October 2018

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RAYS OF CARMEL

Meeting Schedule: 11:00 —11:30 Council Meeting 11:45 — 1:00 Candidate Interviews by Council 12:15 - 12:45 Rosary (led by Susie G) 12:30 — 1:00 Set Up and Social Time/Help with the Breviary 1:00 — 2:00 Formation Classes (Visitor Classes) 2:00 — 2:20 Social Time 2:20 — 3:10 Community Meeting and Presentation #3 on “The Rule” by Teresa T. 3:10 — 3:30 Clean up and Transition to Church 3:15 — 4:30 Holy Hour in Church (Exposition/Adoration/ Evening Prayer/ Benediction/Salve Regina)

Upcoming Meetings

October 14, 2018 November 11, 2018 — All

Day of Recollection December 9, 2018 January 13, 2019 February 10, 2019 March 10, 2019 April 14, 2019, May 5, 2019 June 9, 2019

Teresian Prayer Groups

10/10 St. Paul - 6:40pm (Rosary at 5:40, Mass at 6:00 pm)

10/17 Ascension - 6:30pm 10/24 St. Paul - 6:40pm

(Rosary at 5:40, Mass at 6:00)

11/06 Ascension - 6:30 pm

October OCDS Feast Days

10/01 St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Virgin and Doctor

10/14 Fast day for OCDS for Solemnity of St. Teresa of Jesus (this year the 14th falls on a Sunday, so fasting on Saturday, Oct 13th would be in order)

10/15 Solemnity of St. Teresa of Jesus

Prayer Intentions for October 2018 This month our Community will be praying for St. Leonard Faith Community (Centerville) with Fr. Larry Mick. Pope Francis’s intention for the month is for Evangelization: The Mission of Religious…that consecrated religious men and women may bestir themselves, and be present among the poor, the marginalized, and those who have no voice. Spiritual Challenge: Pray a rosary each day.

October 2018

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Announcements

PRAY THE ROSARY! Susie G. will be leading the rosary at 12:15 pm prior to our Oct. 14 meeting for all those who want to participate. What a beautiful prayer and devotion to Our Lady! Come and Pray!

Semi-annual dues were collected last month, but it’s not too late to give your donations to Teresa G this Oct.

Novena of Holy Hours with St. Therese of Lisieux: “102” Holy Hours were obtained at this 11th annual Novena. The prayer was so needed for many reasons. Special thanks to all our presenters: Colleen, Angela, Deacon Rusty, Marguerite, Maureen, and Frances.

OCDS Congress begins Thursday, Oct. 18 - Sunday, Oct. 21. Please keep praying for God’s blessing upon all the presenters and participants, especially in thanksgiving to the planning committee led by our dear members, Lynn and Tim!!!

Council News

Our next Council meeting will be Oct. 14 at 11:00 am.

Candidate interviews continue in October.

Cure the Blindness Caused by Our Evil Deeds

“O Lord, my God, how You possess the words of eternal life, where all mortals will find what they desire if they want to seek it! but what a strange thing, my God, that we forget Your words in the madness and sickness our evil deeds cause! O my God, God, God, author of all creation! And what is creation if You, Lord, should desire to create more? You are almighty; Your works are incomprehensible. Bring it about, then, Lord, that my thoughts not withdraw from Your words.

You say: Come to me all who labor and are burdened, for I will comfort you. What ore do we want, Lord? What are we asking for? What do we seek? Why are those in the world so unhappy if not because of seeking rest? God help me! Oh, God help me! What is this Lord? Oh, what a pity! Oh, what great blindness, that we seek rest where it is impossible to find it! Have mercy, Creator, on these Your creatures. Behold, we don’t understand or know what we desire, nor do we obtain what we ask for. Lord, give us light; behold, the need is greater than with the man born blind, for he wanted to see the light and couldn’t. Now, Lord, there is no desire to see. Oh, how incurable an illness! Here, my God, is where Your power must be demonstrated; here, Your mercy.

Oh, what a difficult thing I ask You, my true God: that You love someone who doesn’t love You, that You open to one who doesn’t knock, that You give health to one who likes to be sick and goes about looking for sickness. You say, My Lord, that You come to seek sinners; these, Lord, are real sinners. Don’t look at our blindness, my God, but at all the blood Your Son shed for us. Let Your mercy shine upon evil that has so increased; behold, Lord, we are Your handiwork. May Your goodness and mercy help us.”

~ Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila

TYPE TO ENTER A CAPTION.

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Prayer of St. Therese, the Little Flower

“O Jesus, I do not ask for riches or glory, not even for the glory of Heaven…. I ask only for love. One thought is mine, henceforth, dear Jesus, it is to love Thee!…. I love Thee, I love my Mother the Church, and I bear in mind that ‘the least act of pure love is of more value to her than all other works together.’ [St. Therese quotes from St. John of the Cross.] But does this pure love really exist in my heart?…

O Jesus, grant that love may surround and penetrate me; that at each moment Thy merciful love may renew and purify me, cleansing my soul from all trace of sin.”

~ quotation from St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (of Lisieux) in “Story of a Soul,” 13-8)

Featured Books in Our Library

“Divine Intimacy"  by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD; Tan Books and Publishers.

This is a beloved “classic” to aid in one’s prayer and is a “must have” for serious students of spiritual growth. It is a book of meditations on the interior life for every day of the liturgical year. It is immersed in Carmelite spirituality.

Each day has a theme and short beginning prayer followed by two meditations and ending with a colloquy that helps the soul to enter into conversation with God with the aid of quotes and prayers mainly from Carmelite Saints and Blesseds.

This is a great resource for helping one in meditation. It comes in a one volume edition or in 4 separate volumes that were revised and expanded to correspond with the feasts of the Catholic liturgical year.

This is a great “Wish List Item” for this Christmas!

Council/Coordinators Spiritual Assistant: Fr. John

MacQuarrie Assistant to Fr. MacQuarrie: Deacon

Rusty B President: Lynn B Director of Formation: Frances H Councilors: Herb E, Jackie R, and

Marika Z Secretary: Colleen S Treasurer: Teresa G Operations Committee: Mike D (chair),

Susie G, Marguerite S, De Z, Marika Z

Attendance: Mike D Book Coordinator: Susie G Hospitality: De Z Infirmarian: Theresa R Librarian: Joyce W Liturgist: Marika Z Liturgy of the Hours Help: Angela W Newsletter: Frances H OLMC Statue: Angela W Prayer Warriors: Ed F, Rose Ann L,

Teresa T, and Sheila W Setup/Cleanup: Marguerite S Visitors: Maureen E, Mike D, and

Tammy J Website: Lynn B

October 2018

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BlessedMariaFeliciaGuggiariEcheverria,(MariaFeliciaof

JesusintheBlessedSacrament;nicknamed

Chiquitunga);MemorialApril28

On 23 June 2018, Pope Francis beatified our newest Discalced Carmelite: Blessed Maria Felicia. María Felicia Guggiarri Echeverría, familiarly known as «Chiquitunga», who was born on January 12th, 1925, in Villarrica del Espíritu Santo, Paraguay. From a very young age, she demonstrated a great inclination to help the needs of the poorest and helpless. Her mother says that she was in charge of caring for people with limited resources who came to her house asking for some bread and help.

At age 12, she received the Blessed Sacrament for the first time. She recalled after several years that day with these words: “The memory of the happiest day of my life will never be erased from my mind, the day of the first union with my God, and the point where I take the resolution to be every day better and better.” In 1933 she began her primary education at the Maria Auxiliatrice School. She was a normal girl, cheerful, vivacious, and always very friendly with everyone.

After finishing primary school in the year 1939-40, she suspended school for 2 years to help her mother with the housework. In the year 1941, she entered the ranks of the Catholic Action (C.A.) at the age of 16, this movement being of vital importance for her life. The love to the C.A. is reflected in her many writings; they are full of enthusiasm, love, passion for the ideal indicated by the

C.A. She repeated continuously: “I want everything to be saturated with Christ and wherever it is leave a ray of his light.” The motto of her life was: “I offer you everything, my Lord.” This phrase headed all her writings.

