WORK OF GREGORIO FERNÁNDEZ, FAMOUS 17TH CENTURY SPANISH SCULPTOR

larioja.com-Communicationes
La Rioja – Spain (06-08-2010).- José Manuel Ramírez Martínez, researcher and Doctor of the History of Art, discovered this precious carving just a few weeks ago. While engaged in studies of the La Rioja region, he came across the statue which was being kept under the choir of the parish church of St. Peters in Enciso.

“My hair stood on end when I saw it, because this is a precious work”, declared Dr. Ramírez Martínez. He began his investigation prompted by certain characteristics indicating that the carving was of notable interest and would have come from the workshop of the renowned 17th century artisan, Gregorio Fernández.

Dr. Ramírez is of the opinion that the carving of St. Teresa would have been prepared as the central statue in the altarpiece of the Discalced monastery of San José in Logroño. This foundation was supported by some eminent Logroño citizens who had close connections in the Court and in other cultural and religious circles. These influential persons succeeded in establishing the Carmelites in the city, despite the initial opposition of the townspeople to foundations of new religious Orders.

This would explain how the carving arrived in the La Riojan capital, where religious buildings had been all but wiped out during the 19th century due to fire, the quirks of the Carolingian wars, or because they had been put to other use as barracks or hospitals in the general alienation of religion during the Republican era.

Although there had been no trace of the masterpiece for some centuries, it reappeared about ten years ago in a dingy storeroom of Logroño. It was entrusted to Don Domingo, the Parish priest of Enciso at that time, who was to make more dignified arrangements for its safe-keeping. Don Domingo put it in the Conception hermitage on the outskirts of Enciso where it had remained until being transferred temporarily to the parish of San Pedro, while recent refurbishments were taking place in the hermitage.

It turns out now that the present Parish priest of Enciso, Don Diego Hernández, is the custodian of this treasure whose true value has only been recently understood. It is still a very imposing carving, despite some chips and scratches caused by its varied movements through the years. The feet of the figure are now missing, as is a book that would have been in the Saint’s right hand. A diadem that would have been originally silver was also replaced by a tin plated one at some stage.

August 26
St. Teresa of Jesus’s Transverberation

OCD Nuns: Memorial
OCD: Optional Memorial

‘The chief among Teresa’s virtues was the love of God, which our Lord Jesus Christ increased by means of many visions and revelations. He made her His spouse on one occasion. At other times she saw an angel with a flaming dart piercing her heart. Through these heavenly gifts the flame of divine love in her heart became so strong that, inspired by God, she made the extremely difficult vow of always doing what seemed to her most perfect and most conducive to God’s glory’ (Gregory XV in the Bull of Canonization).

A reading from “The Living Flame of Love” by St. John of the Cross

As Moses declares in Deuteronomy, ‘Our Lord is a consuming fire,’ that is, a
fire of love, which being of infinite power, can inestimably consume and
transform into itself the soul it touches. Yet He burns each souls
according to its preparation: He will burn one more, another less, and this
He does in so far as He desires, and how and when He desires. When He wills
to touch somewhat vehemently, the soul’s burning reaches such a high degree
of love that it seems to surpass that of all the fires of the world: for He
is an infinite fire of love. Because the soul in this case is entirely
transformed by the Divine Flame, it not only feels a cautery, but has become
a cautery of blazing fire.

It is a wonderful thing and worth relating that, since this fire of God is
so mighty it would consume a thousand worlds more easily that the fire of
this earth would burn up a straw, it does not consume and destroy the soul
to which it so burns. And it does not afflict it: rather, commensurate
with the strength of the love, it divinizes and delights it, burning gently.

Since God’s purpose in granting these communications is to exalt the soul,
He does not weary and restrict it, but enlarges and delights it, brightens
and enriches it.

The happy soul that by great fortune reaches this cautery knows all things,
tastes all things, does all it wishes, and prospers; no one prevails before
it and nothing touches it. This is the soul of which the Apostle speaks:
‘The spiritual man judges all things and he is judged by no one.’ And
again: ‘The spirit searches out all things, unto the deep things of God.’

