Carmel and Israel

In the Office of Readings, we have been looking recently at St Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  I can’t help but be struck by the way that Paul shows us how our faith is rooted in the faith of Ancient Israel.  We have received it from the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Hebrew people (and God has not gone back on His choice of that people).  We differ from Judaism in our belief that Jesus is the one to whom the Patriarchs and Prophets were pointing, something that Judaism cannot accept.  Jesus said that he came to fulfil what the Patriarchs and Prophets foretold.  As Carmelites we have a particularly precious connection to the religion of Ancient Israel in our sense of kinship with St Elijah.  The Stella Maris Carmelite convent built over one of his caves on Mount Carmel is a physical embodiment of that.  We think of the Church as born on Pentecost and that is true, but our ancestry goes back deep into the mists of time.     

Intercessions:

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – multiple afflictions

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

RIP Anthony Kirke, husband of Judith Kirke OCDS (distributors of the Carmelite Diary)

RIP Roswitha Watson OCDS (former President of St Therese Community, Oxford)