By Fr Juan De Bono ocd
God’s plan for mankind
Saint John of the Cross, whose centenary years we are celebrating this year, took a peak at the Trinity at that exact moment when the Trinty were discussing the creation of a bride to donate to Jesus, the Eternal Bridegroom.
The moment which our father Saint John of the Cross saw and described in his Romances, is the precise moment that changed history for ever. A moment in which God, out of love creates all that we see around us and even what is unseeable, while placing the Angels at the higher level of His creation and human beings at the lower level.
With Mary’s yes to the call from the Father to become the Mother of God, Jesus fulfills all that human being have been waiting for since the first disobedience of our forefathers.
A YES by Jesus to be incarnated in the womb of Mary, a YES from Mary to become the Mother of God, that WINS A NO from our forefathers at the garden of Eden.
400 years of Discalced Carmelite presence on the island
400 years ago, Fr Teodosio, Fr Alessio and Bro John have been sent to Malta to start the Order’s presence on these island. They had not yet a house, not yet a church and all looked so dark. Great promises from the bishop of the island Mons Cagliares, and from the Grand Master Antoine De Paul, were floating in the air, but nothing was yet really concrete. No land yet and as a result no house to live in.
We all know how it all developed, and how Mons Cagliares, thanks to his sister offered to the Disclced Carmelites friars all they needed to start a new foundation at Cospicua.
Not always plain sailing
It was not always plain sailing, but there was a moment when the skies looked darker than previous times and when the friars and the Order thought they were heading towards the cliff edge with no return back.
It later emerged that the French Revolution, which managed to eradicate many religious orders all across Europe, in effect became a new and more powerful seed, that generated a plant that developed in an even stronger tree with deeper roots on the island.
God is the ONLY one who have access to the power button and who is in command
This is how it always works out when God is directly involved and He is left to act without we slowing down His powerful engine’s inertia.
Even if all might look so dark, and where no emergency exit door is seen in a kilometre radius, God gives to all those who thrust in Him, and are ready to lose all while abandoning themselves in the arms of the Father, greener pastures that re-grow in a matter of days.
Moses, the man who describes himself as having “never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant” and who is “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10), and which made him believe to be unsuitable to speak in the name of God to Pharaoh, due to his “uncircumcised lips” (Exodus 6, 12), was chosen by God to go and implore to the Pharaoh in the name of his people to leave the land of Egypt.
Mary offered her virginity to God, and God asked her to be the Mother of His Son, conceived in her wound with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus who was nailed to a cross, was raised by the Father from death, proving that not even death would be the last word for God. Lucifer and his allies can bring Jesus to death, but they can’t stop the Father from raising Him again from death. The game is always won by God, even if just five minutes to the end of the game, God might be losing seven to nill. In five minutes He and His Saints on earth can score eight goals.
Saint Simon Stock
There was a moment in the history of our Order in which it seemed that the Order had no future. The Church as an institution didn’t want to deal any more with numerous small (in number) Religious Orders, and therefore wanted to channel all towards fewer and more centralised Orders.
Saint Simon Stock, General at the time, realised that this merger would have left the Church poorer as he was afraid that a new bigger Religious Order would have just ‘destroyed’ a unique charism, donated by the Holy Spirit to the Church.
What solution did he find ? Fight the Church who were all for this merger, or humbly imploring the support of his heavenly ally, the Queen of Heaven and of Earth ?
But Saint Simon Stock was a man of faith, an he knew which buttons to push in these emergency situations. He implored the one considered as sister to the Order, Our Lady, and Mary gave to Saint Simon the scapular, while promising to all those who would wear with devotion this vestment, that they will not only survive this plan from Rome (to merge the Order with another Order), but thanks to her heavenly support, the Carmelite Order will even expand in numbers and in presence around the world. Oh what just one man of faith managed to do thanks to his faith. How right Jesus was when he said that with “you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain, ‘move from here to there’, and it will move”, because “nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt 17 , 20).
Saint Theresa of Jesus
Fast forward to 1562, a Church which was being heavily bombed from the skies and from land, the Eucharist that has been reduced to just a memorial of the passion of Christ, while our Lady has been parked at an empty underground garage, ten storeys below street level.
Faithfull have been left at the battle field with no ammunition to defend themselves. In situation of darkness, and with no military weapons available, St Theresa of Jesus, a humble nun from the Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila, kept tight to her body and soul, the powerful weapons of Eucharist, while staying protected under our Lady’s cloak. She meanwhile encouraged the sisters and friends to do the same.
