This is the third in a series of 3 posts on the California-Arizona Province OCDS Congress which ran from Friday, June 15 through Monday, June 18 in Seattle. The first two posts are The 2007 OCDS Congress in Seattle and From the 2007 OCDS Congress: Our Carmelite History (just below this post). As a reminder, the summaries were made primarily from my handwritten notes, and they could contain errors.
The photo in the top left corner shows an icon in progress, being written by one of the Discalced Carmelite friars at Mt. Angel seminary in Oregon. During the Congress, one of the other friars gave a reading of the icon. The icon shows the spring on Mt. Carmel, with St. Albert of Jerusalem on the right side of the spring of living water, handing the rule to the Carmelite saints on the left. The figure of St. Teresa of Avila can be seen at the far left at the bottom. At the top of Mt. Carmel are St. Paul and (I think) Elijah. The mountain looks like the knuckles of a hand, like a priest's hand holding up a host, reflecting the Eucharistic aspect of Carmelite mission.
Sister Sean Hennessy, OCD: Carmel Through the Lens of a Kaleidoscope
Sister Sean of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus is a Discalced Carmelite nun from St. Joseph Carmelite Monastery in Seattle, where she has lived since 1996. She was born and raised in California. The archbishop of Seattle granted permission for her to leave the monastery on Saturday to address the OCDS Congress. Here are my notes from her address:
The Rule of St. Albert is designed to teach us to interiorize the elemental realities of life in such a way that they become the mystical grace in which God can give us God.
For a particle in a kaleidoscope, as it turns, its position changes, and space is different. Similarly, the inner dynamic of daily reading the Rule provides a continuous turning or twisting in the life of a Carmelite nun. It is an invitation -- not a given -- to move from the obvious of daily living into the reality of mystical space. Each reading becomes a place of meeting with our Beloved. God is ready to give us God. There is a rhythm throughout the day, the month, the year, a lifetime.
Each person has a kaleidoscope, sometimes turning with the group, and sometimes not. It is unique to each sister, a process of self-awareness, of moving to ever deeper levels of truth, humility and commitment. It is a process of a lifetime. Once you know it is true, you cannot not know it.
Sister Sean received a standing ovation at the conclusion of her address, which was delivered in a very gracious and gentle manner. Before her presentation, she was seen walking through the hotel with others from the Congress, with a beautiful smile and a captivating grace to her presence. Everyone was greatly appreciative of her willingness to make her presentation, and also appreciative that the bishop had allowed her to leave the monastery for that purpose.
Father Aloysius Deeney, OCD -- Keynote Speaker: Responsible Leadership and Collaboration in Light of the Constitutions
The keynote speaker was Father Aloysius Deeney, OCD (photo at left), who gave his address on Sunday morning. Since 1997, he has been the Delegate of the General to the Secular Order, working for the Discalced Carmelite Father General in Rome. He travels to visit Secular Carmelite groups throughout the world. Father Deeney has articles posted on his own blog at ocds4ocds. Here is a summary of his address:
We need to come together to learn how to be alone before God. We need to understand why we come together. That will clarify many things.
The Rule of St. Albert speaks of governance. The first thing required in order to learn to be a hermit is not that you go to daily Mass or say the Hours, but rather that you have a prior chosen by common consent or by the more mature part of you, and that each of you promise obedience. As members, you should make your lives a cooperation and collaboration with the one who is in charge.
Section 15 of the Rule of St. Albert says, On Sunday, and other days if necessary, you should discuss matters of your welfare, discuss the discipline of your lives, and correct things. You are to meet on Sunday to discuss how your life is going. It is not a hierarchical system. The prior is elected.
The prior is to have his gate closest to the entrance so that he could handle the business of the community. But the community is not to make decisions and others to abide by them; rather, the community is to meet to discuss what is being done well, and to establish how things are to be done. The prior's role is more in dealing with the outside community.
The immediate authority of a community today is the council. The council's primary responsibility is the formation and Christian and Carmelite maturing of the community. They have inherited the role of the prior from the Rule. The primary responsibility of the members is participation in the process of formation.
We do not come to join an organization, but to grow in the spiritual life because we cannot do so alone. There is a need for it because we cannot do it perfectly alone. It is not joining a club, but rather it demands our participation so that the organization will produce fruit in our spiritual lives.
To participate in it, there are requirements. It is necessary to have someone who is responsible, and to cooperate with that person, but decisions are made by the community's discernment. This is seen in sections 46 and 47 of the Constitutions, and most important is section 46. The divine obligation is formation and Christian and Carmelite maturing. The spiritual purpose of becoming Carmelites is to grow in the spiritual life. That is the only purpose that makes sense.
St. John of the Cross says some things to directors and some to directees that can be applied to leadership and membership in the community in the Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book II, Chapter 22. Look for Christ. In the incarnation of the Word spoken by the Father, God has revealed everything. In Article 9 of Chapter 22, he says that God is so content that direction be through other people and by natural reason, that He does not want them to put their trust in what we think or feel unless it has been confirmed by other men.
