19 NOVEMBER

. . . .in the Carmelite calendar is the feast of St. Raphael Kalinowski -- engineer, patriot, soldier, prisoner in Siberia, and Carmelite priest. He was especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. From the website linked above: To try and comprehend the core of Father Raphael's sanctity throughout his varied life in the world, in the hard Siberian years and in the Carmelite Order, we have some quotations in his own words. He continually reminded his religious: "In Carmel our principal duty is to converse with God in all our actions." He stressed continual communion with God. Another facet of his spirituality which he emphasized to the friars and nuns was intimacy with Our Lady whom he loved as "mother and foundress of the Order; whom one always needs to keep in mind. For Carmelite friars and nuns, it is of capital importance to honor the Most Blessed Virgin. And we love her if we endeavor to imitate her virtue, especially humility and recollection in prayer. Our gaze ought to be constantly turned to her, our affections directed to her, ever keeping in mind the remembrance of her benefits and trying always to be faithful to her." He wrote several booklets on Our Lady: Mary Always and in Everything, Cracow 1901; and The Cult of the Mother of God in the Polish Carmel, Leopoli-Warsaw 1905.