To the Most Reverend Father Fernando Millán Romeral, General Prior of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.
I address you, dear brothers of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, who celebrate the General Chapter this month of September. I would like to offer you words of encouragement and hope during this time of grace and renewal, in which you are called to discern the mission of the glorious Carmelite Order.
The ancient charisma of Carmel has been a gift to the entire Church for eight centuries and even today contributes its unique offering to the building up of Christ’s body and reveals Christ’s shining and holy face. The contemplative beginnings of your community spring from the land where eternal divine love is revealed in Jesus Christ, in the Word that became flesh. As you reflect on your mission as Carmelites in today’s world, I recommend that you consider three elements that can guide you towards fully realizing your vocation, which is the ascent to the mountain of perfection. These are obedience to Christ, prayer, and mission.
Obedience
The mission of the Church is to bear Jesus Christ to the world. Therefore, as our Mother and Teacher, she encourages each of us to draw closer to Him.
In the Carmelite liturgy of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, we contemplate the Virgin Mary as the one who stood "by the cross of Jesus." This is also the place where the Church is found: close to Christ. And it is also the place of every faithful member of the Carmelite Order. Your Rule begins with an admonition for the brothers to live "in obedience to Jesus Christ," to follow Him and serve Him with a pure and undivided heart. This close relationship with Christ is realized in solitude, in fraternal community, and in mission. "The fundamental choice of a life that is concretely and radically dedicated to following Christ" (1) makes your being a pilgrimage that transforms you—in love. The Second Vatican Council reminded us of the role of contemplation in our journey of life: for the Church by its nature "is both human and divine, visible and yet equipped with invisible values, fervently active yet devoted to contemplation, present in the world, and yet passing through it" (2). The ancient hermits of Mount Carmel preserved this holy place in their memories, and even when they had to leave it and live far from it, they still directed their eyes and hearts toward God’s glory. As you meditate on the beginnings of your community and your history, and contemplate the great multitude of those who have lived the Carmelite charisma throughout the centuries, you will rediscover your current vocation to be prophets of hope. And it is by this hope that you will be renewed. Often what seems new is something very old, seen in a new light.
The heart of the Carmelite mission was then and is now found—in your Rule. In preparation for the eight hundredth anniversary of the death of the Jerusalem patriarch Albert in 1214 (who wrote your Rule), you will recall that he formulated a "way of life," a space that allows you to live a spirituality entirely focused on Christ. St. Albert outlined both the external and internal elements, the physical ecology of space, and the spiritual armor necessary for the Order to properly respond to its vocation and effectively fulfill its own mission.
In a world that often does not understand Christ and actually rejects Him, you are called to draw closer to Christ and to increasingly cling to Him. This continually calls you to follow Christ and to become ever more like Him. This is vitally important in our such disoriented world because "when the flame of faith goes out, all other lights lose their brightness" (3). Christ is present in your community, in your shared liturgy, and in the service entrusted to you: renew your obedience to Him in all that you experience!
Prayer
Holy Father Benedict XVI reminded you before your General Chapter in 2007 that "the inner journey of faith to God begins in prayer", and in Castel Gandolfo in August 2010 he told you: "You are those who teach us to pray." You define yourselves as a contemplative community amid people (4). Indeed, while it is certain that you are called to live on the heights of Carmel, just as certain is it that you are called to bear witness amid people. Prayer is the "royal road" that opens to us the depths of the mystery of God, One in Trinity, but it is also a binding path that winds through the people of God on their journey through the world to the promised land.
One of the most beautiful paths to entering into prayer leads through the Word of God. Lectio divina brings you into direct conversation with the Lord and opens the treasures of wisdom. A close friendship with He who loves us enables us to see with God's eyes, to speak in our hearts with His Word, to preserve the beauty of this experience and to share it with those who hunger for eternity.
