J M J T

 

The Carmelite Novitiate

OUTLOOK

 

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

Volume III, No. 1                                                                                                   December 1963

 

Dear Friends of Carmel,

 

            How pleasant it is, for a change, to be able to lay the blame for the late arrival of the November OUTLOOK somewhere other than at my own doorstep.  This time I can attribute it to our 3rd class mailing privileges (I think you must concede that this is at least a 3rd rate publication).  As you know, third class mail must yield priority to first and second-class matter.  With the deluge of Christmas mail the Post Office Department has had to contend with, it’s a wonder if you received it before Christmas.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

Every month we have our ups and downs, if for no other reason, because we have our hill to contend with.  But in December it was our morale that was alternately raised up to the heights and then cast down to the depths.  Some very nice things took place, as well as some very disconcerting ones.  It was a good thing we had the delightful episodes to balance out the dismal ones.  Every time we turned around, it seemed, something would go wrong.  (I say ‘it seemed’ because we may not actually have been turning).  It may have been that we were suffering from vertigo.  Vertigo:  that’s when you are looking for someone and you ask the bystanders, “Vertigo?”  I’ll tell you about the unhappy incidents first and then about the others.

 

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

            First of all, we had trouble with our septic tank.  I’m going to eschew (to eschew does not mean ‘to sneeze at’) giving a vivid description of the symptoms, which led to the discovery of its failure.  After Brother Maurice’s preliminary investigations had established that the drain water was backing up, we called the plumbers from town and they soon found out the cause of the difficulty.  Deposits of soap and detergent had clogged the ‘baffles’ in the intake pipe.  These were cleared in short order, and we were then able to return to normal.  I say ‘return to normal’ because for about three days showers had been outlawed, for we feared that using water in abundance would flood the basement.  It’s a good thing we are not expected to turn and become as little children in temporal matters as well as in the spiritual, for none of us enjoyed, as a child would have, being forced to forego taking a bath.

 

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

As you can well imagine, that was bad enough.  What happened a week or so later was much worse.  For the space of about 12 hours we had to forgo using water altogether.  The reason?  We didn’t have any water!  Something had gone wrong with the well pump.

 

One day Father Master detected an oily taste in our crystal clear, delicious water.  So he sent Brother Maurice, our ace trouble-shooter, to investigate.  He discovered that the pump was not delivering water half as quickly as it should have been.  After talking the matter over with a plumber friend of ours it was deemed advisable that he try repacking the main bearing of the pump.  They came to the conclusion that the seal was not as tight as it should be and thus the vacuum could not be properly sustained.  (It’s a shame I was not able to give them any advise on how to maintain that vacuum.  Not even I can figure out how I manage to maintain the vacuum in my head against a long history of attempts to fill it.)

 

Before they dismantled the pump to do the repacking, they filled the storage tank on the roof to its full 7,500-gallon capacity.  But alas, long before the task was finished and the pump reassembled, all the water had been used.  We were deprived of the use of all plumbing.  Talk about the Primitive Observance!  Not even our Carmelite hermits living in our Deserts (we told you about our Carmelite Deserts in the November OUTLOOK) are expected to go that far in emulating the early Fathers of the Order!

 

The only ones who derived a modicum of consolation from the want of water were the three dishwashers, because that evening, at supper, we used picnic plates instead of our regular dishes.  But it was certainly no picnic.  Before going to bed that evening I turned on the tap in my wash sink.  I might just as well have turned a doorknob!  Not a drop of water, not even a gurgle or a gasp.  Then when we arose for the 1:00 A.M. recitation of Matins and Lauds I tried the tap again.  Again, no water!  To say I was disheartened would be a gross understatement.

 

            After we had finished reciting the Divine Office I went out to the pump house where Brothers Maurice and Trinian were still working on the pump.  They assured me that we would have water in the morning.  Sure enough, they were right.  When all is said and done, I am sure this incident will stand as the worst crisis we shall ever have had to undergo.  It wasn’t until later that I learned that all my agonizing had been in vain.  Someone reminded me of the 17-day water supply down in the basement as part of our survival rations.  We have ‘chemical’ plumbing down there too!  O the trials and traumata of life here on Our Lady’s Hill!