It will happen that while the soul is inflamed with the love of God, it will
feel that a seraph is assailing it by means of an arrow or dart which is all
afire with love. And the seraph pierces and in an instant cauterizes this
soul
which, like a – coal, or better a flame, is already
enkindled. The soul is converted into an immense fire of love.

Few persons have reached these heights. Some have, however; especially
those whose virtue and spirit were to be diffused among their children. For
God accords to founders, with respect to the first fruits of the spirit,
wealth and value commensurate with the greater or lesser following they will
have in their doctrine and spirituality.

O happy wound, wrought by one who knows only how to heal! O fortunate and
choicest wound; you were made only for delight, and the quality of your
affliction is delight and gratification for the wounded soul! You are
great, O delightful wound, because He who caused you is great!

And your delight is great, because the fire of love is infinite. O, then,
delightful wound, so much more sub- limely delightful the more the cautery
touched the intimate center of the substance of the soul, burning all that
was burnable in order to give delight to all that could be delighted!

Prayer

Almighty God, You filled the heart of St. Teresa of Jesus, our Mother, with the fire of Your love and gave her strength to undertake difficult tasks for the honor of Your name. Through her prayers may the power of Your love fill our hearts also and stir us to ever more generous efforts in Your service. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen

** photo:  St. Teresa’s monastic cell at the Convento de la Encarnación, Ávila

Servant of God Anita Cantieri

“To love, suffer, and be silent for the Church and others.”

“The thought that there are souls who, through their own fault, fall into

hell makes me tremble with compassion. At all costs I want to stop it by

offering myself for them as a victim of praise and reparation. To love God

and make Him loved by many, many souls in eternal joy, I would think little

of an eternity of sufferings.”

“To give thanks for a single communion, a whole lifetime spent in God’s

service would not be enough. And Jesus gives Himself to me every day!”

(Source: Prayer pamphlet from Sioux City Carmel)

Communicationes

Avila – Spain (13-07-2010).- Avila’s International Centre of Teresa and John of the Cross (CITeS – Centre of Mysticism) will be offering an Internet transmission of the Ist. International Teresian Congress on ‘The Book of Her Life’.

Sources from CITeS inform us that it will be possible to follow the entire Congress (23-31 August in Avila) on the Internet. The Centre will provide a website:

www.teresadeavila.net

and registrations will be open to the general public. All the proceedings of the Congress will be available in Spanish, Italian, English or French.

Various options are available for registration. The basic rate is 50 Euro per person with a special price of 100 Euro for Religious Communities. Collaborators and benefactors may be especially generous and pay 150 Euro each.

This is undoubtedly a very welcome initiative, providing an opportunity for world-wide diffusion of these international Carmelite Congresses during the Order’s preparation for the 5th Centenary of the birth of St. Teresa.

More than 30 speakers from different countries will take part in this first Congress. Notably among them will be Archbishops Ricardo Blázquez of Valladolid and Jean Sleiman of Bagdad as well as other well-known Teresian scholars, Frs. Tomás Álvarez, Secundino Castro, Maximiliano Herráiz…Apart from studying the central themes of St. Teresa’s ‘Life’, the Congress will address many other complimentary subjects, such as the Saint’s input on family life, politics, the lay state, consecrated life etc…

Travelling Exposition

At 5 p.m. on 23 August, the opening day of the Congress, an exposition relating to St. Teresa’s ‘Life’ will be inaugurated. This proposes to be a didactic survey of the content and history of this particular work of the Saint. It includes the first printed editions of the ‘Life’ and its numerous translations to other languages.

The expo will remain on view in Avila until the 15 September and will then be brought to all parts of Spain.

