July: Dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus

Dear brothers and sisters in Carmel,

What a joy it was to meet for the first time after a long time! I felt so blessed when we came together as a Community on the first Sunday in June, which happened to be Holy Trinity Sunday. We finally started on our planned Formation Study on St Thérèse – “The Story of a Soul”. We also renewed our Promise, which was long overdue since Easter.

Sr Mary Teresa of St Augustine’s 60th (Diamond) Jubilee was celebrated on 5th June. Some of us were present for her special Mass on the day. Many of us got to meet her after the Community Meeting. Sr Mary Teresa holds a special place in the hearts of our OCDS members for her work in our formation. May God continue to bless her.

Congratulations to Pat Carroll who shall be receiving the Papal Medal on Saturday 4th July 2020 at Christ the King Church at the 6.00pm Vigil Mass.

Please pray for us as we organise and prepare for our annual OCDS retreat in November (13th – 15th). Fr Philip, CSJ has kindly consented to be our Retreat Director. I shall update details as soon as they are available; thank you for your patience.

I am pleased to announce that we have a NZ OCDS website www.carmel.org.nz and I invite you to view it. You may want to recommend it to anyone who is interested to know more about the Secular Order in New Zealand.