What would happen if Mary and Joseph were refugees today?
http://www.romereports.com/2015/12/15/what-would-happen-if-mary-and-joseph-were-refugees-today
Welcome to the Carmel of Our Lady of Consolation in Vilvoorde, Belgium. The oldest, still-existing community of Carmelite Nuns in the world (founded in 1469) with a very unique history (from the Ancient Observance (OCarm.) to the Teresian Reform (OCD) in 1966.
17 December 2015
09 November 2015
Closing Celebrations of the 5th Centenary of St Teresa of Avila
In the Carmel of Vilvoorde the closing of the 5th centenary year was celebrated on 11 October 2015 with a Solemn Mass presided by Reverend Fr. Piet Capoen,"deken" of the Federation Vilvoorde, assisted by our chaplain Fr. Koen Meys, OPraem. and our deacon Reverend Jan Goyvaerts. Two professional singers added color to the celebration. At the end of the Mass, our Filipina sisters together with a Spanish woman sang Nada te Turbe to the accompaniment of castanets, guitar, tambourine and.marakas in the spirit of our holy Mother, St Teresa. May our imitation of her life and example not end with this celebration but continue till the rest of our lives...
(photos still to follow...)
The following Saturday, 17 October, the Carmelite Province of Flanders also held a closing celebration during the Carmel Family Day in Ghent. It was presided over by His Grace, Rev. Mgr. Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, Sweden. Concelebrating with him were 13 Carmelite priests and 3 brothers, and deacon Jan Goyvaerts, associate of Vilvoorde Carmel. Around 30 Carmelite nuns from the Flemish Federation of Carmels and more than a hundred lay people, joined in the celebration. Invited were the president of the Belgique Sud Federation (French Federation), a representative from the Federation of the Netherlands. The Dutch provincial, Fr Dick Cobbens, gave an inspiring talk on St Teresa and the contemporary world. The afternoon affair had a very familial and warm atmosphere among the sons and daughters of La Madre. Here below are few of the many photos taken on that day...
14 October 2015
13 October 2015
12 October 2015
11 October 2015
10 October 2015
09 October 2015
08 October 2015
07 October 2015
06 October 2015
1st day of the novena in honor of St. Teresa of Avila
Lord Jesus Christ, your raised St. Teresa to be our guide in the ways of prayer and contemplation. Give me the grace to follow her example with faithfulness and generosity. Lead me into the depths of my being, where You dwell with the Father and the Holy Spirit so that like her, I too, may sing Your praises and be set aflame with the fire of your love. AMEN
Why do we celebrate St. Teresa’s 500th Birth Anniversary?
To make her life and teachings known. She left us three major works (her writings) to guide us how to grow in our human and spiritual life. These are the Story of Her Life (the Autobiography), The Way of Pefection and The Interior Castle.
What is the implication of this celebration to our Catholic Faith?
The most important purpose is to encourage us to read and re-read her writings. She teaches us that the first step to authentic life of prayer is to know ourselves, to know who we are before God (self-knowledge) that is to know our human weakness and frailties, as well as our God-given talents and strength. Without God we can do nothing but with God nothing is impossible.
The most important purpose is to encourage us to read and re-read her writings. She teaches us that the first step to authentic life of prayer is to know ourselves, to know who we are before God (self-knowledge) that is to know our human weakness and frailties, as well as our God-given talents and strength. Without God we can do nothing but with God nothing is impossible.
We can acquire this through meditation and recollection. With the humble acceptance of ourselves, with the grace of God and the light of the Holy Spirit we can enter into the depths of our being where God, the Holy Trinity dwells. After our Baptism we became the temple of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is through PRAYER that we grow deeper in Faith, Hope and Love.
05 October 2015
Celebrating the 500th Birth Centenary
Our apologies that our blog has long been outdated due to a technical problem, which disabled the in-charge to open and update it. We have then decided to make a new one with the same name.
To begin with, let us focus on the Celebration of the 500th Birth Anniversary of our holy Mother Foundress and Reformer, St. Teresa of Avila, whose feast is on 15 October 2015.
