We thank you and praise You,
For giving us Your Son,
Human and Divine,
Yet He turned His cheek
To His oppressors
And allowed Himself
To be pierced for our oppressions
So that in Him and through Him,
Who gave us the gift
Of the Holy Spirit,
We could experience life from death
In our very beings –
In the caverns of our own hearts.
Living Flame,
Indwelling Blessed Trinity
O Fire of Love
O Blessed Trinity!
We adore you, We love you.
SOURCE: Lent 2016
Copyright 2017, TL thespeakroom.org. All Rights Reserved
‘Arm yourselves with the armor of faith and the sword of truth. Pray for the grace to forgive and to ask for forgiveness – and for the healing of wounded bodies and souls.’
Brothers clothed on the Vigil of the Solemnity of St. Joseph
Photo Credit: Father James Geoghegan, OCD
On March 18, 2017 the Carmelite community of Mount St. Joseph in San Jose, CA clothed four postulants with the Carmelite habit. These novices now have begun their year-long novitiate as new Carmelite brothers in the Province.
In the picture above from left to right: Bro. Colin Livingston, Bro. Matthew Knight, Bro. Frank Sharma and Bro. Dustin Vu.
We ask you to keep all these men in your prayers, as well as our other friars in formation.
Saint Joseph and Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Josephs Convent, Avila Spain. Photo Credit: thespeakroom.org
Known in Avila as “El Convento de las Madres,” this convent is particularly important because it was the first foundation of Santa Teresa in spreading the reform of the Carmelite Order. It dates from August 24, 1562, Saint Bartholomew’s Feast Day and was dedicated to Saint Joseph, to whom Santa Teresa was particularly devoted. On the façade is the image of Saint Joseph with Baby Jesus by Giraldo Merlo, a gift from Felipe III.
The current church is the work of Francisco Mora, who built it between 1607-1610 at his own expense, as an expression of thanks and favours received through the mediation of Saint Teresa. It rises above the humble houses that formed that first convent, built on land first acquired by her sister Juana and assisted by her brother Lorenzo.
The convent is still occupied by cloistered nuns who follow the rules of Our Holy Mother. (Source: Avila Tourist Information, August 2015)
SAVE THE DATE: Sunday May 21, 2017.
57th Annual Benefit Dinner and Auction. Discalced Carmelite Friars, Mount St. Joseph Monastery. For more information, contact friendsofthecarmelites2@gmail.com
You, oh Lord, have given us everything
Before the world came to be, You were I AM,
Already offering Yourself to us in love and beauty
Lord, teach us the path of Our Lady and St. Joseph,
Who, in darkness of sand storms, clung to the One, the Child Jesus,
And in so doing, loved without bounds.
Let our hands not trouble themselves,
With matters that will only bind them,
Preventing us from embracing You into our hearts
For in giving of Yourself, oh Lord,
You’ve opened for us the gift of others,
That in You, we can love with a love that burns tenderly.
May we respond with desire for You, oh Lord, and You alone.
SOURCE: Lent 2016
Copyright 2016, thespeakroom.org, TL, ocds. All Rights Reserved
‘Arm yourselves with the armor of faith and the sword of truth. Pray for the grace to forgive and to ask for forgiveness – and for the healing of wounded bodies and souls.’
Note:On May 2017, by the grace of God, I will make my Definitive Promise as a Secular Carmelite. This is what I wrote for the Council. The statue above is the same image I describe in this piece, but decades later.
The discernment process to become a Secular Carmelite takes several years: at least one year as an Aspirant, two years until the first Temporary Promise, and then three years more before the Definitive Promise, a total of at least six years – all under the guidance of a Council, a teacher (Formator), a priest who serves as Spiritual Assistant, and if available, an individual who serves as spiritual director. And after that, a lifetime of continued Formation.
From the time I began my journey as a Carmelite Aspirant in 2011 until well into my Temporary Promise in 2014, I experienced a very long, dry, and humiliating process of letting go of my control of those things I thought belonged to me or somehow earned by right: my family on the east coast, my career, my children’s upbringing, financial stability, my health – and my marriage.
After I came to terms with having to let go of what I then believed mattered most, God withdrew Himself from me for over two years. He felt completely absent; I felt isolated and alone, and I never knew if I would have the strength to make it through each day. Still, I persisted in my prayer life, and committed to faithfulness in the limited ways I knew how.
Everything changed after I prayed at the foot of the tomb of Saint John of the Cross in Segovia, Spain in 2015, during a pilgrimage for St. Teresa’s 5th Centenary, led by Father Robert Barcelos, my community’s Spiritual Assistant.
Saint John’s sepulcre is located behind the church altar, elevated above the tabernacle, and surrounded by a square walkway. All the other pilgrims chose to sit in the pews and pray facing the sepulcre, but I found my place of prayer hidden in plain sight – behind the tomb, with Saint John’s uncorrupted body above, and Our Lord inches from me in the tabernacle.
