Monastery of Marylake

2011-07-26T10:46:00.003-05:00

Blogger leaves Marylake. Well that's all folks. I pray God brings me back to Marylake before I die, but for the present He, the Provincial Council, (and presumably the Holy Spirit) has led me to Dallas where I will be Parochial vicar of Santa Maria del Carmen church for the next three years. Date of departure/arrival was set for the feast of the prophet Elijah July 20th. It was the anniversary date of my 47th year as a professed Carmelite friar. In Dallas we celebrated the occasion with a dinner at my favorite seafood place: La Calle Doce, which appropriately enough is located on 12th Street in Oak Cliff.

2011-07-23T17:09:00.008-05:00

On the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, we celebrated the profession of our two novices, Brad Wagner and Jorge Morales. They received the Carmelite habit on the vigil of Our Lady’s feast last year. The year of a Carmelite’s novitiate is a year of testing and discernment. It has been compared to the military boot camp. It is not physically intense, because the purpose is not to build up the body, but it can be stressful in other aspects since the purpose is to build up the soul. Jesus said whoever wanted to follow him had to give up many things that are very dear to us: mother, father, brother, sister, riches, and in the end even life itself. Saint John of the Cross writes a lot about attachments. Each novice arrives at Marylake with baggage: some with more than others. Stuff we carry around with us. Some we don’t really need but are afraid to get rid of. Some we carry by force of habit whether we need it or not, whether it’s helpful to us or not. So during the year of novitiate the novice discerns with his master what to keep and develop, and what to discard. The discarding process is rarely peaceful since so many of us are attached to doing what we want, when we want and doing it how we want it done.

The vows Brother Brad and Brother Jorge took last Saturday were vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. Most young men think the vow of chastity is the hardest to keep. They soon find out obedience is even harder, for it involves the surrender of our will to another. Poverty is expected. Just because it is expected, doesn’t mean it is any easier to embrace. The story is told of one Brother who, when given a new assignment by his superior, loaded up a U-Haul van with books, furniture, and even the kitchen sink. Well it was really a darkroom sink, but a sink nonetheless. Another priest involved in the same transfer from one Carmelite house to another, went to his new assignment with only one suitcase. We all immediately praised the priest and condemned the Brother until we found out the priest cost the house to which he was sent a small fortune by expecting them to buy him replacements of all the things he had left behind… including a new sink for the bathroom.

Brother Bradley of Christ of King was the first to offer his vows to our Father Provincial, Luis Joaquin Castañeda. Brother was known as “Alberto” during his novitiate, but decided to keep his baptismal name Bradley as a professed religious. He was born in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua in 1975, but moved across the border when he was very young and grew up in this country. His mother lives in Los Angeles and he has two sisters in Dallas. His parents nor siblings could not come to Marylake for his profession because of a illness in the family.

Brother Jorge Maria del Cordero de Dios then offered his vows to the Provincial. Jorge was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1981. He has served military duty in the United States navy, and found the Carmelite order in San Antonio where he helped our Fathers there run the basilica of the Little Flower. His mother flew in from Puerto Rico to be with her son as he took his vows. Jorge’s sister is a Hawthorne Domincan who came down from upstate New York to be part of the ceremony. She took one of the readings of the Mass and led the Intercessions. Jorge’s Mom brought up the gifts along with Robert Pilkington, our caretaker’s son who lives at Marylake and has spent all week getting the grounds cleaned and mowed for the occasion. This was the first multiple profession we have celebrated since 1998 when Brother Joseph Le and his companions were professed. Brother Joseph can be seen sitting in the first pew on the left next to Brother Bernard. Both have now joined the Marylake community, as our two newly professed will transfer to San Antonio to begin their studies for the priesthood.

2011-07-01T10:14:00.004-05:00

The Carmelite order operates on a triennial time table. What this means is that every three years, we gather at a Provincial Chapter to elect our new superiors and assign our personnel. Last month we held our chapter in San Antonio and made personnel changes at Marylake. The new superior will be Fr. Sam Anthony Morello. Fr. John Magdalene will be his right hand man. Fr. Raphael, due to his age, is allowed to stay. Once you turn 70 you have the privilege of letting the new superiors know at what house in our province you’d like to be stationed. The superiors don’t have to give you that, but you can ask, they will listen, and in Raphael’s case, they granted his wish. Fr. John Michael will be going to Santa Maria parish in Dallas TX, Fr. Marion will be going to our basilica in San Antonio, and the two novices who will make their vows on July 16 will be entering our house of studies in San Antonio. Before leaving for the “four corners of the world” I gathered our “ideal community” together for a photo. This is the “old” community: Fr. Marion, Br. Jorge, Fr. John Magdalene, John Michael, Fr. Raphael and Br. Bradley (the novice Alberto).

2011-02-23T22:01:00.003-06:00

Father John was released from Baptist Rehab yesterday, and came up to chapel for Mass this morning for the first time since his accident on October 11th. Here to welcome him home from the hospital were Luis Joaquin Castaneda from Oklahoma & Luis Gerardo Belmonte from San Antonio (los dos Luisitos) and Our Father Provincial, Gregory Ross from New Orleans. Father Marion Joseph Bui presided at the concelebrated Mass and congratulated John for "making it up the mountain" of the 21 steps to our chapel.

2011-01-20T22:50:00.004-06:00

We kept our Christmas decorations up this year until the Baptism of the Lord, the 2nd Sunday of January. Our final Christmas holy hour was celebrated three days before the baptism on that last week of the Christmas season. We still find it hard to understand how so many take down their decorations just as the Christmas season begins. It must be because the Christmas decorations go up so early which preempts the entire Advent season which is one of the most beautiful liturgical seasons of the year, as we wait with Israel for Emmanuel to come.

