Fr. Mary Philip Wurth OCD dies on Easter Sunday morning. His burial Mass above was celebrated in our large chapel on Wednesday of Easter week, 26-Mar-08. Celebrants are [left to right]: John Michael, Sam Morello, presiding Gregory Ross our Father Provincial, Ralph Reyes (superior of Marylake hidden behind the main celebrant), Raphael Kitz, and Provincial Councillor Luis Joaquin Castañeda from Oklahoma City. Father Sam, after founding Mt Carmel Spiritual Institute in Dallas, drafted Father Philip to save the foundation when Sam was called to Rome. Philip not only kept it going, but put it on a sound footing so it could survive without the presence of its charismatic founder. The two worked together for many years there when Sam returned from Rome. For their last years of collaboration at Mt Carmel in Dallas, Philip was superior. Fr. Provincial naturally turned to Fr. Sam to deliver Philip's eulogy at this Mass. Father Philip's obituary is found on http://www.carmelitesok.org our provincial website's news tab or directly at http://okfriarsnewsletr.blogspot.com A transcript of Fr. Sam's eulogy follows:

My Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you, Fr. Gregory Ross, our provincial superior, for inviting me to preach at the funeral Mass of Fr. Mary Philip. It is a privilege and a grace.

Introduction ~

First let me say that liturgists teach that no matter what we do liturgically, we always celebrate our Redemption in Jesus Christ our Lord. How evident that is during the Easter Octave when we are focused intensely on the life and preaching, suffering and death of the Lord, all crowned by his glorious resurrection. Therefore, our remembering the life and ministry, sufferings and death of Fr. Mary Philip is done up against the Great Memorial of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Mediator. And the resurrection of the Lord from the grave injects energetic hope into our perspective as we mourn the passing of our brother, Mary Philip of the Holy Family, in the world – Martin Wurth, from Phoenix, AZ, born on May 22, 1925.

It will relieve me a bit to confess early on that I stand before you this Easter-Wednesday Morning with a disorganized mind. So many memories of the deceased based on experience, so much gratitude to him as a member of the province he served so arduously, so much awareness of the extraordinary qualities of this hard-working friar in our midst for more than 50 years, and such a personal connection with this man overwhelm my mind and block any systemization of my noted information and intentions. So here I stand with notes in hand, yet undecided on what to use. But to force some order on things, I pledge to speak to you roughly about 20 minutes and then to stop. If I should wear out my welcome, just start clearing your throats and I will get the message….

Impressions ~

To begin with, I will try to communicate my own subjective impression of this fine American, Catholic, Carmelite, and Priestly man. I begin with of one clear thing: that Fr. Mary Philip was a man who knew who he was! Think about how rare that is in our day and age when personal identity often comes at the price of a great struggle. Mary Philip seems to have had few problems with identity, if any at all. He knew who he was; he accepted the limitations of his poor health with determination; and he directed his life and energies as a Catholic, Carmelite and Priest to the acquisition of eternal life. In a word, he "put his hand to the plow" for himself and his charges, “and never looked back!”

I have learned that it was the Paulist Fathers in San Francisco who advised Mary Philip to consider a religious vocation. But before that he joined the Navy Sea Bees, two years into WWII. He served in Hawaii and Iwo Jima. At the latter site he helped set up a port where U.S. ships could bring supplies to construct air bases. If my information is correct, after the war he used the G.I. Bill to take business and library science courses. One school he attended was St. Mary’s University in Moraga, CA.

The Trappist Connection ~

On July 7, 1949, Martin Wurth arrived at Our Lady of the Holy Trinity Trappist Abbey in Huntsville Utah. He entered their novitiate as a postulant on July 12, switched to Oblate status in August, made first petition for Oblate promises on December 24, but left the Trappists on August 8, 1950. He was directed elsewhere by the Trappists because of poor health. They feared he would not be able to sustain the rigors of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance because he suffered from post-polio syndrome. He had contracted polio as an infant. His sister remembers him falling when he began to walk because his legs were not the same length. Well, the Trappist loss was our gain. For in the summer of 1952, Philip entered our postulancy here at Marylake. Under Fr. Felix De Prato, the first prior of Marylake, and Fr. Patrick Ahern, the novice master, he took up company with Bro. Joseph Neilson, with myself, and a year later with Raphael Kitz. His postulancy was longer than usual because of having been in another religious Order. Now, having established his Trappist connection, I can get to my point. In this unique man I have always seen an interesting combination of La Trappe and Carmel. He kept the customary Trappist ‘Mary’ as part of his name: it was common for Trappist monks to take a patron saint’s name and add it to that of Mary. So Martin became Mary Philip, and he added the title of the Holy Family.

