HOMEPAGE for this issue: July 13, 2011 // Download PDF Version // Click to install/update Adobe Reader on your computer

Faithful invited to Carmelite triduum at Littleton monastery

By Denver Catholic Register

The Discalced Carmelite nuns invite the faithful to attend the annual triduum liturgies honoring the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel this week at their Littleton monastery. The liturgies will be held at 7 p.m. on July 14, 15 and 16 in the monastery chapel.

The liturgies include the rosary, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the triduum prayer, the blessing and distribution of the Carmelite scapular and a sermon.

“We invite everyone to come honor our Blessed Mother,” said Mother Gemma Marie Hughes, O.C.D., the prioress. “The triduum is always a special grace.”

The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel remembers Mary’s gift of the scapular to St. Simon Stock in Cambridge, England, in the 13th century with the promise that whomever dies wearing it would be spared the fires of hell.

Priests leading the liturgies and delivering the sermons will be: July 14, Father Alvaro Montero, D.C.J.M., pastor of St. Mary Church in Littleton; July 15, Father Michael Freihofer, pastor of St. Bernard of Montjoux in Winter Park, Our Lady of the Snow in Granby and St. Anne in Grand Lake; and July 16, Father John Riley of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.

The Discalced (shoeless) Carmelites are a branch of the order founded by St. Teresa of Avila.

When the Littleton monastery was founded in 1947, a branch of the Archbishop’s Guild called Friends of Carmel was established to help the nuns with the monastery’s upkeep. Each year Friends of Carmel ask the laity to send a check of any amount directly to the monastery in a fundraising drive. The drive is important to the nuns, who rely entirely on alms for their support. The sisters spend their lives praying for the needs of the whole Church, particularly for the Denver Archdiocese.

The public is always invited to the monastery’s 6:30 a.m. Mass, which is offered seven days a week in the chapel.

Send donations and prayer requests to Carmel of the Holy Spirit Monastery, 6138 S. Gallup St., Littleton, CO 80120. Your check is your receipt.