In the past month more than 4,800 people have joined our Facebook family. Now we have 81,643 followers! Thank you for being part of our Carmelite Family. We hope that you will find here a place of reflection, prayer, inspiration and news from the Carmelites of Australia and Timor-Leste. We will continue to remember you in our Masses and prayers.
Find us on Facebook @carmelitesAET and click on ‘follow’ so you can see all our posts in your news feed.
The call to develop a sustainable economy is coming from many quarters of the globe: Pope Francis and people of faith worldwide; the United Nations; several world leaders and even some economists.
JPIC Team member Peter Thomas offers a few thoughts on this year's Australian Catholic Bishops Social Justice Statement: Everyone's Business - Developing an Inclusive and Sustainable Economy.
The new Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Zumalai parish (Timor-Leste) is gradually taking shape. Emerging from behind the existing church made of sticks and grass, the new brick and concrete church will be a welcome, permanent addition for the people of Zumalai.
Money originally donated by parishioners for a new Church disappeared during the struggle for independence in 1999 when the parish centre was ransacked.
Led by Carmelite Paul Sireh, join us for our eighth annual pilgrimage along the beautiful Lilydale Warburton Rail Trail culminating at the Sancta Sophia Meditation Centre. We rank our own pilgrimage alongside the great Christian pilgrimage destinations of Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Canterbury Cathedral in England!
Friday 10 to Sunday 12 November 2017.
Earlier this year the Carmelite Family in Timor-Leste gathered for a seminar celebrating the 450th anniversary of the birth of St Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi. Born in Florence in 1566 St Mary Magdalen entered the Carmelite Convent there and became a prominent spiritual figure for the Carmelites and for Church reform.
Around 200 members of the Carmelite Family in Timor-Leste were present to hear Fr Antonio, OCD, talk about the life and writings of St Mary Magdalen.
'Let the poor speak!' Peter Thomas talks about the work of Dom Hélder Câmara, 'bishop of the slums', and Pope Francis in giving the poor a face and a voice in the church and the world.
'Both Hélder Câmara and Pope Francis are advocates of the poor. They both acknowledge charity but seem to witness to a more radical Christ-like position of being with the poor; of learning from the poor, of being in solidarity with the poor and of empowering the poor.'
In the past month another 6,807 people have joined our Facebook family. Now we have 76,807 followers! Thank you for being part of our Carmelite Family. We hope that you will find here a place of reflection, prayer, inspiration and news from the Carmelites of Australia and Timor-Leste. We will continue to remember you in our Masses and prayers.
Find us on Facebook @carmelitesAET and click on ‘follow’ so you can see all our posts in your news feed.
‘We will not remain silently complicit in the destruction of our common home,’ says the message from the International Carmelite JPIC meeting in Fatima. ‘We urge our Carmelite Family to join us in a commitment to study, prayer and the performance of very simple gestures that will contribute to substantive change in our lifestyles. The culture of indifference is one of the key challenges within our communities and societies. Blessed Titus Brandsma, along with many other Carmelite saints, reminds us “We are not called to do great things. We are called to do the ordinary things in grand style.”’
The Carmelite Library at Middle Park is dedicated to the study of spirituality and mysticism. Its collection is quite unique in Australia.
It is the Province Library of the Carmelite Friars in Australia-Timor Leste and is open to the public. Set in the handsome surroundings of the Carmelite Hall, the Library is an ideal place to come and read, study or reflect. You can also borrow from our collection.
Read more about our Library | Visit the new Carmelite Library website
Deborah Guess writes about Radical Simplicity: Meditation and Ecological Care. ‘Meditation’, she says, ‘can bring about a change of heart.’ This change of heart is meaningless if it is not ‘expressed in specific ecological action and in a simpler way of living.’
The ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion. Pope Francis - Laudato Si'
