PC Report

Provincial Council welcomes new members, attends Chapter

--by the Provincial Council

We bid farewell with a great deal of gratitude to Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, and Amelia Wilken as they have now concluded their term of service on the Provincial Council. They will be remembered for their valued contribution to getting the Provincial Council started, writing the Provincial Statutes, and great love they have shown to Carmel and to the members of our province. We wish each of them well as they get to relax, enjoy retirement, spend time in the garden, catch up on reading, etc. We also extend our thanks to Anita Mendoza who has been serving as our secretary and also as our liaison to the Spanish-speaking members of our province.

Amelia made one last visitation to our study group in Covington where she began a discernment with them regarding whether they were ready for holding provisional elections. Elizabeth returned to Atlanta to visit both the Atlanta study group and the one in the suburb of Lawrenceville. While Elizabeth was in Atlanta, Nancy arrived to make the visitation of our Georgetown study group, followed by the visitation of Austin.

At the beginning of April, Henrietta Albright, Gloria Guajardo, and Dorothy Mansen signed on to the Provincial Council's private Yahoo Web site to "listen in" on how the PC conducts is business online. Then we all gathered in Castroville, Texas (just west of San Antonio) at the end of May for our first meeting as the new Provincial Council. Joining us was Karen Harris, [right] our new secretary from Atlanta.

On Friday evening, we drove into town to pick up Father John Michael and our new Provincial Delegate, Father Bonaventure Sauer, for dinner. Father John Michael returned with us to Castroville to help with the orientation of our new council members. [Gloria, Karen & Henrietta at orientation] Saturday was a full day, covering a great many topics about which our new Provincial Council members needed to learn.

On Sunday, we began the day very early with Mass at the San Antonio monastery of our nuns and then had a wonderful visit with Sister Rosemarie. After breakfast, we returned Father John Michael to the basilica and then headed downtown for some sight-seeing along the River Walk, the Alamo and the Cathedral of San Fernando. Finally, the heat got to us and we headed back to the cool of the retreat center in Castroville. We returned to work that evening and the new Provincial Council re-elected Elizabeth as president for the next three years.

On Monday, Father Bonaventure was able to join us as Elizabeth and Nancy gave a brief summary of every community and study group in the province.

Tuesday was our big day with the friars at their chapter. Father Provincial Gregory Ross gave a brief summary of the topics that the friars had been discussing and introduced everyone. Elizabeth then gave a report on the work of the Provincial Council over the past three years and the general state of seculars throughout the province. She then invited the outgoing superiors at each of the foundations of friars to share how the friars and seculars are collaborating in each place. At some foundations, there is a great deal of collaboration between the friars and the seculars; at others, there is minimal contact between the two. There was also discussion on how the seculars could assist the friars with vocations outreach. Father Luís Castañeda is developing a vocations plan for the friars and we encouraged him to include seculars as part of that plan.

After a very nice lunch with the friars, we gathered in a small room at the monastery to continue working through the afternoon while our friars took their siesta and then continued their chapter business. As we prepared to go over to the basilica for Mass, an ongoing health issue for Gloria became such that we contacted her husband to take her to the emergency room. About the same time, Father John Magdalene was also being taken to emergency. Both were home later that day and neither situation was as serious as originally feared, for which everyone is grateful. Since Father Provincial needed to tend to Father John Magdalene at the hospital, he was unable to join us for dinner after Mass as originally planned, although Father Bonaventure was able to come.

On Wednesday, we were all a bit too tired for more work so after some sharing of what Carmel means to us, we packed up, cleaned up our house at the retreat center, and headed for home. Henrietta, Gloria and Dorothy were feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information covered for their orientation but we welcome them aboard as they begin their terms on the Provincial Council.

Among the items that did get addressed during our meeting was working out some of the details for once again hosting councilor workshops in spring 2009. We have some preliminary dates and are now searching for facilities to house us. Keep an eye out for the announcement of details, hopefully in the next issue of Flos Carmeli.

We hope many of you will be able to attend the Regional Congress in Houston this September. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Contact information for the new Provincial Council-­- Henrietta Albright, Gloria Guajardo, Elizabeth Korves, Dorothy Mansen and Nancy Thompson— follows in the O.C.D.S. Directory.

Study Groups asked to send minutes to Province

--by the Provincial Council

All Study Groups are required to send a copy of their monthly minutes to the Province. Since Father John Michael is no longer the Provincial Delegate, please send your minutes to our new Provincial Council secretary, Karen Harris, at karenharrisocds22@yahoo.com . Karen will post the minutes to the private Provincial Council Yahoo group so that both the visitator of your study group and Father Bonaventure will have easy access to them. Please stop sending your minutes to Father John Michael and now send them to Karen instead. Thanks!

Events to celebrate with our friars

Recently the Provincial Council asked the friars to provide notice of professions, ordinations and major anniversaries so the information could appear in Flos Carmeli.

Such upcoming events include the following:

July 16 Brother Bernard, 25th anniversary of profession
Mount Carmel Center
4600 W Davis St
Dallas TX 75211-3498

July 18 Father Jenaro de la Cruz, 50th anniversary of ordination
PO Box 5280
San Antonio TX 78201-0280

July 20 Father Sam Anthony Morello, 55th anniversary of profession
2925 S. Carrollton Road
New Orleans LA 70118

Reviewing O.C.D.S. legislation

--by Elizabeth Korves, O. C.D.S.

Is your copy of our O.C.D.S. legislation gathering dust? When did you last read through the Rule of St. Albert, the Constitutions, the Statutes and the Ritual (the introduction to the Ritual has some good material!)??

When we make our Promise, we commit ourselves to living out the Discalced Carmelite charism as it is outlined in these documents. So it is incredibly important that we be very familiar with them. We should be reading through our legislation on a regular basis. Some people read through all of it every few months. Some people read an article each day. Some read through one part each week (i.e. Rule of St Albert this weekend, Constitutions next weekend, Statutes the weekend after, etc.).

Every member of the Secular Order who has been clothed should have a copy of the full legislation handy. It can be downloaded from the Provincial Web site. Bound books (both hard-copy and paperback) can be ordered from the Provincial Web site. The Provincial Web site is at http://www.carmelitesok.org/ocdsok/oklahonia_province.htm (note that AOL users have been having some problems accessing the site —the problem is with AOL, not the Web site).

So... is your copy of the legislation gathering dust or is it getting dog-eared from frequent use? Our commitment to Carmel calls for the latter!

PC Report

REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL

April 2008

As we write this, Easter is just around the corner so we wish everyone in the province a wonderful Easter season. Alleluia! Jesus is Risen!

Communities around the province are holding elections and we pray that those go well. Several of our study groups have requested and been granted permission to hold provisional elections. These are considered provisional because according to the Statutes, the councils of study groups are appointed by the Provincial Delegate. So when one of our study groups holds elections, the ballots are sent to the visitator for counting and then Fr John Michael appoints the council based on the results. We see the ability to hold elections in our study groups as one sign of their growth and movement in the direction of eventual canonical status.

This year, we circle back around and find ourselves making visitations of communities visited three years ago. It is our aim to visit every community at least once every three years. Our study groups are usually visited more often as we work closely with them to develop as a community. Elizabeth visited one of our oldest communities, the Houston – Holy Trinity community at the end of January. Gerald visited Baton Rouge in February where we hope Henrietta Albright, one of our new Provincial Councilors, paid close attention to the process for when she starts making visitations. Pascal visited Jackson at the beginning of March. Part of that visit included some discernment on the part of the community as to whether it was ready to have its canonical privileges reinstated. This has now been approved by the Provincial Council so congratulations to Jackson!

FINALLY, we managed to get Gerald to Topeka for a visitation. We were beginning to think it would take a miracle of God. But then as punishment, upon his return, he was picked for jury duty for a murder trial.

The Houston folks are working hard getting ready for our Congress in September. Remember to sign up and join us!

These next few months will see us turning our attention to handing things off to the new Provincial Council members at the beginning of June. Amelia and Pascal will be handing on our records of the isolates in our province. Nancy and Elizabeth are working putting together materials for a full day of orientation with the new councilors. We hope to be able to have our new Provincial Delegate also join us for that orientation. Elizabeth will be meeting with Father Provincial, Gregory Ross in late April to pass along recommendations from the Provincial Council regarding who should be appointed as our new Provincial Delegate.

Finally, we ask that you do hold all our communities and our friars and nuns in prayer as everyone holds elections this spring. The friars will be holding their Provincial Chapter in San Antonio on May 26-June 6. The OCDS Provincial Council with its new members will have their annual meeting over the weekend of May 31 and meet with the chapter friars on Tuesday, June 3rd.

Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

What should be included in community meeting minutes?
• Date, time meeting convened, place of the meeting
• List of who was in attendance and who was absent
• Brief description (short paragraph) of any talk given
as well as the name of who gave the talk
• Short summary of business part of the meeting
o Any announcements made
o Treasurer's Report
• Current account balance
• Any major financial actions taken in the last month (payments over $50)
o Approval of minutes from last meeting
o Infirmarian's report
o Other reports - i.e. liturgist, librarian, hospitality
• Any assignments for next month, i.e., readings for each formation level, readings for community reading
• Time meeting adjourned

What should be included in the minutes of Council meetings?
• Date, time meeting convened, place of the meeting
• List of who was in attendance and who was absent
• Brief summary of business discussed
• Record of any votes taken - if vote was not unanimous, then there should be some short report of what concerns were raised
• Time meeting ended

It is important to remember that Council meetings often deal with confidential matters, so the minutes need to remain confidential. However, it is also good if the council (through the secretary) provides a brief summary of any non-confidential business to the community. This could be done in the form of the minutes with the confidential parts removed or as a summary report at the next community meeting following the council meeting. Council records are maintained by the secretary.

