Greetings in Christ and Peace!
I began this post after reading Fr. Cannistra’s letter written on Pentecost Sunday last, 4 June 2017. Read or download here: Fr General to OCDS – 2017-06-04
His entire letter is rich & inspiring. It certainly deals with important issues related to our Carmelite calling and on which we need to ponder a lot, discuss a little, and take lots of meaningful action. So I thought it might be helpful to highlight those matters that stood out for me, hoping that each of you will do the same and so prepare to contribute to our Community conversation.
Fr Saverio starts by mentioning “some essential areas for the life of the OCDS” he wrote to us about on Easter Sunday, 2016. My first thought…”What areas were they?” So of course I had to look them up. You can too, here: Fr General to OCDS – 2016-03-27 Do read these few pages.
They centre around several crucial and recurring themes
- provincial councils,
- formation,
- collaboration with the friars & nuns,
- mission,
- evangelization
Unsurprisingly, some of these matters arise again in this year’s letter. Important perhaps?
I have listed some excerpts from Fr General’s Pentecost 2017 letter. These are issues I thought important to ponder and discuss, so where appropriate, I have made some brief comments. Perhaps other matters may occur to you. My excerpts and comments may be accessed in a Word document here:
Pentecost 2017 Letter Excerpts and Reflections
We’ll discuss this letter at our October meeting so please read in preparation. Fr General’s latest letter on The State of the Order is also linked below. If time allows, we may also discuss parts of that too.
CANNISTRA’ – De Statu Ordinis EN
A great question to ponder…
“How am I using the gifts that God gave me for God’s purposes? My money? My time? My talents? My creativity? My relationships?
(Bishop Robert Barron: commentary on Matt 21:33 ff (The Parable of the Tenants) on Facebook 8/10/2017
Every grace and blessing to All.
Les Walters
