Saturday, December 12, 2009

December 2009 Christmas Party



We had our Christmas Party on December 12, 2009. In this meeting, we also recognized Dora and Lois for their dedication in establishing our community. Hope you enjoy our photos!

Friday, December 11, 2009

December 2009 Monthly Reflection

The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:5-9

Saturday, October 10, 2009

October Meeting


Our monthly meeting was graced with Father Walter Carr giving us a talk on the topic "Prayer".
Father opened the presentation with the statement that prayer is both natural and necessary.
Quoting St. Agustin, "Prayer is the soul breathing". "Those who cease to breath die". Breathing is natural and healthy and Father compares this, breathing, with prayer. "Prayer is Love" and to love is to want the happiness of others. We can accomplish this through prayer. We heard many scripture passages taken from Acts telling us that the early church was in continual prayer. "Pray without ceasing" as Carmelites. Thank you Father for your inspiring words.


October Reflection:Our Good Example

"Each one of us ought to act as though the perfection of the Church depended on our personal conduct." St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

These days we hear so much about ecumenism and how to make the Catholic faith understood and appreciated by non-Catholics, but in the end we are Our Lord's best message, and the example of good Christian lives will draw more souls to Him than any number of dialogues. We are His hands and His feet and His lips. What does it matter what we "say" about our religion, if our actions belie our words? What if our feet are not following His pathways but going after dubious pleasures? What if we follow the latest extreme fashions in nclothes instead of dressing with Christian modesty? What if the jokes to which we listen and the books we read are sometimes shady? What if our business deals are not quite open and aboveboard? What if we scorn another's race or religion?

As Carmelites it is our vocation to bear witness to Christ and our love of His Blessed Mother. Our Lord told us to let our light shine forth before men. We should so live that our belief in the teachings of our Catholic faith shows plainly in all our words and actions. Then, indeed, we can be certain that Our Lord's message will be clear to all the world.
Love/Peace

Dora Zavala ocds

Sunday, September 6, 2009

September Reflection

The Measure of our Love

"Our Lord does not so much consider the greatness of our works as the love with which we do them" St. Teresa of Jesus

So often when we look back over our lives, we feel that we have accomplished so little for Our Lord. Others have built churches, schools, written books, or even given years of their lives to the missions, while our state of life and responsibilities keep us tied down to a humdrum existence while we long to do great deeds for our Bless Savior. Yet all He asks is that we abide in His Love.

"At the evening of life we shall be judged by love," said St. John of the Cross. That is the only measuring stick that Our Lord will ever use when we stand before His throne. How much have we loved Him and how much have we loved our neighbor? The helpless invalid, patiently going the way of the cross; the busy housewife, united to Him in her daily tasks; the working man who does his work cheerfully for the love of God; all can transform their smallest actions by love into deeds that are great in God's sight. If we fail to be saints, we have no one except ourselves to blame.

September 2009: Meeting

Dear Carmel friends,

A reminder about our gathering this Saturday September 12th. Please join us for morning prayer at 8:00 am followed by mass and the class.

Vi will do the final review on the Spiritual Doctrine of Little Therese for the on-going group. Lansing will do the Definitive group. This Saturday will be the last time for lessons. See you all on Saturday. Have a great Labor Day and week. God bless each one!

Love/Peace
Dora Zavala
Formation Director

Saturday, August 15, 2009

August Reflection: Prayer

PRAYER

"Prayer is the door to great graces. If this door be shut, I do not see how God can bestow them." St. Teresa of Avila

Our Lord said, "Pray always." He was not speaking only to a few disciples, but to every Christian throughout the ages, and He never commands the impossible. As Carmelite, He will give us special graces to fulfill this precept, for our vocation is to be persons of prayer living in the world. In spite of all the distractions in our state of life, we must firmly believe that we can pray always----not trusting in our own power, for what we have none, but fully confident in the power and mercy of Our Lord.

