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FINAL CONFERENCE OF THE PRIOR
GENERAL
JOSEPH CHALMERS
TO THE GENERAL CHAPTER
SASSONE, 4TH
SEPTEMBER 2007
I am presuming that everyone has
read my report to the General Chapter, which was
sent out several months ago in order to aid your
preparation for this very important moment in
the life of the Order. In it I tried to describe
the state of the Order as we approached this
General Chapter.
In the front and back pages of
the report we have the Chapter prayer in 11
languages. These represent only some of the
languages spoken in the Order. We are an
international family. During the sexennium, a
General Commissariat was established in the
Philippines, and a new Province was erected in
India. There is also another group of 24
solemnly professed friars in India of the Latin
rite, who came to us from the Discalced
Carmelites. This situation was amply discussed
at the level of the General Councils and has not
affected our relationship. The group was placed
directly under the Prior General and Fr.
Dionysius Kosasih, of the Indonesian Province,
was appointed to oversee the formation programme
for the three years of probation.
It is heartening to note that
several joint novitiates have been established
or are planned. I believe that this is obviously
the way to go for the future. It immediately
brings the young Carmelites a sense of the
internationality of the Order and it
concentrates our formation personnel. Clearly
there must be a serious commitment to bring the
candidates from different areas or countries to
the same level of formation before entry into
the novitiate. Following the RIVC would go a
long way to ensure this. Another possible
challenge is the establishment of a common
language for some novitiates. It would be very
good for all our men to learn one or two of our
official languages from the earliest age.
Another heartening development
is the co-operation of several groups or
Provinces for the establishment of a mission of
the Order. This, I believe, will become more and
more common in the future, as the numbers of
friars in the older Provinces continues to
decline. The Provinces and Commissariats in
Africa, Asia and Latin America will have to take
over the role of establishing or running
missions. Other Provinces or Commissariats may
no longer be able to send friars but can help in
other ways, including economically. As we begin
this General Chapter, there are a number of new
missions being considered and I have great
pleasure in passing these on to the new Prior
General and Council.
Lay Carmel is a rapidly growing
reality all over the world. Clearly our
spirituality is very attractive to many lay
people. We have a serious responsibility to
assist our lay Carmelites in living fully their
Carmelite vocation. We should also listen to
them because we have much to learn from their
experience of life and of the charism. I think
that the growth of this area of the Carmelite
Family is one of the elements of a changing
world that we need to take into account when we
discuss the Chapter theme.
Like every religious group we
have many problems to face or many challenges
that give us new possibilities, depending on
your perspective. The theme of this Chapter as
you know is: In Obsequio Jesu Christi.
Praying and Prophetic Community in a Changing
World. How do we remain faithful to the
charism given to us by God in a rapidly changing
world? To give some direction towards answering
that question is the work of this Chapter. In
these few words I simply want to remind you of
what the fundamental thrust of our Order is.
Over the past six, and indeed
twelve years, I have stressed the contemplative
dimension of our charism, while hopefully not
forgetting the other essential elements.
According to the Constitutions, the experience
of the desert unites the different elements of
our charism. The RIVC explains that the
experience of the desert is in fact the process
of contemplation. I wrote in the introduction to
my report to the General Chapter that at the
Chapter we would "listen to our world and seek
to understand more clearly what God is asking of
our Order". Our Rule asks us to listen to the
Word of God and to each other (Rule 7, 10, 14,
15) but if we are at all self-aware we know how
difficult it is to really listen. We are filled
with our own concerns and these produce so much
noise inside us that we have difficulty in
hearing another person or indeed even the Word
of God. Therefore the Rule stresses the virtue
of silence (Rule 21). This is not just an
ascetical discipline but provides the right
circumstances so that we can hear what God is
saying to us. External silence nurtures internal
silence without which we are only able to hear
the sound of our own voice.
Our Rule, with reference to St.
Paul, tells us to put on God’s armour (Rule 19).
The first Carmelites knew about war. It was
raging very close to them and in a few years it
would force them from their home on Mt. Carmel.
Both St. Albert and the hermits were aware that
the spiritual journey can be perilous and,
without the spiritual armour that comes from
God, we run the risk of being devoured by our
adversary (Rule 18). We have different ways of
thinking about the spiritual journey but the
reality is the same. If we do not silence the
noise within us, we will be dominated by our own
needs and we will interpret everything,
including the Word of God, in terms of how it
will affect us.
It is vital that we are hearers
of the Word so that we can be doers of this same
Word. Lectio Divina has become very important in
our Order and this is something to rejoice in.
Listening to the Word of God must not be an
irregular occurrence but every day we must set
aside quality time to be alone with the Lord so
that we gradually become attuned to the voice of
God who spoke to the Prophet Elijah in the sound
of silence (I Kings 19,12). God spoke to Mary,
our Mother and Sister, through the message of an
angel but also through the events of her Son’s
life. In whatever way we spend that daily time
with God, it is good to remember that interior
silence is not easy and so listening to God
needs commitment and honesty.
