CHARIOT OF FIRE. Autumn is beautiful. Outside our offices, surrounding the National Shrine of. A A chariot of. up up to to heaven in in a a whirlwind.

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1 CHARIOT OF FIRE Carmelite Vocation Newsletter of the Province of St. Elias Winter 2009 Fall 2009 A A chariot of of fire fire appeared appeared and and Elias Elias went went up up to to heaven in in a a whirlwind. (2Kings 2:11) Autumn is beautiful. Outside our offices, surrounding the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are the usual oaks, poplars, and maple trees stretching their limbs into the air with brilliance. The colors of Fall are always spectacular and it never seems to get old. Many of our experiences just become routine. It becomes laborious to suit up and begin again. Our time quickly becomes lost in exams and all the noise that the world has to offer. However, no matter how many times Summer begins to slip into Fall, I am always taken aback. As a boy growing up in East Tennessee, we always made a Fall trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. It was a formative experience in my life. I could sense something greater than this world leading me on a journey of discovery. One filled with mystery and intrigue. I experienced many things, but none that really filled the space left deep within me for knowledge about this world and God. As I explored this God and the Church, I came to believe in Jesus Christ, as the revelation to humanity of the new and everlasting covenant. Reading Scripture and the lives of people that were touched by the Son of God, made the hunger grow deeper. Yes, I do believe, but what now was my deep felt yearning. I prayed. I prayed, a lot. The beauty of Creation was a strong influence on St. Therese of the Child Jesus. St. John of the Cross makes use of images of God from nature to signify love between creature and Creator. As I began to look back on my life, and those early days when I was blown away by the beauty of the great Appalachian chain of rugged mountains, I thank God for leading me into the land of Carmel. Discerning a call to an organized religious group may seem odd in this age that we live. Br. Robert E. Bathe, O.Carm. It was the only way I could continue what started in me when I was young. A life lived, albeit with struggles and joys, in search of the living face of God. Carmelites are mostly spiritual people strengthened and nourished by the past, but still living as God has called us to search and to discover Him as we proclaim a Kingdom of peace, joy and happiness. A search worth the risk and cost. A search for glimpses of life beyond this world into a new world, a new creation. Peace and blessings in Christ our Lord.

2 Taken from the Holy Father s comments about vocations at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers. He even admits that the workers are few in comparison with the abundance of the harvest (cf. Mt 9:37-38). Strange to say, I often think that prayer - the unum necessarium - is the one aspect of vocations work which we tend to forget or to undervalue! Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the Lord s will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God s call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God s call. 2

3 From the Provincial Very Rev. J. Mario Esposito, O. Carm. I am happy to write to you during this month in which the Church and Order of Carmelites honors two very famous saints and doctors of the Church, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and St. Teresa of Jesus. During this beautiful Fall season in which we also honor the Rosary, these two Carmelite holy women remind us of our primary vocation in Carmel, prayer. The witness of their lives and writings are always alive and fresh, as their experience of the spiritual journey to union with Christ lights our path as well, teaching us to move forward with loving trust for our Merciful Father, walking in the way of Jesus with a pure heart and good conscience. St. Therese of the Child Since being elected Prior Provincial for a second time on June 11, 2009, my life has been busy. Meeting all of the friars again, re-adapting to life in the United States, and immersing myself in the day to day challenges and joys of the St. Elias Province have never left me idle. Besides my life here, I had the privilege of attending the Council of Provinces of our Order in San Felice del Benaco, Italy, from September 3 12, The theme of the meeting was Carmelite community, especially community life as built upon and sharing in the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. This meeting gathered all of the superiors of the Carmelite Order from around the world where Carmelite friars, nuns, sisters and lay members are present in over 40 countries. Our Order is experiencing phenomenal growth in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In so many places on every continent, we continue to live our vocation of contemplative service and presence in the midst of the people with the zeal of the Prophet Elias our Father, and the tenderness and love of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The Order also faces many struggles, of course, especially in areas of great poverty and injustice, ethnic struggles, and religious indifferentism that demand new solutions and approaches for our whole Church and her religious. St. Theresa of Jesus Pray and trust these could be the code words of our two St. Teresa s. God bless you always, and Mary keep you in every way, as together we continue to serve God and find our place in His great plan for creation. 3