 

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

            From the way I have been crying on your shoulder, you are probably doubting that we had the water shortage I just told you about.  But whatever you think, I want to tell you about the third and last cause of our plummeting morale during the month of December.  It has to do with the winter, which, we have to admit, will always present a serious problem.

 

            It began snowing here after dark on the evening of November 29, and on the following morning, a Saturday, we were still having our first snowstorm of the season.  The roads were treacherous, and the Fathers who went into town to offer mass were unable to get back up the hill.  That day we had to leave our cars at the bottom of the hill and shuttle back and forth in our truck, which has four-wheel drive, whenever someone had to go out and return from various necessary errands.  The next day, Sunday, the road was passable, but still very slippery in spots.

 

            On Thursday of that following week, Fathers Justin and Matthias were treated to an icy thrill.  A light blanket of snow had fallen the night before, and as they were going out to Elmira to hear confessions in preparation for the First Friday they went into a skid rounding a turn in the road and ended up off the side of the road in a snow bank with the car pointing back toward the monastery.  Fortunately they were on a flat stretch of terrain.

 

            We had expected a thaw to follow in the wake of the snowstorm, for this is the pattern the weather has followed the past two Decembers.  Instead we had a severe cold snap, and a few days later another heavy fall of snow.  It has snowed frequently since.

 

            But there is one nice thing about the snow on Our Lady’s Hill.  At least it stays white and pretty to look at.  It doesn’t get dirty and ugly as it does after a few days in the cities.  Also, the view from the top of the hill is better in winter than it is in the summer.  The visibility is far better, and the lights of the town can be seen better in the absence of the leaves which obstruct the view in summer.  All things considered, I still think the advantages of being here far outweigh the worst disadvantages of winter.

 

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

            Now for some of the pleasanter aspects of the past few weeks.  On December 5th we held our traditional Eve of St. Nicholas’ celebration.  Actually, it isn’t a celebration in the strict sense.  What we do is, we set a nicely filled plate of goodies, i.e., candy, nuts, cookies, at each one’s place in the refectory and we have colloquium (that’s Latin for talking) at suppertime instead of observing the customary silence.

 

This custom comes to us from the Bavarian Province of the Order.  It was that province of Discalced Carmelites, which sent priests and brothers, at the request of the Archbishop of Milwaukee, to assume care of the Shrine of Our Lady at Holy Hill, Wisconsin.  St. Nicholas was probably the original Santa Claus.  In the short biographical sketch, which is included in the lessons of the night office of his Feast day, we read that he saved three young women from a life of sin, to which they would have been forced to turn as a means of gaining a livelihood, by providing them with the dowries needed in order to contract decent marriages and settle down to a life of respectability and honor.

 

For some reason, this custom usually takes us unawares.  Again this year we were pleasantly surprised, upon coming in for supper, to find the refectory all set up with the assorted goodies.  As Brother Robert said so well, these unexpected little joys brighten and lighten the daily routine of the basically penitential life of Carmel.  The sweets and goodies themselves seem to be symbols of the manifold, unlooked for little graces and favors which Jesus and Mary shower on us as proofs of their loving concern.  It makes us realize that in embracing this kind of life we are not giving anything to them, they are giving everything to us.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

During December also, as part of the Holy Season of Advent, we began the touching little ceremony of the daily Infant procession.  It consists of bringing the Infant to each of the Brothers in turn, beginning with the youngest early enough in December to end with the eldest on December 23.

