Saint John the Apostle

Saint John the Apostle

Feast Day: 27 December

Saint John the Apostle, the son of Zebedee and Salome, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He was the only one of the twelve apostles who did not forsake the Saviour in the hour of His Passion. He stood faithfully at the cross when the Saviour made him the guardian of His Mother.Also known as the Beloved Disciple, John and his brother James “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4: 21b-22).Saint John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom Jesus gave the exquisite honour of caring for His mother, as John stood beneath the cross. “Woman, behold your son…. Behold, your mother” (John 19:26b, 27b). He followed Jesus, and never once looked back. Saint John is the one for whom our Lord Jesus bore a special love. Saint John’s life inspires us to be as faithful as him so that Jesus will bear a special love for us too. Our Lord immensely loves each one of us but we must aspire to have Him back the way Saint John did. So assured was Jesus of Saint John’s love that He gave him the greatest honour and the responsibility to take Mary as his mother. Saint John’s life teaches us too many things. It teaches us to faithfully follow our Lord Jesus Christ and never look back no matter what we go through. It teaches us to honour and revere Mary as our mother and defend her from the snares of the world just the way Saint John did by taking her to his home. His life teaches us to never abandon our Lord and His mother despite all the difficulties of life. 

Saint Stephen

Saint Stephen

(5 AD – 34 AD)

Feast Day: 26 December

The name Stephen is Greek and chapter 6 of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that he was a Hellenist (a foreign-born Jew who spoke Greek). He lived in Jerusalem and had become a Christian.

Saint Stephen was one of the first ordained deacons of the Church.  He is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food and charitable aid to poorer members of the community in the early church.

He was also the first Christian martyr. Saint Stephen was so conformed to Jesus in his holy life that his martyrdom was both a natural and supernatural sign of his love for the Lord. It also inspired the early believers as they faced the first round of brutal persecution.

His behaviour, even forgiving those who were taking his life while he was being stoned to death, was a beautiful reflection of how conformed he truly was to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is recorded in Chapter 7 of the Acts of the Apostles (verses 54-60).

Saint Stephen is often depicted with stones, a Gospel book, a miniature church and a martyr's palm frond. He is the patron saint of altar servers, bricklayers, casket makers and deacons and his feast day is celebrated on 26 December.

Saint Stephen’s life inspires us because he spoke the truth fearlessly. He died with his eyes trustfully fixed on God and with a prayer of forgiveness on his lips. Through Saint Stephen’s example, we can learn to speak boldly for our faith, and know that our lives here on earth cannot compare with the joys we will experience in heaven.  Man can only kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul.

Advent

This year the season of Advent begins on Sunday, 29 November and ends on Thursday, 24 December.

 

Meaning of Advent

 

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” which is a translation of the Greek word parousia.  “Advent” means “arrival” or “coming,” and it prompts us to pause each day in December and remember why Jesus came at Christmas. Advent, the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, is observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world. The Advent season not only symbolizes the waiting for Christ's birth but also for his final return.

 

History of Advent

 

Advent began as early as the 4th and 5th centuries as a time of fasting and prayer for new Christians. The first mention of Advent occurred in 300 AD at a meeting of church leaders called the Council of Sargossa. It gradually developed into a season that stretched across the month of December.

 

Advent Wreath

The Advent wreath first appeared in Germany in 1839. A Lutheran minister working at a mission for children created a wreath out of the wheel of a cart. He placed twenty small red candles and four large white candles inside the ring. The red candles were lit on weekdays and the four white candles were lit on Sundays.

Eventually, the Advent wreath was created out of evergreens, symbolizing everlasting life in the midst of winter and death as the evergreen is continuously green. The circle reminds us of God’s unending love and the eternal life He makes possible.

Advent candles are often nestled in the evergreen wreath. Additional decorations, like holly and berries, are sometimes added. Their red colour points ahead to Jesus’ sacrifice and death on the cross, shedding his blood for our sins. Pinecones symbolize the new life that Jesus brings through His resurrection.

 

Advent candles

 

A new candle is lit on each of the four Sundays before Christmas. Each candle represents something different, although traditions vary. Many Advent wreaths also have a white candle in the centre to symbolize the arrival of Christmastide, sometimes known as the "Christ candle." It is lit on Christmas. The wreath and candles are full of symbolism tied to the Christmas season.

 

Advent worship is like a journey through the Christmas story. Christians use the Advent candles to celebrate this period with one lit every Sunday of Advent.

The first candle represents hope. The second candle peace. The pink candle, generally lit on the third Sunday of Advent, represents joy. The fourth candle signifies love.

This first candle represents hope or expectation in anticipation of the coming Messiah. The first candle, which is purple, is sometimes called the “Prophecy Candle” or the “Prophet’s Candle” symbolizing the prophets of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, who waited in hope for the Messiah’s arrival.

The second candle, which is a purple candle, represents faith or peace and is called "Bethlehem’s Candle." Prophet Micah had foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which is also the birthplace of King David.

The third candle, which is a pink candle, symbolizes joy and is called the "Shepherd’s Candle." To the shepherd’s great joy, the angels announced that Jesus came for humble, unimportant people like them, too. In liturgy, the colour rose signifies joy.

The fourth candle, which is of purple colour, represents love and is called the "Angel’s Candle." The angels announced that Jesus came to bring peace and love – He came to bring people close to God and to each other again.

The (optional) fifth candle, which is white in colour, represents light and purity and is called "Christ’s candle." It is placed in the middle and is lit on Christmas Day.

Thanksgiving 2020

Dear DLL Jesus,

Today is Thanksgiving Day and I am so very thankful to you for all your blessings in our life.

Right from the day of my conception till today, you have been so kind and generous to me. Earlier I didn't know about it but now I am so much aware of all the beautiful blessings that you have been bestowing on us.

Each passing day and year have been filled with your blessings. I am especially thankful for the year 2020 which has been the most challenging yet the most blessed year of our lives. Thank you so much for keeping us under your protection and taking care of all our needs, wants and desires. 

This year has been fruitful both at the family level as well as at my individual personal level. As I keep writing to you, 2020 has been the most productive year of my life. Thank you for highlighting to me all my talents and skills and giving me the opportunity to write in three different magazines.

Thank you for my plants and Minnie and Warli painting and the ability to learn three different languages even though candle making was quite a disaster because of lack of the wicks. Thank you for the good food every day and thank you for creating in me the love for cooking them!

Thank you for the beautiful people in my life!

Thank you for being my DLL...❤️My Daddy Long Legs!❤️

Mount Carmel

Dear DLL Jesus,

The more I learn about the Carmelite Order, the more I fall in love with it. Something happens to me when I see the enriching beauty of Mount Carmel.

Carmel means "garden, the garden of God, garden-land" and I truly love to see the lush green gardens in the monasteries. I yearn to be there in that garden. In my next birth please send me in the beautiful gardens of Mount Carmel because in this birth I cannot spend a monastic life.

Dear DLL Jesus, is there a way I can be a part of monastic life now? Be in the beautiful gardens of Mount Carmel? Live a life of prayer and silence? Get a small cell of my own and not talk to anyone? 

I am writing all this because I saw a video on Carmelite life just now. Few days ago I had seen a video on the Carmelite cloistered nuns of Thicket Priory. All these have a great impact on me. I enter into a different world altogether and keep thinking about the Carmelite monastery and all things related to it.

I want to write more but don't know what to write. So ending right now. Will write more later.

Saint Antony, Abbot

Dear DLL Jesus,

Today I researched on the life of Saint Antony, Abbot who lived as a hermit in the deserts of Egypt.

There also the evil one didn't leave him alone. In fact he was harassed more with constant temptations.

But Saint Antony Abbot resisted him through severe penance, prayers and fasting. He didn't allow the evil one to win over!

The more I learn about the beautiful lives of the saints, the more I want to imitate their lives. No wonder the Roman Catholic church intercede to the saints and there are around 10,000 of them. But I don't want them to intercede for me to you because I want to have a direct contact with you.

But what I want to do is imitate their lives to come closer to you. I want to learn how to grow in close union with you. I want to learn how they prayed and fought temptations to resist the evil one. I want to read about their inspiring lives because before becoming a saint they must have been normal human beings like me.

But still there's a problem here - they were all religious men and women who consecrated themselves to you. Hardly few of them were married.

Still I want to grow in holiness by imitating their lives. Some of them inspire me through their writings and some of them through their prayerful living. There's something to learn from each one of them.

Most Enriching and Creative Lockdown

The first lockdown in India started on 21 March, 2020 when the schools and churches were asked to remain closed. There was a general panic and everyone wondered what to do during the lockdown. Over the weeks, the lockdowns kept extending and the boredom increased. While the teenagers in the family cribbed about this, I started finding out positive aspects of the lockdown. Since then all the phases of the lockdowns have been turning out to be most wonderful and spiritually enriching for me.

 

Except partaking the Lord sacramentally, I have been doing much better than the earlier normal times. I have been praying more, reading more, writing more and even cooking more!

 

I have really been enjoying this lockdown and my home has become my monastery and domestic church. There is Mass in the morning, regular morning and evening prayers and some really quality time with the family members.

 

I had wanted to study the Bible regularly but there were always some distractions. But now I have joined a weekly online Bible study programme. I also study the daily verses through an app.  This lockdown has been the best time to study the Bible extensively.

 

Besides studying the Bible I have picked up hobbies to keep myself creatively busy. From painting to candle making to cutting hubby's hair, to learning foreign languages like Spanish, Italian and Latin, to tracing the history of the Carmelites to compiling a book on all the Carmelite Saints and Blesseds, I have done it all.

 

I also revived my tiny window garden by being a good plant parent and made my kids happy by trying out new recipes even though I have always hated cooking.

 

My life in the lockdown could not have been better. I have been more productive during the lockdown than the normal times. I hope this continues even after unlocking myself – I hope to live this “new normal” life as the church also opens on 28^th November – the first Sunday (Saturday evening) of the Advent season!

 

St. Raphael Kalinowski

(1 September, 1835 – 15 November, 1907)

Feast: 19 November

Canonized: 17 November, 1991

“God refuses only the person who does not admit his own weakness; He sends away only the unhappy proud person. You must "hold him" well and strongly, with a poor spirit, with a poor heart, with a life entirely poor.”

Today is the memoria of St. Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski. 

He was a Polish Discalced Carmelite friar. He was born Józef Kalinowski to Polish parents Andrew and Josepha Kalinowski in the city of Vilnius in present day Lithuania.

He did his studies at the Academy of Military Engineering and became a Lieutenant in the Russian Military Engineering Corps in 1857. A Polish engineer and freedom fighter, he was exiled to Siberia, and became the restorer of Carmel in Poland. St. Raphael was ordained as priest at Czerna on 15 January, 1882 where he served as Prior.

He served the Discalced Carmelite Order for thirty years, working to unite the Eastern Christians during a time of tension and distrust. He was a devout leader among his Carmelite brothers, and his passion for reconciliation drew him to his flock's confessional for hours on end. As a champion of Christian unification, St. Raphael built his life on St. Teresa's words: “God alone suffices”.

He founded monasteries in Premislia (1884) and Leopoli (1888). In 1899, St. Raphael was named Visitator and Vicar Provincial of these monasteries.

In his seventy-two years of life, St. Raphael was a teacher, engineer, prisoner of war, royal tutor, and a Discalced Carmelite friar and priest. He completed his 'Memoirs 1805-1887' at the request of his superiors, detailing his life as a Discalced Carmelite and ecumenical Christian leader. His other books are Central European Olympiad, A: The Mathematical Duel.

In 1864, St. Raphael was arrested by the Russian authorities and sentenced to death. He was imprisoned in a former Dominican monastery. By his death in 1907, St. Raphael was regarded as a great saint throughout Poland and Lithuania.

Pope John Paul II declared his boyhood hero a saint in St. Peter's Basilica which is also St. Raphael’s place of burial.

What caught my attention about this Carmelite Saint is that he read only two books - the Gospels in the morning and the Carmelite Rules in the evening! I also want to do this!

All Carmelite Saints

Today we celebrate the Feast of all Carmelite Saints. While researching on the Carmelite saints, I came to know about so many saints about whom I had never heard.

Sadly for me it has always been St. Elizabeth of the Trinity and St. John of the Cross. But I was surprised to read about so many other saints and blesseds who led an equally beautiful life. There are so many saints about whom we have never been told and taught and asked to read. It's always the same few popular ones that we keep reading and writing and learning about.

Yes, they are important but it doesn't mean we neglect the others. It's sad to note that so many of them have almost been forgotten.

For example, Blessed Baptist Spagnoli of Mantua. Even though he's a Blessed, he led quite an exemplary life. He wrote eclogues which have been used in European schools for centuries. He is the only Carmelite quoted in the works of William Shakespeare - Love's Labour Lost - (Act IV, scene 2, line 95 FF).

Then Blessed Mary of the Incarnation. She joined the Order after she was widowed at the age of 47. She was the foundress of the nuns of Discalced Carmelite Order in France, who later became a lay sister of the Order. She has been called the Mother of Carmel in France.

Then Saints Louis Martin and Marie Azelia (Zelie) Guerin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. Their lives are so beautiful and inspiring!

Then of course St. Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart! In fact she's known only as the forgotten Saint of Carmel. Her life inspires me because when she died, her body didn't decompose and a sweet perfume was noticed coming from the underground burial place! 

How beautiful!

So I got inspired by some of these lesser known figures in the Carmelite fraternity. So what if they have not written anything great and some of them are still blesseds! Their lives inspire me especially the married ones!

It's not only the virgins who loved Jesus so much! We married women also can love Jesus with equal fervour. Our hearts and souls are also united in Jesus' love. We too give priority to Him in all the aspects of our life. We too have left our father and mother and brothers to embrace His love. 

All are called to be saints and so are we!

My Conception Day

Dear DLL Jesus,

Today is my conception day!

The day you "set me apart before I was born, and called me by your grace". (Galatians 1:15)

Thank you so much, Lord! 

As per Psalm 139:13-16, "you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

I am so grateful to you for keeping me alive and then calling me to be your own. For rescuing this lost sheep and rejoicing over it and carrying it on your shoulder.

I am indebted to you for shining your bright light in my dark life. So today I will light diyas and celebrate my conception day with you! I will celebrate the festival of lights because you have lighted up my life with your love and mercy and grace!

And I love you so very much!

💕 💕

Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran

Today is the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

The anniversary has been celebrated as a feast of the Latin Church on this date since the twelfth century.

The feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran is celebrated by the entire Church. It marks the dedication of the cathedral church of Rome by Pope Sylvester I in 324.

The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the oldest and highest ranking of the four major basilicas in Rome.

It is the cathedral of the diocese of Rome, the official ecclesiastical seat of the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome.

Also called the Church of Holy Saviour or the Church of St. John Baptist,  it is called St. John Lateran because it was built on property donated to the Church by the Laterani family, and because the monks from the monastery of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Divine served it.

The dedication of this basilica is a happy occasion for the Church because it reminds us of our beginnings, our unity. It stands as a monument to God and all that God does through the Church.