PC Report

REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
January 2008

As our communities turn their attention to elections, we pray that those approached to serve will recognize how important service is within our communities. Without our councils, meetings would not be so organized… discernments would not happen… retreats wouldn’t happen… and all sorts of important things would not happen! But they do because the council looks after the “spiritual growth and well-being of the community” (Sec. XVI.8). We’ve sometimes heard people say “but I’m not worthy to be a council member”. It’s not about worthiness. Anyone who’s ever served on a council knows that it’s not about prestige, it’s about service and often involves some hard work. After all, discernment is hard work and certainly not easy when a council has to tell someone that they do not have the vocation. So…don’t worry about whether you are worthy or not… if someone has nominated you, then you are more than worthy to serve!

With that in mind, we’d like to take this opportunity before they roll out of office to thank all our council members of the past three years for their dedicated service to their communities. We know some of our councils have had some pretty difficult situations to deal with in this triennium and we really appreciate everyone’s efforts in resolving them.

Speaking of elections, we were a bit disappointed in how few nominations we received for the Provincial Council elections. We received six nominations and after some discernment on the part of the nominees, ended up with only three candidates to fill the three open slots. So, we petitioned Fr. Provincial for postulation to appoint these three candidates since there seemed no reason to hold elections. We certainly hope that in three years, more people will be nominated for the Provincial Council and able to serve.

There was only one visitation in the past few months. Pascal visited the Conyers, GA community and some of us are a touch envious that he got to say at the Cistercian monastery. In January, Elizabeth is scheduled to visit one of our Houston communities. Gerald is still trying to get to Topeka and with that, we will have visited all the communities in our province over the past three years. What an accomplishment! As you will remember, our Provincial Delegate, Fr. John Michael, was only able to visit a few communities each year so many of our communities had not had a formal visitation in many, many years. We have learned so much about our province in the course of these visitations. You’ve seen some of what we’ve learned in the various “special issues” of the Flos Carmeli where we’ve focused on a particular topic. If you check our provincial website, we’ve posted all sorts of stuff that we’ve come across that we felt would be helpful in light of what we’ve learned. The best part has been the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. We wax a bit eloquently about this since soon Amelia, Gerald, and Pascal will complete their term of service on the Provincial Council… but not until the end of May… so we do still have some work for them to do. Do not think that having visited all our communities at least once in the past three years, we’re done… we are not… the Provincial Council will continue to visit all our communities at least once every three years as part of our service to the province. Not only is this helpful to our communities (or so we’ve been hearing!) but it is also helpful to us for having a good feel for the people we serve.

Finally, we ask that you do hold all our communities and our friars and nuns in prayer as everyone holds elections this spring. The friars will be holding their Provincial Chapter in San Antonio on May 26-June 6. The OCDS Provincial Council with its new members will have their annual meeting over the weekend of May 31 and meet with the chapter friars on Tuesday, June 3rd.

Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

Provincial Council report

REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
October 2007

This reporting period was a time of a number of visitations. Amelia insanely left the cooler tempertures of Iowa to visit the Dallas community in August, the hottest part of the year in Texas. In Sept, she visited our Oklahoma City community. Nancy journeyed to Lafayette to visit the two communities there in June and Little Rock in Sept. She visited the Sioux City community in July which included meeting the South Dakota and Omaha Groups in Discernment. We have decided that Gerald is truly jinxed in relation to our Topeka group. He managed to visit the Houston St Therese study group in August but a serious family emergency resulted in a third postponement of his visit to Topeka. Elizabeth had car trouble on her way to visit Lubbock which resulted in a shortened visit although she was glad to be able to still keep to her overnight stay with one of our isolates on the way back home. She tried to escape the August Texas heat with a visitation to Cedar Rapids but it was just as hot and humid up there as it was back in Austin.

When not on the road, the Provincial Council has been working on guidelines for our canonical communities when they mentor a group in discernment, the leadership/elections FAQ in this issue, provincial council elections, and various pastoral questions that have come up with communities around the province.

