The Carmelite Order

"The Carmelite Order was born of a gesture made by a group of friends who had fought and suffered together for months, perhaps even years, in the wars to regain and defend the Holy Land. They had fought for Christ and now decided to go the whole way and devote their lives wholly to him. So they settled on the western slope of Mount Carmel, determined to live in obedience to him after the fashion of the monks of old who in the solitude of the desert sought to live the Christian life to the full in imitation of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps because none of them had had any experience of monastic life, they approached the Patriarch of Jerusalem for rules around which they could organize their lifestyle. The Patriarch at the time (1206-1214) was Albert and he lived in nearby Acre. Being himself a Canon of St. Augustine, over fifty years of age and quite experienced in the monastic life, he drew up for them a short document setting forth the characteristic features of the new lifestyle they wished to embrace. This is what has come to be called The Carmelite Rule, a document which was to become the basis and point of reference for all who subsequently joined this new religious family founded by crusader hermits early in the 13th. century.

If we might recall them very briefly, the elements of monastic tradition recalled by Albert in response to the desires of the hermits of Mount Carmel were:

1. Since they had decided to embrace the eremitical life as a group (and not as individuals) they must elect one of themselves to preside over them. The Superior elected will then govern with the agreement and collaboration of all; he will live in the cell nearest to the entrance to their settlement so as to be more easily accessible to anyone seeking to join the group; and he will be responsible for assessing candidates and making due provision for their admission to and initiation into their particular way of life. He is to regard himself as the humble servant of the rest, while they in turn are to honour and obey him as the representative of Christ in their midst.

2. Each hermit is to live in a cave or cell of his own.
3. They are to spend their time meditating on the word of God and watching in prayer, unless
4. other duties require their attention.
5. Every morning they are to come together to celebrate the Eucharist.
6. All they possess is to be held in common and distributed to each according to his age and needs.
7. At least once a week, they are to come together to discuss the observance of the main points of the Rule and what concerns the salvation of their souls. This is the time to draw attention to any fault, be it in an individual or in the community as a whole, with a view to its correction.
8. They are to be austere in their eating habits: no meat at any time, a fast from the Exaltation of the Holy Cross to Easter. It was accepted that delicate health, illness or any just cause could excuse one from the fast or abstinence, as necessity knows no law.
9. The Patriarch then goes on to exhort them to live by faith, hope and charity and never to forget that life is an ongoing battle. Their whole energy must be directed, he said, towards loving God above everything else and loving their neighbour as themselves; and they were to look to the Lord alone for their salvation.
10. Work, something essential in the whole monastic tradition,is to be an integral part of their way of life. Following the example of St. Paul, it can be a means of earning their livelihood as well as a means of avoiding idleness - the occasion of so many temptations.
11. If they are to ponder God's law day and night, then silence is indispensable. During the day they must avoid all unnecessary speech and at night - from Vespers till Terce next morning - all communication is forbidden.
12. Should anyone wish to do even more than is required here, concludes Albert, he may do so, and the Lord will reward him when he comes. Let everything be done with that moderation which is the hallmark of all true virtue.

As you can see, the little Rule is a perfect synthesis of the most important points of monastic community living, and these are expressed as explicitly as any adult fully committed to the monastic ideal would need.

This is the first historical document we have of the crucial coming into being phase of the Carmelite Order. That little group of men was to be followed by an uninterrupted chain of people, all enthused by the same ideal, all supporting one another in their pursuit of it. Each generation would conceive of this ideal in its own way, and historical circumstances would play their part too in how it found expression and in the way it was passed on down the centuries.

Two elements which very soon became characteristic of the group were not even mentioned in the Rule, but they were in evidence very early in their history: the presence of Mary, enthroned as patroness from the beginning (their first church was dedicated to her), and of the Prophet Elias, whose memory was preserved in the fountain which bore his name and in the souls of the hermits.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem's approval was followed by papal approval, that of Honorius III in 1226 and of Gregory lX in 1229, a step which marked the juridical consolidation of what was now a living firmly established reality capable of coping with any kind of difficulty.

Just as well, for soon circumstances changed and tested their resilience: Mount Carmel grew increasingly insecure as the Saracens regained their control. To the hermits one mountain or cave was as good as another, and they began to look for alternatives. Thus it was that from 1238 "Carmelite" communities began to appear in various parts of the West: Cyprus, France, England, Germany, and Italy.

This change of environment brought with it an internal evolution and, if we may so express it, a broadening of horizons for the Carmelites. Europe brought them into contact with the latest development in religious life called Mendicant Orders. They quickly adapted to the spirit and structure of this new form of Order and were officially recognised as such by Pope Innocent IV in 1247.