In what does "praying always" consist? St. Teresa, our spiritual Mother, said that prayer is a loving conversion between the soul and God "Whom we know loves us," This loving colloquy can be carried on during the day, even at the times I am working, at home with or family, or going to a party. We only need to turn our soul to God Who is within us, and unite our actions to His holy will, telling Him that we do them for love of Him and with HIm. Then all our actions, our whole day, becomes a continual prayer. With St. Teresa, "Let us beseech God to give us the grace and resolution to strive for this blessing with all our might."

2009 Professions



On the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel , July 16, 2009, the "Triumph of the Cross" Carmelite Study Group of Georgetown, Texas held the Rite of Definitive Promise during the 6:00 pm mass at St. Helen's Church of Georgetown ,Texas with their Spiritual Assistant Msgr. Louis Pavlicek as celebrant and a reception follow afterwards. The three members were Claire Bloodgood, Lansing Prescott and Carolyn (Birdie) Ehrenfeld.

The study group now has 22 members, There are now 9 Definitive profess, 5 that are at the end of their 3 years of formation of their first promise and are now eligible for Definitive profess. There are 3 on their first year formation going into their 3 years for Definitive and 3 that are clothed and are on their first year formation going into First Promise and 2 first year aspirants. The Georgetown Study Group has been together since the Year of 2001.

Friday, July 17, 2009

July Reflection: The Invitation of Grace

The Invitation of Grace
"Christ does not force our wills. he will only take what we give Him, but He will never give Himself entirely to us until we give ourselves entirely to Him." - St. Teresa of Jesus

Our Lord told us that He would always come and stand at the threshold but it is the soul that must open the door. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man...open to Me the door, I will come in." Yes, He will come over and over again until the hour of our death and only the soul can put a stop to His coming. These knockings are inspirations of grace, silent and secret. We are free to accept them or reject them. Our Lord will never force our will, but if we correspond to these inspirations with great fidelity He will enter in and take possession of our souls. Then, little by little, His light and truth will enlighten every hour of our life. For years St. Teresa could not find the courage to give up certain infidelities until one day she knelt before an image of Our Lord being scourged and begged Him to take away from her the power to resist Him. She said, "I then made greater progress; for I was now very distrustful of myself and placed all my confidence in God.

Is God knocking on the door of my soul? Am I listening? Am I allowing Him to enter? Am I giving myself entirely to Him?

Monday, May 18, 2009

May 31, 2009: Pentecost Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral



Our Triumph of the Cross Carmelite Study Group participated in the Feast of Pentecost celebration at St. Mary's Cathedral on Sunday May 31, 2009.

The Bishop invited us to celebrate the various charisms of the Church active in our diocese and several movements and communities had a display with materials to view prior to Mass.

The doors opened at 4 PM prior to the Mass at 5:30 PM. After the Mass there was a brief presentation beginning at 7:00 in Bishop's Hall at the Cathedral, addressing the history of spiritualities in the life of the church and the effects of the new spiritualities in the church today.

May 7, 2009: Message of the 90th General Chapter of the Discalced Carmelite Friars

Message of the 90th General Chapter of the Discalced Carmelite Friars
Fatima -- April 17 – May 8, 2009


Dear Brothers, Sisters, members of the Secular Order, and all friends of Carmel,

1. The members of the 90th General Chapter of the Discalced Carmelite Friars, enjoying the warm hospitality of the Domus Carmeli, send you fervent greetings from Portugal, “the land of Mary,” near the shrine consecrated to her at Fatima: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit (Rom 15, 13).

2. During these three weeks, we have experienced the fraternity that unites us all in the vocation and mission of Carmel. Together, we have prayed and broken the bread of life. We have attentively considered the reports of Father General and of the General Bursar. After having expounded upon the background work of the General Definitory, as well as upon new developments during the 2003-2009 sexennium, Father General emphasized the vitality and current relevancy of the Teresian charism. He called to mind the challenge of formation – both initial and ongoing – so necessary for our spiritual life to be more profound, our communion greater, and our missionary spirit more authentic. In this light, we took the time to evaluate the current situation of the Teresianum in Rome, CITES in Avila, and Mt. Carmel, the cradle of the Order.

