J M J T

 

The Carmelite Novitiate

OUTLOOK

 

Published Monthly by the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, Our Lady’s Hill, Waverly, New York

Volume II, No. 1                                                                                                          December 1962

 

Dear Friends of Carmel,

 

            If any of you know what happened to the month of December, please let me know.  A few hours ago it was December 1st.  Now it is almost New Year’s Day.  That being the case, I guess I can’t be blamed for not getting OUTLOOK to you before this.  It takes several days for me to ship it into (or should I say ‘out of’?) shape, and the few moments that elapsed between December first and today (the 28th) didn’t provide the necessary margin.  Incidentally, if I am wrong in thinking any of you look forward to receiving this document (?), please be kind enough to leave me in my ignorance.

 

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            Now that we are on the brink of the New Year it seems fitting that we close out the old by acknowledging some of the outstanding benefactions and extending a word of thanks to those through whom they have come.  First of all, we must thank God.  To Him we are grateful for His loving providence.  In particular we are thankful for all the trials and setbacks of the past twelve months, for in them He has taught us something about Himself and a great deal more about our own selves.  With His help we hope this salutary self-knowledge enables us to work more humbly, gratefully and selflessly for His greater honor and glory and for the spiritual welfare of all mankind.

 

HIS INSTRUMENTS

 

            Next we want to commemorate our own dear Sisters in Carmel, the Discalced Carmelite Nuns.  It is to them, after God, that we owe our greatest debt of gratitude.  From these heroic women, living in some 60 or so Carmels throughout the United States and Canada we have received ardent support.  All of them have been generous in giving us a share in their prayers and daily sacrifices.  Although the majority of them are in no easy circumstances themselves, and some have their own building fund problems, many of them promote our interests and try to find supporters for us.  A goodly number have even lent us financial support; some have made outstanding donations.  We are deeply touched at so many evidences of maternal and sisterly affection.  We pray God helps us to show our gratitude in the only acceptable way, that of becoming perfect Carmelites, true to our highest ideals, so that they may be justly proud of us.  May God give them the reward they so richly deserve.

 

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            One day last August a dear friend of mine, an elderly, sainted lady, wrote asking if there was anything we had special need of.  She had some money on hand that was lying fallow, she explained, and she wanted to do something charitable with it before she died.  At that time we were anxiously wondering what to do about the ‘wall to wall’ windows that encompass the ground floor of the monastery.  Would she be willing to furnish Venetian blinds?  I wrote back and submitted the estimate, over $1,000.  Within a few days a check for $1,100 was in my hand, and that problem was solved.  The gift has aesthetic as well as practical value, for it has added considerable beauty to the interior.  Then a few weeks ago this same dear soul went home to God.  As we look upon our blinds we think of her with gratitude and ask God to reward her for her outstanding generosity.  I know she rests in peace.

 

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            Neither can we forget the gift of an automobile.  One day in November a friend of mine stopped by and casually disclosed that he, his Dad and his brother were buying us a brand new Mercury Meteor station wagon, equipped with snow tires, seat belts and a year’s paid up insurance.  You could have knocked me over with a fender.  I kept this news a secret from the others, and a few days later, when I came driving home with it, I had the time of my life seeing the expressions that came over their faces as I told them it was an outright gift; they were priceless.  As it has turned out, the station wagon has proved to be more and more of a Godsend.  Again, may God bless and reward them.

 

HUNDREDS OF OTHERS

 

            But what would we have done if it were not for the numberless small donations left by you who came to visit and take a tour of the monastery?  Over the course of the months it has added up to a considerable sum and made it possible for us to buy much of the raw materials and equipment and tools with which to carry on the work of completing and decorating the interior of the Monastery.  When the work is finished we intend to invite you back to see what your help has meant to us.  We are confident you will feel your generosity has been well directed.  God reward you all.

