Secular Carmelite Constitutions
Last updated June 6, 2006
This is the text of the Constitutions approved by the General Definitory in March for a period of 5 years "ad experimentum" and presented to the General Chapter in Avila. This text has been approved by the Holy See on June 16, 2003.
====================================================================
DECREE
The General Superior of the Discalced Carmelites, with the prior approval of the General Definitory, given in the 11th session of June 9, 2003, presented the text of the Constitutions of the Secular order to the Apostolic Center, requesting its approval.
The Congregation for the Institutes of consecrate life and the Societies of apostolic life, having considered attentively every thing in its respect, by the present Decree approves and confirms the aforesaid text, according to the example presented in Spanish language, preserved in its file.
May the new text of the Constitutions of the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites be a really effective means, so that its members can reinvigorate more and more their baptismal consecration in the concrete situations of family, social, civilian and ecclesial life.
Not withstanding anything to the contrary.
Vatican, June 16, 2003
Eduardo Card. Martínez Somalo, Prefect / Silvano Nesti, CP, Secretary
Letter from: Fr. Luis Aróstegui, OCD, General SuperiorTo the Provincials, Provincial Delegates for the Secular Order and the members of the Secular Order.
Dear Carmelites,
The General Delegate for the Secular Order presented the Constitutions for the Discalced Carmelite Secular Order to the General Chapter and to the new Father General and Definitory. The new Definitory also studied the Constitutions and made a few recommendations and reworded some items in the Spanish text, which is the official text.
The Definitory then approved the revised text on June 9, 2003 and sent them to the Holy See on June 10 with the request that they be approved for five years “ad experimentum”. The Holy See surprised us on June 16, 2003 with the decree of approval, not for five years “ad experimentum” but with the definitive approval. We, the Order, will still make us of the five year period for making concrete observations on this text, eventually asking the Holy See to approve certain changes as practical application indicates.
In order to proceed in an orderly way with these new Constitutions, that now replace the Rule of Life, it will be necessary that the Provincial Council of the OCDS in each Province review the Provincial Statutes and submit them to the General Definitory for approval. There are only a few Provinces that do not have a Provincial Council of the OCDS formed, but most of them are in the process of forming a Council now.
The Provincial Statues take on an added responsibility in these new Constitutions. They are the place where many things of importance to the life and functioning of the OCDS in each Province may be stipulated. After each Province has elaborated its own Provincial Statutes, those places that have a national organism may compose National Statutes according to Article 60 of the Constitutions.
This is an exciting time in the history of the Secular Order, a time for strengthening the bonds that exist within the Order. May all of our efforts be for the glory of God and the good of the Church.
Fr. Luis Aróstegui, OCD, General Superior
OCDS CONSTITUTIONS
PREFACE
All are called to share, in charity, the holiness which belongs to God alone: You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48).
Following Christ is the way to attain perfection, open to all by baptism. Through Baptism we take part in the triple mission of Jesus: kingly, priestly and prophetic. The first is a commitment to transforming the world according to God’s design. By the priestly mission, the baptized person offers self and the whole of creation to the Father with Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. And as prophet, the baptized person announces God’s plan for human kind and denounces all that is contrary to it[1].
The great Teresian Carmelite family is present in the world in many forms. The nucleus of this family is the Order of Discalced Carmelites B the friars, the enclosed nuns, the seculars. It is the one Order with the same charism. The Order is nourished by the long tradition of Carmel, expressed in the Rule of Saint Albert and the doctrine of the Carmelite Doctors of the Church and the Order’s other saints.
The present OCDS Constitutions are the fundamental law for its members, present in different regions of the world. For this reason they are characterized by simplicity of structures and moderation in rules concerning the way of life. In this way, within a fundamental unity established by this legislation, there is preserved openness to pluralism in expression demanded by the various social, cultural and ecclesial contexts. To achieve this, particular Statutes may be drawn up to complete and adapt the general laws where permitted in these Constitutions.
I
OUR IDENTITY, VALUES AND COMMITMENT
1. Carmelite Seculars, together with the Friars and Nuns, are sons and daughters of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Teresa of Jesus. As a result, they share the same charism with the religious, each according to their particular state of life. It is one family with the same spiritual possessions, the same call to holiness (cf. Ep 1:4; 1 P 1:15) and the same apostolic mission. Secular members contribute to the Order the benefits proper to their secular state of life[2].
2. Our membership of the Order goes back to the relationship established between laity and members of religious Orders born in the Middle Ages. Gradually these relationships took on an official character, forming part of the religious Institute and taking part in its charism and spirituality. In light of the Church’s new theology of the laity, Seculars live this membership with a clear secular identity.
3. The members of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites are faithful members of the Church[3], called to live in allegiance to Jesus Chris,[4] through friendship with the One we know loves us"[5] and in service to the Church. Under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in the biblical tradition of the prophet Elijah and inspired by the teachings of St Teresa of Jesus and St John of the Cross, they seek to deepen their Christian commitment received in baptism.
4. The Virgin Mary is present in a special way, most of all as a model of faithfulness in listening to the Lord and in service to Him and to others. Mary is the one who preserved in her heart the life and actions of her Son and meditated on them[6], providing for us an example of contemplation. At Cana she counseled to do what the Lord commanded[7]. Mary is an example of apostolic service. On another occasion, she waited, persevering in prayer with the apostles[8], for the coming of the Holy Spirit, thus giving witness to intercessory prayer. She is Mother of the Order. Secular Carmel enjoys her special protection and cultivates a sincere Marian devotion.
5. Elijah represents the prophetical tradition of Carmel and is an inspiration to live in the presence of God, seeking Him in solitude and silence with zeal for God’s glory. The Secular Carmelites live the prophetic dimension of Christian life and Carmelite spirituality by promoting God’s law of charity and truth in the world, above all by making themselves the voice for those who cannot, on their own, express this love and this truth[9].
6. The Rule of Saint Albert is the original expression of the spirituality of Carmel. It was written for the lay people who gathered on Mount Carmel to live a life dedicated to meditation on the Word of God, under the protection of Our Lady. The following principles of that Rule guide Carmelite life:a) Living in allegiance to Jesus Christ;b) Being diligent in meditating on the law of the Lord;c) Giving time to spiritual reading;d) Participating in the Church’s Liturgy, both the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours;e) Being concerned for the needs and the good of others in the community;f) Arming ourselves with the practice of the virtues, as we live an intense life of faith, hope and charity;g) Seeking interior silence and solitude in our life of prayer;h) Using prudent discretion in all that we do.
7. The origin of the Discalced Carmel is to be found in St Teresa of Jesus. She lived with profound faith in God’s mercy[10] which strengthened her to persevere[11] in prayer, humility, love for her brothers and sisters, and love for the Church, leading her to the grace of spiritual matrimony. Her evangelical self-denial, disposition to service and perseverance in the practice of the virtues are a daily guide to living the spiritual life[12]. Her teachings on prayer and the spiritual life are essential to the formation and life of the Secular Order.
8. Saint John of the Cross was the companion of Saint Teresa in the formation of the Discalced Carmelite Order. He inspires the Secular Carmelite to be vigilant in the practice of faith, hope and charity. He guides the Secular Carmelite through the dark night to union with God. In this union with God, the Secular Carmelite finds the true freedom of the children of God[13].
9. Taking into account the origins of Carmel and the Teresian charism, the fundamental elements of the vocation of Teresian Secular Carmelites can be summarized as follows:
a) to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ, supported by the imitation and patronage of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, whose way of life is, for Carmel, a model of being conformed to Christ.
b) to seek a mysterious union with God, by way of contemplation and apostolic activity, indissolubly joined together, for service to the Church;
c) to give particular importance to prayer which, nourished by listening to the Word of God and by the liturgy, is conducive to relating with God as a friend, not just in prayer but in daily living. To be committed to this life of prayer demands being nourished by faith, hope and, above all, charity in order to live in the presence and the mystery of the living God[14];
d) to infuse prayer and life with apostolic zeal in a climate of human and Christian community;
e) to live evangelical self-denial from a theological perspective;
f) to give importance to the commitment to evangelization: in the ministry of spirituality as the particular collaboration of the Secular Order, faithful to its Teresian Carmelite identity.
II
FOLLOWING JESUS IN THE TERESIAN SECULAR CARMEL
10. Christ is the center of our lives and of Christian experience. Members of the Secular Order are called to live the demands of following Christ in union with Him, by accepting His teachings and devoting themselves to Him. To follow Jesus is to take part in His saving mission of proclaiming the Good News and the establishment of God’s Kingdom (Mt 4:18-19). There are various ways of following Jesus: all Christians must follow Him, must make Him the law for their lives and be disposed to fulfil three fundamental demands: to place family ties beneath the interests of the Kingdom and Jesus himself (Mt 10:37-39; Lk 14: 25-26); to live in detachment from wealth in order to show that the arrival of the Kingdom does not depend on human means but rather on God’s strength and the willingness of the human person before Him (Lk 14:33); to carry the cross of accepting God’s will revealed in the mission that He has confided to each person (Lk 14:33; 9:23).
11. Following Jesus as members of the Secular Order is expressed by the promise to strive for evangelical perfection in the spirit of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience and through the beatitudes. By means of this promise the member’s baptismal commitment is strengthened for the service of God’s plan in the world. This promise is a pledge to pursue personal holiness, which necessarily carries with it a commitment to serving the Church in faithfulness to the Teresian Carmelite charism. The promise is taken before the members of the community, representing the whole Church and in the presence of the Delegate of the Superior of the Order.
12. By the promise made to the community in the presence of the Superior of the Order or his Delegate, the person becomes a full member of the Secular Order. By this commitment members strive to acquire the necessary training to know the reasons, the content and purpose of the evangelical lifestyle they are undertaking. The promise heightens and enriches the baptismal commitment in Secular Carmelites. This includes those called to married life, both as spouses and as parents. This promise in renewed once a year at Easter time.
The commitment to the promise to live the spirit of the evangelical counsel of chastity
13. The promise of chastity reinforces the commitment to love God above all else, and to love others with the love God has for them[15]. In this promise the Secular Carmelite seeks the freedom to love God and neighbor unselfishly[16] giving witness to the divine intimacy promised by the beatitude blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God (Mt 5:8). The promise of chastity is a commitment to Christian love in its personal and social dimensions in order to create authentic community in the world. By this promise the Secular Carmelite also expresses the conscious desire to respect each person as required by God’s law and one’s state of life, as a single person or married or widowed. This promise does not prevent a change in state of life.
The commitment to the promise of living the spirit of the evangelical counsel of poverty
14. By the promise of poverty the Secular Carmelite expresses the desire to live in accordance with the Gospel and its values. In evangelical poverty there is a wealth of generosity, self-denial, and interior liberty and a dependence on Him who though rich, yet for our sake, became poor (2 Co 8:9), and who emptied Himself (Ph 2:7), to be at the service of His brothers and sisters. The promise of poverty seeks an evangelical use of the goods of this world and of personal talents, as well as the exercise of personal responsibilities in society, in family, and work, confidently placing all in the hands of God. It also implies a commitment to the cause of justice so that the world itself responds to God’s plan. In combination with these, evangelical poverty recognizes personal limitations and surrenders them to God with confidence in His goodness and fidelity.
The commitment to the promise to live the spirit of the evangelical counsel of obedience
15. The promise of obedience is a pledge to live open to the will of God, in whom we live and move and have our being (Ac 17:28) imitating Christ who accepted the Father’s will and was obedient unto death, death on a cross (Ph 2:8). The promise of obedience is an exercise of faith leading to the search for God’s will in the events and challenges in society and our own personal life. For this reason the Secular Carmelite freely cooperates with those who have responsibility for guiding the community and the Order in discerning and accepting God’s ways: the Community’s Council, the Provincial and the General.
The commitment to the promise to live the spirit of the beatitudes
16. The beatitudes are a plan of action for life and a way to enter into relationship with the world, neighbors and co-workers, families and friends. By promising to live the beatitudes in daily life, Secular Carmelites seek to give evangelical witness as members of the Church and the Order, and by this witness invite the world to follow Christ: the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6).
III
WITNESSES TO THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD
17. The vocation to the Teresian Carmel is a commitment to live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ, pondering the Lord’s law day and night and keeping watch in prayer[17]. Faithful to this principle of the Rule, St Teresa placed prayer as the foundation and basic exercise of her religious family. For this reason, Secular Carmelites are called to strive to make prayer penetrate their whole existence, in order to walk in the presence of the living God (cf. 1 K 18:14), through the constant exercise of faith, hope and love, in such a way that the whole of their life is a prayer, a search for union with God. The goal will be to achieve the integration of experience of God with the experience of life: to be contemplatives. in prayer and the fulfillment of their own mission.
18. Prayer, a dialogue of friendship with God, ought to be nourished by His Word so that this dialogue becomes that, Awe speak to him when we pray; we hear him when we read the divine word[18]. God’s Word will nourish the contemplative experience of Carmelite Seculars and their mission in the world. Besides personal contemplation, listening to the Word ought to encourage a contemplation that leads to sharing the experience of God in the Secular Order community. By this means, the Community together seeks to discern God’s ways, maintain a permanent energy of conversion, and live with a renewed hope. The Carmelite Secular will be able to see through events and discover God in everything.
19. Occupying a privileged place in nourishing the prayer life of Carmelite Seculars will be the study and spiritual reading of Scripture and the writings of our Saints, particularly those who are Doctors of the Church: St Teresa, St John of the Cross and St Therese of the Child Jesus. The Church’s documents are also food and inspiration for a commitment to follow Jesus.
20. The Carmelite Secular will make sure to have special times set apart for prayer, as times of greater awareness of the Lord’s presence and an interior space for a personal and intimate meeting with Him. This will lead to prayer as an attitude of life, that will always and everywhere recognize God ...... seek his will in every event, see Christ in all people whether they be a relative or a stranger, and make correct judgments about the true meaning and value of temporal things both in themselves and in their relation to humankind's final goal[19]. Thus they will achieve a union of contemplation and action in history, integrating faith and life, prayer and action, contemplation and Christian commitment.
21. Carmelite Seculars will commit themselves daily to spending a time in the practice of mental prayer. This is the time to be with God and to strengthen their relationship with Him so that they can be true witnesses to His presence in the world.
22. The way of Christian prayer demands a life of evangelical self-denial (Lk 9:23) in fulfilling one’s own vocation and mission, since prayer and comfortable living are incompatible[20]. Carmelite Seculars accept from the viewpoint of faith, hope and love, the work and suffering of each day, family worries, the uncertainty and limitations of human life, sickness, lack of understanding and all that makes up the fabric of our earthly existence. They will strive to make all this, material for their dialogue with God, in order to grow in an attitude of praise and gratitude to the Lord. In order to live truly, simply, freely, humbly and completely confident in the Lord, the Secular Carmelite observes the practices of evangelical self-denial recommended by the Church. Of particular importance are those days and periods in the liturgical calendar that have a penitential character.
23. The personal prayer life of the Carmelite Secular, understood as friendship with God, is also nourished and expressed in the liturgy, an inexhaustible font for the spiritual life. Liturgical prayer enriches personal prayer and this, in its turn, gives a lively expression to liturgical participation. In the Secular Order a special place is given to the liturgy, understood as God’s Word celebrated in active hope, after having received it by faith and the commitment to live it in effective love. The Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation, need to be lived as signs and instruments of the freeing action of God and as an encounter with the Paschal Christ, present in the ecclesial community. They are grace-giving structures in opposition to the structures for sin in society. Carmelite Seculars strives to discover in liturgical prayer the presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit, living and demanding something of us in everyday life. In the liturgical year, they will experience the mysteries of redemption which inspire collaboration in bringing about God’s plan. The Liturgy of the Hours, for its part, brings the Secular Carmelite into communion with the prayer of Jesus and the Church.
24. The value of the sacramental and liturgical life in the Secular Order leads its members to take part in the celebration of the Eucharist, in as far as possible. They will try to recite Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer of the Hours in union with the Church spread throughout the world. When it is possible they will also recite Night Prayer. Their participation in the sacrament of Reconciliation and the other sacraments of the Church will assist the process of their conversion.
