Spring 2006

Dear Carmelites,

Most of the fall visitation reports have now been processed by our provincial council, and are ready to be sent out. This includes Waco, San Antonio, Knoxville, Atlanta and Lawrenceville. I have just begun the report from Mobile. We have given permission for a number of novices to make their Promise, esp, in the new groups of Atlanta and Lawrenceville. The main reason we require our Groups to secure permission prior to profession, is so we may assist the local council in their important role of discernment of Carmelite vocations. Please be patient as we work out the kinks in this process of “discerning the discerners.” We realize the deficiencies of getting to know the novices through what they write about themselves. Some are more literary than others, and we realize that the personal contact the local councilors have with those in formation is far more valuable than what written record the provincial council may receive about them. But certain red flags are raised from time to time. This is when we try and work things out with the local council. Remember the provincial council is not created to interfere in the local government, only to assist them the best we can.

I am in the process of switching my e-mail address to g-mail. It’s free and Bill Gates has enough money already without my sending him an additional 25 bucks a month fee for my msn connection. So please change my e-mail address in your computer’s address book from jmpocd@msn.com to my new address @gmail.com This is the best way to reach me. I am terribly slow in writing letters the traditional way, and never answer the telephone. Any study groups needing my signature on profession forms may fax me the appropriate page of the form at 1-501 888-3080 and I will fax you back my signature. Former issues of our provincial newsletter, Flos Carmeli may be found archived below. Links to my other blogs, including our friars’ provincial newsletter can be found at the end of my personal profile at the very top of this blog to the right.

Alabama

Provincial Councillor Nancy Thompson is planning visitation of Mobile in July. Elizabeth Roberts has moved from Birmingham to Mobile and was accepted into the Mobile OCDS Group in February. My sincere apologies to all in Mobile for placing them in Georgia in my last Flos report ! Father obviously needs lesson 101 in geography.

Louisiana

On April 1st, I had the joy of celebrating the certification of our province’s newest canonical community in Lafayette. We began a day of reflection at the Christian Brothers where this new community holds their monthly meetings. Conferences were all related to Elizabeth of the Trinity whose centenary year this is. Blessed Elizabeth died a hundred years ago on Nov 9th in Dijon France. Patron saint of the new community is St Joseph, Guardian of Carmel. Their canonical status was given in Rome on Christmas day. President Anita Trahan holds the banner, and Pat Colbert-Comier (hidden behind banner) and formation director Datie Cespiva lead the procession into our nuns chapel to celebrate the certification of their canonical status. Both OCDS communities in Lafayette report benefits of having a smaller community at their monthly meetings since the split. They have more opportunity now to know better the other members of their community. Elections were held in January. Karol D. Meynard was elected president of the original community replacing Anita Trahan who moved to the new community. Vicki Guilbeau is the new Formation Director 337 667-6046 with Councillors Mona Mayeux, Millie Dufrene and Marla Seré. Officers elected for the new community are Anita Trahan, president; Datie Cespiva, formation 337 839-8436; Loretta Glod, Claudette Stelly & Pat Colbert-Cormier, councillors.

With appointment of Father Daniel Torres, pastor at Saint Joseph's Church as Assistant to DeRidder, this Group in Discernment becomes an official OCDS Group. The provincial council has decided to grant them Study Group status. Dani Kufoy is our choice for president, and Jeannette LaRosa as councilor. Sue Fontenot has agreed to be their Director of Formation. For the present the Mother of Grace community of Lafayette will monitor their development.

Fr. Jerome Earley conducted the retreat to our community in Alexandria this spring.

Texas

On 01-Feb-06, I appointed Christopher Wood president of our new group that has met at St Theresa’s church in Houston, Texas, since the summer of 2003. Some members recently transferred from New Caney. Once I receive a membership roster, we will straighten out their Group status. Christopher has also volunteered to be chairman of our next provincial Congress in 2008. Rita Tueth, president of St Louis, has sent Christopher money to begin a Congress fund.

The annual retreat of the Georgetown Study Group was held this spring at Cedarbrake in Belton. Retreat Master was Fr. Jerome Earley from Dallas. Our Dallas community joined our Austin community at the end of March for their annual retreat at Cedarbrake led this year by Fr. Raphael Kitz of Marylake.

Georgia
I appointed Anita DeRouen president of Lawrenceville on February 8, 2006. Anita has been serving as secretary to this Study Group. Former president, Stephen Ramsay is moving to Nebraska this summer at the end of the academic year.

Visitation is being planned for Thomasville when local Councillor Rosemarie Borja returns from the Philippines.

Mississippi
Grace Toyer, secretary to our New Orleans community when Katrina flooded the city, has relocated to Meridian MS. Meridian is 60 miles from Jackson, and I think Grace chooses to be isolated as she does not feel up to a 120 mile round trip each month. She will decide, with the help of the provincial council, which community to be associated with in order to complete her formation according to article 56 of our Constitutions.

Jackson will have visitation by Provincial Councillor, Amelia Wilken, June 23-24.

Bl. Elizabeth’s Centennial

On the feast of the Holy Trinity, June 11, our order begins a solemn commemoration of our Sister in Carmel, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. This year on her feast day of Nov 8, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of her death in the Dijon Carmel. She entered the infirmary towards the end of March 1906, and received “Extreme Unction” as the sacrament of anointing was called back then, on April 8, which this year marks the beginning of Holy Week with First Vespers of Palm Sunday. Her health improved somewhat after that anointing, but deteriorated with a serious attack on May 13. She spent the “cenacle days” on Pentecost in silence. She wrote Heaven in Faith during the first half of August, her Last Retreat at the end of August, and is confined to bed on the evening of October 30. She receives the sacrament of anointing again on October 31, and makes her last Communion on November 1. She died on the feast of the dedication of the pope’s parish church, St John Lateran, on November 9, 1906, and was buried on the 12th. I urge you all to read Elizabeth’s writings during this centennial celebration. ICS Publications in Washington DC has published her Major Spiritual Writings in volume 1 of her Complete Works, and her Letters from Carmel in volume 2 of that series. Volume 3 will include the letters of her youth, her Diary, and Personal Notes, the most famous of which is Personal Note No. 15: “O My God, Trinity Whom I Adore” which is also included at the end of volume 1.

I look forward to the publication of that last volume, but must admit its delay has afforded me ample time to ponder her letters which I judge to be rich treasures of the church as well as of our own order. Elizabeth lived her life in deep union with the Trinitarian presence in her soul while she kept in constant contact with those she knew living in the world. Her Carmelite cell was a place of rendez-vous where God came into intimate contact with Elizabeth and those in the world whom she loved. Her call from the grave is a call to interior recollection. My dear Carmelites, if you but delve into the writings of our saints you will find there wholly substantial nourishment, and have no longer need to dabble in the sensuality of the visionaries nor the loquaciousness of those who claim to have updated messages from on high.

--Fr. John Michael ocd, prov. delg.

Agnes May obit

Agnes May of the Holy Face ocds, of the Dallas Community, was born on October 1, 1923, and died December 24, 2005. She left active participation in the Community ten years ago due to family concerns, but was a devoted member for a long time. She was clothed October 1, 1965.