The liturgical clothing of baptism is the pure white robes the catechumens receive as they emerge from the baptismal waters. Jesus blessed his Baptismal feast this year with one of the largest snow storms we’ve seen in these parts in years. All our priests managed to drive home from our weekend parishes and get back to the monastery that Sunday before the storm hit.

2011-01-09T23:45:00.004-06:00

On October 11th, our Father John Magdalene and our caretaker’s son Robert were involved in a terrible auto accident. They were returning from a shopping trip in Robert’s truck. They were hauling in our trailer a couch for the Marion House and two mattresses for the monastery, and were just a few miles from home when the truck failed to make a curve in the road and veered off their shoulder of Arch Street into a steep ditch and ran into a tree. A road repair crew working on the opposite side of the road witnessed the wreck and called 911 immediately.

When the emergency crew arrived on the scene, they were unable to extricate the two bodies, and had to cut off the roof of the truck to get them out. The “fifty year old passenger” (John is actually sixty) was the worst and was airlifted to Baptist hospital. When Fr. John Michael arrived at Baptist trauma unit, he found Father John a bloody mess. His face was covered in blood, he was bleeding from the mouth, and his hands were caked in blood. His left leg was broken, left shoulder dislocated, lungs damaged, and heart unstable. The nearest church, Christ the King, was called. Their newly ordained assistant, Fr Jason Sharbaugh came over to anoint him.

After all x-rays were taken and the shoulder placed back in its socket, Father was moved to Coronary Care where he stayed for ten days. He was put on a respirator to take care of his breathing. On the day after the accident he was in so much pain despite all the morphine and stronger stuff they were giving him, the doctors suggested putting him into a coma so his body could get some rest and begin the healing process. Pulmonary problems prevented the operation on his broken leg that was scheduled for the 15th. We took the scheduling of his badly needed operation as a sign from Saint Teresa as October 15th was her feast day, and were sorely disappointed when respiratory distress caused the operation to be postponed. The operation was performed on the 22nd, and Father was moved into Intensive Care where he remained for almost two weeks.

The doctors took him off the paralytics at the end of the month, but he failed to come out of the coma. An MRI showed no brain damage. On November 3rd he was moved from Intensive Care to a Long Care unit. When the nurses on that floor saw him still in the coma, they told us, “This is such a tragedy!” It appeared that even if he came out of the come he’d be paralyzed from the neck down. On November 12th, as John’s sister Paula was getting ready to return to Kansas, John grasped her hand, and moved his toes. His lung collapsed on the 20th, but on the 26th, Thanksgiving Day they were able to take him off the respirator and we heard him talk for the first time since the coma. He went into respiratory distress on the 29th when the tube that had been inserted into his collapsed lung came out. That afternoon he asked Fr. Raphael, “Am I dying?”

His tracheotomy was removed on December 8th, the Blessed Mother’s feast day. He was moved on that day from Baptist Hospital to Baptist Rehab. There he made such great progress, the local ABC television affiliate did a Christmas story on him. This was picked up nationally by CNN and can be found at: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/12/28/ar.priest.recovery.katv
CNN mis-spelled his last name, placing the phonetic spelling meant for the announcer on the caption: Sin rum for Suenram. Father was released from the Rehab unit on January 5th and is now back home at Marylake. We moved our upstairs chapel down to the refectory (still decorated for Christmas) so Father can attend our community prayers. This picture shows John with his four pronged walking cane concelebrating Mass with Frs. Marion and Raphael.

2010-10-02T08:33:00.004-05:00

October is a special month for our monastery as we celebrate two big feasts this month. That means two white mantle days in choir. The first pictured here is the feast of Therese of Lisieux, known as the "Little Flower." Saint Therese is the patron of our Carmelite province. The second big Carmelite feast of October is celebrated on the 15th and that is the solemnity of our holy Mother, Teresa de Jesus, or Teresa of Avila. We are currently preparing for the 500th anniversery of her birth in 1515 by studying her writings. This is the saint who had a strange devotion to the "sacred humanity" of Jesus, who treated Jesus as her "friend" and was supposed to have prayed, "If this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few."

2010-08-06T21:04:00.004-05:00

At 8:00 am on the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, July 16th, we gathered for the profession of our novice, Brother Daniel. From left to right, Brother’s grandparents John & Dot Lacourrege, his two brothers Nathan & Kurt, his sister Kelsey, Dad Ken & Ma Peggy, Pat Taylor in the back, Brs. Daniel & our newly clothed Alberto. Joseph Le, superior of our house in San Antonio was also there with his high powered camera behind Alberto but got cut off the frame of this photograph.

Our Fr. Provincial, Gregory Ross, was principal celebrant for the profession Mass. Our newly clothed, Br. Jorge read the story of the prophet Elijah praying on Mt Carmel from the first book of Kings. “Go up and look out to the sea,” the prophet instructed his servant. But there was nothing out there until the seventh time when a small cloud rose from the sea. “And with that the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, and rain fell in torrents.” [I Kng 18, 42-45]

Br. Alberto read the second reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians: “When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the law, to redeem the subjects of the law and to enable us to be adopted as sons.” [Gal 4, 4-7]

After the gospel and homily delivered by Our Fr. Provincial, Brother Daniel left his family and approached the celebrant to kneel and take his vows. “I, brother Daniel Marie of the Cross, desiring to live faithfully... a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ, with my brothers as witnesses into your hands, Brother Gregory of the Trinity, vow to almighty God … Chastity, poverty and obedience, according to the Rule and Constitutions of the Order of the Discalced Friars of … Mount Carmel. With my whole heart I give myself to this religious institute restored by Saint Teresa, to seek perfect charity in the service of our Mother the Church …through constant prayer and apostolic ministry, and to give eternal glory to the most holy Trinity.”

