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Carmel in the World
2011. Volume L, Number 3
– Fiftieth Year
Contents:
Milestones on the Road to
Eternity
Growing Awareness of the
Lay Carmelite’s Vocation and Mission in the Carmelite Order, 1971-1983
The Second Vatican
Council, the Laity, and the Carmelite Family: A Tribute to Fr Redemptus
Valabek, O.Carm.
The Carmelite Rule and
Lay Carmelites (below)
…and now…let us look to
the future! (Inculturation of the Carmelite Charism in emerging regions)
The Carmelite Rule and Lay Carmelites
Most Reverend Joseph Chalmers, O.Carm., Prior General 1995-2007.
There are many ways to live the Carmelite life and many forms of being a Lay
Carmelite. However the vast majority of Carmelite Laity are members of the
Third Order and a very important moment during my service as Prior General
was the publication of the Rule for The Third Order of Carmel in 2003. This
was not without controversy as some friars believed that such a document was
unnecessary. I believe, however, that the controversy should not overshadow
the importance of the document in the life of members of the Third Order. In
this article I want to look at the Third Order Rule in the context of the
Carmelite tradition and particularly in relation to the Rule of St. Albert.
The Rule of St. Albert
The founding charism of the Carmelite Order is contained in the Rule of St.
Albert, commonly called the Carmelite Rule. By this I mean that all the
elements that go to make up the Carmelite vocation are to be found, at least
in embryonic form, in the Rule. This document began life as a brief letter
written to a community of hermits on Mount Carmel by St. Albert, the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, somewhere between 1206 and 1214. We cannot date it
any more exactly because we do not possess the actual letter but we have a
very good idea what was in it because of some detective work. St. Albert
arrived in the Holy Land from his native Italy to take up his new task given
him by the Pope early in 1206 and he was murdered in 1214 by a cleric whom
he had deposed from his job as being unworthy. At some point during this
period, the hermits – or a group of them – went to Albert, and asked him to
write for them some directions for their way of life.
In
this letter or “formula vitae” (formula of life), St. Albert based
his prescriptions on the “avowed purpose” (Rule, 3) of the hermits, i.e.,
what they themselves had been living for some time and how they wanted to
proceed. We do not have any indication in what this “avowed purpose”
consisted but it was probably a verbal explanation given by the hermits to
St. Albert regarding how they wanted to follow Christ. St. Albert’s letter
became an official Rule of the Church in 1247 when Pope Innocent IV approved
it with certain modifications to allow the hermits to make foundations in
cities and to basically change their lifestyle to become like the other
mendicant friars of the time.
Our Carmelite Vocation
I
said that the Rule contains in embryonic form all the elements of the
Carmelite vocation. In the first place, in Chapter 2, St. Albert states that
all Christians are called to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ and to serve
him faithfully with a pure heart. In the succeeding chapters, St. Albert
lays down the fundamental principles by which the hermits are to do so.
These principles are like seeds scattered in good soil, which will bloom and
produce a bountiful harvest down through the centuries.
St. Albert addressed
himself to the hermits “who live near the spring on Mount Carmel” (Rule, 1).
This was the spring of Elijah the Prophet and it can be visited to this day.
It is not possible that the hermits were unaware of the connection that
Elijah had with Mount Carmel and the Prophet was also seen as the model for
all monks at the time. The early Carmelites were very aware of the example
of Elijah, which inspired them to continue their spiritual journey despite
difficulties. When the Carmelites arrived in Europe in the middle decades of
the thirteenth century they faced grave difficulties. The very existence of
the Carmelite Order was threatened and they looked to Scripture to find
there an inspiration for the way of life they wished to follow. They began
to construct for themselves a history of the Order in which the Prophet
Elijah loomed large. Although the stories of Elijah founding the Order were
not factually accurate they did convey a great truth that the Order’s
understanding of its own vocation was bound up in the figure of the prophet.
The naming of the
oratory on Mount Carmel, built in the middle of the cells according to the
Rule (14) in honour of Our Lady, is the beginning of the great Carmelite
Marian devotion. Carmelites knew they were not alone. Mary, their Patroness,
Mother and Sister, accompanied them and led them to the mountain of glory,
Christ the Lord.