Under pressure from these nuns and friends, and against her will, she founded a new community in which Saint Joseph was the protector, Mary was the mother who embraced each member of the community, and where the daily Eucharist was the fountain that procured for the community the fresh and life giving water.
‘Modern times’
Fast forward to 2026, the Order is facing the same challenges faced at the time of Saint Simon Stock and Saint Theresa of Jesus. This time, it is no longer the result of a Church plan to merge most Religious Orders in few, not a plan to dilute what really builds our catholic depositum fidei, but new challenges coming directly from a society who is trying to place every human being on the throne of God, as Lucifer and his allies did in the beginning of time, pushing us under the bus.
Values which once where the back bones of every society have been flushed down the drain, God has been parked somewhere in the space, where humans wouldn’t have any direct access, humans have been deceived in believing that they have the power to decide for themselves without the need of a God who is dead. A way of thought which as we can see are creating international crisis and localised wars which have international repercussions.
Covid and how to handle this pandemic have became the showcase of what values really the ‘modern’ society prioritise (physical health before spiritual health), and a society which has parked God in a medieval past, and where participating in the Sacraments have become ‘dangerous’ in itself for mental safety, where a man made vaccine have become the new god that could get us out of this dark alley.
Impact on the Church and on Religious Orders
This situation have negatively impacted the Church and all Religious Orders. This same worldly spirit that has corrupted all in the society, from Head of states, to parents, to old and to the young generations, from collar to manual workers corrupted all mankind same as covid did. A virus that is a ‘me’ which replaced a ‘God’ who existed since ever.
When Winston Churchel was once asked if he was afraid of losing the II World War, he replied with a no, and the reason he had given was that he had studied history. Sure previous generations have been faced with similar challenges we are now facing, so looking back can really shed light on how to act today.
Which is the way forward for the future ?
Saint Simon Stock implored Mary, Saint Theresa became ‘one’ with the Divine Host who she deeply knew dwelt in her.
And this is also the path we as religious on these islands would need to continue to walk through in the coming years, if we really want to survive and not leave ourselves to be carried away by the current modern line of thought. Just one holy woman, Saint Theresa gave birth to a new reformed religious order, one holy friar, Saint John of the Cross inspired the religious of good spirit who were joining the reform.
Encouraging an environment of prayer is a must in our daily life more than it ever have been. Oh Saints Georges Preca phrase: ‘Sinjur jiena għandi bżonnok’ (Oh Lord I need you) is more actual then ever. Some might be asking me, but what are your plans ? Which monastery will I be placed in ? What office will I will be asked to fill ? How can we manage to continue to maintain these four houses ?
Actually these question are not really that important as union with God is the real key to solve these problems and all the problems life can ever offer.
We have been given “a new birth as His sons”
Saint Peter yesterday reminded us that it is through “his great mercy has given us a NEW BIRTH AS HIS SONS, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a SURE HOPE and the promise of an INHERITANCE that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away, because it is being kept for you in the heavens. THROUGH YOUR FAITH, GOD’S POWER WILL GUARD YOU until the salvation which HAS BEEN PREPARED is revealed at the end of time. This is a CAUSE OF GREAT JOY FOR YOU, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of TRIALS; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold – only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire – and then you will have praise and glory and honour. You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described, because you believe; and you are sure of the END TO WHICH YOUR FAITH LOOKS FORWARD, that is, the SALVATION OF YOUR SOUL.
“He is the all Powerful”
Dear brothers, only this faith is pushing me to accept this office. I completely understand that “He is the all-powerful, and what seems unattainable to us can become attainable when He wishes”.
What become even more encouraging for me in this particular moment in my life is what follows this particular phrase in this letter written by Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity to her friend Mrs Goute de Bize, words written (or better dictated as she didn’t even have the strength to keep the pencil in her hands) just nineteen days before she died: “Oh, believe that up above, in the Furnace of love, I will be actively thinking of you. I will ask, if you wish -and that will be the sign that I entered Heaven – a grace of union for you, of intimacy with the Master; I confide to you what has made my life an anticipated Heaven: believing that a Being called Loved dwells in us at every moment of the day and night and that He has asked us to live in communion with Him, to receive every joy, like every suffering, equally as coming from His love, that raises the soul beyond what passes away, beyond what crushes, and gives it rest in peace” (L 330).
Rightly so Saint Elizabeth asks her sister Guite to “cross out the word ‘discouragement’ from your dictionary of love”, and why should we cancel this word from our dictionary of love ? Simple because “He is the Unchanging One, He who never changes: He loves you today as He loved you yesterday and will love you tomorrow” (L 298).