Daniel’s mother Peggy then came up to read the petitions for the Prayer of the Faithful. His grandparents had visited Marylake last summer when Daniel was clothed, but this was our first chance to meet Brother Daniel’s parents and siblings. They made a shrimp creole for us while they were here.

Our group picture includes from left to right: Our Father Provincial Fr. Gregory, Br. Jorge, Daniel, Alberto, Raphael, John Michael & Juan Guillermo. Daniel, after his vacation at home in Louisiana, will join Br. Juan Guillermo in our house of studies in New Orleans.

2010-08-01T22:50:00.006-05:00

In the summer, our chapel’s Air Conditioner cannot handle the heat upstairs next to our attic which is like a sauna in the afternoons. We have converted Father Henry’s old cell in the professed section into our Vespers chapel. The clothing of our two new novices was scheduled for First vespers of Our Lady of Mt Carmel on July 15th. Since they requested to be clothed in the chapel, we sweated it out on that afternoon for the ceremony. These first pictures show us waiting for the programs to be printed. Br. Juan Guillermo and our live-in Martín Orosco were 15 minutes late with the programs due to some last minute changes that needed to be made. On the choir side from left to right: Br. Joseph Le, superior of our monastery in San Antonio; Marion Bui, John Magdalene, Brad Wagner & our novice, Daniel Lacourrege.

On the other side of the choir sit Jorge Morales and Fr. Sam Anthony from our house of studies in New Orleans. Finally the programs arrive. Martin distributes them to the choir side of our chapel.

After the entrance song, Juntos como Hermanos, Our Father Provincial asks the two postulants, Jorge and Brad, “Dear Brothers, what do you ask from us?” They respond, “We wish to try your way of life, and are willing to be tested ourselves, that we may follow Christ wholeheartedly, in this Order of Discalced Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.” The Provincial then says, “May the Lord grant you this help.”

Then comes the prayer where we find out what names the two new novices have taken: “Let us pray. Lord God, you give us the desire to hear your call. Listen favorably to the prayers of your servants Jorge Maria del Cordero de Dios and Alberto de la Madre Dolorosa as they ask to join our community. Grant that the life in common of the Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary may become a communion of love.”

After the ceremony we gathered on our back porch for some pictures. The two main photographers were Br. Joseph Le with his fancy camera, and Martin with everybody else’s camera.

So here’s our two new novices all decked out on their clothing day in five layers of wool, a reminder undoubtably that they entered the monastery in order to suffer.

2010-05-12T00:12:00.003-05:00

There has been birdwatching hysteria in Arkansas over a 2005 alleged spotting of an ivory billed woodpecker in the swamps of Eastern Arkansas. “Among the world’s largest woodpeckers, the ivory-bill is one of six North American bird species suspected or known to have gone extinct since 1880. The last conclusive sighting of the woodpecker was in Louisiana in 1944,” reports the National Geographic in April 2005. The magazine published this picture of the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker.

Well lo and behold, on Tuesday 11th of May, Fr. John came running to my cell summoning me to the back kitchen door where we saw, not one but two huge woodpeckers that looked just like the picture in the National Geographic. He wanted me to take a picture of it, but I didn’t have the right equipment. As all he had was his cell phone, I went back to my room to get my Coolpix 3100, set it’s little zoom as far as I could and snapped three pictures from inside the screen door. I was afraid to go out and frighten them off. Later Fr. Marion Joseph got his high powered Nikon, but by this time they had flown up high into a tree. The second photo was the best shot Marion’s camera could get.

I finally decided to retrieve my own three shots. The second bird was disappearing to the back of the tree’s trunk in my first shot. The first two shots were out of focus, but lo and behold on the third shot I managed to get a decent shot of the woodpecker. Is this the elusive Ivory billed woodpecker? If it is we had two of them at Marylake at 5:00 pm on May 11th.

2010-05-12T00:06:00.003-05:00

April was azalea season at Marylake. We have four different colors on display surrounding our back porch. On top of the columns are the violet impatiens I bought at the local Ace Hardware store to add some color to the Easter altar with the white lilies. They are recuperating from Easter week inside in this photo, but soon revived in the sunlight and began blooming again once the azaleas faded.

Whenever I visit my family out in California, I am always amazed by the bougainvillea everyone seems to have growing in their back yards. In the San Francisco bay area this hardy plant seems to bloom all year around. At Marylake it can’t take the winter. I kept this one alive from last years’ Easter and thought I had lost it in February when all the leaves fell off, but come spring it sprang back to life in the south window of my cell.

This last year a lightning storm took out my favorite Marylake tree. It was a hundred year old white oak that dominated the front view of the monastery. The stairs that lead up to the novitiate ended at a window with a spectacular view of this grand old tree. When the lightning bolt hit it, the tree exploded sending bark flying through the downstairs windows into our library. You can see it’s stump to the right of this photo under the purple Martin houses. The azaleas are happy it’s gone as they get more light now.

My final azalea shot is of the other side of the front of our monastery. Once that Redbud tree’s blossoms fade, the azaleas begin to bloom. Although I cleverly omitted it from these photographs, we have had scaffolding and equipment on the front porch this spring finishing off the point and tuck sealing of the stonework in the upper parts of our lakefront façade.

2010-04-16T16:39:00.003-05:00

Spring has sprung. The wisteriathis year has decided to hop across the road to the Pine tree. Fr. Mary Philip did his dead level best to kill this wisteriavine which has been here since we bought the place back in 1951. But as you can see, it has triumphed over the best efforts of man. The dogwoods were just beginning to open during Holy Week, so we didn’t have a lot of flowers with which to decorate the altar of repose on Holy Thursday night.

But the phlox on the walkway back to our kitchen had one of its best years this year. In fact it reigned from Easter Sunday to this day. Today the azaleas are coming out, so I’ll take note of getting outside to catch them on film.

