PORT EWEN — Scores of Catholics from the Hudson Valley enjoyed natural and supernatural beauty on September 21 as they spent a “Carmelite Day by the Hudson River” held at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Port Ewen.

“It was a tremendous joy to share the riches of Carmelite spirituality to an audience of young and old, families and seniors,” said Father Justin Cinnante, O.Carm., the retreat master of the event. Cinnante is a priest of the Carmelite religious order (Ancient Observance or O.Carm.) and has years of experience with retreats, missions, and youth ministry. His main ministry is to serve as chaplain of Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle.

After starting with Mass at Presentation Church, Cinnante proceeded with conferences on the roots of Carmelite spirituality and its devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Carmelite approach to contemplation, and the blessing and conferral of the brown scapular of the Carmelite order. Attendees participated in the veneration of first- and second-class relics of saints such as St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Titus Brandsma, and Blessed Carlo Acutis. While Cinnante offered Mass at the start of the day of recollection and led the Holy Hour (Solemn Exposition and Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament) at the end of the day, more than 20 confessions were heard in English and Spanish.

“It was evident that the style and substance of Father Cinnante’s presentations and prayers drew people of different age groups to respond from the heart as well as with their minds to the riches and challenges of Carmelite spirituality,” observed Father Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of Presentation-Sacred Heart Parish, Port Ewen-Esopus.

Father Rojas noted Presentation-Sacred Heart Parish has provided a variety of preachers at the parish’s days and evenings of recollection from Western Catholic spiritualities such as the Carmelite style and Eastern Catholic speakers of the Byzantine rite. “We provide a distinctive yet doctrinally faithful variety of spiritual food for the mind, heart, body, and soul at our days and evenings of recollection,” stated Rojas.

Presentation-Sacred Heart Parish serves the Church within the Town of Esopus from two sites: Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church at Port Ewen and Sacred Heart Church at Esopus. The site at Port Ewen also contains the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Hudson, at which Cinnante concluded the Carmelite day of recollection with an outdoor Holy Hour ceremony at the shrine with the Hudson River as a backdrop.