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Greetings from Father Mario

SPRING 2024

Dear Members of the Mother Angeline Society,

I am happy to greet you in this New Year of 2024. I pray that you are well, and that the New Year has begun well for you. As members of the Mother Angeline Society, you are important to us, and your prayerful and financial support of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa, O.Carm. is invaluable in this entire process. You and your intentions are remembered in two Masses each month and in the daily prayers of the Carmelite Sisters. We truly count on you to help us in making Mother Angeline better known within the Church community.

On Mother Angeline’s 40th Anniversary of death, January 21, 2024, the Sunday of the Word of God, Pope Francis announced a Year of Prayer in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee in Rome, which bears the title and theme that the Church consists of Pilgrims of Hope. As baptized Christians, we each have a place in not just the life of the Church, but also the mission and ministry of the Church. Each jubilee celebrates an anniversary of the redemption won by Christ through His life, death, and resurrection. This Jubilee Year means to renew us – and in our world today with all of its struggles and darkness – in the reality that Christian Catholics singly and together, need to be pilgrims and proclaimers of hope. Mother Angeline often went to Rome for Jubilee years, and she certainly would enter into the theme of hope, that virtue which is a gift of God and enables us trust God and believe that he will give us the grace and strength we need to attain eternal life and fulfill His plan for us. The Venerable’s life and ministry breathed hope and she was able to inspire and lift up those around her with that spirit, enabling them to serve the aged and infirm with compassion and hope. Let us make beneficial use of this year of prayer. Thank you for your ongoing financial and spiritual support of the mission of the Mother Angeline Society that seeks to make the Venerable better known, and to advance her Cause in the Church. With holy hope, may we continue to light up the world with Christ. We seek the support of her prayers, and her companionship as pilgrims of hope. God bless you and may Our Lady watch over you always

In Christ,
Very Reverend Mario Esposito, O.Carm.
Vice Postulator

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From the Pen of Brother Robert Chiulli, O.Carm.

The season of Lent is always a reminder of the centrality of prayer and sacrifice in the Christian life. During this time, the Church pays special attention to how Jesus was completely disposed to following the Father’s will in his life, no matter the price to be paid. And as disciples of Jesus, we too need to be reminded that our purpose in life is not to satisfy our own dreams and yearnings, but to obediently follow the call of Him who has brought us into being, and who desires that we spend eternity with Him. This idea of sacrifice is one that is very much at odds with our modern culture, as our economy, our civilization is built on being able to satisfy any desire, any whim as quickly as possible. As soon as I have an idea of some object that I cannot simply live without, I can just go to my computer, and with a few keystrokes, have the item delivered to my front door the next day. Never in history has it been so easy and so convenient to acquire what we want. And yet, what is the price we pay for all this convenience? We buy more than we need, and need more places to store the stuff we buy. What happens though when after we buy and buy and buy, we feel even less satisfied than we did before? This consumption frenzy simply masks the emptiness and longing we all bear, and we distract ourselves from the larger questions about life and its ultimate meaning.

A man who learned the value and worth of suffering and sacrifice first-hand was the Jesuit priest Walter Ciszek. Fr. Ciszek was an American priest who felt a call to minister to the Russian people during World War II. With the rise of communism in Russia, religion was suppressed and devotion to the State took its place. Burning with a desire to speak about God to the Russian people, Fr. Ciszek learned their language, and then made his way first to Poland, and eventually to the Soviet Union. However, the ministry was far, far harder than he expected. He was suspected of being a Vatican spy by the Russian authorities and placed in solitary confinement for four years. After this, he was sent to a labor camp in Siberia for fifteen years. As you might imagine, the deprivations Fr. Ciszek experienced were severe, and they almost broke his body as well as his spirit. The work was grueling and relentless, the food was barely enough to keep from starving, and Mass could only be celebrated secretly, and at great risk. But through grace, Fr. Ciszek grew to understand the redemptive value of his suffering, “It is not the Father, not God who inflicts suffering upon us but rather the unredeemed world in which we must labor to do his will, the world in whose redemption we share.” Fr. Ciszek began to see the events of his life—both the sufferings and the joys—as united with the will of God, and a means by which God is reconciled with the world. Suffering, once understood as united with the will of God, and not as some form of cruel punishment, took on a new, deeper, supernatural meaning, “a true sharing in the saving acts of Christ,” as Fr. Ciszek wrote.

Mother Angeline, only a few years older than Fr. Ciszek, also possessed a deep understanding of the role of suffering in the Christian life, and of conformity of our will to God’s, “The happiest man in the world is he who has peace of heart—and peace is found in resignation to the will of God… Faithful not only when all is going well, and we are just where we want to be, doing the work we want to do; but faithful to Him in adversity and hardship, faithful when the Cross is almost unbearable; faithful when being faithful costs something. This is the fidelity that makes saints out of ordinary beings!” Both Fr. Ciszek and Mother Angeline remind us that when we prayerfully lift our attention away from our own wants and desires and look to the Cross, we will see the price of our redemption, the redemption we participate in by our own sufferings. And both of these holy people knew that this alignment of our will with God’s could only be made possible and sustained through regular prayer, particularly the Eucharist. As we continue through this Year of Eucharistic Revival, may one of its fruits be a greater conformity of our will with God’s.

