CARMEL TODAY - "DRESSING THE BRIDE IN HOLINESS"
YOUR FIRST 6 MONTHS
A three tape series to orient you to the life of the OCDS and Catholic spirituality
Tape 102 A - "The Rule of Life "
by Michael J. Kotarski, OCDS
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Audio files of "The Rule of Life" Tape 102 A is divided into three(3) tracks.
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April 2002
Holy Spirit, descend upon us oh Holy Spirit and guide us this day. We praise you and thank you for all good things, and we ask for your wisdom and knowledge, to be partakers of that wisdom and knowledge. That understanding. That (??007 la charity) that will assist us in discerning your call for us.
Now, I want to speak to you today about a vocation that God may be calling you to. This vocation demands more than honesty, demands more than the normal virtues of honesty. It demands holiness. And it will be the rule of life that will focus you and bring from you fidelity. Fidelity to the rule will give you that holiness. Now I want you to consider two things as we speak to those discerning a call to Carmel, at a basic level. Know this: God in His effort to order creation to Himself has caused to be raised up within the church, rules of life that have for their purpose the governing of individuals. That rule of life will allow you to participate in a shared vision. That rule of life is like the banks of a river through which the life giving waters of your vocation will flow. I have given you three points. God is the cause of the Rule of Life. The Rule of Life will allow you to participate in a shared vision, and you realize the element of living waters, through the rule of life. Your vocation is a gift not only to you, but to the church, and it will give life to you, and to others. Keep this is mind as we go deeper into this area.
I now want to discuss with you, more about what a rule of life is. Consider this, a rule of life provides principals and rules that will enable you to sanctify all your acts through obedience. And it will also provide you with a norm of conduct that is sound and safe. The rule of life will have value. Consider this: In order to sanctify ourselves we must make good use of our time. Supernaturalizes our acts and follow a certain program of perfection. A rule of life will (1) Enable us to make better use of our time. (2) A rule of life enables us to supernaturalizes all our actions. They are performed through obedience and this virtue adds its own special merit to that which is proper to every virtuous act. It is in this sense that the saying comes about that he who lives by a rule lives unto God. Since it means the constant fulfillment of His Holy will. The third point on the rule. A rule gives us a program of sanctification. That is what is being offered to you by God. Better use of your time. The super-naturalizing of your actions, and a program of sanctification. What is required is your fidelity. Your fidelity with the rule will produce holiness for the church. Now, when we discuss the rule of life, you are going to hear in your classes and your association with the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, terminology, labels that really refer to three documents. You should be familiar with the following: The first document. The Carmelite Rule of St. Albert dating back to 1247. The OCDS Rule which also goes by the name the OCDS Norms. The third document the OCDS National Statues. Sometimes also referred to as the Norms.
Now, let us pause for a minute and go back to the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert, dating back to 1247. This Carmelite Rule is known for its admonition, for its statement, that the bounds of common sense are not to be exceeded for common sense is the guide of the virtues. That is Chapter 24 of the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert. All three rules, all three documents, in varying degrees are what will govern the life of a Secular Order Discalced Carmelite. Again, the Rule of St. Albert. The Carmelite Rule of St. Albert provides general guidance. The OCDS Rule provides a more particular guidance, and our National Statutes provide specific guidance. To illustrate this consider the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert will provide for and introduce a general concept. For instance there is honor in poverty, chastity, and obedience. That is Chapter 4 of the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert. In addition, this same rule will speak to an ideal that we all hold dear, and that is this: Carmelites live pondering the Lord's law day and night. Chapter 10, Carmelites live pondering the Lord's law day and night. That is there emphasis on prayer, constant prayer when no other legitimate activity is occupying them. Again, the Rule, Carmelite Rule of St. Albert provides for those two.
Now consider how the OCDS Rule of Life develops those two concepts. Regarding prayer, the OCDS Rule of Life will introduce the requirement that you as a Secular Order member are to pray one half hour of meditative prayer a day. That is in Article 4. In addition to the OCDS Rule of Life will provide for the taking of the promises of obedience, poverty and chastity and vows. Those are found in Article 12, 13, 14, 15 respectively. Now we go further in developing this subject area. The OCDS Statutes treat of the prayer in a more detailed fashion, when it refers to how we pray for our deceased members. And that is at Section 11. So you now see the significance of all three. The Carmelite Rule of St. Albert, the OCDS Rule and the National Statutes.
