A cool summer morning begins, as he walks to the end of the driveway to pick up the morning paper. Hot coffee in a favourite mug, steaming on the first light on the distant horizon. As the first cup of coffee is dispatched, a familiar prayer begins as he opens his breviary; ‘Lord open my lips…’ This day, like many, is a familiar start for all who are called to the vocation of a Lay Carmelite. In the Rule of St. Albert, Chapter 2, we read ‘many and varied are the ways’ for how the ancient Carmelite Order has looked to form its vocation in the world.[1] The Lay Carmelite journey of prayer, community, and service as a vocation in the world is the focus of this article, and an invitation to others to join this thriving expression of the charism of the Carmelite family that grew out of an older ancient tradition, expanding westward with the missionary Church, and thriving today with new expressions of faith in a rapidly changing world.
A Growing Family
Many of Christianity’s great religious traditions begin with some appreciation of the role of laity in their family structure. Monastic houses have long offered oblates an opportunity to experience the spirituality of their structured life, often with some financial support in return. Whether as benefactors or contributors to the needed work, the laity found affinity with the holy places where either men or women dedicated their lives to prayer. During the rise of the mendicant Orders in the late 12th and early 13th century, a different engagement formed, as holy places where on the move into the growing cities of Europe. Our Carmelite origins are unique, in that we began in a ‘holy place’ as an early group of hermits, before being displaced during war to further reform into a mendicant group of men in Europe. Unlike the other established Orders at the time, Carmel had not fully incorporated women or laity into the ranks. According to the Carmelite historian, Fr Leopold Glueckert, this would come later in the 15th century during the reforms of John Soreth, who ushered in a formal structure for women, both living in a cloistered community environment or at home, approved by Pope Nicholas V, with the papal bull Cum Nulla in 1452. This would later be extended more broadly by 1476 to lay men and women who also could affiliate in their secular state with the Order.[2]
Although we have very little knowledge of the participation of the laity after Cum Nulla, we should not assume that the lay vocation looks anything like what we have today in any formal structure. Perhaps it resembled the proverbial ‘silent partner’ role similar to the oblates of monastic communities, where financial support and assistance in secular affairs were offered in return for participation in the spiritual life of the community. As Carmel’s missionary movement west into the newly independent American region began in the 18th century, following hundreds of years of restraint after the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution, we can begin to see the participation of Lay Carmelites more actively. Glueckert offers examples of how the laity in England and Ireland assisted with property acquisition and ministry to other laity as the Church was rebuilding.[3] It is during the rapidly changing industrial age where we find the growing spiritual contribution of the Order embraced more broadly by the faithful, and what may be the first meaningful call to Carmel for the laity.
Until the modern era, most religious observance was left sacramentally to the parish Church, or popular pious devotions. As literacy rates increased, the writings of the saints became more readily available and widely promulgated in the parochial schools. Imagine reading Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Thérèse of Lisieux for the first time. For most seekers, Teresa and John would be considered hard reading as these great saints mined the depths of spiritual desire. Enter The Little Flower, who offered a simple expression of faith that was accessible to all. Her Story of a Soul is still one of the most widely read spiritual classics in the world in dozens of languages and read by millions. It is the life of this simple young woman and the outward lens of the Second Vatican Council that I believe formed a fertile environment for growth of the Lay Carmelite vocation today; one that is leading us boldly into a new missionary future.
A Vocation In the World
With Thérèse we gained a sister that many could relate to. Her family life, inner conflicts, tragic losses, captivates us as part of the ordinary human condition. We feel her pain, wrestle with her conjectures, and find hope in her resolution that God is ‘always, already, there’ as Fr Jack Welch once shared with me during a difficult time in my own life. In his book, Seasons of the Heart, Welch offers rich spiritual imagery that brings the desires of many of our great Carmelite saints into clearer focus. His love for The Little Flower breaks through in a prominent way in this book, as he shares her deep desire for heaven as an almost allusive destination filled with so many ‘different horizons,’ and as Welch described, we are ‘lured by the promise of fulfilment, but only to be disappointed time and time again.’[4] For Thérèse, and for us today, we have this longing for arrival at journey’s end, only to be disappointed that we still have far to travel. It is this desire for the arrival that causes us to grow in faith and reach beyond what it is that we consider customary in the spiritual life. The Lay Carmelite vocation is ‘in the world’ which often creates a great tension between contemplative prayer and the active secular life.
