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Pietro Novelli

Prayer to the Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel

O Most Blessed and Immaculate Virgin, ornament and splendor of Carmel, thou who regardest with an eye of special kindness those who wear thy blessed habit, look down also benignly upon me and cover me with the mantle of thy special protection. Strengthen my weakness with thy power; enlighten the darkness of my mind with thy wisdom; increase in me faith, hope, and charity. Adorn my soul with such graces and virtues as will ever be pleasing to thy divine Son and to thee. Assist me in life, and console me in death, with thy most amiable presence, and present me to the most august Trinity as thy devoted servant and child; that I may eternally bless and praise thee in paradise. Amen
2 Hail Marys and Glory be to the Father.  The New Raccolta 1903

Bring back the Cloistered Nuns! (Sensus Fidelium Video)

From the Past: Carmelites in North Carolina

Seven Carmelite Nuns of the Strict Ancien observance of the Mother-Carmel at Lanark, Allentown, Pa., will soon be transferred to Asheville, N.C. , to found a new Carmelite Monastery there under the title of "Carmel of St. Joseph and the Holy Child."
The nuns are going to North Carolina at the invitation of the Most Rev. Vincent S. Waters, Bishop of Raleigh. Their establishment in the Raleigh Diocese will be the first monastery for strictly cloistered nuns in North Carolina.

Bishop to Pontificate
Solemn opening services and the first Mass will be celebrated at the new Asheville Carmel by Bishop Waters on March 19..
Authorization for the new monastery has come from Pope Pius XII through the Sacred Congregation for the Religious, since the nuns are members of a Papal Institute. Previous approval had been granted by the most Rev. John F. O'Hara, C.S.C., Archbishop of Philadelphia.
This will be the second Carmelite monastery to be founded in the United States from the Allentown Mother-Carmel. In November 1954, seven nuns left there to establish a new Carmel in Wahpeton, North Dakota.

Departure Ceremonies
Special departure ceremonies were conducted at the Allentown Monastery on March 7. The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Leo G. Fink, P.A., V.F., presided and presented Mission Crosses to the seven nuns who will form the new North Carolina community. They are: Reverend Mother M. Bernadette of Our Lady of Lourdes, a native of Philadelphia, who entered the Allentown Carmel on March 5, 1934. She will serve as Mother Prioress to the new community.
Sister Mary Magdalen of Jesus, of Allentown, who entered the Allentown Carmel on July 16, 1933, Assistant to the Mother Prioress.
Also, Sister Mary Anne of St. Bartholomew, of Philadelphia; Sister Mary Veronica of the Holy Face, Jersey City, N.J.; Sister Mary Patricia of the Nativity, of Philadelphia; Sister Mary Genevieve of the Holy Face, of Philadelphia; and Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, candidate for the new novitiate of New Bedford, Mass.

Note 25th Anniversary
The Allentown Carmelites are currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of their establishment in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which marks their first foundation in the United State, under the leadership of the late Reverend Mother Therese of Jesus and her companion, Mother Clement Mary of the Guardian Angel. The Carmelites were established by the General of the Carmelite Order, Blessed John Soreth, Ord. Carm. , on October 14, 1453, at Guelder, Holland. About 26 years before, St. Teresa of Avila began her reform of the Carmelites, in Spain, a branch of the original monastery was founded in Naples, Italy, in 1536. it was from this Carmelite Monastery of Naples in Italy that Carmel of the Strict Ancient Observance extended to American soil its first Foundation on May 22, 1931, at Lanark, near Allentown.

Life of a Carmelite
These Carmelite nuns take Solemn Vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, and observe strict Papal Enclosure. The choir religious chant the Divine Office in common. In addition to the Divine office, the cloistered religious observe perpetual adoration of the Holy Sacrament. Day and night, one or two Sisters kneel before the tabernacle, adoring, praising, petitioning for the needs of Mother Church throughout the world, for the Vicar of Christ on earth, for personal sanctification, and for the sanctification of all. The greater part of the day and night of the cloistered nuns is spent in prayer, meditation and other spiritual exercises. A certain part of the day is devoted to manual labor.

Source: The Catholic Standard and Times, Vol. 61, 9 March 1956