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Carmel Clarion Spring 2020 Volume XXXVI, No. 2 Carmel Clarion CONTENTS 2 From The Provincial Delegate 6 The Vision of the Carmelites Fr. Salvatore Sciurba, O.C.D. Beginnings of the Carmelite Tradition and Efforts to Renew The Carmelite Way: 19 The Flaming Arrow An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim An Early Plea to Return to the Desert To The Carmelite Family 25 False Selves and False Gods John Welch, O.Carm. According to Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross The Carmel Clarion is a Catholic Publication of Change of Address: Please notify us in advance the Washington Province Discalced Carmelite by using the form found on the ocdswashprov.org Secular Order, Inc. website. Independent subscribers: please write us with your new address. OCDS Main Office 2131 Lincoln Road, NE A U.S. subscription is $20.00 a year. Extra copies Washington, DC 20002-1101 are $4.00 (if available) plus shipping and handling. Clarions are not forwarded. Phone: 202-269-3792 International Clarion subscriptions are no longer Email: [email protected] available due to high postage costs. Editor: Mary E. Rodriguez-Harrington, O.C.D.S. For an independent subscription use the form found at: http://www.carmelclarion.com [email protected] Official website: Washington Province Discalced Provincial Carmelite Secular Order, Inc. Delegate: Fr. Salvatore Sciurba, O.C.D. http://www.ocdswashprov.org Regional Assistants: http://www.flowerofcarmel.org/clarion-index.htm Northeast: Fr. Leonard Copeland, O.C.D. for Clarion Subject Index. Mid-Atlantic: Br. Robert Sentman, O.C.D. Permission to copy is granted for individual articles if not for profit. It is not granted for duplication of the entire issue. From the ProvincIil DelefJIte hile it is beneficial for us to recall God's past The spirituality of Brother Lawrence is one of the W blessings, if we stay in the past we may present moment. He teaches us to ask God for the struggle with regret. While we must reflect on the grace we need at the very moment. He advises us future to discern God's unfolding will, if we live in to be sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit and the future we might find ourselves anxious about make whatever prayer we are inspired to offer here what we cannot predict or control. We have only and now. Lawrence's approach leads us to live in the present moment, and it is here that we will find the presence of God. God is not distant. He is with God. us. We need only learn to turn to him and converse with him as our heart directs us. If we fail, we simply Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection promotes the reopen the conversation. Practice of the Presence of God. He tells us: "The holiest and most necessary practice is that of the St. Thérèse likewise appreciated the value of presence of God. It consists in taking delight in, the present moment. She states that not three and becoming accustomed to his divine company, minutes went by without her thinking of God. speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with him She also admits that she experienced no insights, all the time" (p. 105). no consolation during her periods of prayer. God gave her the graces she needed at the moment Brother Lawrence, recognizing God's presence she needed them. Nothing was given in advance. within our hearts, teaches us to turn inward Nonetheless she remained faithful to the practice of frequently and maintain brief conversations with prayer even though dark and dry. God. "It is not necessary to be in church all the time to be with God; we can make of our hearts an Thérèse states: "I noticed many times that Jesus did oratory where we can withdraw from time to time not want to give me provisions. He nourished me to converse with him there. Lifting up the heart is at every moment with a completely new food. It is enough, a brief remembrance of God, an inner act Jesus himself hidden in the depths of my heart who of adoration (p. 107). These conversations foster our gives me the grace of acting in me, and making me awareness of God's presence. think of all he wants me to do at the very moment" (Ms A 760. 2Carmel Clarion Spring 2020 ..• .'