Introduction

1. Having come together in Villa de Leyva (Colombia) from 2^nd to 9^th May 2001, for the First International Congress for Carmelite Parishes, we renewed awareness of our identity as Teresian Carmelites and, as such, we sought to respond to our vocation and mission to be witnesses to the experience of God. We affirm that parochial ministry, besides enjoying legal or constitutional status in our life is, when kept in balance, an activity fully integrated to transmitting the charism and spirituality of our Order.

2. In parochial ministry we seek to transmit our experience of the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, whom we have received through listening to his Word and through friendly dialogue in prayer with Him, "whom we have heard, whom we have seen" (1 Jn 1:1), through the local Churches. Love for the Church and dedication to its service, properties of our charism, require us to form a more generous part of the Church and to incarnate our presence in a greater manner. Today, as in the past, the vitality of the Order is in relation to its missionary and evangelizing dimension arising from a profound experience of God.

3. Parish apostolate unites us in this missionary thrust of evangelization and of human development in all areas of life in the Church and society⁽¹⁾. This statement, based on our experience, reveals that the parish, in offering us a particular closeness to people, is a place quite rich in apostolic possibilities and appropriate for transmitting our spirituality.

4. The Spirit urges us to widen our horizons, to build bridges to a world that is increasingly multicultural, to dialogue with the various expressions of religion and to support efforts to create a world that is more just, humane and supportive. "Beginning with intra-ecclesial communion, charity of its nature opens out into a service that is universal; it inspires in us a commitment to practical and concrete love for every human being"⁽²⁾. This ought to stimulate us, in creative fidelity to the gospel and our charism, to form networks among ourselves and God's people as a whole, by being in tune with the new ecclesiality and by using all the possibilities that parishes offer at the moment to carry forward our evangelizing work.

5. In our increasingly secularized and materialistic world, parish ministry, which has changed to being a missionary ministry, is a way of growing in missionary spirit. This means that we must form an integral part of each particular Church, without losing our identity, in order to give a response to the signs of times and places, within which and here and now the Spirit also speaks. The new evangelization carries with it a restructuring of our own works.

6. The present Global Plan is the fruit of the reflection both before the congress and the dialogue and discernment during it. It wishes to offer just some general guidelines which should afterwards be adapted to the various social, cultural and ecclesial circumstances in which we carry out our service of pastoral ministry.

First Part

General Objective of the Carmelite Parish

7. To present the general objective, we began with a two-fold study of the matter: the analysis carried out in each circumscription in replying to the questions in the Consultation Document, as well as the discussion during the Congress. Speaking in general, we were able to establish that, outside missionary territories, there were more urban parishes than rural; more traditional parishes with emphasis on sacramental life than missionary and evangelizing parishes. There are parishes forming a good and active part of the local Church and those (the minority) who have little to do with it. We have parishes belonging to us and parishes in which we offer only our service.

8. Along with this we saw the desire and efforts made to widen the evangelizing service of our parishes, by involving the laity and Christian communities in an active way. Equally, we saw a desire and effort made to bring about the ideal of a Carmelite parish community, in which is shared experience of God, evangelizing service and the option for those most in need.

9. In light of what we discerned from the basic experience of our charism and of a theological and juridical concept of parish, the Congress sought to point out those traits that the Carmelite parish should have. The Carmelite parish should express the qualities of our life: evangelizing, Marian, fraternal and prayerful.

10. What ought to define our parish apostolate is not something predetermined nor something rigid. Rather, like life itself, it should be in development, adapting itself to changing circumstances. What we are and what we do ought to bear the seal of, and be marked by, those traits that every Carmelite ought to give place of prime importance in their life⁽³⁾. As a result, we understand Carmelite Parish to mean what has been entrusted us the general objective of which must be particularly marked by the following features: to be witnesses to God's love and fraternity, placing emphasis on spiritual life, missionary spirit, devotion to Mary and living in service to others with the deep humanism found in Teresa and John of the Cross.

11. a. Being witnesses to God's love.

Before all, we are called to be witnesses to God's love revealed in Christ Jesus, learnt and lived from the gospel and the experience and teaching of the Order's saints. The truth they repeat to us in their life is "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8) and that he "is more tender than a mother"⁽⁴⁾.