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Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa: 40th Anniversary of Death

On January 20, 2024, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm gathered at Saint Teresa’s Motherhouse Chapel in Germantown, New York to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa’s entrance to eternal life.  The actual date was January 21, 1984  when she passed away. It also fell on her birthday which would have made her 131 years old today!

The Holy Mass was celebrated by the principal celebrant Most Reverend Gerardo Colacicco with Very Reverend Mario Esposito, O.Carm. as the Master of Ceremonies and homilist. At the altar were other invited members of the Clergy- Rev. James Donlon, Rev. James Miara, Rev. James Hess, O.Carm., Very Reverend Patrick Keating and Reverend John Moyna. The Carmelite Brothers of Saint Elias Province assisted at the liturgy. Also present but not concelebrating was Reverend Von Erick Maria Sandoval, O.Carm.  Other invited guests were the McCrory family, Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, Sisters for Life, Little Sisters of the Poor, staff members of the Avila Institute of Gerontology, Carmelite System, Saint Teresa’s Motherhouse dietary department and other special guests. The celebration concluded with a special reception in Carmel Hall. It was a beautiful day to remember and honor the life and legacy of this woman of faith, who in her lifetime,  exemplified a deep love and devotion to the Holy Eucharist. As the Universal Church continues her celebration of the Eucharistic Revival, may the example of our Foundress also awaken in us a deep spirit of love and holiness, and a renewal of life that comes with our union with Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. The theme of this year’s anniversary celebration is “Strengthened by the Eucharist.”

CLICK FOR HOMILY

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Celebrating 50, 60, 70 and 75 Years of Religious Jubilees

On June 3, 2023, nineteen Carmelite Sisters celebrated their, 50th, 60th, 70th, and 75th religious jubilees. A Jubilee Eucharistic Celebration was held at Saint Teresa’s Motherhouse with The Most Reverend Gerardo J. Colacicco of the Archdiocese of New York who served as the principal celebrant and homilist. Very Reverend Mario Esposito, O.Carm. was the Master of Ceremonies and Reverend Michael Kissane, O.Carm., Reverend Mark Zittle, O.Carm., Rev. James Sullivan and Rev. Jim Hess, O.Carm. were con-celebrants.

The Jubilarians celebrated with loving remembrance and gratitude to the many special persons who helped them come to this time of joyous celebration. All their many years of service to God and His elderly, of those present and those who were unable to attend, you are deeply acknowledged and appreciated! Congratulations dear Sisters.

Highlighted excerpts from the Homily of The Most Reverend Gerardo J. Colacicco:

“… On the feast of Pentecost Jesus entered that upper room… and breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit… He gave them the power of this resurrected life which we know to be the Holy Spirit, the power to live our lives faithfully… joyfully… in truth and goodness and beauty… To those who have consecrated their lives for the glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, He grants a blessing in silence, in the quiet of the world, in this little corner of the world. He grants a tremendous blessing. And He says to us, “Look here. Pay attention here. Look at these my brides, look at the joy they give to my Sacred Heart. Look at the joy and hope that they give the world.  Pay attention here, for this is the most beautiful, this is the most truth, this is where I move and live and act in them, and through them, and with them to show my goodness to the world. For this, my dear Sisters, we give you thanks.”

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Teaching Religious Sisters Around the World How to Age Well Together

by Shane Cooney, AIG Head of Education

Above: Sisters from around the world with AIG Director, Sr. M. Peter Lillian Di Maria, O.Carm., and AIG Faculty and Staff, Deacon Tony Silvestro, Phillip McCallion, and Shane Cooney.

Communities of religious women in many countries around the world are facing the challenge of how Sisters can provide the appropriate care and support for their aging members. Unfortunately, many Religious Congregations have neither the funds nor the support systems in place.

In 2022, the Avila Institute of Gerontology and the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm discussed options to answer these needs. The Avila Institute was blessed to receive a $720k grant to develop Sisters Aging Well Together (SAWT), a Congregational eldercare enablement program offered as a pilot program to 12 Sisters from different Communities representing Mexico, India, Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. The goal of this program is to provide an opportunity for the Sisters to learn more about how to care for their aging Sisters. They will then be charged with sharing this information and teaching their own Communities and other Communities as the eldercare networks in these countries continue their development.

Beginning in March 2023, the 12 Sisters began receiving formative education on various concepts and practices in gerontology, person-centered care, and care of the aged in the Community setting, based on Mother Angeline’s philosophy of being “kinder than kindness itself” and treating each of our cherished aged and infirm as a unique human being. They attended classes with AIG faculty twice per week via video conference in the AIG Learning Center to complete 50 hours of education, assignments, and evaluations.

In July 2023, 10 of the 12 Sisters were able to come Avila for one month and had an opportunity to tour the Teresian House in Albany, New York. During this time, the Sisters were also able to attend in-person classes that allowed for additional opportunities for discussion, information sharing, and relationship building. A considerable amount of time was given to exploring care plans and being introduced to the AIG Care Transitions Tool, which is an instrument designed to help Sisters assess the readiness to care for the aged in their Communities.

At the end of their visit at Avila, the Sisters spent more time at St. Patrick’s Manor, where they were able to see how the Carmelite Sisters operate a long-term care Home. Once the Sisters return to their homes in August, AIG will continue to meet with them to assist with the implementation of the Care Transitions Tool and to provide ongoing support. In this way, AIG will continue to be with the Sisters each step of the way as they plan for their future—one in which they will age well together.