 

At 4:45 P.M., the Novices, wearing mantles, gather in the Chapel.  Then the Novice Master or one of the other Fathers comes out from the Sacristy in a Cope accompanied by two acolytes bearing candles.  He takes the crib with the Infant from the top of the Altar and intones the hymn “Jesu Dulcis Memoria.”  Taking up the chant, the Novices escort Father Master to the cell of the Brother whose turn it is to receive the Infant.  When the Infant is brought into the room where Brother waits on his knees, it is presented to him to kiss.  Then the Novice Master blesses all the Brothers with the Infant, and the Infant is placed between lighted candles on a specially prepared table in the Brother’s cell.  Next the prayer of the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is sung, and all withdraw to the Chapel singing the Magnificat, leaving Brother to spend the next 24 hours as a day of recollection in the company of the Infant.

 

We dearly love this Advent practice of the Novices.  (It is also observed by our students in the other monasteries.)  We are happy to know that every day one member of the community immerses himself deeply in the spirit of Advent, on our behalf, longing and yearning for the appearance of the Saviour.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

There was a bit of needling for all in December, too.  A very good doctor friend of ours (he’s both a good doctor and a good friend) came up to give our second and final cold shots.  These and our one-a-day vitamin capsules have made us almost contemptuous of Old Man Winter with his cold and ice and snow, so confident are we of continuing good health.  And thus far, they seemed to have worked just fine.  As far as I know, not one of us who received the inoculation against colds have gotten one.  However, some of us, myself included, are suffering from a mild allergy of sorts, for to what else can we attribute the occasional watery eyes, sniffles, and sneezing.

 

There are times when I find this extremely embarrassing.  Those times are when I am offering Mass or preaching.  I would rather die than have people think that in these circumstances my eyes are watery with religious emotion or spiritual consolation.  So, you see, even the priesthood has its occupational hazards.

 

I was thinking, how ironic it would be if the mild allergy were caused by the cold shots.  Were this true we would have to conclude that the Author of nature has a sense of humor.  I say this in all reverence. Remembering how St. Teresa of Avila remonstrated with Our Lord for some of the ‘tricks’ He played on her; and remembering St. Philip Neri, who was a veritable clown and an incurable practical joker.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

Now that we have so many lay brother candidates here at the Novitiate, we have been able to reinstitute a very nice custom that we were unable heretofore to practice for want of sufficient numbers.  That is to have them watch before the Most Blessed Sacrament all through the night the First Friday of each month.  They have done this at least twice thus far.  Starting at 10:00 P.M. in the evening, they take turns watching in twos, changing every hour on the hour.  At 5:45 First Friday morning they have Benediction, and are then ready to join the community in the daily spiritual exercises which begin at 6:00 A.M.

 

You might be interested to know that it was a Discalced Carmelite who played a major role in spreading the Nocturnal Adoration devotion in France after it was first introduced.  He was a Jewish convert named Herman Cohen, who chose the name Augustine of the Most Blessed Sacrament when he entered the Order.  This saintly man had been a child prodigy.  While still a young lad he was winning fame as a pianist on all the stages of Europe, and counted the great Franz Liszt as one of his closest friends.  You can well imagine how proud we are that the Apostle of the Nocturnal Adoration was a member of our Order, our very own brother in Carmel.

 

But to get back to the brothers.  Much as we fear this large group is going to eat us out of house and home (at least one fourth of our monthly expenses goes for food), the fact that they are able to practice this First Friday all night Vigil before the Blessed Sacrament makes us very indulgent toward them.  We wouldn’t care (I hope) if they ate twice as much as they do, provided they could continue to give our Lord such a signal mark of their love for Him, and repair for the many offenses against Him in the Sacrament of His Love.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

Speaking of food, I want to commemorate again our littlest benefactors.  They are the grade school children of Holy Family School in Fairmount, Syracuse, New York.  Just before Thanksgiving they gave us another, their third, donation of food.  Father Timothy’s nieces and nephews are students there; that is how they came to know of us.