12. b. Being witnesses to fraternity

We need to commit ourselves to being a community that is capable of strictly uniting parish ministry with the life of prayer and community, placing the accent on fraternity. In this way we clearly manifest the Teresian ideal of being fraternal and praying communities in service of God's Kingdom . We will let ourselves evangelize using the questions arising from present circumstances, so that, in light of the Gospel, we are able to reply to the concrete needs in which we live.

13. c. The spiritual life our departure point

We accept in its ordered strength the passion the Order's saints had for the spiritual life: "the interior castle" of St Teresa and "the innermost centre" of St John of the Cross. Our life of faith and prayer and fostering of the spiritual life, as life in Christ and according to the spirit, ought to be an expression of our identity in the liturgy, in preaching, in catechesis and in other pastoral acts, since "Martha and Mary must join together"⁽⁵⁾.

14. d. Living and promoting the missionary spirit

In our parishes, we are called to live and foster missionary spirituality and involvement. From here arises the impulse for evangelization and human development in all areas, including moving towards the wider horizons of mission "ad gentes".

15. e. Giving a Marian touch to our evangelizing service

Our family is consecrated to loving Mary and having devotion to her. Her presence gives vitality to our spirituality and moulds our apostolate. For us, the Virgin is an example of union with God, of listening obedience to his Word and of service to others. She is "the Star of the evangelization ever renewed"⁽⁶⁾ Mary is the supreme expression of the Carmelite vocation. We are "her Order"⁽⁷⁾. We are called to emphasise the prayerful and contemplative Virgin who discovered God's presence in all events.

16. f. Living serving others with the humanism of Teresa and John of the Cross.

From our Holy Parents we have received a style of Christian humanism that is particularly sensitive to the dignity of people and human values, attentive to cultivating the gospel virtues that love demands when converted to service ⁽⁸⁾ One of the important aspects in this service is that of mercy: the world can continue to become more humane if we are capable of introducing into the world of human relationships, along with justice, "that "merciful love" which constitutes the messianic message of the Gospel"⁽⁹⁾

Second Part

The Principal Pastoral Fields From the Carmelite Point of View

17. We are aware that, when the Church offers a religious institute a parish, it seeks, and has the right to expect from the institute, not just parish ministry but also the spread of its charism in the double aspect of spirituality and gospel service. We are asked to serve the Church from what we are, in all that it means to be Teresian Carmelites.

18. The Spirit calls us to explore new gospel ways and to take part in the various pastoral fields of the Church from the Teresian Carmelite point of view. Jesus Christ, incarnate Work of God, who announces the Good News to humanity, ought to be the point of reference and of encounter for all our apostolate. Like our Holy Parents, who lived centred on Christ, we ought to reply to the cries the Spirit makes to us in our time, so that we face up to the challenges of the Church and the world. At one and the same time, we evangelize others and are evangelized by them.

1. The area of prophetic pastoral ministry

19. Assiduous reading of God's Word and taking it to heart, to which our Holy Parents invite us, will be the most adequate of means for questioning our personal life and the social reality in which we live. The prophetic dimension requires us to be, like the prophets, people of prayer, people of the Word, persons close to the people and capable of questioning the structures that do not respond to God's plan, which asks us to live as responsible sons and daughters with deep fraternity based on justice and love.

20. In evangelization, what really stands out is the freeing character of God's Word which breaks the bonds of all the servitude of personal and social sin and transforms it into the principle of individual and community development. "True prophecy is born of God, from friendship with him, from attentive listening to his word in the different circumstance of history. Prophets... having heard God's word in the dialogue of prayer, proclaim that word with their lives, with their lips and with their actions, becoming people who speak for God against evil and sin"⁽¹⁰⁾.

21. With listening to the Word of God and reflecting on it, we ought to transform our parishes, making room for solidarity particularly with those who are truly poor, weak and in need. At the same time there is need to enter into dialogue with the surrounding culture in order to promote inculturation of the faith, which is one of the great challenges for today's world. It is important that there be vitality in our preaching and that it be pertinent to the circumstances. Above all, there is need to clothe proclamation of the gospel with catechesis and education in the faith at all levels, which is a help to deepening it.

2. Liturgical ministry

22. The Liturgy is the Word of God celebrated in hope after having welcomed it through faith and the commitment to live and express it in a love that is concrete and effective. Liturgical celebration, when it is carried out and lived in an authentic manner, with a keen participation on the part of believers, can have a stronger evangelizing effect and impact than many words and discourses. The liturgy is the privileged moment of parochial community and an irreplaceable means of communion and participation. For this reason, it is essential to prepare the celebration with care, make every effort to be welcoming, to foster the expressive strength of the gestures and signs. There is need to pay attention to language, the homily, the singing, the various introductions, in such a way that they respond better to the feelings, concerns and anxieties of today's people.

