World Environment Day is this Saturday, 5 June. The theme: This is our moment. We cannot turn back time. But we can grow trees, green our cities, rewild our gardens, change our diets and clean up rivers and coasts. We are the generation that can make peace with nature. Let’s get active, not anxious. Let’s be bold, not timid.
You can download pdf the Day of Prayer liturgy - a mixture of readings, reflections and prayer produced by the Carmelite NGO and pdf 14 Little Changes of Behaviour to take care of our Earth.
The Church is in a crisis. Whilst uncomfortable, this is not a bad thing for us. A crisis is an opportunity for new growth. The challenge is to accept and respond to this opportunity. Taking up our priestly and prophetic role and being a Eucharistic people in the lived circumstances of our lives is called for. The Plenary Council is a vehicle for facilitating this. I pray that we don’t squander it. Boldness is called for in hearing and responding to the voice of the Spirit, discerned in the voices of the people. May we advance in hope and trust in the Spirit.
This Sunday's Feast of the Trinity helps us to realise that though we are very used to thinking of ourselves as being God's servants, the truth is that it is God who is always serving us, who is totally committed to us, who is always there for us, whether we realise it or not. When we allow God’s heart to speak to ours in love we begin to absorb more of God’s life into our own. We are being transformed. Our values and attitudes, our ways of looking at and being in the world start to change. We begin to see with God’s eyes and feel with God’s heart and become God's presence in the world. Read more
Celebrating At Home Trinity Sunday [PDF]
Celebrating At Home Trinity Sunday [ePub]
The Carmelites of Australia & Timor-Leste have launched a new charity to help those in need in Timor-Leste called Carmel Impact. The new charity can receive tax deductible donations to enable children to attend school, Carmelite students to study philosophy and English, young men and women to receive community scholarships for further study, our work with disenfranchised youth through sporting and cultural activities and the teachers and volunteers in our schools to receive ongoing professional development.
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You can read more in this issue of our newsletter, Carmel Contact.
Dutch Carmelite, Titus Brandsma (1881-1942), has moved a step closer to being officially recognised by the Church as a saint. On 25 May 2021 the Congress of Theological Consultors recognised as a miracle the scientifically inexplicable healing of Fr Michael Driscoll, OCarm, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Titus Brandsma. This positive result now allows Fr Titus' Cause to be submitted to the Cardinals and Bishops of the Congregation for Causes of the Saints. If the outcome is positive the Congregation will then submit its conclusions for the approval of the Pope who will then meet with the council of cardinals (Consistory) during which the recognition of Titus Brandsma as a saint will be officially announced. More story & images
Today we do not pray to receive the Holy Spirit. Instead, we pray to grow more aware of the Spirit’s presence in our lives and to allow that Spirit to grow within us, gradually re-shaping our minds and hearts in the image of Jesus. The spiritual search is for the heart of God within our own. When we enter into relationship with Christ through the Spirit, the gifts begin to flow more abundantly. Read more
Celebrating At Home - Pentecost Sunday [PDF]
Celebrating At Home - Pentecost Sunday [ePub]
Ever since Easter, we have been proclaiming that Jesus is alive. The feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost help us to realise that we are part of a long tradition of faithful disciples. We have our faults and failings, but our call is to witness to and teach the way of Jesus by the kind of people we are, the values and attitudes we hold, in thought, word and action - to be the living presence of God in the world today. Read more
Celebrating at Home Ascension Sunday [PDF]
Celebrating at Home Ascension Sunday [ePub]
Today is Mothers’ Day and I’ve been thinking about all the ways in which mothers are so important to us and cherished by us and how they embody many of the images in the Gospels of the last 3 Sundays: shepherds who help sheep become shepherds, vines which bring branches to life, friends who abide with us for ever.
Just as Jesus drew people to a new awareness of God presence, it’s often our mothers who are first to draw our attention to the presence of God. Even as small children, my mum began to make us aware of God’s presence in our world and is us. She had to deal with awkward theological questions like, “If God is here, why can’t I see him?” Read more
As we approach the coming feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, the Gospel today helps us understand that Jesus is our bond of love with the Father and with one another. He is a true friend to us. He is both the image of God and the model of the redeemed human being that each of us is called to be. Read more
Celebrating At Home Sixth Sunday of Easter [PDF]
Celebrating At Home Sixth Sunday of Easter [ePub]
Angelus is thought to have been one of the first Carmelites to return to Sicily from Mount Carmel and, according to a long-standing tradition, he was murdered in Licata during the first half of the 13th century.
Venerated as a martyr, a church was built soon after his death at the place where he died and his body was interred there. Only in 1662 were his remains transferred to the Carmelite church in Licata. More story