4 Prison Ministry by Rev. Gus Graap, O. Carm. I worked with our Lay Carmelites for four years and afterwards I was approached by our Provincial who asked if I might be interested in part time prison ministry. We received a call from a local deacon in the Middletown area who needed to find a priest to work with him and with a second deacon in another prison in order to be hired on as a Catholic chaplain. I said 1'd give it a try, and told the deacon that I would commit myself for one year. That was fourteen years ago. (And, interestingly, both of the prisons where I work used to be boys reformatories and were served by Carmelites back in the 50's and 60's.) Prison ministry is a lot of different things, but perhaps I can sum up what makes this ministry so special by way of two stories. The first is about Mark Graham who entered the prison system at 17 years of age on a 20-tolife bid. He was a little guy ~ about 5'2" and 125 pounds with a smile that reached from Middletown to his home in Manhattan. He told me of this incident that happened in prison: It was Superbowl Sunday and there were notices throughout the prison that the game should take precedence over any other TV programs. (About 40 guys share a TV in each unit.) Mark walked into the TV room about 5 minutes before the game ready to settle in for some fun. However, there was Rock music on the screen and the TV was dominated by a big, young, bully-type of guy. But when 4:00 came around Mark stood right up and changed the channel to the game and sat down. The big guy stood up and switched back to the music. So Mark went to the bulletin board, pulled off the notice about the game and read it to all the guys. He turned the TV back to the game and sat back down. The big guy got up again and switched it right back to the music. Then Mark, by his own account, got up, went to his "cube" and put his sneakers on - his fighting sneakers. He had a perfect record in j ail for about 18 years and would probably get himself pretty banged up, but he didn't care. He walked back into the room and was poised to attack when a friend from our Sunday Mass group grabbed his arm and said, "Hey, man, what are you doing?" Mark said, "That's when I woke up ~ thank God!" (He smiled.) He continued, "I went back to my cube, took off my sneakers, and I fasted from TV for three weeks because of what it almost did to me." Mark was released from prison after his first appearance at the parole board (a minor miracle) and is now working for an agency in New York City that helps people just getting out of prison. Charlie Murray (not his real name) is another story. He did a ten year bid for killing a man in a bar when he was stone drunk. The victim was gay and had approached him. He was so enraged that 4 he beat the guy over the head with a beer bottle and sent him to the hospital where he died. He barely remembered what had happened when the police came to pick him up the next morning. When Charlie was released he returned to the lower East Side of Manhattan and picked up the pieces of his life - especially his wife and two boys. One day about a year later I ran into Charlie as I was coming home from helping out at Bellevue Hospital. He asked me if 1'd like to have dinner with him and his family sometime when I was in the City. I said 1'd love to and we set up a date. It was a wonderful occasion and I got to meet his third son who was about six months old at the time. After dinner his wife and kids went their own way while Charlie and I sat down to talk. He said that he had a story that he wanted to share with me and hopefully with the guys still in prison. He said that he had just moved into this new apartment building and things were going great. Then one night somebody new moved into the apartment next to his. The man worked until midnight and when he came home he switched on a sound system that could be heard from 29 th. St. to the World Trade Center. Charlie's whole family woke up and the baby started to cry. His wife begged him to tell the guy to turn the thing down but Charlie said he'd talk to him the next day. He did so, but the same thing hap-

