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Commemoration of All Carmelite Souls – November 15 – Carmelite Memorial

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Summary:

Just as the love of Christ and the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary have brought us together in a single family, fraternal charity unites those of us still striving to lead a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ in this world, and those already awaiting the vision of God in purgatory. Today the whole Order commends our departed brothers and sisters to God’s mercy through the intercession of Our Lady, sure sign of hope and consolation, and begs for their admission to the courts of heaven.

*The Commemoration of All Carmelite Souls is transferred to November 16 this year.

A General History of the Carmelite Order:

The Carmelite Order traces its roots to Mount Carmel, where the Prophet Elijah, the Order's founder and father, confronted the prophets of Baal. After proving that God is the one true God, he slew the false prophets. On Mount Carmel, Elijah then had his servant watch until a tiny rain cloud appeared, signaling the end of the drought. Tradition says the Blessed Virgin Mary manifested herself to Elijah as that rain cloud, and the sons of the prophets built the first shrine on Mount Carmel for her.

Thereafter, Mount Carmel was revered as the place where the worship of the Only True God was defended and firmly established, and where communion with God could be sought and attained. Tradition also tells us that since the time of Elijah, at least a few people have always dwelt on Mount Carmel, dedicated to the continual seeking and worship of God. In this way, the hermits of Carmel lived as sons of the great prophet and as brothers of the Blessed Virgin. Although many consider this only a legend, Carmelites, who call on St. Elijah in prayer daily, know he is not a shadowy figure from the past. His spirit remains active in a vital tradition and shapes how we live.

During the Second Crusade, a group of Crusaders settled on the western slopes of Mount Carmel. They no longer wanted to be soldiers of an earthly army but, instead, soldiers of Christ. Among them was St. Berthold, who saw hermits living separately on Mount Carmel and scattered throughout Palestine, and organized them into a community to live in imitation of St. Elijah's life. As their superior, St. Berthold's reputation for holiness drew many, including his successor, St. Brocard. Around 1206-1214, these hermits, needing structure to preserve their way of life and protect their vocation, asked for a common rule of life. At St. Brocard’s request, St. Albert of Jerusalem laid down the spirit they had received from their predecessors in the Rule of St. Albert.

The rule condenses the entire meaning of Carmelite life in a short statement: “All are to remain in their own cells…, meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night and watching in prayer, unless otherwise justly employed.” Thus, Carmelites fulfill the Rule when they hold the image of the Lord continually before their eyes, becoming like him. In this way, we can never finish studying the Gospels.

This does not mean Carmelites forsake the Lord when they work. Rather, work is unavoidable, and, following the word and example of St. Paul, the rule commands Carmelites to earn their bread by their work. But for Carmelites, work is always a means and must never be an end in itself. So standing before the face of God remains the true content of their lives.

The rule also emphasized the importance of silence, stating:

“Sin will not be wanting where there is much talk, and He who is careless in speech will come to harm; and elsewhere: The use of many words brings harm to the speaker’s soul. And our Lord says in the Gospel: Every rash word uttered will have to be accounted for on judgment day. Make a balance then, each of you, to weigh his words in; keep a tight rein on your mouths, lest you should stumble and fall in speech, and your fall be irreparable and prove mortal. Like the Prophet, watch your step lest your tongue give offense, and employ every care in keeping silent, which is the way to foster holiness.”

Pope Honorius III approved the Rule of St. Albert in his bull Ut vivendi normam in 1226. In 1229, Pope Gregory IX confirmed this rule again and gave it the status of Regula bullata.

Shortly after this approval, the hermits were driven from Mount Carmel. Around 1240, the first convents were founded in Europe. In 1242, most Carmelites in the Holy Land were forced to leave for Europe. In 1254, King Louis IX of France returned from a Crusade and brought some Carmelites back with him, further promoting their expansion. Finally, in 1291, the Saracens took Mount Carmel. The brothers who remained, singing the Salve Regina, were put to the sword, and the convent was burnt. As a result, the Carmelites abandoned the Holy Land for about two and a half centuries.

This migration marked a crucial turning point in the Order's history, forcing it to adapt to a completely different social and religious context. In 1247, St. Simon Stock was elected General of the Order and revised the Rule, changing it from a hermitic Order to one of mendicant friars. Pope Innocent IV approved the rule that same year. The new, more flexible rule then allowed greater integration into community and apostolic life while retaining the Order's contemplative spirit. From then on, foundations were no longer restricted to deserts but might be made in cities and the suburbs of towns; the solitary life was abandoned for community life; meals were to be taken in common; abstinence, though not dispensed with, was rendered less stringent; silence was restricted to the time between Compline and Prime of the following day. The rule also encouraged more active engagement in apostolic activities, such as preaching, teaching, and pastoral service, allowing the Carmelites to play a more visible and active role in medieval Christian society.

After obtaining the rule's mitigation, St. Simon Stock opened houses at Cambridge, Oxford, London, York, Paris, Bologna, and Naples. He especially sought to establish the order around universities, partly to secure for the religious the benefits of higher education and partly to increase vocations among undergraduates.

Tradition says the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Simon Stock on July 16, 1251, accompanied by a host of angels. She held the Order's scapular in her hands and said, "This shall be a sign unto thee, and the privilege of all Carmelites, that he who shall die piously, wearing this scapular, shall not fall into the eternal flames."