IV
SERVING GOD’S PLAN
25. The lay faithful, precisely because they are members of the Church, have the vocation and mission of proclaiming the Gospel: they are prepared for this work by the sacraments of Christian Initiation and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit[21]. The spirituality of Carmel will awaken in Secular Carmelites a desire for greater apostolic commitment, in becoming aware of all that their call to Carmel implies. Aware of the need the world has of witnesses to God=s presence[22], they will respond to the invitation the Church directs to all Associations of the faithful followers of Christ, committing them to human society by means of active participation in the apostolic goal of the Church=s mission, within the framework of their own charism. As a fruit of this participation in evangelization, Carmelite Seculars will share a renewed taste for prayer, contemplation and the liturgical and sacramental life.
26. The vocation to the Secular Order is truly ecclesial. Prayer and apostolate, when they are true, are inseparable. The observation of St Teresa that the purpose of prayer is the birth of good works[23] reminds the Secular Order that graces received ought to have an effect on those who receive them[24]. Individually or as a community and, above all as members of the Church, apostolic activity is the fruit of prayer. Where possible, in collaboration with religious superiors and with the necessary permissions of those in charge, the communities of the Secular Order participate in the apostolate of the Order
27. The Carmelite Secular is called to live and witness the charism of the Teresian Carmel in the local Church, that portion of the People of God in which the Church of Christ is truly present and acts[25]. All will try to be living witnesses of God’s presence and accept responsibility for the need the Church has of concrete help within the pastoral concerns in its evangelizing mission under the direction of the bishop. For this reason, each one will have an apostolate either collaborating with others in the community or individually.
28. To their apostolic commitment they will bring the wealth of their spirituality in the various forms it takes in evangelization: missions, parishes, houses of prayer, Spirituality Institutes, prayer groups, the ministry of spirituality. With their particular contribution as Secular Carmelites they can offer the Teresian Carmel fresh inspiration for a renewed spiritual and apostolic dynamism[26] with creative fidelity to their mission in the Church. The different apostolic activities of the Secular Order will be specified and evaluated in the Particular Statutes for the various geographical areas[27].
V
WITH MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS
29. In the interior dynamism of following Jesus, Carmel contemplates Mary as Mother and Sister, as the perfect model of the disciple of the Lord[28] and, as such, a model for the life of the members of the Order. The Virgin of the Magnificat proclaims the break with the old order and announces the beginning of a new order in which God casts the mighty down from their thrones and exalts the poor. Mary places herself on the side of the poor and proclaims how God acts in history. For Secular Carmelites, Mary is a model of total commitment to God’s Kingdom. She teaches us to listen to God’s Word in Scripture and in life, to believe in it in every circumstance in order to live its demands. All this she did, without understanding many things; pondering all in her heart (Lk 2:19, 50-51) until light dawned through contemplative prayer.
30. Mary is also an ideal and inspiration for the Secular Carmelite. She lived close to people and their needs, being concerned about them (Lk 1:39-45; Jn 2:1-12; Ac 1:14). She, the most perfect image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity and of the universe[29], helps us understand the meaning of mission. She, Mother and Sister, who goes before us in a pilgrimage of faith and in following the Lord Jesus, keeps us company so that we may imitate her life hidden in Christ and committed to the service of others.
31. While giving life to Teresian Carmelite spirituality, Mary’s presence also shapes its apostolate. As a result, the Secular Carmelite is committed to knowing Mary better, daily, through the Gospel to communicate to others an authentic Marian devotion leading to imitating her virtues. Guided by the outlook of faith, members of the Secular Order will celebrate and promote the liturgical devotion to the Mother of God in light of the mystery of Christ and the Church. They will practice, in faith and love, the devotional exercises in her honor.
VI
FORMATION IN THE SCHOOL OF CARMEL
32. The central object of the process of formation in the Secular Order is to prepare the person to live the charism and spirituality of Carmel in its following of Christ, and in service to its mission.
33. With sincere interest in the teachings of the Church and the spirituality of our Carmelite Saints, Carmelite Seculars seek to be men and women who are mature in the practice of faith, hope and love, and in their devotion to the Virgin Mary. They commit themselves to deepening their Christian, ecclesial and Carmelite life. Christian formation is the solid basis of Carmelite and spiritual formation. Through the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Church documents, Secular Carmelites receive the necessary theological foundation.
34. Both initial and ongoing formation in the teachings of Teresa and John of the Cross, help to develop in the Carmelite Secular a human, Christian and spiritual maturity for service to the Church. Human formation develops the ability for interpersonal dialogue, mutual respect and tolerance, the possibility of being corrected and correcting with serenity, and the capacity to persevere commitments.
35. Carmelite identity is confirmed by formation in the Scriptures and lectio divina, in the importance of the liturgy of Church, especially the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours, and in the spirituality of Carmel, its history, the works of the Order’s saints, and formation in prayer and meditation.
Formation for the apostolate is based on the theology of the Church concerning the responsibility of the laity[30] and on understanding the role of Seculars in the apostolate of the Order. These help to know the place of the Secular Order in the Church and in Carmel and give a practical way to share the graces received through the vocation to Carmel.
36. The gradual introduction to the life of the Secular Order is structured in the following manner:
a) A sufficient period of contact with the community for no less that 6 months. The purpose of this stage is that the applicant might become more familiar with the community, the style of life and service to the Church proper to the Secular Order of the Teresian Carmel. This period also give the community the opportunity to make an adequate discernment. The Provincial Statutes will specify this period.
b) After the initial period of contact, the council of the community may admit the applicant to a more serious period of formation that usually lasts for two years leading up to the first promises. At the beginning of this period of formation, the scapular is given to the applicant. This is an outward symbol of membership in the Order, and the sign that Mary is both Mother and Model on this journey.
c) At the end of this stage, with the approval of the Council of the Community, the applicant may be invited to make the first promises to follow the evangelical counsels and to live in the spirit of the beatitudes for a period of three years.
d) In the last three years of initial formation there is a deeper study of prayer, the Scriptures, the Documents of the Church, the Saints of the Order and formation in the apostolate of the Order. At the end of these three years the applicant may be invited by the Council to make the Definitive Promises to live the evangelical counsels and the spirit of the Beatitudes for life.
VII
ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT
37. The Secular Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Teresa of Jesus is an association of the faithful and an integral part of the Discalced Carmelite Order. It is essentially lay in character, with the welcome participation of diocesan clergy[31].
38. The friars and nuns of the Teresian Carmel consider the lay community of Secular Carmel an enrichment to their consecrated life. Through mutual interaction the friars and nuns wish to learn from the Secular Carmelites to recognize the signs of the times together with them. For this reason, it will be arranged that representatives of the Secular Order are present when the apostolic service of the Order is planned in a geographical area, at a local or provincial level, or when serious study is made on the situation in the Church or in society.
39. All of Christ’s faithful have the right to make vows[32]. With the consent of the Council of the community and the permission of the Provincial, a member of the Secular Order may make vows of obedience and chastity in the presence of the community. These vows are strictly personal and do not create a separate category of membership. They suppose a greater commitment of fidelity to the evangelical life but do not transform those who make them into juridically recognized consecrated people as in Institutes of consecrated life. Those who make vows in the Secular Order continue to be lay persons in all juridical effects.
40. The Secular Order is basically structured on the local community as a visible sign of the Church. At the Provincial level and in the local communities, the Secular Order enjoys juridical personality[33].
41. The Secular Order is juridically dependent on the Discalced Carmelite Friars[34]. The Superior General establishes the local communities and makes pastoral visitations. He may dispense, in particular cases from the Constitutions and local statutes and can grant juridical exceptions. He has the authority to resolve cases which are not foreseen by this legislation and which cannot be resolved by local authorities. A general Delegate assists the Superior General. His responsibility is to further relations between the Religious and the Seculars and to maintain contact with the Provincial Delegates and Assistants to each community to insure the purpose and well-being of the Secular Order.
42. The General Definitory of the Order approves the regional[35] and provincial statutes of the Secular Order[36].
43. The Provincial Superior, usually aided by the Provincial Delegate, is the Superior of the Secular Order within his territory[37]. He is responsible for the well-being of the Secular Order within the territory of his jurisdiction. He is to make visitations of the communities in his jurisdiction and, after consultation with the Council, appoint a Spiritual Assistant for communities[38]. In case of disputes, appeal will be made in the first instance to the Provincial.
44. The Spiritual Assistant to each community is usually a friar of the Order. His duty is to give spiritual aid to the community so that its members may be guided in their vocation and may correspond with it as perfectly as possible. He will also endeavor to promote solidarity between the secular community and the friars and nuns of the Order. At the invitation of the Council he may attend meetings of the Council, without a right to vote. At the different stages of formation of the candidates, he will be available to interview them. The Council may consult him about the suitability of the candidate to assume the responsibility of the vocation to the Secular Order. He will support the formation of the community by his availability to the director of formation. However, he may not be the director of formation. The Spiritual Assistant must be well-versed in Carmelite spirituality and well-informed in the Church’s teaching concerning the role of lay people in the Church.
45. Only the General of the Order for those territories where there are no friars, or the Provincial within his territory, may appoint as Assistant one who is not a friar of the Order, always with the consent of the candidate’s own superior. The General Delegate or the Provincial Delegate will assist in this appointment by interviewing the candidate. They will look for the same qualities as mentioned in number 44 of these norms.
46. The Council, composed of the President and three Councilors and the Director of Formation, constitutes the immediate authority of the community. The primary responsibility of the Council is the formation and Christian and Carmelite maturing of the members of the community.
47. The Council has the authority:
a) to admit candidates to formation, the Promises, and the Vows;b) to reduce, for adequate reasons, the period of formation before temporary Promises, with the permission of the Provincial;c) to convene the community for the triennial elections;d) to replace, for a serious reason, a member of the Council itself[39];e) to dismiss a member of the community, should this be necessary, after consulting the Provincial[40];f) to receive a member transferring from another community;g) if a matter should arise that is outside the competence of the Council, it is the obligation of the President to bring it to the attention of the Provincial.
The Council meets frequently and always when necessary in reference to taking care of formation programs and the growth of their own community.
48. The General Superior, the Provincial Superior and the Council of the community are the legitimate superiors of the Secular Order.
49. For the establishment of a new community it is necessary to present to the General Secretary of the Secular Order the following documents:
a) a list of the current members, at least 10 members are required to form a community, two of whom must have made definitive promises; b) a letter from the Provincial Delegate requesting the establishment of the community;c) the permission of the Ordinary of the Diocese in writing[41];d) the title of the community;e) the place of the community meeting.
50. Every three years, each local community of the Secular Order elects its President and three Councilors[42]. These four officers, after consulting the Assistant, elect the Director of Formation from among those who have made definitive promises. The Council then names a Secretary and a Treasurer. The procedure for the elections is to be determined by the Provincial Statutes, respecting the complete liberty of the electors, the preferences of the majority of the members. For the President to be re-elected to a third term as President, the permission of the Provincial Superior is required.
51. The President, elected from among those who have made final promises, has the duty to convoke and preside over the meetings of the community. He should show fraternal service to all the members of the community; foster a spirit of Christian and Carmelite affability, being careful to avoid any demonstration of preference for some members over others; coordinate contacts with those members of the community who because of age, illness, distance or other reasons, are not able to attend meetings; aid the Director of Formation and Spiritual Assistant in carrying out their responsibilities; in their absence, but only temporarily, he may take their place or designate another to do so from among those who have made definitive promises.
52. The responsibility of the three Councilors is to form, with the President, the government of the community and to support the director of formation. Generally they are community members with definitive promises. In particular circumstances, members with first promises can serve as councilors.
53. The Director of Formation, elected by the Council from among those who have made definitive promises, has the responsibility of preparing the candidates for first and definitive promises. The Director works in collaboration with the Assistant and with the support of the President. In the absence of the President, the Director of Formation is his substitute for any function.
54. The Secretary of the Council has the responsibility of keeping up-to-date the register of the community, recording the elections, admissions, Promises and dismissals. The Secretary is to present the register to the Council when it meets and to the community at the time of the elections. The Secretary attends the Council meetings and records the minutes of the meeting, without the right to vote.
55. The duty of the Treasurer is to take charge of the administration of the funds of the community. The Treasurer is to present a report of the funds to the Council every six months, to the community and the Provincial, or Superior of the Circumscription, once a year[43]. The local statutes are to determine how the community attends to the needs of the poor.
56. Members of the Secular Order, who for reasons of distance, age, or illness cannot participate in the regular meetings of a community, remain members of the Secular Order and, under the authority of the Provincial Delegate, are to be associated to a particular community. It is the responsibility of the President of the community to establish contact with those members and the responsibility of these members to maintain contact with the community.
57. Where there is an organized circumscription of the friars of the Order, the Secular Order is to form a Provincial Council to assist one another better in formation and the apostolate, but not for intervening in the government of the local communities. The President of the Provincial Council ought to be a member of the Secular Order with definitive promises. The Provincial Council must submit its statutes to the General Definitory for approval.
58. The Provincial statutes are to determine the following:
a) the development of an adequate program of formation;b) the acceptance and formation of those new members who do not live near an established community; in every case these new candidates must be identified with and formed by an established community. They are considered members of that community;c) the procedure for elections and the responsibilities of the three councilors;d) the remembrances for the deceased members of the community;e) the circumstances and the conditions for taking vows;f) the minimum and maximum age to accept new members;g) the maximum number of members of a community before dividing the community to form another;h) the coordination of apostolic endeavors within the community or Province;i) the form and use of the external signs of membership in the Secular Order;j) the practices of mortification and expressions of devotion to our Blessed Mother and our Carmelite Saints.
59. If a Secular Order community does not belong to any particular Province, the community is to establish its own statutes to determine the above matters. This community submits its statutes to the General Definitory for approval.
60. Other structures may be introduced at national levels where there is more than one Province, or at an international level, should they be thought useful or necessary for formation, coordination of apostolates of the Order, and for organizing Congresses. They do not, however, have any jurisdictional authority. These regional councils are to submit their statutes to the General Definitory for approval.
EPILOGUE
The Constitutions of the Secular Order were drawn up to strengthen the life purpose of its members, who form part of the Order of the Teresian Carmel. They are called to testify how the Christian faith constitutes the only fully valid response......to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society[44]. This they fulfil as Carmelite Seculars if, beginning with a commitment to contemplation, they succeed in giving daily witness in their family and social life to an integrated approach to life that is fully brought about by the inspiration and strength of the Gospel[45]. As Carmelite Seculars, sons and daughters of Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross, they are called to stand before the world as a witness to the resurrection and life of the Lord Jesus and a symbol of the living God[46], by means of a life of prayer, of service to evangelization and by means of the witness of a Christian and Carmelite community. All the laity as a community and each one according to his ability must nourish the world with spiritual fruits (cf. Gal 5:22). They must diffuse in the world that spirit which animates the poor, the meek, the peace makers whom the Lord in the Gospel proclaimed as blessed (cf. Mt 5:3-9). In a word, Christians (and Carmelites) must be to the world what the soul is to the body
[1]. LG 31-35.[2]. LG 31; CL 9.[3]. CIC 204-205.[4]. Rule 1.[5]. L 8:5.[6]. Cf Lk 2:51.[7]. Cf Jn 2:5.[8]. Cf Ac 1:14[9]. Cf 1 K chapters 17-19.[10]. L 7:18, 38:16.[11]. WP 21:2.[12]. IC V:3:11, VII:4:6.[13]. Cf. Sayings 46; LF 3:78; II A chapter 6, 29:6; Collect of the votive Mass of St John of the Cross.[14][15]. Cf. III A 23:1.[16]. Prec 1 and 6[17]. Rule 2 and 10[18]. DV 25; WP 21:4; M 1: 6, 11.[19]. AA 4.[20]. WP 4:2.[21]. CL 33.[22]. See AA 4 and 10; CL 16-17, 25, 28-29.[23]. IC V:3:11; cf. VII:3.[24]. Cf. AA 2-3.[25] (cf Christus Dominus, 11; Apostolicam Actuositatem, 86; Chirstifideles Laici, 25)26]. VC 55.[27]. OCDS Rule of Life (1979) art. 8[28]. MC 37.[29]. RM 37.[30]. AA 28-29.[31]. CIC 298, 301.[32]. Ritual, Instruction: 9; 30-49.[33]. CIC 301, 303-306, 313.[34]. CIC 305, 311-315.[35]. "regional" refers to nations or a geographical territory of more than one province of the friars.[36]. CIC 307 '1; 314.[37]. CIC 328-329. Constitutions of the Discalced Carmelite Friars 103, Norms 56.[38]. CIC 317.[39]. CIC 318.[40]. CIC 308 and 316.[41]. CIC 312 '2.[42]. CIC 309.[43]. CIC 319.[44] CL 34[45]. CL 34.[46] LG 38[47]. LG 38.