Returning to the simplicity of life centered on the Gospel is a challenge for the renewal of the Church as a community of faith that constantly finds new ways of evangelization in a constantly changing world. Carmelite saints have been great preachers and teachers of prayer. And this is once again being demanded of Carmel in the 21st century. Throughout your history, the greats of Carmel have continually called for a return to your contemplative roots, to the always fruitful roots of prayer. Here is the heart of your witness: to live, cultivate, and impart the "contemplative" nature of the Order. I would like each of you to ask yourselves: what does my contemplative life look like? How much time during the day do I devote to prayer and to those who teach us contemplation? You define yourselves as contemplative amid people. Indeed, is it true that you are contemplative? A Carmelite without this contemplative life is a corpse! Today, perhaps more than ever, it is very easy to become distracted by the cares and problems of this world and to be swept away by false idols. Our world is fragmented in many ways: however, the contemplative person returns to unity and represents a powerful call back to unity. Now more than ever, it is time to rediscover through prayer the inner path of love and through the testimony of contemplation, through preaching and through mission, to offer today’s people not unhelpful quick-fix solutions, but the wisdom that flows from "meditating day and night on the law of the Lord" (5), from the contemplation of God's Word, which always leads under the glorious cross of Christ. And to contemplation is joined the rigor of life, which is not merely a secondary element of your life and your witness. The strong temptation to fall into spiritual worldliness also concerns you. The spirit of the world is the enemy of the life of prayer; never forget that! I urge you to a stricter and more penitent life according to your most authentic tradition, to a life distant from all worldliness, far from worldly criteria.
Mission
Dear Carmelite brothers, you have the same mission as Jesus. All planning and discussions would be in vain if the Chapter did not primarily undertake the journey of true renewal. The Carmelite family has experienced a wonderful flourishing worldwide, the fruit—from the gift of God—of missionary endeavor in the past. Today, sometimes the mission (to those who fulfill it) brings difficult challenges, because the proclamation of the gospel is not always accepted and is sometimes even rejected with violence. We must never forget, even when we are thrown into murky and unknown waters, that He who calls us to this mission also gives us the courage and strength to carry it out. Therefore, celebrate the Chapter with hope that never dies, with generous self-giving in a new appropriation of contemplative life, and the evangelical simplicity and rigor.
In (one) homily in St. Peter’s Square, I told the pilgrims: "Every Christian and every community is missionary to the extent that it bears and lives the gospel and bears witness to God’s love for all, especially to those who experience difficulties. Be missionaries of God's love and tenderness! Be missionaries of the mercy of God, who continually forgives us, always awaits us, and loves us so much!” (6) The witness of Carmel in the past is a witness of deep spiritual tradition that has grown into one of the great schools of prayer. And it has also inspired courage among men and women who faced (various) dangers or even death. Let us remember just two great martyrs of our own times: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and Blessed Titus Brandsma. But let me ask you, is there today—among you—a living tenacity, the courage of these saints?
Dear Carmelite brothers, your witness of love and hope, arising from a deep friendship with the living God, can blow in like a "gentle breeze," renewing and filling your mission in the Church with new strength in today’s world. To this you have been called. Your profession ceremony places these words in your mouths: "I dedicate myself to God..., that by the grace of the Holy Spirit and with the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I may reach perfect love in the service of God and the Church."
May Our Lady, Mother and Queen of Carmel, accompany your steps and make your daily journey to God’s Mountain fruitful. I invoke abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit for all members of the Carmelite family and especially for you, members of the Chapter, and I bestow upon all of you my special apostolic blessing from my heart.
Franciscus
In the Vatican, August 22, 2013
(1) Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitanae, Rome 2000, art. 8.
(2) Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 2.
(3) Lumen fidei, 4.
(4) Cf. The Statutes of the Order, art. 14–24.
(5) The Rule, art. 10 according to Ps 1,2.
(6) Homily, May 5, 2013.
Translated from Italian by Martina Vintrová
