Blog by-the-Sea

Bl. Elizabeth of Trinity Books in the Bookstore

I updated the bookstore today, adding a few more books about Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity, whose memorial is today.  I moved all 9 items about her to page 1 so you can find them easier.  Look for the widget in the sidebar or click here for the amazon astore.  Three of them are ICS Publications books, which you can also buy directly from the ICS Publications website.

Dialogues of the Carmelites: The Nuns of Compiègne at the Guillotine

For today's Feast Day of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, here is a video of the finale of Francis Poulenc's opera "Dialogues of the Carmelites".  I saw it twice at the Met some time ago and would love to see it again.  The Archives at ICS Publications has the real history of the deaths of the Carmelites of Compiège at the guillotine in 1794 under Robespierre.

You can't tell much of the story from this opera production if you don't already know it, so here is a summary of what is happening in the opera, which is a fictionalized version of the history: As Paris is threatened during the French Revolution, a young woman named Blanche, from a family of the nobility, decides to enter a Carmelite convent partly because she is afraid of what is going on in the world.

The prioress tells her that, in Carmel, she will not escape her problems but will confront them.  When an aging prioress dies while it is Blanche's turn to be with her, Blanche is horrified as her fear of death overwhelms her.  Yet, she is told, the suffering of their prioress' death will make death easier for someone else.

In the Carmel of  Compiègne, which is near Paris, they are close to the center of the Revolution.  Her brother tries to persuade her to leave, but she will not do so.  As the Revolutionaries take control, in what was as much an anti-Catholic revolution as it was a pro-Democratic revolution, the nuns and their priest confront the reality that they will face death at the guillotine if they continue living in their community.  They hide their priest, as many of the Paris clergy were guillotined, and help him to escape. 

When they initially vote on whether to remain in community, they decide that they will not do so unless the vote is unanimous.  They agree that the vote will be anonymous, but when one vote comes back against it, they all suspect that it was Blanche's fear of death that was to blame.  But another novice comes forward and says it was her vote, and not Blanche's.  She changes her vote, which makes it unanimous.  Blanche then becomes terrified and flees.  As her family is gone, she takes a job working as a servant for the Revolutionaries who now live in what was her family's home.

In the final scene, shown here, the nuns sing the Salve Regina as they go together to the guillotine.  The Revolutionaries' bloodthirsty act of vengeance against such innocent people will shock the nation and help to bring an end to the killing of priests and religious.  Blanche stands in the crowd, watching as her sisters go to the guillotine singing.  The new prioress comforts them and blesses them as they walk to their martyrdom.  In the end, the younger nun who had initially voted against the martyrdom is the last one remaining, and she becomes frightened as she is left to go to the guillotine alone.  It is too late to change her mind.  Blanche comes out of the crowd and walks with her as they both go to the guillotine.

Poulenc set the tempo at a disturbing rhythm, which lends itself more to rock music than to opera.  In this production, the rhythm is somewhat syncopated, with the stress on the second and fourth beats of the measure (rock) instead of the first and third (classical).  The guillotine falls at odd times, unexpectedly, to illustrate the unpredictability of our own deaths and death's proximity to each of us.

Maestro Kent Nagano (my favorite conductor) recorded the opera with the Opéra de Lyon.  He conducted one of the two Met performances that I saw, which was (of course) my favorite of the two.  He will conduct it in March and April 2010 with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, with two more performances as part of the Munich Opera Festival in June 2010.

For the Evening of the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Sandra Miesel on St. Nuno Alvares Pereira

Historian Sandra Miesel has written a short biography of St. Nuno Alvares Pereira, the Carmelite who was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on April 26.  It is titled Portugal's Fighting Saint.  A warrior and nobleman who entered a Carmelite convent after the death of his wife of 40 years, St. Nuno established a lay confraternity of Carmelites to work among the poor, which eventually became a Carmelite third order.

Hat tip to Insight Scoop.