One criticism of the famous nature photographer Ansel Adams was that he never took a picture of a human being. So I did want to throw in a picture of a group of those interesting creatures. This is our Father Provincial, Gregory Ross, myself, our General Definitor from Rome, the Irishman Fr. John Grennan, and Fr. John Magdalene, our director of development .

2009-11-06T00:27:00.003-06:00

This picture shows our province praying vespers in Marylake’s main chapel. This room was originally the ballroom of the Country Club. The orchestra played from the upper balcony on the right which we have sealed with plexiglass in order to air-condition. The “band balcony room” is now used as our daily choir. In Doctor Brinkley’s day [Nov 1937-1941] this main chapel was used as a “Spacious Lounge and Reading Room at the Brinkley Country Hospital.”

Our novice, Br. Juan Guillermo served the jubilee Mass of Fr. Raphael Kitz (center) and Fr. Stephen Sanchez (right). Raphael was celebrating 50 years as a priest, and Stephen 25 years as a Carmelite. We lost one of our overhead windows in July of last year when we attempted to air-condition the chapel for a wedding. The light fixture hanging to the left of the chimney came from the old Worthen Bank. The round gray circle in the chimney was where the Masonic emblem used to be. The presidential chairs came from the Oklahoma Governor’s mansion in Ponca City.

After the jubilee Mass our friars began to gather in the refectory for a gourmet meal cooked by a Swiss chef who used to work at the Excelsior Hotel downtown. In the back Father Luis Gerardo checks out his table decorations. The wall hanging is a deacon’s dalmatic which was worn on 27-July-1952 for the dedication of the Monastery. This room had served as the dining room for the original Country Club, for the Country Hospital, and for various Boys Camps before it was consecrated as our monastic refectory.

In the old days, a skull was set at the head table as a reminder to the friars of what the body they were feeding would eventually turn into. The friars were exhorted to run to the cross with the same enthusiasm they use to run to the table; and to cautiously approach the table with the same reluctance they would normally approach the cross.

2009-10-23T22:25:00.004-05:00

Fr. Luis Gerardo Belmonte is pastor of our basilica in San Antonio. Here he is in Marylake’s scullery preparing flowers for the double jubilee ceremony of Raphael Kitz and Stephen Sanchez. Father Raphael is celebrating his 50th year as a priest. Fr. Stephen is celebrating his 25th year as a vowed Carmelite friar. The jubilee was celebrated at Marylake during our annual provincial retreat which we host each October. After a month of monsoon proportional rain, the skies cleared for the first three days of the week, then on Thursday (the day we were free to roam the woods of Marylake) the rains returned.

Here’s the finished results of Father Luis’ three flower arrangements for the altar. In addition he made seven arrangements for place settings in the refectory. When this guy starts decorating, you know it’s going to look festive. When our retreat began the chapel was very cold in the morning. On the day of the jubilee we celebrated Mass in the afternoon when it was more comfortable in our big unheated chapel.

2009-07-16T12:10:00.003-05:00

Daniel’s clothing
Our little community gathered for 1st vespers of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel yesterday evening in the newly created Victorine Oratory. Fr. Sam Anthony was delighted to find his first summer job at Marylake was to design a chapel where we could comfortably pray vespers as the air-conditioner in our upstairs choir cannot keep up with the intense heat of an Arkansas summer. We gave him Brother Victor’s old cell. I believe this is the room in which Brother died, so we named our new oratory in his honor.

This evening was special since it was the date assigned to clothe our postulant, Daniel Lacourrege in the habit of our order. Father Sam had come from our student house in New Orleans, and Fr. Provincial (Gregory) came to invest our new novice. Fr. Bonventure was in Baltimore for an OCDS Congress, Fr. John Magdalene was giving a novena at our nuns in Terre Haute, and Fr. Raphael was up in Minnesota on vacation, so our community was diminished for this solemn occasion. We have not had two novices in years. Our senior novice, Br. Juan Guillermo, is taking a picture behind Gregory and Daniel.

The ceremony began with Our Father Provincial asking the postulant: “Dear Brother, what do you ask from us?” Daniel answered, “I wish to try your way of life, and am willing to be tested, that I may follow Christ wholeheartedly, in this order of Discalced friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt Carmel.”

Fr. Gregory then blessed the habit, made by Sebastiana, one of our parishioners at Little Flower church in Oklahoma City. Here the Provincial clothes Daniel in Our Lady’s scapular, the principal part of the five piece habit.

Juan Guillermo, left, helped with the final investiture of the white ceremonial mantle. The new novice was given the religious name, Brother Daniel Marie of the Cross. Brother was born in December 1987. He’s now 21.

After the clothing we prayed first vespers of the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. Pray that Brother Daniel may persevere through his year novitiate and come next year’s feast make his vows as a Carmelite friar. After praying the divine office, Fr. Provincial herded us outside in the intense Arkansas heat to have our picture taken. Gregory impressed me with his technological savvy in getting his camera to take the picture automatically: Juan Guillermo, Daniel Marie, Gregory, John Michael & Sam Anthony.

2008-12-28T17:16:00.005-06:00

We hear at lot about the commercialization of Christmas at this time of year. Certainly in a time of deepening recession, I suppose we need a lot of buying to spruce up the Christmas spirit. But one thing I think the church has gotten right and the culture we live in has gotten wrong is the timing of our celebration of Jesus' birth. The church doesn't really start celebrating Christmas until Christmas eve. In our Irish inspired house, when I was growing up we never took down the Christmas decorations until Epiphany twelve days after Christmas. Of course we were the only ones in our neighborhood to extend the celebration so long into the New Year. By Jan 6th all our neighbors' Christmas trees had been long since been hauled off.

