During the General Congregation of the Order at Niagara Falls, Canada, last September, an on-going formation course in the Holy Land from 29th August to 12th September 2012 was announced. In a letter to the provincials last November inviting them to send participants to this course it stated that the theme of the programme would be Back to the Sources, with the time divided between Mount Carmel and Jerusalem. The course will be experiential, following a prayerful and reflective journey to the places of biblical and Carmelite interest. The programme will be led by some members of the International Formation Commission, and by an official Carmelite guide.

Members of the Order wishing to participate in this course should do so through their local provincials, commissaries or delegates sending their application to the Secretary General, Fr. Mario Alfarano at Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.. Applications will be received up until 1st April 2012.

On the 10th of February last, a ceremony to honour Fr. Bartolomé Xiberta was held at our house in Tarrasa (Barcelona, Spain) the city where he died in 1967. At the ceremony there was a presentation of the book written by the priest Josep Maria Manresa Lamarca, titled, The Ecclesiology of Fr. B. Xiberta (1897-1967), recently published by the Institutum Carmelitanum in Edizioni Carmelitane (Rome).

Along with the author, those who attended the ceremony included, Don Salvador Cristau, Auxiliary Bishop of the diocese of Tarrasa, (a message of support and affection was received from the Bishop of Tarassa, Don José Ángel Meneses, whom illness prevented from being present), the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., the Postulator General, Fr. Giovanni Grosso, O.Carm., the Prior Provincial of the Province of Catalonia, Fr. Manuel Bonilla, O.Carm., and Don Salvador Pie Ninot, professor of Ecclisiology at the Pontifical Gregorian University who directed the thesis that has just been published. Each of the speakers spoke about the figure of Bartolomé Xiberta from a particular point of view: the theologian, the Carmelite, the sage and the religious. As people are aware, Fr. Xiberta’s cause for beatification is underway.

On February 6, 2012 at 11:30 a.m. a 6.9 Magnitude earthquake hit the Negros - Cebu regions of the Philippines. Our parish has been badly affected with the loss of 23 lives, including many children and babies, over 40 houses were totally destroyed and another 12 very badly damaged.

The Carmelite parish priest has asked for our help and the Curia has sent $10,000 immediately in emergency aid, thanks to the generosity of the Little Flower Fund. Please help! You can contact the Bursar General in Rome who will send money directly to the Philippines and ensure all of it reaches the parish and the people.

by Sr. Mary Theodore Therese, O.Carm.

When Our Lord, Jesus Christ, turned water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, the headwaiter said, "...you have kept the best wine until now." That's how I feel about my life here in Carmel at Our Lady of Grace Monastery. God has blessed us exceedingly with his merciful love, grace and compassion to be able to live lives of consecrated devotion to Christ and our Blessed Virgin Mary in service of the Church and all humanity.

Simply, it's a miracle that I am here! It is the realization of the grace God planted in me at the moment of my childhood conversion at the Billy Graham Crusade in Indianapolis, Indiana, when my devout parents took my older sister and me along with them to hear Billy Graham preach. I was about seven years old and was so deeply moved by what I heard that I was ready, "to do whatever He tells you."

I will always be extremely grateful and indebted to my parents, Ralph and Catherine McWilliams, for their great love for God and the conscious living of their Christian faith. Their witness in sacrifice and love still lives on in my heart, shaping and influencing my path. In hindsight, I can now see how each twist and turn in my life was creating an important piece of this sacred puzzle that is still continuing to be shaped, formed and fitted together according to God's will and grace.

One such turn was becoming the caregiver of my mom which meant moving back to Indianapolis, and leaving my job in New York. I was taking a huge, frightful leap into the unknown. As it turned out, it became the most important "leap" that paved the way to the Catholic Church and to Carmel. By being in Indianapolis, I ended up with a firm which on a long-term project brought me to Austin, Texas.

One huge factor in my Catholic conversion was my love for Blessed John Paul II and his insistent call to holiness. In the spring of 2005 when Pope John Paul became ill for the last time, I was devastated and daily watched, prayed and cried along with the rest of the world
out of gratitude for all he meant to us.

I entered Austin's Saint Mary Cathedral for the first time to attend the Pope's funeral via satellite TV immediately it seems that a connection was made between me and the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, shrouded in darkness nearby. At first, I thought it was my imagination yet the feeling of her warmth and compassion was very real. I found myself returning often to the Cathedral for Mass services. Within the year, I began attending their RCIA class and came into the Church Easter, 2006. Several weeks later, I saw a flyer for a vocation retreat. Calling to get information, I found out about the First Profession of Vows for a Carmelite Nun that was to take place in Christoval, Texas. I was invited to attend. Rounding that corner and seeing the beautiful steeple of this holy place rise up out of God's earth as if it had been hidden for all time, I instantaneously knew that this was the place I have been searching for all my life!

Bishop Michael Pfeifer, O.M.I., was there. After the ceremony, he greeted me with such joyful liveliness, I felt right at home. Shortly thereafter, I visited again and to my surprise, the Bishop had come for a visit as well. I felt it was a confirmation from God that this is where he wanted me to be.

Still, it took a lot of discernment and questions to myself like "Have you completely lost your mind? After all you've worked for in life, you're going to give it up to become a nun?" Then the childhood memories came flooding back. The times when I told my Dad that I wanted to be a nun—and we weren't even Catholic! Where did that thought come from? How God works his wonders in us from the very beginning without our being aware!
Since I was a new convert, I was asked to wait at least two years and I am thankful I did. The Catholic faith is such a rich and deep treasure that those few years gave me more time to develop a greater hunger for the Word of God and to experience life as a Catholic.

Carmel! The Garden of God—the deep well of refreshment in His Presence, the challenge to open one's heart and surrender to his will and design.

Carmel, the desert—often barren and arid where only faith and hope provide deep roots as one waits to see his face.

Carmel, the wellspring of the great saints who tell us to trust, to trust and to wait, that God is ever-present beyond our deepest sensing and closer to us than our own breath.

Carmel, the place of true community and service so that not only we but all humanity can feed from the love of God that "has been poured into our souls by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

In summary, I am becoming a cloistered Carmelite nun so that, in poverty, I can become rich in grace; in obedience, attain true freedom; and in chastity, perfect purity of heart so that I can try to show God with this great love that he has given me how much I love him by living for him alone and serving and loving his people and his Church!

* Carmelite Preview  Fall 2011/Winter 2012

by Province of Arago -Valentina

By D.J. Fonntana-Schmidt, T.O.C.

On January 15, 2011, I made my final promises as a Third Order Lay Carmelite, in the Living Flame of Love Lay Carmelite Community of the Province of The Most Pure Heart of Mary. Our community is located in Bartlett, Illinois. As I prepared for my Final Profession I realized the stirring within my heart was the same I had experienced through the years that eventually led me to respond to Carmel’s call. There are so many beautiful mysteries to contemplate along this path. However, I tried to focus on that one mystery of our Catholic faith that had the strongest connection for me, personally, to my Lay Carmelite vocation, and I knew immediately it was The Lamb of God – Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, His most holy Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Altar.

The days before making my final promises actually elicited thoughts very much reminiscent of the days just before my first Holy Communion. The mystery and anticipation I felt were very much the same as I felt then. What was very different now were the many years which had given me a wealth of experience to draw upon, to help me understand the meaning of this mystery more clearly, of course, then I had at the age of seven. I began to look back on this experience to sort out wonder upon wonder of this holy sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ in direct relationship to my Lay Carmelite vocation. What I came to understand is how, as Third Order Lay Carmelites, we are called to go out into the world to love and to serve others. Through the gift of the most Holy Eucharist we are given the direction and strength to do so with great zeal.

A few weeks before my final promises, I listened to a set of audio tapes recorded during a novena held by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in 1973, where he spoke to a group in Ireland on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of the feast day of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.^[1] As I listened to Bishop Sheen on these tapes, one part of his talk in particular brought all of my reflections together so wonderfully. Following are these words that I listened to that day:

Bishop Sheen read these words of St. Thérèse:

“…I have no wish to amass merits for heaven. I work for love alone, my sole aim being to console the Sacred Heart. So at the close of life’s evening I shall appear before You with empty hands and I ask You not to count my works. All I want to do is to console You. See then, all that Jesus asks of us; He has no need of our works, but only our love. This very God, who declares that He needs not to tell us if He were hungry, did not hesitate to beg of the Samaritan woman a little water. He thirsted, but in saying, ‘give me to drink’ it was the love of His poor creature that the creator of the universe besought. He thirsted for our love and He wants us to surrender ourselves to Him to make Him happy.”

Bishop Sheen then commented, as follows, on these words of St. Thérèse:

“Could it ever be, then, that our Blessed Lord, who lived on this earth and ascended into heaven, is sorrowing? Is Our Lord still on the cross, and will He be on the cross until the end of time? Passages of St. Thérèse have a very unusual point of view. She never looks to Our Lord to be consoled; she’s always looking to console Him; that’s the amazing thing! You always thought that our Blessed Lord was perfectly happy and needed no consolation; how then, does St. Thérèse say that He needs consolation? I will explain this to you now. When our Blessed Lord was on the cross He spoke seven times. They were almost like seven notes of a funeral dirge, and one of the last words that He said were ‘It is finished’. That did not mean, ‘Thank heaven it’s over’, but it means, ‘My mission is accomplished; I have done all that my Father has asked me to do.’ So you see, here, He is saying He has finished the work that He had to do. Now if He had finished his sufferings, how could St. Thérèse say she has to console Him? Well the answer is this: When the Lord was on the cross, the body that He suffered in is the body He took from Mary. The body to which St. Thérèse is referring is His mystical body, the Church. In other words, Christ is glorified in His glorified body in heaven, in the body He took from Mary, but He’s living in His body on earth and He’s suffering many indignities now just as He suffered indignities then. So then, His sufferings were finished in the physical body, but His sufferings are not finished in the mystical body, the Church.”

Having now listened to these words of St. Thérèse as spoken by Bishop Sheen, and hearing his interpretation and further explanation, my thoughts immediately turned toward a homily given by the associate pastor of our parish on January 1, 2009, which I had noted in my journal. Our priest spoke of Mary, the Mother of God, and the place of nurture vs. nature in trying to reconcile our understanding of this great mystery of the divine and human nature of Our Lord, God, Jesus Christ. Through this insight he conveyed the message that, while we may think it is ridiculous to believe that it is up to us to “care for Our Lord”, this is not unreasonable, and in fact it is expected. We are given the responsibility to maintain the integrity of our Catholic beliefs and our knowledge of Jesus as both human and divine, truly the Son of Mary, and the Son of God. He continued to explain that one of the ways in which we must work most diligently to accomplish this is to serve each other with love and kindness, but especially to serve the poor and those in need in our society.

Now, here, two years later, the words from the homily of the priest of our parish are re-affirmed through the words of St. Thérèse and the comments of Bishop Sheen that I’d heard for the first time. Now, as I reflected upon the great significance of my final promises to live my life as a Third Order Lay Carmelite, the Eucharistic connection in Carmel had been brought full circle. All of this now formed a more solid connection for me to the Body of Christ, The Lamb of God, in our Catholic faith, in my Carmelite Spirituality. Suddenly – so beautifully, words spoken and heard in a span of two years apart from each other came together, giving me a greater awareness of the wonder and mystery of Jesus and the victory of the Cross. I now understood even more clearly; yes, it is our responsibility to care for Our Lord, the Body of Christ, the Lamb of God. When we receive Holy Eucharist we receive God; we receive His Real Presence, to remain always with us, just as He promised. The reason we continue to believe and continue to receive is because we continue to know that Jesus dwells within us to give us the courage, support, and determination needed to lead good lives, and to do whatever we can to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

            After receiving Christ Jesus in Holy Eucharist, each of us leaves Mass as a living tabernacle, being asked at the final blessing from our priest, acting in persona Christi, to go out and be Christ in the world. Through my journey as a Lay Carmelite I’ve come to realize more than ever how we are meant to carry this glorified gift of Holy Eucharist, of Jesus Christ, human and divine, out into the world. We are to continue to carry the light of Christ, burning as this “Living Flame of Love” within us. We are called to radiate this light of love upon all we meet. How wonderful this sounds – how difficult to achieve.

            In His humanity Jesus attained the victory of the cross for us. In His divinity Jesus re-presents the Sacrifice of Himself as The Lamb of God, and once again gives the gift of Himself to each of us in Holy Eucharist… truly God present with us! As we humbly and gratefully accept His gift of vulnerable, whole, complete self, wouldn’t it be a remarkable slight to leave that gift behind, forgotten and unappreciated, as we go out to continue our day-to-day lives? Of course, it would be a terribly offensive act on our part! However, as a Lay Carmelites we’ve been fully vested with the armour of God to enable us to fight adversity in the secular world in which we live and work, thus enabling us to actively communicate His Love through our words and actions.

            Through instruction on the Rule of St. Albert I know that I need to be “stout in conscience in full allegiance to Jesus Christ”, and I can persevere, because I am also under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is with these protections and reinforcements that I am able, and expected, to do much more to love and serve others. Again… very easily expressed, but very difficult to achieve. Unless, of course, I try to remember St. Thérèse and her “little ways”; unless I try to achieve this – not in giant strides of philanthropy or missionary pilgrimage – but in “little ways” of kindness, helpfulness, thoughtfulness to family, friends, neighbours, co-workers, strangers, as I meet them each and every day. Through my Lay Carmelite vocation I have come more clearly to understand how much I have been given in the gift of the Eucharist. It is through Holy Eucharist that I know I am given strength and new resolve to return to others a small portion of the immense love that I have been given by Christ Jesus. St. Thérèse conveys to us, so beautifully, her little ways and how we, as insignificant as we are, with continuing faults and failures, can work continually toward the true virtue of complete and sincere love for all.

            Often I have expressed to others the fact that I want to come to a place in my life where I will immediately see only God in everyone and see everyone only through the eyes of Christ, without hesitation, without pause. Each time I am reminded that we are human; we are finite and flawed, and can only hope to achieve this perfection when we finally leave this earthly home. Each time I become quiet and still and do not respond, because I know that everyone is right. Only God is perfect love, and we may never attain this state, here or hereafter. What I do feel, though, is the call to never stop working toward this goal, no matter how elusive and unachievable it may appear to be. We are all called to achieve the seemingly unachievable: “Be you therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).

            And so, I can only hope to persevere in achieving this way of perfection, through the Carmelite Way, through consistent little steps of love. I believe that to allow myself to fall deeply into the streams of Carmel will bring about the true humility necessary to eventually be able to live this love that has been given to me, given to all, and meant to be shared by all mankind. For me, then, the Lamb of God brought together all that I have been given, and all that is meant to be given in return, as best as I can. At Holy Mass the day after my final promises, I heard these words in the consecration, as well as from the Gospel, “– Behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). What wonderful affirmation!

            I know full well that I am not now, and never will be, worthy of this gift of Carmel’s Call. However, if it is God’s Will for me, then that is all I ever need to know, and this, then, is certainly where I belong. In accepting this gift I also know that I must continue to work toward reflecting Christ’s “Living Flame of Love” to everyone, as best as I can. I must always remember the words of Bishop Sheen, (commenting on St. Thérèse and her words on the consolation of Christ):

“…He’s suffering many indignities now just as He suffered indignities then. So then, His sufferings were finished in the physical body, but His sufferings are not finished in the mystical body, the Church.”

I believe that the main focus of my Lay Carmelite vocation, then, must be to try always to “console Christ” in striving to relieve the indignities and suffering in the world today. Again, I cannot do this on some grand scale, but in “little ways”, through genuine acts of love and kindness to each and everyone in my daily interactions. This sacrifice of the gentle lamb for all mankind, for all eternity, can never be repaid. His life was offered so we may know God’s great love for us and reflect His great love to others. Therefore, for me, The Lamb of God encompasses all. It is the Paschal Mystery, the Eucharistic Mystery of the Church; the centre and core of my Catholic belief and my Lay Carmelite Spirituality. It is my life and my salvation.

*From Carmel in the World No2 2011

[1]     “Novena to St. Thérèse of the Little Flower” by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen; Given at the Carmelite Church, Whitefriars Street, Dublin, in 1973. Audio tapes by: Carmelite Church, Whitefriar Street, Dublin, 1988.

By Fr. Joseph Chalmers, O. Carm.

Mary is a model for Carmelites and therefore a model for Carmelites who work in the area of peace and justice. Mary’s way of believing is a light and example for the work of the Carmelite NGO, as I hope to be able to explain in this article.

We read in Lk. 1: 46-52:

And Mary said: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.
For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy,
according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

This passage is a favourite of many people who work in the area of justice because it speaks of throwing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. What has the figure of Mary to say to those who actively seek justice and peace for all and who are actively concerned with the integrity of creation?

Carmelites and Mary

As Carmelites we are proud of the intimate connection between the Order and Our Lady. She is the Patroness of the Order, our Mother and our Sister.^[1] In the Carmelite Rule, the hermits were directed to build a chapel in the midst of the cells: “An oratory should be built as conveniently as possible among the cells, where, if it can be done without difficulty, you are to gather each morning to hear Mass.” (Rule, 14)^[2] We know that this little oratory was named in honour of Mary, the Lady of the Place, as she was called, and this was the formal beginning of the long and rich relationship between Carmelites and Our Lady. In this chapel the hermits gathered together for the celebration of the Eucharist. Each hermit came out from the solitude of his individual cell, where he had been “pondering the Lord's law day and night and keeping watch at his prayers unless attending to some other duty.” (Rule, 10) Although Carmelite life has changed quite a lot in 800 years, this movement between the solitude of the cells and the communal aspect of the chapel remains a very important element of our spirituality.

A Journey of Transformation

The Carmelite life is a journey of transformation and this journey has both a solitary and a communitarian aspect. If we do not seek God and struggle with God’s will in solitude, we have nothing to offer the community, both in the narrow sense of the community within which we live and in the wider sense of the community of the human family. On this journey towards transformation, we receive strength from our individual relationship with God but we do not go to God simply as individuals. We are members of God’s People, the Church, and by vocation, members of the Carmelite Order. We are fortified by our communal celebration of the Eucharist to return to the search for God in solitude.

Our devotion to Our Lady must not be simply emotion. We must take her as our model who “pondered all these things in her heart.” (Lk. 2: 51). One of the Order's great spiritual theologians, Michael of St. Augustine, wrote that all those who profess themselves to be Mary’s sons, servants or brothers, must make a great effort to live up to the demands of their vocation, eager to model themselves on “their holy Patroness, a Mother so worthy of love and a Sister so full of solicitude.”[3] Another Carmelite author wrote in regard to the scapular that a holy heart under a worldly habit is much better than a worldly heart under a holy habit. Best of all of course would be a holy heart under a holy habit! Our living under the mantle of Mary points to our willingness to be transformed and to grow in our belief.

The transformation of the human person is usually a long, slow process. It will not happen without our co-operation. The Eucharist is food for our journey and will provide the strength to respond to the grace of God but we have to have the desire to respond. If we have no intention of changing, no matter how much damage we are doing to ourselves or to others, we are turning our back on the grace of God. What then does the daily celebration of Mass mean to us? Is it just a ritual with no effect on the rest of the day?

Our Lady urges us to “do whatever he tells you” (Jn. 2: 5). We know perfectly well what Jesus asks of his disciples. We are to carry on his mission in the world. Gandhi is reported to have said that the message of Jesus was very beautiful but it was a great pity that no one had tried to live it. We of course do try to live the Christian life but sometimes we lack a passion for Christ and a passion for humanity. We are aware of the implications of our vocation as Carmelites but fail sometimes to respond fully as if we were content to live on 50% power? There is always a need to transfer our faith into the messy reality of daily life.

The Eucharist does not only give us Christ; it demands that we become Christ. Just as Mary is the “Eucharistic woman” par excellence, so by participating in the Mass, we are to become Eucharistic people. It is not just something we do in the morning; it is something that shapes the way we live and how we relate to other people. We are aware from our Carmelite spirituality that Our Lady not only is a model for us of what Christian discipleship means, but she also guides us and helps us on our journey as our Mother and Sister. 

Just as we do not end our Eucharistic commitment by attending Mass in the morning, so we do not fulfil our relationship with Mary by singing the Salve Regina or the Flos Carmeli, or any other pious hymn.  Both the celebration of the Eucharist and our relationship with Our Lady is very demanding. We have to live the Eucharist and allow Our Lady to affect the way we live day by day.

Transformation is not just a change of one or two externals; it is a profound change of what motivates us in daily life. Our motivation is often hidden from us but it determines how we act and react throughout the day. It is this motivation that has to be purified at some point on our journey. Our external behaviour may be angelic or it may be a crucifixion to ourselves and/or to others but we really cannot change very much until such times as we have changed the root cause. Changing external behaviour is often necessary but no change will last unless the underlying motive is also changed. The latter is much more difficult.

The journey of transformation is long and arduous but it is God’s work. We simply need to respond to the grace of God that is always present to us. As St. Thérèse pointed out through her life and teaching, we must not dwell on our failings, but trust completely in the Merciful Love of God, to bring us to our goal. In the Eucharist, the Merciful Love of God is freely given to us. It is for us to respond like Mary, by pronouncing our “Fiat”, our eager acceptance of God’s presence and action in our lives.

Mary’s Prophetic Words

In the infancy narratives in Luke’s Gospel, the author is not just concerned with facts but with the meaning of the facts. He is writing history in the biblical manner, which means the story of the mighty actions of God. The infancy narrative in Luke is dominated by the idea of the messiah as the fulfilment of God’s promises to Israel. When she is told of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary goes in haste to the hill country to a town in Judah (1: 39). If the ancient tradition of placing Elizabeth’s home in Ain Karim is correct, this would have been a journey of about 4 days. When Elizabeth sees Mary, she is filled with the Holy Spirit, and cries out in recognition that Mary is “the mother of my Lord” (1: 43). The people of God likewise cried out when they welcomed the ark of the presence of God (1 Chr. 15: 28; 2 Chr. 5: 13). David exclaimed, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Sam.6: 9). Elizabeth’s welcome seems to confirm Mary’s experience of God’s love and the Magnificat is an explosion of joy in response.

The Magnificat is full of Old Testament allusions and has a special connection to the canticle of Hannah (1 Sam 2: 1-10), who rejoices in the birth of her son, Samuel: and as she worshiped the LORD, she said:

"My heart exults in the LORD, my horn is exalted in my God. I have swallowed up my enemies; I rejoice in my victory.

There is no Holy One like the LORD; there in no Rock like our God.

"Speak boastfully no longer, nor let arrogance issue from your mouths. For an all-knowing God is the LORD, a God who judges deeds.

The bows of the mighty are broken, while the tottering gird on strength.

The well-fed hire themselves out for bread, while the hungry batten on spoil. The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes.

"The LORD puts to death and gives life; he casts down to the nether world; he raises up again.

The LORD makes poor and makes rich, he humbles, he also exalts.

He raises the needy from the dust; from the ash heap he lifts up the poor, To seat them with nobles and make a glorious throne their heritage. He gives to the vower his vow, and blesses the sleep of the just. "For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he has set the world upon them.

He will guard the footsteps of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall perish in the darkness. For not by strength does man prevail;

the LORD'S foes shall be shattered. The Most High in heaven thunders; The LORD judges the ends of the earth, Now may he give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed!"

Whatever its origin, Luke’s attribution of the Magnificat to Mary gives us the assurance that it truly represents her sentiments. Elizabeth had blessed Mary as the mother of the messiah because she believed that the promise made to her would be fulfilled (Lk.1: 45) and Mary gives the glory to God in joyful thanksgiving. 

The Magnificat is a song of thanksgiving that celebrates the history of salvation from three perspectives. The first part (1: 48-50) is the dialogue between the holy and faithful God and the humility and openness of the believer, represented in Luke’s Gospel by Mary. In the second part (1: 51-53) there is an historical confirmation of the saving action of God. What God will do in the future is guaranteed by what He has done in the past. From that sure base there arises a firm hope for a new world where the usual schemes of this world will be overturned. All of this is founded upon the faithfulness of God who does not lead astray. The third part (1: 54-55) tells of God’s saving intervention in the forthcoming birth of the messiah. God has been faithful to the promises made to Israel.

Every Christian shares in the threefold role of Jesus Christ: priest, prophet and king. A prophet is one who proclaims the Word of God. Christ is the Word of God. As believers we allow the Word to become part of us and we allow God to speak through us. We become a word from God to our world. Mary received the Word in her heart and in her womb: Behold the servant of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word. (Lk. 1: 38). The prophets of the Old Testament were all people of great faith. It is sufficient to remember the example of our father Elijah, who proclaimed the drought (I Kings 17: 1) and then foretold when it would end (I Kings 18: 44). He gathered all the people on Mount Carmel and challenged them to stop hobbling first on one foot and then on the other, either believe in Baal or Yahweh, and then follow whoever is God. (I Kings 18: 21).

Our choices have consequences. The world in which we live at present is the result of the choices of the few often imposed on the many. Carmelites are usually not numbered among the powerful ones of the earth but our choices can have significant consequences too if we have faith to believe that God can take our insignificant gifts and transform them into something great. All the work that we do in the area of justice, peace and the integrity of creation can bear abundant fruit if we have faith. In sight of the whole people, Elijah prayed with faith and his sacrifice was accepted by the Lord (I Kings 18: 36-38).

Mary is the woman of faith and represents the faithful believer in Luke’s Gospel. Elisabeth recognises her faith and declares it to be the cause of her blessedness. Mary believed that what was said to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. In the first few lines of the Magnificat, Mary gives glory to God and rejoices in God her saviour. She declares that God has looked upon her lowliness. Therefore all generations will call her blessed. In the eyes of the important and powerful people, Mary would not have counted since she is a poor woman, but God’s way of looking is very different from the way human beings look. We tend to see the exterior and base our judgements on that. God sees the interior, the heart, and responds to that. Mary is aware that God is all-powerful and has done great things in her. She then goes on to recount the works of God throughout history.

God shows mercy to those who fear Him. Fear of the Lord is a normal biblical expression that does not refer to the emotion of fear but is a way of describing a right relationship of the human being with God, who is the Holy One. God is distinct from everything else that can exist and is the Creator of all. The person who recognises the sovereignty of God and tries to keep His commandments is the one who fears God. Such a person can depend on receiving mercy from God who is constant throughout the ages. One thing that fascinates me about the rest of the Magnificat is that the verb is in the past tense. Mary rejoices in what God has done: shown might with His arm, dispersed the proud and arrogant, thrown down the powerful and lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. Is all that really true? Has God done all those things? Isn’t it a fact that the proud and arrogant continue along their path believing in nothing outside of themselves? Is it not a fact that the rulers continue to rule from their lofty thrones and the lowly are continually downtrodden? Is it not a fact that the hungry remain hungry and the rich get even richer despite the commitment of so many who work for justice?

A prophet receives a word from God for the world. The prophet must be open to receive the word and fearless in proclaiming it. A true prophet proclaims God’s word and not his or her own. Those who work in the area of justice and peace tend to have an awareness of some of the great injustices of our day and want to do something about these situations. This is very laudable but we must seek to be aware of who we are trying to help. Is it the poor and downtrodden or is it ourselves? In St. John’s Gospel, there is a famous scene where Mary of Bethany pours out very costly ointment over the head of Jesus. Judas protests about this colossal waste of money that could have been used to benefit the poor.

Jn. 12: 5-6:

"Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the moneybag and used to steal the contributions.”

Not all comments in favour of the poor are prophetic. We have to be careful that our work and statements on behalf of the poor are in fact for the poor.

The false self is ever ready to spoil our good intentions and to twist them to its own purposes. The false self seeks its own security, survival and esteem and will seek these wherever they are to be found. Therefore we must have a constant guard of our heart to ensure that what we say and what we do are according to the will of God and not according to what will make us look good and feel good. In the Carmelite Rule, we are warned to “use every care to clothe yourselves in God’s armour so that you may be ready to withstand the enemy’s ambush” (Rule, 18). One of the parts of this divine armour is faith: “Faith must be your shield on all occasions, and with it you will be able to quench the flaming missiles of the wicked one (Eph. 6: 16): there can be no pleasing God without faith (Heb. 11: 6); and the victory lies in this – your faith (cf. I Jn. 5: 4).”

Power and Powerlessness

Faith is not just holding the correct set of beliefs; it is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ, in which we “fear the Lord”, in the sense of realising that God is God and that by grace alone can we enter such a relationship. Faith means to accept God as God chooses to reveal Himself to us. God has loved the world so much as to enter it in a new way in His Son, Jesus Christ. God has stooped down to us in order to lift us up. God has taken on our human weakness in order to transform it. Every human being reveals something of God to those with eyes to see and ears and hearts that are open. In Jesus we encounter the help of God under the form of poverty. God takes on our poverty and shares his own riches with us (2 Cor. 8: 9). In order to participate in the riches of Christ, it is necessary also to participate in the mystery of poverty and of self-emptying, which is fully revealed to us in the death of Jesus on the cross. God reveals his power in powerlessness (2 Cor. 12: 9-10; 1 Cor. 1: 25).

Mary was open to the transforming action of God because she recognised her own nothingness. St. Paul understood that it was when he was weak that he was strong. (2 Cor. 12: 10). He was also aware that God chooses weak vessels in order to display His power:

Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something,
so that no human being might boast before God. (I Cor.1: 27-29).

St. Thérèse of Lisieux knew that her nothingness attracted God’s gaze and therefore she believed that her seemingly fantastic hopes to be a missionary to the ends of the earth, would be fulfilled, not because of anything she could do but because of God’s loving mercy. Mary believed in the power of God and that God’s power has already accomplished what He has promised from of old. All pride will be thrown down. Those who have trusted in God will find that their trust has not been misplaced. Those who hunger and thirst for God will be filled. However, she proclaims that this victory has already taken place because of the imminent coming of the messiah, her son, Jesus. All those promises made to Abraham and his children, have now been fulfilled in Christ.

In the rest of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus proclaims a new world order, not based on violent revolution but on a change of heart. In his inaugural sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth, he sets out his programme from the Prophet Isaiah,

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." (Lk. 4: 18-19).

Mary’s prophecy in the Magnificat is beginning to come true. Wherever Jesus goes he expels demons and sickness. He even forgives sins (Lk. 5: 20). All these things represent the bonds that have imprisoned men and women. They are now broken but people must accept the new life that is offered to them. Fallen humanity does all in its power to kill this new life but Jesus is raised from the dead to eternal life and this life is offered to all people.

Sharing in the eternal life of God means to live the life of God. It means to see as God sees and to love as God loves. God has already thrown down the arrogant, deposed the rulers and raised up the lowly. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, must carry out his vision and his programme. We must bring the Good News of the Kingdom to the poor. We can only do that with the faith that Mary exemplifies. That faith must drive us and motivate all our actions so that we do not simply hear the Word of God but like Mary also put it into practice (Lk. 8: 21). 

Joseph Chalmers, O. Carm.
Aylesford, England

taken from Carmelite NGO

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1.  Is your work for justice and peace motivated by faith or by your false self?

2.  How can Mary help you in your work for justice and peace?

[1] For an overview of the place of Mary in Carmel, see, Emanuele Boaga, O.Carm., The Lady of the Place: Mary in the history and in the life of Carmel, trans. Joseph Chalmers & Míceá O’Neill, (Edizioni Carmelitane, Rome, 2001.

[2] For an in depth commentary of the Carmelite Rule, see, Kees Waaijman, The Mystical Space of Carmel: A Commentary on the Carmelite Rule, trans. John Vriend, (Peeters, Louvain, 1999). The numbering of the Rule has been changed following the guidelines of the two General Councils of the Carmelites, issued later in 1999. This can be found in John Malley, Camilo Maccise and Joseph Chalmers, In obsequio Jesu Christi: The Letters of the Superiors General OCarm and OCD 1992-2002,(Edizioni OCD, Rome, 2003),  p.127-139.

[3] Office of Readings for 16^th July in Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and of The Order of Discalced Carmelites, (Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome, 1993).

This year Ireland will host the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) which will take place in Dublin from 10-17 June 2012.The theme of the Congress is “The Eucharist; Communion with Christ and with One another”.

For the first time ever there will be a dedicated Youth Space at the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) “Go! Be Church, with Christ and with one another”. The Irish Carmelites are on the organising committee of the youth space and it promises to be a great week for young people (aged 17-25 yrs) with lots of different activities from contemplative prayer to social justice workshops. There will be opportunities for discussion and dialogue, meeting new people, and celebrating our faith together.

They are expecting over 2,000 youth and young adults from all over the world. To book your place at the Congress please see www.IEC2012.ie/youth (Please note online booking closes on 9th May).

The Irish Carmelites are offering a limited number of basic accommodation spaces to some Carmelite Youth – please contact Marie on Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo. for more information.

From the 9th to the 12th of January, 2012, the Prioresses and Directors of Novices of the six monasteries of Nuns in the Antilles, (Porto Rico and the Dominican Republic), came together in the Monastery of Maria Madre de la Iglesia, La Vega, in the Dominican Republic, for the Second Meeting of the Prioresses and Directors of Novices, coordinated by Fr. Rogelio Mur, O.Carm., Delegate for the Nuns of the area.

The main purpose of this meeting, involving the representatives of the different communities, was to study and discuss the ways in which the Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitanae Monialium, is being applied since its publication in 2007. There is a proposal to hold this kind of meeting every two years with a view to increasing mutual assistance in the different areas of interest that are shared by the monasteries of the Antilles.

The 2007 General Chapter decided that every six years a Congress of Lay Carmelites would be held. The next Congress will be held at Sassone (Rome)  from the 17th to the 21st of September of this year. The theme of the congress will be: "Formation for service to the Kingdom of God and to the World. Lay Carmelites in the Mission of the Church".

Given the specific nature of the topic, the people who are invited to attend are first of all formation directors, provincial delegates for lay Carmelites, lay provincial moderators and other interested Lay Carmelites.

The Congress will provide a unique occasion for sharing experiences of life and presence in the different countries, for getting to know other Lay Carmelites and what they are doing, and for an experience of the bonds of spirituality and charism that bind Lay Carmelites to their sisters and brothers in the Carmelite Family throughout the world.

Taking advantage of the occasion, the Provincial Delegates for Lay Carmel, and Lay Moderators have been invited to come two days before the Congress (14th and 15th of September) for a meeting of their own with the theme, "The roles and duties involved in guiding and promoting Lay Carmelites", The purpose of this meeting is to clarify the respective responsibilities and competencies involved in the accompaniment and the directing of Lay Carmel.

For further information regarding both meetings, see the website: www.ocarm.org/laycongress2012