Earlier I offered the image of an intentional start to the day for a Lay Carmelite. The reality is that this may represent a rare occasion, given the frenetic pace that we live in today. The pace, particularly in American culture is one which leaves little time for reflection. We are checking our social media feed, news articles, sports standings, and calendar even before the first cup of coffee has brewed. There is ‘an app’ for most things, including prayer, and efficiency is the attribute of the successful. We desire the spiritual ecstasies of St. Teresa but find little time for extended prayer with the ‘one we know loves us.’[5] How then can we expect to grow in the beautiful contemplative Garden of God we call Carmel, when we rarely find time to slow down?
For many years the Carmelite Order has described the charism in three parts, prayer, community, and service, where contemplation was seen as a ‘higher’ form of prayer. Welch writes that we are now beginning to understand that ‘contemplation is an activity which grounds, and links’ our three-part charism.[6] The Carmelite vocation, including the lay vocation, has been understood since the Second Vatican Council as living a ‘life of allegiance to Jesus Christ, in a contemplative attitude which fashions and supports our life of prayer, fraternity, and service.’[7] As Lay Carmelites, living a life in allegiance to Jesus Christ is made challenging given the growing secular state of our Western Culture. The very practical lens of a ‘contemplative attitude’ is a brilliant adaptation to the challenges of today. Thérèse was a practical idealist, in that she had a singular fix on her desire for Christ, but also understood that she was probably not equipped to get there on her own, and this reality is our greatest spiritual opportunity. In Living the Carmelite Way (The Rule for the Third Order of Carmel), we are reminded of our secular state not as a handicap against the spiritual ascent, but as a tool to do good. ‘All Carmelites are in the world in some way, but the vocation of lay people is precisely to transform the secular world.’[8] The vocation of the Lay Carmelite is in the world.
A Missionary Spirit
The Second Vatican Council of the 1960s brought a new expression of ‘church’ to the modern world, and one that I believe was greatly influenced by the simple spirituality of St. Thérèse. This outward facing recalibrated lens reminded the Church of the role that evangelisation has in the life of Christians. We are to share ‘the good news’ as our part in bringing the Kingdom of God into the hearts of all we encounter. The Council also pressed the various religious congregations to return to the root of their respective charisms and revive their impact in the modern Church. The Carmelites began a fervent embrace of this new understanding of our contemplative attitude in service to the world and further expanded missions into Central and South America, Asia, and the Caribbean. A natural mission field also existed in North America, bringing new adherents to the Lay Carmelite vocation as a missionary activity. Since the 1960s over 300 communities of Lay Carmelites have formed between the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary (PCM) and the Saint Elias Province (SEL), representing over 2,000 professed Lay Carmelites. Their prayerful presence is now seen in many local parishes across America, its territories, and Canada. Lay Carmelites host regular community meetings, support confraternities of Brown Scapular devotees, and regularly attend diocesan ministry fairs to promote the vocation. Beyond the parish, many Lay Carmelites proudly serve in ministries that support those experiencing poverty, immigrants, sickness, and homebound. Service from Lay Carmelites is diverse with many Lay Carmelites offering prayer, encouraging correspondence, and hands on ministry through various NGOs affiliated with the Church, like Catholic Charities or CRS.
This new embrace of the ‘contemplative attitude’ in the world has been explored at length by Fr Tracy O’Sullivan who spent his entire career as a Carmelite priest in evangelisation, and now ministers online to thousands of readers across the globe through his blog ‘Praying Alone Together’. He has been a regular conversation partner in recent years on this evolving topic. His inner-city ministry work on the South Side of Chicago and also in South Central Los Angeles inspired my own ministry with those in extreme poverty. We continue to explore the intersection of contemplation and evangelisation, particularly how our ‘contemplative attitude’ and gift of prayer can transform communities.