In my view, this good man joined the austerity of the Trappist life with some very distinctive traits of our Discalced Carmelite Saints. Curiously, I think that in this man the Trappist soul added energy to Carmel’s own Elijan spirit. Indeed, Mary Philip identified with the motto of Carmel taken from Elijah: “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts in whose presence I stand.” He reminded me, moreover, of St. John of the Cross in that his staunch apophatic faith never rested: no matter how he felt or where he was he did in dark faith whatever was to be done (i.e., his duty, as he saw it). And he was like St. Teresa of Jesus in his simplicity of lifestyle; he rarely spent a dime on himself, wore throw-away clothes, saved money in minute ways, and with great calculation used the natural resources Mother Nature provided. Also like our Mother Teresa, Philip had a “very determined determination” when it came to his values and goals. As we saw in his nursing home years, he never gave up the hope of regaining his motor skills! And that was just one aspect of the life of this determined man. Finally, Philip was like St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus when it came to fidelity to details in the jobs he undertook, whether in local or provincial community. For he served us all so very well as provincial councilor, provincial procurator, local superior, local bursar, member of the student-formation team, plant manager in a number of our houses, etc., etc., etc.

Personal Gratitude

To this Trappist-Carmelite I will personally be indebted forever. But in my gratitude I speak precisely as a member of this province that Fr. Philip loved with utter commitment. In 1974 he cooperated with the provincial council’s decision to reopen the old Mount Carmel Seminary in Dallas. Knowing full well the heavy amount of work the place needed, he gave his “yes” to the personal invitation to work with me and the provincial at the time (Fr. Herman Estaún) to set up the house as a student residence for studies at the University of Dallas. Our second goal was to establish a Pastoral Center of Spirituality for the laity to promote the Western Contemplative Tradition. At the time this was a new challenge of the Order sounded from Rome for all the provinces to hear. Fr. Philip thoroughly believed in this goal. He served as the “nuts and bolts” man on the scene, putting the house back together again after years of neglect, for we had abandoned the old seminary around 1962 and leased it out gratis, except for upkeep by the leaser.

After seven years at Mt. Carmel Center, Fr. Mary Philip had basically put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but he was severely worn out. He asked us to understand and allow him to move to Marylake to scale down his activity and regain some energy. This the superiors allowed, and so he became the right hand man of Fr. John Michael, the prior of Marylake, until 1986. In that year I got called away from Mt. Carmel Center and the province for five years. Fr. Ralph Reyes was provincial. He asked me to attend a provincial council meeting at St. Mary of Carmel in Dallas. He was interested in any ideas I may have about the future of our Spirituality Center. Rather than ideas I had one urgent plea of the council, virtually made on bended knee: that the council bring Fr. M. Philip back to the Mt. Carmel Center in Dallas as superior and director! Then I left the meeting. It took the council all day long to wrestle with this idea, but late in the evening of that same day, a phone call from Fr. Ralph assured me that my request had been granted. What relief that was.

And so Fr. Philip served the Center again from 1986 till 1999. In ’99, feeling himself aging and in decline, he asked to be moved from Dallas to a house in a warmer climate, specifically to our Basilica of the Little Flower in San Antonio. After four years there, his health deteriorated even more severely and he had to be placed in a series of nursing homes. For nearly five years he was an invalid. Finally the Lord called him home this past Easter Sunday morning when he died a painless death with nothing short of a radiant countenance. May he rest in peace! Indeed, may he accept rest at last, having suffered the final cost of discipleship with a spirit that would not give up till God’s saving will was done in him, yielding to eternal life. His death in a San Antonio hospital, the parish funeral Mass at the Shrine, and his burial Mass at Marylake Novitiate have left us who loved him joyous in the Lord. So with much happiness do we celebrate his life and death in Christ and his giant step into eternity. Jesus Christ was indeed Philip’s Easter. Now Christ is his eternal Spring. It was Christ who closed the chapters of Mary Philip’s life with a death “precious in the sight of the Lord.” This good friar had been a professed Carmelite for 54 years, and a priest for 49. We rejoice with the assurance that this Trappist-Carmelite was welcomed by God as a “good and faithful servant!”