As a way of preparing, we will publish each day of the novena (6-14 October) about her and from her writings...
Who is Teresa of Avila?
St Teresa wa born to Don Alonso de Cepeda and Doña Beatriz de Ahumada on March 29, 1515 in Avila, Spain. She is the third of the nine children.
As a young girl she struggles to balance a love for God with a need for friends and fun. Later as a teenager, she was more interested in boys than in religion. She became over eager to read romantic stories of chivalry, began to cultivate her feminine charm and to plan for a possible marriage. When she was 13, her mother died at the age of 33 years. Her father entrusted her to the care of the Augustinian nuns at Our Lady of Grace convent in Avila. At first she hated to live as a boarder at the convent but later she developed the love for silence and prayer there through reading good books.
At the age of 20 she decided to offer her life to God. She entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila and took the name of Teresa of Jesus. In the monastery there was a large number of nuns which was not conducive to prayer. Teresa longed for a quite atmosphere, solitude and silence, and deeper interior prayer. She prayed for guidance and God inspired her to found a new Carmelite Monastery with only a few nuns (a bout a dozen) in the community that focused on a re return to a life of simplicity, solitude, silence, fraternal charity and interior prayer.
St. Teresa of Avila is the Foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Order (or Teresian Carmel), both priests and nuns. She founded the first Carmelite Monastery for nuns under the patronage of St . Joseph on August 24, 1562 in Avila. There she told the nuns to offer their prayers and sacrifices for the sanctification of priests and especially "for those who are defenders of the Church and for preachers and for learned men who protect her (the Church) from attack...."(WP 1:2). She died on October 4, 1582 at the age of 67, was declared a Saint (canonized) by Pope Gregory XI on March 12, 1622. Pope Paul VI declared her the First Woman Doctor of the Church for her writings and teachings on September 27, 1970.
Next: Why do we celebrate St. Teresa's 500th Birth Centenary?
To begin with, let us focus on the Celebration of the 500th Birth Anniversary of our holy Mother Foundress and Reformer, St. Teresa of Avila, whose feast is on 15 October 2015.
As a way of preparing, we will publish each day of the novena (6-14 October) about her and from her writings...
St Teresa wa born to Don Alonso de Cepeda and Doña Beatriz de Ahumada on March 29, 1515 in Avila, Spain. She is the third of the nine children.
As a young girl she struggles to balance a love for God with a need for friends and fun. Later as a teenager, she was more interested in boys than in religion. She became over eager to read romantic stories of chivalry, began to cultivate her feminine charm and to plan for a possible marriage. When she was 13, her mother died at the age of 33 years. Her father entrusted her to the care of the Augustinian nuns at Our Lady of Grace convent in Avila. At first she hated to live as a boarder at the convent but later she developed the love for silence and prayer there through reading good books.
At the age of 20 she decided to offer her life to God. She entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila and took the name of Teresa of Jesus. In the monastery there was a large number of nuns which was not conducive to prayer. Teresa longed for a quite atmosphere, solitude and silence, and deeper interior prayer. She prayed for guidance and God inspired her to found a new Carmelite Monastery with only a few nuns (a bout a dozen) in the community that focused on a re return to a life of simplicity, solitude, silence, fraternal charity and interior prayer.
St. Teresa of Avila is the Foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Order (or Teresian Carmel), both priests and nuns. She founded the first Carmelite Monastery for nuns under the patronage of St . Joseph on August 24, 1562 in Avila. There she told the nuns to offer their prayers and sacrifices for the sanctification of priests and especially "for those who are defenders of the Church and for preachers and for learned men who protect her (the Church) from attack...."(WP 1:2). She died on October 4, 1582 at the age of 67, was declared a Saint (canonized) by Pope Gregory XI on March 12, 1622. Pope Paul VI declared her the First Woman Doctor of the Church for her writings and teachings on September 27, 1970.
Next: Why do we celebrate St. Teresa's 500th Birth Centenary?
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