Major traditions in religious life: What does it mean to be a Carmelite?
Image: Returning from his pastoral work, Father Abednecco Wambua Peters, O.C.D. of Kenya catches a ride back to the monastery on a motorcycle
Major traditions in religious life: What does it mean to be a Carmelite?
Image: Returning from his pastoral work, Father Abednecco Wambua Peters, O.C.D. of Kenya catches a ride back to the monastery on a motorcycle taxi.
Probably the most recognizable member of the Carmelite order is Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, popularly known as the Little Flower. Statues and pictures of this young nun in her brown habit and white mantle, usually shown holding a crucifix and an armful of roses, are found all over the world. More than a century after her death at age 24, Thérèse remains immensely popular. What many of her admirers don’t know is that when 15-year-old Thérèse Martin entered the Carmelite convent in her home town in France in 1888, she was embracing a tradition and a spirituality that had already produced and nourished God-seekers for more than half a millennium.
Who are the Carmelites? Carmelites originated in the Holy Land as a group of lay hermits some time after the Third Crusade. Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acre in Palestine from 1216 to 1228, said that “after the example of the holy prophet Elijah [they] live on Mount Carmel—on that part of the mountain that is near Haifa, by the wadi [“spring”] of Elijah. They live as hermits” in a cluster of cells built around a church they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Because of their devotion to Mary and their church in her honor, they soon became known as “the hermits of St. Mary of Mount Carmel.”
In the 16th century Saint Teresa of Avila yearned to rekindle the Carmelites’ original hermit spirit. She founded small convents of nuns dedicated to simple, prayerful living and, helped by Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), monasteries of friars also. Building on their Carmelite heritage, these two great Spanish mystics developed a new expression of Carmelite life that became the Discalced (“shoeless”) Carmelites.
|In their chapel at Mount St. Joseph Novitiate in San Jose, CA, Discalced Carmelite friars pray the Divine Office together.|
In the 21st century the Carmelite family includes two main groups of friars and nuns and their respective lay (third) orders, comprising: the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance (O.Carm.) and the Discalced Carmelites (O.C.D.). The ancient “vine of Carmel” has sprouted many branches, including numerous apostolic congregations, secular institutes, hermits, ecclesial movements, and laypeople who live a Carmelite vocation in many nations, cultures, and walks of life. (For the purposes of this article, we’ll explore Carmelite spirituality through the lens of the Discalced Carmelite tradition.)
The journey withinCarmelite spirituality offers a particular challenge: It’s both utterly simple and at the same time intense (some might think even intimidating) in its bare-bones, laser-sharp focus on God alone. The archetypal image of the mountain has always been associated with Carmelite spirituality, both for the physical Mount Carmel where the order began but also for the arduous climb to the summit of perfection recalled by Saint John of the Cross’ classic text The Ascent of Mount Carmel.
O.Carm.-O.C.D. web portal: ocarm-ocd.org
Order of Carmelites Index of Carmelite Topics: carmelites.info
Order of Discalced Carmelites, General House: discalcedcarmel.com
ICS Publications, publishers of the works of Carmelites including Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux, Edith Stein, and others: icspublications.org
The Carmelite Tradition by Steven Payne, O.C.D. (Liturgical Press, 2011)
The Springs of Carmel: An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality by Peter Slattery, O.Carm. (Alba House, 1991)
Several Carmelite men’s and women’s communities advertise on the VISION Vocation Network. Go to VocationNetwork.org to learn more.
But as every Carmelite will tell you, Carmelite living is also a descent, an ever-challenging inner exploration where one meets the self, both the dark side and goodness, on an ongoing, incredible discovery of God within. As Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591) described it, “The treasures of Christ are like an abundant mine with many recesses of treasures, so that however deep individuals may go they never reach the end or bottom but... find new... riches everywhere” (Spiritual Canticle, 37,4).
Like many contemplatives, Carmelites can say, “I don’t do. I am.” That’s because even when the friars or nuns work, their primary ministry in the church is that of prayer, a witness to the centrality of God. Even for Carmelites engaged in active ministry, their aim is to live centered in