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. 2 January 1964
Dear Friends of Carmel,
Had I begun this issue when I should have, in early January, I would have been able to open with a breezy “Greetings from the Carmelite Arboretum.” It’s too late to do so now; all our Christmas decorations have long since been taken down. We had used so many trees, that a casual observer would have said we were ‘pining’ for something. Which would have been true: we were pining for the commencement of the Christmas festivities. We were most interested, of course, in sharing the spiritual joys of the season; but we have to admit we had some keen longings for the temporal joys, too. As it turned out, we weren’t disappointed.
By the time Christmas day rolled around, we were all primed, psychologically, for a celebration. It wasn’t that the penitential season of Advent was particularly trying. After all, our ‘Lent’ begins on September 14, and the Holy Season of Advent does not introduce any noticeable increase in the rigor of our daily observance. What really was most trying for the Novices and Postulants was the nervous strain of having to wait until Christmas eve to be given the letters, cards and packages that came pouring in to the monastery for them during the weeks preceding Christmas. It came in the nick (no pun intended) of time. A few more days and surely the cells of the two Brothers, custodians of the Christmas mail, would have started to bulge.
Added to this was the physical strain of getting the monastery ready for the holidays. About four days before Christmas the Brothers and Clerics set to work scrubbing and scouring the entire building. When that was done they began to decorate all the community rooms: the chapel, the recreation rooms, the refectory; and the guest parlor and entrance room as well. By First Vespers of the Feast, at which time Christmas begins officially for us, all was in readiness, thanks to the prodigious expenditure of energy, hustle and bustle.
Then the pendulum swung to the opposite extreme. There now began four consecutive free days, days of complete rest and relaxation. In Carmel, you see, the three Feast Days that immediately follow the Nativity are celebrated as part of the Christmas Solemnity. During this time classes are not convoked, work ceases, the rule of fasting is not in force, we do not get up for the1:00 A.M. recitation of Matins and Lauds, and the rule of silence at all meals is suspended.
To keep the Novices from dying from boredom, therefore, extra time is allotted morning and afternoon for recreation. This year we sent them out on long walks, went away for free educational movies with which to entertain them, and took them into town one afternoon for a couple of hours bowling as the guest of our good friend and benefactor who operates the bowling establishment. Exercise for them was of the essence, because the far greater majority of the packages received by the Novices contained candy, cake, cookies and other Christmas goodies in copious quantities, all of which were sent to them by doting families and relatives. These edibles were always on hand during the four days, and the Novices’ jaws were continually at work; it not talking, they were munching on something.
To add interest and variety to the festivities, about eight or so of the Novices and Postulants got together and obtained permission to stage an entertainment. They put on a mock television program called “What’s Our Line?” A panel of four ‘experts’ interrogated four ‘guests’ in an attempt to discover their line of work. The guests were: a Novice Master, a lady-wrestler, a paper-doll manufacturer, and Soeur Sourire, the singing Nun. The members of the panel were blindfolded during the questioning of the last named, for she entered the ‘studio’ wearing her Dominican Habit and toting her famous guitar, Adele. Perhaps the experts should have been blindfolded while interrogating all the others, too. They failed to guess the ‘line’ of the first three, but had very little trouble identifying Soeur Sourire.
Fathers and Brothers alike were pleased with the program, particularly by the clever setting constructed for the occasion. Perhaps the most amazing thing of all was their ability to keep the program a deep, dark secret during the several days of preparation. The photo on the picture page was taken while the show was in progress. The guest in the picture happens to be a ‘Novice Master.’
By the time Compline of the final day of the festivities was over, we were all weary with rejoicing and were glad to return to the regular observance. Most of January has been spent resting up from the holidays.
In the midst of all this gaiety, the Infant Saviour was never lost sight of, due to a very beautiful custom, which makes Him an accomplice in all of the community acts. During those four days, and again on the Octave day of Christmas, and on the Feasts of the Holy Name and of the Holy Family, the Christ child is carried with us as we go from one community act to another. While we are in the chapel, He is enthroned over the Tabernacle. When we leave there to go take our meals, the youngest member of the community takes Him and leads the procession to the refectory, while the rest of us sing a Christmas carol in His honor. When it is time to leave the refectory, the ceremony is repeated; a-carol-ling we carry Him with us to the Recreation room. In this way we keep the cause of our joy fixed firmly before the mind’s eye so that it doesn’t degenerate into mere indulgence. Actually, external rejoicing at this time is nothing more than an intense outward expression of a joy that is fundamental to the spirit of Carmel. It can always be perceived in the voice and countenance of a Carmelite, since it is the love and memory of Jesus that gives Carmel its buoyant contentedness in the midst of prayer, penance, silence, solitude and self-denial.