On the first Sunday of Advent I said Mass at a Veterans' hospital. There Christmas had already begun with full navitity set and trees all decorated... just as the church was beginning it's somber season of penance as preparation for the feast to come. Well that's the government for you. At Marylake, we didn't cut the trees during the 3rd week of Advent, and on the 4th and last Sunday of Advent we began to decorate. The first picture was taken on the 4th Sunday, December 21st. Fr. Raphael helped me string the lights on the tree, and then I began building the crib, as seen above in its initial stage of development. All was completed on Christmas eve. The crib is different each year as it is constructed anew each Christmas. So the final result is always similar but ever new. I think the finished product shown here was actually last year's crib. I haven't gotten around to taking a picture of this year's, which would be the logical complement to it's beginning pictured above. But you make do with what's at hand when blogging!

The Carmelite friars of Marylake wish you all a blessed Christmas. May the peace and good will of the season carry over in our hearts into the New Year.

2008-12-14T20:25:00.012-06:00

On a rainy Thursday, November 6th the Saline County Historical Society came out to Marylake for a tour. The biggest change around here since 1935 is the cars which bring people to the monastery. Oak trees have grown, pines have died, but the driveway (now paved) is the same, as is the building since it's construction in 1926 when the stones were hauled in by mules from Pinacle Mountain. Jim Krueger used the occasion to take pictures around our grounds while his wife Marlo took my tour of the inside. Jim's Nikon D300 with zoom lens, managed to capture the beauty of Marylake in the fall. The Dogwood leaves were a bright red while the sweet gum was just beginning to turn to its yellow stars of autumn. The bridge to the cemetery always draws photographers, whether as a background or as an object of interest in itself. Our cemetery was constructed on the ninth hole of the original golf course. Fr. Herman built the bridge in the '60s to span the lagoon that separates the monastery from the cemetery. Before the bridge, we had to jump from rock to rock to get across the lagoon.

2008-12-06T22:04:00.006-06:00

The Greater Little Rock Camera Club came out in October to take some pictures around the monastery. The group led by Camella McCoy (or Angel as she is known) included Gabe Sisney and Neil Jones, who took this nice shot of our facade with the traditional bare cross. The cross found in each friar's cell has no "corpse"attached. The friar is reminded to place himself on the cross through self denial and mortification. In this way he can imitate his savior who died for him on the cross, by doing not His own will, but the will of his heavenly Father. Angel took this nice shot of our waterfall.

Marylake has been a photo magnet this year. Never have so many come out to take pictures. Dillards started the trend a couple years ago when they shipped in models from New York to pose around the property for their fall clothing line. Then there are always young women who want their bridal shot taken here. We even had a family recently who took their Christmas picture here. Gabe Sisney of the camera club took the shot of our monastery's north wall.

2008-04-10T10:21:00.012-05:00

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).]

2008-03-08T22:24:00.004-06:00

Just as we thought winter was over, having not received as much as one snow flake the whole season, we got a nice snow last Tuesday. It melted, the daffodils revived, then it snowed all day Friday. I took this picture this morning. The water on our porch froze overnight preserving the snow until the sun came up Saturday. Our Weimaraner Jackson dragged his bed out to the porch to secure for himself a good viewing place for this unusual lenten sight. Easter is coming so early this year, we actually had a pink poinsettia that survived from Christmas to Laetare Sunday.

2008-02-27T15:42:00.002-06:00

Spring is in the air. The daffodils are blooming. The lake finally filled last week after its winter draining. Those last few inches always take the longest. Then the water begins to flow over the spillway at last.

2007-08-18T11:52:00.000-05:00

Flood control day six: Linoleum not only hides a multitude of sins, but also keeps moisture from drying out the hardwood floor underneath. Six days after the flood we finally got the linoleum removed from the bishop’s room in the back of this photo where the water pipe broke. The latin inscription over the doors to our monastery’s cells reads, “This is my place of rest, here is my habitation, because I have chosen to be here.” That’s one of the psalms. Our habitation hopefully will soon be dry. Then the restoration may begin. Any donation will be gratefully accepted. Checks may be sent to Carmelite Fathers at 5151 Marylake Dr., Little Rock AR 72206. May God reward you. Guide us Noah, to a dry dwelling place. Then we can rest.

2007-08-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

Imagine, if you will, a rain forest coming down in the pool room. This monastery’s main entrance is seldom used, for it faces the lake. The entrance used is the back door close to the parking area. The room one would enter through the main door has been used for years as our pool room. Someone gave us a pool table, and we acquired wooden benches which surround the table. The ceiling was old acoustical tiles now soaked in water pouring in from the rooms above which rained down on the table, littering the floor in a wet mess of biblical proportions. That’s the scene that welcomed us as we returned to the monastery last Sunday from our weekend Masses.

A water pipe had burst on the main floor of the monastery. This happened in the guest section where noone lives. It was not noticed for hours. Water flooded three and a half rooms plus two hallways, seeped through the floor and poured down into our lakeside floor where it flooded as many rooms as upstairs including a room and a half where our provincial archives are kept. Our main library downstairs was spared except for a little water seepage into the carpet. This is the mess we have had on our hands all week. A Restoration company came out Monday to haul out the ceiling tiles and set up fans and dehumidifiers to dry the place out before mold set in. I ripped out the carpeting and sponge padding upstairs while Fr. Marion mopped up the water. The two of us had the upstairs free of standing water before the Restoration people got here. We hauled the carpets outside where our 100 degree heat dried them out rather quickly. The sponge padding under the carpets was a total loss. Whether the carpeting can be salvaged or not, we doubt.

The pipe burst under the sink in what we call “the bishop’s room.” I think Bishop Albert Flecther who dedicated this monastery in 1952 once took a nap in that guest room. From there it ran into the sacristy next door and into our bathroom on the other side. From the bathroom it crept into my room.

