NEW BEGINNINGS
Happy New Year! After an extended break during which transition to a new city, monastery and office all took place the start of 2006 seems the perfect time to take up the task of preparing a new issue of Call to Carmel. Regular monthly issues are promised to follow. Thank you to all the faithful readers for your patience.
It seems only appropriate in this, my first issue, to thank Fr. Steven Payne, OCD for all his hard work on previous issues. Fr. Steven, as many of you recall, was transferred to our mission in Nairobi, Kenya and is busy there in both our house of studies and the academic institute it is affiliated with. His attention and dedication to the newsletter and its quality are obvious to all who have read past issues. In all this he has certainly set a standard that will be difficult to keep. Thanks Fr. Steven for all your efforts on Call to Carmel and in the vocation office.
While Fr. Steven looked after the Vocation newsletter and the Eastern region of the Province, Fr. Bonaventure Lussier, OCD was responsible for vocation promotion in the Mid-Western region. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his efforts too.
THE CARMELITE
BOYS OF SUMMER
The summer months were very busy in the in province this year. We had two
solemn professions, an ordination to the deaconate and an ordination to the
priesthood. One of our postulants is now in the novitiate and at the end of
the summer we accepted three new men into our postulancy program.
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On August 5th Brothers Michael Berry and Fred Hickey made there Solemn
Professions in the Order of Discalced Carmelites at Holy Hill Shrine of Mary
Help of Christians in Wisconsin. It was a joyful occasion for both the
religious family of Discalced Carmelites of the Washington Province and for
the respective families of Brothers Michael and Fred who were in attendance.
When the moment finally comes for our brothers to definitively commit
themselves to the Lord as a Discalced Carmelite through Solemn Profession it
is both the culmination of years of prayer, preparation and discernment with
formators and spiritual directors and a new and wonderful beginning of a
life lived for God alone.
Our congratulations and prayers go out to our brothers, in the hopes that
they, as the profession ceremony prays, “will know the joy of vows
fulfilled”.
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The very next day August 6th, Feast of the Transfiguration, the newly
solemnly professed Br. Michael was ordained to the deaconate in a beautiful
ordination liturgy celebrated by His Excellency Jean Sleiman, Archbishop of
Baghdad, at Holy Hill. It was a special honor for the whole community to
have the Archbishop, himself a Discalced Carmelite, make such a long journey
so that he might ordain our brother to the order of deacons.
Reverend Brother Michael is now acting as a deacon at St. Florian’s Parish
in Milwaukee and preparing for his ordination to the priesthood.
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On July 16th the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel the province had more
reason than ever to celebrate. We not only honored our Mother and patron but
also celebrated the ordination of our brother Emmanuel Betasso to the
priesthood. The ordination was celebrated by the local ordinary His
Excellency Timothy Dolan at Holy Hill.
Fr. Emmanuel came to us some time ago from the Oklahoma province, having
gotten to know our friars during his time with them in our mission in
Nairobi Kenya.
He is presently stationed at Holy Hill and works as a member of the shrine
team. We wish him “ad moltos annos”.
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On July 15th, the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Brother
Scott Riviere was received into the novitiate program at an intimate
clothing ceremony held during vespers in the St. Florian’s community and
presided by our Provincial Fr. Phillip Thomas.
Last but not least on September 14th, feast of the exaltation of the Cross,
we accepted three men into the postulancy program; Floyd Harris, John
Michniuk and Ronald Dieleman. They are all at Holy Hill with Fr. Matthias
Montgomery enjoying the program there.
Hopefully we can convince some of these brothers to share a little about
their experiences of these celebrations and what they’re doing now in future
issues of the Call to Carmel.
Fr. Elijah OCD
SUGGESTED READING
Story of a Soul:The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
This treasured autobiography of one of the Church’s most beloved daughters, and Doctor of the Church, is a classic of Catholic spirituality. In it the young Carmelite Therese of Lisieux reveals her soul and its little way; it’s struggles and joys, as well as presenting some of the Church’s most beautiful doctrine on the merciful love of God. Her journey to and life in Carmel is an inspiration for all who are discerning a vocation to the religious life. Certainly a must read!
Story of a Soul:
The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
Third Edition
Translated from the Original Manuscripts
by John Clarke OCD.
ICS Publications, Washington DC
CARMELITE CALENDAR
FOR JANUARY
3rd: Blessed Kuriakos Elias Chavara Priest
Blessed Kuriakos co-founder and first prior general of the congregation of
the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate was born at Kainakary in Kerala, India,
February 10, 1805. He was ordained priest in 1829 and made his religious
profession in 1855, in the congregation he founded. In 1861 he was named
vicar general for the Syro-Malabar church; in this capacity he defended
ecclesial unity threatened by schism when mar Tomas Rochos was sent from
Mesopotamia to consecrate Nestorian bishops. Throughout his life he worked
for the renovation of the church in Malabar. He was also co-founder in 1866
of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Mother of Carmel. Above all, he
was a man of prayer, zealous for the Eucharistic Lord and devoted to the
Immaculate Virgin Mary. He died at Koonammavu in 1871. His body was
transferred to Mannanam in 1889.
8th: St. Peter Thomas, Bishop
Born about 1305 in southern Perigord in France, Peter Thomas entered the
Carmelites when he was twenty-one. He was chosen by the Order as its
procurator general to the Papal Court at Avignon in 1354, he was entrusted
with many papal missions to promote peace and unity with the Eastern
Churches. He was translated to the see of Corone in the Peloponnesus in 1359
and made Papal Legate for the East. In 1363 he was appointed Archbishop of
Crete and in 1364 Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. He won a reputation as
an apostle of church unity before he died at Famagosta on Cyprus in 1366.
9th: Saint Andrew Corsini
Andrew was born at the beginning of the fourteenth century in Florence and
entered the Carmelite Order there. He was elected provincial of Tuscany at
the general chapter of Metz in 1348. He was made bishop of Fiesole on
October 13, 1349, and gave the Church a wonderful example of love, apostolic
zeal, prudence and love of the poor. He died on January 6, 1374.
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For More Information
Fr. Elijah, OCD |