When the hermits had presented their request to Patriarch Albert forty years earlier, the thought of founding an Order had probably never entered their heads; all they wanted were some guidelines for just one community. Now the Bull of Innocent IV turns the revised Albertine Rule into one of the monastic rules and established the Carmelites as a Mendicant Order. That is the chief significance of Pope Innocent's approval.

We have no completely reliable text of the Rule as originally given by Albert, but it can be reconstructed accurately enough by comparing that transmitted by Ribot with Pope Innocent's text, which has come down to us intact. Those clauses originating with Pope Innocent are: perhaps the requirement to recite the Divine Office in common, according to the Church's usage; certainly those clauses referring to a table, not eating outside the monastery, the right to make foundations in places other than the desert, the specific definition of the period of night silence.

The rapidity with which the Order spread and grew gives us some idea of how well it flourished under the Rule as amended by Pope Innocent IV: in 1287 it was divided into 9 provinces, by 1318 it had 12, there were 14 in 1321, and 18 in 1362, by which time it numbered some 12,000 religious.

Those who achieved the greatest fame for sanctity were: Albert of Sicily (late 13th century), Blessed Franco of Siena (d.1291), Peter Thomas (d.1366), Andrew Corsini (d.1373), and Blessed Nuño Alvarez Pereira (d.1431). From the end of the 13th century the Carmelites also became very involved in sacred learning, reaching the high point of that involvement during the 14th century.

The various factors which contributed to the decline of the Church in the second half of the 14th century affected the Carmelites as well as the other religious Orders. First there was the Black Plague (1348-50). This so decimated communities and even entire provinces that tradition was entirely broken; when it was over, the communities were frequently built up again with people who had no vocation or were merely sent scurrying thither by the panic which the plague had caused in them; those who had a vocation could not always find someone to train them in the Carmelite way of life. The Western Schism (1378-1417) aggravated the situation: Carmelites were divided in allegiance between two popes - one in Rome, the other in Avignon. Besides, bad example in the upper echelons of the Church did nothing to improve the atmosphere in its lower reaches. To complete the picture, one must add that the Hundred Years War between England and France (1337-1435) coincided largely with the factors just mentioned. One can readily imagine what this meant in terms of fire, pillage and general disruption of that peace and stability which studies and the monastic life need in order to flourish.

If we are to understand the 15th and 16th centuries to any degree all these elements must be borne in mind. From the Council of Constance (1414-1418) to that of Trent (1545-1563) the most urgent problem facing both the Church and the religious Orders was that of Reform. The Carmelites were no exception, and they persevered until success finally crowned their efforts.

The situation in which the Order found itself at the beginning of the 15th century prompted its superiors to petition the Holy See to adapt the Rule once again. This, they felt, would serve as a basis for the renewal or restoration of the Order. The regulations concerning fast and abstinence contained in the old Rule were inhibiting the youth of the 15th century from entering the Order, and without youth there was no hope of revitalising it. Besides, they found that those already in the Order either observed these regulations and injured their health or did not observe them and then suffered from scruples. The passage in the Rule ordering the religious to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night in their cells and to be watchful in prayer also gave rise to some difficulties of interpretation, particularly when taken too literally.

For these reasons, the General Chapter held at Nantes in 1430 decreed that the pope was to be asked to clarify or mitigate these points. As a result, Pope Eugene IV granted the Bull Romani Pontificis; it was dated 15 February 1432 and promulgated in 1435.

What this Bull did, in effect, was to allow meat to be eaten three times a week and permit the friars to leave their cells at suitable times to walk in the cloisters or to spend some time in the church. Eugene IV did not amend the text of the Rule in any way; these were marginal glosses which left the text itself, as approved by Innocent IV, intact.

This latest papal approval gave fresh impetus to the work of renewal which, thanks to the lead of successive Priors General and sometimes stimulated by those grass-roots initiatives which led to the phenomenon of reformed Congregations, was already

making steady progress. These "Congregations" were features of practically all the Orders at that time. The most important to emerge within the Carmelite Order were that of Mantua (1413-1783) and that of Albi (1499-1602). What happened was that, faced with the inability to reform the Order as a whole, the superiors allowed reformed monasteries to group together, with a superior who was directly responsible to the General; that gave them sufficient freedom to proceed with their intent. It was looked upon as a temporary expedient, which would cease to be necessary as soon as the rest of the monasteries embraced the same measure of reform. Obviously, self-government would then be no longer necessary. What happened in reality, however, was that after variously lengthy periods of independence these Congregations were simply re-incorporated into the main body of the Order.

