Carolyn Humphreys

In her brief twenty-six years, Elizabeth encapsulated the Carmelite attributes of reflective prayer, living in the present moment, loving God wholeheartedly and serving others with simplicity. She described her vision of a Carmelite as one "who has beheld the Crucified, who has seen him offering himself to the Father as a victim for souls and, meditating in the light of this great vision of Christ's charity, has understood the passion of love that filled his soul and has willed to give herself as he did." Her words were meant for each one of us. With the help of grace, we, too, can live in intimacy with God and in service to others. Elizabeth wanted everyone to be aware of the Trinitarian dwelling place — the "little heaven" within each person's soul, where our intimacy with God grows. She encourages us to quietly radiate the Trinitarian presence wherever we may be.

During childhood, Elizabeth's family moved frequently. She lived in the world most of her life and was comfortable with people of every class and circumstance. She lived simply and honestly, without concern about being the best or looking good. She treasured her friends and wrote or visited them often. Her warmth was authentic and came from her deep prayer life. There were no pious platitudes or "saintly" behaviors in her speech or demeanor. She exemplified the joy of being an authentic, beloved son or daughter of the Triune God of love.

The expression "praise of glory" was particularly dear to Elizabeth. It was the name she wanted in heaven. She found this phrase in St Paul's letter to the Ephesians and took it to heart. She glorified God by being aware of, and grateful for, his many blessings. She felt his glorified presence predominately in the center of her soul and found much peace in this presence. God's presence within her was a blessed refuge to which she escaped when she was out of sorts for one reason or another. We should do likewise when we are restless, tense, stressed or upset. At this still point, we can tell God our inmost secrets or that which bothers us. The indwelling three and the universal presence of God are the principal reasons why each Christian is a "praise of glory."

Elizabeth liked to dwell upon God finding rest in her soul. "I have found my heaven on earth," she said, "since heaven is God, and God is in my soul." She encourages us to reflect on that part of Mary's life between the annunciation and the nativity. This gives us concrete evidence in our understanding of the indwelling presence of God. Elizabeth's concept of God was eminently personal. He gently led her to an honest acceptance of herself. She loved and trusted God because she had the ability to love and trust herself and others. Her warmth and attentiveness to the joys and sufferings of people she met assisted her in experiencing the wonder of God within herself and within others. Her personal concept of God was contrary to the Jansenistic belief in God that was popular at the time. Elizabeth was neither overly concerned with the state of her soul, nor saw God as harsh and severely judgmental. When writing about God, her language was simple and affectionate. Love was experienced as a childlike, humble growing in God: "We shall not be purified by looking at our miseries, but by gazing on him who is all purity and holiness" she wrote. Her focus was quiet attention to an intimate God within her soul, rather than concentration on a distant God who is far away in heaven. She envisioned each incident and circumstance of life as a sacrament, which brought God to an individual and assisted an individual to become more aware of God's indwelling presence. "Every happening, every event, every suffering as also every joy, is a sacrament that gives God to the soul," she tells us. Without visions or miracles, in unsung daily activities, she located the pearl of great price. She found Jesus in rain or shine, pain or joy.

Even though reading the Bible personally was rare in her day, Elizabeth had an intense love for scripture. She shows us we need not be scholars to understand scripture. As she prayerfully and reflectively read the gospel, she grew in God's love. She loved scripture in a personal compassionate way, rather than in an academic theological way. She was quite intuitive about the teachings of St. Paul and saw a universality in the mysteries of Christ. Her response to God's word was manifest by a deep friendship with Jesus. She did not preach the gospel with words; she lived it with her life.

In Carmel, Elizabeth used two biblical texts as guides: "to pray . . . in secret" (Matt. 6:6) and ". . . on judgment day people will be held accountable for every unguarded word they speak . . . "(Matt. 12:36). The first quote identifies the heartbeat of Carmel: Prayer in secret. This type of prayer sustains our intimacy with God and keeps it alive and well. Our love for God is equally an ultimate encounter and an unfathomable mystery experienced primarily in prayer. "Prayer is a rest, a relaxation . . . We must look at him all the time; we must keep silent, it is so simple," Elizabeth wrote. The last words take us from the first quote to the second. Noting the popularity of talk shows, cell phones, e-mail and the commonness of rumors and gossip, we easily see its validity. Many of us find it hard to keep silent before God and with others. Yet this is necessary for spiritual growth. A good way to measure how silent we are before God is to measure how silent we are when we listen to others.