One of the most marvelous and imposing churches in Rome, it has five large statues of Christ, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and twelve Doctors of the Church, and holds beneath the high altar what is left of the wooden table which St. Peter himself used as an altar to celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Transformed in Christ!

Yes Lord, I have been transformed in you!

This transformation is evident even in my writings! From writing "Sporting Encounters" in the TIMES OF INDIA newspaper to writing the SAINTS column in the HERALD WEEKLY, I have come a long way!

This above writing is from the November issue of JC4ME children's E-Mag!

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

(18 July, 1880 – 9 November, 1906)

Canonized: 16 October, 2016

Feast Day: 8 November

“It is the whole Trinity who dwells in the soul who truly loves him, that is, keeping his word!”

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity was a French Carmelite nun and writer. She was born on a Sunday into a military family and baptized Marie Rolland Josephine Elizabeth Catez on July 22, the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, a fact which she treasured. Her name was Elizabeth Catez, and her family's fond nickname for her was not Lizzie or Beth, but Sabeth. Her father died when she was only seven. Elizabeth and her sister Marguerite were raised by her mother. When she was 21, Elizabeth entered a Carmelite monastery, over her mother’s objections.

Despite the objections, on 2nd August 1901, the postulant entered the Dijon Carmel and was given the name of Elizabeth of the Trinity. Mother Germaine was her prioress.

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity had true depth of prayer, was a mystic, a great lover of Jesus, and a real friend to her sisters in Carmel and her family. She spent six years as a Carmelite nun, but like St. Thérèse of Lisieux she advanced in holiness in a very short time.

Though a hot-tempered child, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity possessed a deep love for God in her youth. She prayed often and wanted to give herself completely to God. “It is the whole Trinity who dwells in the soul who truly loves him, that is, keeping his word!” she wrote in the Last retreat 27-28.

Her prayer "O my God, Trinity whom I adore" the prayer to the Holy Trinity has been translated into thirty-four languages. Though noted for great spiritual growth, she was also plagued with periods of powerful darkness. But she has been given such titles as "the prophet of the presence of God" and "the saint of the divine indwelling".

Though St. Elizabeth of the Trinity died at the age of 26 she has become a great mystic of our times. She is the patroness against illness and of those who are sick. She believed that “TO LOVE, and to be loved, is the deepest of all human needs; it alone gives meaning and a sense of fulfilment.”

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity confided her purity to Saint Joseph in a very special way.

She was canonized on 16 October, 2016 by Pope Francis. The Church celebrates her feast day on 8 November.

 

Blessed Francis Palau y Quer

(29 December, 1811 - 20 March, 1872)

Beatified: 24 April, 1988

Optional Memoria: 7 November

“God allows your defects to humble you. Try to correct them, counting on the assistance of grace.” 

Blessed Francis Palau y Quer is a beatified Discalced Carmelite Spanish priest. Born in Aytona, Lerida, Spain, he entered the Order in 1832 and was ordained priest in Barbastro (province of Huesca, Spain) in 1836. But because of the civil turmoil he was forced to live in exile and outside his community.

Though he grew up in the chaos of the Peninsular War in Spain, by age 14, Francis was certain of his vocation to the priesthood. Like all the other great figures of Carmelite history, Francisco Palau was captivated by St. Teresa of Avila through her writings. He had felt called to the priesthood from childhood, but in 1828, at the age of twenty, he enrolled himself in the diocesan seminary.

A Catalan Discalced Carmelite mystic, friar and priest, he wrote the book THE STRUGGLE OF THE SOUL WITH GOD.  He founded The School of the Virtue — which was a model of catechetical teaching for adult persons—at Barcelona. Around 1860-1861, he also founded the Carmelite Missionaries – an international religious congregation for women.

He was beatified by 24 April, 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

Speculaas – Dutch Windmill Cookies

Speculaas or speculoos cookies are a staple of the Christmas season in the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of Germany. Also known as the Dutch Windmill Cookies, these crispy and spiced cookies are traditionally stamped or moulded before baking to imprint an image into them, like the classic windmill.

Ingredients

250 grams plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

150 grams brown sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp each ground nutmeg, ginger and cardamom

½ tsp ground cloves

150 grams cold unsalted butter

Rice flour (optional), to dust

Instructions

Process flour, baking powder, sugar, spices, ¼ tsp salt and butter in a food processor until mixture forms fine breadcrumbs. Add 1 tbsp iced water and process until mixture just comes together. Turn out onto a work surface, form into a ball, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm.

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Roll dough into golf ball-size balls and press into a 6 cm-round mould dusted with rice flour. Trim excess dough, then turn out onto the lined tray and repeat with remaining dough, dusting the mould between each batch. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to help the biscuits keep their shape. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. You can store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Blessed Frances d'Amboise

(9 May, 1427 – 4 November, 1485)

Beatified: 16 July, 1863

Optional Memoria: 5 November

“Lay everything at the foot of His cross, and rest there in peace.”

Blessed Frances D’Amboise was born, probably at Thouars, France. At fifteen years of age, she was married to Peter II, Duke of Brittany and crowned with him in the cathedral at Rennes in 1450. She was widowed in 1457 and, not wanting a second marriage, she turned towards religious life. For this purpose, she built a Carmel for sisters at Bondon in 1463 following the advice of Blessed John Soreth, Prior General of the Carmelites.

However, she herself only entered the monastery in 1468. In 1477 she transferred to the monastery at Nantes, another of her foundations. To her is due the introduction of frequent communion (daily for those who were sick) and the fourth vow of strict enclosure.

During her last moments her testament was the phrase which she had said most often during her life: “In everything, do that which will make God loved the more!”

She was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1866.

Blessed Josepha Naval Girbes

(11 December, 1820 – 24 February, 1893)

Beatified: 25 September, 1988

Optional Memory: 6 November

“Sanctify yourself and sanctify others.”

Blessed Josefa Naval Girbés was a Spanish Secular Carmelite. She has been recognized across Spain for her commitment to Church life and in the field of education. She became well known for her personal holiness and the conduct in which she led her life.

Blessed Josepha Naval Girbes was born at Algemesi in the Archdiocese of Valencia, Spain. When she was a young woman, she took a vow of chastity. A member of the Third Order Secular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Teresa of Jesus, she had great devotion for the Virgin Mary. She always wore her scapular and her rosary.

Her mother died on 19 June, 1833 at the age of 35, and Josefa was forced to leave school in order to look after her siblings. She was the eldest of five children raised in a devout family.

Blessed Josefa lived a perfectly simple life, opening her home as a school for embroidery. She used the quiet hours of labour to instruct her young female students about the Catholic faith. She was well known for instructing her girls that their primary mission in life should be to “sanctify yourself and sanctify others.”

She worked with cholera patients towards the end of her life and this led to her death in 1893 combined with her heart condition that hastened her death. She began to feel chronic pains in 1891 due to a heart condition and was in great pain as a result of it. She died in 1893 after a long illness related to that heart ailment. Her last request was granted: to be buried in the brown tunic and white mantle of the Carmelite habit. 

Greek Melomakarona Cookie

A melomakarona is a traditional Greek Christmas cookie. Also known as Christmas honey cookies or Cypriot melomakarona cookies, these sweet and delicious cookies are one of the favourite traditional Christmas sweets in Cyprus.
Here’s the recipe for about 20 cookies:

Ingredients 
½ cup sunflower oil
50 grams (¼ cup) sugar
225 grams (1 cup) flour
A pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Juice and grated rind of ½ orange
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons brandy
1 ½ cups walnuts + extra for decorating
For the syrup:
100 grams (½ cup) sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup water

Directions to make:
Preheat the oven to 165°C / 325°F. Whisk the sunflower oil with the sugar. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon well. After finely chopping the walnuts, mix the orange juice and rind with the baking soda and the brandy. The mixture will start foaming. Mix in the nuts. Whisk in the oil mixture and add the walnuts to make soft dough. Form little egg shaped balls of about 25 grams (about the size of a walnut) and place on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes until light brown and done.