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Among the many, many gifts received by the Novices, there were a few that could not be eaten (though I don’t doubt they’ll be ‘chewed up’ quickly enough). Of their number, two toboggans were received with great enthusiasm. Our outdoor sportsmen couldn’t wait to take them out to try them. Apparently they were thinking of the “living dangerously” bit that appeared in OUTLOOK several months ago and they very recklessly tried to steer some thrilling rides down a steep, wooded slope right in front of the Monastery. It was a ‘wreckless’ ride, all right. Right away there were casualties: barked shins, bruised limbs, sprained joints, skinned noses, etc. About this time we were plagued by so many minor injuries I was beginning to think a bruise or wound had taken on the nature of a status symbol. We thank God, though; no one was hurt seriously. To me, this is a painful way to find out that many of our candidates have the indefinable something we identify with little boys (and which we desire to see in them). This is an instance in which we can reverse the familiar adage and say, “This hurts you more than it hurts me.”
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Those of the Brothers who are not enthusiastic about outdoor sports usually have some other interests to occupy their minds and their leisure. For example, a few of them are bird fanciers, and they have made and installed a bird feeding station in the back of the monastery. For a long time I was under the impression that something was wrong with the ‘feed’ they were using, because every time we were in the refectory, from which the feeding station is easily visible, I never saw any birds flocking around it, not even after we had had our several very heavy snowfalls. I began to suspect they were stocking it with leftovers from our table. This would certainly fail to attract the birds, for only a rational creature would be able to appreciate our Carmelite diet. (After all, only a creature with brains could be brainwashed into eating what we eat.) But I was wrong, as usual. I learned that squirrels and chipmunks were coming to eat from the feeding station, and were scaring the birds away. Only after the squirrels and chipmunks have had their fill and are away digesting (or in-digesting, as the case may be) their food do the birds get the chance to approach and eat what little is left.
Unless they think of it themselves, I will have to tell the Brothers to mount the feeding-station in such a way that only the birds will have access to it. As it is now, they have simply nailed it to a tree. Maybe that is why the squirrels are attracted to it. They must think we’re nuts.
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When I said we were spending the month of January recuperating from the Holidays, I meant, of course, that we were back on the regular routine. It dos not mean that life here has been uneventful. At times situations develop that make me think the word ‘routine’ is to be understood as meaning one of the ‘acts’ in a variety show. Anything can, and usually does, happen here.
I’ve been expecting some comical situations to arise especially now that Father Master has “juggled” the assignments of the Lay Brothers. There are so many tasks they must learn in their two and one-half years of training here that they have to be shifted from one job to another after having served only a short time as apprentice. They have to know how to be cook, laundryman, tailor, sacristan, sandal maker, refectorian, bookbinder, guest master, infirmarian; they have to know, also, how to answer the door and phone properly; and if they show any talent for it, are taught to do barbering or to do minor maintenance work in carpentry, painting, wiring plumbing, etc.
I’m sure that at first the new Brothers are tempted to think Father Master changes their work so frequently (it’s usually just when they are getting accustomed to it) for no other reason than to keep them off balance. They often hardly get past the awkward stages in learning one job when they are assigned to a new one and have to go through them all over again. But they soon come to realize that they are being prepared to cope with anything that might arise when they are finished their training and assigned to other monasteries of the Province, where there is a shortage of Lay Brothers. Besides, it helps them to see the life of a Lay Brother in Carmel in it proper perspective. (Perspective: that’s when all the lines converge to a point. I guess I will have to admit my head is in perspective).
As you can tell from the list I have enumerated not one of the jobs they are expected to learn can be considered a logical preparation for any other. The more I think about it, the more I think it is a good thing they are not allowed to get perfectly familiar with one task before learning another. Although we want them to be able to do their work with such facility that they will be able to keep their minds centered on divine things, this could have disastrous results once they are assigned to learn another task. For example, suppose a Lay Brother Novice has gotten to be so skillful at painting that he can do it by second nature, with his eyes closed. (I won’t say how often I think they do things with their eyes closed.) If suddenly he is assigned to be assistant cook, it is possible that when the soup is too thick, he will absent-mindedly add some ‘thinner’ (what could be more logical). Or when the pudding looks as if it is not going to “set” right, he will simply add some ‘spackling compound.’ Hazards abound, you see, even in our sheltered atmosphere. But thank God, so far we have been preserved from any untoward accidents.
