approved by the general chapter held in September 1995 in Rome,
as mandated by the general prior P. Joseph Chalmers*
LETTER FROM THE GENERAL PRIOR
Dear brothers,
It is with great joy that I present to you the text of our new statutes, approved by the general chapter in September 1995. They are the fruit of our contributions, approximately nine years of work by various experts, as well as study and evaluation during gatherings of the brothers.
The first part outlines our charisma and our mission: we are a contemplative brotherhood in the midst of the people and at their service.
The second part is dedicated to brotherly life, urging our communities to become cenacles of community, prayer, and service, and to increasingly become visible and credible icons of the Holy Trinity.
The third part explains the process of formation and presents it – in its various phases – not as a multitude of tasks to accomplish, but as a way of life; the final part is dedicated to the governance of the order, which we see as a service, leadership, and animation.
The result is a text that is very rich and inspiring for the present life of us Carmelites and for our apostolate. It must not therefore end up in a place of honor on the shelves of our libraries. It is essential to find appropriate forms to deepen and personally live out the content of the statutes; but also to introduce them, at least in their basic features, to all who belong to our family.
A valuable contribution can be made through appropriate tools by those among us who are dedicated to study. Thanks be to God, we have well-prepared individuals in the order who can fulfill this task. We therefore wish to encourage them to help us experience, love, and realize the spirit of Carmel, so that they can make us feel at the threshold of the third millennium that we are heirs of a glorious past, which does not become a fossil, but remains alive and active through the life and commitment within today's church and world. Let us willingly entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit and accept with gratitude the contribution of Mary, our Mother and Sister: we will feel that we are encouraged to reflect on this text and to accept it as a humble yet precious aid on our journey of consecrated life.
Fraternally in Carmel
P. Joseph Chalmers, O.Carm.
general prior
In Rome, March 25, 1996
on the feast of the Annunciation.
PART ONE
CHARISMA AND MISSION OF CARMEL,
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS
I. Chapter • The order as a gift and a mission
1. In Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father and “the firstborn of all creation,”1 we live a new way of connection with God and with others. Thus, we participate in the mission of the Word made flesh in this world, creating a church that is in Christ “as a sacrament or sign and instrument of the inner union with God and the unity of the whole human race.”2
2. By living in obedience to Jesus Christ3 and accepting his gospel as the highest norm of our lives4, we strive, in the power of his Spirit, who distributes to each one as he wishes,5 for mutual service – whether among us or towards others. In this way, we contribute to bringing about God's plan in this world to unite all in a holy people.6
3. One of these gifts of the Spirit is also the life according to the evangelical counsels, to which we commit ourselves through religious vows. As religious, we are called by Christ to live and spread his transforming and liberating power and to live according to the evangelical counsels – in a personal, effective, and active way. Thus, this life is characterized by a diligent search for God in total adherence to Christ, which is manifested in brotherly life and apostolic zeal.
4. This vocation requires fully embracing the conditions that Christ sets for those who wish to follow him in this way of life: accepting God's will as participation in Christ's obedience; living in poverty and in common possession of goods as an expression of our unity in Christ and mutual evangelical unity with our brothers; and finally, consecrated chastity as an expression of love for God and for our brothers.
5. We regard our consecrated life primarily as an invitation and a great gift from God, by which God consecrates us to himself, so that we may serve our brothers according to the example of Christ. This vocation perfects in our common fraternity – also charismatically – the power of life received at baptism and confirmation by connecting us in a special way with the church and making us ready to serve God and the people, “so that the kingdom of Christ may take root and be established in souls and that it may spread to all parts of the world.”7
6. Therefore, we, the brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, ask ourselves which particular elements, among so many diverse charisms and vocations, give our religious family in the church its own character.
7. In the time of the Crusades to the Holy Land, hermits settled in various places in Palestine. Some of them “led a hermit life on Mount Carmel, following the example of the holy man and hermit prophet Elijah, near a spring called Elijah's spring. In cells similar to modest beehives, they prepared like bees the spiritual honey of sweetness.”8
8. Later, at the request of the hermits themselves, St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, united them into one “collegium” and gave them rules for life – in accordance with their hermit ideal (“propositum”),9 which corresponded to the spirit of the so-called pilgrimage to the Holy Land and the first Christian community in Jerusalem.10 These hermits, driven by “love for the Holy Land, dedicated themselves in it to the one who obtained it by the shedding of his blood, to serve him in a habit of piety and poverty,”11 by participating “in holy penance”12 and forming a brotherly community.