TO WATCH A PREVIEW STREAM FROM AVILA LOOK HERE

August 12

Bl. Isidore Bakanja, Martyr

Bl. Isidore Bakanja, a member of the Boangi tribe, was born in Bokendela
(Congo) between 1880 and 1890. In order to survive, even as a boy, he had to  work as bricklayer or in farms. He was converted to Christianity in 1906. He was working in a plantation run by a colonialist in Ikili and was forbidden
by the owner to spread Christianity among his fellow-workers. On 22 April
1909, the superintendent of the business tore off the Carmelite Scapular,
which Isidore was wearing as an expression of his Christian faith, and had
him severely beaten even to drawing blood. He died on 15 August of the same
year as a result of the wounds inflicted in “punishment” for his faith and
which he bore patiently while forgiving his aggressor. He was beatified by
Pope John Paul II on 24 April 1994.

OC: Optional Memorial

Common of One Martyr

Prayer:

Merciful and forgiving Father, You filled Your servant Isidore Bakanja with
the gifts of prayer and witness and inspired him to heroic patience and
pardon in his atrocious sufferings, by the grace of Your Holy Spirit, grant
us Your gifts of reconciliation and perseverance in the faith, and lead us
on the way of justice and peace.

We ask this through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

In St. Louis we are so blessed to have several Orders of Carmelite nuns who’s charism of Carmel is shaped through different apostolic works and mandates from the Holy Spirit.  As the entire Carmelite Order is celebrating so many holy feasts at this time of the year, and since we have all so recently gathered together for the Annual Outdoor Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, it seems appropriate to write a short description of the different nuns in our city.

The Discalced Carmelite Nuns in St. Louis reside in their enclosure at the Carmel of St. Joseph.  These contemplatives are a part of the large Order of Discalced Carmelites who graciously allow our OCDS community to meet at their monastery for our monthly gatherings. The Carmel was established on October 1, 1863 in St. Louis when four Sister’s came to found from the First Carmel in America at Port Tobacco, Maryland.  The names of these first nuns were: Mother Gabriel of the Immaculate Conception, Mother Alberta of St. Alexis, Sister Bernard of St. Teresa, Sister Agnes of the Immaculate Conception, and Sister Mary Catherine.

In St. Louis there also exists Carmelite contemplative nuns who are assigned to assist the seminarians at  Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.  The Congregation of the Carmelite Religious have come from Trivandrum, India. The source of their spirituality and charism is two fold – of contemplative and ecclesial dimensions. Mary, Queen and Patroness of Carmel, is their model for their contemplative, communitarian and apostolic existence.( 1) These beautiful, smiling sisters always bring joy to all when they visit and pray with us during the Novena.

Finally, in St. Louis we are blessed with the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus (DCJ).  The Sister’s have served the Archdiocese for 90 years.  Their lives of prayer are spent in community and in their apostolate care for the elderly at St. Agnes Home and their Carmelite Child Development Center.  These Sisters joined us at the Novena this year and lent their beautiful voices to lift us in prayer during mass.  It is these Sisters who are holding a retreat for girls in the 7th through 11th grades.  We thought we would include a link to their day.  You can contact the sisters via their website to learn more.

Here is a quick summery of their day:
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Time:8:45 a.m. – 4p.m.

This retreat is for 7th-11th grade girls who would like to spend some time getting to know us and our way of life as Carmelite Sisters DCJ.

The day will begin with Holy Mass at 9 a.m. and will also include a talk by a Sister, time for prayer and reflection, exploring our apostolate, and fun and games with the Sisters.

Place: Carmelite Sisters, DCJ,
10341 Manchester Road Kirkwood, Missouri 63122

To register:

Registration/Parental Consent Form

Retreat Donation:  $5.00

HOLY FATHER QUOTES ST. TERESA’S COMMENTARY ON OUR FATHER

Communicationes
Rome – Italy (25-07-2010).- Last Sunday Pope Benedict alluded to St. Teresa during his recital of the Angelus at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. He was speaking to the faithful in the Clement XIV courtyard during his customary Sunday address. The meaning and importance of the Our Father was the central theme of his meditation.

He said this prayer was “among the first words that we learned as children from Holy Scripture. It was implanted in our memories and affected all our lives right up to our last breath”. It expressed the material and spiritual needs of human beings and “was not a request to satisfy our whims but, rather, to keep alive our friendship with God”. This has been the experience of the Desert Fathers and of contemplatives through the ages who, through their prayer, became “friends of God”, continued the Holy Father.