Later, in 1265, St. Simon Stock met Bl. Jane of Toulouse. She was a devout woman who, after the founding of a Carmelite monastery in the city in 1240, chose to live as a recluse near it, leading a life of great austerity. When she met St. Simon, she asked to join the Carmelites, and he agreed. Bl. Jane became the first member of the Carmelite tertiary order and received the habit from him. In Carmelite tradition, she is considered the first woman Carmelite and founder of the Carmelite Third Order. Even so, while informal associations of lay people with the Carmelites formed, it was not until 1452 that Bl. John Soreth wrote the first rule for the Third Order. Under this rule, lay people promised to follow a stricter, more dedicated way of life based on Carmelite spirituality.

Due to St. Simon Stock’s mitigated rule, the Carmelites adapted quickly and effectively to European conditions, which helped them expand. However, their rapid growth in Europe also brought challenges, and they often faced internal tensions over the balance between contemplative life and apostolic activities. At the Chapter of Nantes, a majority of Carmelites asked to appeal to Pope Eugene IV for a second mitigation of the Rule of Saint Albert. The letter, dated February 15, 1432, indicated that many professed members of the Order could no longer observe the rule because of its severity and rigor, given the fragility and weakness of the human body.

Two Carmelites were sent to convey this request to the Pope. He responded the same day with the bull Romani Pontificis. Addressed to the Prior General, Jean Faci, the bull granted the Carmelites permission to stay and walk freely and lawfully in their churches, cloisters, and adjoining places at the appropriate times; moreover, it granted the faculty to eat meat three days a week, except during Advent and Lent and on other days when this was prohibited by general law. Later, Pope Pius II completed this permission on December 5, 1469, by granting the Prior General the faculty of dispensing with fasting on days when abstinence was lifted.

Pope Sixtus IV granted greater freedom, commonly known as Mare magnum, in the bull Dum attendant meditatatione of November 28, 1476, which conceded many advantages to the mendicant orders. Yet this mitigation of the Rule met some resistance. Even before its promulgation, some protested against "a general relaxation" of the Rule.

With all these mitigations, the protective walls of separation, rigorous penance, and silence fell, and the pleasures and cares of the world pressed into the Carmelite Order. This was by no means peculiar to the Carmelites. They occurred in all the mendicant orders and awakened loud cries for reform everywhere. The first step towards reform in the Carmelite Order dates from 1413, when three convents, Le Selve near Florence, Gerona, and Mantua, agreed to observe the ancient rule. After considerable difficulty, the congregation of Mantua, as it was called, obtained in 1442 quasi-autonomy under a vicar-general. The most celebrated member of this reform was Bl. Baptista Spagnoli, who served as vicar-general six times and became general of the whole order. Although influential in the 15th century, the Reform of Mantua had limited influence until this mitigation, introduced around 1465, was definitively incorporated into the regulation of the Calced Carmelites in 1783 by Pope Pius VI.

Bl. John Soreth, who became Prior General of the Carmelite Order in 1451, carried out a similar reform. While visiting numerous provinces, he established several reformed houses, to which the most fervent religious flocked. The reform took hold in some convents. Bl. John Soreth hoped his reform would gradually be imposed in all the houses of the order. Still, this attempt remained largely unfulfilled because the prior general who followed him favored a return to a mitigated rule.

Bl. John Soreth also broadened the Order to include women. Under his governance, he obtained the bull Cum nulla from Pope Nicholas V in 1452, authorizing the Second Order, the Carmelite nuns. He established communities of nuns in the Netherlands. He then collaborated with Bl. Frances d’Amboise to found women’s communities in France. With the same bull, he also wrote the rules for the Third Order Carmelites. Around this time, the Carmelite Order also saw its first two saints canonized, St. Albert of Trapani and St. Angelus of Sicily.

The most notable reform of the Carmelite Order took place in the 16th century, initiated by St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross, resulting in the creation of the Discalced Carmelites. The Monastery of the Incarnation in Ávila, where St. Teresa entered in 1535, followed the mitigated rule. For decades, she endured the conflict between worldly relationships and the pull of undivided surrender to God. Convinced she needed to return to the primitive rule of Carmel, with its emphasis on silence, solitude, strict enclosure, and a small, sisterly community life of manual labor, prayer, and penance, she sought to live “the evangelical counsels as perfectly as possible.” After innumerable battles and difficulties, she founded the monastery of St. Joseph in Ávila in 1562, and her reform grew from there. St. John of the Cross, another Spanish mystic, joined her reform efforts and was especially influential in establishing the male Discalced Carmelites. Together, they founded the first convent of Discalced Carmelite Friars in Duruelo, Spain, on November 28, 1568.

The Discalced Carmelites sought a more austere, contemplative form of life, inspired by the Order’s primitive rule. They practiced poverty, renouncing wealth and material comfort. Contemplative prayer and silence were central to their daily lives. They strictly observed the Liturgy of the Hours and encouraged long periods of personal prayer. Although living in community, the Discalced placed strong emphasis on solitude and interior recollection, seeking to imitate the eremitical life of the first Carmelites. They followed rigorous ascetic discipline, including fasting and other penances. St. Teresa also rekindled the Marian and prophetic spirit of the Carmelite vocation.