We’d like to remind everyone to regularly check in on the provincial website at http://www.carmelitesok.org/ocdsok/oklahoma_province.htm We update it all the time with new stuff that we come across which we feel might be helpful to the members of our province. Check the “What’s New” link towards the bottom of the page if you don’t want to simply browse…although you might find (or re-find) something interesting just by browsing around things. We especially encourage all our councils to take note of the Best Practices areas particularly the section on discernment. We are finding ourselves referring councils to that information frequently when giving advice on discernment issues.

Our Houston communities are making good progress on planning next year’s OCDS Regional Congress. They have a webpage up at http://ocdscongresshouston.com/ so check it regularly for updates.

And a final reminder for planning ahead. We anticipate once again offering workshops for councils in spring of 2009. We want to give you this early reminder so communities can plan financially to cover the costs of sending at least one council member to one of the workshops.

--Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

Provincial Council report

REPORT FROM THE

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
July 2007

Summer brings our busy time for visitations. Pascal visited Natchez (formerly Vidalia) where we have a small but very faithful and active study group. Amelia visited our Gulf Coast community in Mississippi which seems to have recovered well from the ravages of Katrina. We’ve decided that Gerald is jinxed in relation to making a visitation with Topeka. Twice now he’s had problems that resulted in a delay. We’re hoping that the third time is the charm. Several visitations will take place here during July and August by all provincial councilors.

June 9-12 brought our annual in person meeting. As always, we rejoiced in spending time together even though this year came with a touch of sadness since this was our last meeting of this very first Provincial Council. Next year’s meeting will be with the new councilors. Topics that we discussed include congresses and particularly finances for congresses. The Houston planners informed us that the amount of funds left over from the St Louis congress is greatly insufficient and they are having to do a number of fund raisers in order to make the required deposit on the hotel in a couple of months. The Provincial Council has decided to work with host communities towards building up the congress fund to a minimum of $10,000 to be passed from each host community to the next. We know it’ll take some time to build the fund up to that amount but given the size of deposits asked for by hotels and other such initial costs for congresses, we felt this amount is necessary.

We spent a great deal of time discussing Provincial Council elections and how to best make the transition and orient new members. We had some good candidates nominated to be on the ballot and contacted them during our meeting to explain the expectations of serving on the Provincial Council and answer questions each candidate had. In addition, we discussed canonical establishment for a few of our study groups. Finally we shared some long term dreams about the future of the Provincial Council.

While the rest headed home, Elizabeth and Fr. John Michael headed for the OCDS National Council meeting followed by the Regional Congress in Seattle. Fr. John Michael’s plane was scheduled to leave an hour earlier than Elizabeth’s but somehow her plane left before his and she arrived in Seattle an hour before him, much to Father’s consternation. Highlights of the National Council meeting are included in this issue of the Flos. Both very much enjoyed the Congress. There were some great talks (esp. by OCDS) and we encourage folks who were unable to attend the Congress to order copies of the talks from http://congress.ocds.info/recordings.htm

The Houston Congress will be Sept 11-14, 2008 and their website is at http://ocdscongresshouston.com/

Finally, we ask that everyone continue to hold the process of our first Provincial Council elections in prayer. Nominees are in discernment and soon we will be asking them to write up a few things that we’ll print in a future Flos Carmeli to help our province discern when it comes time to vote. In the meantime, this current Provincial Council serves on and wishes everyone a blessed feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel !!

Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

Extending Formation

Extending a Formation Period

Section I of the Provincial Statutes allows for extending each formation period when necessary. It is important to realize that the times given in the Constitutions are considered MINIMAL times for each formation period.

There are many reasons that a council might feel it is best to extend the formation period longer than mentioned in the Constitutions. Sometimes a candidate will ask for more time before proceeding to the next stage of formation. Always the extension of a formation period should not be viewed in a negative light but as something meant to be supportive of the needs of the candidate in relation to being properly formed in the Carmelite charism.

At the National Council meeting in Seattle in June, our OCDS General Delegate clarified that if a person is in First Promise and that formation period is extended, then the candidate needs to renew the First Promise. This renewal should be done just like the original profession --using the Ritual and taking place at a Mass or at the Liturgy of the Hours. The only change is that in place of "for the next three years," the candidate makes the Promise for the time period of the extension, i.e. "for the next 18 months."

It is important to remember that at the end of the three years, the First Promise expires. Once the Promise expires, the person is no longer a member of the Order. So it is important that the Local Council (or the Provincial Council in the case of Study Groups) grant permission for an extension and the candidate publicly renew the Promise at the point in time when the initial three year period comes to an end.

--The Provincial Council

Elections are Coming

Provincial Council elections are approaching next Spring. We have asked all our canonical communities to nominate someone (deadline is June 1) With that in mind, we thought it might be good to hear some comments from current Provincial Councilors:

Amelia H. Wilken, ocds

"When I was asked to be on the Provincial Council, I did not know what it would involve. I was first aware of the Provincial Council when the new Constitutions were sent to all the communities for suggestions/corrections.