 

            We must not forget to commemorate those of you who have sent in by mail, donations large and small, and continue to do so periodically.  But above all, we want to thank you who send us offerings for Masses.  Were it not for these our work would be seriously hampered.  It helps our morale, too, for we feel we are making a return, spiritual – and therefore invisible – though it be, and are not merely ‘sponging’ on your generosity.  Your kindness is deeply appreciated.

 

OTHER HELPS

 

            Of no small importance is another kind of help we have received.  We want to express our gratitude to the several workmen and craftsmen who have come here to both work and instruct our Novices in the rudiments of their respective trades so that we could do most of the work ourselves.  The brothers are almost masters at painting, masonry, carpentry, and landscaping.  This too has been good for our ‘esprit de corps’ and we hope the men who gave so much of their time and know-how have tasted consoling rewards.  (We also hope they did not get into trouble with their respective Unions).

 

OUR LITTLEST BENEFACTORS

 

            Not the least gratifying of the generosity we have experienced has come from the children of Holy Family Grammar School in Fairmount (Syracuse), New York.  The Pastor and Principal wanted to teach their young charges to be considerate of the needs of others and thought of asking each child to buy some article of foodstuffs out of his or her own allowance to contribute to us here on Our Lady’s Hill.  This, they have done twice, once last spring and again just before Christmas, each time filling a station wagon full of a whole variety of groceries.  We have found no other food quite as delicious tasting.  May God bless their generous hearts.  I hope Santa was extremely good to them all.

 

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            Finally, we want to thank the Clergy and the Sisters in this part of the Country for their cordial welcome and continued encouragement.  To them and all of you we want to say that we have found ourselves to be extremely rich in our poverty.  No infinity of material goods and possessions will ever be worth the marks of kindness and sincere concern we have experienced in the past year.  We have been truly fortunate.  God forbid we ever be unmindful or ungrateful for all this.

 

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            Yes, the person whose photo you have been gawking at, whose likeness dims every other picture on this month’s photo flyer, really IS Father Richard Madden, O.C.D., and not some matinee idol or professional football hero whose picture got in by mistake.  If any one of our men deserves the title of ‘celebrity’ it is he.  Father is our Province’s author, retreat master, columnist, comedian and unforgettable character par excellence.  In him we present massive (height:  well over 6 feet; weight:  about 210; shoulders:  a yard wide) evidence that the life of a Discalced Carmelite is not dull.  But let’s get on with the vital statistics.

 

            Father Richard of the Immaculate Conception was born Raymond C. Madden in Germantown (Philadelphia), Pa., on February 16, 1924.  For his elementary education he was sent to Immaculate Conception School of his home parish.  From there Father went to the Order’s Minor Seminary, then at Holy Hill, Wisconsin.  (When I saw Father Richard recently I asked him what made him decide to become a Discalced Carmelite.  He answered; “Ever since I was small I wanted to be a missionary in India”.  Since he is so clever and witty I knew this was a subtle joke, so I chuckled realistically and went on with the interrogation).  Upon graduation from the Seminary, Father began his Novitiate training at Holy Hill, and moved with the Novitiate to Brookline, Massachusetts, where his training was completed, and where, on August 30, 1943, he made his first vows.  Then it was back to Holy Hill for the study of Philosophy, on to Washington (in due time) for the study of Theology and finally, Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood in the nation’s Capitol on December 14, 1949.

 

            Father also attended the Preacher’s Institute at Catholic University, taught homiletics for a time at our Theological College, was Rector of the Minor Seminary from January 1952 to June 1953, and from spring of 1957 to the present has been the Superior of our monastery at Youngstown, Ohio.

 

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            It is difficult to enumerate all of Father’s accomplishments.  We can say, though, that his forte is communication, by way of both the written and the spoken word.  His remarkable talent for writing showed itself in the Minor Seminary, where he was one of the mainstays on the staff of the school paper.  Through Philosophy and Theology he was a regular contributor to MOUNT CARMEL magazine, then the Provinces devotional organ.  (We now publish its successor, THE INFANT OF PRAGUE magazine, whose editorial offices are at 2121 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington 2, D. C.