Although King Philip II of Spain welcomed St. Teresa's foundations, as he wanted all orders reformed according to the principles of the Council of Trent, the Discalced Carmelites faced much opposition, including from unreformed Carmelite houses. Both St. Teresa and St. John suffered much in accomplishing the work Our Lord had given them, such as when Carmelites from Toledo arrested and imprisoned St. John of the Cross in their monastery. On June 22, 1580, the Discalced Carmelites obtained from Pope Gregory XIII, by the decree Pia Consideratione, the ability to become a separate province within the Carmelite Order, thus protecting their identity. The following year, during the Provincial Chapter held in Alcalá de Henares (Spain), Fr. Jerónimo Gracia was elected as the first Provincial of the Discalced Carmelites, and their constitutions were approved. When St. Teresa died in 1582, seventeen convents of nuns (all but two personally founded by her) and fifteen convents of friars existed.

During the 17th century, the Discalced Carmelites spread rapidly throughout Europe. Bl. Anne of Jesus and Bl. Anne of St. Bartholomew, the daughters of St. Teresa, personally trained by her and St. John of the Cross, at the request of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation, founded the first monasteries of the reform in France and Belgium. Bl. Anne of Jesus was especially instrumental in preserving the reform's spirit. When Fr. Nicolò Doria, the second Provincial of the Discalced Carmelites, changed the manner of government, Bl. Anne of Jesus submitted the Constitutions of St. Teresa (already revised by the General Chapter of 1581) to the Holy See for approbation.

From these foundations in Spain, France, and Belgium, Carmel has since spread around the world like a great tidal wave of grace, including back to their original home. In 1631, the Discalced Carmelites returned to Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Venerable Fr. Prosper built a small monastery where the Carmelites lived until 1767, when they were ordered to leave, and the monastery was demolished. They moved and built a larger monastery over the grotto where St. Elijah lived. In 1799, Napoleon’s campaign seriously damaged the new church. Sick and wounded French soldiers were cared for in the monastery, and when Napoleon retreated, the Turks massacred the soldiers and drove out the religious. In 1821, they also demolished that monastery. Finally, Br. Casini built a new monastery, which opened in 1836: Stella Maris, which is still there today.

In 1790, the first group of Carmelite Nuns came to the United States. They were three Americans and an Englishwoman from the Hoogstraet Carmel in Belgium. They first settled in Port Tobacco, Maryland, where their convent, the Carmel of Port Tobacco, still exists today.

Like many religious orders, the Carmelite Order also suffered multiple persecutions during the 19th and 20th Centuries. The French Revolution suppressed the order, dispersing the nuns into small groups who lived out of sight in private houses. At the peak of the persecution, a Carmelite convent, now known as the Martyrs of Compiègne, was executed by guillotine in 1794. The people of France attributed the end of the Reign of Terror to their martyrdom. After the disturbances ended, the wealthy heiress Camille de Soyécourt, who later became Mother Thérèse-Camille of the Child Jesus, did much to restore Carmelite life in France.

The Napoleonic secularization at the beginning of the 19th century dealt a heavy blow to the Carmelites. After Napoleon had occupied large parts of the Rhineland, almost all monasteries were dissolved after 1806; the 16 houses of the Lower German Province disappeared. The Kulturkampf in Germany from 1871 to 1878 also persecuted religious orders.

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War saw dramatic religious persecution. Churches and shrines across Spain were desecrated, burned, and looted. Furthermore, relics and statues were paraded through the streets in mock celebrations, and bodies of saints and clergy were dug up and abused. In addition, priests and religious were hunted and massacred. Notably, around 6,800 religious were murdered between 1936 and 1939, including 13 bishops. As many as 20,000 churches were destroyed. People, especially women, were murdered for attending Mass, and anyone associated with the opposition was killed. Among those martyred are Bl. Angel Mary Prat Hostench, O. Carm., who was murdered with his confreres in Tárrega in 1936, and Bl. Lucas of St. Joseph Tristany Pujol, O.C.D., who was slain with his confreres in Barcelona the same year.

World War II also saw the persecution of many religious. Among those martyred were the Carmelite priests St. Titus Brandsma, O.C.D., Bl. Alphonsus Maria of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D., and Bl. Hilary Januszewski, O. Carm. Among the most notable martyrs of the Holocaust was the Carmelite nun, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Born Edith Stein, she was Jewish and became an atheist. Earning a doctorate in philosophy, she eventually converted to Catholicism. She wrote many books, including Life in a Jewish Family, Finite and Infinite Being – An Ascent to the Meaning of Being, and The Science of the Cross, which is a commentary on St. John of the Cross. After her canonization, the Church named St. Teresa Benedicata of the Cross one of the Patrons of Europe, and the Discalced Carmelites have petitioned to have her named a Doctor of the Church.

Along with St. Teresa Benedicta, several Carmelite saints have received significant attention in the 20th and 21st centuries. St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus was beatified in 1923 and later canonized in 1925. St. Thérèse of Lisieux joined the Carmelite Order in 1888. Despite her short life, she left an immense spiritual legacy through her autobiography, Story of a Soul, and her doctrine of the "little way" of love and trust in God. She captivated hearts far beyond the Order's boundaries, not only as a worker of miracles for those in need, but also as a director of “little souls” on the path of “spiritual childhood.”

In 1926, Pope Pius XI named St. John of the Cross a Doctor of the Church. Following this, Bl. Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus was called upon to give numerous conferences or homilies on the spirituality of the Carmelite masters throughout France, thereby contributing to the renewal of the Church in France between the two world wars. Having come to know their spiritual doctrine intimately, he published a synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality in two books in 1949 and 1951: I Am a Daughter of the Church, and I Want to See God.