Let us go further, and let me develop for you and highlight the OCDS Rule as it refers to some specific concepts that I think you will find illuminating. Again, this is a basic level tape to introduce someone who has no understanding of Carmel, no understanding of the rule and is being oriented for the first time. Carmel has a mission. Consider what the rule states. It is the mission of the Secular Carmelites, called as they are to a life both contemplative and apostolic to carry into the world the distinctive witness of Carmel. The Lord of Hosts lives, before whom I stand. This is taken from 3 Kings 17.1. The Lord of Hosts lives before whom I stand. The mission of Carmel is to witness to the world that statement which has been interpreted by many of our saints, in differing ways, but this is the common thread: A Carmelite will experience God not so much in the sensory order but in the soul, and the substance of the soul, the intellect, the will and the memory. The experience of God. I continue on...regarding the main obligation of Carmel, consider this, the main obligation which the secular orders impose on their members is one of fidelity to the charism of their respective parent orders. In fact, the secular members share in full, the orders ideals, its grace, and spiritual heritage, but at the same time enjoy a sufficiency of autonomy from every style of life, proper to religious, together with full appreciation of their secular state of life.
Let me interpret for you, what I understand that to mean. A secular order member is a full member of Carmel. Along with a Carmelite friar, and a Carmelite nun, there are Carmelite seculars. A full member of the family of Carmel. We live a lifestyle in the world. We are not to be hermits. We are not to withdraw from the world. We take the ideals of Carmel into the market place. That is the obligation, we are to generate culture. A culture of life with the ideals of Carmel in our families, and in the community in which we live, which may mean your parish, which may mean your work place, which may mean your neighborhood. And that does not mean that you have to preach. It does not mean that you have to dialogue. It means that you have to witness with your lifestyle of prayer, and it means that you have to witness with your lifestyle of love in the community that you exist in. Your life may be the only bible someone will read. Let me go on and discuss now the ideals that the order holds out. The Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites sets before its members the ideals based upon the charisms and teachings of the orders' saintly founders, which constitute their particular way in Christian holiness. These are a deep sense of faith in God's love. Fidelity to contemplative prayer with the spirit of detachment it entails, and generosity in the practice of fraternal charity and the apostolate. They will place themselves under our lady's protection and endeavor to live out those ideals in her presence.
I want to now continue to the daily life of a Carmelite. The daily life of a Secular Carmelite. What will it look like. Article 4 will describe that you as a Secular Order Carmelite will be required under the rule to pray one-half hour of prayer a day. The term used is meditation. You are allowed to pray as the Holy Spirit permits you to pray. The language in Article 4 regarding the prayer of one-half hour a day, the practice itself for at least one-half hour of prayer a day, in an atmosphere of interior silence and solitude does not mean to limit you to any particular form of prayer. It is meant to approach prayer, as you approach God, to approach prayer being open. That God may change the way you pray. Be open to pray as the Holy Spirit will permit you to permit you to pray. As the Holy Spirit will teach you to pray. Like the diamond, there may be many facets and many colors of the spectrum held within the diamond. Your vocation is as a diamond. And you will reflect in your vocation, in your prayer life, different forms of prayer, from vocal prayer, meditative prayer, discursive meditation, affective prayer, right up to contemplation and the different types of prayer in the unitive stage, infused contemplation, different types of contemplation, to the heights of prayer. You will be familiar with it, and not only that, you will be encouraged to share that prayer with others.
I continue: Article 5. Introduces the concept as a Secular Order Carmelite you are to pray morning and evening prayer. That is the liturgy of the hours. Morning and evening. It is also known as the breviary that the priests pray out of. Morning and evening prayer. It is liturgy. And you will have several, you will have two years to learn how to pray that. You are just being introduced to it today, and you will be introduced to it in your community and taught how to pray. In our area, seekers of truth, Fr. Jeffrey Robideau has put together a program that you may consider reviewing to teach your community how to pray. On the label of this tape you can contact us, and we can put you in contact with one of the premier programs that I feel in the nation, that will bring you and your community up to speed, with the greatest rapidity on this area, which is morning and evening prayer, liturgy of the hours. And it is just a nominal fee and it is an excellent program.