In the individual
prescriptions of the Rule can be found the fundamental values that help us
to follow Christ and fulfil God’s plan for us. One of the values that the
Rule holds dear is the primacy of the Word of God, which must accompany
everything we do (Rule, 19; cf. Colossians 3:17). We are to ponder on the
law of the Lord day and night (Rule, 10; cf. Psalm 1:2). At the time the
Rule was written by Albert, the spiritual life was understood as a battle
against a powerful enemy who wished to destroy us. We are to clothe
ourselves in God’s armour because the devil, our foe, is on the prowl like a
roaring lion, so that we may be ready to withstand the enemy’s ambush (Rule,
18; cf. 1 Peter 5:8). The early monks went into the desert to fight the
demons. Our battle is not so much against external demons but the ones
inside ourselves, which seek to prevent us from becoming what God knows we
can be.
The enemy wishes to
prevent the Carmelite from reaching the centre. St. Teresa of Jesus reminds
us in her Interior Castle that at the centre of each human being lives God.
The end of the spiritual journey in this world is to arrive at the centre
but first we must do battle with the enemy. The armour, which is provided
for us, is made up of chastity, meditation, holiness, love and faith (Rule,
19; cf. Ephesians 6:10-17). The sword of the spirit is the Word of God and
with this sword we can defeat all enemies. We are to use also work and
silence as valuable aids on the journey (Rule, 20 & 21; cf. 2 Thessalonians
3:7-12).
St. Albert laid down
that the hermits were to build an oratory in the midst of the cells where
each morning they were to gather for Mass (Rule, 14). They had to leave
their individual cells and gather together in the centre. This practical
reality was also a symbol for the spiritual journey. They do not walk this
path singly but as members of a community and so they leave the isolation of
their individual cells to gather together in the centre of the community.
They then return to their cells, strengthened by the prayers of their
brothers, to continue their struggle against the enemy. Our fellow
Carmelites are a great support to us as we seek to follow Christ but, at
times, they are also the instruments of our purification and transformation
in God’s hands. It is very easy to love our neighbour if we do not have one,
but how we treat other people day in and day out will show us how far
advanced we are on the spiritual path. What effect do we have on others? Do
people like to see us or are we a torment for others? Do we build up
community or tear it down?
The Carmelite Way
St. Albert sums up
the Rule as “a few points I have written down to provide you with a standard
of conduct to live up to” (Rule, 24). These few points have inspired
millions of people throughout the centuries to follow Jesus Christ according
to the Carmelite way. This Rule has nurtured many saints and encouraged many
ordinary people to live humble lives dedicated to Christ. The Rule has lost
none of its power to inspire. We are assured that “our Lord, at his second
coming, will reward anyone who does more than he is obliged to do” (Rule,
24). Fr. Kees Waaijman, a Dutch Carmelite, has brought out the connection
between the last chapter of the Rule and the story of the Good Samaritan in
St. Luke’s Gospel (10:25-37). The Carmelite is to be like the innkeeper who
works generously for the good of others but who is always aware that the
Lord could return at any moment. The innkeeper is very busy but keeps an eye
on the horizon looking for the first sign of the Lord. It is interesting to
note that St. Luke places the story of the Good Samaritan very close to the
experience of the lack of hospitality that Jesus had in Samaria. St. Luke
tells us:
When the days for
his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to
Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a
Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not
welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the
disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call
down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and
they journeyed to another village.
(Luke. 9:51-56).
Obviously Jesus did
not hold grudges. What about us?
The hermits on Mount
Carmel began a journey that we are continuing today. Also each one of us is
on his or her own individual journey. We are assisted by our fellow
Carmelites but no one can walk this path for us. We have to do it ourselves
and face God at the end. You can fool some of the people some of the time
but God’s gaze goes right to the heart.
Eight hundred years
after these small beginnings, the Carmelite Family numbers many thousands of
people all over the world, who look back to the experience of these hermits
as a source of inspiration. The hermits could not have been aware of the
significance of their actions. They just wanted to follow Christ and they
were inspired to do so by living as hermits on Mount Carmel. Not long after,
when they moved out into Europe, they changed their lifestyle somewhat in
order to serve the poor in the new cities. What they did was not completely
new but all the elements of how they wanted to live in allegiance to Jesus
Christ formed the impetus for a new religious family in the Church. Their
decisions had a profound impact on the Church and on our lives.
