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October
2005
In this
edition: |
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- Our Lady of the Rosary
- Community News
- Website News
OUR LADY OF THE
ROSARY
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Dear Friends of Carmel,
Some of you have not heard from us in
over six months, and so we must begin this newsletter
with a little of our philosophy on computers. We sent
out our last Newsletter in honor of the Feast of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16th. However, due to snafus
of a computer sort, the letter made it only to a
relative handful of our friends. As those good people
know, we tried delivering this letter at least four
times, with unhappy, and perhaps annoying, results. We
decided not to fret or worry, however, but rather to be
glad that the seemingly all-powerful computer/Internet
technology proved itself but fallible and not quite as
efficient as the world depends on it to be. It pulled us
back from depending on it ourselves, and we rejoiced to
reflect that only the good Lord is perfect and without
error!
October finds us again giving tribute
to Our Lady in a special way, this time in honor of her
Rosary, since it is the Church's appointed devotion for this month. It gives us reason to be grateful for the
rosary apostolate God has given and provided for our Carmel. It is our honor and joy to make rosaries, and
the Sister who first did this work and taught the rest
of us also taught us to pray, with each rosary we make,
for the person who will use it. And so we do. But we
also, of course, pray the rosary and have been
doing so most especially for the victims of the many
storms and other natural disasters that are occurring
upon our troubled earth. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray
for us all!
October is also the month of two
important Carmelite Saints—St. Teresa of Avila and St.
Therese of Lisieux. Although we could write at great
length about them both, it might be helpful to some who
are not familiar with them to distinguish between the
two, especially since they share a name. The first is
St. Teresa of Jesus, whom we Carmelites reverently and
most affectionately call "Our Holy Mother St. Teresa",
since she began the reform of the Carmelite Order in the
16th century in Spain. To her, we and all Carmelites owe
the holy Rule of life we follow, as well as guidance in
prayer and the spiritual life that is unsurpassed in
wisdom, prudence, and common sense. Her love for God
inspired her to lead many souls in the life of prayer
and perfection. The parents of our second saint named
their child after Our Holy Mother, for they desired
their child, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy
Face, to inherit her love and zeal for God and His
glory. St. Therese became a Discalced Carmelite at the
tender age of 15 and died at 24 in the year 1897. But
those nine years were fruitful beyond imagining, and the
Little Way to holiness that she bequeathed to the world remains a solid and sure path for all souls, since it is
essentially the way of the Gospel: faith, self-denial,
and trustful surrender to God and His Merciful Love and
Providence. No one mistakes the spiritual teaching of
Our Holy Mother St. Teresa for something other than the
challenging doctrine that it is. However, over the
century or so since "Little" St. Therese lived, many
indeed have misunderstood her life and purpose,
mistaking her Way of Spiritual Childhood and making of
it something childish and superficial. Even Pope Pius
XI, who canonized her in 1925, protested this tendency:
"Say and have it given out that they are making the
spirituality of St. Therese much too insipid. How strong
she is and how virile, a 'great man' whose whole
doctrine preaches renunciation…" These words of a pope
echo the statement of Our Holy Mother St. Teresa who
writes in her renowned work, The Way of
Perfection, that she wanted her nuns to be "strong
men" in the spiritual battles for God and His Church!
The more recent St. Therese has, by God's design, been a
wonder-worker in the years since her death, and St. Pius
X's prophecy that she would be the greatest saint of
modern times has come true. How we love and learn from
both Our Holy Mother and our Holy
Sister! |
COMMUNITY NEWS
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You know by now
that your Carmelite Sisters are never idle! We continue
to receive numerous inquiries regarding the vocation to
the religious life and have had visits of young ladies
interested in our Carmel. We now prepare for the
entrance of a postulant later this month and ask you for
prayers as she begins her Carmelite vocation. Nearly 10
years ago, we constructed our enclosure wall, but at
that time we could only afford to put up the main part
that exposed the monastery to the area around the public
chapel. We have used a "wall of trees" elsewhere, since
they were less expensive to "build"—we had them moved
in from a mountain forest to here on the prairie. But
now, with the help of a dear benefactor, we can complete
the rest of the enclosure, and we are glad about
that.
