The Carmelite News Autumn 2014
Dear Friend of Saint Jude I trust that this finds you well. Allow me to introduce myself if this is the first time we are meeting. You will remember that in his last letter Fr. Wilfrid shared with you the results of our elections in February of this year. These are held every three years and this year Fr. Wilfrid had completed two terms of office as Prior Provincial. This meant that the brothers had to find someone else for the job and so, at the elections, I was elected to take on this responsibility and took over from Fr. Wilfrid in May. A very special part of the Provincial s job is the opportunity to write this regular letter to friends like you who are a part of the life of the Shrine of Saint Jude, even though you may live many miles away. It is your prayer which is the great gift you give to support our ministries here in Britain and around the world - if we add to this the material help you may be able to offer from time to time we have every reason to be thankful. This is why you are remembered in our prayer every day in each of our communities. Perhaps you might not be surprised that we remember you at Mass and in the Divine Office, but you might not know that we also remember you at meal times as well. Carmelites are friars and as friars we depend on God s generosity shown through people like you. One of the lessons drummed into me by my parents was to be grateful, and to say thank you. It is a lesson that needs a constant reminder. This is why whenever we eat we need the reminder that we have food on the table - not because we are wealthy, or because we have well-paid jobs, but because there are generous people who care for us and, through us, for all kinds of people in need. This is why we pray after meals. First of all, we say a prayer of thanksgiving to God and then we add this prayer: Be pleased, Lord, to reward with eternal life those who do good to us for the sake of your holy name. I would want you to know that you are included in this prayer each day.
Now here I am rattling on, and I said I was going to introduce myself! So, before I go any further, here goes. My name is Fr. Tony Lester and, as you will have guessed, I am a Carmelite Friar. This September sees forty years since I first joined the Order as a novice at the age of 18 (I ll leave you to work out the maths!) and, by God s grace, this year I celebrated 25 years of priesthood. I suppose you could say that I have been around for a while now. If you have been a friend of Saint Jude for some time my name may be familiar because I also served as Provincial from 2002-2008. A travelling man Just last week I had the chance to visit our international noviciate house in Salamanca in Spain where a young man named James is almost at the end of his noviciate, and is beginning his preparation to make his first profession of vows. James is a novice for our Province, and in this day and age it is a great grace for us to have a novice. Anyway, Fr. Damian, our vocations director, and I flew over Tuesday, had Wednesday in the noviciate community, and then flew back Thursday. I think that this is what they call a flying visit! Saint Jude This meant that we were in Salamanca on the last Wednesday of the month. And? I hear you ask. Well, let me explain. A few years ago a woman in Salamanca was caring for her daughter who was dying with cancer. The doctors had done all that they could. The mother decided that, as all hope was gone, she would make a novena to Saint Jude. To help with her prayer she obtained a statue of Saint Jude which she brought into her home and then began her novena of prayer to the Apostle. By God s grace, at the end of the novena her daughter was healed and all signs of the cancer had gone. We can only begin to guess at the mother s joy! Remember our Novenas Novena to the Little Flower: 23 September - 1 October Novena to the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary: 29 September - 7 October Novena to Saint Jude: 20-28 October
A gift Once things had quietened down and life returned to normal, she began to wonder what to do to help others and to increase a sense of trust in God s providence through the intercession of Saint Jude. So she offered the statue to the parish priest who was less than generous in saying that he had statues-a-plenty and didn t need one of Saint Jude in his church as well. The woman lived just across the road from our friary, which has a chapel but is not a parish. She asked to see the prior who said he was sure he could find a space for Saint Jude, which he duly did. Once the statue was in place people began to come. The last Wednesday of the month has become a day of pilgrimage with people from far and wide. Our chapel is small, so the community has to provide six Masses to accommodate everyone - for most of these it is standing room only. They estimate that between 1500 to 2000 people make their way to Mass on the last Wednesday. From Faversham to Salamanca And so there I was happily ready for Mass thinking that it would be a quiet early Mass, only to find more and more people packing in. It really did remind me of Faversham on the Feast of Saint Jude in October and it was wonderful to see and to be able to be a part of it all. This year I was able to bring with me a very precious gift from Faversham to Salamanca. I was able to bring a relic of Saint Jude, a tiny fragment of bone enclosed in a silver case. We were fortunate in having three relics: one in the reliquary in the Shrine, one we use for veneration by pilgrims and the blessing of the oil of Saint Jude, and a third which is now in the care of our Carmelite brothers in Spain. It is good to think of the link that now exists between our two Carmelite friaries both of which have a particular place in the work of Saint Jude.