23. From the liturgical viewpoint there is need to emphasise the parish as a community of believers, who have precise names and faces and who gather together around the Eucharist. In celebrating the Eucharist, the authentic essence of parish community should be discovered as it is evangelizing in itself and has impact on the world of those who are alienated or indifferent. The parish is not principally a structure, a territory, buildings. Rather, it is God's family, a faith community celebrating the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation.

24. Our liturgical celebrations should have a Carmelite flavour to them enabling the individual members and the community to experience God's presence. Using moments for silence and reflection, our liturgy should encourage friendly conversation with the Lord in everyone taking part.

3. The ministry of building community

25. The new Code of Canon Law presents the parish as "a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the diocesan bishop"⁽¹¹⁾. From the viewpoint of an ecclesiology of communion, the parish is, principally, an experience of communion. What stands out is its community and personal character rather than its territorial nature. The parish is the place of families, basic communities, various movements, groups and associations. It is a community of communities. Ecclesial communion, while always preserving its universal dimension, finds its most visible and immediate expression in the parish. It is the same Church which is alive in the midst of the houses of its sons and daughters. The parish is not primarily an administrative centre for roles and rites. It is first of all a centre for interpersonal animation within the community.

26. If parish apostolate demands that fundamental attention is given to constructing ecclesial community, the presence of Teresian Carmelites in a parish has to be eminently community oriented. The whole community has to be committed to animating the parish. Individual efforts, isolated, without coordination, lose the strength of unity and fraternal witness. Each friar ought to take part in serving the religious and parish community, with the individuality of his own personal charism.

27. The parish is a rather ample structure to enable an authentic community living of the faith. On the other hand, parish structure does not sufficiently attend to all the needs of the believers. They need an intense community life, providing experience, enabling sharing of the faith. For this it is necessary to encourage the creation of small ecclesial communities. Among those which should be taken into consideration are Secular Carmel and other Carmelite groups who live in communion of faith, meditating on God's Word, and committed to gospel love. Our communities ought to be open to sharing their own life, charism and spirituality with the laity, in order to form parishes carrying a Carmelite stamp.

28. It is urgent to have religious-lay dialogue. For this, there is need to establish in our parishes channels for collaboration and co-responsibility in the pastoral, evangelizing and administrative areas of the parish. Openness to non-ordained ministries facilitates communion and subsidiarily.

4. The ministry of spirituality

29. The post-synodal document Vita consecrata invites Institutes of Consecrated Life "courageously to propose anew the enterprising initiative, creativity and holiness of their founders and foundresses in response to the signs of the times emerging in today's world. This invitation is first of all a call to perseverance on the path of holiness in the midst of the material and spiritual difficulties of daily life"⁽¹²⁾. "In the Carmel of Teresa and St John this historical dynamism of the charism has been incarnated and enriched by the sanctity of so many of our brothers and sisters who, in various eras and places, were a living testimony of this gift transmitted to our Order, which they converted into a silent and eloquent basis for an authentic creative fidelity....It is urgent that the spiritual life must therefore have first place in the programme of Families of consecrated life, in such a way that every Institute and community will be a school of true evangelical spirituality"⁽¹³⁾.

30. A duty of ours is to help our parishioners live a spirituality that is vital and truly forms part of their life and is influenced by the experience and teachings of our saints. It is particularly important to guide them to know, love and trust in the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as Teresa of Jesus, John of the Cross and the other saints of Carmel did and wrote about their experience. He is a God close to us and our friend, dwelling in us and in others. The first guide ought to be the witness of our life. Our parishioners ought to know us more by what we are, than by what we do in the Church.

31. Our parishes are called to be animated by religious with a particular spirituality and charism. All our parish work ought to be the growing fruit of a spirituality that forms part of our own life and is lived in a fraternal community. As a result, our parishes need to project Carmelite spirituality into their parishioners and become, as well, centres for fostering prayer through a constant and well organized ministry of spirituality. A serious commitment to spiritual guidance and the ministry of the sacrament of reconciliation cannot be lacking.