 

            This long and arduous apprenticeship eventually bore fruit in the publications of three books, the third of which will soon reach your bookseller.  First to appear was MEN IN SANDALS.  This book is indicative of Father’s genius for seeing the funny side of every situation.  In it he tells of his experiences as a Discalced Carmelite Student.  Second to make its way into print was THE LIFE OF CHRIST FOR TEENAGERS.  It was born of his sincere concern for the spiritual needs of modern-day young people.  In it he uses their very own idiom to convey to them forcefully the heart of the Gospel message.  Though some have said that it is irreverent to use the dialect of ‘hip’ teenagers to tell the story of God’s love for us, teenagers I know assure me it is the ‘most’.  At any rate, it is remarkable for its sound Theology.  Soon to appear in his latest opus, A BOY IN HIS TEENS.  Father wrote this to be a companion piece to a book of another one of our Province’s writers, Father Peter-Thomas Robrbach, author of (among others) A GIRL IN HER TEENS.  Again, this latest book reflects Father Richard’s unremitting effort to give modern youth a sure and solid spiritual foundation upon which to build their lives.

 

            If you wish to read Father’s columns, you may find one of them appearing every other week as the MINUTE MEDITATION printed in many of our Catholic Diocesan weeklies.  His other column is published in HI-TIME, a magazine for high school students.  I am told that Father Richard’s article used to be printed on the first page of the paper, but many students would read only that and not bother to look at anything else.  Then its editors decided to put his column on the inside, so that in leafing through the paper to find it, the readers would be forced to see some of the other features (A dastardly bit of conniving if I do say so myself).

 

            Though he is a gifted writer, Father Richard is a far more gifted speaker.  His voice alone, with its deep resonant tones, commands a hearing.  When preaching, he has a way of entertaining the listener with his banter, then BAM! he clobbers him with some profound and pertinent spiritual message.  You have to hear him to believe it.

 

            By preference, Father Richard specializes in High School and College retreats, but he can still boast of a very wide experience as a retreat master.  He has conducted retreats for the likes of the following groups:  Air Line Stewardesses (some guys have all the luck), the Milwaukee Braves baseball organization, Air Force personnel and Reform School inmates (I take back what I said about some guys having all the luck).  Actually, I am convinced that there isn’t a group from whatever walk of life to which Father Richard cannot drive home some timely, inspiring thoughts

 

Father can boast of a few distinctions.  He has received the Don Bosco award for outstanding service to youth.  The Air Force, too, has bestowed upon him a commendation.  And believe it or not, he was once paid the honor of being chanced off in a raffle.  An enterprising Sister Principal at a High School in Chicago, where he was preaching a retreat, cleaned up by raffling off “An evening with Father Richard at the Pump Room”.  But, by his own admission, Father’s greatest thrill came when he saw himself quoted in TIME magazine, in the issue that treated of the Catholic Youth Congress held in Milwaukee last Spring.

 

By now you would like to know more about Father Richard, I am sure.  If so, you might try reading his books.  Better yet, invite him to preach one of your group’s future retreats.  You’ll never regret it.  He may be reached at the Carmelite Monastery, 1810 Volney Road, Youngstown 11, Ohio.

 

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The Lord said to me:  Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee  (Ps. 2, 7).  Why do the nations murmur, and why do peoples think upon inanities?  (Ps. 2, 1) – Introit of the Midnight Mass of Christmas.

 

The words just recorded sound the keynote and set the mood of Holy Mother Church as she enters into the contemplation of the Mystery of God’s Love in one of its most touching manifestations, the Feast of the Birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  It is almost as if she hears the infant speaking to us as he lies upon his bed of hay in the manger, identifying Himself.  In putting these words upon His lips she wishes to impress upon our minds who he is and what role He is to play in the History of mankind.  Then, too, she gives vent to her sentiments of astonishment at the reception that has been and will continue to be accorded Him by so many people down through the ages.