One day I received an email from Fr. John Michael asking if I would consider serving on the Provincial Council. My first reaction was that it is an honor to be asked! Then - reality set in. and I asked myself, "What will this involve?" I thought of our Blessed Mother, how she accepted what the Angel told her and trusted that I could do the same.

I'm not sure how to say this, but being human, we always want to see what benefit there is for me? I know serving the Province is a noble cause but that's not all! It's different going to Congresses and meeting everyone since it is just one time, but when making a visitation, you get to know them and be bonded with them. It is always a great feeling at visitation to be able to encourage, support and help communities grow in their Carmelite charism.

Another aspect is helping those people interested in Carmel but not close to a community who have to be an Isolate. One of my jobs on the Provincial Council has been to assign them to communities and it's great when they are happy with the outcome. I will not be telling the truth if I said all is dandy. Yes, there are bumps/trials along the way, but you are not alone because of the other members of the Provincial Council helping, but most of all, you learn to trust the Lord. This is very Carmel.

I recommend when asked to serve, please pray and accept the offer. Find out for yourself what God's plan is for you in Carmel.

Pascal Alfano, Jr., ocds
Who Me? A Provincial Council Member!!

God, in His overwhelming wisdom, reaches out to those not necessarily looked upon very highly by the world, and calls them to His service for the salvation of souls. We saw this in the selection of the apostles. After all, we are not serving on our own, but Christ is using us as His instruments. He is the one who is leading us. Trust in God is what is asked of us in fulfilling His command.

What do we look for in choosing someone to serve on the provincial council? First, we go to our room and pray to the Holy Spirit to inspire our minds and hearts. The person that may come to mind may be a member who has shown his or her love for the Carmelite life and has demonstrated this by their life of love for God and their relationship with their fellow members in their service to the secular order. We can recognize this in their lives by looking into their eyes and hearts and seeing the love, kindness, interest and brotherly affection they project.

What are the duties of a provincial council member? First, he or she must be open-minded, humble and not strong-willed. They must be someone who is people oriented. Whether they are employed, retired or homemakers, they must have the time, effort and ability to serve on the council. The first council has members who are full-time employees, retirees and part-time workers. The person must be able to use a personal computer due to the fact that most of the correspondence is done by email and on websites.

There is an annual meeting of all members, the secretary and the provincial delegate. This gathering lasts for about three to five days including traveling time. It is usually held in Little Rock at Marylake or in Dallas at the Mt. Carmel Center. These facilities are capable of housing and feeding the members. This period may also include a day of recollection. At no time is any financial expense expected of the council members. The cost is absorbed by the provincial fund. These meetings have produced results in drawing up the Provincial Statutes for our province and visitation rights granted to us by Fr. Ralph Reyes, Provincial of the order at that time. We have developed workshops in New Orleans and Dallas to prepare our members to function in accordance with our Constitutions, Statutes and the formation programs developed by the Provincial Council to be used by all chapters. A website was established to assist all in their many needs and questions about the secular order, how it functions and where books and information material may be acquired. The Provincial Council studies ways to improve on the duties, material and challenges of our chapters and study groups. Any chapter having problems should present them to the Provincial Council if the Local Council is unable to resolve them. Charity among our members must prevail.

Each member is asked to make four to six visitations of chapters or study groups per year. They have an option to present a conference to the group if asked to do so. What a joy it is to meet so many fellow Carmelites seculars in other cities and share in their love and commitment. The Provincial Council assigns all isolated members to chapters. It maintains a record of the status of all isolates. When study group members are prepared to make their promises, a discernment letter is submitted to the Local Council and then to the Provincial Council for approval. We also work with our study groups to help them make progress towards eventual canonical establishment.

The Provincial Council members have a great time being with each other, sharing ideas and experiences and just being down home brothers and sisters. What an honor it is to be nominated to the Provincial Council. God will bless you abundantly. The term of service for each council member is six years. The terms are staggered in such a way that every three years a batch of new comers will join with those who have at least three years of experience on the council.

The "Who Me" may be You. Remember always, not my will but God's will be done.

Provincial Council report

REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
April 2007

The beginning of the year has been a slow time in general for the Provincial Council. We’ve been making arrangements for this year’s visitations as well as finally finding a date for all of us for our annual meeting. This took awhile because certain members (we’ll not name names) wanted to avoid having our meeting on their upcoming 70th birthday. If we didn’t know that their families will make a big deal about it, we’d think they were avoiding such an important event worthy of great celebration.