5. Social ministry

32. The parish ought to make room for love having a social dimension, including justice and solidarity, since anthropological, theological and evangelical links exist between evangelization and human promotion, development and liberation⁽¹⁴⁾. Because of this, a commitment to social work should not be lacking in parish ministry. The yearning for liberty and liberation, fruit of the awareness of human dignity, demands an effective commitment of all people of good will to the defence and promotion of human rights. Long ago, social work was restricted to assisting people in need. Nowadays, while not leaving aside this aspect of individual assistance, there is also need to work for human development and changing unjust structures in society.

33. As a Christian community, the parish must take on an active commitment to denouncing and fighting against various situations of poverty and exclusion, as well as fraud and corruption, since they are seen, in personal and public life, as behaviour contrary to the gospel. Likewise, there is a need to stimulate participation in the structures of public life and to encourage an active presence of Christians in associations working for the construction of a society that is just and jointly shared. In our parish ministry, help need be given to our parishioners to become aware of the social problems in the parish, the country and the world. This includes growing in solidarity and committing oneself to movements of justice and peace; carrying ahead programs for human development. There is particular need to live committed to the preferential option for the poor and the new types of poverty in the world. Of great help to this would be the study and putting into practice of the Church's social documents.

34. "Carmel of the future cannot remain detached from these challenges, knowing how Teresa of Jesus, John of the Cross and our other saints, masters of the spiritual life, spoke of the dignity of persons created in the image of God and called to be transformed in him. St John of the Cross invites us to consider the greatness of the human being who has the vocation of living the divine life⁽¹⁵⁾. This means that our spirituality must have a deeply realistic aspect and cannot be alien to any human situation.

35. Social ministry also includes inculturation of the gospel message. The challenge of inculturation must be taken up by us as a call to collaborate with grace, to draw close to the various cultures. This presupposes a serious preparation at the personal level and Order-wide. Supported by the charism of those who founded us, we must know how to come close to various cultures with the attitude of Jesus who "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" (Ph2:7). Dialogue that is humble, open and patient can help present the gospel in an intelligible form to each culture.


Third Part

Pastoral Structures for a Carmelite Service

36. By pastoral structures, we understand the form of firm and stable organization that offers guidelines for evangelizing work in our Carmelite parishes. They ought to contribute to carrying out our pastoral service with the stamp of our charism and spirituality. The structures should also permit participation by all those making up our parish communities, by using the diversity of their particular charisms.

In this area leadership by the pastors is so important. They must lead the community entrusted to them to full spiritual and ecclesial development. In the document of the Congregation for the Clergy "The Priest in the Third Millennium", we find the qualities and norms for exercising this leadership, or ministry of mercy, thereby avoiding authoritarianism and clericalism which clash with the attitudes of a true leader, considered as a form of service in animating the laity.

37. At a diocesan level, structures exist set out in the joint pastoral plan. We ought to form part of these, in order to offer the riches of our charism and spirituality: pastoral formation centres, organizations for coordinating ecclesial movements, communication initiatives for transmitting the gospel, meetings and gatherings for planning. In all these structure our specific support, in dialogue with those in charge, should never be lacking. This will enrich not only us but others.

38. In our respective circumscriptions (provinces, commissariats, vicariates, delegations) parish ministry is not exclusive. There are other fields in which the Teresian Carmel is present: spirituality centres, missions, prayer and retreat houses, spirituality institutes, publications, etc. All these areas offer channels for apostolic and evangelizing service. In fraternal communion and dialogue, we see that it is necessary for us to remain open in mutual collaboration, since this gives dynamism to our parish ministry and makes it more efficient. We will all come out gaining in dynamism and our religious and Carmelite commitment will find an incentive for creative fidelity. Exchange of services between all those making up a circumscription will make our respective personal charism grow and develop.

39. More practically, at a strictly parish level, we ought to create structures and groups that give us a Carmelite character in the local Churches where we are. We are called to create prayer groups and "schools" as well as bible circles in which we teach our parishioners to read Scripture in connection with life, in order to make the Word of God its centre, so that "when we pray we speak with God, when we read Scripture God speaks to us⁽¹⁶⁾. The Marian dimension of our spirituality should never be lacking. At the popular piety level just as much in developing devotion to Mary, the ideal should be to direct it in the biblical, liturgical, anthropological and ecumenical aspect. It would also be ideal to be able to count on spirituality centres, as well as organizing series of conferences for transmitting the experience and doctrine of our saints. Our parishes ought to be, as well, centres for spreading spirituality publications in general and Carmelite spirituality in particular: books, magazines, cassettes, videos, etc.

