Fr. Giovanni Grosso, O.Carm.

In St. John of Acre, on the northern tip of the Gulf of Haifa, on September 14, 1214, during a procession to celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, in which the whole “frankish” community, i.e. the Latin Christians, took part, along with other inhabitants of the city attracted by the event, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert Avogadro walked in the procession flanked by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre and other clerics. At a certain moment a figure jumped out of the crowd and lunged at the bishop beating him to death. The murderer, the master of the hospital of the Holy Spirit, wanted to take revenge for having been deposed by the bishop on the grounds of immorality.

Thus the patriarch Albert died, a victim of his commitment to a Church that is faithful to the Gospel. He was born of the Avogadri, a family of the middle nobility, sixty years earlier, around 1150. The place of his birth was most likely in Castel Gualtieri, now in the province of Reggio Emilia, then in the imperial territory of Piemonte, called in several ways: Lombardy, Italy ... Still a young man, in his early twenties and after initial studies of law, he chose religious life; not, however, a convenient, promising and rewarding career in the church, but the austere community life of the Canons Regular of Mortara, a common life of poverty, combining choral liturgical prayer and pastoral care. He became an authoritative interpreter of their rule of life, enough to gain the confidence of superiors and confreres and thus become master of novices and then prior in 1180.

Albert’s reputation grew to the point that, in 1184, he was elected bishop of Bobbio, where, however, he remained only a few months, because the following year he was assigned to lead the church of Vercelli, where he remained for twenty years. This period for him was very rich in pastoral and diplomatic activity, two very strong features in the life of Albert. In fact, he not only presided over the diocese but also represented the emperor in whose name he ruled the county of Vercelli. As bishop he worked with the Eusebian Church in the celebration of a diocesan synod (1191), from which sprang new Statutes, in large part the result of the foresight and expertise of the Bishop himself. This ancient legislation, unfortunately lost, would remain in force at least until the beginning of the seventeenth century, a sign of its concreteness and flexibility. Another concern was the formation of the diocesan clergy. Albert was praised by different popes, who on the occasion of disputes between bishops and canonical chapters or between neighboring diocese sent him as a mediator. These were also years of intense political activity; by all accounts the bishop always maintained good relations with the emperors Frederick I “Barbarossa” and his son, Henry VI , whom he accompanied several times on his travels in Italy. He did not have easy relations with the municipality of Vercelli, the consciousness of whose authority was increasing. Albert’s qualities of wisdom and legal expertise could be seen also during the reform of the Statutes of the chapters of the canons of Biella and those of St. Agatha and St. Mary Major in Vercelli. The bishop was also called to assist in the revision of the constitutions of the Umiliati, a new religious order, composed of lay people, religious and priests.

All of these activities, in addition to his fame as a spiritual man, meant that the canons of the chapter of the Holy Sepulchre would suggest his name to the Pope for Patriarch of Jerusalem. Innocent III (1198-1216) accepted the request and, having overcome the resistance of the candidate, sent him as patriarch of Jerusalem and the papal legate for the province of the Holy Land. In early 1206 Alberto arrived in Acre, the provisional seat of the patriarchate given that entry and residence in Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Saracen, was precluded. He busied himself immediately with improving the situation of the Latin Church in the Holy Land. As papal legate he intervened in the appointment of bishops and encouraged dialogue with the Saracens among the various factions and Christian authorities.

At that time the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was reduced to little more than the coast of the Gulf of Haifa, the Lebanese territories and the island of Cyprus. After the battle of Hattin (1187), the Saracen control had been restored to almost all of the Holy Land. The promontory of Carmel was still among the territories controlled by the “Franks”, and on its south-western slopes, in the Valley of the Pilgrims (Wadi ‘ain es Siah), among the ruins of an ancient Byzantine laura, a group of Latin pilgrims, wanting to live as hermits in holy penance, settled sometime after 1189.

It was one of the many communities born in those years in the fertile soil of a society on the move and a church buzzing with questions about simplicity, the essence of things, and radical approaches to life. Western society was undergoing profound transformation: the old feudal structures, closed to outsiders, based on subsistence agriculture, with not much exchange with the locality, were giving way to new urban areas where the market was the centre of vitality as well as the bishop’s palace, the mayor’s palace, the university. New social groups composed of merchants, artisans, professionals, were replacing the old social stratification of knights and peasants. Even in the Church movements of the poor and of evangelicals were spreading. Popular preachers, often lay people, travelled long distances covering vast spaces, fueling the hunger for the word of God. Hermits, on their own or in groups, settled in the wilderness or semi-deserts, becoming a point of attraction for many people. This was a time when the  yearning for a spiritual and religious Christian life, more essential and more rooted in the word of the Gospel, combined with the population explosion, the growth of wealth and, consequently, of social distinctions, the increase of university culture, social mobility, and other causes, produced a striking movement in the direction of the Holy Land, which accordingly gave rise to the crusades. The desire to travel to that land to meet the Lord by visiting the site of his earthly life, resulted in an intense movement of people, which was partially transformed into the armed pilgrimage that became known as the crusade.

In that context, the community of the Carmelite friar hermits came into being. For them, Alberto wrote the Formula of Life, the nerve centre of the Carmelite way of life that would in time become the Carmelite Rule. It is a short letter in which he described with rapid strokes their proposal, namely, the decision they took regarding their life and the nature of the group. They wanted a brotherhood of hermits obedient to a prior, gathered around Jesus Christ, in constant prayerful meditation on His word, fed by the Eucharist, in silence, work, poverty, discernment and fraternal dialogue.

In it appears for the first time the DNA of the group (what would technically be called charism). It was composed of the essential elements of Christian and religious life, but combined in an original way. Charity, prayer, the centrality of Christ, service, all of this and every other element of the spiritual life was moulded into a harmonious shape that gave the group and its members the grace to remain in constant pursuit of the face of Christ, to be transformed by the Spirit and live in full communion with the Father and, therefore, with the brothers. The ideal image of the first community of Jerusalem, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (2:42-47, 4:32-35, 5:12-16) formed the strong structural beacon for the first Carmelites; it is difficult to determine if the idea had been suggested by themselves or by Albert, but certainly the patriarch included it in the composition of the Formula of Life and therefore the articulation of all its elements.

Alberto, once again, and we don’t know exactly how, but it must have been in dialogue with the hermits themselves, managed to bring together a variety of aspirations as they appear in the Formula of Life. First of all, we find the strong injunction to follow Jesus, right in the place where he lived and sacrificed himself and gave new life in the resurrection. It was the ideal of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a recurring theme in the Christian tradition. It meant a journey of progressive transformation in which the hermits came to an experience of the resurrection from the dead and passed from a carnal way of life to a spiritual way. In that way the Carmelites became brothers, capable of building the kind of community in which it is possible to encounter the Lord, and be willing to serve the sisters and brothers in the people of God. There was a desire to follow Jesus in apostolic poverty as a sign of what is essential in life and of a radical dependence on God, characteristic of many poverty movements at that time. There was a call to the solitude of the desert, somewhat mitigated by community or cenobitic elements, that expressed the desire to seek the Lord as the one absolute and to live in intimacy with him. The need for spiritual combat is expressed in the invitation to put on the armour of God (cf. Eph 6:11-17), which gives us an interesting reading of the mentality of that time, with its notions of chivalry and its interest in crusades.

The desire to contribute to the reform of the Church is expressed in chosing to venerate Mary, the Mother of the Lord, the Lady of the Place, of Carmel itself, and or the entire Holy Land, won by the blood of her Son: the oratory that the brothers built in the midst of the cells was dedicated to her. Right from the beginning this devotion to Mary contained all the elements that would evolve with time throughout the Order’s many centuries of history. The same was true of the choice of Elijah as an ideal model. There was a strong link between him and the place where the hermits  chose to live, (near the spring, commonly known as the spring of Elijah). It became the reason for the identification and for the call to a prophetic life, understood as the call to freely and frankly proclaim what God wants for human history.

Some authors have attempted to define Albert’s specific contribution and his role in the foundation of Carmel; these are hypotheses based on what are often fragile proofs and not always fully verified. If it is plausable to attribute to Albert the writing of the letter that contains the formula for life (something that the sources have never put in doubt), if we can, in addition, give Albert credit for the biblical quotations and references, both direct and indirect, (so many that someone was inspired to say that the formula of life is the result of a lectio divina). We still cannot say with total certainty what parts or what ideas are exclusively the thought or the feeling of the patriarch and what comes from the wishes of the hermits themselves. They in fact already lived on Mount Carmel and they had seen their propositum take shape from the beginning (Rule 3). Nevertheless I think we can attribute to the experience of Albert, canon of the Holy Cross of Mortara, at least the indication of St. Paul as a model (Rule 20): a very special gift of the patriarch to the Carmelites. 

Mention of the apostle would prove, consciously or otherwise, to be of great help to the friars when they began to think about their apostolate, explicitly and directly, without taking anything away from the original charismatic contemplative dimension that was proper to them. On the other side, Paul was a mystic (cf 2 Cor 12,1-10), a man of deep prayer (Rm 16,25-27; 2Cor 2,14; Eph). 3,14-21). Similarly we might see as the legacy of Albert the strong ecclesial nature of the text of the Formula of Life, that supported the commitment of the Carmelites of the time to the life of the Church and the work of evangelisation.

All of this meant that the Carmelite eremitical community on Mount Carmel would not be close in on itself, in some kind of jealous narcissism around their own choice and their own lifestyle. The friars opened up to the world and to history, without forgetting their origins, or their own DNA. Encouraged by the growth in their numbers and by the pressure coming from the Saracens and from the dangerous nature of the place, they decided to begin their migration towards the West from where the first penitent-pilgrims had originally set out. Thus, in addition to the foundations in the Holy Land and in Cyprus, Carmelite houses were opened in Sicily and in Italy, (Messina and then Pisa), in England (Aylesford in Kent, Hulne in Northumbria), in Provence (Les Aygalades and Valenciennes) and in Germany (Koln).

The Formula of Life of St. Albert continued to shape the life of the friars and then it became a Rule recognised and approved with some important additions and modifications by Pope Innocent IV, (1st of October, 1247). The attention to essentials, the flexibility and the dynamism of the text make it an attractive point of reference, one capable of providing nourishment and inspiration to many groups among the faithful, religious and lay, who together make up the Carmelite Family.

Now the letter that Albert gave to the friar hermits who lived near the spring of Elijah is more than 800 years old, but it has lost nothing of its freshness, and as it is the child of times of change, it has been possible to adapt it to all kinds of new situations, with an openness to the hope that God has for humankind.

Fr. Vincenzo Mosca, O.Carm.

Albert of Avogadro, presumably the name of his family, was born in 1150, in “Castro Gualtieri” a locality that today is situated in the diocese of Reggio Emilia and Guastalla. He received an education in the literary arts, the custom for every child of noble origin. To further his studies, probably, he moved to the city of Parma, because of his particular interest in juridical studies. Left an orphan, he chose, not a brilliant career, as people might have expected, but rather the priestly life, among the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Mortara. This congregation, which had many members in northern Italy in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries had as its ideal the “perfect life in common”, following its own Rule, given by the “Holy Fathers” but inspired by the principles of the rule of St. Augustine. As he did in his studies, Albert also made progress in his spiritual and regular life, to the point that, first he was appointed Master to young members of his institute, and then he was Prior of the community of the Motherhouse of Mortara, around 1180. This was also the period in which he began to be known outside the confines of his own community and of his own congregation, taking up a number of assignments given by the Popes of the time, because of his juridical qualifications. Perhaps precisely for this reason, he was appointed bishop of Bobbio in 1184. However, he did not stay long in that See. On the 20th of April, 1185 Urban III, his predecessor in that local church, appointed him Bishop of Vercelli, bestowing on him the cathedra which had been the cathedra of St. Eusebius.

Vercelli in the 12th century was the most important cultural, economic and political centre in Piemonte. The bishop of that church was also a Count and therefore a representative of the Emperor. In the approximately twenty years that he spent there as bishop of Vercelli, the work he did for that church was consistent with the reform movements of the time, particularly in the way that he reorganised the spiritual and the financial life of his particular church. He took great care, first of all, of the formation of the clergy, setting up three chairs in the Eusebian Chapter, a theologus, a grammaticus and a scriptor. He expanded the chapter library through the donations of Canon Cotta. He gave clear directions in regard to a life in common for the clergy, following the objectives stated in the chapters of the diocesis of Vercelli, to the churches of St. Agatha, S. Maria Maggiore and St. Stefano of Biella, and for the last of these he wrote a proper statute. The highpoint of his pastoral activity was the diocesan synod that was celebrated at Pentecost in 1191, the statutes from which remained in effect up to approximately the year 1600. The great number of acts of administration performed by Albert, regarding which we have sizeable documentation, tell us that he was ever present in his local church and that he cared for it, in spite of the many jobs that he took on in response both to the emperor and the pope. He managed to keep a balanced relationship both with the representatives of the public authority of Vercelli, calming their desires for autonomy, and with the two great institutions.

His efforts in 1197 to bring those institutions together, represented at that time by Celestine III and Henry VI, did not unfortunately have the best of outcomes as both of them died unexpectedly. It was from Pope Innocent III most of all that Albert got his many important missions, such as to preside over a commission of study to produce a “regulare propositum” for the great movement of the Umiliati, whose members came from a variety of heretical and heterodox backgrounds. It was with these that the distinction between first, second and third orders came into use in relation to consecrated life. He was also asked to preside at an extraordinary general chapter of all the monasteries of the North-east of Italy. The same Pontiff, on the 17th of February 1205, gave him a pressing invitation to accept his postulation as Patriarch of Jerusalem, made by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, by the suffragan bishops and by the King of Jerusalem, Almaricus II of Lusignano. On account of the esteem he had for Albert,  the Pope appointed him also Legate for the Holy Land.

Albert arrived in his new See in the first few months of 1206, and because Jerusalem was in the hands of the Turks, he set up his residence in St. John of Acre. In these territories, from the ecclesial point of view, his activities were somewhat curtailed to just the important aspects, such as the appointment of bishops to the local sees in the ecclesiastical province, the relationships with the military Orders, and the normal duties of a Patriarch. From the political point of view, his great skills as a mediator meant that he would be involved in problems related to the Cyprus succession, the principality of Antioch and of the kingdom of Jerusalem. In regard then to the crusade and the liberation of Jerusalem, he made great efforts to build up neighbourly relations with the Moslem princes, in order to guarantee access to the holy places for all the pilgrims who arrived.

On the 14th of September, 1214 on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, as he was walking in procession to the cathedral of Acre, he was murdered by the master of the hospital of the Holy Spirit, a certain cleric from Caluso in the diocesis of Ivrea, whom he had deposed from his position on account of a somewhat disedifying way of life. In general all that he did showed a considerable sense of balance and farsightedness, as we can see indeed from his work in support of the latin hermits of Mount Carmel, helping them to become part of the Church with their own specific charism. His work is identified by the Carmelite tradition and by the text of the “vita formulae” itself, in the following terms: he gathered into one college the group of hermits (in unum collegium congregavit); he gave them a formula for life in accordance with their own stated purpose (propositum),writing a rule for them; he gave a structure to the place and to the way of life of this group (monasterium construxit). In this sense Albert became identified with the future of the hermit brothers of Mount Carmel not only as a pastor, and then a legislator, but also as a master, a father, that is, a founder.  The “vitae formula” that contains the principle values of the Carmelite charism which in 1247 became “Regula bullata”, with the additions and corrections make by Innocent IV, may be looked upon as his spiritual testament.

This last 22nd to the 25th of October, in Leavenworth (Kansas, U.S.A.) a commemoration of the arrival 150 years ago of the first German Carmelites (Cyril Knoll and Xavier Huber)  in North America was celebrated. This was the first step in what would lead to the establishment of the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary (PCM). The celebrations included a variety of events. The participants were welcomed by the Pastor of Leavenworth, Fr. David McEvoy, O.Carm. on the banks of the river Missouri, where the Prior Provincial, Fr. William Harry, O.Carm. blessed a commemorative plaque and the Mayor of the city delivered an address in which he thanked the Carmelites for the work they have done throughout these years. A carriage parade began from there, recalling the journey of the first Carmelites, and moved to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, where all were welcomed by the archbishop, Joseph F. Naumann who led the celebration of the Thanksgiving Eucharist.

On the 23rd, the participants travelled to Scipio (KS) where they were given a presentation of the history and presence of Carmel in America by the Priors General, Falco Thuis, O.Carm., (who was not able to be present on account of ill health, but sent a video recording of his address), Fr. Joseph Chalmers, O.Carm., and Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., who led the solemn celebration of the Eucharist. In the small local cemetery, the participants held a very moving moment of prayer by the graves of Carmelites who have been buried there during these 150 years.

The programme included important talks by the theologian, Joseph Schmidt, FSC, on Carmelite Spirituality for the 21st century, and the well-known journalist, and CNN’s Vatican expert, John Allen, whose spoke about the challenges that Pope Frances has been presenting to the Church and to the Carmelite Order in our time. Along with all that there was a concert given by the famous choral group called the Chanticleer.

In addition to the Prior General, the celebration was attended also by the Prior Provincial and the members of the General Curia who belong to this province, (Frs. Raul Maravi and Carl Markelz), the bishop emeritus of Sicuani, (Peru) Michael LaFay, O.Carm., the Prior Provincial of the North American Province of St. Elias, Mario Esposito, O.Carm., Bro. Günter Benker and Fr. Tobias Kraus, of the German province representing the “mother province” in the absence of the Prior Provincial who was indisposed, along with numerous Carmelites from various parts, all of whom enjoyed this wonderful celebration.

foto: https://www.flickr.com/photos/carmelites/with/15459909179/

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Monción, Dominican Republic, was held 23 October 2014. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. Josefina Luna, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:  Sr. M. Consuelo Rivera, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. M. Rosanna Serrata, O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:  Sr. Cruz M. Núñez, O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:  Sr. M. Susana Collado, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Consuelo Rivera, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. Fátima M. Amaro, O.Carm.

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of La Vega, Dominican Republic, was held 22 October 2014. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. Ana María Arroyo, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:  Sr. M. Cecilia Morini, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. M. de los Ángeles Márquez, O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:  Sr. M. del Carmen Ferreira, O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:  Sr. M. Lillian Ferreira, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Lillian Ferreira, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. M. del Carmen Ferreira, O.Carm.

fr. Giovanni Grosso, O.Carm.

In St. John of Acre, on the northern tip of the Gulf of Haifa, on September 14, 1214, during a procession to celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, in which the whole “frankish” community, i.e. the Latin Christians, took part, along with other inhabitants of the city attracted by the event, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert Avogadro walked in the procession flanked by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre and other clerics. At a certain moment a figure jumped out of the crowd and lunged at the bishop beating him to death. The murderer, the master of the hospital of the Holy Spirit, wanted to take revenge for having been deposed by the bishop on the grounds of immorality.

Thus the patriarch Albert died, a victim of his commitment to a Church that is faithful to the Gospel. He was born of the Avogadri, a family of the middle nobility, sixty years earlier, around 1150. The place of his birth was most likely in Castel Gualtieri, now in the province of Reggio Emilia, then in the imperial territory of Piemonte, called in several ways: Lombardy, Italy ... Still a young man, in his early twenties and after initial studies of law, he chose religious life; not, however, a convenient, promising and rewarding career in the church, but the austere community life of the Canons Regular of Mortara, a common life of poverty, combining choral liturgical prayer and pastoral care. He became an authoritative interpreter of their rule of life, enough to gain the confidence of superiors and confreres and thus become master of novices and then prior in 1180.

Albert’s reputation grew to the point that, in 1184, he was elected bishop of Bobbio, where, however, he remained only a few months, because the following year he was assigned to lead the church of Vercelli, where he remained for twenty years. This period for him was very rich in pastoral and diplomatic activity, two very strong features in the life of Albert. In fact, he not only presided over the diocese but also represented the emperor in whose name he ruled the county of Vercelli. As bishop he worked with the Eusebian Church in the celebration of a diocesan synod (1191), from which sprang new Statutes, in large part the result of the foresight and expertise of the Bishop himself. This ancient legislation, unfortunately lost, would remain in force at least until the beginning of the seventeenth century, a sign of its concreteness and flexibility. Another concern was the formation of the diocesan clergy. Albert was praised by different popes, who on the occasion of disputes between bishops and canonical chapters or between neighboring diocese sent him as a mediator. These were also years of intense political activity; by all accounts the bishop always maintained good relations with the emperors Frederick I "Barbarossa" and his son, Henry VI , whom he accompanied several times on his travels in Italy. He did not have easy relations with the municipality of Vercelli, the consciousness of whose authority was increasing. Albert’s qualities of wisdom and legal expertise could be seen also during the reform of the Statutes of the chapters of the canons of Biella and those of St. Agatha and St. Mary Major in Vercelli. The bishop was also called to assist in the revision of the constitutions of the Umiliati, a new religious order, composed of lay people, religious and priests.

All of these activities, in addition to his fame as a spiritual man, meant that the canons of the chapter of the Holy Sepulchre would suggest his name to the Pope for Patriarch of Jerusalem. Innocent III (1198-1216) accepted the request and, having overcome the resistance of the candidate, sent him as patriarch of Jerusalem and the papal legate for the province of the Holy Land. In early 1206 Alberto arrived in Acre, the provisional seat of the patriarchate given that entry and residence in Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Saracen, was precluded. He busied himself immediately with improving the situation of the Latin Church in the Holy Land. As papal legate he intervened in the appointment of bishops and encouraged dialogue with the Saracens among the various factions and Christian authorities.

At that time the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was reduced to little more than the coast of the Gulf of Haifa, the Lebanese territories and the island of Cyprus. After the battle of Hattin (1187), the Saracen control had been restored to almost all of the Holy Land. The promontory of Carmel was still among the territories controlled by the "Franks", and on its south-western slopes, in the Valley of the Pilgrims (Wadi 'ain es Siah), among the ruins of an ancient Byzantine laura, a group of Latin pilgrims, wanting to live as hermits in holy penance, settled sometime after 1189.

It was one of the many communities born in those years in the fertile soil of a society on the move and a church buzzing with questions about simplicity, the essence of things, and radical approaches to life. Western society was undergoing profound transformation: the old feudal structures, closed to outsiders, based on subsistence agriculture, with not much exchange with the locality, were giving way to new urban areas where the market was the centre of vitality as well as the bishop's palace, the mayor’s palace, the university. New social groups composed of merchants, artisans, professionals, were replacing the old social stratification of knights and peasants. Even in the Church movements of the poor and of evangelicals were spreading. Popular preachers, often lay people, travelled long distances covering vast spaces, fueling the hunger for the word of God. Hermits, on their own or in groups, settled in the wilderness or semi-deserts, becoming a point of attraction for many people. This was a time when the  yearning for a spiritual and religious Christian life, more essential and more rooted in the word of the Gospel, combined with the population explosion, the growth of wealth and, consequently, of social distinctions, the increase of university culture, social mobility, and other causes, produced a striking movement in the direction of the Holy Land, which accordingly gave rise to the crusades. The desire to travel to that land to meet the Lord by visiting the site of his earthly life, resulted in an intense movement of people, which was partially transformed into the armed pilgrimage that became known as the crusade.

In that context, the community of the Carmelite friar hermits came into being. For them, Alberto wrote the Formula of Life, the nerve centre of the Carmelite way of life that would in time become the Carmelite Rule. It is a short letter in which he described with rapid strokes their proposal, namely, the decision they took regarding their life and the nature of the group. They wanted a brotherhood of hermits obedient to a prior, gathered around Jesus Christ, in constant prayerful meditation on His word, fed by the Eucharist, in silence, work, poverty, discernment and fraternal dialogue.

In it appears for the first time the DNA of the group (what would technically be called charism). It was composed of the essential elements of Christian and religious life, but combined in an original way. Charity, prayer, the centrality of Christ, service, all of this and every other element of the spiritual life was moulded into a harmonious shape that gave the group and its members the grace to remain in constant pursuit of the face of Christ, to be transformed by the Spirit and live in full communion with the Father and, therefore, with the brothers. The ideal image of the first community of Jerusalem, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (2:42-47, 4:32-35, 5:12-16) formed the strong structural beacon for the first Carmelites; it is difficult to determine if the idea had been suggested by themselves or by Albert, but certainly the patriarch included it in the composition of the Formula of Life and therefore the articulation of all its elements.

Alberto, once again, and we don’t know exactly how, but it must have been in dialogue with the hermits themselves, managed to bring together a variety of aspirations as they appear in the Formula of Life. First of all, we find the strong injunction to follow Jesus, right in the place where he lived and sacrificed himself and gave new life in the resurrection. It was the ideal of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a recurring theme in the Christian tradition. It meant a journey of progressive transformation in which the hermits came to an experience of the resurrection from the dead and passed from a carnal way of life to a spiritual way. In that way the Carmelites became brothers, capable of building the kind of community in which it is possible to encounter the Lord, and be willing to serve the sisters and brothers in the people of God. there was a desire to follow Jesus in apostolic poverty s a sign of what is essential in life and of a radical dependence on God, characteristic of many poverty movements at that time. There was a call to the solitude of the desert, somewhat mitigated by community or cenobitic elements, that expressed the desire to seek the Lord as the one absolute and to live in intimacy with him. The need for spiritual combat is expressed in the invitation to put on the armour of God (cf. Eph 6:11-17), which gives us an interesting reading of the mentality of that time, with its notions of chivalry and its interest in crusades.

The desire to contribute to the reform of the Church is expressed in chosing to venerate Mary, the Mother of the Lord, the Lady of the Place, of Carmel itself, and or the entire Holy Land, won by the blood of her Son: the oratory that the brothers built in the midst of the cells was dedicated to her. Right from the beginning this devotion to Mary contained all the elements that would evolve with time throughout the Order’s many centuries of history. The same was true of the choice of Elijah as an ideal model. There was a strong link between him and the place where the hermits  chose to live, (near the spring, commonly known as the spring of Elijah). It became the reason for the identification and for the call to a prophetic life, understood as the call to freely and frankly proclaim what God wants for human history.

Some authors have attempted to define Albert’s specific contribution and his role in the foundation of Carmel; these are hypotheses based on what are often fragile proofs and not always fully verified. If it is plausable to attribute to Albert the writing of the letter that contains the formula for life (something that the sources have never put in doubt), if we can, in addition, give Albert credit for the biblical quotations and references, both direct and indirect, (so many that someone was inspired to say that the formula of life is the result of a lectio divina), we still cannot say with total certainty what parts or what ideas are exclusively the thought or the feeling of the patriarch and what comes from the wishes of the hermits themselves. They in fact already lived on Mount Carmel and they had seen their propositum take shape from the beginning (Rule 3). Nevertheless I think we can attribute to the experience of Albert, canon of the Holy Cross of Mortara, at least the indication of St. Paul as a model (Rule 20): a very special gift of the patriarch to the Carmelites.  

Mention of the apostle would prove, consciously or otherwise, to be of great help to the friars when they began to think about their apostolate, explicitly and directly, without taking anything away from the original charismatic contemplative dimension that was proper to them. On the other side, Paul was a mystic (cf 2 Cor 12,1-10), a man of deep prayer (Rm 16,25-27; 2Cor 2,14; Eph). 3,14-21). Similarly we might see as the legacy of Albert the strong ecclesial nature of the text of the Formula of Life, that supported the commitment of the Carmelites of the time to the life of the Church and the work of evangelisation.

All of this meant that the Carmelite eremitical community on Mount Carmel would not be close in on itself, in some kind of jealous narcissism around their own choice and their own lifestyle. The friars opened up to the world and to history, without forgetting their origins, or their own DNA. Encouraged by the growth in their numbers and by the pressure coming from the Saracens and from the dangerous nature of the place, they decided to begin their migration towards the West from where the first penitent-pilgrims had originally set out. Thus, in addition to the foundations in the Holy Land and in Cyprus, Carmelite houses were opened in Sicily and in Italy, (Messina and then Pisa), in England (Aylesford in Kent, Hulne in Northumbria), in Provence (Les Aygalades and Valenciennes) and in Germany (Koln).

 The Formula of Life of St. Albert continued to shape the life of the friars and then it became a Rule recognised and approved with some important additions and modifications by Pope Innocent IV, (1st of October, 1247). The attention to essentials, the flexibility and the dynamism of the text make it an attractive point of reference, one capable of providing nourishment and inspiration to many groups among the faithful, religious and lay, who together make up the Carmelite Family.

Now the letter that Albert gave to the friar hermits who lived near the spring of Elijah is more than 800 years old, but it has lost nothing of its freshness, and as it is the child of times of change, it has been possible to adapt it to all kinds of new situations, with an openness to the hope that God has for humankind.

Fr. John Welch, O.Carm.

CARMELITE ON GOING FORMATION COURSE
The Spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila
THE CASTLE JOURNEY

Teresa’s Castle

               At the age of 62, Teresa of Avila presented a summary of her life of prayer. She imaged her spiritual journey as the journey from the outside of a crystal, global castle to the center room where the King lived. Outside it was dark, cold, and noisy. The King at the center of the castle invites the soul, the individual, into a deep union. As the soul moves through the castle the dark gives way to light, the cold to warmth, and the noisy creatures become less distracting.

               The journey to the center of the castle moves through seven suites of rooms, or seven mansions, or seven dwelling places. These are seven stages in the soul’s relationship with God. All the rooms on the outersurface of the castle are the first dwelling places, perhaps “a million” or so. The next layer of rooms represents the second dwelling places and so forth, until the soul reaches the center. Teresa said it is like a palmetto with its enfolding leaves.

               We will ask four questions of this work:

1. What is Teresa’s image for our spiritual journey?
2. What is the problem we encounter on the journey?
3. What is Teresa’s “solution” for overcoming the problem?
4. What is the goal of the journey?

Image: from the periphery to the center

               Teresa’s image pictures a journey from the periphery of our life to its center.  In this image God is not “somewhere else” but God is “always already there”. St. Augustine prayed, “You were inside, but I was outside. You were with me, but I was not with you.”

               One of the most difficult transitions for Christians is to move from moralism to Christian morality. Moralism holds that if I am good, I am rewarded; if I am bad, I am punished. It is the morality of a child, but then applied to God.  I believe that if I am good, I earn God’s love. If I sin God then withdraws love.

               Christian morality holds that I am loved before I do anything good or bad. I cannot earn God’s love. I cannot win it. I cannot barter for it. I do not have to appease God to be loved. I am loved into life and God continues to love me throughout my life. I cannot turn the love away. I may not believe it, I may turn my back on it, but God does not walk away.  God is “always already there”.

Problem: we do not know ourselves

               The problem, said St. Teresa, is that we “lack self-knowledge.” She said, I cannot know you, God, unless I know myself.; but, I cannot know myself unless I know You.We believe God is mediated through God’s creation. We are the first part of God’s creation we meet. Karl Rahner one time asked if we knew what God says to us in prayer. We know what we say in prayer. What does God say to us? Rahner’s answer is, we are what God says to us in prayer. In hearing the word that we are, we begin to hear more clearly the God who speaks us. However, Teresa taught, we cannot know ourselves unless we know God. Only in a relationship with God do we come to see ourselves, and the world, with clarity.

               Teresa said she was “at sea” the first 18 years of her life in the Incarnation.When she was with the things of God, she wanted to be with the things of the world. When she was with the things of the world, she wanted to be with the things of God.

By the “world”, I think Teresa meant she was continuing to be involvedin the news of Avila through conversations in the parlor and other means of communication. By “things of God” she meant she was working hard to be seen as an observant religious in the convent.

               One day when a statue of the beaten Christ, the “Ecce Homo”, was brought into the convent, Teresa fell to her knees and said she would not get up until she was healed. The encounter with the beaten Lord did heal her. She got up free from her ambivalence, and not long after, began to plan a reform of Carmel.

What happened?

               Teresa does not say what exactly was healed, but we may guess what happened from knowing our own needs. Perhaps our deepest question is, are we loved? Are we essentially good? Do we have worth? What is our value? Teresa realized she had been asking society around her, and religious life, to validate her, to give her worth. She had been trying to be a valued member of society, as well as being seen as a very good religious. She sought her worth outside.

               In encountering the beaten Christ perhaps she realized that this suffering was borne out of love for her. She did not have to ask the world around if she was loveable and of worth. She learned that she had immense worth and dignity because she was already loved by God. Her worth came from the God who was at the core of her life.

Solution: prayer and reflection

               “The door to the castle is prayer and reflection,” Teresa wrote.  What keeps us on the periphery of life are many preoccupations and concerns. She mentions  “pastimes, business affairs, pleasures and worldly buying and selling”. In other words, rather than having one center in our life, we have many centers, each calling for her attention. The many concerns, the many centers fragments us. What frees us from our dissipated and fragmented life outside the castle, on the periphery of our life, is prayer.

               In Teresa’s castle story, the call is coming from the King at the center. In prayer, it is God who speaks first, and initiates the relationship.God called us into life, and continues to call us more deeply into our lives. We, on our part, are essentially listeners for God’s call.  The Rule of Carmel stresses the silence needed to hear God’s call. The Carmelite is to be an expectancy, a listener for God’s approach. All our words in prayer are an effort to say the one word, which is God’s.

               In this engagement with the Mystery at the core of our lives, all other lesser loves are put into order. The many centers keeping us on the margins of our life are now oriented around the one center. Identity and validation now come from the center of our life. Other loves and interests find their proper place in our lives. The invitation from the center of the castle disengages us from the periphery and allows us to continue to journey.

               The only terminal problem, in Teresa’s estimation, is to stop praying. When we stop praying, we stop listening, and when we stop listening it is very hard to hear the gentle whistle of the shepherd.  One theologian summarized Teresa’s message: a faithful and perduring attentiveness to our depths and center is the best cooperation we can give to God who is reorienting our life.

Goal: union with God

               The goal of the journey is union with God in love. As the soul listens more deeply and responds more generously the relationship with the Mystery at the core of our life deepens. We believe God is always calling us into a fuller humanity, a wider freedom, and a more intimate union. On this journey to the center of one’s life, the self is born as God is met. The more Teresa could say “God “ in her life, the more she could say “Teresa”.

               Carmelite understanding of the journey speaks about transformation. In the Rule of Carmel the Carmelite is obliged to put on the armor of God, or rather to be available so that God can clothe the Carmelite in virtue. And the Constitutions state: “Contemplation is the inner journey of Carmelites, arising out of the free initiative of God who touches and transforms us leading us towards unity in love with him…”.

Prior General Fernando Millan,O.Carm

• Carmelite Culture, Identity and The Need for Balance
• The Identity of the Carmelite Formator
• Prayer, Spiritual Direction Silence, taking care of the interior life, the foundation for ongoing formation.
• The Role and Responsibility of The Formator in The Journey of Vocation

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• Carmelite Culture, Identity and The Need for Balance
• The Identity of the Carmelite Formator
• Prayer, Spiritual Direction Silence, taking care of the interior life, the foundation for ongoing formation.
• The Role and Responsibility of The Formator in The Journey of Vocation

On the 14th and 15th of October last, the official opening of the 5th Centenary of the birth of St. Teresa of Jesus took place. On the 14th, in the birthplace of the saint, solemn vespers were celebrated, at which Fr. Saverio Canninstrà O.C.D. presided accompanied by the bishop of Avila, Jesus Garcia Burillo, and Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm. and this was followed by the Eucharist which marked the closing of the novena.

The Prior of Avila, Fr. David Jimenez, O.C.D. noted at the end of the Eucharist, that “the Saint from her place in heaven is sure to be rejoicing, because just as in 1567 she received a visit from Fr. Rubeo, today the two Carmelite generals are present.”

On the 15th, a solemn Eucharist was celebrated, led by Don Ricardo Blázquez, President of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain, along with several bishops and priests. The beautiful message sent by Pope Francis to the Bishop of Ávila was read as part of this celebration. Following the Eucharist there was a procession in which the statue of St. Teresa was carried through the streets of the city.

In addition, on the 15th of October, in the Monastery of the Incarnation in Alba de Tormes, (the eighth of Teresa’s foundations, and the place where she is buried) Fr. Desiderio Garcia, O.Carm., opened the solemn novena in honour of St. Teresa. The Carmelite community of the novitiate in San Andrés and the student community of the Discalced Carmelites of Salamanca, were given the job of carrying the statue and relics of St. Teresa in procession through the town of Alba de Tormes at the end of the solemn eucharist led by the bishop of Salamanca and attended by a large congregation of the faithful.

Pope Francis granted the grace of a “Teresian Jubilee Year”, for all the dioceses of Spain, beginning on the 15th of October 2014 and ending on the 15th of October, 2015, with a view to celebrating this 5th Centenary in the most solemn manner.

With great joy and hope we present the first electronic newsletter for the Lay Carmelites. This initiative is the result of our first meeting with the new General Commission for the Carmelite Laity and Youth of our Order. Reflection on this international group has led to the desire to strengthen two aspects during this sexennium: spiritual formation and communications.

We are sure that this newsletter will be a good way to learn more about our charism and spirituality, as well as the various projects of the laity and youth in different parts of the world. In this issue we highlight the figure of St. Albert of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of the Holy Land who gave us the Carmelite Rule and whose eighth centenary of death we are celebrating this year. We appreciate your suggestions and contributions for future editions of this E-Bulletin. Any news regarding lay Carmelites and Carmelite Youth, please send to us at (Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.).

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http://ocarm.org/ebook/laybulletin/lay1-14en.pdf