Category: Greetings from Father Mario

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

+ Maria

Dear Members of the Mother Angeline Society,

Greetings to all of you as we make our way through this year of 2018 that the Lord has given us. Thank you for all of your ongoing support of the Cause for the Beatification
and Canonization of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa McCrory, O.Carm. You are always remembered in the prayers of the Carmelite Sisters and in monthly Masses for your intentions.

This year we have been reflecting upon Mother Angeline as a Voice for the Sanctity of Life. Often, we think of our prayers and efforts for the Right to Life or Sanctity of Life as being primarily focused on working for an end to abortion in our society and protection for the unborn and, while this is a critically important issue of our times, it is not the only life issue about which the Church and people of good will are concerned. The Carmelite Sisters represent a strong voice in the Church and in health care for the protection and sanctity of life for the elderly, the weak, those seniors who are vulnerable and, in some ways, cast aside by society because they are no longer materially productive and might be a burden. The very parents, grandparents and individuals who bore the heat of the day for the generations that followed, seem now to be expendable and marginal. There are countless older people struggling with various physical and mental challenges who need dedicated, sympathetic loving care and protection such as
provided in Carmelite facilities. The Carmelite Sisters also make available excellent palliative care programs, offering wonderful alternatives and comfort for the elderly, while publicly advocating against the various initiatives that propose euthanasia,
contrary to the teaching of Christ and His Church.

Mother Angeline loved and venerated the elderly. She saw the whole person with his or her material, emotional and spiritual needs, and taught her Sisters to do the same. Each Carmelite Home for the Aged and Infirm makes it a priority, a core value, that the residents are treated with love, respect and dignity in order to make their later years joyous, safe and wholesome. Nothing is compromised for the good of the residents in order to safeguard them and give them peace. Each person represented the Lord to Mother Angeline, and each needed to be cared for as one would care for their own parents, and in fact the Lord himself. The Carmelite Sisters advocate for the Sanctity of Life in all its stages and with all of its challenges in all their facilities and programs. They copy the loving example of compassion taught them by Venerable Mary Angeline, their Foundress, and see that their mission and all who share in it continue her respect for the Sanctity of Life. Mother Angeline’s charism is as relevant and important today
as it has been since she began 89 years ago. Please continue to support both financially and by your prayers the Cause of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa. Let us all pray for and add our voices for the protection and Sanctity of Life.

In Christ,

 

Winter/Spring 2018

Summer/Fall 2018

+ Maria

Dear Members of the Mother Angeline Society,

Peace be with you during this Fall of 2018. I pray that you are well. All of you and your intentions were remembered in a Novena of Masses in preparation for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16th. As we prayed in honor of Mary and for her maternal assistance, all of you and your needs were lifted up in the Masses. We are confident that the Lord and His Holy Mother will watch over all us and direct us to Jesus and His holy and gracious will. In their daily prayers, Carmelite Friars, Nuns and Sisters offer to Mary the prayer

“Flos Carmeli” or “Flower of Carmel”. This is an ancient Carmelite prayer, attributed to St. Simon Stock, the great 13th century Prior General of the Order to whom the scapular was entrusted by Our Lady. He was a man of deep faith and profound Marian devotion who left a lasting impression on the spirit and charism of the Carmelite Order. The first line of the Flos Carmeli is rendered in English, “O beautiful Flower of Carmel” that is, we address Mary as the Flower of Carmel, the crowning beauty of the Order, and describe her as beautiful, beautiful in every way, holy, and singular in the gifts she received from God and in the total giving of Herself to Him, body and soul. Carmelites never tire of venerating Mary with these words, and Mother Angeline Teresa herself loved this prayer, as she loved Our Lady of Mt. Carmel so profoundly. That which is of God is always filled with life. Everything that Jesus, the resurrection and the life, touches comes to life and fruition. In the garden of Carmel, Mary is the most beautiful flowering of grace, as the Scriptures and liturgy describe her, “She is the highest honor of our race.” She gave life to Jesus through her cooperation with the Holy Spirit and, in turn, and in the plan of her Son, she brings forth life in her many children – the brothers and sisters of Carmel, and all the children of the Church.

Reflecting on Mary and her virtues, her love and her example, always leads us along the beautiful path to eternal life in Christ Her Son. But this beautiful One is never too far from us, too high for us to be close to. No, she is as near as the simplest prayer and movement of our hearts toward Her. Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa, in her founding of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, gave this beautiful Mother to her daughters in a special way and the Sisters bring all whom they serve under Mary’s protective care as well. Please continue to keep the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Mother Angeline in your prayers. Thank you for your financial support and all your cooperation. May Our Lady of Mount Carmel watch over and protect you always.

In Christ,

Very Reverend Mario Esposito,  O.Carm.  – Vice Postulator

 

 

+Maria

Dear Members of the Mother Angeline Society,

Greetings and peace to you as we draw close to the fall season. During the summer, all of you and all of your intentions were remembered in a Novena of Masses offered in preparation for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We remain grateful for your unflƒagging spiritual and €financial support, and for helping us to make Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa, O.Carm., better known and loved. She is a sure helper in many situations, and an inspiration for all those who know and venerate her.

August 15, 2017 marked the 25th Anniversary of the Introduction of the Diocesan Phase of the process for the beatifi€cation and canonization of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa. The promotion of the Cause began in 1989, €five years after Mother Angeline’s death, when the Holy See accepted the request of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infi€rm and the then bishop of Albany, the Most Reverend Howard J. Hubbard, to initiate the Cause. The first Promoter of the Cause was Father Eugene Robitaille, SS.CC. Upon his death, Father Jude Mead, C.P. became the €first Postulator of the Cause and did so much of the preparatory work and research that made the Cause move forward. In Rome, Ireland, France and throughout the United States, materials were gathered and organized and with the help of many of the Carmelite Sisters, particularly Mother Mary Gabriel, all the plans for the opening of the Diocesan Investigation were made. Sadly, Father Jude was called to his eternal reward before the August 15th Ceremony, but since his death I have been privileged to assist in the Cause, fi€rst as Diocesan Postulator, and now as Vice Postulator.

Today, a quarter of a century later, we are still laboring for Mother Angeline’s Cause, buoyed by the declaration of Pope Benedict XVI on June 28, 2012, that she is now Venerable and practiced the Christian virtues to a heroic degree. For this Anniversary and the progress that has been made to make Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa known and to promote her Cause and Charism, we give thanks to God, sincerely and profoundly, for we have all learned so much and received so many graces and insights. But, for this anniversary we also off’er prayers for a renewal of the energy of the Cause, and commit ourselves to continue to look for new ways and means to make Mother known. We pray sincerely for favors as a result of her intercession, and trustingly hope that a miracle will show itself so that she can be beatifi€ed. We depend upon you, the members of the Mother Angeline Society to help us in this task. Pray to Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa fervently and often. Introduce her to others, sharing your newsletter and other literature. Enroll friends and family in the Society, and continue to help with this most worthy Cause.

Thank you for your support.  Join the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infi€rm in this 25th year and every year, in saying “thank you” to the good Lord for the gift of Mother Angeline, and pray with us that the Cause may be “renewed” with a new spirit and ardor. God bless you and Mary keep you always.

In Christ,

Very Reverend Mario Esposito,  O.Carm.  – Vice Postulator