5 pened the following night, so he had to get up in the middle of the night and pound on the man's door to tell him to turn the thing down. Things were quiet for a few weeks, but then it happened again. Charlie was so enraged that he pounded on the guy's door again until he answered it at which point Charlie barged into the guy's apartment, grabbed the guy by the collar and pinned him against the wall. He told him about his time in prison and about the last guy he had killed. He swore that if he ever blasted his system again he "would be history." It never happened again! At the end of the story Charlie said to me, "Here's what I want you to tell the guys, Fr. Gus: if I was drunk that night I would have killed another person and gone back to prison. Thank God for what I learned in prison, and for AA. " and failures. And it's wonderful to hear from them when they're "back on the street" that something you said or did while they were "behind bars" had such an impact on their lives. It has also been great to have other Carmelites work with me from time to time like Brother Jim who joined me on Sundays for almost 10 years as well as a few of our novices. It's a joy and a privilege to do prison ministry, and I can say without reservation that some of the men are the greatest guys in the world. People learn, and part of our role as chaplains is to help them and support them in the learning process through prayer, Scripture and personal conversation. Being there also helps me to follow one of the goals of the Carmelite Order throughout the world, namely to have "a fundamental option for the poor." And prisoners are definitely poor. I hate it when people come to talk to us chaplains as a group and begin by saying" I really admire what you people are doing." What are we doing? We re just working with people, and the two deacons and I know that under different circumstances anyone of us could be "wearing green" rather than black clerical attire. Yes, prison ministry is a lot of different things. For me the most important part is celebrating Mass with the guys and hearing their confessions. The rest is talking with them, loving them, sharing their joys and heartbreaks, their hopes 5

6 The Call To Be A Friend By Rev. Emiel Abalahin, O. Carm. Standing outside of the church, dressed in vestments too warm for the weather, I waited for the people to leave the Mass that has just finished. As I extended my hand to shake hands with the adults or to high five the kids, I was greeted with, Good morning, Father, and Father, that was a great Mass! and inevitably with, Father, can I talk to you? The question is always the same, but the inquirer always different: man, woman, young child, older person. This is part of ministry in Florida. One of the greatest lessons I have learned from being a Carmelite is how to strive to be a friend of God. It is the supreme goal, as it were, of our charism. In order to achieve this goal, there must be freedom and truth, mercy and justice, challenge and love. And all of these elements I have attempted to incorporate in my own ministry, to help others to also be friends of God. But this is not always easy, because at times it requires patience and the acceptance that I will not always get to see the fruits of my labors, while it always means recognizing that the good achieved was not because of my doing, but because God chose to use me as his instrument. And there is certainly much work for God to do. Part of my work involves ministering to the people of our parish of St. Jude. It is a fantastic place to work because we have a tremendously active and involved laity, and because there is so much potential here. Among my varied responsibilities, I work with our youth, young adults, and Hispanic ministries. It would be a mistake to think that serving these communities means simply celebrating Mass. It is really about building community. For our teens, we have a Mass especially designated for them, followed by an evening of reflection and fellowship. And we fundraise, so that each year, our youths can participate in Steubenville Florida, a youth conference aimed at Catholic teens. I am amazed at the growth of the ministry over the years, and inspired by the young people I have come to know. It has been important to help them to develop relationships between them, to help them to know that they are not alone in their faith. Living here in the Bible belt, and also amongst the fifth largest Jewish population in the world, being Catholic can feel rather isolating, especially at an age where feeling like part of a group is an important stage of development. At the same time, they are young people looking for mentors. I see my interaction with these young people as helping to meet two of these important needs. Our Hispanic ministry has also grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years. In this ministry, it has been essential to help form a sense of community, because many come alone, or feel isolated because of language and cultural barriers or age. Some are wealthy, while others are poor. And in these times of immigration reform, fears and anxieties have increased. To minister to these people, I have come to recognize that I must also be a friend who cares about their personal welfare, as well as the community s well being. Our young adult ministry is the newest and one of the most exciting ministries to be started in the parish. As its director, I am in awe at the response of these people. They are enthusiastic and excited, looking for a connection to one another and to their faith. As the minister to this group, it means being able to listen patiently and respond in truth and love to the many questions and challenges that being a young adult in this era present. 6