Only a couple of visitations have happened during this quarter. Elizabeth visited New Iberia, LA where the council offered to find her a husband. She politely declined. Pascal visited our Madison, AL study group.

We’ve also started the process for the first Provincial Council elections. Per Sec. XX of our Provincial Statutes, canonical communities are allowed to nominate one candidate. We’ve sent letters to all our canonical communities asking for nominations. Deadlines for the nominations are June 1 which will allow the Provincial Council to consider the nominees during our annual meeting. We will narrow down the candidates to five and contact each one with information about what is involved in this important service to our province. Ballots for the actual election will be mailed out at the beginning of December. In anticipation of all the elections in spring, we plan to focus the fall issue of the Flos Carmeli on leadership and election issues.

All this election business necessitated some discernment on the part of the current Provincial Council regarding who would like to step down next year and who are willing to continue serving until the 2011 elections as we start staggering the terms. Pascal, Gerald, and Amelia have all decided to step down and return to fully enjoying the life of the retired. Nancy and Elizabeth have agreed to continue serving (we note for those who might be asked to consider being nominated that Nancy and Elizabeth do both work full time jobs, so it is possible to serve on the Provincial Council without yet being retired). It is with some bitter-sweetness that we look forward to our meeting this year as we realize this will be our last time together as a Provincial Council since our 2008 meeting will be with the three new members. But it’ll be another year yet before we bid these three farewell from their service and in the meantime, we’ll have plenty of work for them.

Oh, and we should mention by way of preparing everyone that we promised Fr. John Michael that we would allow him to retire at the end of this triennium. So, we’re putting our minds towards discerning which friar we might recommend to be our new Provincial Delegate starting next year. The final decision rests with Father Provincial but last time he did ask for our input. So if you would like to recommend any of the friars, do feel free to contact any member of the Provincial Council with your thoughts. Fr. John Michael hopes to then be able to devote more attention to his duties as provincial archivist and write a history of the province.

Finally, Linda Klotz of our New Orleans, LA community has been asked to serve as one of our representatives to the OCDS National Council. She replaces Nancy who has served her three year term and now rotates off. This is the final year of Elizabeth’s term on the National Council (she’ll be replaced by whoever assumes the role of Provincial Council president next year) and Paul Shubert of our Mobile, AL study group has two more years in his term. The next OCDS National Council meeting will take place immediately before the Seattle Congress.

Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

Council Report

REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
Oct 2006

Summer was a busy time of visitations.

Gerald visited our New Caney community and the St Therese Study Group which New Caney has been helping to get off the ground. From there, he joined his wife for some fun in Las Vegas. We were really hoping that he’d win enough money to take the full Provincial Council with them when they go to Rome in October, but alas, the “wages of sin” took their toll and the rest of us will have to just dream of Rome. Later in August, Gerald returned to Houston to visit our San Juan community. We note that Gerald’s visitation reports always include mention of the great meals he has during these various visitations.

Amelia was visiting Jackson MS and then Covington LA at the time of the writing of our last report. Both of these study groups seem to be making good progress towards canonical status.

Nancy made visitation of our Birmingham community to check on how well things went after we merged the Irondale study group into the Birmingham community.

Good news from Pascal ! At the end of June, he and his wife moved into their new home. Gradually he is rebuilding his life after the devastation of Katrina and the rest of the Provincial Council is eagerly looking forward to seeing him at our meeting in October so we can all finally give him great big hugs.

Somehow, Elizabeth has managed the summer without making any visitations. Se did have the joy of celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel with the Georgetown study group as they had several people make their First Promise and one person take her Definitive Promise.

In August, Elizabeth, Nancy and Amelia gathered in Chicago to go see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Musuem. They very much enjoyed the exhibit and could not resist having dinner at the Weber Grill for the feast of St Lawrence. The trip was pure pleasure (except for Elizabeth who was there also for her job) and they sure did have some fun.

We are now all turning our attention to firming up our plans for our annual meeting in Dallas on the weekend of Oct 12-17. We look forward to celebrating Teresa’s feast day with our Dallas OCDS. We’ll be spending that Saturday afternoon meeting with the Father General as he makes a visit of our province. Naturally, we’ll have a report on all this in the next Flos Carmeli. After Father General left, our president (left) invited us outside where [from left-right: she, Amelia, Anita & Pascal] blew bubbles on Mt Carmel Center's front porch. This was not an official council activity.

Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

Council Report

OCDS Legislation Books are ready!!!

After some delay, the Provincial Council is delighted to announce that we have published a book containing the OCDS Legislation for the Oklahoma Province. This book contains the Rule of St Albert, OCDS Constitutions, Oklahoma OCDS Provincial Statutes, and the OCDS Ritual.