Here’s a picture of the sacristy after we removed the carpeting. For some reason the bishop’s room, hallway, and half the sacristy floor had been laid in linoleum prior to our renovation in the 1980s. The linoleum not only hid a multitude of sins beneath, but also kept the hardwood underneath from drying out. The hallways of our guest section and the section in which we live are now littered with furniture from the flooded area. We now pray for funds to repair the damage. Who’s the saint of flood damage? Noah?

2007-04-05T11:10:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday of Holy Week water poured over our spillway for the first time since we drained the lake for winter. Hispanic workers created a new spillway surface by adding more rocks. A fierce storm Tuesday night topped the lake and caused the water to flow over this new spillway for the first time. We wish you a Happy Easter as we celebrate the Paschal mysteries in our monastery above the waterfall.

2007-02-04T20:57:00.000-06:00

If you've been watching the weather map you will have noticed God sent us a nice snow for the feast of the Presentation. The purity of the white candles blessed that day, the innocent baby presented to God that day by his mother, was all well reflected in the new fallen snow that greeted us that morning after Mass. This is a view from our back porch with our guest house in the background. It was a beautiful morning. Bob and David had brought us a load of wood for the fireplace the night before this snow, so we were well prepared to truly celebrate the Presentation of Jesus in the temple.

2006-12-09T09:56:00.000-06:00

In August, I flew to St Louis for a wedding. The groom is the grandson of Al & Grace Wrape from Little Rock. I kind of adopted these two as surrogate parents back when their children were growing up. I was an only child, you see, and they had this large family, so I got like a bunch of brothers and sisters in the deal. It was a sweet deal. Especially the fact that I keep them at a distance and don’t have to live with them 24-7, but visit for feasts, holidays and bridge games when all are on good behavior.

Anyway I ended up marrying practically all their children, except for MaryBeth who got married before I came to Marylake, and Gracie whose husband has a Uncle-in-law or something who’s a priest. But I married all the rest. So when the grandkids started marrying, who does number-one grandson come to when he got married? Me. I mean, I’m like “Marrying Sam” to this family. Well last year when number-one-grandson’s brother decided to marry, he asked Fr. Ralph to do the honors.

Now Ralph was an excellent choice, don’t get me wrong. But there’s no way I can compete with Ralph. He’s a far better man than I. His ego is about 1/5th the size of mine. He beats the socks off me in bridge (as does Fr. Bob Grant who took that inferior quality picture of our community in the post below this). Ralph is a goumet cook, he visits people in their homes, he keeps in touch by phone. His social skills are top of the line. In fact, the only area in which I could compete with Ralph and have a decent chance of winning is in photography. Ralph with luck can find the button to push to take a picture, whereas I spend hours fine tuning a digital images with various areas of light and color until I achieve the ultimate wedding photo.

So folks, here it is. That’s Philip Johnson (his Mom is one of the Wrape girls) with his lovely bride Katie. I’m standing in the back with server Bridget Lee. The setting is this beautiful church on the Jesuit campus of their St Louis University. Now the only thing in the raw image that was perfectly exposed was the bride’s dress. To view any other object in the picture, including the faces of the bride and groom, one would normally have to add enough light to entirely white out that beautiful dress. So kicking both my digital gear and obsessive compulsive disorder into overdrive, I carefully selected about ten separate areas of the raw image for various exposures to achieve what was almost the perfect wedding photo. Almost. Only one item kept it from being perfect. That was Ralph. As main celebrant, he was positioned between the bride and groom. His face was half hidden behind the groom’s face and took attention away from the groom. So through my digital magic, I eliminated Ralph’s face. You can see only a trace of his vestment between the bride’s veil and the groom’s tux. (That trace was needed to outline the groom’s shoulder). Now I was on the sideline of this scene, somewhat up there in the bleachers of the sanctuary, but with the digital elimination of Ralph, it appears I’m actually presiding over this lovely wedding. And so there you have it, folks: the perfect wedding photo.

2006-12-08T23:49:00.001-06:00

On the 4th Monday of each month I go to a restaurant in the evening “with the guys.” We call it, “Priests Nite Out.” And we’ve run the circuit of middle class eateries in Little Rock: Olive Garden for Italian, La Hacienda for Mexican, Red Lobster for seafood, La Scala for eclectic. We went to the Fire Fall Grill in May to say goodbye to the guy behind it all. Msgr David Lesieur was the primary organizer of this monthly meal, and in May the bishop sent him to the NW part of the state. Since David’s departure from our fair city, the talk of our Monday Nites has been the bishop, or lack of one as the case turns out to be, in what the Vatican calls a “Sede Vacante.” Translation: an empty seat.

As our bishop asked a number of Arkansas priests to take a new assignment, the pope’s man in Washington DC asked Bishop Sartain to take a new assignment. The diplomat in DC has a thick Italian accent: “Zee pope vants you to bee bishop of JuJe.” Our bishop asked him to kindly repeat what the pope wanted. Four repetitions later, our bishop replied, “I am sorry Monsignor, but I do not understand to which diocese I am being sent.” Zamboni replied, “Maybee in Englis you say Joliet?” Last year I gave a retreat in Salt Lake City. When I come to the part of the Mass where we pray for the bishop, I always need to ask the congregation the name of their bishop. This time, however, a considerate sacristan had penciled into the priest’s Mass book, the name “George.” With no further ado, I prayed for “our bishop George.” “Oh no,” the congregation responded. “George is no longer with us.” Thinking (correctly, I might add) that they had a “sede vacante” in Salt Lake, I responded, “Oh? So George went to heaven?” “Oh no Father, George went to San Francisco."