I also have an earlier post on the canonization.

Father Kubicki Reflects on Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Here is a video from Father James Kubicki of the Apostleship of Prayer website with a reflection on today's memorial of the Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity:

Tea at Trianon remembered her with a photo and her prayer.  There are more links in my post from last year.

The Opposite of Pride

Some years ago, I read an article in a car magazine (not the sort of thing I read often) written by a race car driver.  He was writing about instruction he had received in how to become a better race car driver.  One of the first things he was told was that to learn to drive faster, he needed to slow down.  A lot.  Because only by slowing down could he develop the precision that he needed if he was going to learn to drive faster well.

So it is, too, that St. Teresa of Avila wrote that before we can be Mary (the more contemplative sister), we must learn to be Martha (the more active sister).  She speaks in her Life (22:13) of "a little failure in humility, in that the soul desires to rise of itself before our Lord raises it, and is not satisfied with meditation on so excellent a subject,—seeking to be Mary before it has laboured with Martha.  If our Lord will have a soul to be Mary, even on the first day, there is nothing to be afraid of; but we must not be self-invited guests, as I think I said on another occasion.  This little mote of want of humility, though in appearance a mere nothing, does a great deal of harm to those who wish to advance in contemplation."

Humility

Humility is what these two examples have in common -- a humility that is necessary to growth in the spiritual life.  It is a humility that resists trying to be what we want to be before we have really become it.  Or, rather, it is a way of working toward becoming the people we want to be by paying more attention to the every day details of who we are in the present moment.

The idea of writing about the opposite of pride, and meditating on what that might be, was given to me by a priest who had spent more than 25 years in the priesthood before the first time anyone confessed pride to him in the confessional.  Yet pride is a root cause of sin in its various forms.  Pride was the root sin of Sodom, according to Ezekial 16:49-50 ("Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them, when I saw it.").  Pride is associated with the love of the world in I John 2:15-17 ("Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.")  It is no wonder, then, that St. Teresa would have seen it as an impediment to contemplation.

To say that humility is the opposite of pride is perhaps to state the obvious, but it becomes tricky unless we define the terms.  That is so because someone can be proud of their humility (false humility)  and because it is possible to confuse pride with self-confidence or courage.  The pride that is a sin is not true self-confidence, and the humility that is a virtue is not false humility. 

The Hebrew word for "pride" used in Ezekial 16 above means to be high, exalted, or lofty.  The word is a good thing when it describes God, and a bad thing when it describes people.  For a person to be high, exalted, or lofty (or to think himself so) is arrogance.  In a way, it means that a human being sees himself or herself as exalted, when that is how he or she should see God.  The Greek word for pride used in I John 2 above means, according to Strong's, "empty braggart talk" or "an insolent and empty assurance, which trusts in its own power and resources and shamefully despises and violates divine laws and human rights."  Both words then describe a false pride, particularly that seen in people who lift themselves up to a level that belongs to God and not to themselves.

It is a difficult thing to describe in others because so much has to do with motivation.  We are supposed to be trying to become more like the saints.  Yet the person who is trying to act saintly may well be thought prideful by someone else watching.  It is probably best, then, to think only about our own pride and how we might correct it, and not about what we think to be pride in another person.  ("Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." I Samuel 16:7)

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Looking for examples in the lives of the other Carmelite saints, and wisdom in their writings, there is more to add to the words of St. Teresa about labouring with Martha.  The humility of St. Thérèse of Lisieux is seen in her examples of living everyday life, in the day-to-day difficulties of living with others and working with others, writing more about the mundane everyday actions that often involved covering up her true feelings toward others and acting in charity when she didn't feel like it.  In the words of Bernard Bro (St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Her Family, Her God, Her Message), "in everyday life, to do the truth, but in the name of a love that comes from above and that then transcends strictures, petty details, or a settling of scores."  Hans Urs von Balthasar speaks of such humility and its role in making progress in the spiritual life in The Little Way, quoting St. Thérèse at the end:

"Progress does not come through acquisitions but through losing everything; it does not mean climbing, it means descending. A novice sighs: 'When I think of everything I still have to acquire!' 'You mean, to lose! Jesus takes it upon Himself to fill your soul, in the measure that you rid it of its imperfections. I see that you have taken the wrong road; you will never arrive at the end of your journey. You are wanting to climb a great mountain, and the good God is trying to make you descend it; He is waiting for you at the bottom in the fertile valley of humility.'"

