CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE END.
Reader, we have reached our journey's end. From the summit of the Sacred Mountain, where Elias and Eliseus once dwelt in holy solitude, we went forth to follow the Order of Carmel in its voyage through the ages. In one brief chapter our mind flew through centuries until it rested upon Avila's sacred soil, beside the cradle of the great Teresa of Jesus, whose life and labors with those of her first associates in the great work she had undertaken, filled our hearts with admiration as we perused the second chapter of the present work.
Having crossed in spirit the Pyrenees with Blessed Ann of Jesus, the Venerable Ann of St. Bartholomew and their companions, we found a resting-place for our thoughts in the time-honored city of Antwerp. There we learned to know and admire the companions and successors of Mother Ann of the Ascension, who sanctified by the holiness of their lives the English monastery founded by Lady Mary Lovel.
With Mother Bernardina Matthews, her nieces and Mother Clare Joseph Dickenson, we braved the ocean's fury, and having traversed the Atlantic that thus far no steamship had ever ploughed, we landed at Charles County, where the first monastery of religious women in the United States was founded.
We followed the history of our American Carmel, and as time went on, we made the acquaintance of new personages, to behold many of them again fall beneath the scythe of death. Carroll, Neale, Flaget, Bruté, Marechal, and others have
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been rendered familiar to our readers, as they occasionally appeared in relation to our Carmelites.
During the century of our Carmel's existence on American soil seventy-two members have made their profession in Maryland of whom fifty-two have gone to the land whence there is no return, where we hope they enjoy the reward of their labors. Most of the Carmelite nuns died in a venerable old age. Only sixteen were under the age of fifty, and seven had reached that of four-score. This proves conclusively that the austerity of Carmel is by no means incompatible with good health and a long life, but, as it would seem, rather tends to promote both.
Ere we bid farewell to Carmel, let us enter in spirit into the secluded precincts of a monastery of the prophetic order and contemplate the lives of those happy spouses of the Lamb, who have hearkened to the invitation to leave all and follow Christ.
The life of a Carmelite of St. Teresa's Reformed Rule is one of prayers and sacrifice. The noble woman who had the courage to place herself at the head of a few self-sacrificing daughters of the Cross to embrace the Rule of Carmel in all its rigor, set before the eyes of her children the sublime end of aiding the Church and saving souls by their works, their austerities and their prayers. This work of the salvation of souls was the one ambition of St. Teresa's life. For this she lived labored and died, and this she left to her followers as a precious legacy.
The end of the discalced Carmelite's life is obtained by sacrifice hence the austerity of the Rule, in which bodily mortification occupies a prominent place. The use of flesh-meat is rigorously interdicted. The Carmelite fasts frequently. On ecclesiastical fast-days the use of eggs, butter and milk is forbidden. This also holds good for every Friday of the year, except those between Easter and Pentecost. The great fast of the order begins on September 14th and ends at Easter; the fast-days of the order, however, are kept less rigorously than those of the Church.
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The bedding is of straw with sheets of serge. The habit is also made of serge.
The enclosure of the Carmelites is strict, and no one is admitted into the precincts of the cloister without absolute necessity. The religious speak to visitors through a grating and wear on such occasions a veil over their faces. The time not silent in prayer and the necessary recreation is employed in manual labor. The fruits of their labor are one of the sources of revenue for the monastery. The domestic labors are shared by the Sisters according to their aptitude and strength.
The spirit of mortification must serve to prepare the soul for a closer communication with God in prayer, hence the Carmelite, whose life is a life of penance, must also of necessity be animated with the spirit of prayer. In order to encourage this spirit, a continual silence is observed, except at the hours of recreation. This silence, from Complins until after Prime, is of the utmost rigor.
“The order of Carmel,” says Father Braun,1 "being essentially solitary and consecrated to prayer, those whom the Lord deigns to call to it, must be exceedingly on their guard not to lose this spirit of retreat, recollection and interior union with God, which cannot be united with those frequent relations with the world that would serve to recall the things they have left, in order to follow their Divine Spouse. They will remember those they have left when praying before the altar, and their affections, instead of growing weaker, will become deeper and more ardent in proportion to their greater purity and sanctity, being only for God and the good of souls. A sacrifice offered up for them, an act of virtue, will he incomparably more useful than a long conversation, at least ordinarily speaking.”
The nuns of the Order of Mount Carmel recite daily the Divine Office in choir, and spend two hours every day in mental prayer.
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1Une Fleur du Carmel.
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In summer they rise at a quarter to five, and begin at five o'clock the meditation that lasts until six o'clock. At six they recite the canonical hours, when each one retires to her cell where she reads a little from the Imitation of Christ. Then follows the Mass, after which they betake themselves to the occupations of the day.
At ten o'clock they examine their consciences, after which they go to the refectory. During meals one of the Sisters reads aloud out of a spiritual book. After dinner they all repair to the choir and thence to the recreation room where they converse together until noon. Carmelites at recreation are always joyous and recreate each other; for such was the spirit of St. Teresa. Melancholic characters are by no means welcome to the inhabitants of Carmel.
After recreation they again return to their occupations until two o'clock, when they recite Vespers. The remaining time until three is spent in spiritual reading. From three to a quarter to five the time is occupied in manual labor. At a quarter to five they read the subject of the meditation. The hour from five to six is passed in mental prayer. After the Angelus the religious go to the refectory for supper, or the collation. Then follows recreation as in the morning.
At a quarter to eight Complines are recited. The time between Complines and Matins may be spent according to the devotion of each one.
