Spring 2006 A year ago these notes included poetry of Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit or Jessica Powers to mark the visit of our Father General to the United Nations in New York (see News issue for Summer 2005). The same year 2005 was a centenary for her, the hundredth anniversary of her birth in Wisconsin.  She had created a name for herself as a poet before she entered Carmel, and she continued writing beautiful poems in her monastery in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.   In a local fashion, we friars living at ICS headquarters took note of this fact before the year was out by reading her Christmastide poems at our Carol Service on Christmas Eve. Her thoughts were poignant and they still fit this springtime issue of ICS Publications News for the hope of rebirth that they contain. Here is one of the four poems we heard in our chapel last December 24th: The Hidden Christ   I went into the Christmas cave; There was no child upon the straw. The ox and the ass were all I saw. I sought His stable where He gave His goodness in the guise of bread. Emptiness came to me instead. Filled with my Father’s words, I cried “Where have You hid Yourself?” and all The living answered to my call I found Him (and the world is wide) Dear in his warm ubiquity Where heart beat, there was Christ for me. I went back to the Christmas cave, Glad with the gain of everywhere. And lo! The blessed Child was there. Then at His feasting board He gave Embrace.  He multiplied his good And fed in me the multitude.      From ICS Publications headquarters we ship books all around the world, and it is encouraging to see packages and mail bags near our back door ready to be picked up by our efficient mailman.  We welcome the orders you wish to place directly to us. Our shipping clerk is Alden Leonard and we trust all are appreciative of his unflagging service over the years. It seems worth mentioning, though, that for our European friends you can find our books available for purchase at a location closer to where you live.  The Carmelite Book Service of Oxford, England carries our publications and is ready to serve you.   Ms. Sandra Poole is ever able and willing to reply to requests for Carmelite publications of all sorts, and she can supply our ICS Publications titles, if you choose to contact her.  The Book Service has a fine website where you can explore what is available.  Try looking at www.carmelite.org.uk and click on “Books.”       It is pleasant for us to be preparing a new issue of CARMELITE STUDIES that is co-sponsored by us at the Institute of Carmelite Studies and by the Institutum Carmelitanum (Rome) of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance, or O. Carms. The acts of a symposium held at Georgetown  University in the Fall of 2004 will soon be ready for publication, thanks to the able editorial work of Dr. Christopher Wilson.  (see News issue for Summer 2004 for titles of talks and names of their presenters.)   The volume’s title page carries a mention of both Institutes, and it was Dr. Wilson who suggested the image above for the book cover.  Later this year you may place orders for this interesting collection of talks about the first generation of followers of the Church’s first woman doctor, St. Teresa of Avila.