Pietro Lorenzetti, St. Albert giving the Rule to the Hermits on Mount Carmel (66k) Siena
The Rule of St Albert was written sometime between 1206 and 1214 for the group of hermits dwelling on Mt Carmel. In 1238 these hermits began to migrate into Europe where their eremitical way of life underwent some changes. Among those was a mitigation of the Rule by Pope Innocent IV in 1247. In 1562, St Teresa of Avila founded St Joseph's in an effort to return to the life of the original Rule. Her efforts at reform led to the eventual split of the Carmelite Order into two branches - the Order of Carmel, Ancient Observance and the Order of Carmel Discalced (the reform branch).
=========================================================================
The Rule of Saint Albert
[1] Albert, called by God's favor to be patriarch of the church of Jerusalem, bids health in the Lord and the blessing of the Holy Spirit to his beloved sons in Christ, B. and the other hermits under obedience to him, who live near the spring on Mount Carmel. [2] Many and varied are the ways in which our saintly forefathers laid down how everyone, whatever his station or the kind of religious observance he has chosen, should live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ -- how, pure in heart and stout in conscience, he must be unswerving in the service of his Master. [3] It is to me, however, that you have come for a rule of life in keeping with your avowed purpose, a rule you may hold fast to henceforward; and therefore:
[4] The first thing I require is for you to have a prior, one of yourselves, who is to be chosen for the office by common consent, or that of the greater and maturer part of you; each of the others must promise him obedience -- of which, once promised, he must try to make his deeds the true reflection -- and also chastity and the renunciation of ownership.
[5] If the prior and brothers see fit, you may have foundations in solitary places, or where you are given a site that is suitable and convenient for the observance proper to your Order.
[6] Next, each one of you is to have a separate cell, situated as the lie of the land you propose to occupy may dictate, and allotted by disposition of the prior with the agreement of the other brothers, or the more mature among them.
[7] However, you are to eat whatever may have been given you in a common refectory, listening together meanwhile to a reading from Holy Scripture where that can be done without difficulty.
[8] None of the brothers is to occupy a cell other than that allotted to him or to exchange cells with another, without leave or whoever is prior at the time.
[9] The prior's cell should stand near the entrance to your property, so that he may be the first to meet those who approach, and whatever has to be done in consequence may all be carried out as he may decide and order.
[10] Each one of you is to stay in his own cell or nearby, pondering the Lord's law day and night and keeping watch at his prayers unless attending to some other duty.
[11] Those who know how to say the canonical hours with those in orders should do so, in the way those holy forefathers of ours laid down, and according to the Church's approved custom. Those who do not know the hours must say twenty-five Our Fathers for the night office, except on Sundays and solemnities when that number is to be doubled so that the Our Father is said fifty times; the same prayer must be said seven times in the morning in place of Lauds, and seven times too for each of the other hours, except for Vespers when it must be said fifteen times.
[12] None of the brothers must lay claim to anything as his own, but you are to possess everything in common; and each is to receive from the prior -- that is from the brother he appoints for the purpose -- whatever befits his age and needs.
[13] You may have as many asses and mules as you need, however, and may keep a certain amount of livestock or poultry.
[14] An oratory should be built as conveniently as possible among the cells, where, if it can be done without difficulty, you are to gather each morning to hear Mass.
[15] On Sundays too, or other days if necessary, you should discuss matters of discipline and your spiritual welfare; and on this occasion the indiscretions and failings of the brothers, if any be found at fault, should be lovingly corrected.
[16] You are to fast every day, except Sundays, from the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross until Easter Day, unless bodily sickness or feebleness, or some other good reason, demand a dispensation from the fast; for necessity overrides every law.
[17] You are to abstain from meat, except as a remedy for sickness or feebleness. But as, when you are on a journey, you more often than not have to beg your way; outside your own houses you may eat foodstuffs that have been cooked with meat, so as to avoid giving trouble to your hosts. At sea, however, meat may be eaten.
[18] Since man's life on earth is a time of trial, and all who would live devotedly in Christ must undergo persecution, and the devil your foe is on the prowl like a roaring lion looking for prey to devour, you must use every care to clothe yourselves in God's armor so that you may be ready to withstand the enemy's ambush.
[19] Your loins are to be girt with chastity, your breast fortified by holy meditations, for, as Scripture has it, holy meditation will save you. Put on holiness as your breastplate, and it will enable you to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Faith must be your shield on all occasions, and with it you will be able to quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked one: there can be no pleasing God without faith; [and the victory lies in this -- your faith]. On your head set the helmet of salvation, and so be sure of deliverance by our only Savior, who sets his own free from their sins. The sword of the spirit, the word of God, must abound in your mouths and hearts. Let all you do have the Lord's word for accompaniment.
[20] You must give yourselves to work of some kind, so that the devil may always find you busy; no idleness on your part must give him a chance to pierce the defenses of your souls. In this respect you have both the teaching and the example of Saint Paul the Apostle, into whose mouth Christ put his own words. God made him preacher and teacher of faith and truth to the nations: with him as your leader you cannot go astray. We lived among you, he said, laboring and wary, toiling night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you; not because we had no power to do otherwise but so as to give you, in your own selves, an example you might imitate. For the charge we gave you when we were with you was this: that whoever is not willing to work should not be allowed to eat either. For we have heard that there are certain restless idlers among you. We charge people of this kind, and implore them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they earn their own bread by silent toil. This is the way of holiness and goodness: see that you follow it.
[21] The Apostle would have us keep silence, for in silence he tells us to work. As the Prophet also makes known to us: Silence is the way to foster holiness. Elsewhere he says: Your strength will lie in silence and hope. For this reason I lay down that you are to keep silence from after Compline until after Prime the next day.
At other times, although you need not keep silence so strictly, be careful not to indulge in a great deal of talk, for, as Scripture has it -- and experience teaches us no less -- sin will not be wanting where there is much talk, and he who is careless in speech will come to harm; and elsewhere: The use of many words brings harm to the speaker's soul. And our Lord says in the Gospel: Every rash word uttered will have to be accounted for on judgment day. Make a balance then, each of you, to weigh his words in; keep a tight rein on your mouths, lest you should stumble and fall in speech, and your fall be irreparable and prove mortal. Like the Prophet, watch your step lest your tongue give offence, and employ every care in keeping silent, which is the way to foster holiness.
[22] You, brother B., and whoever may succeed you as prior, must always keep in mind and put into practice what our Lord said in the Gospel: Whoever has a mind to become a leader among you must make himself servant to the rest, and whichever of you would be first must become your bondsman.
[23] You, other brothers too, hold your prior in humble reverence, your minds not on him but on Christ who has placed him over you, and who, to those who rule the Churches, addressed the words: Whoever pays you heed pays heed to me, and whoever treats you with dishonor dishonors me; if you remain so minded you will not be found guilty of contempt, but will merit life eternal as fit reward for your obedience.
[24] Here then are the few points I have written down to provide you with a standard of conduct to live up to; but our Lord, at his second coming will reward anyone who does more than he is obliged to do. See that the bounds of common sense are not exceeded, however, for common sense is the guide of the virtues.
THE BASIC IDENTITY OF SECULAR CARMELITESby Anthony Morello, 0. C. D.
1. Introduction: The Awakening
One of the more visibly successful consequences of the Second Vatican Council was the awakening of the sleeping giant --the laity. Gradually Catholics were sensitized to their baptismal identity and to their call to involvement in the public life of the Church in the world, beginning on the local level of parish and diocese. They were challenged to adopt a renewed 'Catholic Humanism' and to christen the secular city.
In the worshiping community the laity began to assume roles in the sanctuary as lectors and extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist. Many Married men were prepared for and ordained to the permanent diaconate. Outside the sanctuary roles on the newly established parish council developed for a good number of men and women. More Catholic involvement became apparent in civil issues on the state and national levels. Everyone was encouraged to throw themselves into the work of the Spirit in the Church and in the world, bridging the gap between the sacred and the secular.
The soul and depth, however, of the new consciousness was to be found in the most basic Christian awakening of all, namely in the effective realization that each baptized person is called to enter, through the Holy Spirit, into the immensely beautiful and transcendent relationship between Jesus the Man and God the Father! Whether it be through arduous action or the leisure of contemplation, the Christian stretches up to the Father and out to the brothers and the sisters in and with Jesus of Nazareth, Son of the Father and Brother to us all.
True Christian awakening began to see that all of Jesus' activity dramatized his interior vision of things and his rapport with everything. At heart, Jesus the Son of Man was a contemplative who dynamically stood in loving relationship to the Father of all things visible and invisible. No matter what he did, he but dramatized his contemplative orientation. Jesus lived in constant union of mind and heart with God the Father, his origin and destiny. Jesus was a contemplative in the world, a contemplative at work among ordinary people, and among the sick and the dying, and the hungry for the word of life.
It has become clearer and clearer that disciples of the Lord need to pursue their baptismal contemplative vocation in the ordinary affairs of their existence, dealing with everyday people and things. Such a pursuit constitutes the deepest level of discipleship. And that pursuit satisfies the deepest hunger of the human being. You and I and everybody else seek wholeness, a fulfilling union with total reality at its root and base. Our hearts are indeed restless and we know not why. No wonder so many, left in the dark, turn to substitutes for God like money and sex, drugs and gang crime.
Obviously nothing can satisfy us, for long. What we actually want is an eternal moment of satisfaction, of completeness. We know we cannot make ourselves happy, so the object of our contentment must be something other than the self, another someone, another some One, yes, the Transcendent One. In Christ our spirit stretches out beyond the limits of self and all natural reality until we reach what is final wholeness - the personal Holy of Holies that sustains the universes in Loving Mercy, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The deepest response to the Second Vatican council's call to universal holiness lies in our complete endeavor. To quote the Council "The most sublime element in human dignity consists in the call of man to communion with God: for he exists only because he has been created by God out of love and is ever preserved by that love, and does not live fully according to the truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and commits himself to his creator." [ The Church in the Modern World, n.191].
As a member of the mystical body of Christ, one is called to partake of the mysticism, the contemplation of the Head. The whole Church like Jesus is called to be "contemplative apostle" in the world. Now, the one institution that we know well which expressly aims at giving the Church contemplative laity is the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites.
II. Lay Carmelite Identity
The thesis of this article is simply this: the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites exists to give lay contemplatives to Christ and his Church.
Secular Carmelites and their spiritual directors should be guided by that principle. (This is indeed a matter of identity. We treat here a very definite purpose, a limited purpose to tell the truth, an almost narrow scope and goal when we address the question of basic identity of the Secular Order. The Secular Carmelite's Rule of Life, by way of direct formulation, does not propose a comprehensive plan of Christian living. For example, the Rule leaves it to each one to find a meaningful apostolate; there is no apostolic specification. The Rule, apart from structural and juridical sections, concentrates on a program of prayer, liturgical and private, and on interior attitudes of Christian perfection.
In the daily program proposed great emphasis is placed on meditation and contemplative prayer. This is because our constitution by the grace of its charism exists to pray, and to teach people how to pray and meditate in such a way that opens them up to the transforming contemplative experience. Contemplation is experientially infused. Light and love change the person by degrees, fashioning mind and heart after the interior Jesus, the contemplative Son of God. One's attitudes and behavior become more conformed to Christ, the new creation.
Yes, the daily program and the monthly meeting with its spiritual instruction and on-going educational study (as well as monthly lessons sent to Isolate Members) and discussion all intend to serve prayer, to teach and sustain prayer. The Order's radical interest in prayer cultivates openness to God through the purity of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. Precisely in a faith which hopes and loves is the Christian religion located and identified. It is from there that both Christian virtue and apostolic energy flow. Carmel with great charismatic poignancy appreciates this.
The religion of Jesus Christ is primarily interior. It is as interior as friendship. It resides in attitudes. A prayerful person's interior attitude is recreated, refashioned, redeemed through faith, hope and charity.
Lay contemplatives are people whose ordinary lives are permeated with God's light and love. Our Secular Order exists to enable people to experience the divine life in Christ. The experience of divine life effectively sees the self and all things in God as Jesus did. The experience of Divine love is to be loved by the Father and to love all else as Jesus did. It is precisely living in this light and love which constitutes life in the spirit.
The lay contemplative, prayerfully seeing things through the eyes of Jesus, begins to create, from details of existence and all its dimensions of good and bad, acceptable and absurd, a mosaic of unified vision, of divine childhood, a picture of oneness with Christ and of wholeness in him. In spite of our imperfections and sins, things begin to come together in Christ in a mysterious integration and harmony. For it is God's prerogative to make all things work unto good of those who love him.
Carmel chooses and is busy about the "better part." That is why the Secular Order wants to get to and be at the heart of the better part. And at the heart of things, Carmel finds itself at prayer.
So the Secular Carmelite Order concentrates on the practice of prayer. The Order accordingly wants to teach each member how to pray well: how to say vocal prayers with real presence to, words and sentiments; how to meditate on the Word of God, being schooled in everything that issues from the mouth of God; how to move into affective rapport with God and simple company-keeping; and how in dry-bones aridity to merely desire God in the stillness of faith and trust, knowing that God's ways are not ours. For the Lord's ways are beyond concept and category. "God is Spirit and he seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth."
In its concentration on prayer, the Secular Order exercises us on the most private level. It reaches and touches us in the innersanctum of our privacy, sealed off from the observation of others, where we stand alone before God and the mystery of life. Here we find ourselves face to face with that "existential dread" that Thomas Merton described so eloquently in his small work, Contemplative Prayer. He says that persons who pray let themselves "be brought naked and defenseless into the center of that dread where we stand alone before God in our nothingness, without theories, completely dependent upon his providential care, in dire need of the gift of his grace, his mercy and the light of faith" [Op. cit.: Herder & Herder / 1969 / p.85]
There, face to face with rock bottom reality, the contemplative must go about a heavy agenda, namely the destruction of two idols: the false image of self, and the false image of, God, created after the model of one's own narrow categories and hangups. The prayerful person gradually takes to the "real", and begins to see the "inside of things" with the Little Prince. He/she dies to illegitimate offenses before self and God. Our small, crippling notions of God and self reluctantly give way to the real.
The Carmelite begins to emerge, begins to stand in the pure light of divine truth and evangelical poverty: the truth about the self in desperate need of others; the truth about God from whom alone comes salvation in a total gratuitous, unmerited way. For God loves us independently of our merits. He loves us because He created us and willed us good from the beginning. He has loved us first because He chose to do so. "God is love." Upon, entering into one's dire poverty, the contemplative knows, yet experiences, that God is Merciful love beyond all telling, even in spite of ourselves, as St. Therese so prophetically came to appreciate.
Like the gospel, the Order's intent goes deep down to the root predisposition's of a person. Carmel's spirituality is like a fine two edged sword which penetrates the very marrow of a soul, the sensitive core of the person. Carmelite prayer tackles, first of all, the obstacles to faith, hope and charity.
Carmel's interiority knows that to grow our attitudes and affect must be redeemed by prayer. Now the principal of the Church is the liturgy, and all prayer is necessarily ecclesial and related to liturgy. Private prayer prepares us for liturgical involvement in the Eucharist which is Christ's own thanksgiving to the Father for the " exodus" of his death and resurrection. We must never disassociate our private prayer from the great Catholic Eucharist. Indeed, our contemplation supports the deepest possible liturgical participation. And as the one kind of prayer feeds the other, together they transform the mind and heart so that we might perceive and act in Christ Jesus, the Man of the Spirit. Carmelite contemplation breathes the very spirit of Christ.
Contemplation is, by nature, behind the scenes. It is intimately private, a loving communion with another. The Secular Carmelite has learned the secret of the legitimacy of the explicit personal desire for contemplation. The Secular Order is truly unique and must be appreciated as such. Of set purpose it leads us through meditation to a contemplation born of the simple desire for God. Without forcing God's timing and manner, the Carmelite desires the infused contemplative light (presence) and love (rapport) for one reason only, namely because contemplation is a shortcut to mature charity.
Charity is the goal of the Christian life. Charity unites one with God. Charity unites one to others. Charity prays. Charity works. Charity saves. In charity one is constituted by the Holy Spirit in the will of the Father with the Son.