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O Cruel
Herod, why do you fear the coming of God the King?
He
doesn’t take away mortal kingdoms, Who gives us heavenly ones.
--From the hymn at Vespers, Feast of the Epiphany, First Stanza.
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Although the lines just quoted are addressed directly to King Herod, they may be thought of as applying also to Christians of a certain type who share with Herod the terrible fear of losing their earthly kingdom at the birth of God the King, Jesus Christ. It is a fear that has much in common with the fear of imminent death. This brand of Christian becomes terrified at the thought of Jesus Christ taking full possession of his souls because he senses that this will result in the loss of his ‘humanity.” Not wishing to secede from the human race, he reacts with active violence (as did Herod) against all the graces that would prepare him to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Master of his entire being.
The obsessive fear of being dehumanized by transforming grace is not without its justification. There is a very real and very convincing basis for it. The evidence is so plain that those who do not share it (which one of us can say he does not share it to a certain degree?) ought to be all sympathy and understanding when dealing with them. The grounds for this fear reveal themselves when we consider the nature of the three virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, which constitute the foundation and the substance of the life of Divine Grace. We call these virtues ‘Theological’ because they confer upon us an actual participation in the supernatural, transcendent life of God. When these three virtues have attained their fullness in us, they penetrate every facet of human nature; they establish in us the Reign of Jesus Christ; no area of human life escapes its divinizing influence.
Faith is a virtue which seems to rob us of our intelligence, or better, it seems to take away from human nature the normal, natural use of the intellect. According to the teaching of the Church, Faith is a gift of God, which enables man to accept as true, on the authority of God revealing, the doctrinal assertions of our Religion. What this means is, we accept as true statements whose truth is not obvious to human understanding. A statement is understood, humanly speaking, when logical reasons can be brought forward which will force any human intellect, even the most perfect and most brilliant, to assent to their truth.
Consider the familiar method of procedure employed in Geometry. That mathematical science proceeds from a body of directly verifiable facts and assertions (axioms), and reasons to the truth of other assertions NOT immediately and directly verifiable by experience. In Geometry, the proofs are compelling. Whoever accepts the axioms as true is forced to accept the conclusions they lead to. It would be impossible for a logical human mind to reject them.
The Church’s body of doctrine contains assertions that are above and beyond the power of the human intellect to comprehend. In themselves, they are not directly verifiable by observations. Since the manner of knowing proper to Geometry, and for that matter, proper to every human science, is the normal, natural way for human beings to know and to understand, it seems a foregone conclusion that to live by Faith is to live a dehumanized life because it stifles the human intellect altogether.
The exercise of the Theological virtue of Charity also seems to require that we relinquish what is normal and natural to our human mode of existence. Charity is the virtue, which confers upon us the power to love God above all things (even ourselves) and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Now this is something that is not ‘humanly’ possible. Only that love and affection which is engendered by the experience of the goodness or the usefulness of a thing or person can be said to be natural. It is not natural or humanly possible for us to love anything unless it is represented to our heart as good by our faculties of perception, i.e., either by the senses (which would have directly perceived the goodness of the beloved object) or by the intellect (which would have appraised the beloved object and reasoned to its goodness). Clearly, no human being has ever had direct experience of God through the medium of the senses because God is a pure spirit. Neither has any human being ever discovered reasons, which can compel every human intellect to acknowledge that there is a God and that He is supremely good and lovable. As a matter of fact, because of the existence of wars, suffering, cruelty, poverty, malice, etc., many people are convinced there is no God, or if they do believe in Him, it is to Him they attribute the blame for all the evils that plague the human race.
When we consider the realm of charity toward our fellow men, it appears even more impossible for human nature to love others as we love ourselves. In this instance there is available an abundance of incontestable evidence, both from the senses and from reason, that most men do not possess goodness and virtue to a degree that would bring forth in our hearts a love that surpasses the love we naturally have for our own selves. Experience tells us some men are so unlovable that we cannot help disliking them; much less love them more than we love ourselves. So it appears once again that charity would detract from our humanity.