.. I In his book "Chemin de priere avec Thérèse de REFERENCES Lisieux," Father Victor writes that Thérèse knew the present moment to be the very expression of God's Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection will, whatever its form or content (p. 76). Thérèse Writings and Conversations on realized that we attain God in each event. Each The Practice of the Presence of God moment is an experience of God. Translated by Salvatore Sciurba, O.C.D. ICS Publications Fr. Victor continues: "If the Lord asks us at a particular Washington, DC, 1994 moment to be in a particular place accomplishing a particular action, it's because he is waiting for us Chemin de priere avec Thérèse de Lisieux there. We encounter him at this precise point and if Victor Sion we are looking for him elsewhere, we will miss him. Les Editions du Cerf He is waiting for us there to give himself to us" (p. Paris, 2012 77, translation mine). Brother Lawrence gives us an approach to prayer that makes us more mindful of God's presence. St. Thérése reminds us that God reveals and communicates himself to us in each event. May we learn from them to find God in the present moment. Fr. Salvatore, O.C.D. Spring 2020 Carmel Clarion 3 To The cin'nwlite Fiunhly 'Pra1e me, sad, fnw rup 1art trip ins, know rntp tIau. ee if &nip waip 14 craoLd, tGn e€i rite in tfe ancient ('Pa&n 139) Introduction A tradition of spirituality is like an ancient path. It is shaped over the course of time and well-worn by This work attempts to distill recurring themes in the travelers. People continue to take the path because Carmelite tradition. Its purpose is to make available it has proven to be reliable. Today's traveler trusts the spiritual wisdom of this eight hundred-year-old its contours because of others' testimony. religious community. The Carmelite tradition is just such an ancient Carmelites are a Christian religious community born path. The first tracings of the path were begun by in the early 1200s on Mount Carmel in Palestine. a practically anonymous band of men in a wadi, a Originally hermits, they soon joined a fast-growing canyon on Mount Carmel. But slowly, as pilgrims movement in Europe and became one of the found it a way which aided their journey, the mendicant orders of the Middle Ages. Today the original faint traces deepened, widened, and the lives of Carmelites still blend these eremitical and path became more distinct and sure. It can now apostolic roots. be found on most maps which chart regions of the soul. Over the intervening centuries the attempt of the Carmelites to follow Christ has woven a large and A Christian spiritual tradition is a telling of the gospel colorful historical tapestry. Most Carmelites are through the images and language of a particular relatively unknown to history, including the first group of Christians. Their telling of the story is Carmelites. But some have become revered figures shaped over time as they attempt to respond to whose determined search for God has become an the challenges of the gospel. They eventually find inspiration for countless others. Among these are their own expressive way of giving an account of Peter Thomas, Andrew Corsini, Mary Magdalene the paschal mystery, the dying and rising of Christ, de' Pazzi, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, John present in their own lives. of St.-Samson, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Thérése of Lisieux, Titus Brandsma, and Edith Stein. Each tradition establishes an atmosphere. The words, the images, the history and the biographies 4 Carmel Clarion Spring 2020 of the community, all create a spiritual environment A pilgrim has expectations of a tradition. It should for the seeker. A tradition develops a soul language. be able to offer a compelling Christian vision for It creates a land where God's spirit and the human life's journey. It should identify a goal, and warn of spirit may meet. difficulties and problems to be encountered on the way. It must provide a map for traveling the way, This meeting with God takes place in our human and offer resources for overcoming its difficulties. experience. A religious tradition provides a horizon A tradition also needs to be able to tell a story of within which our ordinary experience is opened victory over apparent defeat, and celebrate, in to its spiritual depths. In this way a tradition anticipation, a goal not yet reached. mediates the transcendent and allows us to attend Such expectations structure this present work. to God's presence and call. The tradition also This interpretation of the Carmelite tradition is provides a particular language for interpreting and one Carmelite's perspective. Any one perspective communicating our experience of God. will necessarily be uneven. The principal sources for this work are the documents and history of the The Carmelite tradition tells the story of God's early Carmelites, and the writings of the sixteenth- presence to us through images and language which century Carmelite mystics, Teresa of Avila and John are particularly, but not exclusively, Carmelite. of the Cross. While other Carmelite figures are Over their long history Carmelites have shown a included in the work, Teresa and John remain the preference for certain images and themes from the best exponents of the Carmelite tradition.