We walk with the Spirit’s momentum in this post-covid time of change, full of gratitude to be able to praise the Lord from where we are. This year, Mother Theresa’s feast is situated in the year of St. Joseph and in a Synodal Church with the theme: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation, mission”. Two ecclesial events that we have at the core of our prayers and we also believe in this inclusive and communional synodal process.
Our Mother Saint Teresa illuminates our present day in this ecclesial context by saying: “Let us walk together Lord, where you want to go, I also want to go…” (C 26,6). Pope Francis, on several occasions, says that synodality expresses the Church’s nature, form, style, and mission. In fact, the word “synod” contains, everything we need to understand in the expression “walking together”. Once again is Teresa’s vision.
For the St. Joseph’s year, we are aware with Teresa’s great devotion to “the glorious St. Joseph”, a matter recognized even by the Holy Father in his apostolic letter Patris Corde. From the quantity of texts about Saint Joseph we find in Teresa’s writings, I would like to offer you a small text from Teresa that I believe inspired the artist of this painting we find in the former Carmelite Fathers’ church in Haifa, Kikar Paris. It is a painting located on the right side of the church’s presbytery. A painting made in Italy and brought here by the Carmelite father, Alberto Caruana, from Malta.
The text depicted is found in the Book of Life (33, 12), where the Blessed Mother tells us about a great difficulty in which she found herself during the Saint Joseph monastery foundation. She says:
“Once I was in a hurry not knowing what to do, without any money to pay some builders, St. Joseph, my true father and lord, appeared to me and told me that I would not run out of cash and hire them; this is what I did, without a penny. And the Lord, in a wonderful way that amazed those who heard it, provided for me.”
“One day when I was in great need, not knowing what to do, nor how to pay some of the workers, St. Joseph, my protector, my true father, appeared to me. He assured me that I would not be without money, and that I could make a deal with these people. I obeyed, not having a single penny, and the Lord provided for me in a wonderful way that amazed those who heard about it.”
What would be this wonderful way that amazes those who are aware of it?
The painting’s artist captured Saint Joseph’s apparition and, certainly inspired, retained a 
detail that is very relevant in the post-pandemic era! Saint Joseph puts a small silver coin in Therese’s hand, and in the background, we see the house that will be transformed into the first Reformation monastery. So, let us also go, following Teresa’s example, our Mother, to Saint Joseph’s, with the full confidence that nothing is impossible to God and let us entrust the Church’s synodal path to him!
NB: To understand the importance of the Maltese Carmelite Fathers’ presence at Mount Carmel, it must be reminded that the first successful attempt to recover Mount Carmel was undertaken in 1631 by Fr. Prosper of the Holy Spirit. But all was lost again a few years after his death, and all subsequent attempts proved useless throughout the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries. For this reason, Fr. Pierre Alexandre de Sainte Marguerite, Superior General of the Discalced Carmes, called the Maltese Jules du Rédempteur and asked him to do his best to permanently fulfill the claim of the Holy Mountain of Mary for the Order. It was in the early years of the nineteenth century that this humble Religious arrived in St. John of Acre and succeeded in redeeming the House of Haifa, but the Pasha of Acre most emphatically refused to give him the Holy Mount.
After twenty-four years of careful diplomatic work in the midst of great personal sacrifice and poverty, he finally succeeded in redeeming Mount Carmel from Pasha Abdala of Acre. With the help of others who came afterwards to give him help and encouragement, he ensured the blessing of the foundation stone of the Basilica of Our Lady which still stands there today. This blessing took place on July 5, 1827, while the solemn inauguration of the newly completed church took place on June 12, 1836.