It is particularly in regard to Hope that we sense most clearly that the Kingdom of Heaven, namely, the reign of Jesus Christ in the soul, threatens to ‘dehumanize’ our earthly manner of life. Theological Hope is the virtue designed to give us secure confidence that one day all our fondest desires will be realized, especially the one desire in whose fulfillment we place our final and perfect happiness. We may describe the virtue of hope, whether natural or Theological, as the habit of remembering we have at our disposal both the means to actively progress toward the realization of our dearest ambitions, and the weapons that will overcome every enemy or obstacle that stands in the way of its attainment. The important thing about these means and weapons, we must add, is that they are infallible in themselves, and that nobody can take them from us.
The secure confidence that derives from hope we call morale. Morale is a psychological state, which is absolutely necessary in every man. Without it he would never be able to persevere in the unremittent pursuit of his ultimate goal. Morale is absolutely necessary because, by its nature, an ultimate goal is very difficult to achieve, and its achievement is scarcely, if ever, a guaranteed certainty.
The natural virtue of hope is founded upon such things as keen intelligence, attractiveness of mind and body, a pleasing personality, natural gifts and talents, influential friends, and, in particular, upon money. A person who enjoys a fair share of all these things can face life with the assurance that there is practically nothing here upon earth that he cannot obtain, should he set his heart upon it, by the proper use of the aforesaid means. Awareness of the firm, lasting possessing of these means, capable as they are of obtaining the fulfillment of all his natural desires, gives a man zest for life. It keeps his morale high and his enthusiasm at a fervent pitch; it establishes him in the confidence that he can cope successfully with anything that might arise in his daily living.
Now nature finds itself in sore distress when it comes to the Theological Virtue of Hope. In the first place, the ultimate goal we Christians are expected to strive for is the face-to-face vision of God in the next life, a goal that, according to our faith, completely transcends human capabilities. We have to be given the means that are adequate to the attainment of that goal, and we have to be told how to use them, by God Himself. In themselves, these means and weapons seem totally inadequate to human reason: Prayer (which amounts to talking to someone we cannot even see nor be absolutely sure that He is interested in us) and the Sacraments (signs and symbols, words and gestures which produce no immediate tangible or visible effects.) But what is worse, we cannot even make those things that normally bolster morale a foundation for Theological Hope. If we would have our Hope grow perfect, we must be diffident of all that human nature holds dear: beauty, brains, influence, talent, power, money, etc., and embrace all that human nature abhors: the cross! To be deprived of all those things that nourish natural hope ordinarily plunges a man into a state of acute mental anguish, if not into the state of despair. Here again, we must admit that to allow Jesus Christ to establish in us a heavenly kingdom seems to involve foregoing our citizenship in the human race. We have every reason; therefore, to be very kind and sympathetic toward Christians who fear the coming of God the King, for their fears are grounded on a very real and substantial basis.
How then can we make an answer to these objections? How can we show that Faith, Hope and Charity do not take away from us our humanity, our mortal kingdom? It can be done by showing that the mechanism of Faith does not do violence to human nature, really, but IS a normal, natural way of knowing. Since Hope and Charity depend upon Faith, and flow logically and spontaneously from Faith, it follows that they also do not rob us of our humanity, for in ordinary human affairs, love and hope derive from knowledge.
After all, it is not inhuman to be a child. When we live by Faith, we do not cease to be men; we begin to be a much better type of man because we become a very special type of child, a child of God. It is entirely normal and natural, indeed, for a child to live by faith. A child cannot possibly understand the grown up world, which is the goal of his young life. He cannot, therefore, properly evaluate the things that enter daily into his typically child’s life, in relation to the fullness of the human life he will be expected to lead one day as a grown up. Therefore, all those facts and truths which transcend his young mind, but which he must know in order to be a fully formed adult, are committed to him outright, without closely reasoned proofs (which he wouldn’t grasp anyway.) The child accepts them because it is his parents who tell him. The child sees that his parents are grown-ups. They are perfectly at ease in the adult world; they are successful and happy in it; hence, they must know what they are talking about. Besides there is for the child’s mind a proof which is proportioned to it and utterly convincing, one which makes it ‘reasonable’ for him to believe: the direct experience of his parents’ loving self-sacrifice on his behalf.
These very same things are verified in regard to the children of God. Living here on earth in a world of sense experience, we do not know what God is like, nor what divine life is like, the goal of which our earthly life is a preparation. Of ourselves, we cannot properly evaluate earthly things in relation to the life we will lead one day, as grown up children of God, in heaven. But we do have a Father; He is Jesus; and we see from the account of His life that He is perfectly at home with God, that He moves with perfect ease and assurance in the sphere of divine life. We see how He loves us and is self-sacrificing for us. Thus it is perfectly natural and normal for us to accept what He teaches us.
