We send our prayers and best wishes for a very happy Christmas to all the members of the Carmelite Family in Australia and Timor Leste.

As always, you will be remembered at Midnight Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park, Vic.

We remember those victims of the recent tragedies in Sydney and Cairns – they and their families will be in our thoughts and prayers this Christmas, too.

The original walking cane used by St Teresa of Avila during her journeys across 16th Century Spain arrived at the Discalced Carmelite Friars' priory in Varroville, NSW as part of a global "Way of Light" pilgrimage to mark the 500th anniversary of her birth.

So far the walking stick has been to Latin America, the USA, Indonesia and Taiwan. It will return to Avila in time for Teresa’s 500th birthday, 28 March 2015. By the time the journey is over, the staff will have visited 5 continents, 30 countries and travelled 117,000 miles in 164 days.

In 1956 three Carmelites from Australia, Fr William Morganti, Fr Robert Dowd and Br George Parsons travelled to Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) to work with the Irish Carmelites in their mission for the next 7 years.

Our Zimbabwean connection has recently been renewed when Fr Jim Des Lauriers was asked to be Chaplain to the Zimbabwean community in Victoria.

Thanks to our young Carmelites in Hera, Fiona Matthews (Whitefriars College) and Sue Stuckey you can get a glimpse of life in the Carmelite community at Hera in a new video.

Sue also visited Timor Leste recently helping our students continue their study of English.

Each year the Carmelites celebrate this special mass in honour of St Therese – to thank her for her inspiration and to ask for her help as we continue to strive to be a light in the darkness for the people of East Timor.

You are warmly welcome to this annual Mass of Love and Hope in honour of St Therese which we will celebrate on Sunday 28 September at 10.30am at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, cnr Richardson and Wright Streets, Middle Park, Vic.

This mass is offered for you and for the intentions and special needs you send to us. The Mass is also an opportunity to learn more about St Therese, her belief in mission and our work in East Timor.

You can also become an East Timor Mission Partner and help us continue to shine a light into the darkness of poverty which surrounds the East Timorese people.

Through our Education=Freedom program you can help build new classrooms, provide lunch for children on school days, help us finish the new boarding house at Zumalai, provide basic medical care to the children and their families and help young people finish their education at trade school and university.

So far our East Timor Mission Partners have helped us build three new classrooms at the village school in Raimea, helped buy basic medical supplies for our mobile medical clinic, begun the building of a boarding house for 20 students which allows older children from outlying villages to attend school in Zumalai.

As one village leader, with tears streaming down his face, once said, “The Carmelites are the light in our darkness. Our children have the possibility of education. Our young people and our mothers and babies have medical help. If you are not here, there is nothing.”

By becoming a Mission Partner through a regular gift of just $1 a day ($30 per month) you can be part of the Carmelite light which is piercing the darkness and bringing warmth and light to the people of East Timor.

Click here to make a donation and become an East Timor Mission Partner.

The foundation of the Mendicant Orders in the Middle Ages had a profound influence on the faithful — at that time the old monastic spirit flourished in the very midst of the people. Hence in this truly religious age, there were many who were attracted by the fervour of the Mendicants and wished to live according to the spirit of such Orders. But not all could embrace the religious life and indeed not all desired to do so. The urgent need was a form of life which would enable the faithful to live in the world according to the spirit of religious life. Thus, the various religious, their own souls burning with love of God and love for their Orders, and anxious, too, that the devout faithful should also burn with the same love, organized a movement known as the Third Order. It was by no means a new movement, as before the establishment of the Mendicant Orders, a similar society, founded by St Norbert, already functioned in connection with the Premonstratensians. However in the thirteenth century the movement received a determined and precise character, mainly through the inspired zeal of St Francis.

“In 7 minutes, my whole world turned upside down…”

Rachele’s story is an extraordinary story of one mother’s experience of meeting ‘head on’ her 16 year old son’s sudden and catastrophic illness, the result of an undiagnosed bleeding deep in his brain.

