Angelus was born in Florence or near there; the year is unknown but it was before 1386. He was the first member of the reformed observance of Our Lady of the Wood, was many times prior of various houses and noted for his work in preaching the Word of God. He died in Florence in 1438.
Bartholomew Fanti was born in Mantua: the year is unknown, but in 1452 he was already a Carmelite priest of the Congregation of Mantua. For thirty-five years at the Order's church in Mantua he was spiritual father and rector of the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for which he composed a rule and statutes. He is especially remembered for his love of the Eucharist. He died in 1495.
Frances was born in 1427, probably in Thouars in France. She was the wife of Peter II, Duke of Britanny. After his death, and under the direction of Blessed John Soreth, the prior general, she took the habit of the Carmelite Order in the monastery she had previously founded in Bondon. Afterwards she transferred to another foundation in Nantes, also erected by her, where she held the office of prioress and nourished the sisters with wise teaching. She is considered the foundress of the Carmelite nuns in France. She died in 1485.
Hilary Januszewski was born on 11 June 1907 in Krajenki (Poland). In 1927 he entered the Order of Carmel and was ordained on 15 July 1934. In 1939, Poland was occupied by the Germans and one year later, Fr. Hilary decided to present himself in exchange for an older and sick friar. He was sent to Dachau, where he was a model of prayer life, encouraging others and giving hope for a better tomorrow. He died from typhus on 25 March 1945, a few days before the liberation of the concentration camp. Fr. Hilary Januszewski was beatified by John Paul II on 13 June 1999.
Bl. Jacques Retouret was born at Limoges in France on 15th September 1746 to a merchant family. He was a serious young man, a lover of books and greatly gifted. At fifteen years of age, he entered the Carmelite house in his native city. After ordination, his zeal and learning were widely admired and large crowds of people were attracted by his way of preaching.
The French Revolution did not spare him. Like the majority of his fellow clergy, Jacques refused to accept the civil law, unilaterally introduced by the state. He was arrested and condemned, together with many other priests and religious, and sentenced to exile in French Guinea in South America. Jacques died at Madame Isle on 26th August 1794 at the age of 48 years. He was beatified, together with 63 other priests and religious, as martyrs for the faith, on 1st October 1995 by Pope John Paul II.
Mother Euphrasia was born on October 17, 1877. Her pious mother taught her to pray the rosary and to participate in the Holy Mass. She had a vision of Mother Mary at the age of nine and she offered her virginity to God eternally. Her father was opposed to her entering the Convent but eventually gave her permission to go to the Carmelite Convent in 1888. For the rest of her life she was immersed in prayer, in contemplation or praying the Rosary. People began to call her “The Praying Mother.” She was most devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and had a great longing to be with the Eucharistic Lord and participate in the Holy Mass and adore the Blessed Sacrament. She was canonized by Pope Francis on November 23, 2014 in Vatican City.
Saint Kuriakos Elias Chavara, co-founder and first prior general of the congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, was born at Kainakary in Kersala, India, February 10, 1805. He entered the seminary in 1818, and was ordained priest in 1829. He made his religious profession in 1855, in the congregation he founded. Throughout his life he worked for the renovation of the church in Malabar. Above all, he was a man of prayer, zealous for the Eucharistic Lord and devoted to the Immaculate Virgin Mary. He died at Koonammavu in 1871. Kuriakose Kathanar was beatified on February 8, 1986 and canonized on November 23, 2014.
Born about 1305 in southern Perigord in France, Peter Thomas entered the Carmelites when he was twenty-one. He was chosen by the Order as its procurator general to the Papal Court at Avignon in 1345. After being made bishop of Patti and Lipari in 1354, he was entrusted with many papal missions to promote peace and unity with the Eastern Churches. He was transferred to the see of Corone in the Peloponnesus in 1359 and made Papal Legate for the East. In 1363 he was appointed Archbishop of Crete and 1364 Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. He won a reputation as an apostle of church unity before he died at Famagosta on Cyprus in 1366.
Raphael Kalinowski was born to Polish parents in the city of Vilnius in 1835. Following military service, he was condemned in 1864 to ten years of forced labor in Siberia. In 1877 he became a Carmelite and was ordained a priest in 1882. He contributed greatly to the restoration of the Discalced Carmelites in Poland. His life was distinguished by zeal for Church unity and by his unflagging devotion to his ministry as confessor and spiritual director. He died in Wadowice in 1907.
The following article on the Precautions of Saint John of the Cross is based on notes from the second presentation given at the Bay Area Regional Day of Recollection, 20 April 2024, by Father Joseph Mary, OCD. (House of Prayer, Napa, CA)
When you have an important goal to accomplish, you prepare yourself for the difficulties you are likely to encounter along the way. You check out your enemies and possible obstacles. Our life journey is no exception. We have three primary enemies in life: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are in a battle to win eternal life. During this time of spiritual warfare, we must fight against our spiritual enemies. In order to engage with each of these three enemies, we would do well to listen to the “Precautions” of St. John of the Cross. He lists three precautions for each of these three enemies.
The World isn’t inherently bad. God created it to be good. In fact, at the end of each day of creation, we are told that “God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:1-31).
We, too, were created to be not only good, but very good. “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good” (Genesis 1:1-31). Because of sin, the world fell from that state of goodness and so we need to heed these three precautions from St. John when we are interacting with the world.
Don’t give anyone the affection you owe to God. Detach from everyone so that you can love God. This may sound extreme and severe but you are not meant to despise others, only to love them equally. Love people and be kind but you must maintain boundaries. Don’t be attached to them. Desire that they become saints. Love others as you love yourself. Love all equally and do not prefer anyone. Only God deserves your attachment. Speak the truth and live the vocation you have been given. Sometimes we are too attached to others. Attraction is normal, but attachment is a problem. When we are attached to someone or something, we lose our freedom. Love equally.
Don't misunderstand this first precaution. We are definitely called to love others, but we can only love them because we love God first. Don’t use people or keep them close because of what they can do for you. Cultivate your relationship with God first. Then you can allow his love to flow through you. Everything you do is for God. Jesus said “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37)
Love is never about taking in. It’s about pouring out.
Abhor all manner of possessions and don’t depend on temporal goods. Maintain a balance. Material goods are for us to use and not to become attached to. You should be in control of them and not let them control you. Detach from things. Restrain your excessive desires. Occupy yourself with higher things, with the kingdom of God. Material things can easily become idols if we get attached to them. Use things well and properly. Attachments can make you selfish. Give up worldly goods to obtain what God has prepared for you in the next life. All the goods God gives us are not for us to keep. They are for us to distribute. Love is never about taking in. It’s about pouring out. Be attached to God! “If you do this you will attain to silence, and have peace in your senses” (St. John of the Cross)
This third precaution is most important for maintaining your peace of mind and harmony in your interactions with others. You can never know what is in the heart of another person or why they do what they do. St. John advises us that "even if you were living among devils, you should so live as not to turn back in thought to consider what they are doing, but forget them utterly. You are to keep your soul wholly to God, and not to suffer the thought of this or that to disturb you."
Unfortunately, Fr. Joseph Mary was only able to cover the three precautions involving our first enemy, the world. But St. John of the Cross wrote more on this topic and provided three precautions for the flesh and three for the devil. If you want to delve into all St. John’s precautions about our battle against the world the flesh, and the devil, read them here:
