesus says to his disciples: 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments.'" In this "if you love me" is the synthesis of Christianity.

He who loves does everything out of love, even the impossible things, without being weighed down by them, because he observes the interior law, which is more demanding than any external discipline. And because the language of love is not words but the union of the one who loves with the beloved, in the seven verses of this Sunday's Gospel Jesus speaks seven times of union. Indeed, to be in: expresses the fascinating verb of supreme and total union: the disciples are "in" Christ and Christ "is in" the Father.

2. The Church's liturgy, with wise pedagogy, is preparing us for the great Solemnity of Pentecost. The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, presents us with the Holy Spirit, received through the imposition of the hands of the Apostles. The Gospel, on which we are meditating, also speaks of the Holy Spirit whom the disciples will receive as the Paraclete: which in Greek sometimes means Comforter, sometimes Advocate, or both. St. John insists in his Gospel on the title Paraclete, since historically the Church, after Easter, had a living and strong experience of the Spirit as consoler, defender, ally in internal and external difficulties, in persecutions and in everyday life. In the first centuries, when the Church is persecuted, she has the daily experience of trials and condemnations; it is then that she sees in the Comforter the divine advocate and defender against her human accusers. The Comforter is experienced as the one who assists the martyrs and who, before the judges, in the tribunals, puts on their lips the word that no one is able to refute. After the era of persecutions, the accent shifts and the predominant meaning is that of comforter in the tribulations and anguish of life.

In contemplating the Paraclete we feel the strength to honor and invoke the Holy Spirit, and to be ourselves other "paracletes," "comforters," in the full sense of the word, according to the divine measure. If it is true that the Christian must be alter Christus, another Christ, it is also true that he must be alter Paraclitus, another consoler.

To be consolers, paracletes, is a quality that all the saints have had in general: like the Good Samaritan, they have worked to soothe the wounds of so many brothers and sisters with the balm of mercy and the oil of Christian hope. With a soul full of joy today, contemplating the life and example of the new Venezuelan Blessed, and her charism that is transmitted in her work, through her daughters, the Carmelite Sisters of the Third Carmelite Order in Venezuela, we observe that a true "art of consoling" stands out as a dominant characteristic. In her simplicity, Mother Candelaria lived and proposes to us, with all its actuality, a true theology of consolation. This explains the facts of her daily life that, even with a simple word or gesture, always lived with her constant and ardent prayer and a lively and deep faith, she was able to get close to so many sick people. Certainly, it was God who "consoled" through her.

In the testimonies collected for her cause of beatification, it is striking to note how her love for God was intimately united to her love for her neighbor. In fact, from a very young age she dedicated herself to the service of others, in the care of the sick or in the catechesis of young people and adults, with her maternal attention to the sisters of her congregation. A life consumed by spending hours and hours at the bedside of the sick, to the point of starving herself to be able to feed the sick in a hospital and to make hard journeys to find money for the hospitals.

And so, year after year, always - and perhaps this is one of the most attractive characteristics of Blessed Candelaria–with great simplicity, without drama, always serene and ready to listen, without ever complaining about the people who made the life of Christian service difficult for her. A charity that reached the heroism: like being left without a bed to sleep in, for having given it to a sick person; preferring to take care of the most contagious sick or people who were enemies of the faith; assisting with maternal gentleness the lost women who were hospitalized. Her total dedication to her neighbor was such that even the most unbelieving doctors were amazed by the generous dedication of this small and simple sister.

4. The Blessed whom we venerate today testifies, with her entire life, that supernatural love is the basis of existence, that only love can change the life of human beings according to their deepest needs and that love consists in the gift of self, overcoming resistance and individualism in order to carry out the divine will.

The present beatification, manifesting this aspect of Blessed Candelaria's spirituality, invites us too, with docility to the Holy Spirit, to be dispensers of God's "consolation."

Blessed Candelaria accompanies us and invites us to take care of the terminally ill, of those suffering from AIDS, to concern ourselves with alleviating the loneliness of the elderly and the difficulties of so many different forms of poverty, to dedicate the necessary time to visiting the sick in hospitals. And how can we fail to think of those who dedicate themselves to helping children, victims of all kinds of abuses? We must also defend the rights of threatened minorities, such as some indigenous peoples of Latin America, and be the voice of the voiceless.

But her testimony, the one I am most interested in that reaches each one of us and all those who in the future will find the eloquent lesson of Blessed Candelaria, in addition to the moral values, which are great, is what is at its origin. I am referring to the living and active presence of the Risen Christ in her, which is palpably manifested in her boundless charity. In this sense, the Blessed who today has been raised to the honor of the altars belongs to that multitude of Christians who strongly manifest and show the presence of Christ in the men and women of today, pilgrims, who at times, forgetting their goal, walk without direction.

