Archbishop Lefebvre speaks, "What Is A Carmel?"
On November 13, 1985, His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre blessed the Carmel of the Most Holy Trinity in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The text which follows is the sermon of Archbishop Lefebvre during the .Solemn High Mass which preceded the blessing.
In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
My dear Sisters, my
dear brethren,
Now you can see that
there really is a Catholic Carmel in America! It is a fact! It
is the effect of the many prayers of you, my dear brethren, and
it is also the effect of the good Christian families that we still
have in America, because some of the children come to the Sisters
of the convent of Carmel. And it is also the effect of the fruit
of the prayers of the Sisters and all Carmelites, and their resolution
to come here to America. We thank God today for this foundation
and thank also our dear Blessed Virgin Mary, the true Mother of
the Carmelites. We thank also all those people who pray for this
convent here in Phoenixville.
What is a Carmel, my dear brethren? A Carmel
is a house of prayer. What is prayer'? Prayer, says the catechism,
is the elevation of our soul to God. It is also the realization
of our life here in this heart. Why did God create the spirit?
Why did God give us a soul? To know, to love and to serve God,
and in this way, to obtain the glorification of our souls. That
is the first reason for the foundation of the Carmelite convent:
To know God, to love God and to serve God, by Jesus Christ, in
Jesus Christ, because after the Incarnation we know that it is
impossible to really pray with good fruits without Jesus Christ.
And so the Sisters in this convent give us the magnificent example
of prayer. It is impossible to think of a Carmelite Sister without
knowing that their life is a life of prayer. That is very necessary
in our time of confusion in the Church, a time when many convents
are closed. It is very, very necessary that these Sisters pray
for us, pray for your families. Many blessings comes from the
prayers of the Sisters in America. We must thank God.
What is a Carmel?
A Carmel is a house of sacrifice. We cannot love God without sacrifice.
Jesus Christ Himself gave us the way to love God, by His sacrifice
on Calvary, His sacrifice on the Cross. That is the most important
thing in His life: His sacrifice on the Cross. It is the witness
of the love of Jesus Christ for His disciples. Here He gave His
life for the glory of His Father; and He said that we must bring
our cross and follow Him if we truly want to become His followers.
So also we must take the good example of these Carmelite Sisters,
to make sacrifices in our own life, if we truly want to obtain
a crown in heaven. All the saints give us this magnificent example
of sacrifice. We know that, because of the consequence of original
sin, we are too occupied by worries, and we even forget the spiritual
life; we forget to pray; we know that. And so it is very important
to make sacrifices, to abandon anything in this life to love God,
to be united with God; this is very important. We thank these
good Sisters for giving us a good example of sacrifice.
What is a Carmel?
A Carmel is a missionary convent, a missionary house. But what
mission do the Sisters have? They pray, and they give the sacrifice
of their lives to save souls. To save their own souls, but also
to save our souls. You know that Pope Pius named the little Teresa
of the Child Jesus as Protector of All Missions. Why? This little
Sister, in her Carmel, lived a very short time - I think twenty-four,
twenty-five years. She died and Pope Pius named her Patroness
of All Missions. We know that after she died, many, many people
everywhere in the world received many blessings by the prayer
of this little Sister of the Child Jesus. And so she was a very
great missionary. That is also the task of the Carmelite Convent,
to be missionary.
And pray for the priests!
You know that now, in this crisis of the Church, the crisis is
more in the clergy than in the laity. Recently the newspapers
said that in Italy, near Castelgandolfo, former priests who got
married were meeting. They say themselves, there were seventy
thousand. Seventy thousand! One for every five priests in the
world . . . abandoned his duty of the priesthood to get married.
That is a sign of our time, this time of the destruction of the
Church. And so it is very important to have good and holy priests,
true Catholic priests.
That is also a great
intention of the prayers of the Carmelite Sisters. We hope that
by this presence of the Sisters in America many young girls shall
receive vocations to become religious sisters and that many young
men will become seminarians and priests. So we know truly that
the Catholic Church is helped by the Carmelite Convent and it
is also a help to the Society of St. Pius X, to good priests,
holy priests, Catholic priests, to continue the Catholic Church
and not abandon the Catholic priesthood.
And now, during this
Catholic Mass, we shall pray to God and to Our Lord Jesus Christ,
to give many blessings to the Sisters, by the intercession of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, that they continue the good tradition
of the Carmelite Sisters of centuries and centuries. They are
good Carmelite Sisters and we can be sure that they remain the
children of St. Teresa, the Foundress, who renewed the life of
the Carmelite Sisters.
We hope, by the blessing
of God, that through this convent in America, all people in America
will receive many blessings.
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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