Carmelite Prayers on the Prairie
By NathanArticle reprinted with permission from CatholicStand.com.
In a small town on the South Dakota prairie, a monastery of Carmelite Nuns spend their lives being “prayer in the heart of the Church.” The Discalced Carmelites of the Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph have blessed the Diocese of Sioux Falls for nearly 30 years, but their history goes much deeper — almost 3,000 years deeper.
Traditional Carmelite histories trace the founding of the order back to the Prophet Elijah. As the Bible relates, after his victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he went on to establish a community of prophets. Elisha was his direct successor and was made leader of the “sons of the prophets,” as Elijah’s disciples were called. 2 Kings 2:7 reports that fifty of these disciples were present when Elijah took Elisha across the dry bed of the Jordan River before being carried up to heaven by a chariot of fire.
These sons of the prophets continued their community in Israel and on Mount Carmel for generations, and by the time of Christ, they were known as the Essenes. The most famous community of Essenes lived near Qumran and were responsible for preserving copies of Sacred Scriptures and prophetic texts now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Carmelite tradition shares that on the day of Pentecost, many of the sons of the prophets were in Jerusalem for the traditional feast. They were among the 3,000 that heard Peter preach and were baptized. According to ancient sources, some of these first converts to Christianity built and dedicated the first oratory in honor of the Mother of God on Mount Carmel. Because of their devotion, they became known as the Brethren of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The eremitic life flourished on Mt. Carmel until the Persian conquest in 612. Facing persecution, many hermits traveled to Europe to beg support for their brothers in the Holy Land and also to rebuild their eremitical life in a more peaceful setting.
The community took on a more Latin monastic form when St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote their Rule, which was approved by Pope Honorius in 1226. St. Simon Stock was elected general of the Order in 1247. He received the Brown Scapular from Our Lady in 1251 as her response to his prayer for the protection of the Order, which was in danger of losing its identity with all the changes caused by their move to Europe and becoming a new mendicant order.
Blessed John Soreth (c.1395 – 1471) was Prior General and reformer of the Carmelite Order. During his time as Prior General, he was responsible for the creation of Carmelite communities for women and the admission of lay associates as part of the Order.
By the 16th Century, St. Teresa of Avila, inspired by the Holy Spirit, saw the need for further reform. She formed the first house of Discalced (shoeless) Carmelite Nuns in 1562. Working with St. John of the Cross, she organized a return of both nuns and friars to the Primitive Rule of St. Albert, reinstating the austere discipline that had been abandoned when the Black Plague ravaged Europe.
The Discalced Carmelite Order spread to the New World with several foundations starting in Mexico. These monasteries flourished until the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. Severe religious persecution drove Mother Elias of the Carmel at Queretaro from Mexico to Cuba. When she returned to Mexico to fetch her remaining Sisters and take them back to Cuba, she and another Sister were taken into custody by revolutionaries, interrogated, tied up, set before a firing squad, and shot. Mother Elias woke up at 2:00 AM in the spot where she had fallen, covered in blood but otherwise unharmed. Her companion was also alive, and in the dark, they used their teeth to untie each other.
Gathering her Sisters, she fled first to Cuba and then to the United States, where she established the community in Grand Rapids, MI. From there, she moved the community to Buffalo, NY, and founded the Monastery of the Little Flower of Jesus on April 24, 1920. The permanent monastery was dedicated on May 17, 1925, the very day St. Therese was canonized. This fulfilled Mother Elias’ promise to the saint while facing the firing squad, “…deliver us and I promise I’ll found a monastery in your honor.”
Some 70 years later, the Bishop of Sioux Falls, SD, seeking the prayer support provided by contemplative religious, invited the Buffalo Carmel to make a new foundation in his diocese. They agreed and – in the same year St. Therese was made a Doctor of the Church – the Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph was born. Bishop Robert J. Carlson conducted enclosure ceremonies on August 15, 1997.
The life of the Carmelites focuses on communion with God and contemplative prayer. While some women’s religious have active apostolates through activities like teaching and ministry to the poor, the Carmelites embrace the call to sit at the feet of Jesus like Martha’s sister Mary. They have chosen the better part. It will not be taken away from them.
In Matthew 6:6, Jesus said, “… when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” In a very concrete way, the Carmelite response to this scripture is to take their entire lives and move them into that inner room where the Father alone sees them in secret.