My photo of the year was taken with one of those disposible cameras people buy when taking a trip. Not much detail here, but you can see our little five person community. Star of the show is Brother Bernard who decided to don the green wig the AIDS Foundation gave him for his volunteer work. The beard is real. Brother is flanked by Fr. Raphael on the left and me on the right. Our superior, Fr. Ralph, is in back between Bernard and I. The member of our community not present for this Kodak moment was our elder Father, Joseph. Standing in for him in back between Raphael and Bernard is one of our Carmelite students, Br. Joseph Marie, who is studying at the seminary in New Orleans, but spent his summer vacation with us at Marylake.

Carinos is a restaurant chain around these parts. They go for an old fashioned atmosphere with antique photographs on the walls. Last time I was in a Carinos, my attention focused on one of those photographs. From a distance it looked like a Carmelite wearing a white mantle. What could that be? I wondered from my distant table. After the meal, I went over for a closer look. It was indeed a Carmelite and he was posing outside our Marylake kitchen. “Hey,” I called my hosts as they were preparing to check out. “This is a picture of the place where I live! I live in that castle.“ Sure Father, sure you do; you live in the past. ”I do, I do. That’s our kitchen in the back!” Sure Father, sure. “It’s true!” Sure it is Father. Now let’s go home. Later I checked with the Carmelite in that photo. Then he was a novice. Now he is a deacon in Miami. He confirmed that his brother began the restaurant chain in Houston years ago, and used old family photos in the chain’s décor. Ha. Tell that to my hosts. The unbelieving lot.

My trips for the year include Miami in February where I gave a retreat, Cherokee Village AR where I condicted a lenten mission, Lafayette LA where we established a new OCDS community in March, South Carolina in April, Piedmont OK where I conducted the Holy Week liturgy, Utah in May, San Antonio and Oklahoma City in June, Jackson MS and Covington LA in June, St Louis for a wedding, Sioux City in August, Mobile AL in September, Dallas in October. I took my vacation in Houston and in Lafayette in late October, and ended it with a business meeting at Holy Hill Wisconsin in November.

All these trips rack up free airline tickets. I let another free flight expire in October. Packing for vacation, I thought I’d better throw in my free flight coupon for any emergency that might arise. It was only then I realized it had expired a few weeks previously. This is about the third time I let a free trip slide by. I always keep one on hand to fly to San Francisco lest an emergency develop there with my one remaining Aunt and Uncle. New Year’s resolution: fly to San Francisco; do not wait for emergency. Do not pass Go.

God blessed us with a novice this year. He entered the monastery in July and left in November. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

I end this with a glimpse to the scene of our former bishop’s installation in Joliet. Cardinal George was there from Chicago, and Bishop Sartain told his new flock that the Cardinal gave him permission, as a son of the South, to use the term “ya’ll.” And in case you are wondering, the bishop added, what the plural of “ya’ll” is, it’s “alla ya’ll.” May all-a-ya’ll have a blessed Christmas and happy New Year.

2006-10-30T10:12:00.000-06:00

Father General from Rome came to Marylake in October and celebrated this Mass to begin our annual retreat on Monday the 16th at 5:00 pm.
Fr. Luis Arostegi Gamboa, the general, is the main celebrant assisted by vicar provincial Fr John Magdalen [left] and Provincial Gregory Ross [right.] Two days later Father General flew to Pittsburg for a meeting of the three Associations of Discalced Carmelite nuns in the United States. He is presently in Peru, but will return to begin visitation of the California Province in November.

2006-07-16T10:52:00.000-05:00

After Mass, Father Ralph ceded the presidential chair to Father Gregory, since our constitutions state, "It pertains to the Provincial to accept novices, with the consent of the community to which they were entrusted." [C 114] Gregory intoned Midday Prayer for the feast of St Bonventure, which is the eve of our greatest Carmelite celebration of the year, July 16th when we celebrate the solemnity of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. This timing allows Brother Javier to take his vows on this day next year provided he perseveres in his novitiate which lasts a year and a day.

After praying the psalms, our postulant Javier Gonzalez stepped forward and was asked by our Father Provincial, "Dear Brother, what do you ask of us?" (That’s Frs Joseph and Ralph seated on either side of Javier’s empty chair in choir.) Javier answered: "Drawn by God’s mercy, I have come to learn your way of life. I ask you to teach me to follow Christ crucified and his mother Mary, and to live in poverty, obedience and chastity. Teach me to persevere in prayer and penance, in the service of the church and of mankind. Teach me to be one with you in heart and mind. Help me to live out the gospel every day of my life. Teach me your Rule and help me to learn to love the brethren as Christ commanded, living in allegiance to Jesus Christ and serve Him faithfully." Father Provincial then said a prayer, revealing Javier’s new name in religion, "Javier of Santa Teresa de Jesus."

Javier was then handed his new habit which he held while Father Luis Joaquin assisted in blessing the habit: "Lord God, you clothed your Son with mortal flesh in the chaste womb of the Virgin Mary, our patroness. Pour out your abundant blessings on these garments, and grant that your servant, by wearing them here on earth, may prefigure the future resurrection and be found worthy to be clothed with the blessing of immortality."

The first garment is the tunic. Javier is shown here just after he received the tunic. Luis holds the scapular and white mantel, while Fr. Provincial prepares to give Brother his belt.

The next garment is the scapular, which symbolizes Mary’s special protection of the wearer. "Since we belong to a family specially dedicated to Our Lady, we wear the habit of her Order as a sign of our consecration." [C 79] (That is Brother Joseph Marie in the back who is studying for the priesthood in New Orleans.) Fr. Provincial prepares to give Javier next the capuche, commonly called "the hood." It’s named after the long pointed hood worn by Capuchins. Often we are Carmelites are mistaken for Franciscans because of the similarity of our habits. Our hood has no point though. When St Teresa designed our habit, she cut off all extra material to symbolize our poverty.

