FR. TED CENTALA, OCD
CARMELITE FORMATION
ELIJAH PROPHET OF CARMEL
TAPE 2
Audio files of Fr. Centala's Elijah Prophet of Carmel Tape two(2) is divided into two(2) Tracks.
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Fr. Centala: of the Holy Spirit.
Audience: Amen.
Fr. Centala: Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Audience: Pray for us.
Fr. Centala: Elijah the Prophet of Carmel.
Audience: Pray for us.
Fr. Centala: The First Book of Kings we read. The Lord then said to Elijah, "Leave here, go East, and hide in the wadi Kerith, East of the Jordan. You shall drink of the stream. I have commanded ravens to feed you there." So he left and did as the Lord had commanded. He went, and he remained by the wadi Kerith, East of the Jordan. Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the stream.
In the call to Carmel, we have to realize one of the central characteristics is an invitation to go aside as Elijah did at the wadi Kerith. Be alone with God, communing with God in prayer, completely dependant upon God's providence. That of course is not easy. The reason why we go aside, away from everything is because regular things distract us and sometimes we misinterpret them, and if we get a little depressed we say "Well, it's these old clothes I have, if I just got a new wardrobe I'd be alright." And then we start doing after one thing after the other in our life and we just get more and more materialistic. The answer is the opposite, to get away from these things, and say, "They are not that important, I have to get my priorities straight. I have to go out to a place that is very monotonous...like the desert. Just a bunch of rocks and wind, and a little old crooked bush or cactus here and there, and there is nothing that pleases the senses." So what's left? Ah, God is left. I will find God in silence and solitude. I'll depend upon God like Elijah here, to take care of me.
That's an important message for us to hear, because St. John of the Cross will say we over indulge in everything, that's just our nature to sort of have more than we need of everything. Whether its for us, I guess, the closet, garage, and pantry, and attic and everything.
That then is what prepares us for the mystical. Go and hide. Be alone with God. Try to be holy as the Lord is holy. Be pure of heart. Pure of heart means that our heart, our priority is centered on God. When our heart is all fragmented, but then we are not purified. Does no good to go into the desert and say "Lord, speak your servant is listening," and we're not listening. And say, "Well, I've got extra time now to figure out, as soon as I get out, I'll go to this sale and then to that one, and I'll check on that," and so we are not listening. We have to learn the fact that we have to acknowledge that we're over involved, more than is necessary, for what God wants us to do. And since we are called to be a contemplative why we have to look at things differently than other people that are I'd say in the Blue Army or the Legion of Mary or many of the other groups. No they are not called to be contemplatives but we are. We've got to make our own ways of...how am I going to offer to God a holy heart free from stain of actual sin, free from attachment, inordinate attachment to things, free from lurking memories, free from all of the other things. Free from desires, when we're pining for something we know we cannot have. Listen, Elizabeth de Trinity, called that interior silence. She said a lot of people say "Well, silence, yeah I can keep that, I won't say anything." But inside if you've got a great big conversation going on with yourself all the time on what I'm going to be doing, and ah, where I can buy more of this, and get more of that, why ah, well free. So interior and exterior silence both are necessary.
Elijah is very good for us in that regard because he was able to discern in himself that that gentle breeze was calling him to an interiority. Now, in the Hebrew covenant we know that the externals had priority. Interior conscience, your heart was secondary. In the New Testament it's reversed. What's in my heart and my conscience is first and the externals are second. So we have to much more pay attention to what is in our heart. So, we must go and hide. Usually, for many people they start out with going to their favorite church or setting up a little prayer room. A prayer corner in one room. And that's their way of sort of pulling aside from everything else, and putting that time in for God. I challenge most members at the beginning you may say, well okay a half hour of prayer. And then I'll put in morning, evening prayer and the rosary, and I'll squeeze in one hour. And when they get their assignments for classes and there comes another hour, and then when they want to go to Mass and there's another hour. And after doing your three hours my appetite is whetted for other things, and before I know its four hours a day. Thirty hours a week. What am I gonna' do now? Fine, you are growing. That means you've got to stop doing something else thirty hours a week in order to do this. And unless you can say "No" to unessentials you cannot give yourself to this contemplative life.
