'The Crocodile and the Kangaroo' is the story of the relationship between Timor-Leste and Australia written by Br Agedo Bento, OCarm. The story is told by the Crocodile (national symbol of Timor-Leste) and the Kangaroo (national symbol of Australia). It focusses on the negotiations between Timor-Leste and Australia over a just share of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Click here to listen to the story.

Our Carmelite Liturgical Calendar and the Liturgy of the Hours for Carmelite celebrations are now available on the Universalis app for your smart phone and tablet.

Over the past few months Carmelite Communications has been working with Universalis to produce the Carmelite calendar and breviary in English. Some Scripture readings are yet to be added. “Eventually, we hope to add texts for the readings and prayers from the Carmelite Missal as well,” Fr David Hofman (Director, Carmelite Communications) said.

The new Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Zumalai, Timor-Leste, is nearing completion. Fr Manuel Almeida Da Costa (Parish Priest) says that the Church will be blessed and opened by Bishop Norberto do Amaral on 16 July - the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The former temporary Church which stood in front of the new Church, has now been relocated for use as a parish hall. See more photos.

This month we are celebrating the gift of the Earthsong Library to the Carmelite Library in Middle Park. "This donation is a great responsibility and a great potential learning experience, enabling the Library to be the best ecospirituality library in Melbourne."

Today, as we take risks for the sake of something greater than our separate, individual lives, we are feeling graced by other beings and by Earth itself.
Joanna Macy

JPIC No 74 April 2018 | Visit our JPIC page

Happy Easter from the Carmelites of Australia and Timor-Leste!

Throughout the Easter Season we will remember you and your family in the masses and prayers celebrated in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Middle Park (VIC).

May the power of the Risen Christ continue to heal us and make us his Body.

Our liturgy has no formal beginning. We are bringing our three days to completion. We begin around the fire with the lighting of the Easter Candle, our great symbol of the Risen Christ who is our Light. In the light of the candle we listen to the Scriptures about creation (Genesis), God’s rescue of his people (Exodus), God’s love for us (the Prophets), our baptism into Christ’s death (Romans) and the Resurrection of Jesus (Mark).

In Christ, we too have died to the old ways of living and risen to be the living Body of Christ in the world.

Our afternoon liturgy is a meditation on the passion and death of the Lord. We begin listening to the words of Isaiah about the suffering servant on whom is laid the sin of all. We are struck by the brutality of the passion. We wonder at the depth of love of a God who gives up his own life that we might truly live.

We venerate the cross, not as a symbol of horrible death, but as a sign of the victory of God’s love; the end of one way of living and beginning of another. We pray with Christ’s spirit for the needs of the world. We receive again the Food that nourishes and strengthens us on our journey to Easter day.

Our ceremony has no formal beginning or end. What was begun last night will not be finished today.

Tonight we begin the Great Three Days with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. It is a meditation on the connection between the Eucharist and Christian love expressed in serving one another. A meditation on Jesus not only present in the Eucharist but also in the deeds of loving kindness offered to others through us.

On this night we recall Jesus’ commandment to love one another, his washing of the disciples’ feet and the breaking of the bread of his own life, not just at table, but also on the altar of the Cross, for the healing and nourishment of the world.

There is no formal end to the liturgy tonight. What has been begun is not yet ended.

You can watch Fr Januario and Brs Agedo and Martinho receive their degrees at the University of Divinity Graduation Ceremony on 16 March. The short clip shows the actual presentation of the degrees.

The East Timor Students Association also made a video of the Graduation evening which you can see here.

St Michael’s Church, Melbourne, was filled to capacity last night for the University of Divinity Graduation Ceremony. Among the 317 graduands were Carmelites, Fr Januario Pinto, Br Agedo Bento and Br Martinho Da Cruz Lemos.

Fr Januario graduated with the degree of Master of Theology and Brs Agedo and Martinho with the degree of Bachelor of Theology.

Januario is now ministering the Carmelite parish of Coorparoo (QLD). Agedo and Martinho are continuing their studies in the Bachelor of Ministry program at the University. Congratulations, Brothers! Parabens! More photos.

