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Home > Our People > Nuns (Sisters)
Soundings from the Carmelite Monastery, Ormiston,
Queensland
Issue 2 (January 2001)
Prayer is all about relationship. Like any relationship,
it demands quality time. Encounter with Jesus in prayer must be the source
and inspiration of every Christian life. In this issue, we will meet St
Teresa of Jesus, Spanish foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, the family
to which we belong. As we will see, she emphasises prayer as friendship
with God. For Teresa, there is no other way to know God intimately than
to spend time alone with Him.
As Carmelites, our whole lifestyle is centred on prayer. It is not a selfish,
cosy, comfortable escape from the demands and pressures of today's world.
It is attentive listening and response to God who speaks a new Word every
day, who makes sense of the messiness in our own lives and in our times,
who leads us in the way of truth, freedom and joy. Those who come close
to God in prayer see things differently. They see from the mountain top.
They see from the perspective of eternity. Authentic prayer is revealed
in the way we live our lives: how concerned we are for the needs and sufferings
of others, how readily we forgive those who hurt us, how quick we are to
help others.
In each issue of "Seeds of Carmel", as well as sharing
with you some aspects of our Carmelite spirituality, and some of the happenings
in our own community there will be a little about us as individuals, too.
So, we plan to feature one sister in each edition. Let us know if you
find it helpful.
A Word from the Prioress
[Click on the image on the left for a sample page (.jpg) image]
Dear Young Friends,
 In
a special way the Jubilee Year 2000 has been a year of preparation for
the, New Millennium. During this time, many of you, as pilgrims, have
passed through the Holy Doors, and whether you did this in Rome or in
your own diocese, it symbolised for us all, the challenge of our life
pilgrimage, moving from sin to new life. In particular, the World Youth
Day acted as a sounding board for the words of our heroic leader, Pope
John Paul II, entirely unbowed by the world, by age or infirmity, calling
young people to be saints of the third millennium. St. Teresa, the great
Carmelite foundress, whom you will meet in these pages, would resonate
with this message, and tell us we can be saints of fine next century by
doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. And prayer is at the heart
of this matter: it puts God at the centre of everything, and can change
not only ourselves but the world as well. This is the vision Vol.2 of
Seeds of Carmel now presents to you - a vision, as Teillard do Chardin
expresses it, "to see more distinctly the great sun of Christ...
rising over our interior world."
We ask Mary to lead you daily closer to He, Divine Son
throughout the coming year.
If you have questions, comments, stories, prayer requests, anything at
all write to us here:
Sister Katherine,
Carmelite Monastery,
287 Wellington St,
Ormiston. QLD 4160.
e-mail: carmston@powerup.com.au
Visit us at: www.carmelite.com
 FROM
OUR DIARY
Media invasion! People from ABC TV, "The Courier
Mail" and the "Catholic Leader" came inside to do stories
on our life. This was the outcome of our decision to make a pilgrimage
to our Cathedral of St. Stephen for the Year of Great Jubilee. Sisters
Katherine and Marie Tania were interviewed, the latter representing the
younger generation.
The day of our pilgrimage to the Cathedral, the focal
point of the Jubilee Year in the Archdiocese. For most of us, this was
the first time we had seen it in real life since its refurbishment in 1989.
Bishop Michael Putney welcomed us on our arrival. Our new friends from
the media were there too, but kept a discreet distance as we entered the
Holy Door and followed the Pilgrim Prayer Ritual like all other pilgrims.
It was a moving experience for us to actually be there in the heart of
our local Church. Alone in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel for a period of
quiet prayer before leaving, we sang together St. Therese's song: "My
Vocation is Love".
That night, we were featured on the 7.00 pm ABC news. The next morning,
the "Courier Mail" gave us a front page article, with two photos,
plus a good half page inside with another photo. The ABC also did a nine
minute segment on their "Stateline" programme the following Friday
evening. If you missed it, you will have a chance to see it online very
soon.
Having completed her initial period of training and spent
three years in temporary vows, our Sister Marie Tania said good-bye to
her companions in the novitiate and moved to the community wing of the
Monastery. This marks a new stage in her formation, as she prepares to
make a definitive commitment as a Carmelite in our community.
Our new library was officially opened with a short para-liturgy
amongst ourselves. It has been relocated to a larger room to accommodate
more books. Sr. Annemarie, a trained librarian, has done a great job creating
a new catalogue system for us, a modified version of the Dewey system.
Click here to read about Sister Anne: The Great Outdoors!
St. Therese in Australia
The Australian Catholic Bishops have
requested that the reIics of St. Therese of Lisieux which have been
touring the United States in 2000, will tour Australia early in
2002. Normally these Relics are kept in the Carmelite Monastery
at Lisieux, where St. Therese lived a simple and obscure life as
a cloistered Carmelite Nun until she died in 1897 at the age of
24.
Therese's message for every age is to celebrate Christ, as she witnesses
to the world to come. Though belonging to a different language and
culture, her message is pure Gospel truth, and transcends time and
space. For those of us who have already "met" her through
the pages of her own life story (The Story of a Soul), Therese emerges
as a real person of flesh and blood, every inch a woman, whose insights,
explanations and grasp of the Scriptures leave one marvelling. The
arrival of her Relics will be an event for all - a rallying point
to help us further along the road of becoming a Jubilee people united
in our faith in Jesus. |
Themes .....
