Introduction- Your Call Your Potential - Track 1

Introduction- Your Call Your Potential - Track 2

Introduction- Your Call Your Potential - Track 3

April 2002

MICHAEL J. KOTARSKI, OCDS
CARMELITE FORMATION
INTRODUCTION - YOUR CALL YOUR POTENTIAL

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. They kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver from evil. Amen. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

This is our August 28, 2001, initiation of the tape series, whose purpose is to assist those who are evaluating their call to the Secular Order of Carmel. It is a tape series that will be at a very basic introductory level, so that any and all people will be able to discern whether or not they are receiving a call from God to enter the Carmelite Order to the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. We are going to attempt to initially start with three tapes, a half hour on each side, which will allow you plenty of time to cover those areas that are normally covered in the six months of orientation, actually the six meetings over the course of six months, that orient you to what the Secular Order, or the Third order of Carmel is all about. So you have three tapes, two sides, so you actually have six one-half hour segments that will bring you to a better understanding of what it is that God is asking of you.

The call to Carmel, very simply put, is a call to live a holy life in union with God. This tape series is titled "Dressing the Bride in Holiness". You are going to come to learn, over the course of several tapes, that this is precisely the call, the goal of your life. That the assistance you will receive from the Secular Order is oriented, is focused towards assisting you and helping you grow in holiness. And thereby assisting in dressing the Bride of Christ, which is the Catholic Church. Dressing the Bride of Christ in holiness through your life, your action, your love, your prayers.

Now, initially, many individuals may consider themselves unworthy for this vocation, for any number of reasons. But I ask you to consider the following example which was shared with many of the newcomers to the Flint Community, early on. And that is the example of the silk worm. That little worm will live its existence nibbling at leaves, doing repetitive tasks, generally alone, without any assistance, without any cover. That little worm lives out on the limb. It exists there during midday when the sun's rays are beating directly upon that worm, that tree, that limb. And that worm stays there throughout the night, and that worm has a short life comparatively. And from our perspective, the worm's life can be considered insignificant, but that worm gives off a small thread of silk. And that worm is consistent in its production of that small thread of silk. And there individuals that gather that silk, that thread, and turn it over to weavers who will take that thread and create silk garments. Those silk garments are then spread out across the entire world, and clothe very important dignitaries. Are used in very important ceremonies and are considered valuable, very valuable. In a certain sense the soul in its life of prayer is like that silk worm. It can be insignificant. It can be living out on a limb. You may be living an insignificant life, living out on a limb. And like that little worm, your fidelity to prayer, your faithfulness to the calling that God gives you, will produce in a mysterious way, fruitfulness. And the Holy Spirit will gather up, your faithful little fruitfulness, be it goodness, be it truth, be it meritorious example. The Holy Spirit will gather that up and take it to the throne of God and in a mysterious way it will be transformed into holiness, and be used to dress the bride. The Bride of Christ.

You may never be allowed to see in your lifetime the impact of the weaving that you have done. You may never in your lifetime, see a completed silk garment, but trust this, love does not go ever, love is never an unintelligible act. Faith is never an unintelligible act. Hope is never an unintelligible act. And when you love, and when you have faith, and when you hope, in a mysterious way, you are benefiting the entire church. So we come back to the merits. You are unworthy, you may consider yourself unworthy. For the purpose of our discussion, it is more important to know what God wants, more than it is whether or not you are worthy, or whether or not you have the merit for this or for that. God gives the vocation, and you respond. And you respond with an open heart, with an open mind, and a willingness to do His will. And if you listen to the entire tapes, both sides, approximately three hours, over the course of the six meetings I am almost certain that you will come to a better understanding of what it is to be a Catholic, to be in pursuit of holiness, to be in pursuit of a deeper prayer life, a deeper spirituality. A deeper relationship or union with God. And I want to encourage each and every one of you, and I want you to understand, before we get into any specific information, that if you are desiring God, be certain that, that desire is from God. He has planted it in your heart, and He will reward that desire. He will fulfill it, and He is searching me for you and striving to bring you closer to Him in a greater degree than you are searching for Him. That is taught by our Catholic faith.