9. This rule for life was then approved in 1226 by Honorius III, in 1229 by Gregory IX, and in 1245 by Innocent IV;13 the last-mentioned pope ultimately definitively approved them as the genuine and true rule and simultaneously adapted them to the conditions of life in the West.14 This adaptation was necessary when the Carmelites began to relocate to the West to escape persecution and when they expressed their willingness to adopt such a way of life “in which they could rejoice with God's help by helping themselves and others toward salvation.”15
10. The approval of the rule by Innocent IV allowed the Carmelites to devote themselves to the service of the church by living according to the common ideal of mendicant orders or orders – apostolic brotherhoods. However, they will maintain the peculiarities of their initial charisma,16 which will shine over the centuries as a privilege of Carmel, whether among its members or in the whole church, especially thanks to the masters of spiritual life that God granted to the order.
11. The rule outlines the fundamental elements of Carmelite life in obedience to Christ according to the spirit of the order: to meditate day and night on the law of the Lord,17 in silence and solitude, so that the word of God may dwell abundantly in the heart and mouth of the one who engages with it;18 to pray persistently, especially the vigils and psalms;19 to wear the spiritual armor;20 to live in brotherly community expressed through the daily celebration of the eucharist,21 gathering of the chapter of brothers22 and common ownership;23 loving brotherly admonition for offenses;24 severity of life along with work and mortification,25 based on faith, hope, and love; the alignment of one's own will with God's will, sought in faith along with dialogue and service to the prior to the brothers.26
12. The characteristic traits of Carmelite spirituality are also the prophetic character of Elijah, which Carmelites have developed, being aware that they live on Carmel – the place of the great prophet's activity, and the intimacy of spiritual life with Mary. The expressive signs of this intimacy are (Marian) names given to the brothers and the first church on Mount Carmel, which was dedicated to Mary.
13. At a time when humanity is beginning a new stage in history, we Carmelites, prompted by the Spirit acting in the church, strive to adapt our life program27 to new conditions and seek to understand the signs of the times, examining them in the light of the gospel, our charism, and our spiritual heritage28 and to bring this into various cultures.
II. Chapter • The charisma of the order
14. “To live in obedience to Jesus Christ and to serve him faithfully with a pure heart and a good conscience”29: this statement, based on the sayings of St. Paul, is the starting point of all the elements that make up our charisma and the foundation upon which Albert built our life program. The specific conditions for the emergence of the order in the Holy Land and its approval by the Holy See – in the historical development it has undergone – have enriched the “rules for life” included in the Rule with new impetus.
The Carmelites live in obedience to Christ by striving to seek the face of the living God (the contemplative dimension of life), for brotherhood and for service (diakonia) among the people.
15. The spiritual tradition of the order emphasizes that these three fundamental elements of the charisma are not separate, unrelated values, but that they are closely interrelated.
The same tradition has extensively developed the experience of the desert as a dynamic process of unifying those values: the Carmelite must strive to make the crucified Christ, the man stripped bare and deprived of everything, the foundation of his own life, to direct all his powers towards him through faith, and to demolish every obstacle that stands in the way of total dependence on him and perfect love for God and for brothers. This process of detachment, which leads to union with God – the ultimate goal of all human growth – is represented in our spirituality by the themes of “puritas cordis” and “vacare Deo,” expressions for complete openness to God and for gradually shedding everything.
When we reach the point in this process where we begin to see reality through the eyes of God, our attitude towards the world is transformed, so that it corresponds with God's love, and the contemplation of the loving presence of God is manifest in our brotherly life and our service.30
1. The contemplative dimension of life
16. From the very beginning, the community of Carmelites has adopted a contemplative character, both in terms of the arrangement of the community and of fundamental values. This character clearly arises from the Rule. It portrays a community of brothers wholly dedicated to listening to God's word through prayer31 and to remaining in the celebration of praise of their Lord;32 a community consisting of individuals who wish to be filled with and shaped by the values of the Spirit: purity, holy thoughts, justice, love, faith, hope for salvation,33 peaceful work,34 silence, which – as the Prophet says – is the pursuit of justice and gives wisdom to words and actions,35 discernment that “guides the virtues.”36
17. The order's tradition has always interpreted the Rule and the original charisma as an expression of the contemplative dimension of life, and this contemplative vocation is something to which the great spiritual masters of the Carmelite family continually return. Contemplation begins when we entrust ourselves to God, regardless of how he chooses to approach us. It is an attitude of openness to God, whose presence we discover everywhere.
Contemplation thus represents the inner journey of the Carmelite, arising from the free initiative of God: God touches him and transforms him, leads him to a unity of love with Him, elevates him so that he may rejoice in and live in his loving presence through this unmerited love. It is a transformative experience that subdues the loving presence of God. This love frees us from our limited and imperfect human ways of thinking, loving, and acting; it transforms them into divine ways.