In 1941, she continued her secondary studies at the Normal School of Professors Manuel Gondra, obtaining the Master’s Degree in 1945. In all this time she dedicated herself fully to active apostolate, leaving in this, her childhood home, unforgettable memories in all those who knew her and who, after opening the process of beatification and canonization, witnessed the tireless abnegation of Maria Felicia in her apostolate with the poorest. This is how they remember her: “She could be seen walking the streets in apostolic cares, the smile on the lips, the impeccably white overall and the braids tied in celestial bows. She was the figure of the compassionate angel who looked for tired souls, broken bodies, to give them the gift of a human sympathy, the warmth of the heart that she loves.” (continued next page)

Get to Know Another Carmelite

October 2018

(continued) Her life of piety was centralized in the Eucharist, daily attending to receive the “Bread of life.” She spent long hours before the Blessed Sacrament, from which she drew the strength to carry out so much apostolate. Her brothers remember that at night Chiquitunga was still in her room on her knees submerged in deep prayer. Her love for the “Full of grace” her “Mother” is also reflected in her innumerable writings that are preserved.

In the year 1950: She moved with her family to Asunción, the political situation of Paraguay was marked by great turbulence and Villarrica was a conflict zone. So it was more prudent to transfer to the capital. Chiquitunga just arrived; she enlisted again in the ranks of the C.A. and began to work with the enthusiasm that characterized her. Also she began the study of teachers, ending in 1952.

In this year she met Ángel Sauá Llanes, a young leader of Catholic action and a medical student, with whom she shared a deep friendship. This stage is full of a spiritual and human wealth that marks the life of Chiquitunga and demonstrates the spiritual wealth she possessed, living this situation of falling in love as a true grace of God, she herself had asked: “Many times I had conceived that now, Lord, it is wonderful reality: how beautiful it would be to have a love, to renounce that love and together to sacrifice it to the Lord for the ideal.” In his (Ángel Sauá Llanesdesire) desire for total surrender and after discerning the will of God, he leaves for Europe and enters the Seminary. She, in her turn, follows the voice of God and providentially knows the prioress of the Discalced Carmelites. After tough family opposition, she entered Carmel on February 2nd, 1955, at 30 years old.

In the convent she was characterized by her joy and helpfulness, a sister remembers: The old religious say that Sister Teresa de Jesus, one of the founders, used to say: “God sent us Sr. Maria Felicia to put a special note of joy, with her smile and her witticisms, in the narrowness of that first little house on August 15th.” Her smile was a perennial flower.

The first days in the Convent she narrates them like this: “Exactly 18 days ago of constant and uninterrupted hours of joy in this Holy Carmel, in which God Our Lord, with infinite mercy, chose me, and I really tremble by saying this word, knowing me as miserable and sinful as I am.”

Although the first months were months of Heaven, she began to enter a dark night that led her to doubt her vocation and consider the possibility of retiring. Mother Teresa Margarita, prioress of that time, recounts: “Having overcome the difficult proof, she received the holy habit on August 14th, 1955, recovering since then a peace and happiness that would be increasing until the day of her happy death. And she made her temporary religious profession on August 15th, 1956.”

TO THE CARMEL OF HEAVEN But God had reserved another destiny for God’s servant. She only needed to prove an apostolate: that of patience in illness. She, who always believed that she had “an iron health,” began to feel a physical decay, overcoming the illness. But infectious hepatitis, which had already taken one of her sisters to the grave, forced her to intern in a Sanatorium in the city, in January 1959.  She lived her last days with total abandonment to the will of God. That day she asks to read the poem of Saint Teresa of Jesus: “I die because I do not die.” She stands up suddenly in her bed and exclaims: “JESUS, I LOVE YOU! THAT SWEET MEETING! VIRGIN MARY!” And Jesus takes her with Him. Her death was so resonant because she was so well known for her work in the Catholic Action. The sisters remember people arrived in caravans from all parts of the country, and they all said: A saint has died. Blessed Maria Felicia Guggiari Echeverria, pray for us!

(excerpt with minor corrections from an article at http://www.carmelholylanddco.org/blessed-maria-felicia-of-holy-sacrement-chiquitunga-ocd-from-asuncion-paraguay/)

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Attendance Policy

Participation in community life is an essential part of the Secular Carmelite's vocation. Everyone is expected to attend all meetings, retreats, and days of recollection.

Aspirants and members are responsible for contacting the President or their Formation Facilitator, as soon as possible, when s/he is unable to attend a monthly meeting, retreat, or day of recollection.

Excused absences will be granted for illness, transportation, unavoidable family obligations, or an extraordinary circumstance.

Those in formation should expect to make up missed sessions and/or have their formation extended.

If there are more than three absences in a calendar year, the Council will review the situation on a case-by-case basis.