In this context, the Pope quoted St. Teresa explicitly with a text from her commentary on the Our Father in ‘The Way of Perfection’. The Pope’s quotation is from Ch. 42, 4, where Teresa invites her sisters to beseech God “to free us from these dangers forever and draw us at last away from every evil. Even though our desire may not be perfect, let us force ourselves to make the request. What does it cost us to ask for a great deal? We are asking it of one who is All-Powerful.”

Benedict XVI and St. Teresa

This recent reference to St. Teresa was by no means an isolated one in the talks and writings of Pope Benedict. On numerous occasions His Holiness has alluded to the Carmelite mystic in various messages to young people, married couples and the sick, proposing her as a model of the spiritual life, of a search for the truth or of fidelity to God.

During the World Day for Youth in Cologne in 2005, the Pope proposed Sts. Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Dominic and Teresa as “models of life”. At his Christmas Eve Mass of the same year, he referred to Teresa as an ambassador “of the current of goodness”.

When speaking of spiritual communion in no. 55 of his Postsynodal Apostolic Exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” (2007), the Pope mentions both St. Teresa and St. Thomas Aquinas. On numerous occasions during General Audiences or the Sunday Angelus he makes reference to Teresa, often recalling her thoughts. He specifically quoted “All things pass away, God alone does not change” at the Angelus on 19th November 2006.

Last year at the General Audience of October 14 he said that St. Teresa was a model “for the young, for the sick and for those recently married”. “May this great Saint be a witness to you, dear young people, that true love cannot be separated from truth. May she help those of you who are sick to understand that the Cross of Christ is a mystery of love that redeems human suffering. And for those of you who are recently married, may she be a model of fidelity to God, who entrusts a special mission to each one of us”.

July 27

Bl. Titus Brandsma
OCD: Optional Memorial OC: Memorial

Born in Bolsward (The Netherlands) in 1881, Bl. Titus Brandsma joined the Carmelite Order as a young man. Ordained a priest in 1905, he earned a doctorate in philosophy in Rome. He then taught in various schools in Holland and was named professor of philosophy as Rector Magnificus. He was noted for his constant availability to everyone. He was a professional journalist, and in 1935 he was appointed ecclesiastical advisor to Catholic journalists. Both before and during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands he fought, faithful to the Gospel, against the spread of Nazi ideology and for the freedom of Catholic education and of the Catholic press. For this he was arrested and sent to a succession of prisons and concentration camps where he brought comfort and peace to his fellow prisoners and did good even to his tormentors. In 1942, after much suffering and humiliation, he was killed at Dachau. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Nov. 3, 1985.


From the writings of Bl. Titus Brandsma

Jesus called Himself the head of the Mystical Body, of which we are the
members. He is the vine, we are the branches. He laid Himself in the
winepress and Himself trod it. He handed us the wine so that, drinking it,
we might lead His life, might share His suffering. Whoever wishes to do My
Will, let him daily take up his cross. Whoever follows me has the light of
life. I am the way, He said. I have given you an example, so that as I
have done so you may do also. And when His disciples did not understand
that His way would be a way of suffering, He explained this to them and
said, “Should not the Christ so suffer, in order to enter into His glory?”

Then the hearts of the disciples burned within them.
God’s word had set them on fire. And when the Holy Spirit had descended on
them to fan that divine fire into flame, then they were glad to suffer scorn
and persecution, whereby they resembled Him Who had preceded them on the way
of suffering.

The prophets had already marked His way of suffering; the disciples now
understood that He had not avoided that way. From the crib to the cross,
suffering, poverty and lack of appreciation were His lot. He had directed
His whole life to teaching people how different is God’s view of suffering,
poverty and lack of human appreciation from the foolish wisdom of the world.
After sin, suffering had to follow so that, through the cross, man’s lost
glory and life with God might be regained. Suffering is the way to heaven.
In the cross is salvation, in the cross is victory.
God willed it so. He Himself assumed the obligation of suffering in view of
the glory of redemption. St. Paul makes it clear to us how all the
disasters of this earthly life are insignificant, how they must be
considered as nothing and passing, in comparison with the glory that will be
revealed to us when the time of suffering is past and we come to share in
God’s glory.

