CARMEL
The name of the founder of Carmel is not known or perhaps it was
lost in antiquity. The Order descends, according to a venerable
tradition, from the holy mountain that gave it its name and
perpetuates in the Church of Christ. The style of life was begun on
Mount Carmel by the very first monks, sons of prophets, to whom Elias,
confirming their institution, also gave the example of a true
religious life.
In Palestine, Mount Carmel rises suddenly out of the plains, that
of Acre to the North, that of Saron to the South, Esdrelon to the
East, and the Mediterranean forming the Western boundary.
Leaving the cities, the hermits had separated themselves from their
fellowmen and installed themselves on the flanks of the
mountain. Sometimes, though rarely, they descended to communicate to
the people, the Sacred Fire conceived by them while in contemplation
on the heights.
Such a way of life, practiced by these solitaries, these men of
Heaven, who had withdrawn from the world to give themselves up to
prayer and meditation, was the continuation of the Spirit of
Elias.
The constantly recurring invasions of the Saracens made precarious
the situation of that handful of early Carmelites in the Holy
Land. They were constrained to go elsewhere and they fled to Europe,
where very soon other monasteries began to spring up in the big
cities. Very shortly, women began to desire to follow that same
austere way of life. Some continued to live in the bosom of their
families, while others gathered together in small groups, forming a
community. Soon, Carmelite convents sprang up in Sicily, in Spain, in
Flanders and in England. Several convents of Carmelites, however, let
themselves drift into a certain slackness that was far from the
austere rule laid down by the first Carmelites. There were, here and
there, some local reforms, which, though praiseworthy, did not exactly
succeed in finding that fervor and austerity of contemplative prayer,
or the complete abnegation of self, that had animated the pioneers of
the Order.
For the Carmelite spirituality to triumph completely over this
degeneration, history had to wait until the 16th century, when
St. Theresa of Avila, one of the greatest mystics the world has ever
known, revived the ancient spirit of Elias.
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The Carmelite Nun is a being entirely consecrated to a life of
loving reparation. She cooperates in the Passion of Christ, burdening
herself in His company with the sins of the world and redeeming them
at the price of her immolation united to that of the Divine
Victim.
Love of her neighbor is the measure of her real love of Christ. At
the feet of her Lord, she is united with all mankind, and in her
penances as in her prayers, she has ever present in her mind the
manifold needs of the priesthood ... the Church ... the whole
world.
Saint Theresa of Lisieux in her wonderful, "Story of a
Soul", has a page which might be entitled, "The Psychology
of the Carmelite Vocation".
"One Sunday," she wrote, "on closing my book at the
end of Mass, a picture of the Crucifixion slipped partly out, showing
one of the Divine Hands, pierced and bleeding. An indescribable
thrill, such as I had never before experienced passed through me; my
heart was torn with grief at the sight of the Precious Blood falling
to the ground, with no one caring to treasure it as it fell. At once I
resolved to remain continuously in spirit at the foot of the Cross,
that I might receive the divine dew of salvation and pour it forth
upon souls.
"From that day, the cry of my dying Savior: `I thirst!'
resounded incessantly in my heart, kindling within it new fires of
zeal. To give my Beloved to drink was my constant desire; I was
consumed with an insatiable thirst for souls, and I longed at any cost
to snatch them from the everlasting flames of hell ... I poured out the
Precious Blood of Jesus upon souls, and that I might quench His
thirst, I offered to Jesus these same souls refreshed with the dew of
Calvary. But the more I gave Him to drink, the greater became the
thirst of my own poor soul, and this was indeed my most precious
reward."
In this page is found the attitude of a Carmelite. She is always to
be found at the foot of the Cross, alert and vigilant; ready at any
moment to continue the redemptive work of her Spouse.
What does one do in Carmel? One lives in the unity of charity, by
means of a mystical death and joy. St. Theresa wished this joy to be a
distinctive mark of her daughters, who in stifling their own spirit,
seek ever to go on refining it, so as to deliver it free and agile on
the sublime plane of contemplation.
Rising above the miserable vanities of the world, the Carmelite
labors in the sphere where she dwells, to form of her life a divine
poem. For her each day is merely another verse added to her sonnet of
love.
"The life of Carmel is very simple," said a great
Religious, Mother Mary of Jesus, foundress of the Carmel of
Paray-le-Monial. "One begins with the entire gift of self; the
soul is given to God and then it is left to Him to do with it as He
pleases, and she is consumed in His service."
Humility, mortification, prayer, solitude, silence with Faith, Hope
and Charity: here are the rock-like foundations on which leans the
very existence of prayer that proceeds from God and ends in Him.
By means of a complete detachment from all pleasure, coupled with a
true poverty of spirit, in tranquil consent to the Divine Will, the
soul reaches that simple and loving knowledge of God and all His
works, that is, the fruit of our activity favored by grace.
In one word, a Carmelite must relinquish all, annihilating herself
in everything, to live only in God in solitude with regard to her
daily life down to the last day.
Every Carmel is, in reality, a mountain, the apex of which touches
Heaven, to seek for light and grace to be able to distribute it on
earth. It is an elect abode where only strong souls can dwell and
where the door is ever open to welcome the Divine Guest.
Like Mary Magdalene, every Carmelite breaks the vase of precious
ointment of her life to silently bathe the feet of Jesus with its
perfume.
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