Preparing for Christmas
We learned only recently
that in early October Pope John Paul II dedicated a new statue to our St.
Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, OCD. Born in Santiago, Chile, on 13 July
1900, Juanita Fernández Solar grow up in a relatively wealthy family. She
enjoyed music and sports, and participated actively in all the normal
activities of her age and social class. Yet from an early age her heart was
set totally on serving God, whom she called "the joy of my life," and her
faith and love were an inspiration to her family and friends. She joined the
Carmel of "los Andes" in Chile, taking the name "Teresa of Jesus," and died
of typhus during her novitiate, on 12 April 1920, at the age of 19. Today
her shrine attracts thousands of pilgrims each year, especially among the
young, and she now becomes not only the first canonized Chilean but also the
first Latin American woman to have her statue on the facade of St. Peter’s
Basilica in Rome. She is a good patron for all those in formation, and
anyone considering a vocation to Carmel.
In this issue we introduce Fr. George Mangiaracina, OCD, director of
our postulancy program, the first stage of formal entry into Carmel. In the
Washington Province, after candidates are accepted, their postulancy (or
“pre-novitiate”) program ordinarily lasts about 9 months, from September to
the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (July 16). During postulancy,
candidates are introduced to the basics of religious life and the Carmelite
tradition, to prepare them for the more intense immersion in Carmelite
spirituality during their novitiate year.
Soon we will be hosting our 10-day post-Christmas “live-in” retreat at Holy
Hill, December 28 to January 6. We ask you to pray for all the vocation
candidates and formators who will be participating. Meanwhile, we wish you
all a very blessed Christmas and New Year.
- Fr. Steven Payne, OCD
Meet Fr.
George, the
Postulant Director!
My name is Fr. George Mangiaracina, OCD. I first became interested in Carmel when I was a member of another order. Since I did not know at the time how God would lead me in the gift of being a contemplative, I had to live a few years as a layman before I could respond to his call to be a contemplative for the church. After I got settled as a layman, I joined the Secular Order of Carmel in Concord, NH, and completed my pre-promise formati
on as a
Secular Carmelite in Brookline, MA before entering the postulancy of the
friars at Holy Hill, WI. After I completed my novitiate there (1987–1988), I
was sent to Washington, DC where I spent time in temporary vows. During that
time I studied French and Italian to prepare myself for study in Rome. Then
in 1991 my director informed me that the senior professed community
considered me ready move ahead toward solemn vows. This necessitated taking
courses to prepare me for ordination to the priesthood. I made my solemn
vows on September 4 and was ordained to the diaconate on September 5,
1992. I was then
sent to our parish of St. Florian in Milwaukee for my diaconate and ordained
to the priesthood on September 18, 1993. During that time I gained a lot of
experience doing baptisms and wake services. After a while I developed a
“welcome aboard” homily for the former and a “good–bye” homily for the
latter!I also had three catechumenate classes all going at the same time. There was one for three seven-year-olds, one for a 14-year-old boy, and another for 20-or-so-year-old woman who was not yet confirmed. Their disparate ages and needs required me to have a different program for each. Also during that time I developed a strong interest in the liturgy
as I saw its power to touch people’s lives with the presence of God. Shortly
after my ordination, I was transferred back to Washington to help out with
the local Secular Order groups. I was there about a year and realized that
it wasn’t good for me to be back in a formation community at that time. So I
requested to be transferred to Peterborough, NH, to help out with our
retreat house there, and was sent in December 1994. I stayed there until
July 1996, when I was granted permission to go to Rome, Italy for studies.
During my time in Peterborough, I gave retreats at our retreat house and
other places. I also assisted with Secular Order work and did parish
help-outs. When I went to Rome, I stayed first at the Order’s pontifical
school, called the Teresianum. But after a year I saw that my real
interest lay in liturgy. So I requested to go to the Benedictine school of
San Anselmo to study liturgy there. Unexpectedly, I also found myself
living there for five years. During that time I received a licentiate in
sacred liturgy in 2001. (I am currently proofreading my doctoral thesis
before sending it onto my moderator in Rome.) In
 Formation Advisory Board Meeting (November 2004) l.r.: Frs. Daniel Chowning (student master), Steven Payne (vocation director), George Mangiaracina (postulant director), Bonaventure Lussier (vocation director) |
January 2002, the provincial asked me head for Chicago to help Fr. Daniel Chowning, OCD with student formation work. I agreed and have been here since. Shortly after arriving, I was asked if I would serve as Elvis Mustafic’s postulant director. Again I agreed, although it was later decided that this would be better handled by Fr. Michael Dodd, who had been Elvis’s vocation director. (Elvis is now known as Br. Gabriel of the Wounds of Christ). Last year I was preparing to become postulant director, but the candidate we expected changed his mind. It seemed for a while that the postulancy program might be moved, but that didn’t materialize. As a result, I now have three postulants here in Chicago — Patrick Farkas, Scott Riviere, and Arturo Saclolo, Jr. — who are very good men. They are eager to learn about prayer and our way of life: two things no formator alone can give them, but which are necessary if they are to realize their vocation in Carmel. I do like being a postulant director. It helps one to become more selfless in the service of God, which is an essential aim of our charism.