7 In 2006, shortly after I was ordained to the priesthood, the bishop asked if I would be a chaplain at Pope John Paul II high school. I was not terribly excited at the prospect, especially as I was a new priest who was just trying to get used to my new role, but how could I say no to the bishop who had just ordained me? So now I am also a part-time chaplain, trying to hear God s call in serving our Catholic, and non-catholic, teens. One of my desires for the school was that it would really take on a strong Catholic ethos. To that end, I, together with the full-time chaplain, have developed an extensive program of worship that includes monthly worship services, as well as the opportunity for weekly Mass and weekly confession. But my work is not limited to the youth and young people. As part of my parish duties, I have been assigned to minister to a nursing home and a rehabilitation center. On the surface, it would appear that I simply celebrate Mass. But in my experience, I have been able to be part of something much deeper. At the nursing home during the academic year, the children from our elementary school come to celebrate Mass with me, and the experience enlivens the residents, and at times moves them to tears, to see children who care in a place where they otherwise feel lonely. The children, on the other hand, have an experience of real Christian charity in connection with the (Continued on page 8) In June 2009, students from our Carmelite parish in Boca Raton, FL participated in the Steubenville Florida Youth Conference along with the St. Jude Community of Carmelite Friars. The vision of the conference is to lead teens to Christ and give them a deeper understanding and love for their Catholic faith. 7

8 (Continued from page 7) Mass. In the rehabilitation center, my presence is a sign of hope, and the Mass is a sign that God in Christ is really with them, helping them through that challenging time. One of the great pleasures of living here in South Florida is the variety of ethnicities that call this place home. And as minister, it is exciting to experience the various expressions of faith and love for God that people share. As a Filipino-American, it has been wonderful to get to know, and to pray with the Filipino community here. Having been to and come to love Trinidad, I enjoy getting together with the Trinidadian community here to pray and to enjoy one another s company. And as one who had the great honor of living and studying in the Eternal City, Rome, and getting to know some of the wonderful Italians who live there, it is always a great pleasure to minister to our local Italian community. When I arrived here in Florida in 2005, I was greeted by one of the parishioners with a small green form. It was an application to join the Knights of Columbus. I have been a proud knight since then, but because of scheduling conflicts, I am unable to attend the meetings. So I serve the Knights by being chaplain to their sister organization, the Columbiettes. I am chaplain to two councils here, and through this organization, I have been blessed to know and be inspired by some incredible women. But in the end, I am a Carmelite, and the real heart of my ministry is to live out my Carmelite identity. To that end, I am chaplain to our Lay Carmelite community of Edith Stein. It is a great community, full of people who just want to learn how to live as true Carmelites in this day and age. Their desire and thirst, their joy and sense of welcome, humble me. I am proud to know them, to serve them, and to call them sister and The St. Jude Community of Carmelite Friars with their Prior Fr. Richard Champigny, O. Carm. and friend Sr. M. Eulaliae Angeline, O. Carm at the Steubenville Youth Conference brother Carmelites. I also give days of recollection to various groups, helping them to reach new horizons in their Catholic faith through our rich and deep Carmelite charism. And finally, I accompany people on a personal basis as they make their own journeys of faith to the Father, whether through the sacrament of confession, or through oneto-one conversation. Catholic or non-catholic, young or old, God has invited me to be an instrument to help them to discover his deep and abiding love, expressed so eloquently in Jesus Christ. It is especially in this capacity that I appreciate my call to be a religious, as much as my call to be a priest. The Carmelite journey in ministry for me has been a fascinating one thus far, not always easy, not always pleasant, but always blest and awesome. And I would not have it any other way, because in this experience, I have come to know my friend God in ways I could never have imagined. 8