 Last spring, we planted a number of
young trees within the enclosure—deciduous types—to give
a bit of relief from the universal pine wall around us.
We have watched them leaf, endure the hot summer, and
now turn to their fall colors. One apple tree even had
two apples on its branches. It has been a bit like
watching children take their first steps! But the true
summer's harvest has been brought to the Monastery in
abundance through the good and kind services of a
gentleman who delivers fresh fruits and vegetables to
our turn regularly. He and we both have dubbed him our
"Ring-and-Run Man", since most of the time he drops off
the boxes of wonderful things, rings the doorbell and
takes off before we can answer the door! The wealth of
fresh produce has kept us on our toes, since the Kitchen
Sister summons us all, front and center, to
process/freeze/cook, so as not to waste a single bit of
God's gifts left at our door.
But God provides a rest for His
Carmelites too. Our Mother Prioress likes to provide
that we each take our annual retreat of 8 days during
the summer months when the weather will be pleasant and
the Sisters will be able to spend more time outdoors. So
week by week, as time has permitted, each one has gone
on retreat. Perhaps you are wondering what "gone" on
retreat must mean at Carmel? We, of course, do not "go"
anywhere, but take the time to be alone with Our Lord,
attending with the Community only Holy Mass
and the Divine Office. Otherwise, we pray alone, work alone,
and do not attend community recreations. It is a
much-needed time of silence and rest each year, and we
thank God for it. You would perhaps be surprised how
much harder everyone must work to take up the daily duties
of the Sister on retreat! But it is a joyful and loving
burden we are glad to carry so that each of our Sisters
may be refreshed and strengthened for the year
ahead. |
WEBSITE NEWS
|
Our website also keeps us
quite busy, as we work to keep it growing and
interesting for visitors and those looking for the
sacramentals of the Church. With the help of our
dedicated "Web Administrators", we have been able to add
two useful new features to our website. First of all, at
the top of every page you will find a new search field.
Do you have a devotion to St. Therese and want to know
about every St. Therese item we offer? Now it's
easy...just type "Therese" into the search field and
click "Go"! Also, at the bottom of every page, you will
find a new "E-mail this page to a friend"
feature...perfect for telling a friend about an item or
informational page that you know will interest them.
Our Rosary Gallery has proven to be both popular and helpful to folks who are looking for
really special rosaries, as well as for those who want
ideas for designing their own. We have added nearly 20
rosaries to the Gallery and invite you to take a look at
the wonderful combinations available to make this
favored sacramental of Our Lady.
You will again find many new books on
the website, including the wonderful ones that tell the
life of the parents of St. Therese, Zelie and Louis
Martin, authoritatively written by Celine, the saint's
older sister and childhood companion. Please check out
our Children's Titles—we now have some excellent books for young readers on the Life of Christ, Angels and
more! Many of our website customers have asked us for a
good book that presents Catholic doctrine simply and
thoroughly. Upon reflection, we realized that the best
answer to that need is the old-fashioned, but never
out-dated Baltimore Catechism. This is the best Baltimore Catechism available, in an excellent lay-flat paperback from The
Seraphim Company. You will be glad to have this book
handy, and all these titles will make excellent
Christmas gifts for young and old!
Please view our expanded selections of
beautiful greeting cards for Christmas. We are
especially pleased to offer new Christmas cards in
authentic illuminated manuscript.
Lastly, we call your attention to the
new Stations of the Cross crucifixes imported from
Germany. This is religious and devotional art at its
finest, we believe. It is most difficult to find a
stations crucifix, as we discovered last year when we
wanted to find one as a gift for a priest. Each station
is finely depicted around the image of Our Lord
crucified, with a wood cross to fulfill the requirement
for gaining the holy indulgence for this fruitful and
prayerful devotion.
Please know of our continual
remembrance of you in our prayers. May God reward you
for your support and faithful friendship to our Carmel.
In Our Lady,
Your Carmelite Sisters
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