The work of the Apostle Our Carmelite sister, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux famously said that she would spend her heaven doing good on earth - and she certainly does! This is because her vocation to pray for the Church and those in need continues. And so it is with Saint Jude. His work of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ continues. Those who killed him thinking that they would silence him could not have been more wrong, as has been the case with martyrs down the centuries and, indeed, in our own times. I often think that in heaven Saint Jude and Saint Luke must be great pals. Luke s Gospel is a love song of the gentleness and tenderness of God made visible in Jesus, and Jude s ministry is to show that God is indeed close to the broken-hearted and that no one is outside the mercy of God. Carmel and Saint Jude These are both very strong themes which run through our Carmelite Spirituality and perhaps this is why we seem to feel so at home with Saint Jude. My suspicion is that the parish priest s guardian angel put him in a bad mood when the woman came to offer him that statue, because Jude really wanted to be in a place where he would feel at home. Maybe this is just a flight of fancy but stranger things have happened... The Holy Souls When I was a boy and things weren t going well, or if I had a toothache or couldn t get to sleep, or was worried because of a test at school, my dad would always tell me to pray to the Holy Souls to ask for their help. With my letter you will find the list for writing down the names of your loved ones who have died. This is for you to then send to the Shrine, where it will be the focus of our prayer life at the Shrine throughout November. In a way this is a two-way street. We remember them in prayer and we ask them to pray for us. It is a helpful reminder that our brothers and sisters who die do not lose their identity, or their relationship with us. They remain the people that they are and the core of their identity is carefully preserved by God as they are transformed by God s love and set free to love.
If you are anything like me, I imagine that you may be increasingly aware of just how much unfinished business we have in life. Things we may have said or done which we shouldn t have, and which we now cannot put right. Once a word leaves our mouth, we lose all control over it! Prayer, true prayer, is always an act of love. Our Catholic Christian tradition assures us that our prayer for the Holy Souls is one of the ways in which God loves our departed brothers and sisters into life in all its fullness. It is a gift of the tenderness of God to allow us to share in this loving process. So, please send through the list of your loved ones, and if you would like to have Mass offered, then we will ensure that this happens. Amongst the lists of names in the Shrine will be the names of my parents, brothers and close family and friends who have died. Our prayer for them is a gift of love into the hands of God for God to use as God sees best. The list can be downloaded via our website. Click here. The Feast is approaching With my letter you will find details of the various events in the Shrine during the time of the Feast of Saint Jude and how, if you are unable to come in person, you can arrange for a votive candle to be lit. My plan is to be here throughout the time of the Feast so, if you are coming, please do say hello. Shrines and Pilgrimages All of the world s great religions have prayer, pilgrimage and holy places as a part of our faith story. Perhaps because life is a journey and these realities remind us that God is with us on the journey, and God is waiting at our journey s end. Before I write to you again, I will have been to Lourdes with the CA Pilgrimage. During our pilgrimage we will have Mass at the Grotto where I will remember you and your loved ones. Last month, we were pleased to welcome a group of Palestinian Christians to the Shrine. We prayed with them for peace in Palestine, and then Fr. Piet gave them a grand tour. Please keep all the people of the Holy Land in your prayers.
Five hundred years This coming year sees the 500th anniversary of the birth of the great Carmelite Saint Teresa of Avila. If you are in the London area there is a special Mass at the Discalced Carmelite Church in Kensington at 7.00pm on 15 October 2014. All kinds of events and happenings are being planned for this great moment in the life of the Order and details can be found at: www.teresaofavila.org Friends in prayer We Carmelites are always amazed by the way in which God supports us through the friends of Saint Jude and the Shrine. First though can I beg the support of your prayers which are, if you like, the water, without which the seeds we try to sow in our ministry cannot grow. Pray for us and be assured that we pray for you and for those you love. And finally Four-year-old Robert opened the big bible which had been in his family for years. Absolutely fascinated, he flicked through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the bible. Robert picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old dry leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. Mum, look what I ve found, the boy called out. What have you got there, dear? With astonishment in the young boy s voice, he answered, I think I ve found Adam s underwear! And so, till we meet again may God bless you and Our Lady of Mount Carmel cover you with the mantle of her special protection. Saint Jude, Apostle and Martyr: pray for us. In Carmel, Fr. Tony Lester, O.Carm., Prior Provincial
Prize winners of St Jude s Burse Draw 2014 1st prize, 1000: Mrs Morrison (County Mayo, Ireland) 2nd prize, 250: Ann Sheil (Birmingham) Runners up prizes: K McKedditt (County Down); A Tuohy (County Clare); Julia White (Woodford Green); Ameila D Souza (Bexleyheath); Mr & Mrs Frain (Westbury on Trym, Bristol); J Hassett (Gloucester); Lindsay Betsy (Canterbury); Leonora Long (Bishops Stortford); Eliz McCormack (Glasgow); Charlie Tobin (Ealing London); D Godfrey (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne); Buckley Family (Coventry); W McBrearty (Paisley); Marie Reardon (Belfast); K Appletton (Rossendale); Forello Moffo (London); T MaGee (London); Mary Adussa (Croydon); Louis Cecile (London); M C Brady (County Durham). Carmelite News is the newsletter that promotes the work of the British Province and the National Shrine of Saint Jude. Please feel free to pass this copy onto friends and family, or ask them to sign up to our newsletter via our contact details below: The Carmelite Friars, PO Box 140, ME20 7SJ, England (01795 539 214 *chaplain@stjudeshrine.org.uk :www.stjudeshrine.org.uk saintjudeshrine Front cover photo: the statue of Saint Jude in Salamanca, Spain. All photos, copyright Order of Carmelites. Registered Charity: No. 1061342