 

This practice all began about a year ago when one of the Sisters thought of introducing her pupils to the idea of sharing their good things with others by asking them to use some of their very own spending money to buy food for the Novices.  The idea very quickly spread to the entire student body, and they have liked it so well they decided to do the same at regular intervals.  And so we receive a whole station wagon full of welcome foodstuffs.  We are deeply touched by their charity, and we ask God to bless them all abundantly.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

We hope you liked our Christmas card.  One of the Fathers suggested it as a means of letting you see what we, whom you have befriended and are so good to, look like.  Unfortunately, this photo had to be taken on a Sunday and in the morning, and for that reason three of us, Father Timothy, Father Matthias, and myself could not be present, for we were away ‘working’.  But we are happy that we were able to include our Provincial, the Very Reverend Christopher Latimer, O.C.D.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

“On that day, the mountains shall distill sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk and honey.”

 

These words, my dear friends, constitute the opening antiphon of First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent.  In putting them upon the lips of her priests and all others delegated by her to pray the official public prayer of the Mystical body, the Divine Office, Holy Mother Church sounds the keynote of the entire liturgical season of Advent.

 

As everyone well knows, the Holy Season of Advent is a time set aside, during which we are to prepare for the approaching Feast of Christmas.  Our preparation should consist in putting on the dispositions of mind and heart which will enable us to reap the maximum of spiritual profit from the manifold graces poured out upon the world on the day we commemorate the birth of the Son of God into our midst.  The measure of the graces we receive is determined by the magnitude of the need we feel for Jesus Christ, and the intensity of our desire to have Him enter into and direct the course of our lives.

 

In other words, Holy Mother Church would have us reproduce in ourselves the mentality of the saintly personages of the Old Testament who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah with
anxious longing.  If during Advent we yearn for the Anointed One as earnestly as they did, then on Christmas day itself our hearts would be filled with every spiritual joy and consolation, and our souls would find in the liturgy of the Feast rich, satisfying, spiritual nourishment.

 

We can find in the words quoted at the opening of this meditation, my dear friends, an unmistakable hint as to the ideal frame of mind we are to put on when welcoming the Christ Child.  It is, namely, a vivid awareness of what life would be like without Jesus.  When, with the help of the imagination, we succeed in experiencing what it would be not to possess Jesus Christ, we would share the mentality of those pious Jews who had to struggle under the full weight of the consequences of Original Sin.  Without Jesus, our lives would be wanting in savor; we would know the bitterness of being held captive by the tyranny of sin, and we would be able to cry out with the prophet Joel, from the deepest center of our soul, those very meaningful words:  “On that day the mountains shall distill sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk and honey.”

 

To capture the full impact of these words, we must interpret them, as did the great Christian spiritual writers and mystics.  By the terms ‘mountains and hills’ they understood human nature.  The ‘mountains’ signify the highest faculties of human nature:  the intellect (mind), the will (heart) and the memory.  The ‘hills’ stand for the feelings, emotions, passions, etc.  Because of Original Sin, the higher faculties went astray in their search for their proper objectives and the lower faculties were deprived of their proper orientation to reality.  Though life on earth would yield its isolated and momentary moments of sweetness and joy, unremitted Original Sin introduces distaste, repugnance, and bitterness into human affairs.

 

Because, you see, the mind finds sweetness in Truth.  When through the medium of ideas and concepts we assimilate the reality that surrounds us and identify it with our being in virtue of the act of knowing, our intellect experiences great satisfaction.  When with our heart and our affections we unite and identify our being with the goodness that is found in the reality that surrounds us, our will finds great satisfaction.  That is, we experience a love that puts all our desires at rest.  Finally, when the soul is filled with the remembrances of all the means at our disposal to obtain the lasting possession of truth and to add color and dimension to our intellectual grasp of reality with the discovery of new truths; when our soul is filled with the remembrances of the means we possess for obtaining lasting identification with goodness, to experience all the nuances and overtones and delicacies of love, to discover the subtle goodness in reality that escapes unrefined, ignoble hearts (for want of suffering): then our memory experiences great sweetness and satisfaction.

