Glimpses Into the Present

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In our last edition of “Amigas”, we presented an article titled “Glimpses Into the Past”. It noted some of the effects which the recent documents concerning cloistered contemplatives, Vultum Dei quaerere and Cor orans, had on our St. Joseph’s Association. In this present article, we want to take a closer look at what has taken place in our Association as we have tried to put those documents, especially the norms of Cor orans into practice.

As we wrote in our previous article, Cor orans was like an electric shock! As with many Carmelites and other cloistered contemplatives, our first thought on reading it was, “This doesn’t apply to us! This isn’t our charism!” With time, we began to go beyond this first reaction. There followed a slow process of pondering which would bring us in the St. Joseph’s Association to understand that, since this is what the Church was asking of us, then, yes, it was part of our charism. A virtually unknown part, true, but when we looked more closely into the matter, with the explanations and clarifications of Archbishop Carballo and especially of our Father General, we discovered that it truly is an intrinsic part of our charism.

One of the main demands of Cor orans was the obligation of belonging to a Federation or Association, and one that was organized and active. Yes, St. Joseph’s was recognized as an Association, but its organization was quite reduced and its activity even smaller. As we wrote in the earlier article, we set to work and drew up our present Statutes.

It is no exaggeration to say that these Statutes dragged us out of our comfort zone! The activity demanded by Cor orans involves certain matters which we had tried to avoid, such as meetings, and it called us to a greater interaction with our Sisters. One frequently hears the phrase among Carmelites “God Alone and I”. With Cor orans, we found that this needs to be stretched a bit. Now, as one of our Carmelite Friars says, it is “God Alone and I, and a few other people”!

The shock of the demands of Cor orans was great, but no one lives in a state of shock forever. It has been more than two years since we updated our Statutes, and since then we have been trying to put them into action, and as we do so, we find that our initial fears – indeed, our initial panic! – had little basis in the reality which was asked of us. At the beginning, we were horrified by several matters, but, like swimming in cold water, once you get all the way in, it’s not as bad as you thought it would be!

The three matters which caused the most concern were

• The Religious Assistant
• Meetings
• The Visitations with the Coordinator as Co-Visitator

Our Religious Assistant, Fr. Stephen Watson, was introduced to our readers with an interview in our edition of March 2020. Any fears that the Fr. Stephen will lord it over the Monasteries in the Association has no basis in fact because he has no authority to do so. “The Assistant is a representative of the Holy See for the Federation (cf. CO, 149), not for the monasteries themselves, and that he is not a major superior (cf. CO 151), and therefore has no authority over the Federation,”6 still less over any of the monasteries.

As far as meetings go, we have had one so far, our initial meeting in Darien in March 2019, and we will have our next meeting in March of next year. You can read about our first – and so far only - meeting in our edition of July 2019. It is clear from that article that the experience was a great blessing and a most welcome grace from Our Holy Mother St. Teresa! We pray that our future meetings will be as blessed.

The Visitation with the Coordinator as Co-Visitator was another, and probably the primary cause for concern. However, just as the Religious Assistant has no authority over the Association, the Coordinator has no authority over the member Carmels. The canonical visitation with the Coordinator as Co-Visitator “does not diminish autonomy. The Co-visitator has no authority, she is not a major superior the Visitation is simply ad inquirendum et referendum,” that is, “to study and refer”.7

Well, it is said that “Fear multiplies the enemy!” In this case, fear certainly magnified the normal apprehension of a new experience into a nightmare of conjectures! The objections to the Coordinator taking part in the canonical visitations ranged from the statement that the Coordinator’s visit “limits autonomy” to the fear that it “destabilizes the community at its roots.” One monastery claims “the right not to be disturbed by anyone in their papal enclosure.”8

The wailing caused by the thought of a Nun from another Carmel coming into the enclosure was heart-rending! The cries were heard:

“Flee for your lives! Head for the hills!”

“Barricade the door! Tar and feather her if she gets in!”

(Believe me, I am not making any of this up! I couldn’t possibly!!)

Fear like this is a terrible thing. Far from drawing us closer to God, it makes us shrink into our own little world of nightmares. Fear does indeed multiply the enemy. It also changes a molehill into a threatening range of Himalayan giants and a pussycat into a monster! Our imagination takes over and expands something different into a terrifying assailant.

How can we deal with such fears? I knew someone who was afraid of snakes. Being a very sensible person, she first prayed to St. Patrick, and then she read up about snakes. Through she never became chummy with the critters, she did learn to see them in the light of truth, and this enabled her first to face and then to overcome her fear of snakes so that she didn’t panic at the sight of one.

As the Shepherd said in “Hinds’ Feet on High Places”: “Much-Afraid, don’t ever allow yourself to begin trying to picture what it will be like. Believe me, when you get to the places which you dread you will find that they are as different as possible from what you have imagined, just as was the case when you were actually ascending the precipice. I must warn you that I see your enemies lurking among the trees ahead, and if you ever let Craven Fear begin painting a picture on the screen of your imagination, you will walk with fear and trembling and agony, where no fear is.”9

We can trust our Shepherd to lead us safely by His Church through whatever dark valleys we encounter. He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”10 How do we know the truth in such situations?

With this article, we are doing something similar for those who are assailed by fears aroused by the demands of Cor orans. Since our meeting in March of 2019, several of our Carmels have experienced the new form of Visitations envisaged in our Statutes, both the sisterly visitations11 and the canonical visitations with the Coordinator and the Association Treasurer or a delegate taking part in the Visitation.12 In the 28 months since our elections, a number of visitations, both canonical and sisterly, have taken place. Two visitations were postponed, one because of COVID restrictions, and the other because of the sudden devolution of the community. We have asked those Carmels who did experience a visitation (five in all) to share their thoughts on their experiences and we present them here as they were submitted, unedited.

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