Rachele stands in a long tradition of mothers who managed to ‘hold it all together’ for their families through the thick and the thin of life. Courageous women who responded with strength and determination when their family was threatened.

It is mothers like Rachele we remember, give thanks and pray for every year in our Mothers’ Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

This year's Mass is at 10.30am on Sunday 20 July at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, cnr Richardson and Wright Streets, Middle Park.

You are warmly invited to join us for this celebration.

You can send us the names of all mothers (living and deceased) you would like us to pray for during this mass.

You can help The Carmelites be there for mothers like Rachele providing comfort, prayer, pastoral and practical support in Australia and East Timor by making your donation here.

You can read Rachele's story here. You can download  Racheles Story (2.21 MB)  here.

A Mother's Journey

Before 7 April 2013 life was pretty ordinary.

Then on that day, in 7 minutes, my whole world turned upside down.

I am an active worshipping member of my parish, I work in a Catholic school as a Religious Education Coordinator, and I profess an absolute love for God and for humanity.  I strive to live out the Gospel values from the heart. Yet all of this could not protect me from suffering.

A terrible event was about to affect my family in a way I could never have imagined and would ultimately test my faith in God.

My youngest son, all of 16 year of age was born with an arteriovenous malformation in his brain, or an AVM.  No-one knew he was born with some capillaries missing in his brain.  This made him susceptible to brain bleeds without warning. Needless to say, survival rates are not good if an AVM bleeds. Gabriel’s AVM began to bleed deep inside his brain without warning in the early hours of the morning, on the 7 April 2013.

On the Saturday night, 6th April, I was home and kissed my son goodnight.  

“I’m going to bed,” I told him. “Don’t stay up too late. You have work tomorrow.” It was a reminder that most mothers often said.  I had left Gabriel in the family room watching TV and on Facebook.

Sleep came swiftly to me. There were no worries; no anxieties. Life was peaceful.

At 12.50am, whilst in a deep sleep, there was a hurried knock at the bedroom door and the light was switched on. Standing at the end of my bed, I saw my distressed and worried son.

“I have a really bad headache, I can’t feel my left arm and I can’t talk properly” Gabriel said.

He looked in pain.

Without hesitation, I turned to my husband and said, “I think he is having a stroke!” and reached for the phone in our bedroom.

Only 5 months earlier, both my husband and I had attended a First Aid refresher course.  As there were only 4 participants at the course, I felt I could ask questions freely. Towards the end of the night, the presenter started to talk about strokes. She emphasised that they could happen to anyone and at any age.  

As I heard my son’s symptoms, the words of the presenter came back to me!  

“Ring an ambulance, even if you are unsure. You are not the doctor – leave the diagnosis to the professionals.”

And that’s what I did. I rang the ambulance while my husband comforted our son.

Within 7 minutes, the paramedics arrived at our house. But our son was already unconscious and not responding.

He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, a short 10 minute drive away and immediately taken to the Emergency Resuscitation room. My husband and I were whisked away to a small, airless room. We waited....and waited.

After an hour, we were told, “Gabriel has a large bleed deep inside his brain.  He needs emergency surgery at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.”

My husband and I were shocked and in disbelief!

I remember pleading with God not to abandon my son.

I remember telling God that it should have been me and not my 16 year old son, lying sick and dying in the hospital bed. I would have traded places with him in an instant if God had let me.

Yes, Gabriel was very sick.  Emergency brain surgery was the only option....if we made it in time to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital – 25 minutes away.  

But first Gabriel had to be stabilised enough to travel in the ambulance. A group of specialists who formed the Retrieval Team was working on stabilising him for the journey.  

“You can now see him,” we were told. We left the small waiting room and I just about ran to the Resuscitation Room.

At first, I saw a frail and very sick young man lying motionless on the hospital bed. His eyes were shut and he was on life support. But I knew he knew I was there.

I stroked his brow and face tenderly, begging him to fight and stay.

In this very moment, a tear escaped from Gabriel’s right eye; then another tear from his other eye.  I knew he could hear me even if he was unconscious!  I wiped his tears and told him I loved him. I kept repeating over and over: “Please, Gabriel, stay. Fight darling!  It’s Mum. I love you.”