Make the syrup
Meanwhile make the syrup. Bring all the ingredients for the syrup to the boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to boil gently for about 10 minutes.

Dip and decorate
Take the cookies from the oven and dip them in the syrup for about 5 minutes. Turn them halfway. Take from the syrup and leave to drip on a rack. Decorate with the remaining chopped walnuts.

Birthday

It was my birthday on 11 July!

Right from my childhood, my birthday has been the most exciting day of my life - come July, and I circle the 11th day on the calendar and begin the countdown! I sing and dance and make everyone sing and dance!

As my dad used to make me list down the gifts I was looking forward to, I too list down the gifts I want! This has been happening from many years now!

But suddenly something had changed! I guess since 2010 - since the year I started getting carried away by the social media. There was a pressure to look good in the photos! So I started my birthday shopping months in advance and took a lot of pain to make everything and everyone look prim and proper! I went to the beauty parlour to get the right look for the photos!

But this year there wasn't any birthday shopping and no beautifying myself at the parlour! There was a kind of transformation in my life - just like the good old days -  I realized that I could celebrate my birthday without shopping in advance and spending hours at the salon to beautify myself! 

Yes, photos still matter to me for memory sake but not to be uploaded on Facebook! I could survive without posting on Facebook and still be happy!

Also, without receiving birthday wishes on Facebook since I had hidden the birthday notification! But still many of them wished me. 

So starting from this year I have decided to celebrate my conception day also. So on 11 November I will be celebrating my conception day!

❤️❤️

Christmas Traditions

Dear DLL Jesus,

From yesterday I have not been writing/researching on my book!

And I am feeling absolutely lost!

This is what happens to me when I don't have a fixed schedule for myself!

So from today I have decided to write about Christmas traditions and cookies and other Christmas related things. This will keep me busy and happy!

❤️❤️

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day. This day is also known as All Hallows' Day, Hallowmas, the Feast of All Saints, or Solemnity of All Saints. It is a day to commemorate all the saints of the church, both known and unknown, who have attained heaven.

While many saints have a specific feast day on which we celebrate their lives and work, the vast majority of the saints of heaven do not. Thus All Saints Day is particularly for those who have no special feast days of their own.

All Saints’ Day was not always a solemnity observed by the universal church, and is not celebrated everywhere on 1 November. The feast originated in the earliest centuries of the church, when Christians commemorated the many martyrs who died at the hands of their Roman persecutors.

As there were so many martyrs, they could not each have their own feast day; but they were seen as such important witnesses that the Christians did not want to leave any of them out.

As a result, a single commemoration for “all the martyrs” was observed each spring, which celebrated those who did not have their own unique feast.

Pope Gregory III consecrated a chapel at St. Peter’s Basilica to all the saints, as well, with an anniversary date of 1 November. Rome adopted 1 November as the date of the feast of All Saints in the eighth century, and in the ninth century Pope Gregory IV extended that observance to the whole of the Latin Church.

The celebration of this day expresses gratitude for their unique contributions and sacrifices, and acknowledges their continued spiritual presence in the lives of people today.

The Herald Weekly

"For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14:17)

Dear DLL Jesus,

This verse is from the last line of today's Gospel passage!

And the photo attached with this post is my first write up that appeared in the Herald Weekly magazine!

Thank you so much, Lord!

The world rejected you but you proved them wrong by being triumphant over death! The world rejected my writings but you proved them wrong by making me an instrument to write about your love and mercy!

We both were humbled by the world but we both have been exalted now! What a beautiful situation!

Now just one more dream has to come true so that your name is glorified further!

Lord, I want this handbook to see the light of the day so that the world knows how much you love me and have been abundant in your blessings!

Let your name be glorified, Lord!

Let your will be done, Lord!

Mystics of the Church

Dear DLL Jesus,

I am done compiling my second handbook on the Doctors of the Church. There are around 36 Doctors of the Church.

I have started the compilation of my third handbook on the Mystics of the Church. I have not counted them yet. But the first one is Ignatius of Antioch. From tomorrow I will get going with the research.

This handbook will be the third and the last in this series. Last night I got the idea of creating a trilogy of handbooks:

1) Carmelite Saints and Blesseds

2) Doctors of the Church

3) Mystics of the Church

Diwali

Good morning my Jesus!

Soon it will be your festival - Diwali - the festival of Lights!❣️

My favourite festival since my childhood but during my RCIA I was told that I can't celebrate any Hindu festival! How disheartening it was for me because Diwali was the only festival I enjoyed the most because I could me myself!

In Bhilai, I enjoyed a lot during Diwali. I made rangolis every day and made this thing called "Ghar kunda" and decorated it beautifully according to my abilities. I burst crackers in the afternoon itself and then would cry in the night because I had no crackers left while others were bursting them.

Basically it was fun because I could be myself. Unlike the Vanity Fair, I could be alone and not get bothered by the jazzi essentials. I guess I celebrated in Vasai also.

Then everything stopped!

But then thanks to the Liturgical Inculturation session during the catechists training course in 2015. Here we were told about the true meaning of Diwali! We actually celebrated Diwali by making rangolis with flowers and colourful rangoli powder. We applied chandan tikkas and even celebrated an Indian-style Mass!❣️❣️

Thanks to that I started celebrating Diwali again since 2016. This photo is of 2016. In 2016, Diwali was on 29th October. This year it's on 14th November. 

Now I know why I always enjoyed celebrating Diwali - because it is your festival; festival of Lights! You knew me then but sadly I didn't know you!

Late have I known you Lord!

But it's better late than never!!!

Monastic Life

Though I had heard about monasteries, and I knew they existed, I had absolutely no idea how they looked like. Actually I never paid any attention to monasteries!

And then in October 2017 I visited the Carmelite monastery in Goa! I was taken aback by its beauty! First I fell in love with its garden - it was the most beautiful one I had ever seen in my life! Then I saw the green vegetables and the boars and the more I saw, the more I fell in love with the monastery! 

The Carmelite monastery in Goa is the only monastery that I have ever seen in my entire life. I have already blogged about it before but the reason I am blogging about it again today is because of something I have been thinking about for quite some time now.

I am in the midst of compiling my second handbook! This time on the Doctors of the Church! I have compiled 23 of them till now. 

The reason I am writing about monasteries is because most of these great Doctors lived a monastic life and never ventured out much! They did all their writings from the cells of their monasteries!

What made me think and stop my research and write this post is that if all the monasteries in the world are as beautiful as the one in Goa or maybe more beautiful than it, why would a monk ever want to venture out in the big bad world?

If you have a beautiful garden and beautiful vegetables and beautiful boars around you, why would you want to be out? Wow, just the thought of being amidst so much of beauty is so soothing to my soul! No wonder St. Bede hardly went out of his monastery and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity fell in love with the monastic garden which she saw from her home!🏡 In fact she wanted to join the Carmelite Order only because of its beautiful garden!🤩

Jesus, my dear DLL, I want to visit the Carmelite monastery again! Just one more time!😇

“I live life”

Something I wrote in 2015 still holds true!

In 2015, somebody asked me, “So, what do you do nowadays?” Without batting an eyelid, I had answered smilingly, “I live life”.

And this answer got me thinking. And I thought over it the whole night and am still thinking over it.

And I am so glad I gave this answer.

Indeed I am living my life – the kind of life I had always dreamed for myself – with only positive people around me. I have started loving the most dreaded chore – cooking and today I again thank the Almighty for this beautiful life and giving me the chance to enjoy it with the people I love the most.