Pope Paul VI declared St. Teresa of Ávila the first woman Doctor of the Church in 1970. On November 17, 1991, St. Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski was the first friar in the Order of the Discalced Carmelites to be canonized since co-founder St. John of the Cross was canonized in 1726. In 1997, Pope St. John Paul II also named St. Thérèse of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church. Pope Francis later canonized St. Thérèse’s parents, Louis and Azélie Martin, in 2015.

In 2015, Pope Francis also canonized St. Mariam of Jesus Crucified. Mariam entered the Discalced Carmelites in France in 1876 and was sent with the founding group to the Carmel of Mangalore in India. In 1875, she went to the Holy Land, where she built a monastery in Bethlehem. St. Mariam was noted for her supernatural gifts, especially her humility, her devotion to the Holy Spirit, and her great love for the Church and the Pope.

In 2016, Pope Francis canonized St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. She made her profession of vows in Dijon in 1903, and in 1906 the Divine Spouse called her “to light, to love, and to life.” A faithful adorer in spirit and in truth, her life was a “praise of glory” of the Most Blessed Trinity, present in her soul and loved amidst interior darkness and excruciating illness. In the mystery of divine inhabitation, she found her “heaven on earth,” her special charism, and her mission for the Church.

Today, the Carmelites of both branches have spread throughout the world. The Carmelites of the Ancient Observance include about 2,000 friars, brothers, and priests; about 800 nuns; more than 2,000 sisters; and over 9,000 Lay Carmelites. The Discalced Carmelites include about 4,000 friars, brothers, and priests; about 11,500 nuns and sisters; and about 25,000 Lay Carmelites.

The Carmelites' involvement in founding monasteries and in missions has had a significant impact on the spiritual and social life of communities around the world. Their efforts have nourished believers' faith, promoted justice and solidarity, and strengthened bonds of fraternity and peace between peoples.

Carmelites continue to bear witness to God's love and the call to holiness in today's world. Their efforts to establish places of prayer and contemplation, as well as their commitment to missions of evangelization and social development, embody the values ​​of the Gospel and the spirit of service of the Carmelite Order.

Prayer:

Lord,
you are the glory of those who serve you.
Look lovingly on our departed brothers and sisters,
united in following Christ and his Mother
by the waters of baptism and the bonds of Carmel.
In your mercy
grant them everlasting sight of you,
their Creator and Redeemer.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

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Saints

St. Teresa of Avila
St. John of the Cross
St. Therese of Lisieux
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
Saints
Carmelite Saints