If the foregoing argument does not sound convincing, then we must point out that one of the greatest discoveries of modern science (The Hiesenberg Uncertainty Principle) forces us to conclude that we have no other choice but to practice faith. The Uncertainty Principle tells us that it is utterly impossible to make a perfectly exact measurement. What this means is that any scientific system devised to explain the universe cannot be verified by experiment. It must always remain a theory. It cannot be “proved.” Hence, no scientist can be absolutely sure that the theory he embraces is actually so. But he accepts it because, for practical purposes, it explains facts well enough, and can be used to bring great advantages to society. He doesn’t have any qualms of conscience or think he is doing violence to his intellect if he accepts what he can never be sure is true. Neither does Faith do violence to the intellect of the Christian, therefore.
For the sake of interest and completeness, however, we must point out that our position is no different than that of those who doubt there is a God, or who assert there is no God. We can ask them, “What reasons do you have to prove conclusively that you are right?” Why, it is more difficult for them to give solid reasons for believing there is no God than it is for us to bring forth arguments to show it is reasonable to believe in Him. Therefore, they too must put faith in their basic premises, which are no less dogmas of unbelief as ours are dogmas of belief. No one, but no one, can possibly be found who does not accept as true basic assertions, which transcend the capacity of the human intellect to prove.
And finally, the Church does not ask Christians to stop using and developing their intellectual gifts. It is only in those areas of the ‘great unknowns’, that we are obliged to practice Faith. Namely, in those areas that concern our origin, our destiny, the nature of the Creator, His designs upon the human race, the explanation of the aberrations we detect in human nature, the norms of morality that harmonize most perfectly with human nature, etc. In all other areas, where the intellect is competent, we are supposed to apply our intelligence and learn in natural ways. But even here, Faith is a distinct help, because it purifies the mind and frees it from the obstacles which render it subject to error (namely, passion, self-interest, prejudice) and provides guidelines, which keep it from straying from the truth, for any scientific theory whose impact upon human morality is in direct opposition to the revealed norms of morality cannot be true.
There is also something quite akin to the mechanism of charity in our daily lives, something that is expected of us. We are supposed to respect the rights and the dignity of every human being regardless of who he is. This means we must esteem those of whose goodness we have no tangible experience, and also those of our fellow men whom we know to be unlovable, as in the case of criminals. We prescind from any experience of their moral attributes; we love them because they are human beings. And we do not consider this contrary to human nature.
As for natural hope, we must admit that it is not really the good qualities we possess that engender hope, at least not basically, but our trust that human nature will always be the same, namely, that other persons will always give us what we desire because we have these good qualities. For what does it profit us to have them, if there is no one who will prize them and accept them in exchange for the fulfillment of our desires. For whatever it is we have, it was given to us, albeit as an exchange by others. And as a matter of fact, it is often those ‘weak and foolish’ qualities that really bring us fulfillment and the esteem of our fellow men, for they are the things that show real strength of character, authentic beauty of soul. They are riches that transcend the perishable riches and talents that are the substance of earthly hope.
In what way, then, do Faith, Hope and Charity confer upon us the Kingdom of Heaven? In this way: they give us an understanding of creation that is identical with that of God himself. They establish in us an orientation toward reality that coincides with His own, and they enable us to exercise the same virtues in relation to the universe that God Himself exercises in the providential governing of it. When we think, love, and act like God, then we necessarily derive the same rewards as God derives from His characteristic knowledge, love and creative activity; we too, experience supreme and everlasting happiness.
To accept the consequences of Faith, Hope and Charity to their fullest limit is like plunging into a pool of cold water. If we test the water with our toes, it seems to get colder and colder, and we end up not even going in. If we plunge in, we discover that the initial shock immediately gives way to a feeling of zest and vigor. It refreshes and renews us. If we keep testing the Kingdom of God with our extremities, i.e., if we allow it to touch only the fringes of our daily existence, we’ll never plunge right in and accept it wholeheartedly. Then neither will we experience that it is the best thing that could possibly happen to us. May God grant us all the courage to do this.
Pray for us, we pray for you. God bless you all.
Cordially yours in Our Lady,
Father Bruno, OCD, Prior
[With permission of Religious]
[and Ecclesiastical Superiors ]
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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.