St. Edith Stein

It would be a mistake to misinterpret the little way of St. Thérèse to mean that everyone must become as simple as she was in her early 20's or else be found guilty of pride.   At the other extreme of the scale of sophistication might be found another Carmelite saint, St. Edith Stein, and yet there we find another example of such slowing down in order to become faster.  Even as a nun, her everyday life was much different from that of St. Thérèse, particularly during the writing of her sophisticated books, Finite and Eternal Being and The Science of the Cross.

While the other nuns knew nothing of Edith's work as a lecturer before entering Carmel, and she took care to avoid being condescending, her intellectual sophistication eventually became a part of her everyday life at Carmel, as she began to write again.  She was nearly 20 years older than the two novices when she entered, and could not have been perceived the same way as Thérèse, who entered Carmel at an exceptionally young age and lived only to the age of 24.  It could not have been said of Edith near her death, as one of the Lisieux nuns said of Thérèse, that she "has certainly done nothing worth the trouble of being recounted."

Still, in a letter written soon after she entered Carmel, Edith told her colleague Dr. Hans Brunnengräber, "Carmel is a high mountain that one must climb from its very base." Teresa Renatta Posselt, O.C.D., who was Edith's novice mistress, wrote, "In all actuality, for Edith Stein entrance into Carmel was a descent from the height of a distinguished career to the depth of insignificance."  (Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite).

St. John of the Cross

St. John of the Cross, writing as a superior who had guided both students and teachers of prayer, wrote separately about the effects of pride on a beginner and the effects of pride on a director.  It manifests itself differently in different people, in their different responsibilities.

In The Dark Night of the Soul Book One, Chapter 2, he wrote about pride in beginners.  They seek to speak of spiritual things in the presence of others, and even to instruct rather than be instructed.  Some "become so evil-minded that they do not want anyone except themselves to appear holy" and thus "strain at the other's gnat and swallow their own camel [Mt. 23:24]".   When their spiritual directors, confessors or superiors disapprove of their method of procedure, they think their directors do not understand, and seek one they like better.  Many want to be their confessor's favorite, and they become consumed by envies. 

In contrast, those who are advancing benefit from their humility, placing little importance on their own deeds, and thinking that everyone else is better than they are.  They become more aware of their debt to God.  Their charity and love make them want to do so much for God that what they actually accomplish seems like nothing.  They long to be taught by anyone who might be a help to them.  They are ready to take a different road from the one they are following if told to do so.  "These souls would give their life's blood to anyone who serves God, and they will do whatever they can to help others serve him."

In The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 3, he wrote about pride in spiritual directors.  When some directors react with jealousy when a directee consults with someone else or or leaves for another director, John called it "a jealousy motivated by your own pride and presumption or some other imperfection, for you should not assume that in turning from you this person turned from God."  (3:59)  "God leads each one along different paths so that hardly one spirit will be found like another in even half its method or procedure." Even when a director acts out of ignorance rather than egoism or jealousy, he said, they still are not excused for giving counsels without understanding "the road and spirit a person may be following."  When a directee is dissatisfied, it is a sign that the director is not helping him or her, either because God is making that person advance by a different road from the one along which the director is leading, or because the director has changed style.  In that event, John said, the directors themselves should counsel a change of director; "all the rest stems from foolish pride and presumption, or some other ambition."

The Remedies for Pride Described by Two Popes

The humility of Jesus, and our recognition of our lack of self-sufficiency, is seen as the remedy for pride in the meditation on the third station of the cross in the Via Crucis 2005 (written by then Cardinal Ratzinger):

"In Jesus’s fall beneath the weight of the Cross, the meaning of his whole life is seen: his voluntary abasement, which lifts us up from the depths of our pride. The nature of our pride is also revealed: it is that arrogance which makes us want to be liberated from God and left alone to ourselves, the arrogance which makes us think that we do not need his eternal love, but can be the masters of our own lives. In this rebellion against truth, in this attempt to be our own god, creator and judge, we fall headlong and plunge into self-destruction. The humility of Jesus is the surmounting of our pride; by his abasement he lifts us up. Let us allow him to lift us up. Let us strip away our sense of self-sufficiency, our false illusions of independence, and learn from him, the One who humbled himself, to discover our true greatness by bending low before God and before our downtrodden brothers and sisters."

A humble and spontaneous trust in the One Lord is contrasted with pride in the August 10, 2005 General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI on Psalm 131 ("LORD, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me. Rather, I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother's lap, so is my soul within me."):

"The Psalm begins by describing an attitude quite the opposite of infancy, which, well aware of its own frailty, trusts in the help of others. In the foreground of this Psalm, instead, are pride of heart, haughty eyes and 'great things' that are 'too sublime for me' (cf. Ps 131[130]: 1). This is an illustration of the proud person who is described by Hebrew words that suggest "pride" and "haughtiness", the arrogant attitude of those who look down on others, considering them inferior.

"The great temptation of the proud, who want to be like God, the arbiter of good and evil (cf. Gn 3: 5), is decisively rejected by the person of prayer who chooses humble and spontaneous trust in the One Lord."

Pope Paul VI pointed to charity as the remedy for pride in his Encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram (On Truth, Unity and Peace in a Spirit of Charity):

"But all will come out well if the social teaching of the Catholic Church is applied as it should be to the problem. Everyone then must strive to preserve in himself and to arouse in others, be they of high or low degree, the queen and mistress of all the virtues, charity. The salvation we hope for is to be expected primarily from a great outpouring of charity. We refer to that Christian charity which is a principle synthesizing the entire gospel. That charity is always ready to spend itself in the interest of others and is the surest remedy against worldly pride and immoderate self-esteem. St. Paul the Apostle described the characteristics of this virtue when he said: 'Charity is patient, is kind; is not selfseeking; bears with all things, endures all things' (1 Cor. 13.4-7)."

The remedies that they propose are a humble trust in the Lord and the virtue of charity that  bears and endures all things from others.  Returning to the example offered by St. Teresa of Avila, it is surely such charity, "always ready to spend itself in the interest of others" that describes a true Martha, rather than busy herself "with great matters, with things too sublime" for her.  In learning from Jesus, who humbled himself, by "bending low before God and before our downtrodden brothers and sisters", we would be neither the proud beginners nor the proud directors described by St. John of the Cross.  The "person of prayer who chooses humble and spontaneous trust in the One Lord" rather than things too sublime for him or her is surely the "Martha" who will slow down in prayer to learn to pray well.

A Museum of Carmelite Art and Architecture

In its mid-April e-newsletter, the Discalced Carmelite curia includes an article titled A Carmelite Museum in Andalusia (Spain), in which the order's curia encourages Carmelite communities that have a "notable artistic patrimony" to consider placing it on public display.   The article particularly mentions the website of a Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Antequera, Malaga, Spain, founded in 1632.  The monastery has opened a museum for its works of art, some of them centuries old. 

The website allows an online virtual tour.  Start here.  Choose "Visita Virtual al Museo" and then click on each of the options under that heading, starting with "Entrada al Museo."  Some options have only one page of photos.  For others, such as the entrance ("entrada"), there are several pictures that you can click on.  For the entrance, for example, there are 3 photos of the exterior and one of the beautiful interior with its characteristic blue and white Spanish tile, woods, and architecture -- a work of art in itself.