Another very, very profound change takes place for those that are interested in the contemplative approach. In the contemplative approach, God is in charge. Before that each person is in charge. I'll tell the Lord what I'm going to do in my time, and how much. And of course the Lord will be content because that's all I'm going to do. And, but after that you're going to say "Lord, I am now at your disposal, and whatever you want is alright with me." That is a profound change, and that is what contemplatives have to go through. You have to learn to listen, learn to be passive, learn to surrender, learn to say "No", and those things are not easy. And those things are not easy in our, especially our American fast way of life, where if we stop being charged one moment, we're pushed off the road. And at work, if we let our guard drop a little bit, we'll be pushed around and but ah, we have to learn how. Back in the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 6. You shall love the Lord your God with your heart, with your soul and with your strength. From that we realize that also, to totally give ourselves to God, like Elijah did, that we ah, have to use our strength, our initiative, to do what God wants. This is contrary to a lot of false opinions some people have, that the more wimpy and milk toast I am, and the more I get pushed around, ah sort of the better, religious person I'll be. No. Quite the contrary, the Lord needs every ounce of strength that we have to do the task that God is going to give us to do. And if we cannot be faithful in doing these passing things, who is going to give us anything that is eternal. So it's very important that we want to channel everything toward God.
In the things that we do, St. John of the Cross will say, "Things that we do deliberately, voluntarily, even premeditated. Those are the things that really make an impression. Positive or negative. The things that we happen to do, or fly off the handle and do, or do and then realize ten minutes later that we did it again. And those things are involuntary failings. And of course we have those you know, even on our good days, ah seven times a day, and the person behind us fourteen. And you know that that's always with us. But work on those deliberate things. Where you penalize it, and you make a judgment, and you say, Lord, this is what I'm holding myself accountable for. This type of outlook on our spiritual life is the proximate preparation for the reception of the gift of contemplation. So the call to God to sort of activate and live up to our prophetic part of our vocation is one thing, and this is like an additional icing on the cake, so to speak, to now be available for the gift of contemplation. The mystical life. The interior life with depth.
St. Teresa mentions that ah not everyone who comes to Carmel and dedicates themself is given that gift, and she said she knew of many who would achieve great holiness just saying the Our Father and Hail Mary, and God never gave them any contemplative graces that she was aware of. So if you dispose yourself and the Lord does not come, ah that's beside the point. At least you are living a contemplative life style. Available, if the Lord wants to give that gift, or if He is going to sanctify you in some other way, you will do your good for the Order and for the Church without getting the particular contemplative gifts. So you ask the Lord, and then you say "But I'm content with whatever You send." The main way in which that is delineated for Carmelites is spelled out in the rule. I think last year we had the retreat on the rule. I wasn't here before. And ah, One of the Holy Father's had said "Show me a Carmelite who lives their rule and I'll canonize them." That simple, yeah. It might have been men they said that to and now that we're equal.
Audience: Laughter.
Fr. Centala: And so it applies to both, of course. Do not put off preparation for contemplation until you are free. Once you're free they tend to put you in the box.
Audience: Laughter.
Fr. Centala: Yes, and we have to make time when we're not free, and just say "This is a priority, God is calling me to this, and what can be more important than this?" And St. John of the Cross will go so far as to say "What good does it do to offer God one thing, when God is asking another thing of you. Do you want to do God's will or do you want to do your own?"
So the actual putting into practice going off into the desert and living with the cactus, as very few people can do, but the sort of spiritual, spirituality of this desert life, we all can do. We all can silence our interior. We all can check our inordinate desires, we all can make space for prayer, and silence and solitude in our heart. We can develop sort of the heart of a hermit. Building our little hermitage within. St. Catherine of Sienna was strong in that, about this little cell in each one of our hearts. When St. Teresa was doing the reform for Carmel, she did not go away out on the edge of town. She started all her Carmel's right in the city. She said "Here is where sinners are that you've got to pray for." All of our ministry must flow from the heart on fire with the love of God. Then it accomplishes according to our vocation. (? 252 inaudible) someone paraphrases St. John of the Cross, he will say "Any ministry we can do before the Fourth Mansion we can do more harm than good in the church."
Well those first three Mansions done, and that upper part of the vortex where we're basically working on our relationship with God, and ah God is doing all of this for me, and I glance at these other people and they aren't, and so we can be very judgmental, and push people around, manipulate them, and behind our back they're saying "Boy, you know, can't wait until he or she leaves this parish, or goes home, or whatever." That our whole ego is out there pushing people around. And once we go through the Dark Night of Sense, we pass over into that other one, and then we are "Gosh, God is doing all this. I'm not doing this, I'm in the background." And we start talking about 'why don't we do this for the church instead of using "I" three times in every sense, we start using other pronouns and all of a sudden great things start happening. So, that is what overflows from a contemplative approach. Blessed John (Soreth ? sp) a Frenchman who was Superior General. Who was the one who drafted the First Rule for the Secular Order, 1455. And there has been many revisions of that rule. The latest one is from 1979, and they all contain this (? 273 arametical sp) spirit, this hermit spirit of appreciation of silence and solitude. When the call comes to sort of go off and spend quiet time with the Lord, this is not interpreted that you say goodbye to your spouse. Say "I no longer can deal with sinners, the Lord wants me."