- Fr. George Mangiaracina, OCD
Carmel and the
Christ Child
One of the most common sights in American Catholic institutions, at least in
the years before the Second Vatican Council, was the Infant of Prague
statue. Dressed in royal robes (often red in color), wearing a crown, and
holding a small globe in the left hand with the right hand raised in
blessing, this image of Jesus as a child could be found in nearly every
parish, rectory, convent, and school, and even in many Catholic homes. Here
in the United States there is still, for example, a National Shrine of the
Infant of Prague in Prague, OK, run by the diocese of Oklahoma City, and
another in St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, CT, under the direction of the
Dominicans. Yet few people realize that the Infant of Prague has Carmelite
origins.
 The original Infant of Prague statue without the customary robes |
As the name suggests, this devotion began in Prague, the capital of what is now the Czech Republic, in the Discalced Carmelite friars’ monastery founded by Fr. Dominic of Jesus and Mary, OCD, in 1623. Five years later the Bohemian Princess Lobkowitz donated a statue of the Infant Jesus that her maternal grandmother had brought from Spain. Meanwhile, a young novice in the community, Cyril of the Mother of God, who had recently transferred from the O.Carms., was having trouble in his vocation and developed a great affection for the image. He used to pray before it, asking for the grace of perseverance. But it was a time of war, and from 1631 to 1637 our friars were driven out of their monastery by Saxon forces. When they returned, Cyril found the statue thrown down behind the altar, with its hands broken off. Later, in prayer, he heard the words, “give me my hands,” and “the more you honor me, the more I will bless you.” So he finally managed to arrange for the statue to be repaired and put in a place of honor in the church. Soon pilgrims were coming and prayers answered. Gradually, devotion to the Infant of Prague spread throughout the world, though the Carmelites were again expelled in 1784 and didn’t regain possession of the church until after the fall of communism. But our friars have since returned to care for the many pilgrims who still come, and now they even have their own website (www.karmel.at/prag-jesu/index.htm).
 The Infant of Prague Shrine in Arenzano, Italy |
In fact, Discalced Carmelite devotion to the infancy of Christ is a legacy
from our founder, St. Teresa of Avila. Though she didn’t write much on the
topic, she was well known for taking a statue of the Child Jesus with her on
each of her foundations. There is a famous story that one day she met a
child coming down the staircase of the convent, who asked, “Who are you?” “I
am Teresa of Jesus,” was her reply, “ and who are you?” “I am Jesus of
Teresa,” came the answer.
Teresa passed on her love for the Christ Child to her spiritual family.
St. John of the Cross, we are told, used to carry the statue of Infant
tenderly in procession at Christmas, dancing and singing: “Lord, if your
love would me slay, let it be today.” The Discalced Carmelite laybrother,
Venerable Francis of the Infant Jesus (1544-1604)—a beloved
servant of the poor whose biography inspired Sts. Margaret Mary Alocoque,
Alphonsus Liguori and many others—used to distribute hundreds of handcarved
figurines of the Infant. Among Teresa’s spiritual daughters, Anne of
Jesus and Anne of St. Bartholomew brought statues of the Christ
Child with them to France and the Netherlands. Venerable Marguerite
Parigot (1619-1648) entered the Carmel of Beaune, France, at the age of
twelve-and-a-half, taking the name “Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament”; on
the basis of her spiritual experiences in prayer she began promoting
devotion to the Infant through a confraternity known as “the family of the
Child Jesus.” Most famously of all, when the Little Flower entered the
Carmel of Lisieux she took the religious name “Thérèse of the Infant
Jesus,” later adding “the Holy Face” to her subtitle, thereby
acknowledging that the divine child and the adult Jesus of the Passion are
one and the same person, that the crib cannot be separated from the cross.
 l.r.: Frs. Anselm Phang, OCD of Singapore and Russel Raj of India. Devotion to the Infant has proven very effective in their regions. |
Not all people find the Infant of Prague equally appealing, and its
popularity waned for a while in recent years. Some consider it incongruous
to dress the poor child of Nazareth in kingly attire; to others it may seem
like sentimental “doll dressing” at best, or idolatry at worst. But properly
understood, this and other approved forms of devotion to the childhood of
Christ are simply meant to underscore the reality of the Incarnation, that
Jesus was truly Lord of heaven and earth even as a child. They are also
meant to remind us of what Jesus himself tells us in the Gospel, “Unless you
become like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” In many
parts of the world today, Discalced Carmelites have found the Infant of
Prague particularly effective in reaching out to mothers and children. The
OCD friars in Arenzano, Italy, for example, run a very large and busy shrine
of the Infant (see their website,
www.santuario-gesubambino.org), and it was their men who first returned
to Prague. The message is certainly one we need to hear, whether or
not we can relate to this particular way of expressing it. Given the way
children are abused, neglected, and forgotten in the world today, perhaps
devotion to the Holy Childhood, as we gather around the Christmas creche,
can help remind us of how precious they are to our God, and what a
responsibility we Christians have toward them.
Merry
Christmas from
all
the
Carmelites!
|
Father Steven Payne, OCD Discalced Carmelites 2131 Lincoln Road, NE Washington, DC 20002 202-832-6622 payneocd@erols.com Midwestern Region |