In today's Gospel Jesus tells the Apostles that he will ask the Father to send them the Comforting Spirit, so that he may always remain with them. And this "abiding" of the Spirit in our heart "transforms us into Christ," making us in the world, and in history, that is, in today's society–in the concrete environment in which we live–his living presence and credible witness. This happened in Mother Candelaria and it can happen in us. The Spirit forms Christ in us and makes us his imitators in our time and throughout our lives, as the Holy Father reminds us: "One does not begin to be a Christian by an ethical decision or a great idea, but by an encounter with an event, with a Person, which gives a new horizon to life and, with it, a decisive orientation" (Deus Caritas Est, 1).

The holiness of life of this flower of Venezuela, who is Mother Candelaria, one of the eminent fruits of the history of Catholicism in Latin America, affirms us in the experience so well described by Benedict XVI at the beginning of his pontificate: "There is nothing more beautiful than to have been touched, to have been surprised by the Gospel, by Christ. Nothing is more beautiful than to know him and to communicate friendship with him to others" (Homily, Sunday, April 24, 2005: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, April 29, 2005, p. 7). Therefore, while we rejoice in the beatification of Mother Candelaria and give thanks to God for it, let us allow ourselves to be surprised by the Gospel and make Christ the reason for our life.

A Curiosity from the General Archives of the Order

Among the treasures of our archives we have found the ancient recipe for spiritumcarmeliticum, as devised by a certain Father Bernardo, presumably at the end of the 18th century. We do not know Father Bernardo's surname or the convent he belonged to, but surely his bitter must have been highly appreciated if his recipe reached as far as the General Curia of the Carmelites.

To be able to reproduce it, obtain very pure wine alcohol, herbs of lemon balm, sage and thyme-with the recommendation that they are not dried, but very fresh, picked during the season of their bloom-orange peel, rosemary flowers, artichoke flavoring, cinnamon, nutmeg, plus coriander, anise and nettle seeds. Let everything marinate for at least two days, stirring occasionally, then distill and drink--but in moderation!

[First published in ABIGOC (Archives and General Library of the Carmelite Order)]

The Provincial Commissary of Perú (PCM) Celebrates Its Annual Meeting and Holds Elections

The Carmelites of the Provincial Commissariat of Perú (PCM) celebrated their annual meeting which included the triennial elections on January 11, 2024. The gathering, was held at Villa Carmelitas in Lurín. Míċéal O'Neill, the prior general, accompanied by Luis Maza Subero, the Councillor for the Americas, participated.

The Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary established the Order in Perú in 1949.

The following members were elected to leadership at the meeting:

Commissary Provincial | Comisario Provincial | Commissario Provinciale
Raúl Maravi Cabrera, O. Carm.

1st Councilor | 1er Consejero | 1^o Consigliere
Miguel Bacigalupo del Corral, O. Carm.

2nd Councilor | 2do Consejero | 2^o Consigliere
Eduardo Rivero Cárdenas, O. Carm.

13^th Century Carmelite Foundation in Limassol, Cyprus Located

Pottery discovered during an initial excavation at Panagia Karmiotissa in Limassol on Cyprus has been dated back to the 13th century and is thought to be linked to the Carmelites. The Cyprus Department of Antiquities held a conference at the end of the first season at the site.

According to published reports, the site was selected because of historical documents, geographical features, place names, and local lore, all of which suggested it was the location of a Carmelite foundation in the 13th century.

The Carmelite historian, Joachim Smet, wrote in his monumental history of the Order that besides the original foundations of Fortamia (1238) on Cyprus, the Order is known to have had houses in Limassol, Paphos, Famagusta, and Nicosia. These are on a list added to the Constitutions of 1369.

An architectural analysis of the existing church suggests it was dates to the 14th century. This discrepancy necessitates further excavation to explore deeper historical layers. Three exploratory trenches were opened: two on the northern terraces and one behind the current church’s apse.

Besides the pottery from the 13th century, the trenches have revealed evidence of two post-Byzantine habitation phases, including several postholes. Behind the church’s apse, numerous human-sized pits aligned east to west were uncovered, suggesting former grave sites likely associated with the church’s cemetery.

A flight of stairs cut into the natural bedrock and oriented towards a location underneath the church indicates earlier structures than the current church building. In addition, ground-penetrating radar surveys inside the church, hint at significant structures below the church floor.

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January 29th | Optional Memorial in the Italian Provinces

Bl. Archangela took the Carmelite habit in the monastery of Parma in 1477 at the age of 17 where she took the name Archangela. She eventually became prioress of the monastery at Parma, and then prioress at the new foundation at Mantua from 1492 until her death.

It is written in an old manuscript that Blessed Archangela lived her religious life so intensely that, just as the monastery was entitled "Saint Mary in Paradise", she and the other nuns, even though still here on earth, lived as if already absorbed into heaven.

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