9 Carmelites and Scripture By Rev. Paul A.M. Denault, O. Carm. +Maria Let all you do have the Lord s word for accompaniment. These words tucked into the middle of the Carmelite Rule show how we strive to immerse ourselves in the Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, the Rule of St. Albert of Jerusalem is overflowing with Scriptural quotations and allusions. By entering into the words of Scripture, Carmelites seek to fulfill another dictum from the Rule, Each one of you is to stay in his own cell or nearby, pondering the Lord s law day and night and keeping watch at his prayers unless attending to some other duty. Even the reference to pondering the Lord s law day and night, is an allusion to the very first psalm in the Book of Psalms. The early hermits kept watch by reciting the psalms over and over until the praises of God became part of their very being. Most people know that since the Second Vatican Council there has been a renewed emphasis on the Scriptures. The Church insisted once again that Scriptural readings must be a part of every celebration of the sacraments. Parishes were encouraged to offer Bible Study classes for adults and children. As each religious order made the attempt to return to the source of its charism, Carmelites found that the very heart of the Carmelite charism is a deep love for the Word of God. The Carmelites have always felt a strong affinity with the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, especially since the Prophet Elijah figures so preeminently in the tradition. Since they see themselves as the inheritors of Elijah s prophetic spirit, Carmelites are keenly interested in what the Scriptures say about the role of a prophet. While many people think that the role of a prophet is to go about predicting the future, actually the prophets of Israel were those who announced to people what God wanted. They could do so because of their close, intimate relationship with God. In our desire for God, Carmelites strive to learn in our hearts the truth of God. We strive to be open to God s will and in that way come to know what God wants. As the prophets lived always in the presence of God, Carmelites aim to have that same intimacy with God. In recent years, Carmelites have turned once again to an ancient, almost forgotten, way of praying the Scriptures called Lectio Divina. A practice first defined by Benedictine monks more than a thousand years ago, Lectio Divina is now emphasized once more in our formation programs and in community meetings. It is more a way of approaching the Scriptures rather than a hard and fast method. One comes to a text of the Word of God seeking to learn and understand what God is saying to the individual through the text. One seeks to let the words on a page enter into the heart and settle down there deeply, like a stone in a pond, so that it might fill the heart with knowledge, light and wisdom. Whether done individually or in a group, Lectio Divina involves prayerful reading of the text, times of silence for listening to the words underneath the text and prayerful responses of love to God who comes to us in such a wonderful way. Scripture holds a most esteemed place in Carmelite spirituality; there is no substitute for it. Our prayer rises out of Scripture as incense rises from the censer, going up to the heavens. At the same time, Scripture enters the mind and heart so that in all we say and do, we may have the Lord s word for accompaniment. 9

10 FALL Carmelite Feast Days St. John of the Cross December 14 St. Theresa of Avila October 15 St. Therese of Lisieux October 1st St. Nuno Alvares Pereira November 6 Venerable Angelo Paoli nears Beatification Angelo Paoli, known as the father of the poor was born in Argigliano in the Tuscan region of Italy in Born into a modest farming family, he developed a deep prayer life and devotion to Our Lady. As a young man, he spent many hours teaching Catholic doctrine to the poor children in his town. In 1660 he became a Carmelite and was ordained in He served in various houses in the Tuscan province until he was called to Rome by the Prior General Paul of St. Ignatius. As bursar of the San Martino ai Monti community in Rome, where he lived until his death in in 1720, he was in daily contact with the hungry and sick who often came to his door. Throughout his life he was committed to serving the disadvantaged, organizing services for them, feeding hundreds of people a day, a ministry which continues today though the Carmelite community. He inspired countless others to serve the poor and sick of the city, organizing the first hospital for convalescents in Rome. In 1781, the virtues of Angelo Paoli were declared to be heroic by Pope Pius VI. At the general chapter of the order held in Rome in 1908, his cause for beatification was introduced. A presumed miracle attributed to Paoli occurred in 1927 and the process towards beatification began in Although it remained inactive for many years, on May 29 th, 2009, the Ordinary Congregation of Cardinals and Bishops gave their positive opinions on this miracle, a key step towards beatification. July 3 rd, 2009 brought further progress when Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Archbishop Angelo Amato, SBD, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, to proceed in the preparation of the Degree concerning the miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Angelo Paoli. We now await the date and place for the Beatification, the last step before canonization. Each year, on January 20 th, the anniversary of his death, the Committee for Venerable Angelo Paoli organizes a Eucharistic celebration in the parish of his birthplace. His spiritual devotion and work with those in need can serve as an inspiration for us in today s world, where so many are struggling and often overlooked. So relevant are his actions that in 2005, over 100 people met at the former Carmelite monastery of Cerignano, Italy to explore the meaning of for today of the Venerable Angelo Paoli s life. 10