So what is God saying to our
Order and our individual Provinces and
monasteries at this time in history? Clearly our
world is changing in many ways. For example the
social structures that supported faith have
largely disappeared in our secularised western
societies and living in allegiance to Jesus
Christ with a pure heart and stout conscience
and an unswerving commitment to the service of
the Master is not easy to maintain. Our Order
has not been immune to the sexual abuse crisis,
which has severely challenged the faith of many
people. It has also affected the voice of the
Church in other matters. The Church and the
Order have taken great strides to ensure that
children and vulnerable adults will be protected
at all times. Another issue is the grim poverty,
with all its attendant problems, which is an
ever-present reality for many parts of the world
and specifically for many countries where we
have communities. We have to find creative ways
to help our brothers and sisters survive and
flourish in their Carmelite life and ministry.
During this General Chapter we
will hear experts who will give us some ideas on
which to base our vision for the future. I
believe that God is calling us to renew our
commitment to adhere to Jesus Christ in this
time of rapid social change. How we live emerges
from who and what we are. An interior commitment
to Jesus Christ will spill over into our
exterior lives. The RIVC also reminds us that
the way to test our inner experience is how we
live in daily life (RIVC 23). Giving time to
grow in our relationship with God, in and
through Jesus Christ, is not time taken away
from a commitment to those we seek to serve.
Living in allegiance to Jesus Christ makes sure
that our service sets people free and does not
bind them in a web of emotional dependency on
us. A serious commitment to prayer is not an
optional extra for us but is essential if we are
to be faithful to the vocation to which we have
been called.
It is a great temptation to get
so immersed in our own work that we cannot see
beyond the confines that we ourselves set up.
There is always something more to do but unless
we are firmly anchored in a strong relationship
with the Lord, we can very easily slip into
activism that in the end helps no one. We are
part of a long tradition. This year we remember
and we give thanks for those men who left their
homes and travelled to the Holy Land in order to
live in the land where Jesus Christ himself had
lived and died. They adopted an eremitical
lifestyle on Mount Carmel and gradually came
together to form a community. They finally went
to Albert, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to ask
him for some guidelines for their way of life.
This Formula Vitae became the Rule as we know it
by the adaptation and approval of Pope Innocent
IV in 1247. There have been many high points and
low points in the following centuries but a
strong thread that runs from the very beginning
is the commitment to prayer. We remember with
gratitude those countless men and women who have
tried to live this way of life throughout the
centuries, and particularly this year some
important models of Carmelite life – Saint
Albert of Trapani, St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi,
and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. Soon we
will have more Carmelite blesseds – the Catalan
martyrs during the Spanish civil war and Madre
Candelaria from Venezuela.
It is by means of a faithful and
constant prayer that we are able to discern the
false from the true in our world and in our own
lives. The false and selfish part of us can
easily misuse even holy pursuits like prayer so
long as the focus remains on oneself. Over the
last 12 years I have seen and heard some
wonderful stories about what Carmelites do and I
have said more than once that I am proud to be a
Carmelite. However, at times I feel that the
commitment to prayer could be stronger. Prayer
is not just saying the right words; it is to
enter into communion with the Living God. If our
prayer is not an opening to God’s Holy Spirit
but instead simply going through the motions, it
will not be life changing. Is our personal and
community prayer an invitation to the Spirit to
“blow where he wills” (cf. Jn. 3,8) or an
attempt to channel the Holy Spirit so that God
will agree with whatever we want to do?
The challenge we have set
ourselves at this General Chapter is to listen
to God who speaks in the liturgy, in our lectio
divina, in our personal prayer and through the
changing needs of our world. We want to be
faithful to God of course and this involves us
in being faithful to our charism but what does
that actually mean in a world which is in the
throes of great cultural change? What is God
saying to us through these events? This
discernment is the work of this General
Chapter. The General Congregation accepted that
others would be invited to the General Chapter.
There are a number of friars from different
countries who have accepted the invitation to
come here without the right to vote. They come
from nations or groups that would otherwise not
be represented here. They will not be passive
listeners. Their very presence, as well as that
of the representatives from the other branches
of the Carmelite Family, who will join us for a
few days in the middle of the Chapter, will
remind us that we cannot confine our
discernment. We are an international family and
this fact is an important element in our
discernment.
Finally I want to thank the
whole Order for all the support I have received
over the years that I have had the privilege of
serving as Prior General. I want to thank the
Provincials for your co-operation and support. I
particularly want to thank the members of the
General Council and the Curia community with
whom I have lived for the past six years, along
with the staff who have collaborated with us in
different ways. I want to call to mind Fr.
Manuel Anguiano, the former archivist, librarian
and sacristan of the Curia. Manolo, as we called
him, died on 17th July. May he rest
in peace.
I also want to ask pardon of
this General Chapter for the times that I have
failed to respond to the needs of the Order or
when you found me unresponsive to your
legitimate requests. I make no apology for
talking a lot about prayer and contemplation!
The Carmelite charism is a gift
from God for the Church and the world. Each one
of us has received the great gift of a vocation
to Carmel. We are inspired by the Prophet Elijah
and Our Blessed Lady as we seek to live in
allegiance to Jesus Christ, who calls us to grow
in intimacy with him as members of a community
that serves in the midst of the people. Let us
seek to be ever more faithful to this vocation
given us by God and seek together to live in
obsequio Jesu Christi by forming a prophetic and
prayerful community in the midst of our changing
world.
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