I took off my worn sandals, carefully put my bags down on the floor, knelt, held my hands open, and recited the prayer I had been praying since I took my Temporary Promise: “Here am I Lord, for I am nothing, and You are everything in all that I am, and all that I will be.” I asked for Saint John of the Cross, along with Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Elijah, and the Carmelite saints to intercede for me. I asked for Our Lady’s prayers and mantle of protection.
When I got tired of kneeling, I simply sat, feeling the cold marble at the bottoms of my feet. I felt like a little girl again, leaning upon the shadow of a wall to escape the Philippine heat and waiting to be reunited with my father in the United States.
Nothing ‘happened.’
But when I walked from behind the tabernacle and faced the other pilgrims sitting in the pews, praying, I knew with certainty that God had touched me and had gently turned my gaze away from my own ego – and upon Him.
In my Christian walk, I always marveled at Jesus’s first words to the apostles after His resurrection: “Peace be with you.” I wondered, why – if that was such an important promise – so few believers, including myself, knew first-hand of that peace. At the foot of Saint John of the Cross’ sepulcre, Christ gave me that breath of peace, and despite the continued challenges of my life and my shortcomings, that peace has never left me.
Since then, He has given me a mission, one I understood while in prayer during Lent 2016. Everything about the speakroom and the various apostolic fruit that have come out of the site, have been rooted in my attempt to be obedient to Our Lord.
When I was four years old, my father was given the rare opportunity to work as an engineer to pave a life for us in America. But he had to leave four children and a wife – who in one year, had delivered a baby and buried another. During that time, a monument of the Lord’s Prayer was built in the park behind our house, the same park where my little sister was buried.
After visiting my sister’s grave. I would stand before the image of Jesus, seated on His throne, and contemplate the Lord’s Prayer behind Him. No matter what visited us in the three years my earthly father was abroad, I grew in my relationship with God the Father. By His Grace, my faith never wavered. I understood that because God desired that His “will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven,” then it followed that Jesus was on earth with me, as Our Father was in Heaven. I rested in that love and companionship.
As I grow in my Carmelite vocation, I find that I am only trying to find my way back to the simple and confident faith I had as a child. One of my most common prayers now is: “Come Holy Spirit. Give me the grace to enter into the Sacred Heart of Christ, that I may come to know the face of my Heavenly Father.”
To see the face of Christ is to see the face of the Father. To come before the Father in Christ is to be resurrected before Him as His beloved child. And it is the Holy Spirit that makes these movements between the human, and the eternal divine possible.
Copyright 2017 teresa linda – the speakroom.org , ocds
‘Arm yourselves with the armor of faith and the sword of truth. Pray for the grace to forgive and to ask for forgiveness – and for the healing of wounded bodies and souls.’
March 11 – from 9:00 am-4:00 pm at San Jose Cathedral 2nd floor: Day of Recollection on Crossing the Threshold of Hope amidst Cultural Conflict. Register here. (March 8 deadline)
March 25 – Youth Ministers and Core Team Day Retreat. Talk on Trust at 3pm followed by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (location: TBA, San Jose Diocese)
June 7-14, 2017 – Fatima-Portugal Pilgrimage. Chaplain: Father Robert Barcelos, OCD. Registration information.
September 12-27, 2017 – Portugal, Spain, France, Italy Pilgrimage. Chaplain: Father Jan Lundberg, OCD & Brother Augustine Sunday, OCD from Uganda. Registration information.
December 8-13, 2017 – OLG-MEX Feast Day Pilgrimage. Chaplains (tentative): Father Stephen Watson, OCD; Father Thomas Reeves, OCD. Registration information.
October 16-30, 2018 – Mount Sinai and the Holy Land. Chaplain: Father Robert Barcelos, OCD. Registration information.
LENTEN OBSERVANCES
Ash Wednesday March 1- April 7 – (40 Days for Life) Take on Tuesdays for Life at Saint Leo the Great, San Jose California. To participate, please call Maryann at (408-984-4721) or contact Father Marcelo at St. Leo.
There’s an old saying:
Have nothing in your house
which is not both beautiful and useful.
It’s good advice
for our hearts as well.
Today Jesus stands behind our wall,
looking through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
What does He see?
Are we ready to welcome Him
into our home?
He stands outside looking in
and now He calls us:
Arise, My beloved, my beautiful one,
and come.
As soon as we hear His voice
something stirs within us.
It’s the beauty that we are,
the beauty we forgot we are.
And the infant leaps in our womb,
the child of God that each of us is
leaps for joy
when we hear His voice.
Winter is past
and the time of pruning is here,
the time to prepare for the salvation of Christ.
He breaks down the walls that divide us.
He cleans the Temple of our heart
till nothing remains
but what is beautiful and useful,
the praise of His glory
and the good of our neighbor,
nothing remains but love.
SOURCE: Homily 2015. Menlo Park, CA
Copyright 2016 Charles Seagren. All rights reserved.
OUR MISSION is to build a Carmelite foundation for souls to bring unity, peace, beauty, and the divine mercy of the Word to the world for the healing of humanity.
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