On this Good Shepherd Sunday, I thought you might enjoy a recap of the love and unified prayer that our order has shared with Our Holy Fathers as well as our priests. This providential picture of our three most recent popes together below is truly a gem!
Here is the letter that our OCD Father General sent to Pope Francis last month following his election.
Letter from Fr General to Pope Francis
| P. SAVERIO CANNISTRÀ-Roma-Italy (14-03-2013).- Holy Father,Our family of Discalced Carmelite friars, nuns, and seculars bids you the warmest welcome. With the simplicity our fathers and mothers in Carmel have handed down to us, we open the doors of our hearts to you. Count on us, Your Holiness; on us, your sons and daughters in Christ Jesus. Our Holy Mother Teresa taught us to live the gift of faith in a communion of love with the Church, in the spirit of obedience to the Vicar of Christ, placing our lives at the service of the Kingdom. This we have done with your predecessors and this we will do with you. Keeping in our hearts a profound gratitude towards your predecessor, Benedict XVI, whose life has helped us so much to set our eyes on Christ, we have lived with trusting serenity, expectant prayer, and elated joy the election of a new Pope. Every day we told the Lord: “Show us who you have elected to guide the barque of Peter in this time of grace.” Now that we have seen you, we welcome in Your Holiness he whom God has sent to us. Our heartfelt thanks for having said yes. We imagine it was not easy to do, faced with the arduous tasks awaiting you. But we have seen in your countenance the true humility of he who offers himself as an instrument of the Lord, who allows Him to work through his words, his decisions, his actions. In Your Holiness we have once again recognized the work of the Spirit, his renewing strength, which contains continual surprises for his faithful, and for that we give thanks to God. Holy Father, we want to tell you with a bit of daring that we want to be your friends. We want our family of Carmel to be like a new Bethany for Your Holiness, where you can rest from your labors and where, together, we can talk about what we most love: our Friend Jesus Christ, his Church, the poorest of our times. The name you have chosen encourages us to do so: the name of who, following the footprints of Christ, has always wanted to be the smallest among his brothers. We will be missionaries with you when you undertake the journey to announce the Gospel to the whole world. We will join Your Holiness when you proclaim with courage and strength the peace and justice of the Kingdom of God. When the cross appears, you will have us beside you to embrace it with you. And we will also be at your side when you retire in prayer to speak to the Heart of Jesus. We place your pontificate under the protection of Mary, who for us is the “Flower of Carmel, fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, Virgin Mother, Mother most tender, Star of the Sea.” May God bless you! Your sons and daughters of the Discalced Carmel. Source: http://www.carmelitaniscalzi.com Just recently Pope Benedict took time out of his busy travelling schedule to visit with OCD sisters in Lebanon: |
| Pope Benedict visits Carmelites at Harrisa Lebanon |
Pope Benedict XVI with Carmelites in Lebanon
The Holy Father wished to greet the community of Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Harissa before concluding his apostolic trip to Lebanon, which took place September 14 through 16. During the brief, 10-minute visit, the Pope gave his apostolic blessing to this contemplative community and encouraged it to continue its service to the Church and to society. Pope Benedict also chose an OCD priest to lead the Lenten Spiritual Exercises just two years ago. See LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO Fr. FRANÇOIS-MARIE LETHEL, O.C.D., PREACHER OF THE LENTEN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES See http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20110319_lethel_en.html Last but not least, our Holy Father St. Pope JPII had a special love for the Brown Scapular and the Discalced Carmelite order.  He visited with Sister Lucia, ocd of Fatima on several occasions and thanked Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and of Fatima for saving his life when he was shot. The Vatican reported the following:
Pope John Paul II insisted doctors not remove his brown
scapular during surgery on him following the assassination attempt in May 1981.
Father Mariano Cera, a Carmelite priest, told Inside the Vatican: "Just before
the Holy Father was operated on, he told the doctors 'Don't take off the
scapular.' And the surgeons left it on." Father Cera made the comments at the
beginning of celebrations for the 750th anniversary of the Carmelite scapular,
now underway in Rome. Some 750 years ago monks were banished from Mount Carmel
in Palestine by Muslims. Nearly eight centuries later, Pope John Paul is
convinced that Our Lady of Mount Carmel, along with Our Lady of Fatima, saved
him from the bullets of Mehmet Ali Agca. [See Inside the Vatican, July 2001,
page 44] The Virgin Mary appeared at the final apparition of Fatima (Portugal)
and at Lourdes (France) wearing the brown scapular. The pontiff, a Third
Order Carmelite, has worn the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
since he was a young boy. He frequent ly asks Our Lady of Mount
Carmel to help him make important decisions.
