Category: Greetings from Father Mario

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Greetings from Father Mario

Dear Members of the Mother Angeline Society,

Peace and blessings to you as you read the first issue of the Mother Angeline Society Bulletin for 2025. We rely upon your prayerful and financial support as we continue to spread the news of the Cause and Charism of Venerable Mother Angeline Teresa, O.Carm., Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. Each month, you are in our prayers and remembered in Holy Mass as we lift up your intentions, spiritual and temporal welfare to the Lord and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

For 2025, we have been reflecting upon Mother Angeline Teresa and her Legacy of Kindness. She always encouraged her Sisters to be kinder than kindness itself, and her encouragement was not just in words. In her attitudes and actions, the Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters exemplified kindness, shown in both big and little ways. She wanted comfortable rooms and good food for her beloved old people. By respecting the cultural and religious values of the residents, she created homelike settings and a respect for their dignity in all matters, and most of all, emphasized charity and kindness in dealing with the residents, and with the staff of the various homes. Even today you can see as you visit a Carmelite facility the way the Sisters and staff personalize the care of all who live there, and through mission effectiveness programs, train each new co-worker in how to treat God’s beautiful and fragile elderly. This kindness extends to the families of the residents as well, who are often hurting as they entrust their family members to the care of others. Mother showed through a gentle touch, a smile, and a little treat, how special each resident was, and this legacy has been passed to the Sisters.

Within the Congregation of Carmelite Sisters, Mother Angeline’s kindness was manifested in how she strove to treat each Sister in an individual way according to her needs and situation, and at the same time constantly encourage joyful and supportive community life. In so many ways and words, Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa taught how prayer and reflection, devotion and faith alone would strengthen the Sisters in their vocational resolve to serve God in Mary’s Order and to care for God’s precious seniors in a loving and kind way. We meet people all the time who had a parent, relative or friend in a Carmelite Sisters nursing home years ago, and still talk about the kindness and care that the Sisters and their associates provided when their loved one needed it most. This is the beautiful and powerful legacy of Mother Angeline which needs to be treasured and expanded.

In this Holy Year of Hope, we are reminded by such witnesses as Mother Angeline that charity and kindness foster hope and a belief in the God of life and love. We want someday, I trust, to be remembered for our own kindness to others, and to leave our own inheritance of good on this earth.

Thank you so much for promoting the Cause for the beatification and canonization of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa. Please continue to help us make Mother Angeline known through your prayerful and financial support of the Cause. May God bless you and Our Lady watch over you.

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Greetings from Father Mario

Dear Members of the Mother Angeline Society, 

Peace be with you as we come to the end of the summer of 2024. I pray that you are well. 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 vital to the 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.  

To truly know ourselves personally, as a family, or as members of a group, it is important to explore and understand one’s roots. Many people today invest in DNA testing, and genealogy studies so that they can shed light on and illuminate their origins, their ancestry. In religious communities, the members spend a good amount of time studying the history and spirituality of their religious family, so as to know and live the charism, for example, of the Carmelites or another Order, more profoundly. This past June, I had the privilege, along with Mother Mary Rose, O.Carm., Prioress General, and five other Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, to visit Mossend, Scotland, as well as Carfin, to see the actual places where Mother Angeline lived for years before entering the Little Sisters of the Poor, where her family moved after leaving Ireland, and where she received her first Holy Communion and Confirmation. What an extraordinary time! We were hosted by John and Thomas Mallon and Brian Timmons, who run Sancta Familia Media, members of Holy Family Parish, that have been steady and effective promoters of the Cause of Mother Angeline. Holy Family Parish was her parish, and that of her family. Devotion to Venerable Mary Angeline, and awareness of her genuine reputation for holiness flourish there, and it was touching and heartwarming to experience it.   

As you will see in other parts of the Bulletin, a beautiful statue of Mother Angeline with some of her beloved old people has been erected at the Church, and the local people know of Mother and the meaning of her charism. In terms of roots, the faith and commitment of the people to the Church is strong, and steady, and you can see how Mother was shaped in that atmosphere. At St. Francis Xavier Church in Carfin where the young Bridget McCrory made her communion, you can see the signs of devotion to both Our Lady of Lourdes, and St. Therese of the Child Jesus, devotions Mother kept throughout her life. All of us were overwhelmed as we saw the environment that nurtured Mother Angeline, and a place to which she returned whenever possible. For sure, we came to know Mother’s roots a bit better, and it was wonderful to behold. Meeting the Irish pilgrims there who came from the parish of her baptism in Northern Ireland, completed the whole experience. I truly felt like I knew Mother Angeline better afterward.  

