News from around the world

The latest issue of OCD Communicationes has arrived from Rome. This is a regular newsletter containing reports of OCD and OCDS activities around the world. I love this repeated reminder that we are part of a worldwide Order, not just a local group. From the latest issue a couple of items caught my eye. First, a section on Carmel in Burundi reports that a part of the country was entrusted to Polish Discalced Carmelites in 1971. That was in the days before the Iron Curtain came down. We owe so much to the Polish Catholic Church - which of course is supplying us here in the UK with priests right now in various dioceses. The other item concerns Brazil, where it is reported that the Secular Order in the South East has inaugurated a new Cycle of Formation under the auspices of the Edith Stein Institute. Lovely to think that there is an institute under the patronage of this great saint and martyr way down across the ocean in Brazil. The report concludes: 'For ten days, more than sixty people were immersed in the writings of St Teresa of Jesus, St John of the Cross and other Carmelite saints. They also spent time in prayer, silence, mutual sharing and fraternal communion'. I would love to have been there!