The drive to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital was quick.  I looked at the driver’s speedometer and it was clocking at 120 kms/hour. It still wasn’t fast enough for me. I kept silently praying to God to keep him alive. As I looked at him, Gabriel reminded me of a rag-doll: he was flopping around in the ambulance bed without any personal control. He was a very sick young man and dying before my eyes.

My husband met us at the hospital as he had driven in a separate car.

I remember signing some papers to give permission for the operation as our son was taken away.  There was no time to lose!

What I remember the most was my encounter with grief. As I incessantly paced the narrow, darkly lit hospital corridor outside the operating room and intensive care ward, I felt totally alone.  Despite my husband and other family members being in a small, adjacent waiting room, I kept pacing the hallway.  

All my thoughts were prayers with God, begging him to spare the life of my young son.
“He hasn’t even gone out on a proper date!” I reasoned with the Lord.  “And he is preparing to get his licence,” I added. “I need him more than you, Lord.” It was grief doing all of the talking.

In my darkest hour, as the surgeons continued their battle to keep Gabriel alive, I remember saying to myself over and over again, “Where are You, Lord? Be here with me!”  My own spiritual battle was raging. I said the Rosary over and over without really knowing what Decade I was praying. It was torture!

After 4 hours, a weary neurosurgeon came to the waiting room. She looked exhausted and I anxiously scanned her face for news about my son.

“The operation went well.  We removed a large blood bleed deep inside Gabriel’s head.  We achieved what we set out to do.” She whispered wearily.  The strain of the situation was showing on her face.

“And what is that?” I asked naively.

“We kept him alive,” she responded. “You will be able to see him soon.”

This woman was God’s touch of hope to a desperate mother.

This woman had been given the gift of saving lives, like my son’s fragile life. I was deeply grateful to God for her gifts and talents.

After 30 minutes, we were allowed to see Gabriel in the Intensive Care Unit.

His head was bandaged up like a turban. He was on a respirator to help him breathe.  His left eye was black and swollen.  He had tubes poking out of his body. What I noticed soon after the shock of seeing so helpless and ill in the hospital bed was a sign written in text and put on the head bandage: Caution – no bone.

The doctors had cut away a large part of his skull to release the pressure of the bleed on his brain.  It would not be covered up for at least 10 weeks, exposing his fragile and injured brain by having only his skin protecting it.

Every day I spent the whole day with my son. It was a painfully slow process to work out how much damage had been done to him. Could he see? Could he move his left side?  Could he speak?

Day by day there were glimmers of progress.  Gabriel’s left side was totally affected by stroke-like symptoms because of the brain bleed. There were days when this new reality of learning how to eat and walk and talk really got to us all. But we all clung onto hope.  

Our family and friends were there for us and this gave us great comfort. There were phone calls and visits.  All offered us a piece of their heart. All encouraged us to be strong and reassured us that they would support us in whatever way we needed to be supported.

It was still a surreal time for our family.

I heard from people whom I hadn’t heard from in years. Each conversation was a conversation of compassion and love. People visited and showed us great compassion.  Food was delivered.  Flowers sent. Messages of love were read and tears shed in their reading.

When I paced that dark and lonely corridor outside the Intensive Care Unit that terrible night, I felt I was living the Lord’s words on the Cross: “My God, my God!  Why have you abandoned me!”  

Yet the amazing people who entered our family since 7 April have been gifts from God.  Each one has brought their own comfort to me personally and to my family. Each gifted person working in the hospital played a role in Gabriel’s rehabilitation towards mobility. All were life-givers in one way or another.

Our lives have changed now forever.  Who Gabriel was, he is no more.  

He is stronger and more courageous since his illness.  

He has been to a place of suffering and near-death that many young 16 year olds would not know.  

And it has given him perspective: to never take life for granted. To appreciate what we have rather than what we think is missing; to value the ordinary. To value life.

God has been felt in it all.  