If charity is all these things, and prayer is for the sake of becoming charity, then the lay contemplative rises from private prayer, as from liturgy, to offer a practical love and service to one's spouse, family, neighbors and society. Authentic contemplative people are sensitive to the life and problems of loved ones, the local Church, and the world. The contemplative identifies with the world of people and events. Christian prayer does not take us into "nirvana"; rather it embraces humanity in its global needs and concerns. The contemplative sees the real, world in the compassion of God who loves and acts.
The Secular Order wants to make us real and holy in God through prayer. With that principal concern clear, our identity is clear. We could speak of our Secular Order as a Catholic Meditation or better a Catholic Community of Lay Contemplatives. The point is simply one of identity.
True to character, our Carmelite School of Prayer lives an essentially Marian spirituality. We, the disciples of Jesus, our eyes on Mary of Nazareth, the first and perfect disciple of the Lord. She is our sister as well as mother and queen in the order of redemption. In real I life she lived in the darkness of faith. She prayed in hope. She worked and did her duty. She exercised heroic virtue. Her charity easily went out to kith and kin. Yieldingly she stood at the foot of the cross. She held the crucified. She beheld him glorified. She gave herself in service to the Church, his Body yet on earth. But all of this because she "heard the word of God and kept it." And precisely in her contemplative stance of "listening to the word of God," and "pondering all these things in her heart" do Carmelites easily identify with Mary. In love with the scriptures, and attuned to the divine light, she was transformed by the new Adam into the new Eve as she uttered her "Yes" to God. Carmel hears and says "yes" with Mary, the contemplative mother of the living.
As a Teresian School of Prayer, we follow a specific tradition of spirituality within the Church. We pray in line with the doctrine of St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross, our Carmelite parents. And we allow our spiritual quest to be nuanced by the ever developing and expanding experience of Carmelite Saints like St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and Blesseds Elizabeth of the Trinity, Francis Palau y Quer, and Edith Stein. We pray quietly, effectively attentive to the divine presence within the self or as we are moved. We have learned that God normally leads us into contemplation slowly and subtly. And we are taught to recognize the gentle breeze of the Spirit it comes and to yield to the action of God. And in times of consolation as well as of desolation, we stand instructed by our own, letting God be God. As we do all these things, we bring our own experience and creativity to this great tradition and exercise the utmost personal liberty at prayer. And we ever sometimes discretely share our experience with others.
Naturally our prayer is backed up by the daily practice of virtue and evangelical self denial. Perfection, lies in charity and the virtues, not in contemplation. We pray to be virtuous. But that is the point we have been making all along. Carmel sees everything in relation to prayer because prayer is the principal focused means to Christian transformation. Carmel is about prayer. The Secular Order is about prayer. And Lay Carmelites strive to be contemplatives in the world. Our identity is clear. If we know who we are, by the grace of God we will act accordingly.
III. Some Practical Conclusions Based on the Nature and Purpose of the Secular Order
1. Secular Carmelites treasure the notion of vocation -- a call from God. The Preamble of the Rule of Life says the Order welcomes those who 'by special vocation undertake to live In the world an evangelical life of fraternal communion imbued with the spirit of contemplative prayer and apostolic zeal according to the example and teaching of the Carmelite saints."
Let me point out that a vocation is two sided. There is first of all the interior experience of the call, an attraction to the 0rder for supernatural reasons. This gives way, after careful discernment, to a free decision to apply. The personal dimension is easily appreciated and usually meant when speaking of a vocation from God.
But vocation is also ecclesial. It is not complete until there is another call, the call to enter, and then again to make Promises, on the part of the ecclesial community; this is an official invitation by the authorities of the community. This second aspect of vocation is the result of a communal discernment. It is a second call that comes to the person from outside the self.
The government of the Secular Order assumes the role of communal discernment. It is seriously negligent to simply profess anyone who holds on during the entire formation program. The Director of Formation and the Council must decide, without scruple, on the authenticity of the candidate's vocation. It is not for them to leave difficult cases to the judgment of the priest assistant. It is a sin against truth and charity to refuse to confront problems. And the absence of a genuine vocation is indeed a problem for the community.
As the period of formation progresses on-gong shared discernment with the candidate is essential. And as the Period concludes, if there is still a substantial doubt about suitability, the person must not be professed. The Promises may be postponed for a while, but eventually a decision must be made in favor of the vocation or against it. Good will is not sufficient. If a person is not habitually given to our kind of prayer and/or cannot fit into the group socially, a negative decision must be made and communicated. The promises cannot be made.
Look to the quality of one's commitment to daily program, and scrutinize the person's capacity for community. We are a community support system to lay contemplative life. Community is essential. If a person does not contribute to peace and harmony, is antisocial , factious, a trouble maker, ambitious, etc. , there is no ecclesial vocation.
One can pursue contemplation alone without us. Our Order needs social contemplatives. The Teresian community emphasis applies to the Secular Order as well as to friars and nuns, though secular community is more loose knit.
When officers fear making a mistake, for the love of God they ought to make it in favor of exclusion rather than Inclusion of the doubtful. Include only those who clearly belong! To rise to this challenge is to exercise real lay leadership. To think that you will have to answer to God for a sin against charity because of excluding someone doubtful is but a defense mechanism to avoid responsibility. You will have to answer to God for not living out your role in the order and the Church.
Do not turn to Isolated status as the solution for persons who do not belong. Isolates are tertiaries who do not have access to an actual community, not those incapable of community. The Director of Formation or the President must sit down with such a candidate and explain that God is not calling him to the Order. The candidate can be led to understand that God wants him/her to benefit from affinity to Carmel in a non-juridical way: that is, in private, by reading, by devotion, etc. But there is no ecclesial call to the Order. Something difficult to communicate and to accept, true enough, but this is the stuff of real life. Unless we walk in the truth, all else is but vanity.
2. Discernment of vocation also has to peer into the actual circumstances of a candidate's life. Good people who otherwise would qualify, but who presently do not have any leisure time or cannot manage to impose some order on their hectic schedule, should postpone their entry. Neither an adequate formation is presently possible nor implementation of our daily program.
Again, hard as it is to admit, good will is not sufficient. We have gone beyond the legalistic days of dispensations. A person needs to have at least enough time to be able to habitually follow our daily prayer program. We are slaves to nothing; but neither are we to make believe that we are Secular Carmelites when life cannot yield us enough leisure to exercise the charism of the Order. One should wait until life eases up and offers some respite.
3. The Secular Order must successfully sustain the contemplative prayer of the members over the years. The monthly meeting should contribute to the knowledge of prayer by instruction and by on-going formation study and discussion. It should fuel motivation to persevere daily in the arduous practice of private prayer. Although there are other goals of the monthly meeting, this is the primary one.
IV. Conclusion
When the members demonstrate clarity about the nature of the Secular Order, and when officers assume their rightful roles according to the Rule, they make the Order effective, credible, and appealing to others. The quality of the Order is constituted by its members. You are the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelite. Carry it forward with clarity, decision and peace before God and the Church. Make It serve the interior life of its members. Enable it really to give Christ and his Church lay contemplatives in the world.
Rome, October 3, 1988
Reverend Anthony Morello, O.C.D. Provincial Delegate to the Secular Order of the Central Jurisdiction from 1969 until 1978, and Director of Mount Carmel Center in Dallas since its establishment in 1974 is now General Definitor of the Order in Rome, and is the Fr. General 's delegate to the Secular Order.
Fr. Anthony received his licentiate in theology from our Carmelite College, the Teresianum in Rome in 1963. He has worked with the Secular Order for all of his priestly ministry. At the 9th Regional OCDS Congress of the 0klahoma Province in August 1968, Harold Comeaux of Lafayette, the Congress chairman, introduced a resolution that the Fathers of the province appoint a priest to coordinate the activities of the Secular Order throughout the province. At the chapter of 1969, Fr. Anthony was appointed to fulfill this new office of Provincial Delegate.
A METHOD OF MEDITATION--Anonymous
l: Preparation
As a remote preparation try to remain conscious of God as you go about your daily schedule. Frequently remind yourself of this truth: God is everywhere and is very interested in my welfare.At the beginning of the meditation make a deliberate act of faith regarding God's presence. Ask Him for pardon of any faults. Ask for help to make a good meditation. Add a Prayer to our Blessed Mother and other favorite saints and angels --even from the holy Souls in Purgatory.
lI.- Consideration
Read for a few minutes from the Bible-or other spiritual book. Ask yourself: What have I read? What does it teach me? How have I acted in regard to this till now? What shall I do about it in the future?
Since the advantage of meditation is not so much in the thinking as in the praying that it leads to, it is important to devote the greater part of meditation to affections (short prayers from the heart), petitions (requests for help from God), and resolutions practical plans for changing your life for the better, with God's help).
AFFECTIONS: 'Lord, I am sorry for having offended You.' 'Thank You for the
blessings You have given me.' ' I want to love You above all things.’ ‘Your will be done.' 'Sweet Heart of Mary, be my Salvation.’ 'St. Joseph, pray for me.' 'Holy Guardian Angel, assist me.' 'Holy Souls in Purgatory, intercede for me.’ 'Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You.'
PETITIONS: Ask for whatever you need: for example, forgiveness of sins, greater confidence, help in a stressful situation, specific graces to forgive someone, to be more patient, for good physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, for the grace to die a holy death.
RESOLUTIONS: Make them short and specific: for example, to stop gossiping with ... , to be kind to.... not to lose patience with .... to the needed rest and/or recreation or vacation, to be more faithful to times of prayer, etc.
lll. Conclusion
THANK God for the insights and graces gained during this meditation, your resolutions,
ASK for help to keep your resolutions, and
CHOOSE some special thought or short prayer to carry with you
during the day.
IV. Further Suggestions for Meditative Prayer
Do not do all the talking yourself. Stop now and then to listen to Our Lord. The inspirations He gives on occasion are wordless insights or sentiments that you 'hear' in your heart.Do not try to 'feel' the acts of love, and other affections you express. They are acts of your will, and usually do not spill over into felt emotions. If you experience dissatisfaction because your mind keeps wandering, have patience with yourself. Enduring this inability to pray is a valuable part of your prayer.
If you are drawn at times to thinking about or 'looking' silently at God --or you become vaguely aware of His presence-- simply go along that way. But if you find your mind wandering, return to expressing affections such as love, praise, sorrow. Some people maintain this simple focus on God by slowly repeating a phrase --- for example, 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me' --or a single word such as 'God,' 'Jesus', or-'Mary.'
The ideal way of meditating' is taking a ‘quiet’ time during the day. But in an active world this is not always easy. As one grows in experience in meditation, one learns how to use the time they have for a 'quiet' time, such as washing dishes or washing a car by yourself --or even quietly working in the garden helps be with your good thoughts. Some saints have used their time well in this regard-- especially those who were active and/or married. And you can do it too with persevering effort and God's grace.
Remember too, there are many different ways that aid meditation. The above is only one example. As one gets the experience he or she both learns and tries other ways to find out which suits them best.
V. Definitions:
MEDITATION
A form of mental prayer, also known as discursive prayer, during which the mind dwells on some religious truth for the purpose of eliciting salutary acts, e.g., faith, hope, charity, and formulating good resolutions. Since the 16th century it has become common to follow a particular method in making a meditation, e. g. , the method proposed by St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises, and the Sulpician Method, or the Alphonsian Method, the Carmelite or Franciscan method and so on. Generally speaking, growth in holiness is impossible without mental prayer, a truth stressed by various popes and all spiritual writers.
MENTAL PRAYER
Any of the non-verbal forms of prayer, i.e., those in which no set formulae of words are used. Commonly three forms of non-infused mental prayer (as distinguished from the infused mental prayer of mystics) are considered:
1) MEDITATION, in which the mind dwells on and reasons about some religious truth for the purpose of eliciting salutary acts, e.g., faith, hope and charity, and formulating good resolutions.
2),AFFECTIVE PRAYER, less discursive than meditation, and characterized by the predominance of affections.
3) PRAYER OF SIMPLICITY, in which the multiplicity of affections characteristic of affective prayer yield to one dominating affection. Usually progress in the spiritual life through the purgative, illuminative and unitive way is marked by the advance from meditation through affective prayer to prayer of simplicity.
Vl. End NoteSAINT TERESA counsels us. Do not be discouraged if you cannot meditate:
"I want to treat of the substance of perfect prayer. For I have run into some whom it seems the whole business lies In thinking. If they can keep their mind much occupied in God, even though great effort is exerted, they at once think they are spiritual. If, on the contrary, without being able to avoid it, they become distracted, even if for the sake of good things, they then become disconsolate and think they are lost. It is fitting that we receive advice with regard to all these misunderstandings.
I do not deny that it is a favor from the Lord if someone is able to be always meditating on His works, and it is good that one strive to do so. However, It must be understood that not all imaginations are by their nature capable of this meditating. But all souls are capable of loving! I should like to explain that the soul is not the mind, nor is the will directed by thinking.. Hence, the soul’s progress does not lie In thinking much but In loving much."
The Foundations. ch. 5, #21
--Anonymous
One of the many gifts handed down-through the church from the early monastic tradition is a 'method' of meditation known as Lectio Divina. No doubt the rediscovery and return to the practice of this method can be attributed to the realization of its simplicity and to the experience it provides of being supported in prayer by a text.
In this tradition of prayer, one discovers its elements --lectio, meditatio, and oratio–being essentially linked and interdependent. The lectio, or reading of the text, is for the sake and support the meditatio or dwelling on the text in the mind, which in turn is to lead one into oratio, or dwelling of the text in the heart. Let now consider spiritual reading in the light of this monastic tradition and it’s relationship to meditation and prayer.
One can see that in this tradition there be no effort made to distinguish between spiritual reading and meditation make such a distinction would be as useless as making a distinction between the ingestion and digestion of food. These life functions are of course distinct actions in terms of process, but they are one in terms of dependency upon each other and in terms of the end assimilation. Quite simply, you can not digest food which you not taken in, and there will be no growth as a result of these two processes unless what is eaten is assimilated. This common analogy of eating to reading and studying seems obvious enough.
In spiritual reading our desire must be to assimilate the material read, not primarily to inform our minds, but to reform and transform our hearts and thereby our lives. Spiritual reading is not studying. When we read to study, our mind is primarily attentive, but in spiritual reading the heart must be the most attentive faculty. To 'spiritually' read the Scripture, for example, we do not open the Bible to learn some facts or to simply gain information. The same holds true in our reading of any book dealing with spirituality. There is a need of course to study the Scriptures and to learn theology.
In a balanced and integrated Christian life there should be a blending of many activities: prayer, study, finding God in the truth of our work and play, especially the 'play' of celebrating together in the liturgy. We are not saying that spiritual reading should not involve intellectual activity and learning. We are saying it is not done primarily for this purpose. The difference between ordinary reading and spiritual reading will be in the approach. We approach spiritual reading not with a do-attitude, but with a be-attitude. We are reading our text to be with Someone and thereby to become someone, the person we are created to be.
When we engage in spiritual reading, we are really looking for Wisdom. What we want is something dynamic, something that relates us to life. We are seeking that which is geared to growth and change within. Through spiritual reading we are seeking motivation for the Christian life more than information about the Christian life.