The book is available in two formats.

The softcover, coil bound version which also contains the provincial forms and costs $ 9.15 plus shipping and handing.
The hardcover version (does not contain the forms) is available for $18.75 plus shipping and handling.

Both books can be ordered online from www.lulu.com. Do a search for "OCDS" and it'll pull up both books. A search using "Carmelites" (use the plural version) should pull up both books as well.

Please pass this news along to the members of your community. You might find you can save money on the shipping if you place one order for the full community. And we ask that those with internet access please help order for our members who do not have internet access. We also recommend that each community have a copy (or even a copy of each version) for their library.

We hope all the members of our province will find it useful to have all our legislation available together in one book and we appreciate everyone's patience with the delay we had in actually getting it published.

The Provincial Council
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth M Korves, Nancy Thompson, Amelia Wilken

P.S. Note our clothing ritual requires us to present each candidate with a copy of the Constitutions. So your Director of Formation will need to have copies of this together with a scapular for each candidate as they are admitted into formation by this rite. [Fr. John Michael]

REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL

- July 2006

We had to wait a few months for approval for a small change we made in the Provincial Statutes (Sec. 2d), but as soon as we got word on that, we were then able to move forward with publishing a book of the legislation for our province. That took a few more weeks while waiting for the samples to be sure they look OK and now the books are ready for purchase. They've been a hot selling item with over 100 copies sold in less than a week. See the notice elsewhere in this issue of the Flos for how to order the books (emails were also sent out to all community/study group presidents).

Aside from that, we have mostly been making visitations. Gerald visited the Houston study group at St Therese's parish and the New Caney community in May. Upon returning home, he began planning a trip with his lovely wife, Betty, to Rome later this year. Elizabeth visited our study groups in Amarillo and then Lubbock, also in May. In Amarillo, she played a bit of golf for the first time (although needs lots more practice before going pro). This visitation photo shows the Amarillo members from left to right: Rita Hardesty, Director of Formation Margie Drummond, Deacon Jim Ambs seated, founding member Carol Gonzalez, and president Irene Robel.

June found Nancy visiting Georgetown and then Waco. In between, Nancy stayed with Elizabeth who treated her the one night to views of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and other nocturnal wonders through the telescope where Elizabeth works.

Pascal is making good progress on rebuilding his life after Katrina. The new house is well underway and recently he passed along that he and his wife, Myra, will be able to move into the new house probably within the next month.

And Amelia?? She's been busy working out in her yard while the weather in Iowa is nice. When not out digging up plants, she continues to try to make heads or tails of who is an isolate and who is not. At the end of June, she'll also be hitting the road to make visitation to the Jackson and then Covington study groups.

Plans are under way for our annual meeting in October. We're very happy that we'll be together for the feast of St Teresa. We'll be meeting at the Mount Carmel Center in Dallas and will have the opportunity to meet with the Father General as he completes his visit with the friars of our province. The Dallas OCDS are planning to host a pot luck for us while we're there as well. We've also received an invitation for a meeting in early November at Holy Hill of the three Provincial Councils within the US as well as our National Council.

Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

Provincial Council Report

It sure feels like we’ve been busier than this report will make it sound. Basically, we’ve been doing many things that are behind-the-scenes. Elizabeth has been working on putting together our legislation book. Amelia has been trying to pull together an up-to-date and accurate list of our isolates although every couple of weeks, we seem to hear from someone new changing her list. Nancy and Gerald have been working on a brochure (based on samples provided by a few different communities) which our communities can use for letting people know about OCDS. And Pascal continues to mostly pray for us as he continues putting his life back together after Katrina. The good news is that he’s received his insurance money which has enabled him to sign for building a new home.

And there was that brief aside of dreaming going to Dijon to reflect upon how to best celebrate this 100th anniversary of the death of Elizabeth of the Trinity. The vote however, went in favor of holding off until next year to visit Mt Carmel in celebration of 800 years of the Rule of St Albert. Now if only we could find some generous benefactor to cover the expenses of our dreaming!

We have some great news to share. Our Father General, Fr. Luis Aróstegui Gamboa will be making a fraternal visit of our province in early October. Even though we are all eager to see each other, we’ve decided to postpone our annual Provincial Council meeting and hold it during his visit since our Provincial, Fr. Gregory Ross, has indicated that we should meet with the Father General. We are very excited to be given such an opportunity and look forward to what will be a special event for us. Details of the Father General’s schedule have not yet been worked out but hopefully there will be some opportunities for some of our OCDS to meet him.

We are gearing up for another year of visitations. None were made in these past few months as we’ve been busy contacting the communities and study groups which we’ll visit this year. We will be revisiting a few of our younger study groups and visiting many communities and study groups for the first time this year. And next year, we’ll complete our three year cycle during which all our communities will have received a visit.

