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By: Father Gregory Houck, O.Carm.
A Saint Producing Engine
When I was a novice (20-plus years ago) Father Kilian Healy, O.Carm., who had been prior general of the Order twenty years earlier, visited the novitiate to give presentations on the traditions of the Carmelite Order. During the course of his talks he noted that the Carmelite charism seems to be especially rich because the Order, although it has always been small, has produced many, many, many saints in the Church. Why is this?
Blessed Titus Brandsma (beatified in 1985) gave the answer, and it is a succinct answer, when he gave a series of lectures in the United States and Canada in the 1930s. He said, “The lives of the Carmelite saints are proof that the contemplative and active life can be successfully combined and can lead to sanctity.”
This year the Carmelite Order is celebrating the 800th anniversary of our Rule. Those first Carmelites were a quasi-organized group of hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. 800 years ago they asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Albert, to write a formula vitae for them and his work became the Carmelite Rule. That Rule, although originally written for hermits, set up the dynamic that has fueled the making of all these saints—what Blessed Titus called “the successful combination of the contemplative and active life.”
Yes, in this 800th anniversary year, we’re celebrating that the Order has existed for 800 years, but much more, we are celebrating a rich and powerful spirituality that Saint Albert of Jerusalem set loose in the Church 800 years ago that became a saint-producing engine that keeps the Vatican busy naming beati and sancti even today.
| May we take a moment to pray this prayer honoring the eight-hundredth Rule and for the Carmelite Way of Life. |
| Tender-hearted God, |
| Through Saint Albert of Jerusalem |
| you assembled the holy hermits of Mount Carmel as a family of pilgrim |
| people, seeking to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ. |
| Like them, inspire us to imitate the first Christians of Jerusalem, that we |
| may build your kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem. |
| Like them, turn our hearts from conflict with others to the spiritual fight |
| against all that distracts us from you. |
| Like them, help us to draw water from the spring of Elijah, and to live |
| deeply our baptismal calling. |
| With Mary, we commit to standing alongside those who are suffering. |
| Help us to find you alone in the cell of our hearts, and lead us through |
| solitude into community. |
| Let our prayer inspire our service to others, and our service show us our |
| need for prayer. |
| May our silent contemplation bear fruit, and proclaim that God lives in |
| whose presence we stand. |
| Use our poverty, chastity, and obedience to be Good News for others. |
| We thank you for our diversity, united by a common vision. |
| We thank you for sustaining, reforming and transforming us over |
| centuries, for the benefit of the Church and the World. |
| We thank you for the saints, those living and those gone before, who have |
| shown us an ancient path to the Mountain that is Christ. |
| May all we do be done in your Word. |
| This we ask, in Jesus’ name. Amen. |
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