No more negativity and no more rushing to work – I do things at my own pace and I am not answerable to anyone except the people who love me the most – and the most beautiful part is that they never question and they never judge. 

I have cultivated hobbies and I study and I read and I write for pleasure and not for people…I laze around, I stand at the window looking at the rising sun, admiring the leaves trying to touch the window pane and I smile and I live life. 

Yes, indeed, my life is beautiful even though it’s ordinary and I am living it to the fullest!😍

Have a Happy Wednesday!!!

Today's Gospel

At that time Jesus exclaimed:

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike."

Dear DLL Jesus,

How apt this gospel verse, taken from St. Matthew, is for me! 

All my life I have been considered childlike because I don't possess a college degree and not specialized in any creative course! Right from my childhood I have been ridiculed by relatives and friends for not having extraordinary talents and intellectual. The teachers in school, especially St. Michael's, Durgapur, would humiliate me because of the poor quality of my studies! I didn't have a great school life as I lagged behind in class because of so many changes in curriculum and syllabus due to relocations.

But Lord you raised me up by giving an understanding of the Bible - by revealing to me things that you withheld from the intellectuals! You handled me patiently unlike my school teachers - you gave understanding to this slow learner, this late bloomer!

I thank you Lord for this!🙏

I also understood yesterday's gospel verse - "I have come to bring fire and not peace and I have come to bring sword......"

While I was reading its commentary I read that there used to be discord in the family over following you! This rang a bell in the morning when I looked at my father's photo during the Mass - it dawned on me that how upset he was when he came to know that I would have to get converted to Christianity after marriage! Even my brother was wild and didn't attend my wedding! 

This verse further says that "if you prefer your family - father and mother and brother - over me, then you are not worthy of me". But then Lord I preferred you over everyone and decided to follow you! Though at that time I did it just to get married!

But you know everybody's heart! You must have found something special in my heart and that's why you showed special favour to me and slowly started revealing the hidden things!

Wow Lord, everything is so clear now! As clear as the morning!

The gospel passages of last few days are so very relatable to my life! And I have understood them so very well!😊

Word of God

The Eucharist and the Word of God are the two pillars of Carmelite Spirituality.

To read the word of God in the spirit of Carmel is to pray it with the heart of Mary. This means that as she, more than anyone, listened to and welcomed the word of God, we too should listen to and welcome the word of God in our life. As St. John of the Cross wrote so beautifully: “The Mother gazed in sheer wonder” (R 9).

Carmelite Spirituality is a spirituality of the Word of God.

Way of Perfection

THE WAY OF PERFECTION (Spanish: Camino de Perfección) is a handbook for the sisters of her reformed convent by St. Teresa of Ávila. She urged her nuns onto a deeper relationship with Our Lord.

It is a method for making progress in the contemplative life and was written in 1577. It was written during the height of controversy which raged over the reforms St. Teresa enacted within the Carmelite Order. In it, she sets out to lead others along the way to union with God through prayer, silence, and contemplation.

This book is a practical guide to prayer setting forth the Saint's counsels and directives for the attainment of spiritual perfection. Of all of St. Teresa of Avila's works, THE WAY OF PERFECTION is the most easily understood.

Although she designed her book for her fellow sisters of the Carmelite Order, there's plenty in there for those of us who don't live in convents.

Union with God

All of Carmelite spirituality is rooted in the human heart's deepest desire for intimate union with God. This union with God is through love – the Carmelite Rule places the final stage of discipleship through a way of following Jesus Christ.

The attaining of Union with God is primarily God's work, yet the soul can correspond with a joyful detachment from everything that is not God.

No other saint has explained the path to Union with God better than St. Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite Doctor of the Church on prayer.

From Christ, the Carmelite, henceforth, is not to look away; in dependence on Him the Carmelite intends to live. Carmel is all about searching for God and union with God.

The truth about Jesus which Carmelites are called to live out is Christ's prayerful union with His Father while in the midst of the world.

The friars seek to live a life of faithful prayer, seeking union with God through a "life of allegiance to Jesus Christ."

The Essence of the Carmelite Charism is Prayer and Contemplation leading to union with God.

“Carmelite spirituality enables God-seekers to discover new heights and depths of union with God,” says Father Michael Berry, O.C.D., a Discalced Carmelite.

Carmel is a journey that brings us to greater union with God, souls and Holy Mother Church! St. Teresa of Jesus called this journey "the royal road to Heaven”.

St Elizabeth of the Trinity once said describing our Carmelite life, “The life of a Carmelite is a life of communion with God from morning until night”.

Thus the goal of the Carmelite life is union with God.

Shield of Carmel

The Shield of Carmel or

The Carmelite Crest

 

There have been several explanations of the design and they are all connected with the Prophet Elijah of the Old Testament. The Carmelites trace their origin to the hermits who lived in the spirit of Elijah on Mount Carmel in the twelfth century.

 

The peak or point in the centre of the shield is taken to represent Mount Carmel, the scene of the Prophet’s greatest triumph over the false prophets of Baal, and the dwelling place of the followers of Elijah. The star in the lower part symbolises Elijah while the two stars above it represent Christ and Mary. Many saints and early writers have seen a symbol of Our Lady in the cloud which Elijah saw arising from the sea to bring rain to the parched land of Israel (see 1Kings 18:44). The early hermits built an oratory in honour of Our Lady on Mount Carmel and chose her as their patroness. Later they become known as the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Others have seen the lower star representing us and the upper stars representing Elijah and Mary, the two great models for the Order, guiding us up the Mount towards Christ. Another interpretation sees the lower star representing Elijah and the Prophetic Tradition while the two upper stars represent the Greek (Eastern) Tradition and the Latin (Western) Tradition.

 

The sword symbolises the power and zeal of Elijah. In the Scriptures Elijah appears again and again as God’s Prophet, speaking out boldly against abuses and reminding the Israelites of their special calling to live as God’s people. The sword is sometimes shown as flaming, to suggest the ardent and zealous spirit of the Prophet; moreover it recalls the fire which he called down from heaven upon the mountain of Carmel to confound the false prophets of Baal (see 1Kings 18:38). Elsewhere in the bible we are told, Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, his sword flashing like a torch (see Ecclesiasticus 48:1).

 

Around the crest are grouped twelve stars. The number is meant to refer to the crown of the woman in the Book of Revelations (or the Apocalypse), who has always been taken as a figure of Our Lady, And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and her head a crown of twelve stars (Revelations 12:1).

 

 

The motto or legend consists of the words of Elijah taken from the First Book of the Kings, 19:10: With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts. In Latin the phrase reads: Zelo zelatus sum pro Domino Deo exercituum. These words express the whole life of the prophet Elijah and the very spirit that moved him. The crest or coat of arms stands as an emblem of that tradition and is associated with Carmelite spirit which has been handed down to us.

 

 

source:

http://www.carmelites.ie/crest.html

Toledo

Toledo is a city and municipality located in central Spain; it is the capital of the province of Toledo in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Toledo is a historic city in Castilla La Mancha, sitting majestically above the Tagus River and denoted a UNESCO heritage site in 1986.

The history of Toledo dates back to Roman occupation (Toletum) circa 192BCE. The ruins of the Roman circus are still visible just outside the walls of the city.

Toledo was considered the holiest city in Spain in the Catholic faith.

Our holy father St. John of the Cross entered a Carmelite Monastery at the age of 21 in Toledo Spain. But after the anti-Reformist General Chapter of the Calced Carmelites in 1572 he was abducted and imprisoned at a Carmelite friary at Toledo. He was imprisoned in a dungeon here which was seven meters long and one meter sixty wide.