We come to Carmel moved by the desire for God, so we may have a spiritual obligation to listen to our spiritual director and to cooperate. Humility is important to St. Teresa of Avila, together with detachment and charity. The humble person does not dare deal with God independently, nor can he be completely satisfied without human counsel and direction. We form community to know what God is asking of us.
No one has a vocation to be a leader. Everyone has a vocation to be a member. Certain members are called at times to lead. But membership is the most important part of our spiritual life. God will not bring clarification and confirmation of the truth to one who is alone. The original hermits were not solitaries. They were members who wanted to learn how to be alone.
St. John of the Cross, then, is very demanding in what is required of directors. In the third stanza of The Living Flame of Love, St. John of the Cross speaks to spiritual directors. The principle is that a person goes to the director and the community to grow in the spiritual life. The spiritual director must remember that God alone is the agent. The director must be very humble before God, not seeking what he or she wants to do, but rather what God wants done. Directors should be content in disposing these people toward the perfection of emptiness of spirit. If people are not going backward, they are going forward.
The greatest obligation of leadership is to respect the differences that exist among the members. Leaders are called to a deeper humility, which is almost crucifying. When a member is no longer a leader, he goes back to being a cooperator. All have the vocation of being members. The spiritual director does not have all of the answers for everyone who comes to them. After we have done our best, we must trust God with the results. A director cannot take the attitude of "I know, and you do not," or he may be trampling on the Holy Spirit.
But we must cooperate with those who are leaders. If one is called to be a member, one is called to give himself in a way. You can live a Carmelite spirituality without the community. But if you are in the community, you are there to give.
Father Donald Kinney, OCD: Work through Prayer for Union with God -- The Carmelite Story and Our Story
Father Kinney spoke Sunday afternoon. Since his ordination in 1988, most of his ministry has been in Formation. After 7 years at the seminary at Mt. Angel, Oregon, he is now Master of Novices and Students in San Jose, California. Here is a summary of his address:
We work through prayer by means of prayer for union with God. Everything we do in life has meaning in prayer. Prayer itself is often hard work. We have to work through prayer for union with God. If we do so, we will indeed be one with God in the end.
The Carmelite story is our story. Where Our Lady and the saints have gone, we hope to follow.
With Mary and Martha in Scripture, Jesus told Martha that there was need of only one thing. Prayer is our priority. Each of us wants to identify with Mary, sitting at the Master's feet and wishing we could stay there forever. What Martha did was also needed. But, like Martha, we are often burdened with much serving. It is when prayer and work interfere with each other that the balance is lost.
St. Teresa wrote about the balance of prayer and work. She still praised work at the end of Interior Castle. St. Thérèse wrote a play called "Mary of Bethany," saying that work is necessary, but it must always be accomplished by a fervent prayer. We should not separate our work and prayer, but rather we should turn work into prayer, as did the first Carmelite hermits. Brother Lawrence wrote of turning work into prayer. He wrote that we must perform all our actions carefully and deliberately, and stop for a moment to adore God in the depth of our heart.
St. Albert's emphasis on silence is perhaps more important for us today. We cannot hear God if we are attached to the cell phone, television and internet. All the flood of grace we receive through prayer are for the whole Church according to the Constitutions sections 25 and 26.
There will always be tension in our lives between prayer and work, with weeds growing among the wheat until the final harvest. The Rule of St. Albert is the way God leads us to Himself.
Brother Thomas Reeves, OCD: The Schedule of the Carmelite House of Studies: Putting the Rule into Practice
Brother Thomas is a seminarian at Mount Angel, Oregon. He made his solemn profession on January 1, 2006. His presentation about life as a Carmelite seminarian was very funny. I made a few notes on his more serious thoughts:
In the structure of the students' lives, two core principles are liturgy and fraternal charity. Those principles are pertinent to all of us. How we are in our relationships with others is an indication of where we are in our spiritual lives. "I am sorry" are words we need to remember. Also "I forgive you." St. John of the Cross said, At the end of life, we will be judged in love.
Theresa Thomas, OCDS: The Distinctive Marks of the Secular Carmelite Apostolate Today: The Lord of Hosts Lives, Before Whom I Stand
Theresa Thomas was definitively professed in 1997. She has been director of formation in her community and is now its president. She served as coordinator for the OCDS provincial task force on formation, which developed our province's OCDS formation guidelines. I was not able to hear her entire address on Monday morning because I needed part of the time to finish packing and checking out of the hotel. Here are a few notes from what she said:
There are 6 "M"s in the Carmelite apostolate:
1. Meditation
2. Morning and evening prayer
3. Mass
4. Mary
5. Meetings
6. Mission
In Pope Benedict XVI's apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, the Eucharist and the vocations of lay people are discussed, affirming the mission of the laity as vocation, which would extend to the vocation of Secular Carmelites (I think the reference was to Section 79).
Votive Mass: St. Joseph, Patron of our Province
We had Mass and morning and evening prayer during the Congress. The Congress ended with a Votive Mass on late Monday morning. One sentence from the homily:
"We are called to an order to order our lives."
(editor, author of the introduction and translator, Classics of Western Spirituality series); 