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. The life and legacy of Mother Angeline continues to nourish and strengthen the work of the Carmelite Sisters and build up the Church. Each day we ask her help and prayers, and trust in her loving companionship on the pathways of life. 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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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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Greetings from Father Mario

Dear Members of  Mother Angeline Society,

I am happy to greet you in this New Year of 2022. I pray you are well, and that you enjoyed Christmas and New Year’s very much. As members of the Mother Angeline Society, you are important to us. Your prayerful and financial support of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa, O.Carm. is invaluable in making Mother Angeline known and appreciated. You and your intentions are remembered in two Masses each month and in the daily prayers of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. Life has been challenging for everyone and only with God’s help can we find the strength and positive spirit that we need.

This year, we are honoring Mother Angeline Teresa as a Companion in Care, which served as the theme of our annual celebration of her birth and death on January 21st. Throughout the pandemic, in an even more intense way, the Carmelite Sisters and those who minister with them in the service of the aged and infirm have faced, and continue to face, enormous challenges because of Covid-19 and all the issues related to it in the world of health care. The staff in our Carmelite homes have been heroic in their service of the elderly entrusted to their care, and the Sisters have been there with them step by step. And Mother Angeline – her spirit and dedication – remains present in the love, compassion and spirit of sacrifice they have demonstrated in the ministry. Venerable Mother Angeline is always their companion, unseen, but felt. As they care for the elderly in her spirit and according to her core values, she is a partner in the work, as her spirit animates each aspect of life in the various nursing homes. In the communion of saints, she is with us in God’s family, as an inspiration and guide. We say that in a Carmelite Home, though the care of the elderly may be similar to what is provided in other places, with us “the difference is love” and this motivates and shapes every aspect of the services provided. Mother Angeline taught her Carmelite daughters this value, to take the extra step, so that the residents always get the top priority, treated as family in a home-like setting with gentleness and reverence as
Christ wills it.

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. Her spirit of compassion and generosity in the care for and protection of the elderly are needed now more than ever before. We seek the support of her prayers, and her companionship in this mission. God bless you and may Our Lady watch over you always.

In Christ,

 

Very Rev. Mario Esposito, O.Carm.

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Greetings from Father Mario

Very Rev. Mario Esposito, O.Carm.

Spring 2019

Dear Members of the Mother Angeline Society,

Peace and blessings to you as you receive our Winter – Spring Bulletin. You are always remembered in our prayers and monthly Masses and we remain grateful for your prayerful support and interest in the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa, O.Carm.

During 2019, we are reflecting on Mother Angeline Teresa as a Model of Prayer for Our Time as a theme. Anyone who knew Mother Angeline or has read any letter, conference or note that she wrote, will recognize that prayer and reflection were a constant in her life. Every project, every decision, every exhortation to her Sisters seems to be touched by her spirit of prayer. She constantly sought the guidance of God the Holy Spirit in all things. She invoked Mary and the Saints of Carmel as a source of inspiration for virtuous, religious living. She presented Christ, the compassionate Good Shepherd as the model of care for the aged and infirm. Every major moment in the life of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged & Infirm was wrapped in prayer – novenas of intercession and preparation, Masses of thanksgiving for graces and helps received. Those around her could see her devotion to, above all, the Mass and Holy Eucharist, to the rosary and scapular of Our Lady, and to the word of God, the Divine Office and the prayers that shaped her religious life, and that of her beloved daughters in Carmel. A deep and abiding trust and confidence in God grew through her time of prayer and union with her Beloved Spouse.

Prayer changes us, and we know this. How we stand before God and with God affects everything we say and do. A deep harmony between soul and body can be recognized in actions and attitudes. In today’s very fragmented world we need such a model as Mother Angeline. Prayer brought her charity, joy, peace and zeal. It was genuine and people noticed it.  Each of us can learn from her wholeness and dedication to the Lord what marvels prayer can accomplish. Above all, it was the Venerable’s contemplative way of prayer that was so edifying and brought forth a radiance that can only come from faith and love.

Let us learn from Mother Angeline, a model of prayer, what great things come from the life of prayer, from the heart and hands of our Loving God. May the Lord and His Holy Mother be with you each day of this year. You are always in our thoughts and prayers and we remain grateful for your prayerful and financial support of the Cause. Please help us make Mother Angeline better known.

Very Reverend Mario Esposito, O.Carm.

Vice Postulator