Mary, who kept all God’s words in her heart, in the fullness of grace
granted her, understood the great value of suffering. While the apostles
fled, she went out to meet the Savior on the way to Calvary and stood
beneath the cross, in order to share His grief and shame to the end. And
she carried Him to the grave, firmly trusting that He would rise.

We object when He hands us the chalice of His suffering.
It is so difficult for us to resign ourselves to suffering. To rejoice in
it strikes us as heroic. What is the value of our offering of self if we
unite ourselves each morning only in word and gesture, rather than in
thought and will, to that offering which we, together with the Church, make
of Him with whom we are in the one body?

Jesus once wept over Jerusalem.

Oh, that this day you had known the gift of God!

Oh, that this day we might realize the value God has placed on the suffering
He sends: He, the All-Good.

Prayer

Lord our God, source and giver of life, You gave to Bl. Titus the Spirit of courage to proclaim human dignity and
the freedom of the Church even in the throes of degrading persecution and death. Grant us that same Spirit so that in the coming of Your kingdom of justice and peace we might never be ashamed of the Gospel but be enabled to recognise Your loving-kindness in all the events of our lives. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Amen.

July 24

Martyrs of Guadalajara

Bl. Maria Pilar, Teresa and Maria Angeles, Virgins and Martyrs

OCD: Optional Memorial

Maria Pilar of St. Francis Borgia (born at Tarazona on Dec. 30, 1877), Teresa of the Child Jesus and of St. John of the Cross (born at Mochales on March 5,1990), and Maria Angeles of St. Joseph (born at Getafe on March 6, 1905), Discalced Carmelite nuns of the Monastery of Guadalajara, Spain, were martyred on July 24, 1936, after having given witness to their faith in Christ the King and having offered their lives for the Church. The first fruits of the countless martyrs of the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, they were beatified by John Paul II on March 29, 1987.

From the Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross
“We shall weave these garlands flowering in your love and bound with one hair of mine.” This verse most appropriately refers to Christ and the Church, for in it, the Church, the Bride of Christ, addresses Him saying: let us weave garlands (understanding by garlands, all the holy souls engendered by Christ in the Church). Each holy soul is like a garland adorned with the flowers of virtues and gifts, and all of them together form a garland for the head of Christ, the Bridegroom.

The loving garlands can refer to what we call aureoles; these are also woven by Christ and the Church and are of three kinds:

The first kind is made from the beautiful flowers of all the virgins. Each virgin possesses her own aureole of virginity, and all these aureoles together will be joined into one and placed on the head of Christ, the Bridegroom.

The second aureole contains the resplendent flowers of the holy doctors. All these aureoles will be entwined into one and set upon the head of Christ over that of the virgins.

The third is fashioned from the crimson carnations of the martyrs. Every martyr has an aureole of martyrdom, and these red aureoles woven together will add the final touch to the aureole of Christ the Bridegroom.

So beautiful and fair will Christ the Bridegroom be with these three garlands when He is seen in heaven.

Therefore, we shall weave these garlands, the soul says, flowering in Your love.

The flower of these works and virtues is the grace and power they possess from the love of God. Without love these works will not only fail to flower, but they will all wither and become valueless in God’s sight, even though they may be perfect from a human standpoint. Yet, because God bestows His grace and love, they are works that have blossomed in His love.

“And bound with one hair of mine.” This hair is her will and the love she has for the Beloved. This love assumes the task of the thread in a garland. As the thread binds the flowers together, so love fastens and sustains the virtues in the soul. As St. Paul remarks: “Charity is the bond of
perfection”. (Col 3:14)

Prayer

Father, strength of the humble,
You sustained in martyrdom the virgins
Blessed Maria Pilar, Teresa and Maria Angelus.
As they willingly shed their blood for Christ the King, may we, through
their intercession, be faithful to You and to Your Church until death.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns
with You and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.