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St Elijah – July 20 – Carmelite Saints
Summary: The prophet Elijah appears in Scripture as a man of God who lived always in His presence and fought zealously for the worship of the one God. He defended God’s law in a solemn contest on Mt. Carmel, and afterwards was given on Mt. Horeb an intimate experience of the living God. The hermits, who instituted a form of monastic life in honor of Our Lady on Mt. Carmel in the twelfth century, followed monastic tradition in turning to Elijah as their Father and model. History: “We who live in Carmel and who daily call on our Holy Father Elijah in prayer know that for us he is not a shadowy figure out of the dim past. His spirit is active among us in a vital tradition and determines how we live.” – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross The prophet Elijah stands as the enduring foundation of Carmelite spirituality as the Father of the Carmelite Order. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross’s beautiful work, On the History and Spirit of Carmel, shows how the spirit of Elijah has lived on in Carmelite spirituality. Throughout this account, excerpts from her work will highlight how Elijah’s spirit remains at the heart of Carmelite spirituality. Elijah lived around 900 BC and was a Thesbite. His name means “My God is the Lord” in Hebrew. He became a prophet when Israel struggled with its faith, and his life protested the era’s immorality. During Elijah’s time, Israel was divided between the northern and southern kingdoms. Omri, King of Israel, promoted practices contrary to religious law, including establishing local altars and priests, and encouraging the worship of Baal. His son Ahab's marriage to Jezebel, a worshipper of Baal, heightened these tensions as Jezebel actively promoted the worship of Baal in Israel. Against this backdrop, 1 Kings 17 begins as Elijah suddenly appears before King Ahab. Elijah warns Ahab that unless he and the people repent of their evils, God will scourge the land with a drought for their apostasy (1 Kings 17:1). “Our Holy Father Elijah succinctly says what is most important in the first words of his that the Scriptures give us. He says to King Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” To stand before the face of the living God, that is our vocation. The holy prophet set us an example.” – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross The prophet’s sudden appearance suggests divine intervention. God reached out to correct and chastise, but also to heal and strengthen his people. He sent Elijah to remind the king and the Israelites that the Lord is their God. The prophet’s mission is to bring about a conversion of mind and heart. By marrying a foreign queen from a pagan nation, Ahab led the people astray by his example. In Israel's history, the king's spirituality shapes the lives of his people. If the king is faithful, the nation tends to remain faithful; if unfaithful, then the whole nation is likely to break the covenant with the Lord. After this confrontation, God told Elijah to flee to the brook Cherith, where ravens would feed him (1 Kings 17:2-6). When the brook dried up, God sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath. The widow, with only her last meal left because of the famine, nonetheless received him. He told her, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says: The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain.” Later, when the widow's son died, Elijah prayed to God to restore her child to life. The Lord heard Elijah's prayer, and life returned to her son’s body (1 Kings 17:7-24). This is the first recorded instance of raising the dead in Scripture. Despite the suffering caused by the drought, Ahab ignored Elijah’s warning and continued to worship Baal with Jezebel. For three years, no rain fell, during which Ahab scoured the land for Elijah but could not find him. Then, after three years, at the Lord’s command, Elijah returned to confront the king. “The prophet, who serves the Lord in complete purity of heart and completely stripped of everything earthly, is also a model of obedience. He stands before God’s face like the angels before the eternal throne, awaiting his sign, always ready to serve. He has no other will than the will of his Lord. When God bids, he goes before the king and fearlessly risks giving him bad news that must arouse his hatred. When God wills it, he leaves the country at the threat of violence; but he also returns at God’s command, though the danger has not disappeared.” – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross On his return journey, Elijah encountered Obadiah, head of Ahab's household, who had hidden a hundred Jewish prophets from Jezebel's violent purge. Obadiah feared that if he reported Elijah’s presence to Ahab and Elijah disappeared, Ahab would execute him. However, Elijah reassured Obadiah and sent him to summon Ahab. When Ahab arrived, he fiercely accused Elijah of bringing the curse upon the land. Elijah, however, replied that Ahab himself was to blame, having allowed the worship of false gods (1 Kings 18:1-18). During this confrontation, Elijah directed Ahab to summon the people of Israel, the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of Asherah to Mount Carmel for a decisive contest between the God of Israel and Baal. There, Elijah rebuked the people: "How long will you straddle the issue? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him." He then instructed the prophets of Baal to call upon their deity, while he would "call upon the name of the Lord," with the agreement that “The God who answers with fire is God,” to which all the people agreed. First, the priests of Baal attempted to invoke their god. For hours, they chanted, danced, and cut themselves, but to no avail. Elijah then took his turn. He repaired the altar of God with twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, dug a trench around it, and then prepared his sacrifice. To further demonstrate God’s power, he ordered that both the sacrifice and the altar be drenched with water from "four large jars" three times, until even the trench was filled. Elijah then prayed to God. As he was praying, “The Lord’s fire came down and devoured the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and lapped up the water in the trench.” This miracle prompted the people to declare, "The Lord is God! The Lord is God!" Elijah ordered them to seize the prophets of Baal. They did so, and Elijah brought them to the River Kishon and slaughtered them. Afterward, Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel and instructed his servant to look toward the sea for a sign of coming rain. The servant found nothing at first but looked seven times at Elijah’s insistence. On the seventh time, he observed “a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.” Soon after, torrential rains fell upon the land, ending the three-year drought (1 Kings 18:19-46). “It was she [the Blessed Virgin] who manifested herself to the Prophet Elijah in the form of a little rain cloud and for whom the sons of the prophets built the first shrine on Mount Carmel. The legend of the Order tells us that the Mother of God would have liked to remain with the hermit brothers on Mount Carmel. We can certainly understand that she felt drawn to the place where she had been venerated through the ages and where the holy prophet had lived in the same spirit that also filled her from the time her earthly sojourn began. Released from everything earthly, to stand in worship in the presence of God, to love him with her whole heart, to beseech his grace for sinful people, and in atonement to substitute herself for these people, as the maidservant of the Lord to await his beckoning, this was her