The final part of our habit is the white mantel which is worn on special feasts. It symbolizes the famous mantel of the prophet Elijah who served as inspiration for our Carmelite forefathers who took up residence in the caves of Mt Carmel in Israel where Elijah had lived centuries before we started our hermit life there in the 13th century A.D. Part of the problem in taking pictures of clothing ceremonies is that a lot of the time is spent with the candidate’s face buried under all these clothes. The temperature that afternoon rose to about 102. After the ceremony, we kidded Brother that he had entered Carmel to suffer.

Once Brother was fully clothed, he was embraced with a fraternal hug by each member of the community to which he had now entered. "Where charity and love abide, there God is ever found." The ceremony continued with a reading from sacred scripture and a short reflection by our Father Provincial. We ended by turning to Our Lady’s statute and singing the traditional latin chant, Salve Regina. Translation: "Hail holy queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope..."

2006-07-15T23:11:00.000-05:00

Today began with Mass at 9:00 am. This is a rare thing in the monastery because Mass is usually at 6:30 am. Our Father Provincial did not arrive until about midnight last night after an eight hour drive from New Orleans to Little Rock. So we gave him a break. The last time you saw us at Mass was around Christmas time when we were having it down in our refectory. Well we are back in the upstairs chapel now. This room used to be the orchestra loft for the grand ballroom below when this place was a Masonic country club. On our side of choir are Luis Joaquin Castañeda. He's our vocational director. He drove Javier, our postulant, from Oklahoma City to Marylake the other day. Next to him is Br. Luis Gerardo Belmonte who was up at the crack of dawn making a big breakfast for us this morning which was served after Mass and the Divine Office. Luis Gerardo is a wonderful cook. In back by Our Lady's statue is Brother Bernard, our regular cook, gardener, and general handyman. Bernard welcomes a new cook with open arms, although Luis Gerardo will leave on his vacation soon, so we are enjoying his presence while we got him. Reading the gospel at the lecturn is our Father Provincial, Gregory Ross. After the gospel, our superior Fr. Ralph gave the sermon from the presidential chair behind the altar. Ralph delivered most of the sermon hidden behind the flowers from my place in choir. I had to time my photo op carefully to catch him leaning back in the chair.

2006-07-14T00:03:00.000-05:00

Our community has now grown. Yesterday, Javier Gonzalez arrived with Fr. Luis Joaquin, our director of vocations. Luis will act as Javier's novice master until Fr. Raphael returns from vacation in Minnesota. Also arriving yesterday was Br. Luis Benedicto [photo left] who has just returned from his studies for the priesthood in Rome. Our Father Provincial is due to arrive tomorrow. We expect to clothe Javier in the Carmelite habit on Saturday, so I'll take pictures and post something for the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. We appreciate all prayers for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

2006-01-21T21:23:00.000-06:00

The biggest thing going on at Marylake this winter is the construction of a new house across the street from the Monastery. Back in the '80s, after our groundskeeper Jess Spann died, I invited Bob Pilkington to move into Jess' house up the hill from the Monastery. Bob married Mary Lou, [here they are in their new garage] and they had two children, Julie and Robert. Bob has dreamed for years of building a house of his own. We had a house, perhaps we should call it a shack, on the other side of the street from the monastery. It had been there since God knows when. In the '30s club days, they called it "the Bull's Pen," because while the ladies were socializing in the Country Club, the men would gather across the street and to drink Whiskey and smoke and do all those other things you weren't supposed to do in an Arkansas Christian County like Saline. In the '70s, Ada Faye Gwin and her husband moved into the house. It wasn't much of a home, so they didn't stay long. The last person to live there was Troy Spann's son Shawn. He was not much more than a teenager at the time, and we always suspected he liked the tradition of the old Bull's Pen. The house barely existed for the next ten years, home only to rats and other vermin.

The last use of the place was as a Haunted House for Halloween of 2003. Frs. Bonaventure and Raphael went over to check it out. As they stood in line to get in, the couple in front of them was wondering out loud how spooky the place really was. Precisely the thoughts of Bonaventure and Raphael. One said, "The thing that really spooks me is those guys who live in that monastery across the street." This is the middle of the bible belt, by the way. Catholics are a oddity, especially out here in the rural backroads of Arkansas. Bonaventure chirpped up: "We are those guys! Boo!" Well that put the fear of the Lord in those within earshot as they entered the haunted house right in front of those spooky guys.

Bob finally tore down the shack last year, and about 300 feet to the north, began construction of this new home. Of all the nice features of this home, the one Bob and Mary Lou seem to pin more hopes upon is the two vehicle garage to the left in this photo. It has a big attic Bob has his eyes upon as his hermitage retreat. As I was given a tour of the place this morning, Mary Lou pointed to that attic and called it, "my attic." Uck Oh! I see trouble brewing. I told Bob, "I guess you'll just have to build a Bull's Pen out back."

2005-12-18T20:05:00.000-06:00

Our little community moved from our upstairs choir down to the refectory to pray the divine Office and celebrate Mass last week, the Third of Advent. Brother Bernard serves Mass for Father Raphael, our novice Master. Bernard had a hernia operation last week and needs to rest from going up and down the stairs to choir four times a day. We got our trees set up last week, but as you can see we still have decorating to do. The lights only extend to the top of the picture. A ladder is needed to complete the top. The crib in our big chapel has yet to be constructed. Father John Michael is the architect, and logs have been hauled in for the purpose. We have a Christmas party each year for the priests of the diocese, and cards still need to be mailed. Our superior, Father Ralph, returned home last night from Texas. Our life is a life of prayer and sacrifice, sometimes more one than the other.