 

JESUS IS LORD

 

            Because He is the Son of the Lord God, Jesus is also our Lord.   But what the word “Lord” signifies is easily lost upon us moderns who are so accustomed to liberty and independence.  Since we can’t recall hearing of Jesus by any other name, most of us never questions its meaning and inquire into its implications.

 

            When we say God is Lord, we go beyond saying that He is the creator of the universe and that He sustains it in existence and directs it according to well-defined laws.  What we imply is that He is someone who enters into interpersonal relations with us, that He is one who exercised dominion over us and over all that pertains to us, that we are in His employ.  It says that we are obliged to labor for the furtherance of his interests according to His will and direction and that in exchange for faithful service He will provide for all our needs and those of our dependents.  We are His stewards, in other words.  We have our life, our talents and capabilities to perfect and enjoy but only in so far as we bend them to His service.  The first half of Ps. 2, 7, seems to imply that God has abdicated His role of being Lord over us and has constituted His son, Jesus, in His place.

 

JESUS IS GOD

 

            When the Jewish people read this line of the Second Psalm, “Thou art my Son, This day I have begotten Thee”, it never entered their minds that the Messiah to whom this text refers would be anything more than a man.  They did not expect Him to be any different from Moses, whom God had made His representative upon earth, who made known to the people down to minute details how to exercise their stewardship.  But we who enjoy the fullness of Revelation see in this text a reference to the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and to the plurality of Persons in the God-head.  The use of the present and past tense is interesting, “THIS DAY” refers to the present time, “I HAVE BEGOTTEN” refers to a fact already long accomplished.  The First person then, is a Father, for He is eternally (in the ever-present now) begetting His Son.  The Second Person is a Son who is eternally distinct from His Father.  Since they are both eternal, then they are both Divine, they are equal in every respect save in regard to personality.

 

THE DIFFERENCE

 

            Someone might ask, "What difference will it make if the Son is made our “Lord” in place of His Father?”  Because He is Divine and equal to His Father, will He think upon inanities?  The kings of the earth have not continued in the Father’s long established tradition?  Since the Jews found the Law given through Moses an intolerable burden, will it be any easier for us who are subject to the Son?  Or will it not be worse, for which Son stepping into His Father’s place is ever anything but harsh, unyielding, and immoderate in his government?  The difference lies in this, that the Son, who is God and is placed over us to be Our Lord is also one of us.  He is a man, too.  The relationship between us and Our “Lord” has drastically changed.  We are no longer merely employed, stewards who are at the same time hirelings.  We are enlisted in the cause of our Lord as His children and His brethren.  In the God-Man human nature has been elevated to a transcendent dignity.

 

THE IMPLICATIONS

 

            In order to convey a nearly adequate idea of the import of this fact, the great Saints of the early centuries spoke of the Incarnation as God’s “espousal” of human nature.  What this implies can be seen by considering a commonplace occurrence in those children of human fancy called Fairy Tales, namely, the espousal of a maiden of lowly rank by a rich, handsome, virtuous Prince or King.  The consequences you see, for the maiden and for human nature are analogous.

 

            Upon their marriage, the two become one; henceforth they are identified with one another.  All the lowliness of the poor maiden vanishes and is swallowed up by the dignity and rank of her royal spouse.  All that He has becomes her own.  She possesses and dispenses the same riches, wields the same power, commands the same respect.  But what is most significant, the children she bears are no longer of peasant rank they are of the nobility.  They are royalty.