St Teresa of Jesus and the Reform
Teresa de Ahumada was born on March 28, 1515 into a pious,
well to do family in Avila, Spain. Having struggled with her vocation for
several years, she finally left her home secretly and with a great deal
of reluctance to join the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation.
Religious life at this time was comfortable. Teresa was
given all the honour and privilege due to a woman of her station. There
was much socialising, and Teresa, with her vivacious personality, was popular,
both within and beyond the monastery walls. Her relationship with God,
however, was on shaky ground. She even gave up prayer altogether for a
time. There were more exciting things to do. Tom within herself, Teresa
struggled with her own lukewarmness for 20 years before she eventually
made a firm decision to give herself totally to God.
These were turbulent times, much like our own. The world
was changing rapidly and the Church seemed to be under assault on all fronts.
Though there was much popular piety, the majority of people remained indifferent
to God and lukewarm in their faith. All this disturbed Teresa and she resolved
within herself to do the little that was in her power to help the Church.
Teresa did not intend to start a new order. She began with the assumption
that in order to reform society, it was necessary to first reform herself.
Gathering a small group of like-minded women, Teresa
founded the first of her monasteries, where the sisters would live in solitude,
prayer and poverty. There were to be small communities, living a poor and
simple lifestyle, dedicated to prayer for the needs of the Church and the
world. The radicality of this move may not be totally appreciated today.
But in sixteenth century Spain it presented a serious challenge to the
status quo.
Despite chronic ill health and continuous opposition
Teresa was dogged in her determination to establish as many of these houses
as possible, not for her own sake but because she believed God desired
this of her. She even began a reform among the friars. They remain, to
this day, the only Order in the Church founded by a woman. All the while
Teresa herself continued to pray and continued to write. Her legacy is
not only her foundations, not only her writings. Her legacy is her charism,
her spirit by which she can lead us into a closer relationship with God
through prayer.
Praying with...
St Teresa of Jesus
"Praying with.." is designed to introduce you to Carmelite
spirituality and help you to seek God in silence and prayer. During the
course of a day we recommend that you take thirty minutes or so to read
through the short text and to spend time reflecting on it, using it to
open your heart to rest in God.
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"Prayer, in my opinion, is nothing
else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time
frequently to be alone with One who we know loves us." St Teresa
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Sometimes when we turn to God in prayer we find it difficult
to know the right words to say, we struggle to say something eloquent or
profound, we put on a facade that sits uncomfortably on us and we wonder
why we find it so difficult to settle our minds. Finally we give up in
the belief that 'I can't pray'. Yet all of us have a best friend with whom
we have little problem speaking. When we pray, Teresa says, it is like
speaking with our best friend; there is no need to put on a front, we simply
go to God as we are, joyful, stressed, depressed or downright miserable.
We do not need to find words that will impress God as if He is a stranger
to us. God sees us just as we are and He knows us better than we know ourselves.
Try this exercise:
- Find a quiet place where you are not likely to be disturbed.
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Sitting alone, close your eyes and invite Jesus to
be with you as your friend.
- Picture him beside you.
- Speak to him, as you would to a friend; tell him how you are feeling;
bring him your joys, your difficulties, your concerns. Be aware of him
listening to you intently and with compassion.
-
Now, be silent; allow him to speak to you; do not try
to solve your problems, but simply allow Jesus to carry the burdens with
you, as a friend.
-
Remain with him for some time. Even if it seems he
is absent, know that he is sitting beside you gently holding your hand.
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We can always go to Jesus, throughout our day, in this
way. He is always present for us, waiting patiently for us to come to
him.
ASK US...
Q. How important is Community in Carmelite Life?
Community is a vital component of Carmelite life. it
is often said that we are "hermits living in community'. Our programme
of daily living is geared to helping us make a solitary space in our heart
where we con be with God, both consciously and unconsciously, and know
Him in loving communion. But, as St. Teresa so wisely taught us, the touchstone
of our love for God is not what we experience in prayer, but just how well
we love our sisters. Long before that, St. John wrote "How can those
who do not love their brothers or sisters whom they have seen, love God
whom they hove not seen?"
So, the give and take of community life is the fertile
soil where love grows: love for God, love for each of our sisters, love
for the community of which we are a part, love for the Church, love for
the whole of humanity, "beautiful, suffering, fragile - our humanity."
These loves are all components of the one love which continues to grow
in our hearts: God's love for us in Jesus.
Q. Do you pray alone or together?
We are speaking here about times dedicated to formal
prayer: we have times of personal prayer and times of communal prayer.
As you know, the liturgy is ideally celebrated by a community of the faithful,
both the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours, and we come together seven
times a day to pray the Liturgy.
Morning and evening we have a period set aside for personal
prayer for which we may go apart or stay with others in our prayer room
But at this time. we enter into the solitude of our hearts wherever we
are. In our community, we do not have shared prayer in groups.
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