 

Now according to philosophers, there is nothing in the soul that has not come to it through the sense of the body.  Conversely, the spiritual soul cannot produce any effect in the material world unless it acts through the instrumentality of the body.  Thus, by means of the faculties of sense and sense appetite, emotions and feelings, our soul is able to extract nourishment from the world in which we live and to give outward expression to the unity that exists between our minds and truth, between our wills and goodness.  In other words, it is in virtue of our external behavior that our bodies participate in and signify the truth and goodness that resides in the soul.  The use of creatures in conformity with the truth and goodness God has placed in the word yields nourishment to lower nature and fills the psyche with a delightful sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.

 

Before the coming of Christ, all of this, so beautiful and so desired for us by God, was practically impossible.  Without Jesus the world holds sweetness neither for the mind nor for the heart.  In particular, it is the memory, which is most deeply immersed in bitterness for want of Jesus, since it cannot then provide the remembrance of the ways and means of attaining lasting sweetness for the other faculties.  Without Him also, there is bitterness for man in his moral life.  Man has discovered that he was at odds both within himself and with the world about him.  There was no milk or honey to be found in the use he made of creatures.

 

For until the coming of Jesus Christ, no one knew the whole truth about God.  Hence no one knew with certainty the destiny of mankind, whether of the race as a whole or its individual members.  The Jewish people knew in a vague way that God would give them inestimable wealth of possessions, and unlimited happiness; that they were to be lords of their surroundings, enjoying immense power over the nations of the earth.  But they did not know how all this would be accomplished.  There were still many other aspects of human life that were very mysterious to them:  suffering, evil, death, the extent and nature of Divine Providence.  Their minds, therefore, yearned for truth.  They had to eat instead the bitter bread of error, uncertainty, and doubt.  They were greatly in need of Jesus, who because He is subsistent truth, is the sweetness their intellects craved.  He is the WORD of God.  St. Thomas speaks of Him as the IDEA which God the Father eternally generates of Himself, the pattern according to which all things were made.  God made the world in the Word and by the Word.  So when Jesus resides in our minds, when we cling to Him in Faith, then all fear, doubt, error, uncertainty are expelled.  With them go all darkness and bitterness.  The soul is filled with light and sweetness.

 

            Again, it is Jesus alone who is able to give us an altogether perfect love, the fulfillment of all our desires.  His love for us is absolutely pure and selfless.  He is one person whom we know seeks no personal gain in loving us.   There is nothing we have or can obtain for Him (except the affection of our own hearts and the hearts of others) that He does not already posses as God.   Because He is God the only motive He has in loving us is to be able to give to us and make us share His life and happiness.  It is His wish to enrich us with His infinite wealth.  When we understand this, we see that the whole of creation is good because we view it as Jesus’ gift to mankind, the invention of His love, tangible evidence, the proofs designed to give us joy, pleasure and fulfillment.  Only then is it possible for us to give our affection to creatures and to created goodness.  For only then do they lead us back to Jesus.  We find that by the proper use of creatures, that is, in conformity with His Holy Will, that we prove our return of love for Jesus.  Only in loving Him, in Whom the Godhead dwells corporeally, do we find a true and lasting love, a love that stills all the longing of our hearts.

 

            It is the memory, however, which tastes the greatest sweetness now that Jesus has come into the world.  It is the memory, we have said, which is filled with the remembrance of all the titles and claims we have to the means which will enable us to make a successful assault upon truth and goodness and find happiness and contentment in their permanent possession.  We know that no created thing, but nothing, in itself can obtain for us the Truth and Goodness that satisfy us completely.  Health, wealth, keenness of mind, attractiveness of body, charming personality, the affection of powerful friends, all of which are means of obtaining earthly happiness:  these ultimately fail us because none of them are lasting.  The thought that we must relinquish them at death only serves to increase our sorrow and bitterness.  As we grow older and sense the approach of death, we realize that our most basic and fundamental desire, namely, immortality, the fullness of life, can be given to us by God alone.