40. An important point for carrying on a renewed and incarnated ministry is collaboration with the laity. In the history of relationships between Institutes of consecrated life and the laity and in particular with the secular order, a new chapter has been opened: "new experiences of communion and cooperation that should be encouraged"⁽¹⁷⁾. There is need to promote secular Carmel in our parishes and to encourage the new forms of lay aggregation. It is necessary to offer them an adequate formation, since they are the most apt for receiving and living our charism and for carrying it into their homes and work places.

41. In this same area of collaboration with the laity, let us not forget our Confraternities, Associations and other Carmelite groups. It is urgent that we renew them with dynamic fidelity so that they are living a vital, incarnated and committed spirituality. Married couples and families are asking us, on their part, directions for living a matrimonial and family spirituality in a world that has growing thirst for God that demands response. Christian communities or basic church communities form a special chapter. In them, and beginning with them, the community dimension of Christian life is lived. They are like cells in the parish body.

42. The need to prepare and form our Carmelite parish pastoral workers requires us to train our friars to offer this specific service. Frequently those who are sent to parishes have not had specific training to exercise this ministry. An adequate formation ought to take into account that we are in the era of communications and that we need to be good communicators of the gospel, the Good News of salvation. We need to know the art of communication in order to carry the message to our faithful more competently. The use of the means of communication widens the horizons of our parish ministry and our efforts to transmit the values of the gospel.

43. Where possible, collaboration should not be lacking with the Teresian Carmelite family and the Carmelite Order (O.Carm.). Mutual knowledge, projects in common and integrating the members of aggregated Institutes into our spirituality and apostolate teams will make our Carmelite pastoral service more incisive.

Conclusion

44. At the beginning of the Third Millennium, let us listen to the invitation the Church makes to us to respond to the signs of times and places with creative and dynamic fidelity. This requires a profound personal and community conversion and a restructuring of our life and our parish commitment in order to give a better response to the demands of our charism and the need to inculturate it.

45. Parish apostolate carries a citizenship card in the Order. The only thing required of us is to live it from a Teresian Carmelite identity. Setting out from this, we can look to the future "in order that the voices of all our brothers and sisters find expression in our own, so that we may thus become in the Church an expression of that Love which attracts everyone to God⁽¹⁸⁾. In a word, the Lord calls us to live and transmit the experience of a God who is close and a friend, as witnesses to the same in our parish service.

_____________________________________

1. See Evangelii nuntiandi (EN) 31.
2. Novo Millennio Ineunte (NMI) 49.
3. "The Church preserves and fosters the special character of her various religious institutes. " (LG 44); "It redounds to the good of the Church that institutes have their own particular characteristics and work" (PC 2,b).
4. therese of lisieux, Manuscript A, 80v. (ICS 1976, Ch VIII, p.174)
5. 7M 4: 13.
6. EN 82. Mary is "a woman of strength, who experienced poverty and suffering, flight and exile (cf. Mt. 2:13-23). These are situations that cannot escape the attention of those who wish to support, with the Gospel spirit, the liberating energies of man and of society. And Mary will appear not as a Mother exclusively concerned with her own divine Son, but rather as a woman whose action helped to strengthen the apostolic community's faith in Christ (cf. Jn. 2:1-12), and whose maternal role was extended and became universal on Calvary" (Marialis cultus: 37).
7. F 28:37; 29:31. The "rich Marian heritage which Carmel possesses has become over time a treasure for the whole Church, through the spread of the devotion of the Brown Scapular....The Scapular represents a synthesis of Marian spirituality. It nourishes the devotion of believers, making them sensitive to the loving presence of the Virgin Mother in their lives" (JOHN PAUL II, Letter to the O.Carm and O.C.D. Superiors General, nn. 4-5.
8. "The way of life she (St Teresa) proposed to us was to be marked with a distinctive style and character. She wanted social virtues and human values to be duly fostered. She inculcated a joyous family spirit, affability in community life, nobility of soul and mutual respect....The ascetical practices of our communities were to be at the service of a deeper theological life, and geared to the demands of the apostolic ministry...."(OCD Constitutions, 10).

9. Dives in misericordia, 14.

10. VC 84.
11. CIC 515.
12. VC 37.
13. 2003 general chapter Instrumentum laboris, 56; VC 93.
14. See EN 31.
15. (2003) GENERAL CHAPTER Instrumentum laboris, 61.
16. DV 25.
17. See VC 54-56.
18. 1997 general chapter, Begin always anew Presentation.