The good news Elizabeth shares with us radiates from the beauty of the kingdom of God within her and within each one of us. Experiencing this beauty liberates us from making idols of material goods and getting too involved with worldly pursuits. It repeatedly brings us back to our still point, nourishes life at a deep level, and sees humanity as the family of God. Elizabeth saw each person as a house of the triune God. At the hearth of our house of God, our faith burns like a great fire of love. Our faith brings others closer to the warmth of God's love and lightens the darkness of the world.

Elizabeth remained strong willed. Once her mind was made up, she could be unyielding. She used this trait to her advantage through loving loyalty to, and perseverance in, her Carmelite life. Her deep love helped her cope with the monotony and irritants in Carmel. She counsels us about pride. It cannot be destroyed with one bold stroke of a sword. Rather, we must die to it every day. We struggle with our egos and clash with others because of our pride. Our arrogance uses others for our own advantage. Elizabeth overcame her ego by seeing God in others. She advises us to go to his infinity and find each other there. What a lovely, thought provoking idea! We must go out of ourselves before we can plunge into the depths of God within ourselves. We become more open and receptive to his love through this often-repeated act. The deepest reality of our own being is the being of God. No words are said at this sacred place within. There is nothing save a union with the indwelling three in one.

Because Elizabeth wants to help us be aware of the intricate workings of God in our souls and in our lives, she is a true soul friend for our time. Elizabeth saw herself as a helpmate to all who wish to walk on the road of loving prayer. She teaches us to let go of what holds us back on this road. We take her hand, and with her, rest in the simple, silent presence of God as he rests in us. Because we have faithfully practiced daily prayer for a long time, we can let go of our work at prayer. Our reflective prayer is changed into silence. God has taken over. We retire to this place of quietness regularly. During this precious time we dwell in the peace of Christ. Our little haven is a refuge, an abiding place, where we find protection against the wiles of the world and ourselves. Our sacred meeting place with God surrounds us with stillness and deep silence, and here within we listen to the Word.

Elizabeth encourages us to live our Christian vocation to the full, by living every aspect of our day generously and with ardor. She challenges us to plunge deeper into our spiritual life, thus broadening our understanding of other aspects of our lives and the workings of the mysteries of God therein. She truly lived her faith by showing us it is only through faith that we can begin to grasp this paradox: God, who is transcendent, who is above and beyond anything we understand, loves us personally, and cares for the smallest details in our lives.

While in Carmel, Elizabeth penned her Act of Oblation. It shows her spiritual maturity and passion for God. She passes these words on to us: "O Eternal Word, Word of my God. I want to spend my life in listening to you, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on you always and remain in your great light . . . O my Three, my all, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to you as your prey. Bury yourself in me that I may bury myself in you until I depart to contemplate in your light the abyss of your greatness."

Carolyn Humphreys, O.C.D.S., is a secular discalced Carmelite. She is the author of From Ash to Fire, an Odyssey in Prayer: A Contemporary Journey through the Interior Castle of Teresa of Avila (New City press). Her articles have appeared in Carmelite Digest and Review for Religious. Her last article in HPR appeared in July 1999. Her website is www. catholic-forum.com/members/contemplative.

On the 5th of November, Pope Francis appointed João José da Costa, O.Carm. to be the Coadjutor bishop of the Archdiocese of Aracaju (Brazil). Bishop João Costa, who up to now has been the Bishop of Iguatu, is a member of the province of Pernambuco (Brazil), where he was the Prior Provincial from 1998 to 2004. In union with the whole Carmelite Order and the Carmelite Family, we send him our congratulations and best wishes, as we unite in prayer for his ministry.