Now, if you still have doubts, and you are a member of the body of Christ, and you are in sanctifying grace, know this, there is no part of the body of Christ that cannot be sanctified. There is no part. And know this, if you are a part of that body, you are not beyond the reach of God, to grab you, to transform you into that which you are not. And like the acorn, God gives the life, and that acorn can become a magnificent oak tree.

Which leads me to my second example that I was trained early on when I first came to Carmel. And that was with this small little story. And I was told that a group of individuals, just like yourself, were asked to accompany the teacher into the woods in search of the largest and biggest oak tree in the entire world. In this particular story, which took place in Michigan, the oak tree was found. It was found here in Michigan and the students all gathered around the oak tree. And it was bigger than any tree that anyone had every laid eyes upon. The circumference of its trunk was larger than anything that was ever seen before. The height of the oak tree was taller than anyone could recall an oak tree growing. And after the students had finished gawking at the tree. Exclaiming how beautifully proportioned the tree was. Discussing the splendor of its leaves. How healthy it was. How strong it was. How sturdy it was. The teacher took it upon herself to point out to the students that, that oak tree was once an acorn. And that teacher indicated that she had a letter from a very important person and that person knew that oak tree, when it was an acorn. And the teacher began to read the letter to the students, and the letter went on about how the acorn was a filthy acorn. A dirty acorn. And that acorn was frequently found with pigs amongst garbage. The letter was sad. The letter was graphic, and the letter was true. And as the teacher folded the letter to place it back in the envelope, she looked at all her students, and she had them gaze once more upon that oak tree, and the impression was made to them very loud, very clear, in silence. Yet there was a great gulf, a wide gulf, and a wide divide between the state of that acorn and what it had been and the state of the oak tree, what it had become.

All the students captured the point well and understood that the acorn, the history of the acorn as acorn, was irrelevant to what the oak tree was and had become. And so I bring it to you, as you discern your walk with God and how to walk in deeper union, and deeper prayer, and deeper spirituality with Jesus Christ, with the Catholic Church, to that trinitarian union. The acorn, your history, is irrelevant. God can act beyond all those circumstances to draw you to a very holy place in the church. If there is one thing I found in formation in over twenty years, it is that there should be no doubt and no relevancy given about the past. This is a new, this is a conversion, it is a new start, and that is how I want you to approach what is the information on these tapes, and that is how I would ask that you consider, when you draw others closer to God, approaching them too. Because I see that happen over and over again, where individuals will indicate how they come to a realization of the magnificence of the gift that God is holding out to them, and how unworthy they are. Your becoming holy is in your nature. It is what you are to be. Holiness to your soul is what blooming is to a rose. It is but it's nature, that the closed plant blooms into a flower. It is of your nature that you bloom into holiness. You give off the odor of holiness and I hope that you will come, it is one of the four marks of the church and I hope that you will come to a better understanding of that, and the means to that end are many. This particular tape series is discussing the Carmelite means to that end, which will assist you to discern if God is asking you to come along this path. Now to better understand what God is doing with you, and where this desires to serve Him are coming from, and the questions that you have, we will get to them and we will answer them, but I want you to understand what it is, where you fit at in the church.

The church in one sense, and again this is a basic level tape. The church in one sense has two lungs that it breathes from. It attempts to give life to all that come in contact with it. Those lungs are called the teaching office and the sanctifying office. You see this in the Mass where you have the preaching, the liturgy of the word, that is the teaching office. Then you have the sanctifying office where we began the liturgy of the eucharist. You see that in that Mass and you see that in the life of the priest. The teaching office and the sanctifying office. So the church is built such that it is ready to give you and receive your gift to it, which is your holiness, your vocation. And God chooses the particular way that any individual is to live out this receptions of the teaching office, where truth is given. And the sanctifying office, where goodness is given. For instance, when you were born, you were not consulted by God, whether to be male or female. God decided. God chose, you were created, and you were predetermined by God to be either male or female. In a certain sense it is the same with your searching for God's will. God may will that you, being transformed by the teaching office and the sanctifying office, become a Dominican. God may will that you become a Franciscan, or a Carmelite. He may also will that you become a priest or a nun. But know this, it is not the goal of the church that every male become a priest and every female become a nun. The purpose of the two lungs of the church to breathe in and breathe out the breath of the Holy Spirit upon creation, is not that all men become priests and all women become nuns. It is that all things are to be ordered to God. And we see this in the state of being before the fall of Adam and Eve, when all things were ordered to God, and that state of existence has come to be known as original justice. All were ordered to God.

