Update from the World Meeting

Today's post comes from Vivien, a participant in the World Meeting of Carmelites currently taking place in Avila.

In everyday life, Secular Carmelites rarely “just run into each other”. For a start, we are few and far between, with just a few hundred of us scattered across the United Kingdom. On top of that, there are no visible signs that would allow us to recognize each other, even if our paths crossed. In some sense, we are undercover agents hidden in the crowd.  Yet as our journey took us closer to Avila for this year’s OCDS World Congress, this everyday reality began to buckle. It started on the train heading out from Madrid. Where we noticed a few other people wearing Carmelite crosses, but still felt too shy to make the connection.  Once we got off at the train station in Avila the signs were too overwhelming to ignore. A group in matching brown Carmelite T-shirts were discussing transport options animatedly in Portuguese. We introduced ourselves and were greeted with an embrace like long lost relatives. “We’ve just travelled over two nights from southern Brazil, the first night on a bus the second night on the plane. We’re so glad to be here.”   Outside in the queue for the taxi, we met another community from Lima Peru, and at the hotel reception we greeted yet more Secular Carmelites all the way from Illinois and Oregon in the United States. In a startling inversion of everyday reality, suddenly it seems as though everyone we encounter is an OCDS.  One of our group tried to engage another suspect, but encountering a language barrier simply reached inside his shirt for his scapular, which he started to wave around like a business card. It drew an immediate smile of recognition from across the language barrier.      As I settled into our accommodation on the first evening, I sat down to read the introductory conference message from Fr Ramiro Cásale OCD, the General Delegate of the Order for the OCDS. Two words of his particularly stood out for me and resonated: “Welcome home!” Yes, indeed.

Intercessions

RIP Fr Jon Bielowski, Jacqui, Sister Maisie

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Theresa K, Elena

Sophie – newborn having heart surgery; Sianna, young child in the post-operative phase; James, recovering from heart surgery

Ivy – sick child

Brian (recovering from Pneumonia)

Kevin (heart attack)

William Gove (in recovery)

Illness:  Katy Keeling

Siena, Elara – sick children

David OCDS – housebound

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)

Mark – brain infection

Michael, Kira – vulnerable youngsters

Defence of the unborn and the elderly

We are asked to pray for the Diocese of Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand, as the Northern Mission celebrates its centenary. The process of selecting a new bishop continues.