Fr.  Fernando Millán, O.Carm. and Marco Blanquer

From December 2012 to December 2013 the Carmelite Youth in Spain (JUCAR) held a series of activities to mark the 25th Anniversary of its foundation.  This celebration served as a point of reference for our origins, for studying our present, and for looking to the future.

Throughout the year, various activities took place that involved both former and current members of JUCAR. The activities organized to mark the 25th anniversary covered different levels.  Thus, from a communal and experiential point of view, they organized a prayer service, and a prayer concert led by the music group “Karmel.”  In addition, during this jubilee year, on the 16th of each month, a prayer to our Mother, the Virgin of Carmel, was offered, taking into consideration the liturgical year.  On the other hand, on an audiovisual level, a traveling photo exhibition and a commemorative video were made that compiled the past and present of JUCAR.   A blog was also created to serve as a channel of communication between the members of the different groups (http://25aniversariojucarbetica.blogspot.com.es).  A logo, badges and t-shirts were designed to commemorate this special occasion. The 25th anniversary was marked with a closing Mass held in the monastery of Osuna, Seville, Spain on December 7, 2013.

It is important to remember that back in November or December 1987, the “post-confirmation” group of the parish and the school in Misterios laid out their future: After confirmation, what could they do?  After much reflection and many inquiries, they came to be called “JUCAR” (Carmelite Youth).  The name itself was not new. Apparently, there had already been Carmelite groups in Colombia and Venezuela with that name. In Italy, after the huge momentum that had led to the beatification of Father Titus Brandsma in 1985, the “Gioventù Carmelitana” was established with great drive. They were also inspired by a youth group that was then in the house of the Carmelites of Castile (in Pintor Ribera) called “Mount Carmel Group” and run by Fr. Matthias Tejerina.

The aim was the catechetical process and maturity in faith that did not end at Confirmation, but would instead follow a longer path that had a youthful air and was inspired by the charism and spirituality of Carmel. It was also intended that this group, and those who came after them, would be connected with other Carmelite youth groups throughout Spain, and even other countries. From the beginning, the JUCAR groups clearly had a Carmelite identity: in their symbols, their parties, their spirituality etc.

During the last 25 years, JUCAR gradually took shape and spread to all communities where youth ministry was present, especially in the schools and in some parishes.   Currently, the movement is found in many parts of Spain.   Cities such as Alicante, Antequera, Elda, Jerez, Madrid, Malaga, Murcia, Onda, Orihuela Osuna Quart de Poblet, Valladolid and Villarreal now have JUCAR youth groups.   Previously, groups also existed in other cities like Seville and Zaragoza.

Today, JUCAR is a large family comprised of members of different ages, with children aged between 9 and 10 years being the youngest members.  This movement has a clear catechetical spirit and an important experiential component, and its purpose is simply to serve as a means of transmission of the Word of God to today’s youth.

JUCAR not only grew in its faith formation but also in its community bonds, human development and social skills.  Our movement gathers every Sunday for Mass and catechesis. Throughout the years, we organized camps and summer activities for young people in different geographic areas of Spain.

Also worth noting is the role that social justice plays in JUCAR.   One of the proposed objectives of this movement is to show young people the social reality of our world and teach them not to remain indifferent to injustice.  That is why each year, the various groups collaborate on projects of the Carmelite Order, either by organizing different fundraising activities or directly participating in these projects.

In the last few years, JUCAR has actively participated in the two great youth meetings held at the level of the Order: the pilgrimage of hope for European youth (Rome 2010), and the Carmelite meeting during WYD (Madrid 2011). 

After 25 years, I think we can say, with great humility but also with healthy pride, that JUCAR has done a great service and has been a means for many young people to receive the Word of God and to be a little closer to Him.  JUCAR has sown much and with great generosity.  One does not always see the fruits of one’s labours, neither directly nor immediately.  It has been, in its 25 years of existence, a good example that the Carmelite charism is still alive and is still successful, a true gift from God to the Church.

These 25 years are only a small milestone, one step in a long journey. We must look to the past to give thanks to God and to all who have made this possible, and also to look to the future with haste to get back on track.  Young people do not hold back, nor do they stop. 

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…”.