We now have you understanding that the churches purpose is to teach goodness and expose you into the goodness. The churches purpose is to sanctify you, give you that greater goodness, more than what you have, so that you become more than what you are. And you now discern, well how do I come deeper into it. How do I deeper embrace the church. Well you do that by walking with Jesus Christ. You put your hand in His hand, and you walk with Him. And this Jesus is going to take you down maybe one of four paths. He is going to walk down the path, where you walk with Him, down a path that is going to require you to pray, and He is going to do a lot of praying with you. And you will walk with Him more closely by imitating this praying Jesus. That is one path. Jesus may take your hand and walk down another path, and He will be preaching on this path through the wilderness. And you are going to be asked to imitate this Jesus. And you will imitate this Jesus more closely by preaching, imitating this preaching Jesus. Yet, again, when you put your hand in the hand of Jesus and you begin to walk with Him there is a third path. And you watch this Jesus as He goes down this third path, and you will see Him doing good to others. And you are going to be asked by Jesus to walk more closely to Him, by imitating Him, by doing good to others.

And yet, there is a fourth way. And this is when you put your hand in the hand of Jesus, and you walk down this fourth path through the wilderness, and you watch Jesus search out the crowds, wherever there is gatherings of people. And He will dialogue with them. And He will dialogue with their leaders, their business leaders, their governors, their kings, their presidents. And you will imitate this Jesus by walking more closely with Him, and dialoging with the world. Those are four paths that have been identified by the Catholic Church as four beautiful ways to imitate Jesus Christ. The first path I discussed is imitating Jesus as the praying Jesus, and this has been exemplified by the Carmelite Order. The Discalced Carmelite Order, the Teresian Reform, and also the old Carms which are known as the TOC's. Now that doesn't mean that other people don't pray. We know that everyone prays, but this is the hallmark, this is the clarion call, this path is the path of the prayers. Those who will be called by God to exemplify Jesus in His praying.

The second path that I spoke of was those who were going to follow the example of this Jesus, by preaching. And we see this example in the church, take this path followed by the Dominicans. The Dominicans go down this path. Not that others don't preach. Many people preach and they will never become a Dominican. But this is simply to orient you that to know that there is in the mind of the church, this type of division in order not to divide in a bad way, but we make these distinctions in order to unite. Each path you will have your hand in Jesus and you will be united and the trinitarian ordering of all creation to God. Do you see that? We are not being tempted to be divisive, but we are making distinctions in an attempt to allow you to see deeper into the mind of the church as it orders things to God. And because of original sin and the fall, God had to create a church and redeem us and we have a will that we can resist it. Before the fall original justice, everything was ordered to God. So I remind you of that. There are two other paths. We talked about the first path, Carmel praying Jesus, the Dominican's the second path, preaching Jesus. The third path is somebody going down the path there, doing good to others. That's the Franciscans. A very beautiful path. God is very pleased with all these paths.

The fourth path dialoging with the world, is the Jesus that we have come to know as the Jesuits. They follow this path and they dialog with the world. As you discern God calling you, you will want to know that that forefold distinction is in the mindset of the church. Pray about it, think about it, and you will come to a better realization and you will be able to fine tune your discernment. Now for the first tape here, I want to conclude with a final concept and then a review. The final concept that will help you as you are coming to this awareness that God is calling you somewhere, into a new land, a foreign land. That in the mind of the church there is what has been labeled the general means to perfection and the specific means to perfection.