18. Contemplation also has an evangelical and ecclesial value.37 The contemplation carried out is not only the source of our spiritual life, but it also determines the quality of our brotherly life and our service amid God's people.38
The values of contemplation truly – as we live them in the complex happenings of everyday life faithfully – make the Carmelite brotherhood a witness to the living and mysterious presence of God among God's people. Seeking the face of God and receiving the gifts of the Spirit gives us greater attention to the signs of the times, sensitivity to the presence of the Word in history, including through the perception and evaluation of events and realities in the church and in society.39
Thus Carmel – in solidarity with the dramas and hopes of humanity40 like Jesus Christ – will be able to make appropriate decisions that will lead to the transformation of life and its conformity to the will of the Father.
Moreover, it will be beneficial for the church to support those who feel called to the hermit life.
2. Brotherhood
19. The contemplative attitude toward the world around us enables us to discover the presence of God in what we experience every day, and it allows us to encounter God especially in our brothers. In this way, we are led to appreciate the mystery of the individuals close to us, with whom we share our lives. Our Rule demands that we primarily be “fratres,”41 and reminds us that the quality of personal contacts and relationships among us, which characterize the life of the Carmelite community, must be developed following the example of the first Christian community in Jerusalem.42 To be “fratres” means for us to grow in belonging and unity,43 in overcoming differences and privileges,44 in participation and shared responsibility,45 in sharing goods,46 shared life program and personal charisms;47 and also being attentive to the spiritual and mental well-being of individuals, walking along the paths of dialogue and reconciliation.48
20. These values of brotherhood are expressed and draw strength from the word of God, in the Eucharist and in prayer. Through the word of God – by listening to it, by praying over it, by experiencing it in silence, solitude, and community,49 and especially in the form of “lectio divina” – the Carmelites are daily led to deep experiences of knowing the mystery of Jesus Christ.50 Inspired by the Spirit and rooted in Christ Jesus, they dwell in him day and night51 and allow his word to inspire all their decisions and actions.52
Encouraged by the word of God and in communion with the entire church, “fratres” together praise the Lord53 and invite others to share in the experience of prayer.
For the celebration of the Eucharist, the source and summit of their lives,54 “fratres” are called from solitude and apostolic work – as much as possible – every day, so that around the table of the Lord55 they may be together “one heart and one soul”56 and experience true brotherly koinonia in the undeservedness of being gifted and mutual service,57 in fidelity to the common program and in reconciliation inspired by Christ's love.58
As a contemplative community, we seek the face of God and serve the church in the heart of the world or, if need be, in hermitic solitude.
3. Service among the people
21. As a contemplative community, we also seek the face of God in the heart of the world. We believe that God dwells among his people, and therefore the brotherly community of Carmel feels itself a living part of the church and history: as an open community, capable of listening to its surroundings and allowing them to ask questions; willing to accept the challenges of history and to give authentic responses of a life according to the evangelical counsels based on its own charism;59 as a community in solidarity and ready to cooperate with all people who suffer, hope, and strive in the search for the kingdom of God.60
22. The pilgrimage, to which we find allusion in the Rule,61 is indeed an expression of the evangelical-apostolic character of mendicant orders and is an invitation for the Carmelite community to discern and follow the paths that the Spirit of the Lord sets for the community and individuals. At the same time, it is a sign of solidarity and generous service to both the universal and local church and today's world.62
23. The convent, that is, the place where the community lives, is (as suggested by the name derived from “convenire” – to gather) also for Carmel a place of welcoming and hospitality for newcomers,63 so that the community of hearts, that brotherly reconciliation, and that experience of God we have in community is shared with others.