Confined in a dark cell in this monastery of the Toledo Carmelites, St John used to bleed from the wounds inflicted by their floggings, he was also starved. He was incarcerated  for nine months.

After six months in the Toledo Carmelite prison, a new warden brought St. John the writing material he requested, and he wrote down some of his earliest poetry. He knew, with a grim certainty, that he was going to die if he remained in his prison at Toledo much longer.

He escaped from the prison in August 1578.

Teresian Carmels

The definition of Teresian Carmels is a barefooted Carmelite of the reformed order established in the 16th century by St. Teresa of Ávila.

It was to become the first of a new Order: the Discalced Carmelites. [The term 'discalced' means 'barefoot' and comes from the practice of wearing sandals].

The Order was established in the 16th century, pursuant to the reform of the Carmelite Order by two Spanish saints, Saint Teresa of Ávila (foundress) and Saint John of the Cross (co-founder). Discalced is derived from Latin, meaning "without shoes".

Todo y Nada

(All and Nothing)

Todo y nada is the spiritual genius of St. John of the Cross. According to him, "To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing. To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing.”

Everything and nothing in his understanding of God: todo y nada.

Some say that the spirituality of Saint John of the Cross can be summed up with just this one word: nothing.

This famous poem by St. John of the Cross is from THE ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL expressig the spiritual dialectics of all/nothing (todo/nada) very well. Here the word todo is used 2772 times.

Thus the core of St. John of the Cross' teaching is “nada, nada, nada!” which means “nothing, nothing, nothing” other than God.

Teresa of Avila

“Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.” ― Saint Teresa of Avila (March 28, 1515 – October 4, 1582)

St. Teresa of Ávila, born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was also called Saint Teresa of Jesus. She was born in Avila and died in Alba, Spain. She was the third child of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda by his second wife, Doña who died when Teresa was 12.

She was a  Spanish nun, one of the great mystics, a reformer of the Carmelite Order, Doctor of the Church and religious woman of the Roman Catholic Church.

She was an influential and pivotal figure of her generation. St. Teresa, dissatisfied with the quality of her religious life after living several years at the Incarnation Convent in Avila, had begun her reform to establish houses. She founded 17 Carmels in her lifetime and together with St. John of the Cross, she succeeded in restoring the Carmelite Order.

From her earliest years she was religiously inclined. She is known as the patroness of the religious and the sick. She received numerous visions during a period of great illness.

She died in 1582 at the age of 67 and was made a saint in 1622. In 1970, she was named a Doctor of the Church for her writings and teachings.

St. Teresa was a woman who achieved greatness at a time when women had few opportunities.

On October 15, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Teresa of Jesus, more commonly known as Saint Teresa of Ávila.

The historic walled city of Ávila in central Spain is synonymous with the story of Saint Teresa of Ávila, dating back to the 1500s.

St. Simon Stock

After the Crusades, the Englishman St. Simon Stock (d. 1265) reorganized the Carmelites as mendicant friars. He was an early prior general of the Carmelite religious order.

On May 16, the Catholic Church remembers St. Simon Stock, a twelfth- and thirteenth-century Carmelite monk.

St. Simon Stock was born to a very illustrious family in Kent County, England (c. 1165), of which his father was governor. From his infancy he turned all his thoughts and affections to attain to the most perfect love of God.

St. Simon Stock is associated with the brown scapular of the Carmelite order. St. Simon Stock was one hundred years old when he died.

On July 16, 1251, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock in the town of Aylesford, England. “Whosoever dies in this garment (the Brown Scpular) shall not suffer Eternal fire. It shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger, and a ..."

He who dies clothed with this habit shall be preserved from eternal fire. It is the badge of salvation, a shield in time of danger, and a pledge of special peace and protection." The scapular (from the Latin, scapula, meaning "shoulder blade") consists of two pieces of cloth, one worn on the chest, and the other on the back, which were connected by straps or strings passing over the shoulders.

Scapular

One of the signs in the tradition of the Church from many centuries ago is the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is a sign approved by the Church.

The Brown Scapular is a sacramental worn around the neck. It was given to St. Simon Stock, of the Carmelite Order, by Our Lady, in England, in the 13th century.

One way in which Mary is honoured in the Carmelite family is through the Brown Scapular. The Scapular is a symbol of Mary's protection.

On July 16, 1251, Our Lady appeared in the Carmelite habit and held out the Brown Scapular to St. Simon Stock in response to his prayers on behalf of the men.

Through this scapular Our Lady promised a special protection for all members of the Carmelite Order

Salamanca

Salamanca is a city in western Spain that is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the community of Castile and León. It is 212 kilometres away from the capital, Madrid.

Our holy father St John of the Cross began his studies at the University of Salamanca – he studied Theology and Philosophy there.

He completed further studies at Salamanca and in 1567 was ordained to the priesthood.

Spiritual Canticle

THE SPIRITUAL CANTICLE (Spanish: Cántico Espiritual), is one of the gretest poetic works of our holy father and Spanish mystical poet, St. John of the Cross.

The full title is SPIRITUAL CANTICLE OF THE SOUL AND THE BRIDEGROOM OF CHRIST.

St John of the Cross, the Doctor of the Church, wrote this poem as an expression of his burning love for God.

In THE SPIRITUAL CANTICLE St. John of the Cross tries to explain the mystical process that follows the soul until it reaches its union with God. In order to get this, the poet uses an allegory: the search of the husband (Christ) by the wife (the human soul). It is about divine union – the stanzas between the soul and the bridegroom. St. John tries to provide an explanation for the mystical process that follows the soul until it reaches its union with God.

Story of a Soul

(L'Histoire d'une Âme)

THE STORY OF A SOUL is the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower) which conveys her "Little Way" of spiritual childhood - her "elevator" to Heaven, as she called it.

THE STORY OF A SOUL has become one of the greatest Catholic classic books. This young French woman felt the call of God early on her life and became a Carmelite nun at fifteen. She died at twenty-four. The book is distinguished by St. Therese's capacity for self analysis and her ability to draw meaning from the natural world.

She wrote this autobiography out of obedience to Mother Agnes of Jesus (her religious superior who was also her sister, Pauline). THE STORY OF A SOUL she tells of her life story which was very short (1873-1897).

Understanding of Biblical Verses

Dear DLL Jesus,

I am extremely thankful to you for making me understand the Biblical verses through daily happenings of my life!

From last so many days now Lord you are making me understand but I keep forgetting to write them down! I have forgotten them all but two!

So let me write about these two before I forget these as well!

1) Everything is vanity.......

The meaning of the word vanity is "excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements".

Here I will take only one part of the meaning because you explained to me the meaning of the above verse in context to my birthday!

Every year, from last ten years now, by this time I do so much of shopping for my birthday! I not only shop for my own self but for everyone at home and my shopping is completely done for my birthday in July. I only keep counting the days!

But this year because of the lockdown I have not done anything! I have not bought anything either for myself or anyone at home! There are no chances of going to the beauty parlour also!

So a couple of days back when I was thinking about my birthday, the above verse came into my mind - everything is vanity - and I immediately understood its true meaning!

I understood that all the shopping was for the admiration of my own appearance - to look good on my birthday, click photos and upload on Facebook! How shallow everything has been for me for the last ten years! How shallow I have become because of social media!

2) Now, the second revelation that came to me was just in the afternoon when I was mopping the floor!

No particular biblical verse but something about your love and mercy on me for being obedient to you!

Yesterday evening I had shifted the banana plant to the kids window. In the morning when I was watering the plants, I saw it fallen down and its leaves were all chewed up by Minnie. So I was upset with her! I had made this known to her!