During Gabriel’s illness, I had to trust the Lord with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind as we were enjoined to Gabriel’s battle with death. It brought home to me the suffering of Jesus on the Cross during his terrible suffering. We uttered the same words and were both given the promise of New Life.

Where was God for me in my hour of darkness? God was in every person who reached out to me that night: from the nurses and doctors I had never met to the people who made contact and did little things for us to ease our burden.

God was there from the moment Gabriel fell ill.

God is with us now as his rehabilitation continues.

God will continue to walk with us into the future.

How do I know this?

Because of the love we received from all since 7 April.

God is love and this makes God real.

I look back now over the last 13 months since Gabriel’s life-threatening illness and wonder how I ever got through the anxiety and tears. It has been the toughest test of faith in God I ever experienced, yet the only way I could deal with it was to trust in the Lord.

By trusting the Lord, I was loving God back. It was all God was asking me to do: to trust him.

Today Gabriel is repeating Year 11 at school.  He has issues with fatigue and finds it hard to sit through a whole day at school.  His teachers are very understanding and are working to ensure his success.

Gabriel would like to finish school and work in the disability sector. This doesn’t surprise me one bit!  As he has first-hand experience of having a disability, he would be a great support to others.  He walks with a pronounced limp but still cannot use his left arm and hand.  I always ask for prayers for his healing and I believe that he will eventually regain some mobility in his left hand.  

We were very lucky on 7 April, 2013.

God’s mercy was shown to us that night.

Incidentally, it was Divine Mercy Sunday.

You can download Rachele's story here:  Rachele's Story (2.21 MB)

Sabino, 20, is in Year 12 at high school in Zumalai. He lives in the Carmelite boarding house – here he has a place to live and study, food to eat, school books and uniform. Sabino wants to study English and computer skills when he finishes high school.

"The Carmelites teach us to pay attention to our studies and show us we need to be grateful for this experience by praying to God and sharing in daily prayer with the Carmelites' he says. He doesn't want to fail.

Sabino is very aware that as the oldest male in his family (his father died in 2009) he must study hard so he can get a good job to look after his mother, 10 brothers and sisters.

 Then there's Gloria, who showed courage and initiative in asking The Carmelites for help.

Gloria, 19, comes from Zumalai and after completing a 12 month course in English received a scholarship from The Carmelites so she can study in Dili University. Gloria dreams of becoming a teacher, teaching English in the parish primary school and to youth in Zumalai.

An education will enable Gloria to be employed and earn an income to support her family. At the same time, Gloria will make a valuable contribution to her students and other young people by helping them learn English which will increase their chances of future employment.

As Sr Rosemary says, "It's amazing to see the transformation of these young people - to see them striving to become something, to change the circumstances of their families, their communities and their own selves."

Our Mission Partners provide courage, hope and dreams for the next generation.

Lucinda is too ill to look after Louis, her 18 month old son. She has asked the Carmelites to find a family who will care for him. She hopes her son never experiences poverty. In order to grow up well, Louis will need lots of love, nutritious food, safe drinking water, vaccines to help build up his immune system and an education so he can eventually find work. For the next 18 years Louis will depend on caring people like you to help him grow up and break free from poverty.

It's a big commitment we are making to Louis, Gloria and Sabino. Without the inspiration of St Therese we wouldn't have the courage to ask. Without the courage of St Therese we wouldn't have the confidence to believe that together we can help them.

Over 30 caring Mission Partners believe in our mission in East Timor. They help us, through monthly gifts, to provide the practical means to transform lives and rebuild hope.

Why not join them?

Contact us for more information: (03) 9690 8822 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A selection of prayer cards for different occasions is now available.

These cards not only convery your care and concern for those in need. They also let you include those you love in the masses and prayers of the Carmelites.

Cards are available for:

• sympathy for those who have lost a loved one
• healing and peace for those who are ill
• spiritual support for those in physical or emotional stress
• special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries
• prayerful wishes for any occasion

  pdf Carmelite Prayer Card Order Form

You can email your completed order form to us by saving this file to your computer, filling it in and emailing it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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