Matins are said at nine o'clock, after which follow the examination of conscience, and the reading of the subject of the meditation for the following morning. After the evening exercises all retire to rest, about eleven o'clock.
In winter the nuns rise, and all the morning exercises take place an hour later.
As prayer is one of the chief objects of the Order of Carmel, the Sisters are constantly called upon from far and near to give the assistance of their prayers in all kinds of spiritual and temporal necessities. The following incident will serve to show with what faith and confidence the people recur to the Community:
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In the latter part of the year 1882, small-pox broke out in the city of Baltimore and it was feared that it would become an epidemic. Many persons requested the prayers of the Sisters to avert the calamity, and they chanted daily, in community, the hymn to Our Lady, for help in time of pestilence: " Stella coeli extirpavit." In January of 1883, a secular newspaper published the following item: “The Mayor received yesterday a card, signed, 'Our City,' requesting the prayers of the good Carmelite Nuns for the small-pox sufferers.”
On hearing of this petition the Sisters redoubled their supplications and daily went in procession through the cloisters, carrying a statue of Our Lady and chanting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, with appropriate versicles and prayers. Thus they continued to implore the mercy of God until the faith of the good citizens of Baltimore was rewarded and all danger was at an end.
Among the many special devotions of our first American Carmelites, we must particularly note their practices of piety in honor of Our Blessed Lady.
They had a great and tender love for the Blessed Virgin, as was befitting the members of the Order of Mary, the Mother of God. They had all adopted the particular form of devotion taught by Blessed Grignon de Montfort1 in his little work on “True devotion to Our Lady,” and consecrated themselves the “Slaves of Our Lady,” or, according to the the quaint, old English expression, had “entered into the Bondage.” The act of consecration which each one wrote and signed with her own hand always ended with these words: “O, my dear Blessed Lady! I am your servant and the bond-slave of your greatness O, my Lord Jesus! I am Yours and Your Blessed Mother's servant and bond-slave! "
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1Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort was born January 31st, 1673, at Montfort-la-Canne in Brittany. In 1700 he was ordained priest. He is known for his extraordinary devotion to the Blessed Virgin. His saintly life closed on April 28th, 1716. (See his life, published by Richardson & Son, London).
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According to the Ven. Archdeacon of Evreux, Boudon, in his " Saint Esclavage," the English Catholics in the 17th century were remarkable for this devotion of the Slavery or Bondage of Our Lady. It has been greatly encouraged and extended within the last few years by the publication in English of Blessed Grignon de Montfort's little book on “True devotion to Our Lady.” This was translated into English by Father Faber in 1862, and in the year 1883 an edition was brought out by Rt. Rev. H. Vaughan, Bishop of Salford, prefaced by a letter, in which be urges this devotion on the clergy of his diocese.
In 1888 a fourth edition appeared, with a preface, also by Bishop Vaughan, in which he still more warmly recommends to every one this “True devotion to Our Lady.”
In the year 1887 an abridged addition of B. de Montfort's work was issued by a Dominician Father of New York, which has greatly tended to popularize the devotion in this country.
The Carmelite Sisters in the United States have continued to walk in the footsteps of their predecessors and to practice that tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, which they learned from their first mothers.
The Community has also a great and special devotion to the Holy Face of our Lord. Since it pleased our Divine Saviour to choose one of their Order, Sister Marie de S. Pierre, who died in the odor of sanctity, in the Carmelite Convent of Tours, July 8th, 1848, as the humble instrument for the propagation of this devotion and for the establishment of the Confraternity in honor of the Holy Face, the Sisters regard it as a sacred duty to do all in their power to increase the love and worship of the Adorable Face of Jesus. They received from Tours in 1858 a picture of the Holy Face, a true copy of the Veil of Veronica preserved at Rome, which they venerate in their choir and before which a lamp is kept constantly burning, in a spirit of reparation for the outrages committed by sinners against the Holy Face. The oil from the lamp is frequently given to sick persons and many cures are effected
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in favor of those who use it with faith and confidence. This picture venerated in their choir was received directly from Monsieur Dupont, popularly called “The Holy Man of Tours,”1 whose cause of Beatification has already been introduced.
The devotion to St. Albert is growing very much among the people, in consequence of the use of water blest in his honor, by which many sick persons have been cured. St. Albert, of the Order of Carmel, was a native of Sicily. The sanctity of his life and the number and splendor of his miracles drew upon him universal veneration even during his life. After his holy death, which took place Aug. 7th, 1307, the devotion of the people was greatly increased by a marvellous occurrence said to have taken place at his obsequies. At the beginning of the Requiem Mass, two angels, radiant with beauty, appeared near the bier and intoned the Introit: Os Justi, of the Mass of Confessors. This solemn authorization of the public devotion was confirmed by many miracles, and he was canonized by Callixtus III. On the day of his feast, from time immemorial, it has been customary to bless water, in which a relic of the Saint is immersed.
Now, reader, our task is ended. We part to pursue our respective vocations; but as we journey on o'er life's darksome ways, our hearts shall be cheered by the thought that in the solitude of their monastic homes, upon the mystic mountain of Carmel, the daughters of St. Teresa are praying for the readers and for the writer of this history.
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1 Leon Papin Dupont, commonly called the Holy Man of Tours, was born at Martinique in the early part of the present century. A great part of his life he spent at Tours in France, where he especially rendered himself celebrated by this devotion to the Holy Face of Our Lord. He died a saintly death on March 18th, 1876. (See Life of M. Dupont by l' Abbé Janvier)