Trinidad and Tobago Carmelites were thrilled to welcome their Prior General Fr Joseph Chalmers and General Councillor Fr William J Harry. They arrived in Trinidad on January 11.

Frs Joseph Chalmers and William J Harry celebrated Holy Mass at St Mary's Church, Mucurapo on January 12, for the whole Carmelite family of Trinidad and Tobago , including the friars, nuns, Third Order Carmelites and the parishioners of the Carmelite Cluster.

The Carmelite Prior General and General Councillor also celebrated Holy Mass with the parishioners of St Michael's at St Cecilia's Chapel (La Seiva) and in St Theresa's Chapel (Acono) and in St John's parish, St Augustine .

After enriching the Carmelites in T & T with their presence, messages and inspiring talks, they left T &T on January 15 to return to Rome .

Fr Chalmers is originally from Glasgow , Scotland , and was a lawyer before joining the Carmelites in 1975. He studied spirituality at the Gregorian University in Rome . A former provincial of the British Province , he is currently the Prior General of the Order of Carmelites. He has written on prayer and spirituality and worked extensively in retreat ministry.

The General Councillor for Northern Europe and North America , William J Harry is originally from Kentucky (USA). He was President of a large college in Chicago for 10 years and was a Commissary Provincial in the Western USA before being elected to the General Council in 2001.

Carmelite spirituality

The late Pope John Paul II said: “ Carmel is a source of wealth for the whole Christian community.”

Since the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965), Carmelites have reflected at length on their identity, on their charism, on what is fundamental in their lives and what is for them a “life-project”, namely “to live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ and serve him faithfully with a pure heart and a good conscience” (Rule).

They found their allegiance to Christ in their commitment to seek the face of the living God (contemplative dimension), in living in fraternity and service ( diakonia ) in the midst of the people.

Carmelite Prior General Fr Joseph Chalmers blesses a parishioner at St Mary's, Mucurapo

They see all this in the lives of the prophet Elijah and the Blessed Virgin Mary who were led by the Spirit of God. Looking at Mary and Elijah, it is easy for the Carmelites to understand, to interiorise, to live and to announce the truth that makes a person free.

Carmelites, conscious of being part of the Church and of history, live in a fraternity that is open to God and to people, able to listen and give an authentic response to the evangelical life according to their own charism, and they commit themselves to build the Kingdom of God wherever they are.

Indeed they are committed to evangelisation in houses of prayer, centres for spiritual exercises, parishes, Marian sanctuaries, schools, and religious associations; and to justice and peace wherever human dignity is trodden underfoot, especially among the poor, the marginalised, the suffering.

The Carmelite family

To this vast and varied challenge of the Carmelites, one will find in close collaboration, 79 communities of cloistered nuns, 14 Congregations of sisters, one lay missionary family, one secular institute, numerous groups of Third Order lay members and Confraternities of the Scapular of Our Lady of Mt Carmel.

All these groups, born of the Spirit throughout the centuries, and inspired by the Carmelite Rule are intimately united by the bond of love, of spirituality and of the communion of spiritual goods. They constitute the Carmelite Family in the Church.

At present the Carmelite Order (the friars) has 19 Provinces, three General Commissariats, three General Delegations, two Hermetical Communities and one affiliated community with a total of about 2,100 religious.

They are found in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia , Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Congo, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Malta, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania , Spain, The Netherlands, Timor Leste, Trinidad, United States, Ukraine , Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Plans are also in process to make Carmelite foundations in Slovakia , Tanzania and in Liberia .

Rev Fr Joseph Chalmers is the head of the Carmelite Order in the entire world and resides at the Generalate of the Carmelites in Rome .

Origins

The Order of Carmelites has its origins on Mount Carmel, in Palestine , where, as we read in the Second Book of Kings, the great prophet Elijah defended the true faith in the God of Israel, when he won the challenge against the priests of Baal.

It was also on Mount Carmel that the same prophet, praying in solitude, saw the small cloud which brought life-giving rain after the long drought. From time immemorial, this mountain has been considered the lush garden of Palestine and symbol of fertility and beauty. Indeed, “Karmel” means “garden”.

In the XII century (perhaps after the third crusade, 1189-1191), some penitents-pilgrims who had come from Europe, came together near the “spring of Elijah”, in one of the narrow valleys of Mount Carmel, to live out their Christianity as hermits after the example of the prophet Elijah in the very land of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then and in later times, the Carmelites did not acknowledge anyone in particular as their founder, but remained faithful followers of Elijah who was associated with Mount Carmel through biblical events and through Greek and Latin patristic tradition which saw in the prophet one of the founders of the monastic life.

In the middle of the cells they built a chapel which they dedicated to Mary, Mother of Jesus, thus developing a sense of belonging to Our Lady as Mistress of the place and as Patroness, and they became known by her name as “Brothers of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel ”. Thus Carmel is deeply associated with Elijah and Mary.

Carmelite General Councillor Fr William J Harry with two novices. Photos: Fr Vincent Pazhukkakulam

From Elijah the Carmelites inherited a burning passion for the living and true God and the desire to make His Word intimately their own in order to witness to Its presence in the world; with Mary, the most Pure Mother of God, they are committed to live “in the footsteps of Jesus Christ” with the same intimate and deep feelings which were Mary's.

In order to have some juridical stability, this group of lay hermits turned to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert Avogadro (1150-1214), who was then living at St John of Acre near Mount Carmel . Between 1206-1214, Albert wrote for them a formula of life.

Successive approvals of this formula of life by various popes helped the process of transforming the group into a Religious Order, a fact which took place at the time of the definitive approval of the text as a Rule by Innocent IV in 1247. Thus the Carmelite Order took its place alongside the Mendicant Orders.

The charism of the Carmelites is “To live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ and to serve him faithfully with a pure heart and a clear conscience”: these words, inspired by St Paul are the basis for all the elements of our charism; they are the foundation upon which Albert constructed our way of life.

The particular Palestinian context in which the Order originated, and the approval bestowed by the Holy See at the various stages of the Order's historical evolution, gave new meaning and inspiration to the way of life set out in the Rule.

What holds the elements of the Carmelite way of life together is of course contemplation, understood as the journey into the desert where we are transformed, where our limited human ways of thinking, loving and behaving are transformed into divine ways. ( Constitution 17).

We are inspired above all by Our Blessed Lady and the Prophet Elijah. These biblical figures are very rich and we can always find great inspiration in them. Both listened to the Word of God and obeyed it.

The Word of God formed their lives and they became willing co-operators in God's plan for the human family. They both inspire and challenge us to live ever more profoundly our vocation.