In the afternoon when I was mopping the floor, Minnie was moving around from one room to the other! So I told her to sit at one place till I finished mopping! And she actually sat down!!!

And I was very happy!

So I told her momma is very happy with you for being obedient and I am not angry anymore for what you did to the banana plant!

The moment I said these words, I thought of the love and mercy of God! I understood that you, O lord, are very happy when we are obedient to you! You delight in our obedience to your words and forgive all our past offences! We are your favourite ones and your anger is only for a short while! I understood everything!

I also understood today's first reading about king Ahab! I have been following his behaviour in the readings and cannot imagine how he could be so inobedient!

So, thank you Lord for making me understand the scriptures at a personal level!

😇😇

Silence & Solitude

Chapter 10 of the Carmelite Rule says that a Carmelite is to stay in or near their cell, always watchful in prayer, unless doing some physical work. They lived in separate cells or huts and observed vows of silence, seclusion, and abstinence.

The Carmelites, formally known as the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, were to hear Mass every morning in the oratory of the community, take vows of poverty and toil, and maintain daily silence from vespers until terce the next morning.

Even meals are to be taken in silence while they listen to a reading from a spiritual book.

From Elijah, Carmelites learn to listen for the voice of God in the unexpected and in silence. We seek to allow the Word of God to shape our minds and our hearts - ours is a way of life in which the Word of God is cherished in silence.

For souls aspiring to contemplation, both silence and solitude are a necessity. The early Carmelites went into the solitude of the desert to focus their lives exclusively on God. They viewed Elijah as the father of monasticism, and from that time they sought God's presence in solitude and lived on Mount Carmel.

“Solitude is not an empty space, a void; it is an encounter with the God who loves us…”

Solitude walks hand in hand with silence.

Carmelite spirituality proposes silence and solitude as necessary pre-requisites for prayer and contemplation. Silence refers not only to external noise but also to the stilling of one’s internal noises. 

Silence is the condition for listening attentively to the still small voice of God. Solitude provides the ambience where one may be alone so as to focus more attentively on the Beloved. Solitude then is not primarily separation or isolation from others, but a place of privileged encounter with the Beloved.

Each Carmelite from solitude, pilgrims to the encounter with the Lord every morning, and we can sing with the psalmist: "O God, you are my God-- for you I long!

Carmelite nuns embrace a life of silence and solitude to foster an atmosphere conducive to recollection and prayer. As God's sweetness is tasted in the silence, a desire for solitude naturally arises.

 

Reformed Carmelites

A reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and our holy mother St. Teresa of Ávila was an important figure in this Reformation which is also called the Counter Reformation. 

She is considered as the Spanish religious reformer and credited with reviving Catholicism in the 1560s and 1570s when Protestantism threatened to bring down the church. Her most significant contribution was the founding of the Reformed Discalced (Barefoot) Carmelite Convent of San Jose, a Catholic order for women. At the time of her death in 1582 she had started seventeen new Reformed Discalced Carmelite convents, or religious houses, in Spain.

The Carmelites were formally known as the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The need for reform of the Carmelite order was recognized by the early sixteenth century, and some early attempts at reform were made then.

St Teresa started a reform movement among the nuns and then with the help of St John of the Cross, among the friars in 1568 in Spain. In 1592 this reform, called that of the "Discalced Carmelites" or of the "Teresians", became independent from the Carmelite Order and grew rapidly.

St John of the Cross began the first monastery of the Teresian reform for the friars.

The reformed Carmelites are also known as Discalced (shoeless) Carmelites and have produced many canonized saints.

So it is today in the 21st century the Discalced Carmelite friars and nuns continue to live this way of life begun on Mount Carmel and reformed by St Teresa of Avila. An important element of her reform was to rescue the practice of mental prayer.

The aim of the reform was to restore and emphasize the austerity and contemplative character of primitive Carmelite life. Because Reformed Carmelites wore sandals in place of shoes and stockings, they came to be called the Discalced, or barefooted, Carmelites, to distinguish them from the older branch of the order.

The Rule

The Rule of life was given to the early Carmelites by St. Albert Avogadro between the years 1206 - 1214.

It was amended and confirmed by his Holiness Pope Innocent IV.

In the legislation of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, the Rule has a privileged place, since it is a primordial document with a two-fold value: spiritual and normative.

The eremitic Rule of St. Albert is the shortest of the rules of consecrated life in existence of the Roman Catholic church.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e16689d2af57f45b383b4d9/t/5e2114f412540e1f1c713d6b/1579226356261/RuleofStAlbert.pdf 

 

 

Reminiscences

THE PRAISE OF GLORY: REMINISCENCES are the writings of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity who died in 1906 at the age of 26 in the Carmel of Dijon.

When writing about God, her language was simple and affectionate though she was nourished on the writings of St. John of the Cross.

She has let a rich spiritual legacy of writings and reflections and set the standard for contemplative prayer. Her many letters and spiritual writings offer spiritual food and nourishment for the soul.

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity is the most recently canonized Carmelite saint.

Her writings reveal a profound spirituality that all Christians can learn from.

Queen of Carmel

There are many titles given to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Queen of Carmel is one of them.

Not only is Mary Queen of Carmel, but also the Beauty and Flower of Carmel, the Flos Carmeli. In Mary's perfect yes, the Church sees itself brought to perfection.

 

We Carmelites bear the name 'Brothers and Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary' and belong to a religious family dedicated to her love and service. This special bond with our Lady influences our whole way of life; it pervades our communities, nourishes our life of prayer and our ministry.

 

Devotion to Mary as Mother is a characteristic expression of Carmelite Spiritualty. Mary is also seen as Sister, sharing the journey of faith with us. To both are added the title of Beauty – the name Mount Carmel means: the garden of God – so that Mother and Beauty of Carmel is an honoured title among Carmelites.

 

Our Lady as portrayed in the Gospels is thus put before us as the perfect embodiment of the ideal of our Order. Like her, we strive to treasure God’s word in our heart, pondering it in faith and thus, under her guidance, strive to share more fully in the mystery of Christ and his Church.

Poverty

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. In keeping with the Carmelite tradition, the Carmelite monks profess the evangelical counsels by making vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty to God and to their neighbour.

Vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are now taken in some form by all formal congregations and orders of religious in the Roman Catholic Church.

Indeed, for religious men and women, vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are of the very essence of their vocation.

The vows of poverty, chastity and obedience which members of religious orders take form one single commitment to follow Christ in a particular way.

By our vow of poverty, we proclaim that Christ is the “pearl of great price,” the true treasure to which no earthly thing can compare.

The poverty of a Carmelite is a means for the apostolate.

Practice of the Presence of God

The Practice of the Presence of God is a book of collected teachings of Brother Lawrence (born Nicolas Herman), a 17th-century Carmelite friar, compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort. The compilation includes letters, as well as records of his conversations kept by Brother Lawrence's interlocutors.

The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence.

Brother Lawrence was a 17th Century monk who honed the skill of practicing the presence of God.

Brother Lawrence was a Carmelite monk and head cook in his monastery's kitchens.

Practice of the Presence of God is a creative Christian work that is required reading according to many believers.

Practicing the presence of God by Brother Lawrence is an amazing prayer practice to help you grow closer to God.

Called an "unparalleled classic", The Practice of the Presence of God has moved readers for centuries.

These, the conversations (now entitled The Practice of the Presence of God) and 16 letters represent Lawrence's full teaching. God is in the kitchen.

http://www.orthodoxebooks.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/The%20Practice%20of%20the%20Presence%20of%20God%20-%20Brother%20Lawrence.pdf

Perseverance in Prayer

“God withholds Himself from no one who perseveres.” – St. Teresa of Avila

Jesus taught a parable about a woman pestering a judge until he heeded her request with the intention of exhorting us always to pray and not give up.

