Return to the Sources…Again

[graciandelamadrededios]

As an appropriate follow-up to the preceding article, Mother Therese would like to share a happy experience her Community in Rochester had during the Visitation with their Bishop last October

Perfectae Caritatis n.2

The up-to-date renewal of the religious life comprises both a constant return to the sources of the whole of the Christian life and to the primitive inspiration of the institutes, and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time. This renewal, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and with the guidance of the Church, must be promoted in accordance with the following principles:

a) Since the final norm of the religious life is the following of Christ as it is put before us in the Gospel, this must be taken by all institutes as the supreme rule.

b) It is for the good of the Church that institutes have their own proper characters and functions. Therefore, the spirit and aims of each foundershould be faithfully accepted and retained, asindeed should each institutes’ sound traditions, for all of these constitute the patrimony of an institute.

The Canonical Visitation that we have once every triennium with our Bishop is always a time of special grace—at least this has been our experience. For us to open up to our higher Superior a wide window into our life, to share with him what is in our hearts, our hopes and desires, our difficulties and questions, the manner in which we strive to live our Teresian Carmelite life day in and day out, always gives us a Community boost and much encouragement. It also provides for our Bishop a deeper insight into our vocation to Carmel, so that he can more adequately fulfill his vigilance over us as the Church requires.

For our current Diocesan Shepherd, Bishop Salvatore Matano, one of the highlights of the Visitation process is his entrance into the enclosure for its inspection. He is delighted to see all the details of the Monastery and the places where we live out our daily life—not just the cloister doors and the Turns! Bishop Matano is a great lover of all things monastic and domestic: from the kitchen to the vestries, from the attic to the boiler room, from the Turn to the sacristy, from the Choir to the Refectory, from the dormitory halls to the cells! If we let him, he would even climb up into our bell tower! He loves and appreciates everything in the Monastery; he is so attentive in noting our explanations concerning the significance of the various places and aspects of our life and their relation to the Rule of Carmel and our Holy Mother St. Teresa. For the Visitation this past October, we asked him to do something special when he came into the enclosure. But before sharing this…

Some of the workrooms in our Monastery are rather large, and over the years the Sisters who use these workrooms have asked permission to divide the room into a work-space and a prayer-space (a little hermitage). Carmelite nuns are quite adept at finding whatever is handy to put up a room divider, and in no time a tiny Teresian hermitage appears. That’s not surprising really, seeing that we’re descendants of “our holy fathers of the past, those hermits whose lives we aim to imitate” as our Holy Mother says. (cf. Way of Perf. 11 n. 4)

 

As we well know, our Holy Mother herself provided hermitages for her daughters, and she and her daughters used them for prayer. It is recorded that she had as many as ten hermitages in St. Joseph’s— some in the garden and others within the house. This was one of the ways in which our Holy Mother “returned to the sources”, that is, to the life and Primitive Rule of the early Hermit-Fathers on Mount Carmel. From its origins our Order was never purely eremitical; there was always a good balance of communitarian and eremitical elements as is shown in the Primitive Rule that was adapted to life in Europe by Pope Innocent IV. Our Holy Mother embraced that balance when forming the life of the Discalced. Since “unceasing prayer is the most important aspect of the Rule” (Way of Perf. 4 n. 2), she was particularly inspired by the central precept of the Rule: “Each of you is to stay in his own cell or nearby, pondering the law of the Lord, day and night and keeping watch at his prayers unless attending to some other duty.” (Rule n. 8) So, for the renewed way of life she established in Carmel, she placed much importance on solitude, for “to get used to solitude is a great help for prayer” (Way of Perf. 4 n. 9), and thus she legislated the use of the cell and hermitage in her Primitive Constitutions. She writes:

All of that time not taken up with community life and duties should be spent by each Sister in the cell or hermitage designated by the Prioress; in sum, in a place where she can be recollected and, in those days that are not feast days, occupied in doing some work. By withdrawing into solitude in this way, we fulfill what the Rule commands: that each one should be alone. (n.8)

…there should be a field where hermitages can be constructed so that the Sisters may be able to withdraw for prayer as our holy Fathers did. (n.32)

These same norms were incorporated into the later Alcala Constitutions. It is noteworthy that in these points our Holy Mother refers to the “sources”: what the Rule commands and as our holy Fathers did. Numerous other passages from her writings could also be cited, but these are sufficient to show her desire to draw from the early sources of Carmel and her insistence on solitude as “the state proper to our Order.” (cf. Letters 75, n.2) Would it be stating the obvious, or perhaps the not so obvious, to say that the purpose of the cell and hermitage is for prayer in solitude, and prayer in solitude facilitates finding God in the interior dwelling of our soul? It’s the repeated claim of our Holy Mother that if we desire to find God, “Within oneself, very clearly, is the best place to look.” (Life 40 n.6) But that’s the “stuff” of a whole other article!

For now…back to our Visitator, Bishop Matano! When our Bishop entered the enclosure, we asked him if he would bless four little hermitages. We explained to him a bit about the eremitical dimension of our life and our Holy Mother’s desire to return to the Primitive Rule and our early Fathers on Mount Carmel, adapting this manner of life to a Monastery of nuns, and about the use of the hermitage in St. Teresa’s schema of things. The Bishop was delighted! In the days preceding the Visitation we looked all over for a suitable “Blessing of a Hermitage”, but could find nothing, neither in the old 1964 Rituum nor in the current “Book of Blessings”. What a “fiddle-and-abother”! In the end, we just made one up ourselves, drawing inspiration for the blessing from the sources: the example of Christ in the Gospel, the Hermit-Fathers on Mount Carmel, and our Holy Mother St. Teresa. Below we share the blessing that our Bishop used. He was obviously moved to devotion as he prayerfully went from place to place, blessing each hermitage, as were the Sisters who accompanied him.

This beautiful experience during our Canonical Visitation gave to us a deeper appreciation of the origins of Carmel and of the spirit and aims of our Mother Foundress St. Teresa! For us, the use of these little hermitages represents a true return to the sources.

 

A Blessing of a Hermitage

Father, Most Holy, Your Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, has given us an example of solitary prayer by often withdrawing into the desert, and has taught us to go to our inner room, close the door and pray to You in secret.

Drawn by the word and example of Your Son, You have raised up in the Church the Hermit-Fathers on Mount Carmel who sought You in the solitude of the desert, and You inspired St. Teresa of Jesus to renew the life of prayer and solitude in Carmel.

Pour forth Most-Merciful Father, we humbly pray, Your abundant blessing + upon this hermitage in honor of N. that those who enter this sacred dwelling may be granted courage in spiritual warfare, offer You a heart purified of sin by virtue, and come to taste the sweetness of Your Divine Presence within them.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

 

Edited March 15 by graciandelamadrededios