life.” – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Following the victory on Mount Carmel, Jezebel, infuriated, threatened to kill Elijah, forcing him to flee for his life. Elijah escaped to Beer-sheba in Judah and then went alone into the desert wilderness. There, he sat under a shrub, prayed for death, and fell asleep. An angel of the Lord gently roused him, instructing him to eat and drink. Elijah found bread and water, ate, and fell back asleep. The angel came a second time, urging him to eat and drink further, telling him he had a long journey ahead. Elijah “stood before God’s face because this was the eternal treasure for whose sake he gave up all earthly goods. He had no house; he lived wherever the Lord directed him from moment to moment: in loneliness beside the brook of Cherith, in the little house of the poor widow of Zarephath of Sidon, or in the caves of Mount Carmel… Elijah is not concerned about his daily bread. He lives trusting in the solicitude of the heavenly Father and is marvelously sustained. A raven brings him his daily food while he is in solitude. The miraculously increased provisions of the pious widow nourish him in Zarephath. Prior to the long trek… an angel with heavenly bread strengthens him. So he is for us an example of the gospel poverty that we have vowed, an authentic prototype of the Savior.” – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross After recovering in the wilderness and journeying to Mount Horeb, Elijah hid in a cave where God spoke to him through a “light, silent sound.” God commanded him to anoint Hazael as King of Syria, Jehu as King of Israel, and Elisha as his own successor. Setting out to fulfill these tasks, Elijah met Elisha, who was plowing a field. Casting his mantle on Elisha, Elijah made him his faithful disciple and eventual successor (1 Kings 19:1-21). Following these developments, Ahab desired Naboth’s vineyard in Jezreel. He offered a better vineyard or a fair price for the land, but Naboth refused, citing God’s command not to part with the land. While Ahab reluctantly accepted, Jezebel took action by murdering Naboth to obtain the vineyard. In response, God instructed Elijah to confront Ahab with a question and a prophecy: "After murdering, do you also take possession?” and "In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick up your blood, too.” Ahab blamed Elijah as his enemy, but Elijah told him that his own actions made him God’s enemy. Elijah prophesied disaster for Ahab, his family, and Jezebel. Ahab's sincere repentance delayed the full punishment, which God postponed for Jezebel and their son, Ahaziah (1 Kings 21:1-29). The next significant episode involving Elijah concerned Ahab’s successor, Ahaziah. After a serious fall, Ahaziah sent messengers to consult the shrine of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, about his recovery. Elijah intercepted the messengers, sending them back with a message: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron?” When Ahaziah questioned the messengers about the identity of the man who intercepted them, they stated he wore a hairy garment and a leather belt around his waist, and Ahaziah recognized him as Elijah. In reaction, Ahaziah sent three groups of soldiers to capture Elijah. The first two were destroyed by fire, which Elijah called down from heaven. The captain of the third group begged for mercy for himself and his men. Elijah agreed to go with them to Ahaziah. He delivered his message in person and told Ahaziah he would not recover. As Elijah foretold, Ahaziah died from his injuries (2 Kings 1:2-17). “Anyone who is so unconditionally faithful to God can also be certain of God’s faithfulness. He is permitted to speak “as someone who has power,” may open and close heaven, may command the waters to let him walk through and remain dry, may call down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice, to execute punishment on God’s enemies, and may breathe new life into a dead person. We see the Savior’s predecessor provided with all the graces that he has promised to his own.” – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Later, as Elijah spoke with his successor, Elisha, he miraculously split the Jordan River with his mantle. Once they crossed, Elijah invited Elisha to request a parting gift. Elisha asked to receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Elijah agreed on the condition that Elisha witness his departure. As they walked together, "a fiery chariot and fiery horses came between the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind." As Elijah ascended, his mantle fell to the ground, and Elisha picked it up, thus assuming Elijah’s prophetic role (2 Kings 2:1-14). After Elijah was taken up to heaven, he later appeared alongside Moses at the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. St. John Chrysostom, in a homily on the Transfiguration, explained the significance of the appearances of Elijah and Moses. He stated that since “the Jews repeatedly accused Christ of being a transgressor of the Law, and they held him as a blasphemer, and as one who claimed the glory of the Father,” Jesus brought forth Moses and Elijah to prove he was guilty of neither of those crimes. Since God gave the Law to Moses, “Moses would not have suffered the Law to be trampled underfoot, as the Jews supposed, nor would he, the lawgiver, ever have honored the transgressor of the Law… Elijah, on the other hand, was zealous for the glory of God; wherefore he would not have been in attendance upon one who decided himself equal to the Father, had he not been so, nor would the Prophet have obeyed him who claimed that which he possessed not.” During the Transfiguration, Elijah and Moses conversed with Jesus. Even after his earthly departure, Elijah’s story continues in sacred tradition. According to tradition, Elijah will be one of the two witnesses described in the book of Revelation. It is believed that he would come as the forerunner of Christ, at the end of the world, to announce His last coming. Accordingly, the Antichrist would wage war with him and would slay him. His body will lie in the streets, unburied, for three and a half days. At the end of that time, he would be raised by the Lord and would smite the kingdom of Antichrist with a dire blow. After this, the Lord shall come, and He shall slay the Antichrist and those who adored him, and the Lord will reign with all His Saints forever (Revelation 11:1-14). Elijah is the spiritual father and leader of the Carmelites, as the Carmelite way of life embodies the spirit of Elijah. During his ministry, Elijah went up to Mount Carmel to live and to pray. It was there that he taught and trained his followers, who are considered by some to be the first monks. From that time onward, Mount Carmel has been inhabited by men seeking union with God. For centuries, his story has inspired all who number themselves among the sons of the prophets, that is, every Carmelite. In praying with Elijah, we hope to receive some portion of his spirit in our own service of the Lord God. Elijah's spirit of prayer, penance, contemplation, and zeal for the Lord is to this day the very spirit of the Carmelites. From Elijah, Carmelites learn to listen for the voice of God in the unexpected and in silence. We seek to allow the Word of God to shape our minds and our hearts so that the way we live and the things we do may be prophetic and therefore faithful to the memory of our father Elijah. [The Carmelite rule] “condensed the entire meaning of our life in a short statement: “All are to remain in their own cells…, meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night and watching in prayer...” “To watch in prayer,” this is to say the same thing that Elijah said with the words, “to stand before the face of God.” Prayer is looking up into the face of the Eternal. We can do this only when the spirit is awake in its innermost depths, freed from all earthly occupations and pleasures that benumb it.” – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Prayer: Almighty, ever living God, your prophet Elijah, our Father, lived always in your presence and was zealous for the honor due to your name. May we, your servants, always seek your face and bear witness to your love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – November 8 – Carmelite Saints