Let Nothing Disturb You…. ~

Let me add here that Mary Philip was habitually a tranquil man. He was also humorous, and he could laugh at himself as few can. He seemed to enjoy being ribbed by his brothers and his lay friends. It was a male live-in at Mt. Carmel Center who dubbed the now deceased “the incorruptible.” When Philip proved to be unresponsive to special attention, Bill Sickinger, a good friend of the man, would claim that “Philip had been dead for years but no one noticed because he was incorruptible!” And Mary Philip utterly enjoyed the saying.

Lest we forget another side of Fr. Philip’s humor: often he wore his motto on his chest, for he would opportunely reveal the words on his T-shirt: “Let nothing disturb you…” from St. Teresa’s breviary bookmark. Also, in serious discussions on matters potentially quite disturbing, he would repeat phrases from the same bookmark which reads in full: “Let nothing disturb you, nothing affright you. All things are passing, but God never changes. Patience obtains all things. To whoever has God nothing is wanting, for God alone suffices.” He really believed and lived it. No wonder he used to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, even though he allowed himself but little rest.

The Best of the Old School ~

Please understand that I mean it as a compliment when I call this friar the “best of the old school.” Something that made it easy for Fr. Philip to cooperate with the Decrees of the Second Vatican Council, unlike a significant number of older clergy, was his respect for “the law.” Change the law and Mary Philip went with it! He tried to live an objective life, not subjective. His point of reference was the law, outside and independent of himself and the preferences of others. After all, law is to help us live together in society. So, after showing him the law and you could have your way. Fr. Philip had no problem with the new Eucharistic Liturgy, the new Breviary, the new Code of Canon Law (1983) or anything else that was official from the Catholic Church or the general chapters of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. He weathered well the changes in Carmel. But do take for granted that he stuck to his basic principles of frugality and fiscal conservatism. Something he observably grew in was the new style of post-Vatican II “dialogue” that accompanied just about everything. Early on he used to vote negative often enough; later it was: “I will not oppose the majority vote.” Then finally he used to express his own opinion best he could, often confessing that it was “easier for me to see problems than it was to find solutions.” No one ever doubted his deep sincerity.

For my part I want to say that we two were like Mutt and Jeff, but we made a good team. Over our long haul in the same house in Dallas, I can remember only two knock-down drag-outs. By “sunset” the argument was laid to rest, for he also paid attention to sacred scripture. And to his credit I must say he never held a grudge against anyone! A great brother to work with. A fine servant of us all. And a wonderful servant of God.

Finale ~

Was this German-American Carmelite related to the Polish Carmelite, St. Raphael Kalinowski of St. Joseph?

Each year on November 19, the Feast of the Discalced Carmelite Friar, St. Raphael of St. Joseph, we read an exhortation of the saint to the faithful. And each year I think I am listening to Fr. Mary Philip. Was he somehow related to the saint? No, but he was definitely a kindred spirit. He surely sounded a lot like St. Raphael Kalinowski whenever he spoke and preached to the faithful. So I choose to conclude now by reading that homily in its entirety. It is a page and a third in length. Just close your eyes and think you are listening to Fr. Mary Philip preach. It is very much the same kind of soul speaking. Both of these men gave some years to military service, and both of these men were Carmelites who loved their ministry at the altar and in the confessional. More to the point, both of these men found their basic orientation and reference point in the Law of the Lord and in the execution of daily duty. Listen and enjoy. And may the Father rest Mary Philip who found his program of life and peace in God’s law and will. Amen.

[Here follows a reading of the text as given in the Carmelite Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours (Institutum Carmelitanum/Rome/1993/p.359f).]