Basically, then, the art of spiritual reading is an exercise in the art of listening to the Word of God. As such, it is the first base and the backbone of Christian meditation. It is the first base because spiritual reading is usually where you start in preparing and disposing yourself for meditation. It is the backbone, it will support the work of meditation no matter how advanced or proficient a person might become.If we have this attitude toward spiritual reading then it will become for us the door to an in-depth personal prayer. Understanding and practicing spiritual reading with this mentality will enable its practice to lead us into prayer, and to support and sustain us in our prayer. Failure to so engage in spiritual reading can be a hindrance to the development of a prayer life of substance and perseverance.When we approach spiritual reading as an opportunity for listening to the Word of God, we are approaching it with attitude of a true disciple. Susan Muto in her writing on the art of spiritual reading emphasizes that it is the practice of one who has learned to sit at the feet of the Master. The Master is always Christ whether we are reading His words in the Gospels, or an interpretation of His words in the writings of one of His gifted followers such as Teresa of Avila. We are seating ourselves 'beneath' our book or text as Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, simply drinking in what He has to say.We learn to savor what we 'hear' by learning to read our text with the care and appreciation of a gourmet tasting a fine wine: slowly, swishing it about the palate of our minds, allowing it to linger as long as necessary on the taste buds of our sensibilities so as to taste the fullness of what it has to provide us about the Word of God and about life in Christ. The written word which we read we 'hear' pronounced within. This means that our heart must be ever listening as we read, for the Word pronounced within the words we read. To paraphrase 2 Peter 1:19: our attention upon what we read must be as a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in our hearts.In a sense, Blessed Isaac of Stella remarks, every Christian can be seen as 'a bride of God's Word.' When we read the scriptures or other spiritual writings we are not just reading words for the understanding of the words. Reading comprehension in spiritual reading takes on a deeper significance. It becomes part of the spiritual reader's striving to be united with Christ. St. John of the Cross writes of the soul as a Bride seeking the Bridegroom: '...the soul enamored of the Word, her Bridegroom, the Son of God, longs for union with Him through clear and essential vision.' Comprehension of what one reads spiritually can be seen as another effort of such a soul toward 'comprehending' Christ, i.e., seeing him as He is with the knowledge that a bride has of her groom. As the soul in John of the Cross' Spiritual Canticle seeks Him in all the signs and symbols of creation, so the soul of the spiritual reader seeks Him hidden within the word symbols of the text.Of course, the primary source of God revealing Himself in the Word must always be the Holy Scriptures. If the Scriptures are to be spiritual reading, we must not read them simply as literature or as an interesting account of the development of a culture and people. The Protestant theologian and biblical exegete, Rudolf Bultman, points out that reading the Scriptures requires two levels of understanding. First, it requires a preliminary unraveling of the meaning of the texts themselves which is essentially knowledge acquired by study. Secondly, it requires a deeper level of appreciation, a vital insight which grows out of personal involvement with the text. Only on this second level is the Bible really grasped. Only if we strive to understand the Scriptures at this level can we be said to read them spiritually.Our Rule of Life affords us an opportunity to read daily from the Scriptures by making the Divine Office the source of our morning and evening prayer. And, if we pray the Office of the Readings, we are in daily contact with the minds and hearts of the early Church Fathers as well. If we attend Mass as often as possible, as our Rule encourages, we also have Scripture readings provided by Holy Mother Church. What this means is that we have two daily guides as to what text to read from the Scriptures..Often individuals feel they need to read the Bible word for word in the order it is presented. Reading the Bible straight through this way over the course of a period of time can be a wonderful accomplishment. Sometimes that is a problem. It becomes an achievement, a plaque to hang on the wall or our memory which we may even take down at times to show others.We should not feel a compulsion to read the Bible word for word, prodding through it at all costs from Genesis, through Revelations. Nor do we have to go to the other extreme of taking a haphazard approach, picking a text at random here and there. Allowing the Church to be our guide in our daily reading of the Scriptures provides us with a most suitable structure by which in the course of the liturgical cycles we can discover the essence of our salvation history. We do not have to restrict ourselves to just reading the selections presented in the liturgy of the day, but can read the context of the particular text as well.So, for example, when the Church presents passages from the Gospel of St. Mark, we can read the whole of Mark's Gospel during that time. Then, when we read or hear the selected passage in the liturgy, we have the advantage of having the context of the passage in our immediate memory. This may be an aide to us in relation to the selection read in the liturgy in a more meaningful and prayerful way. By the way, striving to understand the relatedness and connections inherent in the two or three presented in the Liturgy of the Word can be a fruitful source of stimulation for our mental prayer.Of course, we want to enrich our lives with other forms of spiritual reading besides the Scriptures. Our problem today may be a plethora of spiritual writings rather than a scarcity. Although we have many books calling us, few should be chosen. Not everyone writing about spirituality can be considered a genuine spiritual writer. A genuine spiritual writer is a prophet. He has had an experience of Christ and has been called to proclaim the message he has received to others. Like John the Baptist, the spiritual writer is a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord into the heart of his/her readers. Such writers have this power because the Word of God has made their hearts His dwelling place and so the words which flow from their hearts onto paper strike not only eye of their readers, but their hearts as well, if the readers are properly disposed. The texts constructed by these writers build up the hearts of those who have 'the eyes' to read their message, for their message is Christ.Another sign of a genuine spiritual writer is that, like John, such a writer makes it clear that he or she is the voice who breaks his or her silence to prepare the way for the Lord. The writer's gift may be great, but he or she uses it only to present Christ and not him or herself. Gifted writers such as Thomas Merton often attract a cult of admirers, but they do not take advantage of this to further their own glory, but to always point to Christ and have their expression of His message decrease so that His Word may increase in the hearts of their readers. As St. Augustine comments: Prepare the way for the Lord, he (the spiritual writer) says, as though he was saying: I speak out in order to lead Him into your hearts, but He does not choose to come where I lead Him unless you prepare the way for Him.In conclusion, the art of spiritual reading is the art of seeking the Lord in the reading of the text, of listening for His voice in the sound of the written word, of striving to further union with God through the comprehension of what is read. The light by which we comprehend what is read must be Faith.The written word is only another image, another form of symbol, pointing to an inexpressible reality. We must not be disappointed or surprised as we move more deeply into the meaning of the text and find there only a mirage of what we are really seeking. John of the Cross clearly warns us that God cannot be contained within the limitation of any concept or symbol. In a trek through a desert the mirage has a value. It keeps the lost wayfarer going, providing a kind of hope in at least the reflection, albeit false, of the reality being sought. Even though the words of our text cannot contain the reality they struggle to reflect, they motivate us in our search by stimulating love. And love is both the means and the end of our journey.In the Constitutions she wrote for her nuns, Our Holy Mother St. Teresa makes sure time is set aside in the daily schedule for Spiritual Reading:"An hour before the Office of Readings, let the bell be rung. This hour may be spent in reading if the nuns are drawn in spirit to spend the hour after Vespers in prayer. They may decide in accordance with what most helps them toward recollection.The prioress should see to it that good books are available, especially a good Life of Christ, the Lives of the Saints, the Imitation of Christ, a book about Religious priests and nuns, and those books written by holy and learned writers. This sustenance for the soul is in some way as necessary as is food for the body." --The Constitutions of Teresa of Jesus, #7-8
THE DIVINE OFFICE
it's Beauty and Significance
by Fr. Bill Healy, O.C.D.
Paragraph Five of the Rule states that the liturgical life as a perennial participation in the Pascal Mystery nourishes the Secular Carmelite in his/her daily pledge to follow Christ crucified and Risen toward an ever more perfect union with God by making pains and joys of his life an offering of praise and glory to God. The secular Carmelite's life will express itself chiefly in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and in the recitation of the Church's Divine Office. He will, as far as possible, assist at daily Mass and will daily recite morning and evening prayers, lauds and vespers, that is, f rom the breviary. If possible, he will also recite night prayer, compline, before retiring. In order to appreciate the significance of this obligation imposed on each of the members of the Secular Order, our brothers and sisters should know the reasons behind this recitation. Only then, can they fully appreciate the dignity of the beauty expressed in this responsibility.
First of all, the members of the Secular Order must pray for the universal Church, for all peoples of all nations regardless of race, color or creed. The Psalms are a form of universal prayers. They are the prayers of the Christian and the non-Christian alike. And while the individual Secular Order member is praying, he is in effect saying, "I wish to pray for all people, to exempt no one from my charity or my interest. I pray dear Lord, for the Church at large, for the glory of the Order of Carmel and for all the people You in Your Divine Providence have placed in my special care."
Secondly, the Psalms are the prayers of Jesus Christ. Our Lord and Master learned how to recite the Psalms from his dear Mother, Mary Immaculate. So when the Secular Order member prays the Psalms, this act recalls the model and guide of all prayer, Christ Jesus, the Lord. The individual prays with Christ, and through Christ for all peoples because each baptized person is called a Christian. A Christian is not just a follower of Christ but a duplicate copy, as far as possible, of Jesus Christ Himself with the individual's temperament, personality and character. So when the Secular Order member recites the Office he is expressing the identical thoughts Jesus Christ gave to the Heavenly Father in a different language; in a different time, it is true, but nevertheless, the very same ideals the very same thoughts, and the very same manifestations of the internal consecration of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God.
Thirdly, consider the moods of the Psalms. the Psalms may be expressing a happy mood, thanksgiving, praise and glory; the next day, they present a sad mood, the prophesy of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the appeal for mercy coming from the depths of the prayer's heart. This mood may be quite different from the emotion of the one praying, so the prayer forgets himself or herself to offer this adoration, this praise, this thanksgiving or this petition for people who at that moment, are experiencing blessings in life, graces, joys and special gifts from God for which they may have forgotten, or do forget, to say thanks. The one praying, I repeat, forgets himself or herself and asks God's benediction on these people that they in turn may offer their thanks for graces received. When the Psalm is unhappy (for want of a better term) the one praying asks God for strength to be given to others experiencing troubles, problems, temptations and cares; to enable them to carry their cross and to meet their difficulties because the worship of the prayer is offered for them, with and through and in Jesus Christ, the Lord.
Our Novice Master gave us different themes for the Office each day. He told us that when we used these themes it would prevent us from taking the Office as a matter of routine. He suggested Sunday be offered to the Blessed Trinity; Monday offered for the poor souls in Purgatory; Tuesday, for the angels; Wednesday, in honor of St. Joseph; Thursday, in honor and gratitude for the Blessed sacrament; Friday, in honor of the Passion of Jesus Christ, our Brother, and Saturday, of course was to be given to the Blessed Virgin.
I So there is a reason and there is a purpose and there is a plan for everything that is found in our Rule regarding prayer. It is up to the individual Carmelite to be mindful of the fact that he or she joins the choirs of angels, all the priests, all the religious in the Catholic Church, as well as the devoted members of Christ's dear laity, in professing love and adoration to the Giver of Life, the Redeemer of Life and the Sanctifier; in other words, the Blessed Trinity. It is the Father to whom we offer ourselves through Jesus Christ and it is by the help and assistance of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to carry on this beautiful function. For as St. Paul so beautifully put it, we cannot so much as even express the name of Jesus Christ without the help and the assistance of the Spirit. So it is that the individual, Carmelite is closely united to the Triune God in fulfilling man's greatest purpose adoration, glory and honor now and forever. Amen.
Father William A. Healy O.C.D. was provincial delegate to the Secular Order of the Eastern Jurisdiction f rom 1984-88. Stationed at Saint Florian's parish in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Father was appointed in 1988 to be the provincial delegate to the Secular Order in Ontario, Canada.
Bill was born June 16, 1920, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was professed William 'of Our Lady of Perpetual Help' September 27, 1940, and ordained a priest of the Washington province 'of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,' on June 11, 1946.
RUBRICS
Central Jurisdiction, U.S.A.
During visitation of one of our Communities, tha local President began Vespers while the Provincial Delegate was vesting in the sacristy for Benediction. When time came for intonation of the Magnificat antiphon, Father nodded for the President to intone. She hesitated, so Father intoned the antiphon. She later wrote asking who was supposed to begin the various antiphons and Psalms of the Divine office when we recite it in common at our meetings.
It is the role of the Leader whose latin title is 'hebdomadary,' to intone the Gospel Canticle’s antiphon. Since Father was vested on the altar at the time he should have assumed this role. So Father replied to her letter, "We did it properly, despite myself." The rest of Father's reply follows:
It pertains to the role of the Hebdomadary to begin the 'Hour' with: 'God, come to my assistance,' or 'Lord, open my lips' for the first hour of the day. The rest of the Community responds. 'Lord, make haste to help me,' followed immediately with the whole 'Gloria,' ending (except during lent) with, 'Alleluia.’ The Gloria is not intoned by anyone; it follows immediately by all. It is said whole; i.e., not, broken into two parts for each side of the choir as is done when it concludes the Psalms. When the "Lord open my lips' begins the office for the first hour of the day, a separate officer may intone the Invitatory Antiphon and recite the Invitatory Psalm while all repeat the antiphon immediately it's first intonation, then after each verse of the Invitatory Psalm. This officer says the concluding Gloria by himself, as he has verse. All respond by repeating the antiphon as they have after each verse. For the sake of simplicity, however, the Hebdomadary usually takes this officer's role.
The Hebdomadary intones the antiphon for the Gospel Canticle; i.e., the Benedictus for Morning Prayer, the Magnificat for Evening Prayer, and the Nunc Dimittis for Night Prayer. (Canticles of Zachariah, Mary & Simeon in English). All antiphons' are intoned with the first few words or phrase of the antiphon. All respond with the remainder of the antiphon. The one exception to this rule is the Invitatory antiphon mentioned above which is intoned in its entirety and repeated in its entirety by all. Most churches do this with the responsary after the first reading of Mass.
The Hebdomadary introduces the Intercessions. Another officer may lead the individual petitions with all responding to the latter part after the dash. For simplicity sake, however, the Hebdomadary usually takes this officer's role as well as his own in introducing the Intercessions. The Italic response, by the way, is used only as an alternative response of the people to the individual petitions when they do not take the part after the dash as their response. It is thus omitted entirely (even after the introduction) when the petitions are divided between officer and people by the dash.
Finally, the Hebdomadary reads the Prayer. and Conclusion. Notice the conclusion/dismissal varies depending on whether the Hebdomadary is a lay person, a deacon or priest since only clerics should give the Trinitarian form of blessing. Thus if a priest or deacon is present for the Office, he should assume this role.
It pertains to the role of the music leader or chanter to begin the Hymn and other portions of the Office that are sung.
It pertains to the role of First Cantor to intone the 1st and 3rd antiphons and Psalms for his/her side of the ‘choir.' The antiphons are intoned by the remainder together. The Psalms are intoned by the cantor saying the first entire line of the Psalm by himself; then his side says the remaining lines of that verse. The second side comes in on the 2nd verse, etc. The Cantor intones the antiphon's repetition after the "Glorla' (or Psalm-prayer) in the same manner as he intoned it at the beginning of the Psalm.
The Psalm-prayers are optional. We do not say them publicly at the Monastery, but leave them for the optional meditation of individuals during the silence between the repetition of one antiphon and the intonation of the next; if silence is observed between the Psalms, this is the proper place to observe it. Length of the silent period should be approximately the time taken to silently read a normal size Psalm-prayer. If silence is observed, it should always be observed, whether a Psalm-prayer is printed after that particular Psalm or not. The only Psalm not followed by silence (when observed) would be the Gospel Canticle.
It pertains to the role of the Second Cantor to intone the 2nd antiphon and Psalm for his side, in. the same manner Prescribed above. One of the Cantors should also intone the first line of the Gospel Canticle after the Hebdomadary intone the antiphon. This cantor should also intone the repetition of that antiphon at the end of the Gospel Canticle.
It pertains to the role of Reader to read the reading! Observe a brief silence after the reading, then lead the responsory, leaving the portions after the dash for everyone's response. The concluding doxology of the responsory is only a partial: its second half is not said. The reader only says, 'Glory to the Father and to the son, and to the Holy Spirit.' Then everyone comes in with the response after the dash. Don't ask why the 'as it was in the beginning...' is not said here. I've never seen it written in any rubric to omit it, but it is apparently the custom observed rather universally. There is a logic to it, however. You will notice that the people's response (after the dash) is also cut in half for the second time around.
Notice the rubric given on page 690 of the one volume breviary's Ordinary, 'A longer reading may be selected, especially in public recitations...' I've also noted that the one volume breviary has, in fact, lengthened many of the readings given only in short form in the four volume breviary. If the reading is of sufficient length, the reader should introduce it and end it the same way as is done at, Mass. If the reading is only a couple of lines long, however, the formal introduction and conclusion should be dispensed with. It becomes rather ridiculous for the leader to begin, ‘A reading from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians,' and ‘This Is the Word of the Lord,’ with the peoples response, ‘Thanks be to God,’ when the reading itself takes about as long to say as all this does. As Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, said in the conclusion of our original Rule: In all (these) things, use common sense, for that is the rule of all virtue.
Well, I think this just about covers all basic rubrics for public recitation of the Divine Office in Community. I've probably gone into more detail than I should, for the Church allows a great deal of elasticity in these matters. Few of these things are hard and fast laws that must be followed. Our individual Communities should feel free to adapt to their own particular circumstances. If all our Communities did follow these guidelines, however, it would be great aid to our 'feeling at home' when individuals visit our Communities of Friars in the Province, other Secular Community meetings Congresses, etc.. One word of caution regarding our Nuns: please do not expect them to follow the same rubrics we do. Always remember we are guests in the houses of any of our Religious, and as guests we follow their local customs when reciting the Office with them.
