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 was clothed in the Carmelite habit on the feast of Our Lady July 16^th, and made my vows a year later on the feast of St. Elijah, 1964.   

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.