Carmelites: Trust like an Avacado Pit
By Nathan
Article reprinted with permission from CatholicStand.com.
For the past year, I’ve been working one day a week for a monastery of Carmelite Nuns smack dab in the middle of the North American Continent: Alexandria, South Dakota. There’s an old movie called “Lilies of the Field” starring Sidney Poitier as a drifter who gets roped by a bunch of German nuns into building a chapel for them. The character’s name in the movie is Homer Smith, but the Mother Superior calls him “Schmidt” with a commanding German accent.
Much to my surprise, I have discovered that I am Schmidt. My sister-in-law is a Carmelite Nun who was at that monastery for a season. Sister told her superior, Mother Mary Baptist, to call me because they are trying to raise money to build a chapel, and I have been raising money to feed the hungry for 14 years. After a couple calls, I told Mother to ask Jesus about hiring me because I was trying to be detached. I was a bit flippant.
She came back a few days later and told me that Jesus told her to hire me at consulting rates. When a woman who has spent six – eight hours a day in prayer for over 30 years tells you that Jesus told her to hire you to raise $16 million, the answer is, “Yes. Okay.” The details of HOW I’m supposed to do it aren’t really the point. This is a mission from God. He’ll tell me the details when I need to know.
God Can Take Care of It
The Carmelites operate at a different level of faith and trust in God than most of the world. One of the volunteers who’s working with the sisters told me a story from about 30 years ago. It came from the time when Mother Mary Baptist was just a Carmelite postulant in Buffalo, NY.
The volunteer, David, grew up near the Buffalo Carmel, so the Carmelites have been a part of his life for decades. He went off to the Navy and became a pilot. When he finished his time there, he went back to Buffalo. He had some free time, so he became Mother Mary St. Joseph’s handyman, running errands and doing “other duties as assigned.”
The Buffalo Carmel was built on an underground river, so it always had trouble with moisture in the basement. The monastery had an elevator, and the moisture caused the elevator foundation to completely disintegrate. The city inspector condemned the elevator and planned to condemn the entire monastery. Mother Mary St. Joseph said, “This can’t happen. David, go find us a contractor that can fix the elevator.”
David was an engineer, so he said, “OK, Mother, but this is going to be very expensive. Do you have any money?”
Mother looked back at him and said, “David, this is God’s house. He’s a big Boy, He can take care of Himself. Don’t worry about it.”
David said, “OK,” and went out and got bids from three of the biggest construction contractors in Buffalo. He was right. It was going to cost more than half a million dollars. So he took the bids back to Mother and said, “Here are the bids, it’s very expensive. Mother, do you have any money?”
Mother Mary St. Joseph smiled at him and said, “David, this is God’s house. He’s a big Boy, He can take care of Himself. Don’t worry about it.”
They picked a bid, and the construction started. It was a huge project. They had to send a demolition crew in to tear out the old foundation. They had to work around the Sisters and protect the privacy of the cloister. Finally, after about six months, the work was finished. David got the bill. It was over half a million dollars, and it was a 2% 10 net 30 deal. That means that they got a 2% discount if they paid the bill in 10 days, and the full amount was due in 30 days. He took it to Mother. “Mother, here is the bill. Do you have any money?”
She smiled at him and said, “David, this is God’s house. He’s a big Boy, He can take care of Himself. Don’t worry about it.”
Well, David was worried, but said, “OK.”
A couple of weeks passed. It was seven days before the full bill was due. The monastery got a knock on the door. It was a lawyer. Mother Mary St. Joseph welcomed the lawyer and asked what he needed.
He explained, saying, “My name is such and such and I’m from such and such a law firm. I represent one of your benefactors, who passed away ten years ago. Her estate has been in probate for the last ten years and it has finally all settled out. In her estate, she left a gift to your monastery.” He handed her a check for the exact amount, to the penny, of the bill that was due.
Sit with that a second. The answer to her prayer was waiting for ten years, ready for God to pull the trigger.
Believing God
The thing is, the Carmelites believe God. When He says in the Scriptures, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be given unto you,” that’s not just a pretty sentiment. It’s a promise.
When Mother Mary Baptist tells the architects and builders representative, “Our job is to build the Chapel that Jesus wants us to. It’s Jesus’ job to pay for it,” she’s totally serious. They kind of scratch their heads and marvel at what they may think is naivety. Or madness.
But childlike faith looks a lot like naivety. Or madness. It’s belief in God that is unsullied by the commonly quoted but totally non-scriptural proverb, “God helps those who help themselves.” They aren’t simply optimistic or holding onto the scriptures like a magic talisman. They have a relationship with the Author of those scriptures. Their way of life requires that they trust in God for their daily bread, and they have discovered that He is trustworthy. For Mother Mary Baptist, trusting in God is the most rational, reasonable thing in the world.
I’ve seen this for myself at the Food Bank where I work. A couple of years ago, in the wake of the Pandemic, the Food Bank had a huge shortage of food. I’d never seen the warehouse as empty in ten years of serving the poor.
Talking to my boss, I said, “You know what? Jesus has lots of food. Why don’t we ask Him to send us some food?” I looked up at the ceiling and threw up a simple prayer, “Jesus, please send us a truckload of food. Amen.”
The next day, there was a truck in front of the warehouse. That’s not unusual, because the food bank often receives truckloads of food. But this truck was different. It had come from Utah with a load of food for another non-profit, but that non-profit didn’t have forklifts or a loading dock. The driver couldn’t deliver the food to them, so he drove up to the food bank and said, “I have this truckload of food. Do you want it?” I live in Georgia, so that truck was on the road before I said that prayer.
Our Father in Heaven knows what we need before we ask Him. Jesus told us that. I’ve now had the opportunity to witness it. What He said in the scriptures is True.
If you hear these stories and marvel, don’t let the devil tempt you with the thought, “I’ll never have faith like that.” If you don’t have the faith right now, the Sisters are more than happy to loan you some of theirs. You can go to their website at https://holyfacechapel.org/prayer-request/ and leave a prayer request, and they will exercise their mustard seed of faith on your behalf. God knows what you need, and maybe what you need is some Carmelites on your side.
I know I do. Amen. Alleluia.
Jesus snatched me out of the darkness and saved me from complete madness. If you want to hear more of that story, check out Demoniac, now available on Amazon.