3. We have elected a new team, centered around a new Father General – Fr. Saverio Cannistrà, of the Province of Tuscany. We have listened to the news and the expectations of the Secular Order, with a focus upon their formation program. The meeting with our Carmelite sisters – eleven Federation presidents come from around the world – gave us an experience of the family spirit that unites us in such a way that we cannot define ourselves one without the other. Our dialogue was an efficacious sign of precisely the style of fraternity that our Mother St. Teresa taught to St. John of the Cross. We desire to continue and to persevere in this style of dialogue. Another sign of the same fraternity was visible in our religious brothers. They reminded us of the beauty of their own vocation, their irreplaceable place in our history, their particular participation in the apostolate of spirituality, and the support of their prayer and counsel. Brothers and priests, we have to build up together our Carmelite witness.

In brief, we have discussed, discerned, decided, voted – ordinary actions of all Chapters. And now, what shall we do? What do we desire to live out?

Looking to the 5th Centenary of the Birth of Teresa of Jesus

1. Carmel “has need of fire in its heart, of words on its lips, of a prophetic gaze in its eyes” (Paul VI) in order to remain faithful to the mystical, prophetic and missionary dimensions of its vocation. In our world constantly in flux, we need to remain both solid as well as in solidarity with one another. To this end, we must work at a foundational level, to “begin always anew” (Foundations 29, 32), in the creative fidelity of the Holy Spirit. In following through on the dynamic of hope set in motion by the 2003 General Chapter's Journeying with St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross. Setting Out from Essentials, the entire 2009-2015 sexennium will be oriented towards the 5th centenary of the birth of Teresa de Ahumada (March 28, 1515), the birth of her whom we consider to be our holy Mother: Teresa of Jesus. The Chapter project, Para Vos Nací (I Was Born for You), constitutes, as it were, a signpost for the animation of this sexennium.

Reading, meditating, and being renewed by the writings of our Mother St. Teresa

5. We desire for all members of the Order a new springtime in our life of allegiance to Jesus Christ. Our ongoing formation must be an authentic education, maturation and growth in religious life, community life, and in the life of prayer. To this end, we invite each one of you to a personal encounter with Teresa, to enter into the conversation she began with her writings. As she stated: “I will be speaking with them as I write” (Interior Castle, Prologue). A person to person encounter is possible only in the intimate depths of the soul along the path of prayer, the adventure of friendship with Jesus – the human face of God and the divine face of Man.

Transformed by the Experience of God

6. We wish to make the writings of our holy Mother our daily bread. Her words resound in order to give us an experience of God. “My intention is to give souls an appetite for so elevated a good.” (Life 18,8) Does our life effectively offer a space to contemplate God? Do we give witness to his great goodness, to his magnanimity and to his work of liberation? (Cf. Life 4,10; 23,1) Through a unique, radical effort we need to learn anew for ourselves and others how to speak to people in a convincing manner about who God is in our lives. God is love: his love is life-giving, transforming and liberating.

7. Teresa invites us to “walk in the truth before God and man in every possible way” (Interior Castle VI, 10, 6). Disciples and servants of the Word of God, we perform the works of truth, we come to the light, we grow in liberty. It is in this sovereign freedom that we are called to become heralds and witnesses, by giving ourselves entirely to him who gives himself to us totally in his Son, the true friend.

