Golden Jubilee
On July 19th at our Carmelite Nuns Monastery, 7201 West 32nd Street, in Little Rock, I will celebrate my golden jubilee of Religious profession. The Jubilee Mass will begin at 9:30 am Saturday morning and be followed by a reception. At our Provincial Chapter in June, I was appointed superior of Marylake, so am in the process of moving there now from my former assignment in Dallas. In preparation for my golden jubilee, I have prepared the following biography of my vocational journey to Carmel.
Moving to Texas from California in 1945 |
Born in San Francisco in 1941, and
moved to Texas when I was four. Mom ran away
with a sailor from Texas after the war. He
bought me some cool shades, and I wore the bow tie to show those hick country
boys I was from the big city. Adjustment
to Texas was swift: gained a drawl, got some boots, and “was fixing ta” pose on
my first house. Gotta love this new dad:
hey, he built me a house!
First thought of studying to be a priest when I was a sophmore in Junior High. Parish priest gave me a postcard of a minor seminary run by the Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette in Ipswich Mass. When I graduated from High School, I wrote letters to Texas Tech in Lubbock, and St. Edward’s in Austin, thinking it would be fun to study engineering at a Catholic school, since all my schooling had been at state-run institutions.
To pay for college I worked at a local grocery store. It was the A&P: the great Atlantic and Pacific. I had made it half across the country; who knows, before long I might even hit the East Coast. It was at this time I first met our Carmelite Nuns, and feel in love with their quiet, cloistered way of life; but I did not want to be a Carmelite friar. They were too strict and ate too little. The Nuns found a seminary where I could study to be a “generic priest.”
"generic seminarian" in 1962 |
So I began studies for the priesthood in Covington LA. My second year there, I visited Marylake which I had seen on an old calendar my Dad hung in his utility room. This place knocked me out, and I entered the monastery as a novice in 1963. President Kennedy was shot in Dallas during my novitiate, right after dedicating Greer’s Ferry lake.
my first mustache in 1972 |
I’ve always been happier to be a Carmelite than to be a priest, although the priesthood was what God was always calling me to. May His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Profession day with my Novice Master |
When I received the Carmelite habit in 1963 I took the name John Michael of the Child Jesus. My Novice Master was the founder of Marylake: Fr. Evarist V. Foix. Fr. Sam Anthony Morello was assigned as assistant to the novices. I remember being called into the Assistant's office one day after prayer. He said he was observing me during prayer and asked, "Who are you praying to?" Well, "GOD!" I replied. Who do you think? He then suggested I try talking to Jesus during prayer.