We
live in a very different world from those first hermits so what on earth can
a thirteenth century document written for hermits have to say to us? Not
long after it was written the hermits wished to change their lifestyle
somewhat to become more actively involved with people but the eremitical
beginnings were never forgotten. Every reform within the Order harked back
to these beginnings about which little was known, except by means of the
text of the Rule.
The Order has rediscovered the importance of the Rule for our life and as a
result we have seen many studies written of this ancient text and new
discoveries of possible meanings for today. New groups of lay people have
sprung up in various parts of the world dedicated to the study of the Rule
or to living out its implications in various ways. A Rule that is officially
recognised by the Church has an enduring quality. In some way God speaks to
men and women who are called to live the Carmelite vocation through this
Rule of life, no matter how far they are removed culturally from the text.
It is very useful for all of us, religious or lay, to read the Carmelite
Rule carefully and ask God to show us what values are contained there that
can help each of us to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ today.
St. Albert wrote his
letter for a community of hermits who lived on Mount Carmel. By the time
this letter became a Rule by the approval of Pope Innocent IV in 1247, the
Carmelites had spread out to various parts of Europe and had begun to serve
people in various ministries. The text of the Rule was changed by the Pope
to accommodate such changes and to turn these lay hermits into religious.
However, other legislation was also needed to fit changing circumstances.
This was done not by constantly changing the Rule (only the Pope can change
the Rule), but by using another vehicle common to religious orders – the
Constitutions. These are intended to explain the spirituality of the Rule in
ever changing circumstances and provide a precious source of assistance to
religious in living the consecrated life.
The latest
Constitutions date from 1995 and have been a source of great renewal for the
Order. The first text of the Constitutions we have dates from the General
Chapter held in London in the year 1281. Presumably there were earlier
Constitutions but these are the earliest we have. In this text there is an
instruction to young Carmelites so that they can explain to others the
origins of the Order. Throughout the centuries, the Rule has remained the
same but the Constitutions have changed in order to help Carmelites live
their vocation in changed circumstances.
Living the
Carmelite Way
I wrote in the letter
of promulgation of the Third Order Rule on 16th July, 2003:
The text of the
Third Order Rule, which I have pleasure in presenting, has had a long
history. It has been claimed that the first such rule was written by Blessed
John Soreth in 1455. It was to him that Pope Nicholas V addressed the famous
bull Cum Nulla in 1451, thus putting the official seal of approval on lay
people being members of the Order, living our spirituality in their own
situation. It was decided after the Second Vatican Council to submit the
Third Order Rule to a process of updating. This process has lasted for more
than thirty years and has involved the input of many Lay Carmelites. An
international commission was appointed by the General Council after the
General Chapter of 1995 to oversee the final stages of this process. A new
text was submitted to a meeting of Lay Carmelites held in Rome during the
Jubilee Year 2000 and the comments of the participants were incorporated
into the final draft. The new General Council, elected at the General
Chapter of 2001, wrote the final document to be presented to the Holy See
for approval. This approval was received on 11th April 2003.
The Rule for Lay
Carmelites does for lay people what the Constitutions do for the religious:
it takes the values contained in the Carmelite Rule, written between 1206
and 1214, and makes them understandable in our modern world. The Rule for
Lay Carmelites takes the values of the Carmelite Rule, written by St.
Albert, and re-presents them in a modern way. Let us now look more closely
at this Rule for Lay Carmelites, which has the title, Living the
Carmelite Way.
The Second Vatican
Council made it clear that all Christians were called to holiness, which
means to be like God, sharing God’s own life. It is a constant temptation
for human beings to try to confine God to their very limited ways of seeing
things. When we bring God down to human size, it is an idol we worship. The
prophet Elijah teaches us to be faithful to God as God is no matter how
surprising and new that may seem to be. We must let God be God, which means
that we must avoid all temptation to limit God. Therefore there are many
ways to God. In Eucharistic Prayer IV we pray for all those who seek God
with a sincere heart. Some of the ways of seeking God are more secure than
others. The Carmelite way has been hallowed by tradition and by the lives of
countless saints. God calls some people to follow Christ along the Carmelite
way while others find the Franciscan way or the Jesuit way more helpful to
them. These ways are not mutually exclusive. All Christian spiritualities
must say basically the same thing, although in different ways, because they
are all focused on the following of Christ, or “living in allegiance to
Jesus Christ” as the Carmelite Rule states.