The first reading this Sunday looks forward to a new covenant between God and his people. This covenant will not be written on stone, but on human hearts. This new covenant cannot be broken since God always forgives and never remembers our sins. It is in our hearts that we learn the truth about the strength of God’s love for us and recognise ourselves as God’s beloved people.

There is a lovely phrase in the preface of Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I which captures this sense: You have bound the human family to yourself through Jesus your Son, our Redeemer, with a new bond of love so tight that it can never be undone.

Australia and Timor-Leste have signed a new treaty establishing a permanent maritime border between the two nations. The treaty was signed at the United Nations Headquarters in new York on 6 March by East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister, Agio Pereira, and Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop.

The new treaty gives Timor-Leste a greater share of the revenue from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas deposit which lies between Timor-Leste and Australia and is vital for the economic future of Timor-Leste.

Every person has a story. Stories are rich messages about who we are and who we want to become. This term in Religious Education, our new Year 7 students have been learning about the Whitefriars story in the unit Belonging to Community.

Brothers Sean Keefe and Matthew Tonini generously volunteered their time during the last few weeks to visit each of the Year 7 Religious Education classes to educate our boys about the story of the Carmelites, and how that vision of community, prayer and action shaped, and shapes, the story of Whitefriars.

This Sunday marks a change in the Lenten focus. We are no longer so absorbed by our own limitations and weaknesses in faith. We are more confident of God’s kindness, forgiveness and healing without which we would never dare embark on this journey. We look forward to the Easter celebrations with joy and hope.

On our journey from temptation to transfiguration we are becoming, through faith in Christ, the living presence of God in the world, the light in the darkness.

Br Avelino Dos Santos (far right) and his English Language class recently went on an outing to practice ordering coffee in English. After successfully ordering and drinking their coffee they couldn't resist standing in front of the 'No Standing' sign outside the cafe. See the full photo.

The English Language School for Pastoral Ministry in Box Hill (VIC) helps students develop their English language skills for theological studies and pastoral ministry. Carmelites, Marcolino Gomes, Agostinho Dos Santos and Avelino are all studying at ELSPM this year.

The Gospels of the last two Sundays showed us that the Christian journey is from Temptation to Transfiguration. The Gospels of the next three Sundays of Lent present Jesus as the road (or The Way, as the early Christians referred to him) from temptation to transfiguration.

In the Old Testament scriptures the idea of the people of Israel being ‘the people of God’ is clearly established. By their behaviour they were to be a ‘light to the nations’, and the dwelling-place of God’s presence. Only much later did the idea of God dwelling in a building called a temple develop. Even so, the Jews never lost the sense that they were to be God’s own people.

This month Peter Thomas looks at 'Our Forgotten People' and the connection between mental illness and homelessness.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates that 105,000 Australians are homeless on any given night and a high proportion of these people have a mental illness. Some estimates are as high as 75%.

Peter Thomas

JPIC No 73 March 2018 | Visit our JPIC page

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 constant journey from temptation and doubt to transfiguration and faith.

Transfiguration means to be ‘shot-through’ with the presence of God. Being transfigured is about allowing the presence of God to completely transform us.

Mr Anthony Kirley has been commissioned as the new principal of Whitefriars College, Donvale (Vic). During Mass to begin the School Year at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Mr Kirley made his commitment to serve as Principal and was presented with a Bible, a copy of the Mission & Values Statement of the College and a lit candle – symbol of Christ the Light.

The Carmelites present prayed the Commissioning Prayer over him and Fr Paul Cahill (Prior Provincial) warmly welcomed My Kirley to his new role. More photos.

We know the power of fire to destroy, to blacken and to reduce to ash. We know that evil can do the same - destroy our wholeness of spirit, blacken our lives and reduce the beauty of human life and our good intentions to so much dust.

We begin Lent in the ash of acknowledging our own part in harbouring, creating and doing evil and those places in our hearts where the fire of anger, bitterness and selfishness has left nothing but dead, cold ash.