In his book Evangelisation and Contemplation, O’Sullivan offers a compelling synthesis between the spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila and Pope Francis. When describing Teresa’s movement between the 3rd and 4th dwelling place in the Interior Castle, he presents it as a ‘contemplative switch.’ A moment when ‘we experience a new freedom in the Lord…engendering a deep sense of being loved by God,’ where we are ‘more open to be taught by God,’ opening ‘great vistas of possible new understanding, reconciliation, and service.’[9] Teresa spoke about this movement as one where many people get stuck, or even content. Moving beyond our understanding of ‘God for me’ to ‘God in me’ is a leap to a profoundly new place. Today Lay Carmelites are embracing this new place as a call to action and collaboration across the various communities and branches of our Order.
Forward Expressions of the Vocation
My recent work with Lay Carmelite communities through retreat conferences and ongoing formation seeks to embrace our role in teaching prayer and has created a growing dialog around what I describe as three ‘forward expressions’ of the lay vocation within a rapidly changing world. The first is a prayerful vocation with a hopeful prophetic voice. More than any other period in history, we are seeing people leave their faith for the lures of the world. Many are good people, with strong moral compasses, who simply cannot find belonging in the Church. We have a role to play in their reconciliation, by demonstrating how prayer and contemplation are gifts to be shared. Not just praying for people but praying ‘with people’ who are hungry for God’s love and relationship. A second forward expression of the Lay Carmelite’s life in community is one of welcome. The early community on Mount Carmel was very much a group of strangers, who found common purpose when they lacked a common heritage. They found a common practice in prayer, when they lacked a common language. They found a home in community, when theirs was stripped away. Today we are called to meet others on their journey, and build communities of belonging. The third forward expression, in service to the world, is one that is courageous. With the pitfalls of polarisation, it is sometimes easier to leave it to God to sort it out in the end like the sheep and goat parable we all learned as a child. We should not forget that this same parable, includes an expectation today to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, tend to the sick, and minister to the prisoners.[10] Our courage and support can be shown both literally and figuratively, as we all experience the hunger for understanding and mercy.
Perhaps these three forward expressions, reflecting our historic charism, will continue to show the world that ‘many and varied are the ways’ to this Garden of God we call Carmel. The Lay Carmelite vocation, part of the larger family with the Friars and Sisters, together will carry the legacy of a rich history that forged our charism in the crucible of struggle. We shared the charism into new lands with a missionary spirit that continues to form everywhere the Garden of God is planted. As we move forward into a rapidly changing world, we also embrace a world that is seeking a better version of itself. Our journey continues from where it began, in the wadi near the port of Haifa, where a group of men gathered to pray at the well of Elijah. Their earliest community, asked for a Rule of Life that would guide them and later transport them from desert hermits to mendicants in Europe. Then, as today, the Order seeks the counsel and contribution of men, women, and laity to form what we know today as the Carmelite family. A family at prayer with the world.
[1] The Rule of St. Albert. Chapter 2.
[2] Glueckert, L. (2012). Desert springs in the city. p. 60.
[3] Ibid. pp. 146-50.
[4] Welch, J. (2008). Seasons of the Heart: The Spiritual Dynamic of the Carmelite Life. p. 4.
[5] St Teresa of Avila. The Book of Her Life. Chapter 8, 5
[6] Welch, J. (2008). Seasons of the Heart: The Spiritual Dynamic of the Carmelite Life. p. 21.
[7] Living the Carmelite Way: The Rule for the Third Order of Carmel. Chapter 3.
[8] Ibid. Chapter 28.
[9] O’Sullivan, T. (2019). Evangelisation & Contemplation: The Gifts of Pope Francis and Saint Teresa. Dorrance Publishing. pp.46-47.
[10] Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25.