Article 6. Requires the Secular Carmelite to be faithful to the churches penitential discipline. This is simply interpreted, I understand it to mean among other things, the Friday fast and abstinence that the church holds out to you. We as Secular Carmelites have a devotion to that fast and that self denial. Let me give you the quote of St. Teresa, when its referenced in Article 6. Referring to Secular Carmelites. They will therefore gladly mortify themselves in union with the sacrifice of Christ. Remembering too our Holy Mother Teresa's remark that prayer cannot be accompanied by self-indulgence. And that is referencing way of perfection 4.2, Chapter 4 (2).
Article 7. Provides the obligation that we are to honor Mary daily by some particular act, by wearing the Holy Scapular of Carmel, which for good reason can be replaced by the Scapular medal. I honor her by exposing the rosary publicly, or by simply saying "Mary, I love you". What is required is a particular act. You can't say "Well, I love her constantly, and I am going through life and that's it, and I want you to know, Mary, for the rest of my life that's my particular act". No, sometime during the day you are to think about her, and provide her with a particular act. And it is not to be a burdensome act. It is your duty as a more particular act, don't take on more than what is required, particularly in the beginning, because as you are invited to do an act, you may take on a greater burden, which will actually force you to be limited, or constrained, or suppressed in another part of the rule, because you are not able to get it done, because you are doing this particular act to an extreme that limits you in other areas of your life. Be very careful, I will now recall you to the Rule of Carmel, St. Albert, where it talks about common sense and virtue are tied together. Keep that in mind.
Article 8. Prayer and the Apostolate. And this is an important article. Article 8. Prayer and the Apostolate, when they are genuine are inseparable and each profits the other. The Secular Carmelites are therefore bound to the third practice of fraternal charity and must take their share of apostolic responsibility in the church and in the world. With this object, the Secular Carmelites will first of all seek to intensify their personal union with God and to bear witness to Christ by their life of prayer. They are also free to engage in any type of apostolic activity. They will dedicate themselves especially to the promotion of priestly and religious vocations and collaborate in the Order's activities and undertakings. All these activities will be evaluated and made more precise by local statutes according to the various geographical regions. Now, I understand this, and the point being made here, is that we are promoting vocations to the priesthood and the religious, no matter where they lie. That is not just Carmelite vocations. Going, experiencing God in prayer, and then praying about vocations and then working with people, particularly young people, you are going to be able to bring people to an awareness in their life, that God is asking something of them. Asking them to become more than what they are. That may mean a Franciscan, a Dominican, a Jesuit, a Legionnaire. It may mean some other apostolic activity in marriage. The point is, the vocation is to be prayed for and nurtured even if it is not a Discalced Carmelite vocation. The document that you are now listening to, the tape series, is dressing the bride in holiness. The Discalced Carmelite is that, dressing the bride in holiness. The holiness comes from the mystical love that we will try and strive for in receiving for the church in our union with God. That holiness, that bride is dressed in that holiness, whenever anyone discovers their nitch in a church. Carmel never loses because a Franciscan receives their vocation. Carmel never loses because a Legionnaire discovers their vocation. We are there to facilitate. We are Mary's Order. I now go on.
Article 9. The primitive church and members of which, were one heart and soul, is the motto upon which the Secular Order bases its community life. The Secular Carmelites should cultivate fraternal relations with the other members of their religious family, and bear in mind that under the influence of the Holy Spirit, their fidelity to their vocation contributes to the growth of each of them. The Secular Carmelites should share the sufferings of their fellow members. Especially those who are in greater need and should offer suffrages for those who are dead in accordance with the local statues. The local communities of the Secular Order should normally meet once a month, to provide for the permanent formation of all members by a spiritual conference for the group, to transact business of the Order, to pray together and to further fraternal charity. Other meetings for retreats, spiritual exercises, and conferences, et cetera, are to be encouraged. The point here that is being made is an important one. We do not live our vocation in isolation. A Secular Order Carmelite does not live a vocation in isolation and the community does not live in isolation. In Michigan we have the Michigan Formation News that goes out to several communities. We had a co-sponsored, the Congress 2000. Flint received a lot of recognition for that. That actually was the multiple communities in Flint, coming together in service of Carmel. To put on a conference and a program to feed all of Carmel. So contact with other communities with other individuals is encouraged. I continue. There is formation, and I am just going to briefly introduce an over view of the articles regarding formation. You will go from a no understanding situation, to hopefully a full understanding, by experiencing formation and participating in it in your community.