One last thought: I think we all realize the words in the breviary books printed in red are rubrics and titles; words in italics are aids to our meditation, and not part of the recited portion of the office. Such things cannot always be taken for granted, however. Our Holy Mother, St. Teresa, found nine pious ladies in Villanueva de la Jara who recited everything: Antiphons and all. She describes the scene in the 28th chapter of her Foundations book:
They seemed to spend most of their time reciting the Divine Office. Only one could read well, and they did not have Identical breviaries. Some used old roman breviaries given by priests who no longer used them; others used whatever they could find.. They did not recite the Office in a place where they could be heard by outsiders, [thank God!] They said little that was correct. [Ch. 28,42 ]
Little Rock Congress 1976
PRAYER
'There is but one road which reaches God and that Is prayer. If anyone shows you another, you are being deceived.' [St. Teresa] Prayer is the door through which we enter the castle of our souls so that we can see the rich inheritance that is ours. Prayer is the means of finding and reaching God who lives in us. Without prayer we can get nowhere. It is through prayer that we discern the sweetness of God and become attached to him. This is the means through which God draws us to himself and takes us away from an undue love, of creatures. Through prayer we receive the power to break away from sin and attachments that obstruct a more perfect communion with God.
Through prayer God purifies our hearts so that we can know him and love him. This is how we know the truth and have a sense of time values in our lives. This is what keeps us from being blindly led astray to an unwholesome love of creatures. It is through prayer that we discern evil in our lives and shun or overcome it. It is through prayer that we can enjoy communion with the living God dwelling in us. Prayer is taking time out to worship him; to give him our exclusive love and attention.
Prayer is the opening of ourselves to God. This is how we bring ourselves to him. We open our hearts to him and meet Him. It is through prayer that faith expresses itself and goes to God. It is the vital link actively connecting us to God. Through it faith establishes a bond between us and God whereby we are nourished and become strong in Divine Love. Prayer is so necessary in our lives that without it we cannot be saved, much less reach any kind of perfection. If loving-union with God in us is the source of apostolic zeal and work, prayer is the means through which we establish ourselves in this union and draw from it.
Prayer is a movement of grace, a filial movement of love toward our Father. We talk to him lovingly as his children in word, in thought or simply by being present to him. Although we should set some time aside daily for a formal meeting and mutual exchange with our God, this is meant to continue throughout the day. This communion with God should fill our whole lives. Our hearts and minds should ever be free and open for this to the extent that our occupations allow us. We should outpour ourselves in love in all of our works, although the nature of some works prevent us from maintaining this during the whole time we are busy.
It is natural both to carry on a mental conversation as well as to talk out loud or speak in words to God. Perhaps most people pray vocally during their formal prayer time. 'I say my prayers every night,' they say. Or, 'I'm saying a novena'. Saying the words help them to concentrate on what they're saying and brings them back when they get distracted.
That's why the Rosary is of such great value to many people who are not so easily given to pure mental prayer. They've never had the opportunity of learning it formally--although they do pray in this way during the day at work or when they're driving along in their cars. But most have never learned how to stay quiet and meditate as such. But they will and do say the Rosary. The untrained body likes to keep busy--and the beads and the Hail Marys keep our faculties, such as the tameless tongue, busy.
This also gives the mind something to busy itself about, namely thinking about the words or the mystery of salvation that was announced. So the Rosary is like a harness to keep our minds and hearts meditating. Meanwhile, all of our feelings can be expressing themselves during the recitation of the words. So the whole person body and soul, is involved with God in this way to keep us attentive. It’s easy to see how suitable this kind of prayer is for beginner–as well as for those advanced in the art of prayer who find a need to express themselves outwardly with spoken words; e.g. Pope John.
But vocal prayer is really mental prayer for we should understand, follow with our minds and hearts what are saying and make them our own-sentiments. At the same time, we ought to be aware of God who is present and keep him company. Not infrequently you will find that certain good people who find pleasure in reading many long prayers or saying many Rosaries are experiencing contemplation. They are content in being alone. They are lifted on the heights in great fervor as they get lost in the recitation of their prayers.
They are not thinking of the meaning of each word, nor are they even meditating on the mystery. Rather, they have attained God. They experience a general knowledge or realization of communion with him without thinking about anything in particular. This is contemplation. This is union with God. St. Teresa writes:
"I know there are many people who practice vocal prayer .. and are raised by God to the higher kind of contemplation without having had any hand In this themselves or even knowing how It has happened. For this reason, I attach great Importance to your saying your vocal prayers well." [way of Perfection, Chap. 30]
Surely you have known such people--maybe they're alone most of the time, sick or old perhaps a people set apart by God himself, to worship him in spirit and in truth. In every church parish there are a few chosen ones to sustain virtue among the people there. These are living saints who are worthy of our honor and respect. Vocal prayer is a real source of strength for them. It has rendered them pure and has itself turned into contemplation. "In case you should think there is little gain to be derived from practicing vocal prayer perfectly," writes St. Teresa , "I must tell you that, while you are repeating the Our Father or some other vocal prayer, It is quite possible for the Lord to grant you perfect contemplation." [Chap. 25, p. 104]
Even if vocal prayer does not bring you this kind of contemplation or recollection it will at least be a help in certain circumstances during mental prayer; e.g. during moments of dryness, heaviness or trial. St. Teresa writes:
"Sometimes when I am in such a state of spiritual dryness that not a single good thought occurs to me, I say very slowly the 'Our Father' or the 'Hall Mary,’ and these prayers suffice to take me out of myself and wonderfully refresh me. [ Life, Chap. 10]
Mental prayer may be easy if our senses are sweetly drawn by grace and our hearts are enraptured by Divine Love. For sometimes the Lord Himself sustains us in a state of prayerfulness. If this happens we should surrender to this impulse. We need no help then. But this is something which is passing. Mental prayer usually requires effort so that perseverance over the months and years is put to the test.
First of all, remember -that prayer is a friendly conversation with God who loves us. God has become incarnate in Jesus. He is visible and lives among us. If we are not spiritually aware of his presence in us, we can easily picture him near us or we can relate to him in the tabernacle so that we have someone tangible to refer to.
God is present and we keep him company. This is the most important element in prayer. Apart from the other helps that inspire you to meditation such as the lovely works of creation or a good picture, you will often find the need for a book to help you. Otherwise, you may find yourself distracted or fall asleep. Read a bit, stop, then consider what you read for a while, always keeping Jesus who is present in Mind and referring your thoughts to him.
Meditative reading should be slow and prayerful. This is not spiritual reading but a means to help you maintain a living communion with your God in whose presence you are. As soon as you begin to drift away, read a bit more, but only enough to keep your loving conversation with God going, constantly return to this point of relating to God. Whether you are just beginning or have been at it several years you will find this helpful. The great contemplative St. Teresa said, 'I myself spent over 14 years without ever being able to meditate except while reading.' [Way of Perfection, Chap. 17] ‘I never dared to begin to pray without a book... Sometimes I read a little, sometimes a great deal.' [ way of Perfection, Chap. 41] Meditative reading is a shield against many thoughts of distraction or dullness or lack of feeling for the things of God. Meanwhile, your mind is being filled with the Word of God during the process. And this Word will influence your thoughts during the day and cause you to act in accordance with it.
Strive to become more and more simple at prayer. Don't tire yourself out with mental gymnastics and endless reasonings, that is not prayer. Beautiful thinking is not necessarily contact with Jesus. St. Teresa says, 'If you would progress .. the Important thing is not to think much but to love much.’ [Interior Castle, IV.- ch. 1, 7] Tend to slow down the activity of your mind. Strive to be attentive and watchful of your Lord; look at him; wait in hope to receive what he has to give or say to you. This attitude is a disposition that prepares us for contemplation. It is this disposition of loving watchfulness and readiness that God uses to infuse his graces and lead us to supernatural contemplation. Meanwhile, it is at this point, in the darkness of faith, that we encounter God during our prayer. If we are faithful and trust him in this darkness, he will give us more. Even if we do not experience anything -- no matter, the good is being accomplished. God, the object of our faith, hope and love, is being reached. Our hearts are being filled with him.
Even if you have no enlightened thoughts or consolations during prayer, this does not mean that you did not succeed. God infuses His love and power apart from ideas and feelings; He does this directly, spiritually and imperceptibly. If you persevere in prayer will eventually see how much it pays off in your daily life.
Profile of an OCDS
P. Aloysius Deeney, OCD
The point of this presentation is to answer the question "What are the principles that you use to discern the vocation to the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites? Who is called to be a Secular Carmelite and how do you distinguish between those called and those not called? Among the friars and the nuns, people do not leave because they are bad people. People are not sent home from the monastery or the convent because they are morally unacceptable. It is a vocation to be a member of the Order and one that needs, for everyone's sake, to be clearly identified. Otherwise, the Order, either the friars, or the nuns, or the seculars, loses its way and confuses its identity
I would describe a member of the Secular Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Teresa of Jesus as a practicing member of the Catholic Church who, under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and inspired by Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John o the Cross, makes the commitment to the Order to seek the face of God for the sake of the Church and the world.
I would note in that description six distinct elements that, coming together, are those elements that move people to approach the Order and seek identification with the Order in a more formal way.
"Practicing member of the Catholic Church." By this I mean Roman Catholic, not in reference to the Latin rite but in reference to the unity under the leadership of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. The majority of Roman Catholics belong to the Latin Rite. There are, however, other rites within the Roman Catholic Church, Maronite, Malabar, Melkite, Ukrainian, etc. There are Secular Order communities in each of these rites. The OCDS community of Lebanon belongs to the Maronite Rite. The word "practicing" specifies something about the person who can be a member of the Secular Order. As a basic litmus test of "practicing" the Catholic faith I suggest the capacity to participate fully in the Eucharist with a clear conscience. The Eucharist is the summit of Catholic life and identity. It is the meeting point of heaven and earth. So, if one is free to participate in the summit, then the lesser points of participation are certainly permitted.
For most cases in the past this was rather simple to determine. People who came to the Secular Order came from parishes where the friars were present, or through contact with friars or nuns who recommended them to the Secular Order. Divorce was not a major factor in Catholic life. Most situations were clear.
It is not so today. Things are not always clear. It is precisely here where the Spiritual Assistant can be of most help to the Council of a community of the Secular Order in the screening of candidates. I give an example. A woman approaches a community of the Secular Order. The woman is known by some of the Council. They know that this is her second marriage. They also know that she regularly goes to Mass and participates in the sacraments. The Council would like clarity before admitting this person to formation.
There are a few possibilities with this case. The Church annulled the first marriage. Or, by arrangement with her confessor, she and her husband are living in such a way as to participate in the sacraments of the Church. An interview with the Spiritual Assistant would clarify the answers. Without necessity of too much explanation to respect the right to privacy and a good name that every member of the Church enjoys, he could give the word to the Council that would allow this person to enter the Secular Order.
The Secular Order is a juridical part of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. It is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church and subject to the laws of the Church. The Sacred Congregation must approve its own legislation. Therefore, someone who does not belong to the Catholic Church may not be a member of the Secular Order. Non-catholic people with interest in the spirituality of Carmel are certainly welcome to participate in whatever way a community might invite them, but they cannot be members of the Secular Order.
Here we have the first element of the identity of a Secular Order member---a person who participates in the life of the Catholic Church. There is, of course, more, because there are millions of people who participate in the life of the Catholic Church who have not the slightest interest in Carmel.
We come to the second element—"under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel." It is not just any devotion to Our Lady that identifies a person called to the Secular Order. There are many Christians who are very devoted to Our Lady and have a very highly developed Marian character to their Christian life. There are many Orthodox Christians as well as High Church Anglicans who are very Marian. There are many Catholics who wear the scapular for all of the correct reasons and with sincere dedication to Mary who are not called to be Secular Carmelites. Not only that, but there are some people who come to the Secular Order precisely because of devotion to Mary, the scapular, and the rosary who do not have a vocation to be Secular Order members.
The particular aspect of the Blessed Virgin Mary that must be present in any person called to Carmel is that of an inclination to "meditate in the heart", the phrase that Saint Luke’s gospel uses twice to describe Mary’s attitude vis-à-vis her Son. Yes, all the other aspects of Marian life and devotion can be present, devotion to the scapular, the rosary, and other things. They are, however, secondary to this aspect of Marian devotion. Mary is our model of prayer and meditation. This interest in learning to meditate or inclination to meditation is a fundamental characteristic of any OCDS. It is perhaps the most basic.
A very frequent experience of many groups is to have a person approach the Secular Order to become a member, sometimes a diocesan priest, who is very devoted to Mary, a person who has been on many pilgrimages to Marian shrines throughout the world, a person who is very familiar with many of the apparitions and messages attributed to Mary, a real authority on current Marian movements. Many times they do not have the slightest inclination to "meditate in the heart." They desire quickly to become the ‘teachers’ of the community about the Blessed Mother and introduce an entirely un-Carmelite strain of Marian interest into the community. If this person is a priest, it is very difficult for the community to protect itself from this detour in its Marian life. There are other Marian groups and movements that might be the home for this person, but it is not the Secular Order.
In addition, within the Teresian Carmelite family there is a place for people whose primary motivation is devotion to the scapular and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is the Confraternity of the Brown Scapular, or the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Mary, for a Secular Order member, is the model of a meditative attitude and disposition. She attracts and inspires a Carmelite to a contemplative way of understanding the life of the mystical body of her Son, the Church. It is she who draws the person to Carmel. And in the formation program, which the person finds when they enter Carmel, it is this aspect that must be developed in the person. So, I say that this is the second element–"under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel."
"A member of the Secular Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Teresa of Jesus is a practicing member of any of the rites of the Roman Catholic Church who, under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and inspired by Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross..." Here we have the third element. I mention both Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross and I might say, right at the beginning of this section, that I also include Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, or Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity or Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, (Edith Stein) can also be included, but Saints Teresa and John of the Cross are central to this point.
Having mentioned all of those great people of the Carmelite tradition, I underline the importance of Saint Teresa of Jesus, whom, in our tradition we refer to as Our Holy Mother. The reason is because she is the one to whom the charism was given. In many parts of the world we are called Teresian Carmelites. Saint John of the Cross was the original collaborator with Our Holy Mother in both the spiritual and juridical re-founding of Carmel in this new charismatic way. So he is called Our Holy Father. It is hard for me to imagine any Discalced Carmelite of any brand who is not attracted by one, if not both of these persons their histories, personalities, and, most importantly, their writings.
The writings of Saint Teresa of Jesus are the expression of the charism of the Discalced Carmelites. The spirituality of the Discalced Carmelites has a very well based intellectual foundation. There is a doctrine involved here. Doctrine comes from docere, Latin for 'to teach'. Any person who wants to be a Discalced Carmelite must be a person with an interest in learning from the teachers of Carmel. There are three Doctors of the universal Church, Teresa, John and Therese.
A person comes to the community, a person with a great love of the Blessed Mother, wants to wear the scapular in honor of Mary as a sign of dedication to her service. This person is very prayerful but has no interest in reading or studying the spirituality of the Teresian Carmel. This person tries to read one of the Carmelite Doctors but just cannot find the interest to keep reading. To me, this is a good person who may belong in the Confraternity of the Brown Scapular, but definitely does not have a vocation to the Secular Order of Carmel.
There is an academic aspect to the formation of a Teresian Carmelite. There is an intellectual basis to the spirituality and identity of one who is called to the Order. And, as with each friar and each nun, each Secular represents the Order. A Carmelite that does not have the interest in studying or deepening the roots of his/her identity through prayer and study loses their identity and can no longer represent the Order. Nor does that person speak for the Order. Many times, when listening to a Carmelite speak it becomes obvious when hearing what is said that they have not gone beyond what they heard in formation years before.
This intellectual basis is the beginning of an attitude that is open to study. It leads to a deeper interest in Scripture, theology and the documents of the Church. The tradition of spiritual reading, lectio divina and time for study is the intellectual backbone of the spiritual life. Good formation depends on good information. When the information is bad, or absent, or incorrect, the formation stops or is stunted, resulting in confusion in the Secular. If that Secular, through some twist of fate, becomes somehow an officer of the OCDS community, the community suffers. It happens with friars and nuns, and it happens with Seculars.
This academic or intellectual basis is very important and has been sadly missing in many groups of the Secular Order. It is not a question of "being an intellectual" in order to be a Secular. It is a question of being intelligent in the pursuit of the truth about God, about oneself, about prayer, about the Order and about the Church. Obedience has long been associated with the intellect and the virtue of faith. Obedience means openness to hearing (ob + audire in Latin). Is a radical attitude of the person to move beyond what that person knows. Education also comes from Latin (Ex + ducere to lead out of). Saint Teresa describes the person of the third mansions as almost stuck and unable to move. One of the characteristics of this person, permanently in the third mansions, is that they want to teach everybody else. They know it all. In reality they are disobedient and uneducable. That is, they are closed and unable to learn.