 

THE SAME FOR MANKIND

 

            Because the Second Person of the Trinity has assumed a human nature, he has raised humanity to an incredibly sublime dignity.  We who accept on Faith that Jesus is God and man are by that fact lifted to His level and enjoy a created participation in Divine Life.  We are ‘adopted’ into God’s family.  Because we are brothers of Jesus Christ and co-heirs to His Kingdom we can wield divine power, we can draw upon and dispense from His treasury of divine riches.  True, we remain subject to Jesus, who holds the Primacy in His Father’s Kingdom.  We must conform to the laws and institutions of the social and ‘political’ structure which is his Church.  Now, however, we co-operate not as strangers to Our Lord, who embrace His interests only in so far as we receive remuneration, but as children who take to heart, are passionately concerned about and committed to the furtherance of His best interests.  An interesting corollary is that now our deeds, when they spring from our new supernatural identity and rank, are no longer merely human, they are supernatural in value and merit supernatural rewards.  We are now capable of sharing all those virtues, perfections and good qualities of God that are not incompatible with our status as creatures.

 

THE YOKE AND THE BURDEN

 

            But the fact remains that we are still constrained by certain bonds and must continue to shoulder the Lord’s yoke.  The field of human endeavor is still circumscribed by definite, unchangeable limits.  It is never licit for us, for example, to act in a manner inconsistent with our new dignity as God’s adopted children or contrary to the destiny Jesus Our Lord has marked out for the human race.  But in virtue of our new relationship to Our Lord this yoke should no longer be felt as a burden imposed from without, at odds with our innermost tendencies.

 

            But that it is felt as such is attested to by the same second Psalm:  Why do the nations murmur and people think upon inanities.  The kings of the earth have risen up and the princes met together against the Lord and against His Christ (Anointed One):  “Let us break their bonds, let us throw off their burden!”  The astonishment of the Church, then, lies in the fact that she conceives of these ties as similar to the bonds that link two persons in wedlock, or as the bonds that bind parents to their children.  These are bonds of love.  Bride and Spouse find their freedom considerably curtailed, (though at the same time vast horizons of personal fulfillment are opened to them) but they wouldn’t want it any other way.  A child exercises a real tyranny over its parents, but how sweet and desirable it is to them.

 

GOD AS A CHILD

 

            One arresting feature of Christmas is that it tells us God is in our midst as a child and makes His demands upon us much as a baby child makes its demands upon its parents.  A baby it helpless.  It has so many needs.  In no way can it force its parents to attend to them.  What moves the parents, though, is the child’s utter loveableness.  They are moved from within to provide for His every want and bring him to the state of perfect adulthood.  When this is done, they taste unspeakable joy and fulfillment.  They live in their children, so to speak, and rejoice in them as living proof of a life well lived and fruitful, from whom, also they receive the sweet reward of gratitude and affection.

 

            Our Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself in our midst as a helpless Child.  He does not force us to fulfill His demands.  He wants us to do it out of love.  It is our cooperation that gives Him what He needs to become the adult Christ and to be our Saviour.  Jesus is only potentially our Redeemer.  He will realize that potential when we give Him our hearts, minds, our entire selves.  Then He gives Himself to us and makes us one with Himself.  He who espoused human nature in general when He became man is then able to espouse our souls individually.

 

THE FINAL MESSAGE

 

            These considerations make it clear that we can read another meaning into the Introit of the Christmas Midnight Mass.  If we relish and cherish the bonds that unite us to Jesus Christ and lovingly shoulder the burden He has placed upon us, we can make its words our own.  In the Incarnation of the Son we will hear the Father saying to each and every one of us:  Thou art my (adopted) Son; this day (of Jesus’ Birth) I have begotten thee!

 

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            Trusting that your Christmas was filled with every heavenly blessing, we sincerely hope that your New Year will bear commensurate fruits of peace and holiness.  Pray for us.  God bless you all.

                                                                                   

Cordially yours in Our Lady,

Father Bruno, OCD, Prior

                                                                                                [With permission of Religious]

                                                                                                [and Ecclesiastical Superiors   ]

Note to Readers:  The Novitiate at Waverly no longer exists, however the Carmelites are still in need of your support.  If you would like to make a donation, please send “In appreciation of Fr. Bruno’s Works”, The Mission Procurator, P.O. Box 270136, Hartford, WI 53027.