Article 10 indicates that after sufficient contact, this is usually six meetings. The candidate is admitted for a period of formation which normally extends for two years before the temporary promise, and for another three years before the definitive promise. Now, the age and other requirements for admission are determined by the local statutes, but consider this, in Article 11 and I will read it for you. The candidate is admitted to the Order by means of the promise which he makes in the presence of the assembled community. The formula is as follows: I, and here you will interject your name, the candidate, and you may also at this time, if you have taken one, it is acceptable to take your name in Carmel, which is a devotional name, you can use your baptismal name or your devotional name. Now my devotional name is Brother Joseph of Mary. So I, Brother Joseph of Mary, inspired by the Holy Spirit in response to God's call, sincerely promise to the superiors of the Order of Teresian Carmel and to you my brothers and sisters to tend toward evangelical perfection in the spirit of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, obedience, and to the Beatitudes according to the Rule of Discalced Carmelites for three years. I confidently entrust this my promise to the Virgin Mary, Mother and Queen of Carmel. After three years from the first promise, the candidate makes the definitive promise, using the same formula but substituting "for the rest of my life" instead of "for three years".
I move on to Article 12. We have chastity, and then we are going to discuss poverty and obedience. There is a special mysterious fruitfulness that results from your life in Carmel in pursuing these evangelical perfections, using evangelical councils of chastity, poverty and obedience. Article 12 as I read it is going to provide you with simply this point. You are to live chastity in purity of thought, word and deed. That is what it means. If you are single, you live chastity as a single person, according to your life and style, according to the teachings of the church. If you are married you live chastity according to the teachings of the church. What that means is that if I am single that means chastity means no sex before marriage. If I am married, that means no sex, physical relationship outside of that marriage. What this Article 12 does not mean is that if I accept the promise of chastity I become celibate. That means if I am married I no longer have sexual relations. That is not what this means. That is not what it means at all, and I repeat that. I have been in formation for close to twenty years. It does not mean that when you take the promise of chastity that you will abandon any physical relationship with your spouse. In fact you will have a stronger, better relationship with your spouse. I teach, and as I have been taught that a kiss between Adam and Eve in the state of perfection, before the fall, was sweeter, more tender, with more love, than that same kiss between Adam and Eve, husband and wife, after the fall. I go to Article 12, as it reads. The promise of chastity binds the Secular Carmelites to the observance of this virtue, in accordance with their state in life, and does not in any way impede a change of state. The promise expresses a conscious intention to respect the law of God in a way proper to the unmarried, married, or widowed state, as the case may be, and to bear a special witness as befits those called to intimacy with God, to the beatitude "Blest are the pure of heart for they shall see God". Again, the physical relationship that God brings about in marriage is maintained, is promoted, and will become better. It is not constrained or limited in any way as the result of Article 12. Article 13 discusses poverty. I have been taught, and teach, and understand this to mean detachment according to the (??not nada @ 425) a doctrine of John of the Cross, Poverty. What that means is that you do not sell your home, you do not empty your bank accounts. Poverty to St. John of the Cross, and he uses this example in his book. He considered and the church considers, King David was a man of poverty. King David was a man of poverty because he did not possess that which he desired, which was God. The fullness of union with God. We know that King David possessed all the wealth of Israel. King David had all the wealth that Solomon later is discussed as having. King David had gold. He had the cedars of Lebanon. He had a great deal of wealth, but he was considered a man of poverty. It is the same with you, be detached from what you have. Surrender it to the will of God, and use common sense, and that is what it is.
I want to illustrate this further, with an example from the life of John of the Cross. John of the Cross admonished one of the friars who had tatters. Clothes were in tatters, and had the fellow put on a new habit. John of the Cross gave him money for a new habit. John of the Cross is a member of a mendicant order. He has the vow of poverty. Where did he get the money from? There is sufficient money to meet the duty of life. The duty of life was for the witness of Carmel and the witness of the life of a friar, and that witness required the friar not to live in absolute tatters when it was not necessary. It is the same with you. If you are a professional, you can have adequate clothing. Look to the Pope. The Pope has adequate vestments. Our priests have adequate vestments. Where does your duty lie, and act accordingly. I give you another example, because again, I want to emphasize what poverty is and what it is not. From the life of John of the Cross. One of his friars became sick. John of the Cross got money, used his money to buy the best medicine that was available. John of the Cross always would try to get the best medicine available at that time for his friars.