The Rule of St.
Albert gives us in a nutshell all the basic ingredients of the Carmelite
way. The Rule for the Third Order of Carmel expands these to help lay people
live in allegiance to Jesus Christ by living the Carmelite way. The first
part of the Third Order Rule lays out the spirituality and the charism of
the Order with emphasis on the lay vocation. Carmelites are, of course,
members of the Church as the Carmelite charism is a gift raised up by the
Holy Spirit within the Church. Therefore they must fully accept the faith of
the Church as expressed in the creed and the teaching of the Magesterium,
that is, the Pope and bishops. The Carmelite way assumes the Catholic faith
and simply chooses to emphasise certain parts of it. Therefore it is
important to know and appreciate as much as possible what is our faith. We
have noted an increasing problem of people seeking to enter consecrated life
who know very little about their faith. I presume the same could be said
about people seeking entry into the Lay Carmelites. An integral part of any
formation programme for Lay Carmelites will be formation in the basics of
the Christian faith.
Article 10 of
Living the Carmelite Way, tells us that Lay Carmelites
are called to a
task that is proper to them, that is, to illuminate and rightly value all
temporal realities in such a way that these things are brought to fulfilment
according to Christ’s values. In this way they offer praise to the Creator,
the Redeemer and the Sanctifier in a world so secularised that it seems to
live and act as if God no longer existed.
Your particular
challenge is to live the Gospel within this secularised world and so
transform it by your lives. The world in which we live faces us all with
many challenges. The social structures that supported faith have disappeared
in many areas and the option to follow Christ needs courage. The vocation of
lay Christians, above all, is to be a leaven at the heart of the secular
world. Lay Carmelites live this vocation, inspired by the centuries old
Carmelite tradition.
After a suitable
period of formation, the Lay Carmelite makes his or her profession and in
this way enters the Carmelite Order. Profession is not just a devotional
commitment; it is a plan of life and a strengthening of the baptismal
promises. The particular Carmelite way of living out our baptism is to
“learn to appear before Christ empty-handed, by placing all their love in
Christ Jesus, who becomes personally their holiness, their love, their
justice and their crown.” (Living the Carmelite Way, 12). You commit
yourselves “not to serve false idols, but to attain the freedom of loving
God and neighbour” (article 13). Holiness lies in the fulfilment of the
double command of Jesus to love God above all things and to love our
neighbour as ourselves.
In St. John’s Gospel,
Jesus calls for a higher standard when he said, “love one another as I have
loved you” (John 15:12). Jesus said that he called his disciples “friends.”
God begins the dialogue of friendship and we respond by the way we live. The
Carmelite ascends Mount Carmel, which is a journey away from
self-centredness to God-centeredness. (Living the Carmelite Way, 17).
In this way we enter into the mystery of the Blessed Trinity where we
experience an intimate relationship with God. However the journey is long.
The Living the Carmelite Way points out that “gradually Jesus must
become the most important person in the Lay Carmelites’ existence,” so it is
a gradual process of taking on the values of Christ (Living the Carmelite
Way, 19). We should not think too soon that we have arrived at the
summit of Mount Carmel.
Lay Carmelites, where
possible, are to take a full part in the liturgical life of the Church,
especially sharing in the Eucharist, the source of the spiritual life (Living
the Carmelite Way, 37). This echoes Chapter 14 of the Rule of St.
Albert, which lays down that the hermits are to leave their cells and move
together to the oratory at the centre for the celebration of the Eucharist.
Daily community Mass was not a usual prescription in the thirteenth century
for hermits. The Eucharist is celebrated symbolically at the centre, in the
midst of the cells, because the Eucharist was to be at the heart of
Carmelite life. For the Lay Carmelite, the Eucharist must occupy a central
place in his or her spirituality, for it is in this sacrament that we
encounter Christ who gives his life to be our life, his strength to be our
strength. We cannot walk the spiritual path trusting in ourselves. St.