On a related them, there is an earlier post here called Art, Detachment and the Beauty of God about the importance of religious art in the present day Church and in the views of Discalced Carmelite saints St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.

Martyrs of the Nativity

December 26 through 28 are feast days of St. Stephen the Martyr, St. John the Apostle (who was willing to die for his faith but lived a long life), and  the Holy Innocents.  Thus, three days of the Octave of the Nativity remember different kinds of martyrs.

Interestingly, the best known blessed named for the Nativity in religious life was also a martyr, as was an Augustinian named for the Nativity whose cause for beatification is pending.

Blessed Dionysius of the Nativity (also called "Bl. Denis of the Nativity") was a Discalced Carmelite missionary who was tortured and martyred by Muslims in 1638 on the Malay archipelago (Sumatra, Indonesia).  The cause for his canonization is pending.  A Frenchman, he was born Pierre Berthelot.  His memorial is November 29.

Anthony of the Nativity, a contemporary of Bl. Dionysius of the Nativity, was one of the Mombasa Martyrs, Portuguese Augustinians who died in 1631 in what is now Kenya.  Their cause for beatification was opened soon after their deaths and is still pending.

Of course, not all blesseds named for the such mysteries are martyrs.  As an example, Bl. Marie of the Incarnation (also called "Bl. Mary of the Incarnation") was another contemporary of Bl. Dionysius of the Nativity.  She too was a French Discalced Carmelite, born Barbe Avillot.  A wife and mother of six, she became a lay Discalced Carmelite after her husband's death.  She died of natural causes in 1618 at the age of 52.  Her memorial is April 18.

The Centenary of St. Raphael Kalinowski

November 19 is the memorial of St. Raphael Kalinowski, and the centenary of his death.  He was a Discalced Carmelite friar in Poland, canonized in 1991 by Pope John Paul II.

In commemoration of his centenary, the Information Service of the Discalced Carmelite Curia has posted a letter from the Superior General, Luis Aróstegui Gamboa, OCD, about the saint.  Father Gamboa concludes:

"I nourish the hope that, in our world of rapid and deep change, and of dissension and drama, the awareness and prayerful meditation of the message of St Raphael Kalinowski would represent for us a stimulus for accepting and verifying, with truth and joy, our call to the tradition of Carmel. His courage in searching, his perseverance, his ability to relate with comprehension and compassion, his attentiveness to surrounding needs, the natural union of contemplation and action are some of the characteristics of what he hands down to us."

ICS Publications offers a short book about the saint, titled St. Raphael Kalinowski: An Introduction to His Life and Spirituality.  The Vatican's website has a short biography of the saint from his canonization.  A full-size picture of that shown here in thumbnail form can be seen by clicking on "Photo" on the Vatican's biography page.

For the memorial of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity

November 8 is the memorial of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity.  Here are a few links:

A website devoted to Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity has pages in several languages.

From last year, a post with links to Articles for the Centenary of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity.  There is a post with a quote from her from April ("His light alone, which is the glory of God").

The Carmelite Digest issue for her centenary is still available online at the link.  At the bottom of the linked article, see links to other articles from the same issue on the left side of the page.

The Meditations from Mt. Carmel archive of podcasts has audios of Bl. Elizabeth's writings here, here, here, here, and here (or just go to the archive page and choose the ones you want from there).

The website alone with the Alone has an article called "The Fellowship of His Sufferings: The Example of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity" by Jennifer Moorcroft.

There is a page about her on the Catholic Forum's Patron Saint Index.

ICS Publications has a page with her complete works and a biography.

Conrad de Meester's masterful 741-page biography Elisabeth de la Trinité, just published in French in 2006 and not yet translated into English, is available from Amazon France.  ICS Publications has previously published English translations of Conrad de Meester's books about St. Thérèse of Lisieux and about the writings of Lawrence of the Resurrection.