Faithful to Prophetic Inspiration

8. The freedom acquired in the act of giving herself to the Lord led St. Teresa to raise her voice, as a woman, in bold criticism of the pitfalls, vanities and lies of the society of her time. Her love for the “most sacred Humanity” of Christ sharpened and gave lucidity to her outlook, as a true daughter of the Church, upon the unjust conditions that alienate human beings from themselves and from God. Teresa responded to the challenges of her times by her choice of poverty and by the Christian humanism of her foundations, lived out through a simple and friendly community life, characterized by the evangelical virtues of gentleness, humility and joy. For us, too, widespread poverty and that which provokes it, knowledge of growing inequality and injustice in the world, constitutes a challenge. Our contemplative life shows to us in the sorrowful faces of the poor the suffering face of Christ.

Continuing our Missionary Dynamism in the Spirit of our Mother St. Teresa

9. “Prayer enkindled by the fire of love” is “the lever” that lifts the world, declares to us Thérèse of Lisieux, heir of the missionary spirit of our Holy Mother. The missionary dynamic that animates us upholds our passion for humanity and maintains its liveliness. Moving always away from any type of self-centeredness, we place ourselves at the service of humanity's future. We desire to open for humanity new forms of hope, which can be realized concretely. The emergence of globalization as a “new world order” invites us to harness together our human, spiritual and material resources in a more effective collaboration – both between regions as well as with the Center of the Order – in order to continue to consolidate the expansion of the Order throughout the world. The Chapter has had the joy of manifesting a sign of this expansion in the recognition and erection of Korea as a new Province of the Order. In the same way, the formation of a new group within the Chapter, the coetus africanus for Africa and Madagascar, shows the development of our presence in this vast continent.

10. However, globalization also has the effect of breaking the world into fragments, in which the number of refugees and of new forms of misery is multiplied. In a world characterized at the same time by a closer interconnection and a greater fragmentation, we can offer the witness and hospitality of our fraternal life that is rooted in friendship with Jesus, who has “broken down the dividing wall of enmity” between people, as proclaimed in the Letter to the Ephesians (2,4). Our Holy Mother Teresa was fully and actively involved with this wounded humanity and was filled with sorrow and compassion for it, especially by her experience of hell (cf. Life 32). This same love for the salvation and full liberation of human beings animates our life and our apostolate. We desire to become “servants of love” (Life 11, 1), “truly spiritual people,” as portrayed by Teresa: “slaves of God, branded with the sign of the Cross, having surrendered their freedom to him so that he may sell them as slaves to all the world, as he himself was” (Interior Castle VII, 4, 8).

Under the Mantle of the Virgin Mary

11. In the life of our Mother St. Teresa, as in the history of Carmel, the glorious Virgin Mary occupies a unique place. We are Carmelites because we belong to a family consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Our Chapter has renewed its awareness of this fact here in Fatima. Sister Lucia and the two other little shepherds, Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta, were able to contemplate Our Lady in the habit of Carmel, inviting us to pray for sinners and for peace. Her message nourishes also our hope: “My Immaculate Heart will triumph.” “What does this signify? The Heart open to God, purified by the contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of any kind. Mary's fiat, the word of her heart, changed the history of the world, for, thanks to her “yes,” God could become man in our world and hence dwell among us forever” (Joseph Ratzinger, “The Message of Fatima,” Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2000). Drawing from Mary's heart, from the depth of her faith expressed in the words of the Magnificat, we renew ever more effectively in ourselves the awareness that the truth about God who saves, the truth about God who is the source of every gift, cannot be separated from the manifestation of his preferential love for the poor and humble, that love which is expressed in the words and works of Jesus (cf. John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 37).

12. Throughout these days, we have felt the prayers of our Carmelite sisters, the nearness of our sick and elderly brothers, and the hopeful expectations of our younger brothers. Now you know what we are proposing to you. To read and to meditate upon the works of our Mother St. Teresa (both personally and in community), to assimilate her doctrine that shows us the way to holiness, to share it with others by renewing also our own manner of speaking of this doctrine: the program of this sexennium, Para Vos Nací, made concrete each year through study guides, will be for the entire Family of Carmel a source of grace and renewal. For of our Mother St. Teresa, mother of spiritual people and first female doctor of the Church, we can say with Edith Stein: “Her effect extends beyond the frontiers of her people and of her Order and even reaches those who find themselves outside the Church. The power of her language, the sincerity and simplicity of the style of her writings opens hearts and disposes them to divine life. Only on the day of the last judgment will it become known the number of those who, thanks to her, have found the way of Light.”