24. This way of dwelling “in the midst of the people” is then a sign and prophetic witness to new relationships, friendships, and brotherhood among men and women everywhere. It is a prophecy of justice and peace in society and among nations, brought as an essential component of the joyful message and in a dynamic effort to collaborate in transforming systems and structures of sin into systems and structures of grace.64 And it is also a decision to “choose to share life with those who walk through history as ‘minores,’ so as to communicate to these brothers more by life than by words a word of hope and salvation.”65 Such a choice is a logical consequence of our vow of poverty, by which we have committed ourselves to a community of brothers in a mendicant order and in relation to obedience to Jesus Christ, which we also live in obedience to the poor and to those in whom the face of the Lord is reflected above all.66
4. Elijah and Mary, figures we draw inspiration from
25. Everything we desire and want to be today we see realized in the life of the prophet Elijah and the Blessed Virgin Mary. They indeed, each in their way, “had the same spirit, (…) the same formation, the same teacher: the Holy Spirit.”67 When we look at Mary and Elijah, we can more easily understand, inwardly accept, live, and proclaim the truth that sets us free.68
26. Elijah is the solitary prophet who keeps thirsting for the one God and lives in his presence.69 He is a man of contemplation, captivated by a burning zeal for God's sovereignty,70 whose “word blazed like a torch.”71 He is a mystic who, after a long and arduous journey, learns to perceive new signs of God's presence.72 He is a prophet who intervenes in the life of the people, fights against false idols, and leads the people back to faithfulness to the covenant with the one God.73 He is a prophet in solidarity with the poor and the marginalized and defends those who suffer from violence and injustice.74
From Elijah, the Carmelite learns to be a man of the desert, with an undivided heart, standing fully before God, entirely devoted to God's service, a man who has unconditionally chosen God and burns with zeal for him. Like Elijah, the Carmelite also believes in God, allows himself to be led by the Spirit and the Word of God, received deep in his own heart, to witness God's presence in the world – by allowing God to truly be God in his life.75 And finally, the Carmelite sees in Elijah – joined with a group of his prophetic disciples – a model of brotherhood lived in community76 and learns along with him to be a mediator of God's tenderness towards the needy and the humble.77
27. Mary, overshadowed by the Spirit of God,78 is the virgin of the new heart,79 who gives a human face to the Word made flesh.80 She is the virgin of wise and contemplative listening who keeps the events and the Lord's word in her heart and reflects on them.81 She is the faithful disciple of wisdom; a disciple who searches for Jesus – the Wisdom of God – and lets herself be shaped and formed by his Spirit, so as to adopt in faith the style of how to live and what to choose.82 Thus, shaped, Mary is then able to perceive “the great things” that God has fulfilled in her for the salvation of the humble and the poor.83
Mary, even though she was the Mother of the Lord, becomes the perfect disciple, a woman of faith.84 She follows Jesus, journeys with the apostles, and shares with them the arduous and demanding path that requires primarily brotherly love and mutual service.85 At the wedding at Cana, she teaches us to believe in her Son;86 at the foot of the cross, she becomes the mother of all believers87 and experiences with them the joy of the resurrection. She unites with the other disciples “in constant prayer”88 and receives the first fruits of the Spirit, who fills the first Christian community with apostolic zeal.
Mary brings the joyful message of salvation to all people.89 She is the woman who establishes relationships not only with the close circle of Jesus' disciples, but also with others: with Elizabeth, with the newlyweds at Cana, with other women, and with Jesus’ “brothers.”90
In the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and model of the church, Carmelites find the perfect image of everything they desire and hope to be.91 Therefore, Mary has always been regarded as the Patroness of the order; she has also been called by the order the Mother and the Ornament, and she should always be kept before the eyes and in the hearts of Carmelites as the “Most Pure Virgin.” When we look at her and live in the intimacy of spiritual life with her, we learn to stand before God and together as brothers of the Lord. Mary truly lives among us as a Mother and as a sister, attentive to our needs, and together with us awaits and hopes, suffers and rejoices.92
The scapular is a sign of Mary's motherly, constant, and steadfast love for brothers and sisters in Carmel.
According to its tradition, especially from the 16th century, Carmel expresses Mary’s loving closeness to God's people through scapular devotion. The scapular is a sign of consecration to Mary, a means of associating believers with the order, and an accessible and effective tool for evangelization.93
5. The family of Carmel
28. The diversity of ways of living the charism of Carmel is for us a reason for joy. They confirm the creative fruitfulness,94 which the Spirit works and which we wish to accept with gratitude and discernment.
All individuals and communities, both official and unofficial, drawing inspiration from the Rule of St. Albert, its tradition, and the values expressed in Carmelite spirituality, today form the Carmelite family in the church.95
To this family, therefore, we belong along with our brothers of the Teresian reform, sisters of both the first and second order branches, affiliated religious congregations, third orders in the world, secular institutes, those who are affiliated with the order through the holy scapular, those who in some other way or commitment enjoy association with the order, movements that – even though from a legal perspective do not belong to the order – seek inspiration and support in its spirituality, as well as every man and woman who are attracted by the values lived in Carmel.
NOTES
(Since we assume that only the most diligent readers will use the notes, we also rely on them to be able to interpret the abbreviations used. Apart from biblical books, the references concern documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Holy See, the rule of St. Albert (using the new numbering of chapters – see the magazine Carmel no. 1/2000) and in a few cases also historical sources or inter-ordered documents, which are practically unavailable to us.)