The friars are making progress on setting up a website for themselves. Soon we hope to transfer our OCDS provincial webpages to that site.

We wish everyone a blessed and happy Easter!!

Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken

Council report, Jan 06

FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL

- JAN 2006

We're not quite sure what to report for this past quarter. There's a level at which things have been rather quiet on the Provincial Council front.

We finished out our visitations for 2005. Elizabeth visited our two study groups in Atlanta. Nancy visited the Mobile study group. Gerald visited our Knoxville study group.

Mostly we've been trying to tie up some loose ends. A couple things have come up which postponed our plans to publish a book of our legislation but that is still in the works and nearing completion.

The division of the Lafayette community into two smaller communities appears to have gone well. The paperwork for raising the second ("new") community to canonical establishment went through very quickly and they will celebrate their canonical status in March.

The Sioux City community has decided to start a new Group in Discernment in South Dakota because they have several members from Yankton and Sioux Falls that drive down for meetings.
We were very pleased just after Thanksgiving to receive news that the Washington Province (that's the eastern province) has finally appointed their OCDS Provincial Council. Already we've received a few questions from them and we've been happy to share hopefully helpful tidbits.

Let us give you a REALLY early heads up on the next Carmelite Institute conference. It is tentatively scheduled for July 25-29, 2007 and they expect to hold it somewhere on the east coast. The topic will be "The Prophetic Dimensions of our Rule" and the keynote speaker will be Kevin Culligan OCD. Mark your calendars and start saving your money. The Carmelite Institute conferences gather Carmelites from both branches (both Discalced and OCarm): friars, nuns, and laity and it is quite an incredible experience.

As we look back over this past year, we note that we've accomplished many things and we look forward to 2006 with a great sense of hope. We wish you a wonderful New Year and ask that Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity shower our province with blessings as we celebrate her centenary this year.

Provincial Council:
Nancy Thompson, Gerald Alford, Amelia Wilken, Pascal Alfano and Elizabeth Korves.

fall council report

REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL

These past three months have been rather tumultuous for the Provincial Council. First, Gerald had triple by-pass surgery. That same day, Pascal fell and shattered his heel. So, things slowed down for us while we awaited their recovery but then, just 10 days later, Katrina hit. Pascal evacuated New Orleans and for a good week or so we worried until finally he turned up in Ft Worth before moving on to Monroe, LA to an empty home made available to he and his family. His home was flooded with 10 ft of water so he's lost everything but is otherwise doing well.

Katrina held the attention of the Provincial Council as much as everyone else as we worried over our friars, nuns, and especially our seculars in the areas hit. We still have not heard from many of our New Orleans community nor from many of our Gulf Coast, MS community. And we were terribly saddened to learn of two deaths among our seculars in those areas, Marion Sterns of New Orleans, and Nancy Murphy of Bay St Louis, MS.

In the midst of all this, Nancy had some medical problems come up with her son and Amelia had family visiting so Provincial Council work slowed to a temporary crawl while we all dealt with those things that life throws at us.

We did manage to put the last finishing touches on our provincial formation guidelines and submit them to be added to our statutes and they were approved at the Sept meeting of the General Definitory. Very soon we will be publishing a book with all our current legislation so that everyone in our province will have a copy of the Rule of St Albert, Constitutions, Statutes, and Ritual.
The Provincial Council was also able to review profession requests from a few of our study groups and we continue to make visitations of our communities and study groups. Pascal's visitations that were schedule have been postponed until either another Provincial Councilor can make them for when Pascal is able to turn his attention once again back to provincial matters.

At the end of September, Elizabeth, Nancy, and Amelia were able to attend the OCDS National Congress in St Louis (Gerald and Pascal had to cancel). Elizabeth and Nancy attended the National Council meeting prior to the start of the Congress. On Friday, we had the Plenary Council where Elizabeth gave a State of the Province report (included in this Flos Carmeli) and representatives of all our communities had an opportunity to express any concerns to the provincial leadership. The possibility of a Spanish speaking OCDS group in Houston was raised as well as some concern over an increase in bureaucracy in light of the Constitutions and Statutes. On Friday evening, an opportunity was provided for everyone from our province who was in St Louis to meet the Provincial Council and many good questions were asked. Elizabeth, Nancy and Amelia certainly did enjoy the opportunity that the Congress gave for us to meet so many members of our province.

We wish everyone a blessed feast of St Teresa and we continue to hold in our prayers all those impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

--Provincial Council:
Pascal Alfano, Gerald Alford, Elizabeth Korves, Nancy Thompson, and Amelia Wilken