In observation of the 750th anniversary, to be celebrated on
July 16, Pope John Paul II has written a special letter to the
Carmelites, saying: "I also carry the scapular on my heart... for
the love that it nutures toward the common Heavenly mother, whose
protection is continually springing forth." (See http://www.helpfellowship.org/ocds%20lessons/Lesson%2012.htm)
Currently more than half a million people around the world wear
the brown scapular. On Sunday evening, July 8, in the overflowing
Carmelite church of Santa Maria in Transpontina, 30 laymen became
a part of that expanding number. Father Cera, the chief celebrant,
invested these men of faith with the scapular. The scapular of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel is inseparable with the events of the past
century: Fatima, Russia, the Pope's shooting and especially the hope of
reuniting East and West. The Carmelites are the only Order founded
in the East that that has settled in the West. Pope Paul VI said
the devotion of the brown scapular and the Holy Rosary are the two
most recommended devotions by the magisterium of the Church. (See http://www.ourgardenofcarmel.org/carmspecial.html)
 Source: http://www.carmelitaniscalzi.com We have indeed been blessed with wonderful shepherds who have led and fed their flock. Let us also pray for our beloved priests and bishops who so need our prayers for strength and the light of the Holy Spirit. We pray in gratitude for their sacrifices, love, prayers, untiring time, and examples that have inspired us to become holier and to strive towards doing the Will of God in all things big and small. Let us say yes, and let us continue to place our priests at the center of our prayers. We must commit and recommit ourselves to this endeavor. As a closing, I will leave you the letter of commitment that the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Haifa wrote in 2009 during the Year for Priests in their call to pray for our shepherds. "It is with immense joy and gratitude that we address all our brother priests. In you, dear brothers, we recognize the "other Christ", and we greet you with affection in our Lord. Peace be with you! In our vocation as Carmelite Nuns, daughters of our Mother Saint Teresa of Avila , our essential mission is prayer; especially prayer for the holiness of priests. Therefore, the invitation of our Holy Father to place your ministry, during this year, at the centre of our concern, challenges us deeply.
For four centuries Teresa's voice never ceases to invite us to: " ... be occupied in prayer for those who are defenders of the Church and for preachers and learned men who protect her from attack ... " (Way of Perfection 1:2)
We are aware of the challenges you have in fully living out your vocation in today's society; being in the world but not of the world, as Saint John states. Ecclesial circumstances have changed much due to the accelerated pace of time but your call remains unchanged: " You are a priest … and forever... " (Heb 5.6) Today, we renew our commitment to offer our humble supplication that you may be holy.Dear priests, you accompany a person throughout his life from his birth till he enters the warm embrace of our Father. You are there everyday, offering us the Eucharist and explaining to us the Scriptures. You are Ministers of God's Mercy. You are fathers and brothers to us. You show us the blank page in which God writes our history. You are the sentry who watches over us while we await dawn after the dark of the night, while we search for the spring of fresh water in the desert...
You are present when we make our Consecration in the Church, offering our lives to the One and Triune God...
Dear brothers, we find no words that can truly express our gratitude to each one of you.
Any one of us can give countless testimonies of the invaluable gift of yourselves: to serve the people of God, to care for the sheep trusted to you, with the wise guidance of a father and the tenderness of a mother. You are the "Good Shepherd" who is not afraid to leave the ninety-nine sheep to go in search of the one that was lost...
Only in heaven shall we know the wonder of ecclesial communion; where now we have only a glimpse of its amazing reality.
To you dear brothers, who are the living memorial of Christ and totally identified with Him, how can we not express our gratitude when every morning, in the Eucharist, you give us a foretaste of the joy of heaven, a foretaste of our homeland that does not belong to this world.
To each one of you: elder priests rich in years and experience, young priests beginning your ministry, those who are in the prime of your life, or enduring sickness. Priests afflicted by trials and persecutions, priest workers, and all of you who share the lives of the poor, the favored ones of the Lord.
Priests who are educators and those who promote and discern vocations; priests whose deeds are visible only to the eyes of God who sees in secret; priests who are monks sharing with us the same contemplative vocation.To each and every one of you, we say with simplicity of heart:you can count on the silent prayer and the hidden offering of your sisters!"
So, let us be about Our Father's business, and about the call of Carmel that we've been invited to. Let us say yes to praying for our shepherds with increased fervor, zeal, and commitment. Amen.
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