Dear Friends & Benefactors,
Praised be Jesus Christ! Since I last wrote during Advent, much has happened. Before sharing with you God’s many blessings upon us, I want to express the gratitude of our entire community for the wonderful and very humbling charity you have shown us this past year and especially at Christmas. We are eternally indebted to each of you for allowing us to follow the persistent call of Christ to Carmel’s monastic enclosure. We continue to hold you and your intentions in the depths of our hearts, knowing that your goodness to us is pleasing to the Lord and rewarded by God in marvelous ways. As we remain faithful to our many prayers and penances each day, you are remembered in our communal and personal intentions. We are truly bound together in the bonds of charity and the noble task of founding this monastery in America. What a tremendous blessing you are to us!
We beg the Lord that our contemplative life and our many prayers for you are transforming hearts and purchasing the graces, which you and your family most need. The Lord does indeed find delight in using His poor servants to accomplish His work, so we readily offer the living sacrifice of our lives for you. In this way, may we repay our great debt for your wonderful generosity and the many sacrifices and prayers you offer on our behalf and those young men God is calling to our monastic tradition.
As we enter Easter Tide, let us be evermore mindful that if we are to become saints, we must be conformed unto our Blessed Lord. Latent in this most profound reality of sanctification is not just the mystery of the resurrection, but also the mystery of suffering. In the words of one of her hymns, Holy Mother Church proclaims, “Hail, O cross our only hope.” The Carmelite, called to the virtue and likeness of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, must be a lover of the cross of Christ. As I write, it seems our Blessed Lord is forming this most admirable of virtues in the hearts of each of our monks.
I find that God has a sense of humor. In September we received a brief note from a monastery of Discalced Carmelite Nuns. Mother, seeking to preserve the ancient custom of holy challenges so beloved to the Discalced, wrote, “I challenge you, noble knights of our Lady to see which of our communities will most faithfully accept the crosses sent by the hand of God in the year to come.” Our monks, always ready for a good challenge, readily accepted this holy aspiration between our Carmel and theirs, oblivious of the sufferings a victory would demand.
As you may recall, our monks have been working with great fortitude to acquire five hundred acres in the mountains and room enough for our many candidates, a nun’s convent and retreatants. All seemed to be well underway until mid-December when we received word that the men purchasing Irma Lake, our New Mount Carmel would be submitting a termination letter after failing to obtain the necessary financing. The initial shock upon us was very great as we had just shared the blessed news of our approaching transition with all of you and obtained the necessary civil approval. O, how mysterious are the ways of God, so far beyond the comprehension of men!
I assure you that since then there have been many occasions to embrace the cross, to persevere in manly resolve and confidence in the Will of God. Since the property returned to the market, we have visited with a number of very capable individuals, but have not yet found one with a heart large enough to embrace our most critical need. It is a blessed suffering to watch so many persons of wealth reject these young monks, finding in us only another project and overlooking the youthful lives and dreams at stake.
The New Mount Carmel has always been and continues to be a vision that can only be realized with the help of God. We need to get our monks in separate cells, to form them in the strictness of the cloister and in solitude interrupted only by the monastic bell, but as a poor prior this miracle is one that I cannot accomplish by myself. My beloved friends, I beg you from the bottom of my heart to unite your prayers to our own for a miracle and to assist us in our holy resolve to preserve and protect our life. Ask your children to pray for our monastery and our monks; beg our Lady to open up the means for us to acquire this mountain property, which is in keeping with our Constitutions. I might say too in all humility that if you know of anyone, regardless of how unlikely, who might be found well disposed towards us, please help us get in contact with him. We are acting in faith and believe that God is testing our determination to firmly establish this three-fold vision of a monastery of monks, a monastery of nuns and a retreat center. Let us remain united in this holy endeavor at the foot of the cross.
Confident in your prayers and loyal support of our community and vocations, we have peace. As candidates continue to call, write and visit, we know that God shall not leave us orphans. Let us renew our confidence in Him and accept the cross of Christ, which leads to eternal life.
The challenges our monastery faces are admittedly light when compared with the sufferings of so many in our world. All the same, we must never overlook an opportunity to take up our crosses and to trust that the glory of Easter Sunday shall come. With a tender and grateful heart, I remain your loyal and loving Father,
