Feast of Our Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus

On the 15^th of October, our community joyfully celebrated the feast of Our Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus, in the presence of the Consul General in Jerusalem, Mr. Nicolas Kassianides, and in the midst of a moment filled with hope.

A few days earlier, the ceasefire of October 10 had rekindled in the hearts of all, near and far, the fragile but real breath of peace.

In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Carmel, which devotes its life to prayer for the Church and for the world, celebrated this feast as an act of thanksgiving and intercession for peace and reconciliation.

In his homily, our celebrant, Father Olivier Poquillon, Director of the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem, reminded us that Saint Teresa was a woman of culture and hope, animated by the fire of the Spirit. Her experience was not one of personal happiness, but of a gift received to be shared: fruitfulness for the whole Church and the world.

She teaches us that the spiritual life is an open workshop, a place where the Spirit shapes the diversity of gifts, if we let Him take first place. But this freedom of the Spirit needs a framework: the rule, prayer, the Altar... These concrete reference points do not confine us, they prepare the open inner space where God can come and dwell. It is in this fruitful, humble and offered emptiness that the true encounter with Him is born.

The Spirit teaches us to choose God freely, to become friends with Christ. This friendship requires faithfulness, reconciliation, and trust. Even amid the tensions of the world, the Spirit restores everything to its proper place and enables us to work together for peace.

"Let nothing disturb you,

let nothing frighten you,

everything passes.

God does not change,

patience obtains everything.

He who has God

lacks nothing:

God alone suffices."

We entrust to the intercession of Saint Teresa this “fragile nascent peace,” the victims of these conflicts, and the peoples on both sides who are suffering but still hopeful. Through her intercession, may each one of us be peacemakers, rooted in love, open to the Spirit, and bearers of this hope that does not disappoint! Some photos of that day!