11 St. Theresa of the Sacred Heart By Samantha Gonzalez, 7th Grader, St. Simon Stock, Bronx, NY Each year, our Carmelite Middle Schools are invited to participate in an essay contest about the saints and their message to live God s call. The saint that I have chosen for this essay would be St. Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart. The reason for my choice is because I feel that she had a deep love and faith for God. Her entire life was driven to love God and become a faithful follower. Many of the other saints also may have had a deep love for God, but St. Teresa Margaret had questioned the love of God since a very early age. Not because she did not believe in him, but because she wanted to know the true meaning of his love. Many of us now a days, have forgotten the true meaning of why God has set us on this Earth. So, with this essay, I hope it will not only give you information about St. Teresa, but it will allow you to question yourself: what qualities do I attain and how can I become a better person? St. Theresa of the Sacred Heart was born on July 15, Her birth name was Anna Maria Redi, until she joined the Carmelite monastery of St. Teresa. As a young child, St. Teresa was always devoted to staying away from sin and always had such cheerfulness. Her constant spiritual vibe lead her to the Carmelite monastery of St. Teresa in Florence. There, at the age of sixteen, she had decided to devote her life to God in the Carmel. In 1764, St. Teresa was accepted to the monastery and had had the permission of her mother and father to complete her life in God. Her favorite saying, "God is love." had become popular. On March 4, 1770, St. Teresa had had a premonition of her sudden death. That same day, she received a confession and asked her confessor if she could receive Communion. On March 7, 1770, St. Teresa of the Sacred Heart had died at the young age of twenty-three and was buried on March 22, Her body remains uncorrupted to this day and she was canonized in 1934 by Pope Pius XI. St. Teresa had many qualities. She was dedicated, faithful, delightful, tenderhearted and strong. Many of these qualities could not only help my-school and I, but they could also help everyone. I think her love for God was very inspirational. She was grateful for everything that God had put in her life and was always praying. This attitude could affect everyone in a positive manner. These qualities could help the students in my school because, we would be devoted to our very best on everything we set our minds to, we will have a better understanding of life and God because of what he has done for us and most importantly, we will not take things for granted. Many people believe that my generation does not see how much we have and do not appreciate the things in life, but I do. Such people as St. Teresa have inspired me with her attitude, to become a better person. Not because of the reaction I will get from people, but because of the love I have for God. One quality I admire most of her is her dedication. If we were all dedicated to God, we would all have great futures~ I believe that not only can we learn from St. Teresa, but we can strive to do our very best. God gave us a mind to think and a voice to speak up for what is right and what is good. She Was a Saint not because of her kindness, but because of her true faithfulness in God. She did not do any marvelous deeds, but in her adoration for God, she showed us how we should live. No one is perfect, nor will we ever be, but in God, I believe everything is possible. 11

12 FALL Vocation Discernment Weekend Nov. 6, 7 & 8, 2009 St. Eliseus Priory Harrison, NJ Contact Br. Robert Bathe, O. Carm Vocation Director (845) Elias Our Lady of Mount Carmel www. car m elitefr iars.org Vocation Office P.O. Box 3079 Middletown, NY 10940