Letter of Consultation
 

Rome, 17 March 2002

 

Dear friends in Carmel,

 

Many greetings from Rome. I come to you with this letter to talk about the Commission for the Laity to which you have been nominated member. Thank you for having accepted the nomination and I hope that we shall be able to collaborate well.

 

May be you expected me to get in touch with you before this, but the nomination of the members of the commission was only finalised at the last meeting of the General Council. Because of my many other commitments, at first I thought it best if we had our first meeting in October. However, the urgency of the problem of the Third Order Rule and the 550th anniversary of the papal bull “Cum nulla”, which gave birth to the Carmelite nuns and the Carmelite laity, made me think it better to have the meeting at an earlier date. I would like to suggest to you a meeting from 27 to 31 May here in Rome at the Generalate. Would you please let me know if that is all right with you? Please send me your reply by e-mail, fax or telephone as soon as possible so that I may know whether it is possible, at least for the majority, to hold the meeting then. I realise this is short notice, but, as I have already mentioned, for various reasons it was not possible for me to contact you earlier.

 

I suggest the following topics:

  • An evaluation of the Congress for the Laity in Sassone
  • The Third Order Rule
  • The bulletin “Isidore Bakanja”
  • A permanent secretariat for the laity
  • Celebrations on the occasion of the anniversary of the bull “Cum nulla”
  • A global project for the coming six years as an instrument for development and mutual collaboration
  • Remote preparation for the Carmelite Congress of the Laity (2005-2006)
  • The ritual for the TOC
  • International directory of the laity
  • The structure of Lay Carmel and a description of the various lay groups. 

These are my suggestions. If you have other suggestions please send them to me with your reply as to whether you will be able to attend the meeting. If you need a visa, send me your personal details (name, surname, date and place of birth, address and number of passport) and I shall send you an official invitation in order to facilitate matters with the Italian embassy. For the cost of travel: please pay for your ticket and the General Bursar will then refund you when you are in Rome. As soon as I receive you reply I shall send you the official invitation as well as the timetable and programme for the meeting.

 

I am looking forward to hearing from you. I wish you a Happy Easter.

 

Fraternally in Carmel,

 

Fr. Josef Jančář, O.Carm.

General Delegate for the Laity