 

How sweet then, is not the memory of Jesus, and of all the things He has done to convince us of His unfathomable love for mankind?  He takes all the bitterness out of the thought of death.  He is our one, true Hope.  In Him we have life and have it more abundantly.  In Him and because of Him death is not the end of our existence, but it is the beginning of a life that alone is worthy of the name.

 

With His coming, Jesus also brings the possibility of finding nourishment for our souls in the interplay of our human nature with its surroundings.  Because of Him our human activity is elevated.  The sense and sense faculties are rendered capable of drawing milk and honey for the psyche from creatures.  This is done by the gift of grace, which reforms our sense appetites, our feelings and emotions.  It gives them an attitude and orientation toward material creation that agrees perfectly with the pattern and the plan (Christ Himself) God had in mind when He created both them and us.  The life of grace fully developed restores the gift of integrity that our first parents enjoyed, and heals the wounds caused by original sin.  When in full possession of our being, grace confers true freedom, the liberty of spirit proper to the children of God.

 

For are we not aware of the tyranny of the flesh?  Do we not find ourselves hemmed in on every side by restrictions?  The inclinations and tendencies that spring up in our soul and seek expression in the physical world about us are so often at variance with law, with the dictates of reason, and the promptings of grace and Faith (conscience).  This is slavery of a psychological sort because moral force is imposed upon our soul by these norms of human behavior, forbidding us to follow unquestioningly our instincts, inborn inclinations, passions and emotions, even though we are free of physical coercion.

 

Imagine how delightful is the psychological liberty conferred upon us by grace grown supremely strong and vigorous in the soul.  When all the supernatural potentialities and powers it bestows have come to full flower and begin finally to yield fruit, we find that our souls have been completely made over, they do not move in any direction or spur us on to any form of behavior that is not in full harmony with the love of God and His designs upon all of Creation.  Then we have the exhilarating feeling of freedom in the moral sphere.  We can do as we please because it so happens that what pleases us also pleases God.  Hence the fullness of grace’s development in our soul, which makes us to practice all the virtues, transforms us into the likeness of Christ.  Then we live, not we ourselves, but Christ lives in us.  Once we shall have reached this final stage of spiritual development everything we do and touch turns into milk and honey, offering the keenest sense of satisfaction and fulfillment to lower nature, as well as providing spiritual nourishment for other souls.  This psychological liberty is a foretaste of the joy our resurrected bodies will experience in Heaven.

 

The logical conclusion of all this is that during the season of Advent we should examine our lives to see what kind of premises we have based our lives upon.  Are we building upon any foundation other than Jesus Christ?  Do we ignore Him completely and expect to find sweetness and fulfillment for mind and heart in creatures alone?  Do we place our hopes for happiness in our own personal talents and capabilities and possessions?  Do our sense appetites and passions, our emotions and feelings constantly embarrass us by their insistent clamorings for what is contrary to all we hold to be decent?  If so, then we must convince ourselves that our lot is bitterness unless we seek the knowledge and love of Jesus, and place our hopes for eventual eternal life in Him alone.  By stirring up in our hearts longings that rival those of the pious Jews awaiting the birth of the Anointed One, we will discover that Christmastide brings an overwhelming sense of sweet peace and joyful repose in the possession of Him who is all in all to our souls.

 

Hoping your Christmas was as serene and happy as our own, and with every wish for a blessed and grace-filled New Year, I am, with an assurance of prayers,

           

Cordially yours in Our Lady,

                                                                       

Father Bruno, OCD, Prior

                                                                                    [With permission of Religious]

                                                                                    [and Ecclesiastical Superiors   ]

----

-

Note to the Readers: This newsletter was written in the 60’s and Waverly Novitiate no longer exists, however, the Carmelites are always in need of funds to carry out their work. If anyone wishes to contribute to the cause of the Discalced Carmelite Friars, please send your donations to:  “In appreciation of Fr. Bruno's Works”, Mission Procurator, P.O. Box 270136, Hartford, WI 53027.