Not surprisingly, relations between the reformed Congregations and the central government of the Order were not always cordial, and this did nothing to help the effectiveness of the intended reform. Such dissension, quite understandable when a new group forms within an institution, sometimes arose from the rather excessive privileges granted to the reformed members, sometimes from the exaggerated zeal with which the reformed tried to take over further monasteries and disturbed the peace of those brethren who preferred a more leisurely pace. There were also those who joined reformed groups for their own selfish reasons rather than from a genuine desire for greater perfection; these only complicated matters still further.

The Priors General who won most acclaim for their promotion of reform within the Order were: Bl. John Soreth (general 1451-1471), Bl. John Baptist of Mantua (1513-1516), Nicholas Audet (1514-62) and, finally, John Baptist Rossi (or Rubeo, as he was known to St Teresa). He became vicar general in 1562 and was general from 1564 to 1578.

Then came the Council of Trent and its reform of religious life generally. The Carmelite Order's response to its measures renewed its ancient vigour, so that by the time of the various suppression which took place in the 18th and 19th centuries it had reached a membership of 15,000.

Ever since Pope Innocent IV combined apostolate with contemplation for them, the Carmelite ideal had never changed, though the forms in which it has found expression have had to be adapted to changing circumstances, and the brief Rule has been explained and developed in the commentaries which the various Constitutions and spiritual treatises have made upon it.

The characteristic Carmelite devotion to Our Lady and St Elias has also found a variety of expressions down the centuries, but its development has retained continuity with the past. In Mary they found the perfect personification of the union with God to which the whole of Carmel aspires: «Mary is the Carmelite ideal come to life: a life of listening to God's word, of total commitment to His service in the work of salvation». The figure of Elias, exemplar of the man of prayer, served as a model and inspiration to the whole monastic tradition from its very beginnings. Its influence on Carmelite spirituality increased steadily until it reached a point at which Elias was regarded for several centuries as the literal founder of the Order."

-- Teresian Carmel: Pages of History by Fr Idelfonso Moriones, ocd

Teresian Reform

"As we come to treat of the monastery of St. Joseph, founded by Teresa of Jesus on 24 August 1562, it is as well to note that we shall be focussing primarily on Teresa herself, soon to become known as the Mother Foundress. She has reached the mature age of 47, with 27 years experience of religious life at the Incarnation behind her. Moreover her heart has been enriched with a deep and abiding experience of God, and is filled with a plan of living which she is convinced will make it easier for many consecrated souls to achieve that degree of union with God which she has reached herself after many years of searching and suffering. Note, too, that when her followers start to call he Foundress, they do so because they know that it was her creative spirit that gave birth to the communities into which they have entered, though she did so without breaking the continuity and connection with the whole previous tradition of the Church and of Carmel, as the last chapter makes clear.

Without further preamble, then, let us take a brief look at the most significant aspects of this new community which Mother Teresa has gathered round her.

The first important point is that she began this community with four postulants who entered directly from home. They were young, generous, ready for anything and Teresa was ready and willing to guide them in their undertaking and create with them a new community by organising their life in the way most suited to the achievement of their aims.

One aspect of Teresa's charismatic originality was this openness and availability to others; it enabled her to share her own experience with them simply and honestly, attract them by her example and inspire in them the desire to follow her on the path to the heights. Her mission among her own daughters was to help each of them to live in their own inimitable way what she had experienced herself. No amount of historical or theological analysis can give us a clear perception of this basic element. We can bring together all the words of wisdom which she has left us; we can collect quite a number of contemporary testimonies, but we will never succeed in knowing her ag well as any of those young nuns who had the good fortune to spend years in her company. Life is transmitted by living, and living together increases that knowledge which is later so difficult to pass on to others or translate into a set of principles. Nevertheless, in spite of that historical limitation of our knowledge, any effort to get as close as possible to the reality of life at St. Joseph's is justified.

Although Teresa always kept the end in view, and this was the same for everybody, she tried to teach it to her daughters according to the individual capacity of each one of them. Every soul has to live out its adventure alone with God, opposed by the devil and self-love. The search for God begins with baptism and goes on till death. And, since each person has their own particular dose of self-love, and is interfered with differently by the devil, the task of the guide is to show each individual what the right path is for him or her. Saint Teresa tried with all the means at her disposal to help her new companions understand that God is the prime mover, and, that while his ways are too mysterious for us to grasp, he does nevertheless need our cooperation, our effort. We may not be able to help him much, but we can certainly get in his way most effectively.