These are examples of a man who is known in the church as the doctor of mystical love. He is a poor man, and a man of poverty. This is what the church teaches as poverty. So if God has entrusted you with a certain amount of wealth, your poverty is your detachment from that. Knowing that you are a steward. It belongs to God, and if God gave it to you, you use it as it is God's, but He may mean for you to use it and be a steward, because you are a better steward of that wealth than I or your neighbor. So it does not mean emptying your bank accounts, or selling your home. I go now into Article 13, on poverty. By virtue of their promise the Secular Carmelites should have a particular esteem for the beatitude of poverty. They should love it as Christ loved it, in their daily effort to live according to the gospel. They should try to realize what a wealth of generosity, self-denial, and above all hope and interior liberty poverty makes available to them. In poverty they will find the way to union with him, who though he was rich, yet for our sake became poor. Out of love for us, and who emptied himself to be at the service of his brethren. Here is what they are distinctly talking about is the ideal of poverty of time, a poverty of will, a poverty of detachment. I give you, now Article 14 on Obedience. Obedience the promise of obedience binds the Secular Carmelites to the observance of whatever the legitimate authority the general or provincial of the Order, or the council of their community may lay down in accordance with, and within the limits of the present rule. This promise will provide the Secular Carmelites with the grace to become interiorly more responsive to the will of God by manifesting his will by human spokesman. He purifies our faith and smooths the way to union with Him, who for love of us, became obedient unto death.
Obedience does not require something outside the rule. What I want to stress here is the Order, Carmelite Order can not say to you "I think you should paint your house a different color. I think that you should get a different job. Move to a different city, or I think that you should have a different spouse". There is no authority when you take obedience for that, since those items are outside the realm of the rule. The obedience has to do with living the rule in community life and living, following the charisms of Carmel, and it is very constrained the Rule of Life. Now let me give you a parens on Rules of Life in general. What I am saying is there is a school of thought in the church, and it is valid, and I believe the Benedictines may follow this. In their Rule of Life if something is not permitted in the rule then it is presumed prohibited. Again, if something is not stated in the Rule of Life in black and white, their position is that it is not allowed. There is another school of thought that is equally valid in the church, and it says that if the Rule of Life, and it is just the flip side of that, it is exactly the opposite. It says that if the rule does not prohibit something, it is allowed. Let me repeat that. This second school of thought says "If the rule does not prohibit something it is allowed". That is the Carmelite OCDS Secular Rule. If something is not prohibited it is allowed. How do we know this? I want to take you to your Carmelite Rule, and I want you to understand how it came about, and why it is a rule.
The General of the Order receives submissions from others who are involved in the Secular Order and they had a draft of the rule, and they had a draft of what they want. They present it the Pope. They present it to the Pope through his curia. He operates through agents around him, which is his council, his cabinet. And they read it and they approve it, and that is where it has been said that the rule has been approved by Rome. When they approve it, they give out a decree, and in the decree you will find it on the very first page of the Rule of Life when you receive it. And the decree to the Rule of Life that we have, is dated May 10, 1979, and it is very specific, and it tells what you just exactly what I have stated. But at the last page, last sentence it says "This decree now takes the place of anything contrary to it. Given at Rome on May the 10th, 1979. This decree now takes the place of anything contrary to it. That means that if it is not prohibited, then its allowed. If something is not contrary to the rule, its allowed. You can read that for yourself. On the structure. I now move on to the last two concepts that I want to give you. The structure of Carmel, I want to simply indicate to you the local community is governed by the council. Not by any one individual. The council is made up of the President, First Councilor, Second Councilor and Third Councilor, and Formation Director. Five individuals. They come together to vote as a body, regarding the items within the rule that they are allowed to govern in the Order, Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. The President, all these, and the Councilors and the Formation Director serve for three year term. The group elects the President and the Councilors and then the President and the Councilors come together and elect the Formation Director.
This now concludes the first portion of our introduction into the Rule of Life. I want you to turn over to side two of this tape and I will take you further into the apostolates. Fraternal charity in the apostolates which were initially introduced to you in Article 8, which will play a large role in your life as a Secular Order Discalced Carmelite Member. May God give you grace to discern your vocation. Amen.