The fourth element of the description is "who makes the commitment to the Order." There are so many committed Catholics who are devoted to Mary and even experts in Saint Teresa, Saint John of the Cross---or one of our saints---who do not have the vocation to the Secular Order. These people may be contemplatives or even hermits, who spend hours in prayer and study each day, but do not have the vocation to be a Carmelite. What is the element that differentiates these people from those called to follow Christ more closely as Secular Carmelites?
It is not the spirituality, nor the study, nor the devotion to Mary. Simply put, the Secular Carmelite is moved to commit himself or herself to the Order and to the Church. This commitment, in the form of the Promises, is an ecclesial event and an event of the Order in addition to being an event in the life of the person who makes the Promises. In a certain sense, remembering always the person’s context of family, work and responsibilities that are involved in his/her life, the person who commits him/herself, becomes characterized as a Carmelite.
As I said, it is an ecclesial event and an event of the Order. It is for this reason that the Church and the Order have the essential say, in union with the candidate, in accepting and approving the commitment of the person. It is also for this reason that the Church and the Order give the conditions and set the terms for the content of the Promises. A person may want to commit him/herself to certain things, daily meditation or the divine office for example. But the Church, through the Order establishes the basic and broad lines of understanding with regards to this commitment.
The Secular belongs to Carmel. Carmel does not belong to the Secular. What I mean by that is that there is a new identity, one developed from the baptismal identity, which becomes a necessary point of reference. As the Church is the point of reference for the baptized person (the baptized person belongs to the Church), so Carmel becomes the point of reference for the Secular. The more "Catholic" one becomes, the more one recognizes the catholicity of the church. The more one becomes Carmelite, the more one recognizes the catholicity of Carmel as well. In fact, the person who commits him/herself to Carmel in the Secular Order discovers that Carmel becomes essential to his/her identity as a Catholic.
It is because the Promises are the means by which one becomes a Secular Order member that formation for the Promises is so important---formation and on-going formation.
An important aspect to this commitment is the commitment to the community. A person who wishes to be a member of the OCDS must be able to form community, be a part of a group that is dedicated to a common goal, show interest in the other members, be supportive in the pursuit of a life of prayer and be able to receive the support of others. This applies even to those persons who for various reasons cannot actively participate in a community. In the formation of the future of the community, this social characteristic is one that should develop. There are many people who are introverted and quiet, but who are still quite sociable and capable of forming communities. And there are many people who are quite extroverted and at the same time incapable of forming community. In this question it is necessary to use common sense. Answer the question: "What will this person help the community to be in ten years?"
There is also the question of people who belong to other movements---for example the New Catechumemate, Focolare, Marian Movement of Priests, Charismatic Renewal. If a person’s involvement in other movements does not interfere with that person’s commitment to Carmel and that person does not introduce elements that are not compatible with OCDS spirituality to the community, then there is generally no problem. It is when the person distracts the community from its own purpose and style of spiritual life that problems begin. Sometimes there are people so confused that they come to Carmel and talk about Our Lady of Medjugorie and go to a Medjugorie meeting and talk about Teresian prayer.
The most important point is that the person must choose the Secular Order, and that commitment ought to be more important than other movements or groups.
This commitment to the Church through Carmel has both content and purpose. These are expressed in the final two elements of my description of who is a Secular Carmelite.
The fifth element of the description is "to seek the face of God." This element expresses the content of the Promises. I could rephrase this element in various ways, "to pray," "to meditate," "to live the spiritual life." I have chosen this one because it is Scriptural and expresses the nature of contemplation---a wondering observation of God’s word and work in order to know, love and serve Him. The contemplative aspect of Carmelite life focuses on God, recognizing always that contemplation is a gift of God, not an acquisition as a result of putting in sufficient time. This is the commitment to personal holiness. The OCDS wants to see God, wants to know God and recognizes that prayer and meditation now take on a greater importance. The Promises are a commitment to a new way of life in which "allegiance to Jesus Christ" marks the person and the way this person lives.
The personal life of the Secular Carmelite becomes contemplative. The style of life changes with the growth in the virtues that accompany the growth in the spirit. It is impossible to live a life of prayer, meditation, and study without changing. This new style of life enhances all the rest of life. The majority of Secular Order members who are married, and those with families, experience that the commitment to the OCDS life enriches their marital and familial commitment. Men and women OCD Seculars who work experience a new moral commitment to justice in the work place. Those who are single, widowed or separated find in this commitment to holiness a source of grace and strength to live their lives with dedication and purpose. This is the direct result of seeking the face of God.
Is the essence of Carmel prayer? Many times I heard or read that affirmation. I am never sure just how to answer that. Not because I do not know what prayer is or because prayer is not of great importance for any Carmelite, but because I never know what the speaker or writer wishes to justify by the statement. If the person means by prayer personal holiness and the pursuit of a genuine spirituality that recognizes the supremacy of God and of God’s will for the human family, then yes, I agree. If the person means that I as a Carmelite fulfill my entire obligation as a Carmelite by being faithful to my prayer and that there is nothing else that I need do, then no, we do not agree. Personal holiness is not the same as personal pursuit of holiness. For a baptized member of the Church holiness is always ecclesial, never self-centered or self-content. I am never the judge of my own holiness. (Nemo judex in causo suo.)
I am sanctified by the practice of the virtues, which is the direct result of a life of prayerful searching for God’s will in my life. This is the Carmelite secret---prayer does not make us holy. Prayer is the essential element in Christian (Carmelite) holiness because it is the frequent contact necessary to remain faithful to God. This contact allows God to do His will in my life which then announces to the whole world God’s presence and goodness. Without the contact of prayer I cannot know God, and God cannot be known to others.
To seek the face of God requires an unbelievable amount of discipline in the classic and original sense of the word--disciple, one who learns. I must recognize that I am forever a student. Never do I become a master. I am always surprised by what God does in the world. God is forever a mystery. The clues to God’s existence always interest me. I find them in the events of life, single, widowed, married, family, work, and retirement. But they only become recognizable and clear through prayer, observing from the heart. The call to holiness is a burning desire in the heart and mind of the one called to the Secular Order. It is a commitment that the Secular must make. The Secular is drawn to prayer, finding in prayer a home and an identity.
This prayer, this pursuit of holiness, this encounter with the Lord makes the Secular more part of the Church. And, as a more committed member of the Church, the Secular’s life is more ecclesial. As the life of prayer grows it produces more fruit in the person’s personal life (the growth of virtue) and in the person’s ecclesial life (apostolate.)
This leads me to the sixth element of the description "for the sake of the Church and the world." This is the newest development in the understanding of the place of the Secular in the Order and in the Church. This is the result of the development in the theology of the Church on the role of lay persons in the Church, and applying that theology to the Order. Beginning with the Second Vatican Council’s document On the Apostolate of the Laity, and its fruition with the Synods on the Laity in 1986 and the Consecrated Life in 1996 (Christifideles laici and Vita Consecrata) the Church has constantly underlined the need for a further commitment of the laity to her needs and the needs of the world. Saint Teresa had the conviction that the only proof of prayer was growth in virtue and that the necessary fruit of the life of prayer was the birth of good works.
At times I hear a Secular say: "The only apostolate of the Secular is prayer." The word that makes that statement false is "only" A prayerful and obedient attitude toward the documents of the Church makes it clear that the role of the lay person within the Church has changed. The Rule of Life talked about the need of each Secular to have an individual apostolate. Christifideles laici highlights the importance of group apostolates of associations in the Church, and the OCDS is an association in the Church. Many Seculars, when they hear the mention of group apostolate, think that I am talking about the entire community being involved in something that takes up hours each day. That is not at all what "group apostolate" means. Paragraph 30 of Christifideles laici gives the basic principles of "ecclesiality" for associations and lists the fruits of these principles. The first fruit listed is a renewed desire for prayer, meditation, contemplation, and the sacramental life. These are things "right down Carmel’s alley." How many people there are who need to know what our Carmelite Doctors of the Church have to say! If every Carmelite was dedicated to spreading Carmel’s message, how many people would not be confused in the spiritual life! Walk into any major book store and see what nonsense is listed in the section entitled "mysticism".
Each community ought to answer the question as a community "What can we do to share with others what we have received by belonging to Carmel?"
We, as Carmelites, can help to clean up the mess by making known what we know. It is not an option. It is a responsibility. Being a Carmelite is not a privilege; it is a responsibility, both personal and ecclesial.
As I said at the beginning, it is not any one element that discerns the person who has the vocation to Carmel as a Secular. It is the combination that makes the difference.
LIVING IN THE PRESENCE OF GODBrother Lawrence
by Fr. Jerome Lantry, OCD
I. BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
There is not a whole lot to tell about the life of Nicholas Herman. He was born in Lorraine, France, at a place called Herimesnil in 1611 or, perhaps, 1614. His parents were poor but very devout and he was brought up with strong faith and good sense. This does not mean to say that he was exceptionally holy. In fact he experienced a profound conversion at the age of eighteen. During the Thirty Years War he was taken prisoner by some German soldiers who thought he was a spy and decided to kill him; at least they told him that. In return he told them that he had a clear conscience and was not afraid to die. We do not know how the Germans took this reply, and if you do not know German there is not much use in trying to reconstruct the ensuing conversation. All we are sure of is that they let him go. Exit the Germans. But here come the Swedes storming into Lorraine. On their way past the little town of Rambervilliers they wounded our Nicholas. We do not know how or how badly he was wounded or whether he managed to do in a few Swedes or not. All we know is that he was taken home to his parents to recover and that his military career ended there. His time of recovery gave him, as it had given to St. Ignatius in the previous century, to ponder on what life is all about, how uncertain it is and how important it is to spend it properly. It must have been at this time that he had what he refers to later as his conversion. He says that it was in Winter and he was looking at a tree that had lost all it leaves and he began to reflect that soon that very same tree would be covered with leaves again. Then there would be blossoms and then fruit on this very tree that now had nothing but bare branches. He said that this gave him such a deep impression of the power and providence of God that it never again faded from his mind. So strong was this impression that it turned his heart away from temporal things and enkindled in him such a great love of God that he was to say later in life that he did not notice any increase in his love as the years went by.
Before he received this special grace he seems to have gone through a great struggle between his conviction that he should follow the ways of God and his longing for earthly things. Again, all we know is that he had this deep inner struggle before his convictions finally won out. We do not know what the attractions were that he had to overcome, so that there is no scenario to offer for a Hollywood movie. One thing that helped him in this struggle is the he had an uncle, a Carmelite Priest, and he helped him to form the strong resolution to follow Christ. This was a very important point in his life, because one of the things that St. Teresa insists on for those who take up a life of prayer is that they have what she called in Spanish una determinada determinacion (a strong resolution to persevere in the practice of prayer.) St. John of the Cross, too, at the beginning of his Spiritual Canticle in a passage called the Annotation speaks of the very strong convictions at which the person had arrived before entering into contemplation. It is clear that in Nicholas' case, as in the lives of the saints, the resolute determination was augmented by the grace of God and strengthened in a manner that is beyond what mere will power can achieve. This was evident in the years of dryness that he was to endure later. It should also be noted that he was deeply influenced by a great love of Christ in his Passion. This too is characteristic of the saints and it should be the main source of strength for all Christians. The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, the mysteries that are present to us in the Mass, are the real source of sanctity, the sanctity to which the people of God are called. Add to this fact that Nicholas had a real devotion to the Mother of God and it is clear that he had the foundation on which a healthy Christian life can be built.
It would seem that after his military exploits Nicholas spent a short time as a footman for M. de Fuibert, treasurer of the Exchequer, and says that he was awkward and broke things. Initially, a footman was one who helped his master to mount his horse or carriage and then ran on to the next stopping place and helped him to dismount. But the office grew in stature to where the footman rode in the carriage, opened and closed doors and served at table and such. Nicholas must have served in this advanced capacity as it is difficult to imagine anyone proving to be awkward by breaking things in the original role. Again for want of footnotes, we have to be satisfied with the bare notion that he never mastered the art of footmanship.
The first real move that Nicholas made to follow his call to walk with the Lord took him away to live the solitary life of a hermit. Once more we have very little to relate about the circumstances of this effort except that it would seem someone was willing to provide him with the meager necessities of life so that he could follow this call. He learned from it that his longing for God was real and not an illusion and he enjoyed the freedom from previous distractions. While it was good to be alone with his Creator this was not the complete answer. When his mood changed and he needed someone to talk to there was no one there. Neither did he have regular Mass or the support of the Sacraments. He really needed community life, but somehow he was slow to ask to be accepted. He probably felt that they would not accept him since he regarded himself as awkward and indeed useless. Finally the Lord gave him the courage to go to the Carmelite monastery in Paris and ask to be admitted. He was accepted and given the name of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Many questions remain unanswered. Was his uncle still living or did he have any part of this decision? We do not know. He entered in 1640 and was professed in 1642. When Brother Lawrence chose to be a Carmelite bother for life he was embracing the original vocation of the Order. Today the vast majority of Carmelite friars are priests, but it was not that way in the beginning. Those who began the Order of Mount Carmel were known as the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. While the Carmelite vocation and the call to priesthood can blend perfectly together as they did in St. John of the Cross, the fullness of the Carmelite call does not require the vocation to the priesthood. St. Teresa and her nuns constantly remind us of this. The call that came to Brother Lawrence is a call to union with God through daily work and a life of prayer. In the beginning the Carmelites did not have set times for meditation but were to meditate day and night on the law of the Lord and were to keep themselves busy with their work so that the devil would always find them occupied. In fact the rule by which they lived reminded them of an exhortation that St. Paul gave to some of his Christian converts: that if they did not work neither should they eat. This old monastic tradition of 'work and pray' came easy to Brother Lawrence. Also his special devotion to the Mother of God made it easy for him to fit this tradition into the special Carmelite mould. He was deeply humble and very intent on serving God and not himself. It is said there was some question of his suitability and this was mentioned to him. The story is that he said: "If I do not serve Him here I will serve Him elsewhere." He had a great longing for prayer and solitude and this was the source of his deepest suffering. He spent years with no spiritual consolation in prayer. This was something that he seems to have sought, because he had learned to distinguish between God and the consolations of God. He spent years in utter dryness with a continuous awareness of God's absence and of his own sinfulness. Even the consolations that would have brought great joy to another left him further confused because he could not imagine they were real in his case and thought he was suffering from illusions. The growing awareness of God's presence through a more vivid realization of one's own sinfulness is a very painful experience and it seems to have gone on in Brother Lawrence's case for about four to ten years. As always we have to guess at the length of particular experiences. During this time of dryness Brother Lawrence went frequently to a statue of Christ at the Pillar and wept bitterly before it. He also spent long hours in front of the tabernacle and his personal allegiance to God sustained him during those years of purification. Like many of those who experience dryness at the time of formal prayer Brother Lawrence was sustained by a sense of God's presence during the rest of the day. In fact, this Practice of the Presence of God during the performance of daily chores is the aspect of the Spiritual Life for which Brother Lawrence is remembered. L'Abbe de Beaufort, Vicar General of Cardinal de Noailles, has left us accounts of four conversations that he had with Brother Lawrence. He also wrote a eulogy that gives us more insight into the holiness of his life. With that we have a series of maxims he wrote himself and sixteen of his letters. From these we can gather something of his thoughts and get glimpses of the power of the life he lives.
II. THE UNCEASING PRESENCE OF GOD
Before looking at the things that Brother Lawrence himself has left for us, it would be good to review some of the teachings we have on the Practice of the Presence of God. Everyone who gives thought to the matter can agree that God is always present to all that He has created. When God was sending Moses to Egypt and to the chosen people Moses asked for a name so that he could tell the people of Israel who it was that sent him, and God said: "I am Who am." When this mysterious statement is reflected upon it is seen to say that God, and only He, is the One who always was and always will be, because He must by His very nature exist. He cannot begin to exist nor can He cease existing. It is this that makes Him so radically different from everything else because all was created and depends on Him for its existence. God must then be present to everything that is, both to bring it into existence and to keep it in existence. He also must give the power to move so that the planets can stay in orbit, so that things can grow and animals and people and angels can live. He gives to us the power to live and feel and think and make free choices, even when these are contrary to His clear command. And at all times He knows everything that goes on everywhere, even our innermost thoughts. Reflection on this gives us some passing awareness of the immensity of God. To practice the presence of God is to make a habit of reflecting on this until our awareness of the limitless God becomes a normal everyday condition that shapes our thoughts, our decisions, our whole lives. It was this habit, this practice, that made Brother Lawrence the kind of person he was, that enabled him to walk with the Lord.