Thérèse of Lisieux teaches us that we have no other holiness than Christ
himself and that we can put no trust in our own strength. Lay Carmelites
extend the celebration of the Eucharist into daily life (Living the
Carmelite Way, 25). A very important part of this extension into daily
life is the struggle against the tyranny of sin in oneself (Living the
Carmelite Way, 27). It is not easy to defeat sin and we must always be
careful lest we stumble. Therefore the Sacrament of Reconciliation should be
an important part of the Lay Carmelite’s spiritual life.
Carmel of course is
marked by prayer, which is the intimate dialogue between God and the human
person. A life of prayer is, in itself, apostolic as we are called to pray
for the needs of the world but prayer also spurs us on to action to make the
message of Christ a reality in our own time and place. The Liturgy of the
Hours “represents a reminder during the day of the grace that wells up from
the Eucharist and nourishes an authentic encounter with God” (Living the
Carmelite Way, 38). It also is a share in the intimate dialogue of
Christ with the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Rule for Lay Carmelites
points out that we must also go into our room and pray to the Father in
secret, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel (Matthew 6:6; Living the
Carmelite Way, 39). Great importance must be given to the prayerful
listening to the Word of God (ibid.).
We are accompanied on
our journey of transformation by Our Blessed Lady and are inspired by the
example of the Prophet Elijah (Living the Carmelite Way, 34 & 35).
The scapular is the beloved symbol in the Carmelite Family of our
relationship with Mary, our Mother, Sister and Patroness. Living the
Carmelite Way says of the scapular, quoting the letter of the Pope to
the Carmelite Family:
Those who wear the
scapular are called to be interiorly clothed with Christ and to show in
their lives his saving presence for the Church and for humanity. The
scapular reminds us of Mary’s protection which is given throughout the
course of life, particularly in the moment of passage to the full enjoyment
of glory. It also reminds us that Marian devotion, more than a collection of
pious practices, is a real habit, that is a permanent orientation of
Christian conduct.
(Living the Carmelite Way, 40).
Therefore Marian
devotion is not something separate from the rest of our lives; it must
inform all that we do. By wearing the scapular we take upon ourselves the
virtues of Our Blessed Lady. What are these virtues? To find out we must
read and meditate on the Word of God, especially the Gospels. There we
discover the first disciple of Jesus, the woman who heard the Word of God
and who put it into practice. It is difficult to really hear because we have
so many prejudices, of which we are not aware, prejudices that filter the
Word of God and try to tame it to become palatable so that it may fit into
the way we already live, therefore not upsetting our well-ordered lives.
In the Magnificat
(Luke 1:46-55), Our Lady breaks out into praise of God for all the wonders
accomplished in her. She was a contemplative, able to see as God sees and
love as God loves. She accompanies us on our journey of transformation. This
journey, the ascent of Mount Carmel, can be long and arduous. It passes
through mist and a dark night but we are never alone. We are of course
accompanied by our fellow Carmelites, members of the same Family, but we are
also accompanied by our saints who have gone before us marked by the sign of
faith, and especially Our Blessed Lady, our Patroness, our Mother and our
Sister.
The Lay Carmelite,
like St. Thérèse of Lisieux, is called to be “love in the heart of the
Church” (Living the Carmelite Way, 46). Carmel is apostolic and
therefore all Carmelites are concerned about the salvation of their
neighbour. The work of transformation that God accomplishes within us is not
for ourselves alone but contributes in a profound way to the ultimate
salvation of the world. Therefore while love obviously has an outward
thrust, it also transforms. St. Paul has beautifully described Christian
love in his first letter to the Corinthians:
If I speak in
human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a
clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all
mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but
do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I
hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it
is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is
not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over
wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
(1 Corinthians 13:1-8)
The reason that the
ascent of Mount Carmel, or the spiritual journey, or the journey of
transformation (different names for the same reality) is arduous is that
love such as described by St. Paul is not easy for us (cf. 1 Cor. 13). The
Carmelite way takes us on a journey where our human and limited ways of
seeing, behaving and loving are transformed into divine ways. Our vocation
is to become like God in our human way. In this way Lay Carmelites will
fulfil the profound mission given them in the Lay Carmelite Rule: “Every Lay
Carmelite is like a spark of love thrown into the forest of life: they must
be able to enflame anyone who approaches them” (Living the Carmelite Way,
44).
May Our Lady of Mount
Carmel and all the saints of Carmel assist every Lay Carmelite to become all
that God knows you can be and so fulfil God’s plan for you, for the Order
and for our world.
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