The general means to perfection have been spoken about, written about for centuries in almost any theological book on spirituality you are going to find in there chapters about the general means to perfection. In many of your catechisms you'll find a general means to perfection, particularly those that were in the 1960's and 1950's and you'll find them used in seminary books. That was a classic way to divide and to distinguish. The general means to perfection are things that all Catholics, all Christians, all believers can come and do. And that includes a frequent recourse to prayer. Some occasional solitude. Reading spiritual books, frequenting the sacraments, examination of conscience. These are helpers that will allow you to draw closer in your union with God. To having a more complete union with God. And these are means to an end and the end is God and these means are known as general means, because the church teaches, that God holds them out to all of us, and anyone can make use of these general means to perfection.

Now, what happens is these will never leave you, these will always be out there. But, God, in His wisdom, and in some mystery, will ask some of you, as He has asked me, to accept a more specific set of instruments, a more specific means to the end which is His union. And these specific means are the charisms, the graces, are the orders, the orders and the associations in the church that began to set up more specific things for people to do, and to act out in order to fulfill God's attempt at ordering creation to Himself. God's attempt at making the church holy, and that is where we get back to the religious orders, and in our particular, for our particular purposes, the Carmelites, the particular means the rule that the Discalced Carmelites Secular Order follows. Which are known as specific means to God's call to perfection. Then you have the Franciscan rule, you have the Jesuit rule, you have the Dominican rule of life. And so these specific means do not eliminate the general means, they are added on to. They are like the frosting to the cake. They are added on to what is already out there, which to know that will help you in your discernment to know as to whether or not God is calling you along any of these particular paths. Because to accept a specific means should enliven and invigorate and cause to be more alive and robust, the general means. So as you grasp a specific means, and you test if this is from God, your devotions to the saints should grow, whatever particular saint that the general means was calling you to. If you were doing certain acts in your general means, it would cause it to become stronger. The desires are from God. Because that is a rule in spiritual life. As you draw closer to the source of a desire, that desire will grow in strength. So if God is the author of a desire, as you draw closer to God, that desire will grow stronger. As you, and this is for beginners of course, as you grow closer to God and the desire is not from God, it will become weaker. So keep that in mind. So as you are drawing closer to God in these specific means to perfection and you begin to do better at prayer, you are going to want to an examination of conscience. You are going to want to increase that, and you are going to want to increase your devotion to Mary, and you are going to sense that you are drawing closer to God. God is not going to allow you to lose ground by a specific means that you gained through a general means. I hope that's clear.

Now, we've reviewed this tape. In the beginning I want to encourage everyone with the examples of the oak tree, and the silk worm. to encourage you, because we all need encouragement. It is no small task for any particular soul to begin to look at its own perfection. In fact its been said its the greatest act of love to begin to perfect oneself. It is a gift to God. It is a gift to neighbor, and it is a gift to self. It is no small act and encouragement will be needed. And it is not a defect, so be sure to encourage others too. And try to give, based on my experience in formation, an orientation that I see lacking in lots of souls coming to Carmel, where they have a very specific interest, but they can't quite get the lay of the land. Where does this all fit in at. So we talked about the two offices of the church, the teaching office and the sanctifying office which will help orient you, like rudders in the water. And then we went a little bit further, we talked about the general means to perfection and the specific means which can further complicate things, but when you look at them like that, very clear, that those general means will keep popping back up, and they should not be contradicted so if someone says "You know, I'm feeling, I'm called closer to God, and God is asking me not to pray". That's a red flag. Something is not right there. If someone is being called closer to God, but I am losing a lot of the devotions I had here and there to love for the Catholic Church, love for Mary.Something is not right there. And, "I'm being drawing closer to God and I'm losing my interest in the Eucharist". Something is not right there. Because as you draw closer to God, God will spark in you a greater desire, a greater love, a greater understanding for truth, which is what God is. For goodness, which is what God is. And so you see these goodness and truth in the church, in the sacraments, in the teaching and as you begin to fall in love with the author of that truth you are going to be aware God's nature is by nature truth, is by nature goodness. And we will get into more of that later on, and further on in the tapes. But for now, continue on in your discernment, continue on in your work, and know that God loves you, and He is going to find, you are going to find your niche in life, and you are going to find your place in the church. And you will have that peace that goes beyond all understanding, and I know that Father Don Brick and many others are praying for you, that you have this grace from God. Amen.

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