Those young nuns were quick to realise that Teresa's experience and wisdom were something out of the ordinary. To make sure that neither time nor her absence could remove such a treasure from their midst, they asked her to put her counsels to them in writing. Thus was born "The Way of Perfection" (1565): "This book treats of the advice and counsel that Teresa of Jesus gives to the nuns, her daughters." As if to say: this is what I tell them in our community meetings, in my conversations with them, and indeed whenever a favourable opportunity presents itself. The book was very quickly to become the extension of her personal presence. It was not just another book of theories, but a lived experience shared very effectively with anyone who approached it with an open mind and a desire to learn. While she was alive Teresa continued to teach them; when she died, the book continued to remind them of her teachings.

And so it was that in every new community, even in those founded after her death, Teresa was the real novice mistress. Each novice received her writings, and the appointed novice mistress felt she was there to help St. Teresa out by explaining any point the novice couldn't understand for herself. This aspect, fundamental to the understanding of the importance of the Way of Perfection in the history of Carmel, has caused some to call this book "The Teresian Gospel", and draw the parallel between the way in which the Gospels bring us to know Jesus and the way in which this book leads us to know Mother Teresa.

Bearing in mind then, that this book derives its effectiveness from the personality of its author st least as much as from the ideas it contains, let us recall the dominant themes that run through it, the basic ideas on which Teresa built her teaching in those first years at St. Joseph's - what, in other words, she wanted them to remember always.

They had come together in a humble abode, stripped of superfluous luxuries, few in members, like the apostolic college, to respond to the love of the Lord, to grow in friendship with Him, the better to deal with Him on behalf of their brethren. The whole Church, especially its priests, would be the subject of their conversations with their God-friend; their vigils and care would be for the needs of all souls.

The royal road by which one grew in God's friendship was life of prayer, a life which required three indispensable conditions: love of one's neighbour, detachment from the things of the world - especially from oneself - and humility, defined as walking in the truth.

The principles are only too clear and no one would quarrel with them. But when it comes to applying them in the circumstances of everyday life things are a little more difficult. It is then that the devil and self love let one down. Does the love of our neighbour mean saying yes or no to them? If we are detached from ourselves, do we defend ourselves or remain silent? Does humility mean that we must let our talents fade into oblivion, or, since humility is truth, ought we not make the most of them. The answer to those questions is not always easy; hence the digressions in the book. Every time Teresa remembers a useful experience-- be it her own or someone else's - she writes it down without bothering very much about where it might fit logically. All she is worried about is that when one of the sisters finds herself in a similar situation she will remember the incident and benefit accordingly. The basic ideas will never change, but their applications are limitless. People differ from one another; days vary. But if this treasure is properly assimilated it will always serve a useful purpose.

Teresa's daughters took the orientations she had given them seriously, and soon they found themselves free from care about material things and free of self-love. Recognising their spiritual poverty and helping one another with the sensitivity and sincerity born of true love, they revelled in the peace which Mother Teresa radiated and felt part of the marvellous environment she was creating around her. In other words, St. Teresa was able to create an environment in which people could see a whole new world open up before them, distant horizons to reach out to. (The Teresian novitiate does not so much teach a few things to be practised as set people on a journey, and show them the road they are to travel for the rest of their lives.) The horizon, and indeed the way there, is friendship with God, the Father in Heaven; whose name is to be sanctified, especially when the soul has experienced his Kingdom come within it; whose will is to be done, not from force of habit but deliberately, as long as the short "today" of this life lasts, with the help of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, though he be "so heavily disguised that it is no small torment to someone who has no other love or comfort"; whose forgiveness is obtained by really forgiving one's brethren, and not by penances or good intentions concerning reconciliation; and whose help is the only sure guarantee against the wiles of the devil dressed up as a angel of light, the only freedom from all evil.

The second part of the book is simply a commentary on the Our Father. Anyone who wants to lead a life of prayer cannot do better than follow the way Jesus himself taught.

Obviously, therefore, the Way of Perfection contains some basic ideas, clearly set forth. Teresa wants every novice who comes to her houses to assimilate these, to gradually make them her own in the measure of which she is capable, and to be committed to following this road, with God's help, forever; the novitiate, in fact, never ends."

-- Teresian Carmel: Pages of History by Fr Idelfonso Moriones, ocd

** The Discalced / Teresian Carmel began today, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 448 years ago. Thank you, holy mother St Teresa! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all members of the discalced carmelite family!

Carmel is the natural retreat of the contemplative

"The Carmelite Order derives its name from the holy mountain of its beginning. In that eastern land where every mountain has its own great memories Mount Carmel has some of the most holy. Carmel is a name which is familiar in every part of the Catholic world; it is intimately known as no other, and its natural beauty seems to be exactly in keeping with its gracious associations. Its quiet outline may be seen rising above the waters of the Mediterranean and from its summit one may see the great plain of Esdraelon stretching away into the distance, where the contemplative soul looks down on the mystery of Nazareth.

Carmel is the natural retreat of the contemplative, and it is not unfitting that on its slopes should stand the Cloister of Carmel, the cradle of the Order. It stands above the turmoil of life, above the world's stormy sea; its solitude is beyond the reach of "life's fitful fever"; it is wrapped in the peace of God. Such a peace we naturally associate with Carmel, but it has other associations more stirring and more turbulent. The memory of the great spiritual warfare of Elias still clings to it. It was here he gathered together all Israel and flung reproach at their heads. "How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow Him." Here Israel heard his challenge in words of flame, as a burning torch. But here he was more than the Prophet of the sword, here he was also the first of a long line of those who would worship God in spirit and in truth. In his lifetime disciples gathered round him and learned from him the deep secrets of his prayer and communion with God. His double spirit passed to Eliseus, and from him to the school of Prophets, and so down through the ages, the life of Elias has been continued in these hermits who ever sought inspiration in their great exemplar."

-- Carmelite Mysticism: Historical Sketches by Bl Titus Brandsma, OCarm

Mary: our mother, our model, our guide

"In the history of the Church, the Order of Carmel has come to be known for its dedication to a life of prayer and to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. From its very earliest days near the end of the twelfth century, the hermits who gathered together on Mount Carmel to lead a life of prayer built in the midst of their cells a small chapel dedicated to Mary. Soon they became known as "The Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel," and that little chapel became the focal point of their daily existence.

As the Order migrated to Europe and adopted a life-style similar to that of the mendicant friars, on more than one occasion the Carmelites successfully defended their right to be known as the "Brothers of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel." In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in the writings of Carmelites, we find many statements to the effect that the Order was founded to honor and serve Our Lady. While some would question the historical precision of such statements, still the fact remains that the earliest hermits did dedicate their chapel to Mary and that there developed a growing awareness that Mary was in truth the patroness of the Order.

While Carmelites gathered together for "a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ" (in obsequio Jesu Christi, according to the Rule given them by Albert of Jerusalem), they looked to Mary as their model and guide in this gift of their lives to the service of Christ and his church. Wherever a Carmel came into existence, it was almost always with a church dedicated to Mary under the title of her Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, or Assumption.

Because of Mary's patronage of the Order, Carmelites looked upon themselves as belonging totally to her; likewise Mary their patroness and Mother belonged in a very special way to the Order of Carmel and to each of its members. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it was Mary the Most Pure Virgin who became the focus of Carmel's Marian devotion. What was stressed was not so much Mary's bodily chastity as her purity of heart and total dedication to God.

This understanding of devotion to Mary was in complete accord with Carmel's contemplative ideal, as clearly expressed in the famous work known as The Institution of the First Monks, which speaks of the goal of Carmelite life in the following terms:

In regard to that life we may distinguish two aims, the one of which we may attain to, with the help of God's grace, by our own efforts and by virtuous living. This is to offer to God a heart holy and pure from all actual stain of sin. The second aim of this life is something that can be bestowed upon us only by God's bounty, namely to taste in our hearts and experience in our minds, not only after death but even during this mortal life, some thing of the power of the divine presence, and the bliss of heavenly glory.

This work and the consequent spirituality that it engendered had a tremendous influence, centering Carmelite spirituality on Mary as the model, personification, and embodiment of its contemplative ideal. The goal and the ideal of Mary's life came to be seen as the goal and ideal of the life of every Carmelite. While Albert's Rule for the Carmelites does not mention Mary by name, it does call all Carmelites to a continual meditation and living assimilation of the word of God, "pondering the Law of the Lord day and night." Carmelites were quick to realize that no one ever heard or kept that divine word better than did their Patroness and Mother, Mary.

It should also noted that during this same period Mary the Most Pure Virgin became increasingly known as Mary, the sister of each and every Carmelite. The Order had always been known as the Brothers of our Lady of Mount Carmel, but now a deeper consciousness emerged of what that title meant. Mary our Patroness, Mary our Mother, is also our Sister. Our very home is her home, and the habit we wear unites us in a most intimate way to her. Carmelites began to appreciate as never before that Mary is not just above and beyond us in so many ways, but is also one with us. She is our sister, and as our sister she is with us always and everywhere."

-- Mary and the Holy Spirit in the writings of John of the Cross by Fr Emmanuel J Sullivan, ocd