The Carmelites are a monastic order. They have their origins in the tradition of
the Old Testament hermits. Their Rule was written by St. Albert, Patriarch of
Jerusalem between 1206 and 1214. There are different sub-groups within the
Carmelite family with the differences relating to the degree of enclosure within
the monastery and the severity of the penances members undertake as reparation
for the sins of the world. One major difference is between Discalced and Calced
Carmelites. The word ‘Discalced’ means bare-footed, or without shoes.
The Carmelites also spend their lives in prayer and undertake manual and intellectual labours. However a major difference between the Carmelites and the Benedictines is the emphasis given to penance in the Carmelite tradition. Just as the Hermits in the Old Testament and the Early Church saw their vocation as essentially one of making reparations for the evil of the world, so to this notion of self-sacrificial redemptive suffering is central to the Carmelite vocation. An understanding of this idea of redemptive suffering may be found in the poem A Celebration of Divine Love, by the Australian poet, James McAuley. In one verse of the poem McAuley says, ‘Abide the Sharp Frosts and the Time of Pruning, for He shall Come at Last for whom you yearn, and deep and silent shall be your communing/And if His Summer heat of love should burn its victim with a sacrificial fire/ Rejoice: who knows what wanderer may turn, Responsive to that fragrant hidden pyre!
Some of the most famous Carmelite saints include: St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Titus Brandsma, and St. Teresa-Benedicta of the Cross. The first three of these are Doctors of the Church, while the last two were victims of the Nazis who died as martyrs in concentration camps. Outside of Auschwitz, the concentration camp where St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was gassed to death, a Carmelite monastery has been established in which the nuns spend their lives in reparation for the evils of the Nazi regime.
In Australia there are a number of Carmelite monasteries, including Launceston, Brisbane, Wagga Wagga, and Melbourne. The monasteries are also sometimes called ‘Carmels’. some are very strict. For example, many of the female Carmelites will never leave the grounds of their monasteries once they enter, and thereafter only speak to visitors from behind a grill. Extraordinary exceptions are made for reasons of health. In some monasteries meat is never eaten, while in others, meat is permitted only on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. Usually the Carmelites will take a religious name which signifies what they perceive to be their special vocation. For example, Edith Stein chose the name ‘Teresa Benedicta of the Cross’ because she knew that suffering (the ‘Cross’) was central to her vocation and she had received a strong Benedictine spiritual formation before she entered the Carmel in Cologne. Similarly, St. Therese of Lisieux was ‘Therese of the Child Jesus’ because her special vocation, aside from praying for the missions, was to foster the idea of spirituality based upon child-like trust in Divine Providence.
The Carmels are thus a kind of high-powered spiritual treasury for the Church.
The Carmelites also spend their lives in prayer and undertake manual and intellectual labours. However a major difference between the Carmelites and the Benedictines is the emphasis given to penance in the Carmelite tradition. Just as the Hermits in the Old Testament and the Early Church saw their vocation as essentially one of making reparations for the evil of the world, so to this notion of self-sacrificial redemptive suffering is central to the Carmelite vocation. An understanding of this idea of redemptive suffering may be found in the poem A Celebration of Divine Love, by the Australian poet, James McAuley. In one verse of the poem McAuley says, ‘Abide the Sharp Frosts and the Time of Pruning, for He shall Come at Last for whom you yearn, and deep and silent shall be your communing/And if His Summer heat of love should burn its victim with a sacrificial fire/ Rejoice: who knows what wanderer may turn, Responsive to that fragrant hidden pyre!
Some of the most famous Carmelite saints include: St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Titus Brandsma, and St. Teresa-Benedicta of the Cross. The first three of these are Doctors of the Church, while the last two were victims of the Nazis who died as martyrs in concentration camps. Outside of Auschwitz, the concentration camp where St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was gassed to death, a Carmelite monastery has been established in which the nuns spend their lives in reparation for the evils of the Nazi regime.
In Australia there are a number of Carmelite monasteries, including Launceston, Brisbane, Wagga Wagga, and Melbourne. The monasteries are also sometimes called ‘Carmels’. some are very strict. For example, many of the female Carmelites will never leave the grounds of their monasteries once they enter, and thereafter only speak to visitors from behind a grill. Extraordinary exceptions are made for reasons of health. In some monasteries meat is never eaten, while in others, meat is permitted only on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. Usually the Carmelites will take a religious name which signifies what they perceive to be their special vocation. For example, Edith Stein chose the name ‘Teresa Benedicta of the Cross’ because she knew that suffering (the ‘Cross’) was central to her vocation and she had received a strong Benedictine spiritual formation before she entered the Carmel in Cologne. Similarly, St. Therese of Lisieux was ‘Therese of the Child Jesus’ because her special vocation, aside from praying for the missions, was to foster the idea of spirituality based upon child-like trust in Divine Providence.
The Carmels are thus a kind of high-powered spiritual treasury for the Church.
THE MYSTERY OF MONASTICISM
The monks built Europe but they did not do it intentionally. Their adventure is first of all, if not exclusively, an inner adventure, whose only motive is thirst. A thirst for the absolute. Thirst for another world, for truth and beauty. A thirst that the liturgy kindles in order to guide the eye towards eternal things; to make the monk a man who aims with all his being towards the reality which never dies. Before being academies of learning and centres of civilisation monasteries are principally silent signs pointing towards heaven, the obstinate uncompromising reminder that another world exists, of which this world is only the image, the vindication, the foreshadowing.
© kwl.com.au 2002