Summary: Elizabeth Catez of the Trinity was born in 1880 in the diocese of Bourges. In 1901, she entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery of Dijon. There, she made her profession of vows in 1903, and in 1906 the Divine Spouse called her “to light, to love, and to life.” A faithful adorer in spirit and in truth, her life was a “praise of glory” of the Most Blessed Trinity, present in her soul and loved amidst interior darkness and excruciating illness. In the mystery of divine inhabitation, she found her “heaven on earth,” her special charism, and her mission for the Church. History: Elizabeth Catez was born on July 18, 1880, in the military camp of Avord, near Bourges, France, to Captain Joseph Catez and Marie Rolland. Four days later, on the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, she was baptized in the camp chapel, a fact she treasured. The older of two sisters, she was born to a father who was a veteran and POW of the Franco-Prussian War. Her mother had a conversion experience before marriage and was zealous to live a pious life. Though perhaps a little too fearful and scrupulous, she was deeply loving and devoted to her daughters. After eighteen months, the family settled in Dijon, where their younger daughter, Marguerite, was later born. When Elizabeth was only 7 years old, her father died suddenly in her arms on October 2, 1887. After his death, the family moved from their house to a smaller second-story flat a few blocks from Saint-Michel parish church, just across from the Carmelite Monastery Elizabeth would someday join. There, the sound of the convent bells and the nuns’ garden strongly appealed to her. Elizabeth and Marguerite were very close to each other and to their mother, who homeschooled them and involved them in piano lessons and parish life. Elizabeth was an intelligent, affectionate, sociable, and lively child, but also quick-tempered. At age 7, she made her first Confession and discovered that her Father in heaven was merciful. Although proud and hot-tempered, she began to change after Confession. At 8, Elizabeth’s mother enrolled her in the Dijon Conservatory of Music, where she quickly showed exceptional piano talent. Her soul was sensitive to music and nature, beautiful things that always reminded her of God and in which she saw reflected the harmony of their creator. She often played in concerts, and at thirteen, she won first prize. She could undoubtedly have become a concert pianist, but God had other plans for her. From age 8, Elizabeth said her love for God and prayer grew so strong that she could not imagine her future without consecrating herself entirely to Him. She renewed this resolution at 10, at her First Communion, and confirmed it definitively at 14 with her perpetual vow of virginity. From a very early age, she tried to conquer her temperament. On the day of her First Communion, April 19, 1891, she felt she no longer had hunger, as Jesus had fed her. That same afternoon, she made her first visit to Carmel, and the prioress explained the significance of her name in Hebrew: Elizabeth means “a house of God.” This deeply affected the young girl, who understood the profundity of these words. From then on, she was determined to make God’s dwelling place in her life by controlling her temperament and forgetting herself. The Eucharist became the center of Elizabeth’s life, giving her the strength and determination she needed to overcome her rages. She also became actively involved in her parish, visiting the sick, singing in the church choir, and teaching religion to children working in factories. She received Confirmation at Notre-Dame the following year, on June 8. Around the time of her 14th birthday, Elizabeth made a vow of virginity as an act of total self-offering to God. She wanted to be a Carmelite, but her mother forbade it. When she read St. Teresa, she felt deeply in harmony with her. She understood that contemplation meant letting God act, that mortification had to be interior, and that friendship means putting other people’s interests before one’s own. Elizabeth had a natural gift for contemplative prayer; people remarked on her total stillness and said that she seemed ‘Lost in God.’ She was also greatly helped by reading The Story of a Soul, in which the recently deceased St. Therese of Lisieux inspired her with her little way of trust in God. She lived her contemplative ideal as a young laywoman, socially engaged and fond of traveling throughout France: an acclaimed pianist, attentive to others' needs, and an active apostle in her parish. She had a gift for friendship and was popular with her peers, yet God remained at the center of everything. She said that when she played the piano, she forgot the audience and played only for Him. Her devotion to the Holy Trinity grew, and she often referred to the Trinity as "my Three," emphasizing her intimate relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From age 17, Elizabeth showed unconditional adherence to God's concrete will and, until entering Carmel, sought a continuous union with Jesus, present in the "cell of her heart," "the Heaven of her soul." As a mystic of the Trinitarian presence in her soul, Elizabeth is a true daughter of the most genuine spirit that animates Carmel. She wrote in her diary: "I feel as if I have found my heaven on earth, because heaven is God and God is in my soul. The day I understood this, everything within me was illuminated, and I would like to whisper this secret to those I love." On her 21st birthday, she finally received her mother’s blessing to enter Carmel. Elizabeth entered the Carmel of Dijon on August 2, 1901, and on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, she was clothed in the Carmelite habit. She took the name Sr. Elizabeth of the Trinity. As a postulant, Elizabeth was full of joy. She said, "I find Him everywhere while doing the wash as well as while praying." She loved the silence of her cell, where she could listen to Him speak to her in the Scriptures. Her novitiate year was difficult, as her desire for perfection led her to struggle with scruples. Still, Elizabeth lived in pure faith, and this purification strengthened her and gave her courage. She made her profession on January 11, 1903. Elizabeth lived a completely ordinary life of faith, without revelations or ecstasies. Yet she immediately attracted the community’s attention with her faithfulness and commitment. She immersed herself in reading and deepening her understanding of Scripture, chiefly St. Paul and St. John of the Cross. Through their guidance, she found her own interior way, and her faith matured. Reading St. Paul, she felt a deep call to praise the Glory of the Triune God by living every moment of the day in constant thanksgiving. She came to identify so fully with this ideal that, at the end of her life, she signed some letters with the name “Laudem Gloriae.” Elizabeth also had a strong awareness of the Trinity's indwelling. She lived her ideal with strength and perseverance, later expressing it in the prayer: "O my God, Trinity whom I adore," which circulated worldwide immediately after her death and was widely cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. She saw her life as an “anticipated heaven” and time as “eternity begun and still in progress.” She lived under