Audience: Laughter.
Fr. Centala: Um, um, no that's an misinterpretation. That it means that the Lord is calling us aside to spend moments, hours perhaps, and to do enough time that we can start working on our interior. That's where the change has to take place. And that we should not neglect any of the duties of our state in life. And uh, you of course know the five states in life. Single, married, widowed, clergy and religious. Those are the five states in life. I was one time mentioning this to a group of cloistered nuns, just about twenty years ago, and a lot of discussion might the Church change this ruling on celibacy? So then you'd go from the single one, perhaps would you consider marriage? And I said, "Oh sisters, I don't know if I can take on any more penance at this time.
Audience: Laughter.
Fr. Centala: They seemed to understand.
Audience: Laughter.
Fr. Centala: The call to solitude is almost synonymous with the call to deeper prayer. Because as prayer increases we get to know God better, and realize God is not in all these things. God is separate from everything, and God is...say within, and I've got to not be distracted in order to find God within. So there's this common call to simplify your life. Do away with unnecessary things because of God's call. Heart must be kept free for God. Well, Achilleine Healy says we believe Elijah dwelling near the wadi Kerith was the first Carmelite. All Carmelites must imitate his life of silence, and solitude, and prayer, in keeping God's presence. St. Teresa will say "So I say now, that all of us that wear this Holy Scapular of Carmel are called to prayer and contemplation. This call explains our origin. We are descendants of those who felt this call, those Holy Hermits in Mount Carmel, such great solitude and contempt for the world, sought this treasure, this precious pearl of contemplation that we're speaking about. Yet, few of us seem to dispose ourselves that the Lord may communicate it to us. So she's challenging the Lord to dispose ourselves. So the Rule of Carmel is specifically and how to dispose ourselves so the Lord can give us this gift of contemplation. One Secular Order member recently asked me "Well, if I'm going to, you know, get rid of unnecessary baggage, I notice in my house you know, I've got more space then I need." and I says "Do you have a room for God, for quiet." He says "No, so I'm not going to sell this house, I'll keep it, and I'll convert the best room you know, for God. And he got all re-energized into you know, how he's going to dispose himself for this contemplative grace.
The great contribution to the church that Carmel has to offer is this contemplative prayer. The importance of contemplative prayer. And this was recognized by the Holy See, when they proclaimed Little Terese Co-Patroness of the foreign missions, along with Francis Xavier, who was busy in the mission fields. The Church acknowledging "Yes, it's by prayer and good works that things are done and that we should not get into sort of the heresy of good works. That we do not do our prayer unless we've got nothing else to do. But no, that is a misinterpretation. The contemplative of the Mansion of our vocation it's the real secret of renewal in every vocation. It vitally renews the following of Christ. Because it leads to an experiential knowledge of Christ. So the way in which we know Christ in contemplative prayer is what ah, what changes our whole outlook and makes us so more effective in whatever ministry we do. And that it's recognized that this is of God. This is not just my own ideas. Fidelity to purity of heart, the living and living constantly in the presence of God is the special contribution that Carmel can make to the life of the Church, to a better world. Especially bearing witness to our own lives, that God dwells within us. And this is all of God. It has been said every Christian owes something to Carmel. Well, he's entitled to his opinion there. But it's probably true, you know.
This contemplative prayer, many times we may think that it sort of leaves us on cloud nine, and that's why it's so effective because it totally engrosses us. Little Tereze shows us how it can be the opposite. When she was suffering very much her Sister Celine, Sister Geneveve, visited her in the infirmary. Found her with her hands joined, her eyes raised to heaven, and she said "What are you doing, you should try to sleep." "I can't sleep, I'm suffering too much so I'm praying." "What are you saying to Jesus?" "I say nothing to Him, I love Him." This is during that bleak last year and a half where she couldn't pray, and had great doubts of faith, and whether heaven existed. All she kept doing was kept renewing her faith, renewing her love and her trust, and just being with Jesus. Which is real mental prayer, you don't need words. Just your whole being is geared toward being in God's presence and making yourself available to what the Lord wants. That's very contemplative prayer.
Fr. Centala: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Audience: As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Fr. Centala: Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Audience: Pray for us.
Fr. Centala: Elijah, Prophet of Carmel.
Audience: Pray for us.