Sacred Scripture has many, many texts that lead us to this practice; in fact all scripture arises from a deep awareness of a God who is present and not far away. The prophets speak regularly of walking before the Lord or standing in His Presence. There is a passage in the Book of Wisdom that gives what we might call the basic scriptural thinking, the thought on which other thinking is built: "For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls." This is a real expression of faith in God's presence and a fine example of a correct response. The God of the Bible is not far off but very close; He intervenes in the life of His people, making Himself known by signs and messages. His love is strong and does not change, and like all true love it calls for a response, for a corresponding commitment. In the beginning of the Bible, the places where God manifested Himself became sacred to His presence. We can see a development whereby His people gradually became aware of His presence, not merely in certain places but in all places and especially in the people themselves. His people would be removed from their sacred places but not from Him. There is a passage in Deuteronomy that prepares them for this, "Yet there, too, you will seek the Lord your God, and you shall indeed find him when you search after him with your whole heart and with your whole soul. In your distress, when all these things should have come upon you, you will finally return to the Lord, your God, and heed his voice. Since the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will not abandon and destroy you, nor forget the covenant which under oath he made with your fathers." A very interesting passage is to be found in the second book of Samuel. This is the story of King David's wish to build a special house for the Lord and not have Him dwell in a tent while David himself had a house of cedar. And the Lord got the message to David that he would not have his house of cedar if the Lord had not taken him from behind the sheep, and furthermore that the Lord himself had not dwelt in a house from the day He led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. Then He said: "Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me." And the words 'house' or 'kingdom' do not refer to a place or a territory but to people. The prophet Elijah had a way of speaking of "Yahweh, in whose presence I stand," and his mission was to bring the people back to an awareness of the true God. In his great challenge with the priest of Baal he prayed, "Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done these things by your command. Answer my Lord, answer me, that these people may know that you. Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to their senses." That last line makes one think. If, as St. Augustine says, "We are born for God and our hearts do not rest until they rest in him," then putting the search for God first in our lives should establish a balance in our psyche that would bring us back to our senses.
Brother Lawrence had a lot of good sense to begin with. In the monastery, he was assigned to work in the kitchen and must have overcome his tendency to break things, because he was left at that work for some thirty years. Because of his awareness of God's presence he grew to like that difficult assignment more and more and found more happiness there. He once said that he joined the monastery to do some penance for his sins, but that the lord had disappointed him in that and had given him nothing but joy instead.
But to continue a little further with the lessons of Sacred Scripture. God's presence and unchanging love for us have always brought out a great response in those who take these facts to heart. Nowhere do we get better examples of this than in the Psalms.
Psalm 62:1:In God alone is my soul at rest:my help comes from him alone.He alone is my rock, my stronghold,my fortress. I stand firm.
Psalm 63: 1-4:O God, you are my God, for you I long,for you my soul is thirsting.My body pines for youlike a dry, weary land with-out water.
Psalm 42:1-2:Like a deer that yearnsfor running streams,so my soul is yearningfor you, my God. ("Grail" translation)
When we move on into the New Testament we are really into the story of God-with-us. We find God in human form living among His people and telling them that wherever two or three are gathered in His name that He is there among them; that if we love Him and keep His commandments that His father will love us and that the Divine Persons will come to us and make their abode with us. Such statements reveal to us the mystery of God dwelling within us as individuals and as community. We are talking about a presence that penetrates our very being and sanctifies us. It is this that caused St. Paul to tell his converts that they were temples of the Holy Spirit. God, our creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier permeating our very existence, this is what the Scripture conveys to us.
III. SOME TEACHINGS AND QUOTATIONS
The teaching on the Presence of God is a vast mystery. Brother Lawrence, through his great faith, had come to a special appreciation of this mystery. This is what makes his teaching so interesting. It is well to realize that the ability of Brother Lawrence to penetrate this mystery was itself a gift of God. We shouldn't take his admonitions as a technique for producing an effect, but as ways of disposing ourselves for whatever degree of understanding the Lord wants to give to us. The "First Conversation" quotes him as saying: "We should establish ourselves in God's presence by continually talking with him." This is not as easy as it seems. It requires a certain discipline of mind whereby we put away idle thoughts, flights of imagination that take us away from reality, and train our minds to attend to the greatest of all realities: God among us. A real key to success in this matter is to be found in the second admonition: "We should feed our souls with lofty thoughts of God, and so find great joy in being with him." This is an approach that must not be taken lightly. Without this second admonition the first will be very difficult. Since we cannot see God, the image we form of Him in our mind can make it so much easier to believe in His love for us and it is this belief that generates our response. This high notion of God, of His power, His mercy, His love also helps with the next rule: to enliven our faith, or as an older translation says, to quicken our faith. This is a matter of reminding ourselves of the reality of the invisible things we do not see and can know only by faith. To bring to mind that God is always with us, to picture Him beside us, walking in front of us or behind, waiting for us at the end of a path, but always present, this is to enliven our faith. To reflect on the Creed until all becomes personal for us, this quickens our faith.
Brother Lawrence was also big on abandonment and to trust completely in God's love for us; His patience and forgiveness. We try our best to do His will, to please Him and not ourselves, to be faithful to Him in all circumstances including dryness. He did not worry a lot about sins he heard of since he knew it could be a lot worse. Also, we must watch over our inner emotions in spiritual matters as well as our ordinary feelings. But the basic requirement is a desire to serve God, to belong to him.
The other three "Conversations" repeat many of the admonitions given in the first one, but some of them are worth quoting because they give new light to his meaning. He said that he has always been governed by love in spite of a persistent fear that he would be damned. One interesting thing is that he said he did not find any difference between prayer time and work time; he could maintain his awareness of God just as easily at work as at prayer. For one who had practiced the Presence of God as he did this is not surprising. Also he did not find help in spiritual direction and gave it up. He said that all he needed was a confessor to absolve him. While this is not the normal route for one receiving special graces it is quite possible that God wanted to lead him this way. It should be noted that he himself tried to bring people to the Practice of the Presence of God. In this he said: "We must act very simply with God and speak to Him frankly, asking His help in things as they occur. God does not fail to give it, as I often found out." In the second of his sixteen letters we find this: "If I were a preacher I would preach nothing else than the Practice of the Presence of God; and if I were a director of souls I would urge it upon everyone, so necessary and even easy do I believe it to be."
His letters provide the best reading in the little collection we have of his writings. Something is lost in just quoting from them. While the points of doctrine are about the same there is a greater warmth in the expression and a clearer revelation of the person himself. These should be read in their entirety, but a few quotations will help.
"There is no mode of life in the world more pleasing and more full of delight than continual conversation with God; only those who practice and experience it can understand it." (Second Letter)
"I am not saying that to do this it is necessary to curb oneself unreasonably; no, we must serve God in a holy freedom; we must do our work faithfully, without distress or anxiety, recalling our mind to God calmly and tranquilly whenever we find it distracted from Him." (Third Letter)
Really, to go to work on Brother Lawrence's methods and make this exercise of the Presence of God a daily habit is certain to bring amazing results. Above all it develops a sense of gratitude and a delight in praising God for His goodness and mercy. We were, after all, created for this and the more we grow into it as a way of life, the more we can truly get it all together and begin to function as the kind of special creation that God intended us to be. Surely this is God's country.
LESSON PART II
LAWRENCE OF THE RESURRECTION
by Very Rev. Camilo Maccise, OCD; Superior General
I. INTRODUCTION
In the joy of celebrating the centenaries, feast days and other memorable occasions within the Order, there slips from the memory, no doubt, other historical Carmelites dates, worthy of remembrance. Among these there is a date dear to our friars and nuns in France, where the Teresian Carmel has borne many fruits of sanctity. To be precise, on the 12th of February 1691, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection died in our monastery in Paris, which is at the present moment the seat of the Catholic Institute.
II. BROTHER LAWRENCE OF THE RESURRECTION (1614-1691)
There must be few among us who do not know Brother Lawrence, who was born in Lorraine in 1614. He was a humble lay brother, cook and sandal maker to the large community of formation. He also had a great knowledge of the ways of prayer and of life in the presence of God. On his death in 1691, he left behind his writings on the practice of the presence of God, at once simple and accessible, as well as admirable and profound. Because of the influence of his friend, Msgr. Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, his writings were very quickly translated into German and English, and thence into other languages. He became rapidly known by our Protestant and Anglican friends as well.
Countless of our friars and nuns have been profoundly helped by the teaching of Brother Lawrence. It goes without saying that this faithful disciple of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa understood in a remarkable way the charism of Carmel: to so dwell under the gaze of the living God as to experience, in a mysterious way, the ineffable Presence who lives within us.
Our Rule invites us to meditate day and night on the law of the Lord, watching in prayer. In the Way ofPerfection, our Mother Saint Teresa exhorts us to accustom ourselves to "living alongside such a Friend, to approach God interiorly, and even in the midst of occupations, withdraw within ourselves." To a religious eager to perfect rapidly his love of God, our Father and Brother John of the Cross, counsels "strive to be incessant in prayer, and in the midst of your corporal practices do not abandon it. Whether you eat, or drink, or speak, or converse with lay people, or do anything else, you should always do so with the desire for God and with your heart fixed on Him." Thérèse of the Infant Jesus was able to affirm to her sister Geneviève: "I truly believe that I have never been three minutes without thinking of God. It's only natural to think of someone you love." Elizabeth of the Trinity described her Carmelite life as "a communion with God from morning to evening, and from evening to morning" Our own Constitutions sum up this tradition by inviting us to "try to live in God's presence by faith, hope and charity" while the Constitutions of our Carmelite sisters add to the same words: "and make their entire life a prayerful quest for union with God."
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection is an outstanding witness to this Carmelite tradition: "the painstaking and continual practice of the presence of God." He wrote in one of his letters to a religious sister:
I am sending you one of these books which treat of the presence of God. To my way of thinking, the whole of the spiritual life consists in this, and it seems to me that a person becomes spiritual in a short time, when this is done as often as possible.
In the whole wide world, there is not a way of life sweeter or more delightful than continual conversation with God. Only those can possible understand, who have practiced and experienced it. Really, I would not advise you to do anything except the following: don't seek for these consolations in this practice, rather do it out of love, and because God wants it.
If I were a preacher, I wouldn't preach anything else except the practice of the presence of God. If I were a spiritual director, everyone would be advised thus, so much do I consider it at once necessary and easy.
The slightest thing, like "flipping the omelet over in the pan," Brother Lawrence did "for the love of God." Everything was accompanied by "this little inward glance," a glance of "the heart which is the first of the body's members to have life, and which dominates them all." This glancing at God is such that it "imperceptibly kindles a divine fire in the soul, which blazes up fiercely with the love of God."
III. CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENARY IN FRANCE AND IN THE ORDER
In the midst of the Centenary of Saint John of the Cross, our friars and sisters in France celebrated a Centenary year in honor of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, Msgr. Jaeger, Bishop of Nancy, presiding. The Diocese of Nancy was the birth place of our humble Carmelite, as well as of the Provincials, Fathers Jean-Philippe Houdret and Dominique Poirot. Among those initiatives appropriate for spreading the message of Brother Lawrence, I would like to note the new edition of Écrits it entretiens sur la Pratique de la présencede Dieu. This has been prepared and presented by Fr. Conrad de Meester and published by Editions du Cerf at Paris.
However, the centenary was not limited to just one apostolic action. As a central focus of their Carmelite life, our friars and sisters celebrated the centenary as a year of the practice of the presence of God, renewing at the same time their earnest search for the Lord. They invited all of the Teresian family to join them, including the Secular Carmelites and those congregations affiliated with us. A text of Brother Lawrence was chosen for each month, to encourage "this practice of the presence of God (which) fosters a life of prayer and grows out of it."
At the suggestion of the Provincials of France, the Definitory General willingly agreed to extend the centenary to all of the provinces of the Order that would desire to participate. Included in this text you will find the list of the twelve texts of Brother Lawrence, which were helpful for inspiring the practice of the presence of God for each month.
IV. THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN EACH OTHER AND IN HISTORY
For my part, I would like to develop two thoughts that suggested themselves to me on the occasion of this centenary.
The first thought is theological: Brother Lawrence found God everywhere . . . .He felt no need to run off making retreats, because he found in his ordinary work the same God to love and adore, who was to be found in the depths of solitude. It appears to me that the contemporary viewpoint of theology and spirituality carries on this custom of finding God everywhere, emphasizing particularly His presence in each other and in history.
The grace I would wish from the centenary of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection is help, not only to "go to God by recognizing him intimately present in continual conversation," but also to put into effect the other form of the practice of the presence of God - to find him present in those around us. In a word, this means to unite in this practice of the presence of God, the "first commandment, and the second which resembles it."
This presence of God in those around us is one that is real and takes many forms. By the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus, God has, in a certain way, "united himself with each person." There is a privileged giving and revealing of this presence, in our brothers and sisters of the Christian faith, both individually and as a group. But we are also invited to recognize as belonging to us, those who are not of the Christian faith, believers of other religions, and those who do not believe at all.
One of the truly special revelations of this presence of God is to be found in the destitute and those who suffer. This is one of the practices of the presence of God amongst the teachings of the humble Brother Lawrence that can lead us, in the world of today, to a concrete and dynamic presence with which to respond to the "challenges issued to our vows by the problems of work, of marginalization and oppression."
Consequently, it is important to re-read and put into practice the experience of God proposed by Brother Lawrence, to learn how to discover the Lord in the events of history, and from that to discern the signs of the times. This experience of God in history stimulates us to go to him, to live in relationship with him, through our social and human events. To take part in the building up of the world can be and ought to be, the place where we encounter God; and we do that just as well in things positive as in those that are negative. We will be just as aware of his of his presence in goodness and in truth, as in disastrous situations and the apparent triumph of evil. He reveals himself to us as the God of life, who calls us to give our life for one another. He makes us understand "how rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God," for he is always greater, always completely other. Last but not least, it is the signs of hope that teach us to recognize the presence of the Lord - for along the paths of life of individuals and of peoples, he is the God of hope.
I invite you, then, to let yourselves be evangelized by the practice of the presence of God, such as Brother Lawrence taught and handed on to us. By doing so, we ourselves become evangelizers of the presence of God: love of neighbor is to the point and effective, first choices are for the poorest of the poor, and an attempt is made to bring about universal brotherhood in the Church and in society.
V. A YEAR OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD
We invite you, our friends in the Faith, to live as a remembrance of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a year of the Presence of God, turning your hearts even more frequently towards the living God. From the spring of this presence, our spiritual life will renew its dynamism, rediscover a sense of adoration, and receive a new evangelizing impetus. God is present: "Consider this often and well," insists Brother Lawrence. To help us in this, there follows a saying of Brother Lawrence for each month:
January: The presence of God: in this consists the whole of the spiritual life. To persevere in this is to become spiritual in a short time.
February: Our sanctification depends, not on changing what we do, but rather on doing for God what we normally do for ourselves.
March: A little lifting up of the heart suffices. A little remembrance of God adoring him within: brief as they may be, these prayers are very pleasing to God.
April: This sweet and loving glance of God imperceptibly kindles a divine fire in the soul, which blazes up fiercely with the love of God.
May: The holiest and most necessary practice of the spiritual life is the presence of God: of itself it is pleasing, it accustoms us to his presence, and by it we converse lovingly with him all the time.
June: Those who have the breeze of the Holy Spirit sail the same while asleep.
July: It is not necessary to be always in church, to be with God. We ought to make our hearts an oratory, into which we retire from time to time, speaking with him there, sweetly, humbly and lovingly.
August: During your meals and when dealing with others, lift your heart up to God often: the slightest movement will always be most agreeable to him.
September: There is not a way of life in the world sweeter or happier than continual conversation with God.
October: We could not have too much confidence in such a good and faithful friend, who never fails us in this world or the next.
November: The presence of God, a little difficult at the beginning, practiced with fidelity, brings about in the soul wonderful effects.
December: Do everything for the love of God. Everything can be used to show God our love and to maintain his presence within . . .I flip over my omelet in the pan for love of God.
The Secular Carmelites will prefer before all else to remain in the presence of God, continually fulfilling His holy Will.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment