THE BASIC IDENTITY OF SECULAR CARMELITES
by
Anthony-Morello, 0. C. D.
1. Introduction: The
Awakening
One of the more visibly successful
consequences of the Second Vatican Council was the awakening of the sleeping
giant --the laity. Gradually Catholics were sensitized to their baptismal
identity and to their call to involvement in the public life of the Church in
the world, beginning on the local level of parish and diocese. They were
challenged to adopt a renewed 'Catholic Humanism' and to christen the secular
city.
In the worshiping community the
laity began to assume roles in the sanctuary as lectors and extraordinary
ministers of the Eucharist. Many Married men were prepared for and ordained to
the permanent deaconate. Outside the sanctuary roles on the newly established
parish council developed for a good number of men and women. More Catholic
involvement became apparent in civil issues on the state and national levels.
Everyone was encouraged to throw themselves into the work of the Spirit in the
Church and in the world, bridging the gap between the sacred and the secular.
The soul and depth, however, of the
new consciousness was to be found in the most basic Christian awakening of all,
namely in the effective realization that each baptized person is called to
enter, through the Holy Spirit, into the immensely beautiful and transcendent
relationship between Jesus the Man and God the Father! Whether it be through
arduous action or the leisure of contemplation, the Christian stretches up to
the Father and out to the brothers and the sisters in and with Jesus of
Nazareth, Son of the Father and Brother to us all.
True Christian awakening began to
see that all of Jesus' activity dramatized his interior vision of things and
his rapport with everything. At heart, Jesus the Son of Man was a contemplative
who dynamically stood in loving relationship to the Father of all things
visible and invisible. No matter what he did, he but dramatized his
contemplative orientation. Jesus lived in constant union of mind and heart with
God the Father, his origin and destiny. Jesus was a contemplative in the world,
a contemplative at work among ordinary people, and among the sick and the
dying, and the hungry for the word of life.
It has become clearer and clearer
that disciples of the Lord need to pursue their baptismal contemplative
vocation in the ordinary affairs of their existence, dealing with everyday
people and things. Such a pursuit constitutes the deepest level of
discipleship. And that pursuit satisfies the deepest hunger of the human being.
You and I and everybody else seek wholeness, a fulfilling union with total
reality at its root and base. Our hearts are indeed restless and we know not
why. No wonder so many, left in the dark, turn to substitutes for God like
money and sex, drugs and gang crime.
Obviously nothing can satisfy us,
for long. What we actually want is an eternal moment of satisfaction, of
completeness. We know we cannot make ourselves happy, so the object of our
contentment must be something other than the self, another someone, another
some One, yes, the Transcendent One. In Christ our spirit stretches out beyond
the limits of self and all natural reality until we reach what is final
wholeness - the personal Holy of Holies that sustains the universes in Loving
Mercy, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The deepest response to the Second
Vatican council's call to universal holiness lies in our complete endeavor. To
quote the Council "The most sublime element in human dignity consists in the
call of man to communion with God: for he exists only because he has been
created by God out of love and is ever preserved by that love, and does not
live fully according to the truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and
commits himself to his creator." [The Church in the Modern World,
n.191].
As a member of the mystical body of Christ, one is called to
partake of the mysticism, the contemplation of the Head. The whole Church like
Jesus is called to be "contemplative apostle" in the world. Now, the
one institution that we know well which expressly aims at giving the Church
contemplative laity is the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites.
II. Lay
Carmelite Identity
The thesis of this article is
simply this: the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites exists to give lay
contemplatives to Christ and his Church.
Secular Carmelites and their spiritual directors should be
guided by that principle. (This is indeed a matter of identity. We treat here a
very definite purpose, a limited purpose to tell the truth, an almost narrow
scope and goal when we address the question of basic identity of the Secular
Order. The Secular Carmelite's Rule of Life, by way of direct formulation, does
not propose a comprehensive plan of Christian living. For example, the Rule
leaves it to each one to find a meaningful apostolate; there is no apostolic
specification. The Rule, apart from structural and juridical sections,
concentrates on a program of prayer, liturgical and private, and on interior
attitudes of Christian perfection.
In the daily program proposed great emphasis is placed on
meditation and contemplative prayer. This is because our constitution by the
grace of its charism exists to pray, and to teach people how to pray and
meditate in such a way that opens them up to the transforming contemplative
experience. Contemplation is experientially infused. Light and love change the
person by degrees, fashioning mind and heart after the interior Jesus, the
contemplative Son of God. One's attitudes and behavior become more conformed to
Christ, the new creation.
Yes, the daily program and the
monthly meeting with its spiritual instruction and on-going educational study
(as well as monthly lessons sent to Isolate Members) and discussion all intend
to serve prayer, to teach and sustain prayer. The Order's radical interest in
prayer cultivates openness to God through the purity of the theological virtues
of faith, hope and charity. Precisely in a faith which hopes and loves is the
Christian religion located and identified. It is from there that both Christian
virtue and apostolic energy flow.
The religion of Jesus Christ is primarily interior. It is as
interior as friendship. It resides in attitudes. A prayerful person's interior
attitude is recreated, refashioned, redeemed through faith, hope and charity.
Lay contemplatives are people whose
ordinary lives are permeated with God's light and love. Our Secular Order
exists to enable people to experience the divine life in Christ. The experience
of divine life effectively sees the self and all things in God as Jesus did.
The experience of Divine love is to be loved by the Father and to love all else
as Jesus did. It is precisely living in this light and love which constitutes
life in the spirit.
The lay contemplative, prayerfully seeing things through the
eyes of Jesus, begins to create, from details of existence and all its
dimensions of good and bad, acceptable and absurd, a mosaic of unified vision,
of divine childhood, a picture of oneness with Christ and of wholeness in him.
In spite of our imperfections and sins, things begin to come together in Christ
in a mysterious integration and harmony. For it is God's prerogative to make
all things work unto good of those who love him.
So the Secular Carmelite Order
concentrates on the practice of prayer. The Order accordingly wants to teach
each member how to pray well: how to say vocal prayers with real presence to,
words and sentiments; how to meditate on the Word of God, being schooled in
everything that issues from the mouth of God; how to move into affective
rapport with God and simple company-keeping; and how in dry-bones aridity to
merely desire God in the stillness of faith and trust, knowing that God's ways
are not ours. For the Lord's ways are beyond concept and category. "God is
Spirit and he seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth."
In its concentration on prayer, the
Secular Order exercises us on the most private level. It reaches and touches us
in the inner sanctum of our privacy, sealed off from the observation of others,
where we stand alone before God and the mystery of life. Here we find ourselves
face to face with that "existential dread" that Thomas Merton
described so eloquently in his small work, Contemplative Prayer. He says that
persons who pray let themselves "be brought naked and defenseless into the
center of that dread where we stand alone before God in our nothingness,
without theories, completely dependent upon his providential care, in dire need
of the gift of his grace, his mercy and the light of faith"
[Op. cit.: Herder & Herder / 1969 / p.85]
There, face to face with rock bottom reality, the
contemplative must go about a heavy agenda, namely the destruction of two
idols: the false image of self, and the false image of, God, created after the
model of one's own narrow categories and hang-ups. The prayerful person
gradually takes to the "real", and begins to see the "inside of
things" with the Little Prince. He/she dies to illegitimate offenses
before self and God. Our small, crippling notions of God and self reluctantly
give way to the real.
The Carmelite begins to emerge,
begins to stand in the pure light of divine truth and evangelical poverty: the
truth about the self in desperate need of others; the truth about God from whom
alone comes salvation in a total gratuitous, unmerited way. For God loves us
independently of our merits. He loves us because He created us and willed us
good from the beginning. He has loved us first because He chose to do so.
"God is love." Upon, entering into one's dire poverty, the
contemplative knows, yet experiences, that God is Merciful love beyond all
telling, even in spite of ourselves, as St. Therese so prophetically came to
appreciate.
Like the gospel, the Order's intent
goes deep down to the root predispositions of a person.
Contemplation is, by nature, behind
the scenes. It is intimately private, a loving communion with another. The
Secular Carmelite has learned the secret of the legitimacy of the explicit
personal desire for contemplation. The Secular Order is truly unique and must
be appreciated as such. Of set purpose it leads us through meditation to a
contemplation born of the simple desire for God. Without forcing God's timing
and manner, the Carmelite desires the infused contemplative light (presence)
and love (rapport) for one reason only, namely because contemplation is a
shortcut to mature charity.
Charity is the goal of the
Christian life. Charity unites one with God. Charity unites one to others.
Charity prays. Charity works. Charity saves. In charity one is constituted by
the Holy Spirit in the will of the Father with the Son.
If charity is all these things and
prayer is for the sake of becoming charity, then the lay contemplative rises
from private prayer, as from liturgy, to offer a practical love and service to
one's spouse, family, neighbors and society. Authentic contemplative people are
sensitive to the life and problems of loved ones, the local Church, and the
world. The contemplative identifies with the world of people and events.
Christian prayer does not take us into "nirvana"; rather it embraces
humanity in its global needs and concerns. The contemplative sees the real,
world in the compassion of God who loves and acts.
The Secular Order wants to make us
real and holy in God through prayer. With that principal concern clear, our
identity is clear. We could speak of our Secular Order as a Catholic Meditation
or better a Catholic Community of Lay Contemplatives. The point is simply one
of identity.
True to character, our Carmelite
School of Prayer lives an essentially Marian spirituality. We, the disciples of
Jesus, our eyes on Mary of Nazareth, the first and perfect disciple of the
Lord. She is our sister as well as mother and queen in the order of redemption.
In real I life she lived in the darkness of faith. She prayed in hope. She
worked and did her duty. She exercised heroic virtue. Her charity easily went
out to kith and kin. Yieldingly she stood at the foot of the cross. She held
the crucified. She beheld him glorified. She gave herself in service to the
Church, his Body yet on earth. But all of this because she "heard the word
of God and kept it." And precisely in her contemplative stance of
"listening to the word of God," and "pondering all these things
in her heart" do Carmelites easily identify with Mary. In love with the
scriptures, and attuned to the divine light, she was transformed by the new
Adam into the new Eve as she uttered her "Yes" to God.
As a Teresian School of Prayer, we
follow a specific tradition of spirituality within the Church. We pray in line
with the doctrine of St. Teresa of Jesus and
Naturally our prayer is backed up
by the daily practice of virtue and evangelical self denial. Perfection lies in
charity and the virtues, not in contemplation. We pray to be virtuous. But that
is the point we have been making all along.
III. Some Practical
Conclusions
Based on the Nature and Purpose of the Secular Order
1.
Secular Carmelites treasure the notion of vocation -- a call from God.
The Preamble of the Rule of Life says the Order welcomes those who 'by special
vocation undertake to live In the world an evangelical life of fraternal
communion imbued with the spirit of contemplative prayer and apostolic zeal
according to the example and teaching of the Carmelite saints."
Let me point out that a vocation is two sided. There is first of
all the interior experience of the call, an attraction to the 0rder for
supernatural reasons. This gives way, after careful discernment, to a free
decision to apply. The personal dimension is easily appreciated and usually
meant when speaking of a vocation from God.
But vocation is also
ecclesial. It is not complete until there is another call, the call to
enter, and then again to make Promises, on the part of the ecclesial community;
this is an official invitation by the authorities of the community. This second
aspect of vocation is the result of a communal discernment. It is a second call
that comes to the person from outside the self.
The government of the Secular Order
assumes the role of communal discernment. It is seriously negligent to simply
profess anyone who holds on during the entire formation program. The Director
of Formation and the Council must decide, without scruple, on the authenticity
of the candidate's vocation. It is not for them to leave difficult cases to the
judgment of the priest assistant. It is a sin against truth and charity to
refuse to confront problems. And the absence of a genuine vocation is indeed a
problem for the community.
As the period of formation progresses on-going shared discernment with
the candidate is essential. And as the Period concludes, if there is still
a substantial doubt about suitability, the person must not be professed. The
Promises may be postponed for a while, but eventually a decision must be made
in favor of the vocation or against it. Good will is not sufficient. If a
person is not habitually given to our kind of prayer and/or cannot fit into the
group socially, a negative decision must be made and communicated. The promises
cannot be made.
Look to the quality of one's commitment to daily program,
and scrutinize the person's capacity for community. We are a community support
system to lay contemplative life. Community
is essential. If a person does not contribute to peace and harmony, is
antisocial, factious, a trouble maker, ambitious, etc. , there is no ecclesial
vocation.
One can pursue contemplation alone without us. Our Order
needs social contemplatives. The Teresian community emphasis applies to the
Secular Order as well as to friars and nuns, though secular community is more
loose knit.
When officers fear making a
mistake, for the love of God they ought to make it in favor of exclusion rather
than Inclusion of the doubtful. Include only those who clearly belong!
To rise to this challenge is to exercise real lay leadership. To think that you
will have to answer to God for a sin against charity because of excluding
someone doubtful is but a defense mechanism to avoid responsibility. You will
have to answer to God for not living out your role in the order and the Church.
Do not turn to isolated status as
the solution for persons who do not belong. Isolates are tertiaries who do not
have access to an actual community, not those incapable of community. The
Director of Formation or the President must sit down with such a candidate and
explain that God is not calling him to the Order. The candidate can be led to
understand that God wants him/her to benefit from affinity to
2.
Discernment of vocation also has to peer into the actual circumstances of a
candidate's life. Good people who otherwise would qualify, but who presently do
not have any leisure time or cannot manage to impose some order on their hectic
schedule, should postpone their entry. Neither an adequate formation is
presently possible nor implementation of our daily program.
Again, hard as it is to admit, good
will is not sufficient. We have gone beyond the legalistic days of
dispensations. A person needs to have at least enough time to be able to
habitually follow our daily prayer program. We are slaves to nothing; but
neither are we to make believe that we are Secular Carmelites when life cannot
yield us enough leisure to exercise the charism of the Order. One should wait
until life eases up and offers some respite.
3. The Secular Order must successfully sustain the contemplative prayer of the members over the years. The monthly meeting should contribute to the knowledge of prayer by instruction and by on-going formation study and discussion. It should fuel motivation to persevere daily in the arduous practice of private prayer. Although there are other goals of the monthly meeting, this is the primary one.
IV. Conclusion
When the members demonstrate
clarity about the nature of the Secular Order, and when officers assume their
rightful roles according to the Rule, they make the Order effective, credible,
and appealing to others. The quality of the Order is constituted by its
members. You are the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelite. Carry it forward
with clarity, decision and peace before God and the Church. Make it serve the
interior life of its members. Enable it really to give Christ and his Church
lay contemplatives in the world.