Fatima – May 7, 2009

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

March 2009: Evangelization Night



On Friday March 27, 2009, we will participate in the Evangelization dinners organized by the Knights of Columbus at St. Helen’s Catholic Church. Our community will have an information table and members will be available to answer questions about our community and Carmelite spirituality. All are welcome to attend.

Also, we would like to thank the members of the Waco Carmelite community for their generous gift of a relic of St. John of the Cross. The relic is pictured above, next to the statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

March 2009: Silent Retreat

Our annual silent retreat was held on March 20-22, 2009 at Cedarbreak Retreat Center in Belton, TX. Brother Joel Giallanza, CSC led the retreat. He serves as the Vicar of Religious for the Diocese of Austin, TX and as Director of the Institute for Spiritual Direction. The theme for our retreat was the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila. We also welcomed members from the Killeen and Waco, TX communities to the retreat.

The presentation notes can be found here.

We hope to share the presentation videos on this website in the near future. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy a slide show with pictures from the retreat:




For additional pictures from our retreat,please click here.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

February 2009: Meeting

February’s meeting was held on Saturday, February 14th, Memorial of Saints Cyril and Methodius. We started our day with Morning Prayer and Mass.

During our business meeting we welcomed four visiting members of the Carmelite community in Waco. For our on-going formation, Maron lead us in a discussion on Renunciation, Sacrifice and Abandonment from Chapters 7 and 8 of the Complete Spiritual Doctrine of St. Therese.

In addition to our monthly formation meetings, our community will be staying very busy in the next couple of months:

On Saturday, February 21, 2009 some of our members will join the Schoenstatt Movement led by Victor and Olga Alegria for a pilgrimage to the shrine in San Antonio, TX.

On Friday March 27, 2009, we will participate in the Evangelization dinners organized by the Knights of Columbus at St. Helen’s Catholic Church. Our community will have an information table and members will be available to answer questions about our community and Carmelite spirituality.

Our annual silent retreat will be held on March 20-22, 2009 at Cedarbreak Retreat Center in Belton, TX. Brother Joel Giallanza, CSC will be leading the retreat. He serves as the Vicar of Religious for the Diocese of Austin, TX and as Director of the Institute for Spiritual Direction. The theme for our retreat will be on the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila.

Also, two of our members will also be attending the Dallas Workshop being held at the Mount Carmel Center in Dallas, TX on April 23-26, 2009.

Some of our members will also be participating in the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, May 11th to the 18th, led by our Pastor, Msgr. Louis Pavlicek.

Finally, our community is planning a summer picnic with our families on Saturday June 27, 2009 at St. Helen’s Catholic Church.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 8:00 AM. Diane will be leading our discussion on Simplicity and Oblation to Merciful Love from Chapters 9 and 10 of the Complete Spiritual Doctrine of St. Therese.

If you have any questions, please call Lois at 512-863-3124.


"Outside of the Divine Will, we can do nothing for Jesus or for the salvation of souls" - St. Therese of Lisieux

Sunday, January 11, 2009

2009 Clothings



On January 10, 2009, we celebrated 2 clothings at St. Helen's Catholic Church during the Morning Prayer. Lydia & Marianne asked to be admitted to the period of formation in the community and received the scapular and the constitution of the secular order.


Holy and merciful Father, you call us to holiness in Christ in order that our life might be a spiritual oblation. Look with favor on these your children. They desire to live in the world and to walk in the light of the Gospel in the spirit of Teresian Carmel and under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Grant that they may come to know your will and to follow your inspirations with filial and generous love. We ask his thru Christ Our Lord. Amen.