the constant gaze of her beloved, who had put the timeless into her heart, and felt herself plunged into a love so immense and unfathomable she could not help but praise Him and become a song of praise herself, dissolved into Him. During her five years in Carmel, Elizabeth wrote her diaries, letters, poems, and some prayers. She also wrote Heaven in Faith; The Greatness of Our Vocation; Last Retreat; and Let Yourself be Love, dedicated to her prioress. Elizabeth shared in her sister’s joy when she married. She wrote “Heaven in Faith” for her sister, who, at the time, was a young mother at home with two small children. Marguerite would have nine children, one of whom would enter Carmel. Elizabeth did not see motherhood as an excuse to avoid the depths of contemplative prayer right where she was, in the midst of her vocation. Instead, she urges mothers not to neglect the depths of their heart. God waits for us there. She doesn’t want anyone to delay finding Him in the deepest part of themselves, abiding with Him there, in the interior quiet created through prayer, even amid chaos. In other words, holiness, which is extraordinary love and the flowering of baptismal grace, is for everyone. We can all live as contemplatives in our approach to life. Seeing her sister so happy and devoted to her husband led Elizabeth to reflect on her role as Christ's spouse. She wanted to love Him with an undivided heart, remain in deep communion with Him, share in His redemptive suffering and prayer, and become fruitful by nourishing others and drawing them to Him. As she pondered the scriptures, her horizons expanded, and she felt she was being transformed into another humanity for Christ, an idea she developed from Paul’s text, ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.’ She had an intuitive grasp of the ‘universal call to holiness’ long before it was named in the Church. Her passion for music led her to use the analogy of music to describe the spiritual life and how God seeks to attune us to his song of love. She wrote: “A praise of glory is a soul of silence that remains like a lyre under the mysterious touch of the Holy Spirit so that he may draw from it divine harmonies; it knows that suffering is a string that produces still more beautiful sounds” (Heaven in Faith). For Elizabeth, conversion means attuning ourselves to the harmonies of God’s life within us, and holiness means living in joyful melody with the dynamics of divine love. “Each incident,” Elizabeth explained, ” each event, each suffering, as well as each joy, is a sacrament which God gives to (the soul); so it no longer makes a distinction between these things; it surmounts them, goes beyond them to rest in its Master, above all things.” In a letter to Mother Germaine, prioress of the convent at the time, she writes to her: “If you faithfully believe that He is still working, that He is loving you just the same, and even more: because His love is free and that is how He wants to be magnified in you; and you will let yourself be loved.” The phrase, “let yourself be loved,” speaks to the temptation not to allow ourselves to be loved by God or to fully accept the gift of God’s infinite affection. And when we fall victim to this, trouble always ensues. We begin to seek fulfillment in things that can’t provide it; we become vulnerable to dependency on people’s approval and affection. This leaves us unfree and happens when we are not grounded and rooted in the ultimate approval and affection of God alone. Letting ourselves be loved means allowing God to fill us with Himself, to become like Himself so that we can offer Him joyfully to the world. St. Elizabeth encourages us to occupy ourselves with the love of the Holy Trinity – to recognize and to ponder the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a bosom of eternal love and, at the same time, our true home, the place where we are meant to dwell. Such an awareness of a personal relationship with the Trinity requires mindfulness of the purpose for which we are made. For her, we are created to welcome God's excessive love and allow Him to satisfy His desire to love us. She did not believe the reality of heaven was simply in the future of Christian existence, but already present in this moment. God’s love comes to us in ever new ways through Christ Jesus, the Word of the Father, whom the Father continually sends into our hearts with the Fire of the Holy Spirit. With this dynamic view of the Trinity in each moment of life, she believed everything was a sacrament that gave us God. In Lent 1904, Elizabeth became ill. Stricken by Addison's disease, then incurable and very painful, Elizabeth slowly declined. Her devotion to Christ moved her to involve herself in the faith life and everyday struggles of her friends and family. As her death grew closer, the more lovingly aware she became of their need for a deeper encounter with the Lord. She promised that it would increase her joy in heaven if her friends asked for her help, and she was convinced that her mission was to help souls grow into a transforming union with God. Just eleven days before her death, Elizabeth wrote: “I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself.” Two days later, her family would gather around her, expecting to say goodbye. Instead, after a painful and long sickness, she died nine days later, on November 9, 1906, at the age of 26. Her last words were, “I am going to Light, to Love, to Life.” The cause for Elizabeth of the Trinity’s beatification and canonization began in Dijon in 1931. In 1964-65, the process was conducted in Dijon regarding the miracle concerning the healing of a priest from "genitourinary tuberculosis with hydronephrosis, right renal tuberculosis, right nephrectomy, in a patient with progressive Pott's disease." The Church promulgated the miracle on February 17, 1984. On November 25, 1984, Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed her Blessed. During the beatification, John Paul II called her "a luminous witness to the joy of being rooted and grounded in love… With Blessed Elizabeth, a new light shines for us, a new, certain and sure guide presents herself in our world, so full of uncertainty and darkness, to show us, in the name of the Trinitarian mystery, the path to salvation and the means to achieve it." The second miracle needed for canonization was investigated in the miraculous healing of a woman suffering from “Sjøgren’s Syndrome,” with dry saliva (xerostomia), which prevented her from eating solid foods, a neurogenic bladder that prevented her from urinating normally, and motor impediments. The woman had a strong devotion to Elizabeth of the Trinity. During a pilgrimage in July 2002 to Flavignerot, where the nuns of the Discalced Carmelite monastery of Dijon had moved to several decades ago, she suddenly felt freed from her illness. She was able to instantly resume the normal vital functions that had been prevented. On March 3, 2016, Pope Francis approved the second healing as a miracle attributed to Elizabeth's intercession and thus approved her canonization as a saint. The Church celebrated her canonization on October 16, 2016. The Carmelite Order celebrates her feast day on November 8. She is the patron saint of the sick, those who have lost a parent, and those facing illness. Prayer: O God of bountiful mercy, you revealed to Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity the mystery of your secret presence in the hearts of those who love you, and you chose her to adore you in spirit and in truth. Through her intercession may we also abide in the love of Christ, that we may merit to be transformed into temples of your life-giving Spirit to the praise of your glory. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
Apostoli_Viae
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