I belong to a community of Discalced Carmelite nuns, and as cloistered contemplatives, we have heard several times that every bishop wants a contemplative community in his diocese to pray for him and his people. There was a story that, when our present bishop, the Most Reverend James F. Checchio, was named the fifth bishop of Metuchen, a friend of his (who was already a bishop) told him, “I only envy you your contemplatives!”
Our monastery is situated in Flemington, New Jersey. We hope that Bishop Checchio doesn’t mind sharing us, but Metuchen is not the only diocese for which we pray. When we were founded 75 years ago, Flemington was situated in the Diocese of Trenton. In 1981, the Diocese of Trenton was divided, and we found ourselves part of the new Diocese of Metuchen. However, we couldn’t just abandon Trenton, and we continue to pray for both dioceses. Prayer is like love; it doesn’t diminish when it is shared. In fact, it grows.
But in fact, there is more to this story, for the saying that every bishop wants a contemplative community in his diocese came up back in 2010, when Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the Head of the Military Archdiocese, visited our community. The Military Archdiocese has no geographical limits, unlike ordinary dioceses. It is spread around the world, wherever the women and men of our armed forces are stationed. Since it has no geographical place, it has never had a contemplative community to pray for it. Our monastery is the Carmel of Mary Immaculate and St. Mary Magdalen, and Mary Immaculate, the Patroness of the United States, clearly wanted her men and women in the military to have the support of our prayers. Our Prioress, Mother Mary Elizabeth of the Trinity, suggested to Archbishop Broglio that we adopt the Military Archdiocese as its contemplative community, and he gladly accepted. We have been praying ever since for all the members of our armed forces and those who minister to them.
We mention this because recently, on Memorial Day, during the Mass for the Military Archdiocese at the National Shrine in Washington D.C., Archbishop Broglio very kindly mentioned our relationship with the military during his homily. You can watch him here. He mentions us 33 minutes into the video.
There is a special reason why Discalced Carmelites are suitable pray-ers for the Military Archdiocese. The first Carmelites who settled at Wadi es-Siah on Mount Carmel were soldiers who had followed Richard the Lion-Hearted in the Third Crusade and then remained in the Holy Land to live as hermits rather than return to Europe. Within 50 years, the Order had spread to Europe, and while they then joined the mendicant orders, they kept their spiritual charism as hermits. When St. Teresa of Jesus organized her monasteries in the 1500s, she reminded her nuns, “You are not just nuns but hermits.”
While other contemplative orders are seen as powerhouses of prayer, supporting the Church and the world by their lives of devotion, hermits have a different calling. St. Benedict, in his Rule, describes them in this way: “these are they… who have learnt to fight against the devil … and who, as being well established for the lonely battle of the desert, beyond the fighting line of their brethren, … are competent to fight single-handed, God helping them, against the vices of flesh and mind.” (Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter One) This definition is still found, in more modern language, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in its paragraphs about the eremitical life: “Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.” (CCC #921) As we told several officers of the local police force, “We work undercover!”
Hermits don’t simply support the military by their prayers; they fight invisibly alongside them in that ongoing spiritual warfare that is the source of all conflict in our world. This warfare began in heaven, in the battle between Michael and his angels against Lucifer and his angels. It began before time and it will continue until the end of time. As Fr. Edward Leen, C. S. Sp., describes it, “The clash of armies in our day is but the massing of toy soldiers compared with the titanic force of this conflict.”
We are called to fight shoulder to shoulder with the angels, and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein, understood this well for she wrote, “The world is in flames; the fire can spread even to our house, but above all the flames the cross stands on high, and it cannot be burnt…Through the power of the cross you can be present wherever there is pain, carried there by your compassionate charity.”
Each Carmelite has on the wall of her cell a cross bare of all except the nails. We are called to be the body on that cross, and on it we join with the angels and with all those who fight against the evil in our world. We thank Archbishop Broglio for helping us to make known our solidarity with all those engaged in this battle. Praying for someone means joining them in their joys and struggles, and we are united in prayer with all the men and women in our armed forces.
Image: Coat of Arms for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA
Sr. Gabriela of the Incarnation, O.C.D. (Sr. Gabriela Hicks) was born in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the Gold Rush country of California, which she remembers as heaven on earth for a child! She lived a number of years in Europe, and then entered the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Flemington, New Jersey, where she has been a member for forty years. www.flemingtoncarmel.org.
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