One of the most difficult aspects of prayer is persevering when it seems that God is not answering.

The temptation to give up prayer is one that St. Teresa herself fell prey to, much to her dismay.

St. Teresa of Avila and Perseverance in Prayer:

“Perseverance is the most necessary thing here" (II Mansions, i; Peers, II, 214)

She wrote extensively on prayer and the spiritual life asking God to give “strength to our souls”.

St. Teresa's encouragement to stay the course with prayer is a gift not only to her. St. Teresa counsels, as always, perseverance and greater attentiveness to the call of love.

 It consists in persevering prayer so as to open to receive what God gives.

 Through perseverance in prayer, she came to greater awareness of God's presence and His love for her.

St. Teresa of Avila remains an inspiration and a trustworthy guide for all who try to persevere in prayer.

St. Teresa is known for being in the highest union with God in prayer.

Prayer

The dictionary meaning of prayer is “a spiritual communion with God or an object of worship, as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession.” Prayer is the act or practice of praying to God or an object of worship.

Traditionally, Catholic prayers fall into four types:

Adoration: Praising God.

Contrition: Asking for God's forgiveness.

Petition: Asking God for a favour.

Thanksgiving: Showing God gratitude.

The most important characteristic of Carmelite spirituality is living in God's presence. This relationship with God takes shape in prayer. Thus, the heart of Carmelite life rests in faithfulness to community and solitary prayer.

Prayer is an important part of Carmelite life. We are called upon to pray daily.

It is important to reserve every day a little time to read or listen to the Word of God. If one stops praying, it is difficult to get back into a rhythm. In fact when this spirituality enters the heart, where the intimate conversation with God happens, it becomes mental prayer.

Prayer is at the very heart of the Carmelite vocation. Through praying alone and together as a community, Carmelites seek to communion with God.

“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.” ― St. Teresa of Avila

 For St. Teresa, prayer is simply friendship with Jesus. Real prayer is nothing other than the expression of a relationship of friends. She says: “Humility is the principal virtue that people who pray.”

In the works of St. Teresa of Avila we are shown the importance of prayer as friendship; in St. John of the Cross how we are led as God's people from selfishness to joy.

“The important thing in prayer is not to think much but to love much” [Interior Castle, 4, 1, 7].

OCD

The Discalced Carmelites – OCD (Ordo Carmelitarum Discalceatorum) or Teresian differ in that they follow the reforms of the Carmelite Order made by Saint Teresa of Jesus (of Avila) in the sixteenth century. One such reform is the wearing of sandals, no uppers to the shoe -- ‘shoeless’ – discalced, a sign of poverty and reform.

 

The crest of the OCD Carmelites uniquely features a cross at the summit of the mountain.

 

It is the largest branch of the Carmelite Family today and is present worldwide.

 

As Discalced Carmelites we are a family of men and women, both religious and lay, situated in many countries of the world with a deep friendship with Jesus Christ.

 

The Discalced Carmelites came to India in the beginning of the 17th Century.

Ordo

Ordo is an annual calendar that gives directions for each day's Mass and Office.

It is a booklet containing short and abbreviated directions for the contents of the Office and Mass of each day in the year. 

Obedience

We Carmelites seek the presence of God and call others to a deep connection with our Lord through our evangelical vows of chastity, poverty and OBEDIENCE.

The Rule consisted of sixteen articles, which enjoined strict obedience to their prior, residence in individual cells, constancy in prayer, and the hearing of Mass.

In keeping with the Carmelite tradition, the Carmelite monks profess the evangelical counsels by making vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty to God.

For the Carmelite Community, obedience corrects and purifies the relationship with God.

We exercise evangelical obedience “by being open to will of God”, in whom we imitate Jesus, Mary, and Joseph who were obedient to Father in everything.

The Carmelite reform of the nuns and the friars are due to St. Teresa's initiative under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and in obedience to the Magisterium of the Church.

This community of Carmelite hermits live a hidden life of silence and prayer and obedience to their Superior and their place within the Religious Community.

Carmelites take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to help them grow in their freedom to serve God and their neighbour.

The vow of obedience leads the nun to imitate the obedience of Jesus Christ. Carmelite Seculars, together with the Friars and Nuns, take the promise of obedience to live open to the will of God.

July 2018

Though I have finished writing about all the plants and trees I could recall since my childhood, I am uploading this pic because of its beauty!

This pic was clicked in July 2018 - the day these three plants were bought!

As one can make out, there's the variegated spider lily and the lemongrass, accompanied by the peace lily (as I was told by the local nursery).

But I still don't know the exact name of the third plant! If anyone is aware, please make me aware too!

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Mary, the Mother of God, has a multitude of titles under which she is invoked.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is Mary, mother of Jesus. Carmel is a mountain in Northern Israel, where the Carmelite order was founded in the twelfth century. Our Lady of Mount Carmel personifies the “enclosed garden” created solely for God and watered by Him, containing all beauty, grace, and virtues.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel means Mary as she is honoured in the Carmelite Order. Mary is first seen as patron. This is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The brown scapular and the rosary are given by her. Blessed Virgin Mary said to St. Dominic: "One day through the rosary and the scapular I will save the world." The scapular is an external sign of the filial relationship established between the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and queen of Mount Carmel.

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated each year on July 16. At Lourdes in 1858, the Virgin chose to make her last apparition on July 16. The feast was assigned to 16 July, because on that date in 1251, according to Carmelite traditions, the scapular was given by the Blessed Virgin to St. Simon Stock.  

Pothos Plants

Today's plant is the pothos!

I had saved the best for the last - this means today's plant post is the last plant to be written about!

And I write about the pothos plants that I have.

Basic pothos care is very easy. These plants enjoy a wide range of environments. They do well in bright indirect light as well as low light.

A pothos is arguably the easiest of all houseplants to grow, even if you are a person who forgets to water your plants. But my problem is that I always overwater my plants.

These plants have a multitude of common names including golden pothos, Ceylon creeper, hunter's robe, ivy arum, money plant, silver vine, Solomon Islands ivy, etc.

Also called devil's ivy, pothos can be grown in hanging baskets or as a potted plant on a desk. They are excellent at helping to purify the air.

Pothos or the money plant, as famously known in India is one of the easiest to grow plant in India.

Epipremnum aureum, or Pothos, is a tropical aroid vine in the family Araceae and native to French Polynesia.

Golden pothos, also known as devil's ivy, is the easiest indoor plant to care for because it can withstand infrequent watering and low light.

These plants have shiny, heart-shaped leaves that often have gold, white, or yellow variegation. 

These plants have added a lovely and gracious appearance to my window garden!

 I have two of mine pothos plants in  ceramic pots.

 

Carmelite Saints on Prayer

“Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What do you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in anything less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart.” – Saint John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love, 27

“Vocal prayer must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to; what he is asking; who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don’t call prayer – however much the lips may move.” – Saint Teresa of Avila, from The Interior Castle

“Prayer does not necessarily mean talking to God; it more often means listening to him.” — Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, Practice of the Presence of God

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned towards heaven; it is a cry of recognition and love; embracing both trial and joy.” – Saint Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul

“Consuming Fire! Spirit of Love! Descend within me and reproduce in me, as it were, another incarnation of the Word that I may be to Him another humanity wherein He may renew His mystery.” – Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Prayer to the Trinity

“True pupils of the school of Carmel should be in a high degree wrapped up in themselves, to find and meet God in the innermost recesses of their souls.” – Blessed Titus Brandsma, Carmelite Mystical Historical Sketches

“Make prayer your business.” – Nicholas of Narbonne, Ignea Sagitta (The Flaming Arrow)