The Church recognizes the magnificent gift that contemplative Sisters give the world. “The community of the monastery of nuns, placed as a city on the mountain top and a light on the lampstand, even in the simplicity of its life, visibly depicts the goal towards which the whole ecclesial community walks, ardent in action and dedicated to contemplation, it advances along the paths of time with eyes fixed on the future recapitulation of everything in Christ.” (Cor Orans)
In recent years, the Carmelites in Alexandria, SD, have felt the need to complete their monastery. Since they arrived in 1997, they have added on to the original structure multiple times to provide a larger kitchen, a larger refectory and a larger novitiate. Now they feel it is time to devote themselves to building the most important part of the monastery which is the Choir and Chapel areas, complete with sacristies and a cemetery. This new chapel, they are convinced, should be named in honor of the Holy Face of Jesus.
The devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus was revealed to Sr. Mary of St. Peter in France in 1844, when our Lord told her to adore His Holy Face as a way of making reparations for sins of blasphemy which were about to erupt on the face of the earth with the birth of Communism. In the same year that Sr. Mary of St. Peter made her Profession of Vows as a Carmelite Nun, Karl Marx, the founder of Communism, was writing his Communist Manifesto. France had already been through the throes of the French Revolution and as the eldest daughter of the Church, was being given another chance to lead the world back to God through reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus.
Our Lord revealed to Sr. Mary of St. Peter that He wanted the founding of a Confraternity that would make reparation to His Holy Face. The purpose of this Confraternity of Reparation would be to repair the outrages committed against the Divine Majesty of God, to obtain the conversion and salvation of blasphemers and profaners, and to preserve youth and the family from the fatal effects of these scandals. It is consecrated to the Adorable Trinity, to the Holy Name of Jesus, and to His Sorrowful Face. The Confraternity considers the Adorable and Sorrowful Face of our Lord as the exterior sign and sensible object of the Reparation.
Venerable Leo Dupont, who was very instrumental in spreading the prayers dictated to Sr. Mary of St. Peter by Our Lord, began burning an oil lamp before the image of the Holy Face of Jesus that he had been given by the Prioress of the Carmelite Monastery of Tours where Sr. Mary of St. Peter was a nun. This image had been touched to the relic of Veronica’s veil at the Vatican, which is the very cloth used to wipe the face of Christ as He carried the Cross to Calvary. Many miracles were reported through Ven. Leo Dupont’s praying the Litany of the Holy Face with people who came to his study to see the image, and through his anointing them with the oil from the lamp.
The cloths bearing the Holy Face image that are touched to Veronica’s Veil in Rome are marked with a red seal and are called True Icons. They are also touched to the Spear of Longinus, and a piece of the True Cross, making them in a special way, relics of Christ’s Passion. If other images are touched to these images that bear a red seal, they also become relics. It is customary to have a candle or oil lamp burning before any relic that is on display and that is why Ven. Leo Dupont had one burning before the Image of the Holy Face in his study. (It should be noted that the devotion is not traditionally connected to the image on the Shroud of Turin, because that image shows Him after His death rather than during His passion.)
The Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus grew among the Carmelites and the city of Tours, France. It received official Papal approval when Pope Leo XIII established the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face on October 1, 1885. The devotion captured the heart of St. Therese of Lisieux, whose full religious name is St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
The Sisters of the Carmel in Alexandria strongly believe that God wants them to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. Sins of blasphemy and profanation of the Sabbath abound in a culture that has been called “post-Christian” by many media figures. As Catholics, we have a duty to defend the honor of God, which is being defamed and insulted as never before. The most profound response that we as Catholics can make to these sins is to observe the Commandments of God with reverence and humility and to sincerely and fervently pray that God move to bring about repentance and revival. This is the purpose of the Confraternity that our Lord so desired would be founded.
To this end, the Sisters are in the process of building a new chapel in honor of the Holy Face of Jesus, where He can be adored and glorified. More information about their project can be found at https://holyfacechapel.org. They are also in the process of establishing a Confraternity of the Holy Face of Jesus that will be in union with the Archconfraternity of Tours, France. This confraternity will allow Catholics to join in prayer with the Sisters and a community of Catholics who share this devotion.
The Discalced Carmelites of the Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph are a living witness to the power of prayer. They model a life that is completely consecrated to loving and listening at the feet of Jesus. They show us that it is possible to live deeply united to Christ in prayer. It is the better part, and it won’t be taken away from them.
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