THE HOLY FACE DEVOTION OF THE CARMELITE HERMITS

Gazing upon the face of Christ crucified unites us with all His sorrows, love and total abandonment.

"Every time My Face is contemplated I will pour out My Love into the hearts of those persons, and by means of My Holy Face the salvation of many souls will be obtained."

(Our Lord Jesus Christ to Sister Pierina)

Our Lord, in visions to Sister Marie of Saint Peter, requested that a devotion to His Holy Face be established.  He gave her the Golden Arrow prayer as a remedy to the "poisoned arrows" of blasphemy.  Later, Sister Pierina, was urged to spread the devotion, and to have a medal cast.

The Feast of the Holy Face was established by Pope Pius XII upon Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent).  A beautiful novena in honour of the Holy Face may be said on the nine previous days, culminating on the feast day.
Two miraculous images are associated with the Holy Face Devotion - Veronica's Veil, said to be the cloth used by Saint Veronica to wipe the face of Jesus during his passion; and the Holy Shroud of Turin, believed by the faithful to be burial cloth of Christ, which despite being the most scientifically studied object ever, still baffles scientists.

Sister Marie of St. Peter and the Golden Arrow

In Tours, France during the 1840's a young Carmelite nun, Sister Marie of St Peter, received a series of revelations from Our Lord about a powerful devotion He wished to be established worldwide - the devotion to his Holy Face.  The express purpose of this devotion was to make reparation for the blasphemies and outrages of 'Revolutionary men' (the Communists), as well as for the blasphemies of atheists and freethinkers and others, plus, for blasphemy and the profanation of Sundays by Christians.  This devotion is also an instrument given to the individual devotee as a seemingly unfailing method of appealing to God in prayer - through adoration of His Holy Face and Name.

The following prayer was dictated by our Lord Himself to Sister Marie of St Peter.  Opening His Heart to her, our Saviour complained of blasphemy, saying that this frightful sin wounds His divine Heart more grievously than all other sins, for it was like a "poisoned arrow".

After that, our Saviour dictated the following prayer, which he called "The Golden Arrow", saying that those who would recite this prayer would pierce Him delightfully, and also heal those other wounds inflicted on Him by the malice of sinners.  This prayer is regarded as the very basis of the Work of Reparation. 

PRAYER OF REPARATION IN PRAISE OF THE HOLY NAME OF GOD ENTITLED "THE GOLDEN ARROW"

May the most Holy, most Sacred, most Adorable,
Most Incomprehensible and Ineffable Name of God
Be always Praised, Blessed, Loved, Adored and Glorified,
In Heaven, on Earth and under the Earth,
By all the Creatures of God,
And by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
In the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Amen.

THE KIND OF LIFE OF THE HERMITS

My Sons, and Brothers, our Kind of life as a Carmelite is entirely contemplative, our days are composed exclusively  of prayer psalmody, spiritual reading, vigils and work, with the minimum of rest and nourishment necessary for life."

We live in "Perpetual silence which can only be interrupted by the necessary relationship with the Superior, and the conference or spiritual discussion which takes place every two weeks, presided over by the superior.

Therefore brothers it is necessary that outside the choir and the refectory, the retirement in the cell is continues. In addition, during advent and at least on the days preceding Pentecost, in this moment some of us monks  go out to live in different hermitages scattered within the walls of the monastery, in order that being in deeper solitude and living as perfect anchorites, they alone may give themselves completely to God alone. Being united in the community only by the sound of the bell which crowns the Sanctuary of their contemplative solitude.

The Monastery Structure base from the Constitution of Sta. Teresa de Jesus de Avila

In the constitution of Our Holy Mother Sta. Teresa de Jesus de Avila given to the Discalced Carmelites is that " In the Monastery there shall be ground enough to build some hermitages so that the religious,a after the apostolic activity of Carmel as an Order, the Spirit of the Holy rule, which ought to animate the members was and continues to be eremitic with an essential interior hermitism.

Once the religious completes his apostolic activities he will retire to his hermitage cottage to be with God alone and this observance we call hermit day. He is to stay there fore three days with out disturbance and will only join the community prayer during matins, louds, complin, the rest of the liturgy of the hour he will say it alone in his hermitage.
The hermitage must have an altar, a comfort room, a turn where the food is placed from the outside for the brother to receive from the outside without exposing himself, a small garden. The Lay brother upon placing the food in the turn must knock three times to give signal to the religious in prayer that his food is ready. while observing hermit day, he can do what he pleases to do that does not endanger his contemplation, he can make rosaries and other arts that is in connection to prayer.

Brothers as long as we are in the state of meditation and prayer, let us  remember that the Holy Rule of Carmel is called the rule of perfection which tends to form within us religious the creation of saint." The Carmelite Rule is not rich in concrete adherence to many circumstances of life but( except in few cases) it move in an atmosphere beyond the earth, the atmosphere of a world almost exclusively spiritual.

The Way of life of the Hermits by Fra. Francis Gregory of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart

I dedicate this writing on the foundation to His Holiness Pope Francis and to all the Brothers and Sisters of the Hermits of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and of the Holy Face.

The Hermits of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and of the Holy Face contemplates daily the suffering face of Jesus which we see in the face of the poor. As the primitive rule of Saint Albert states; We "Brothers must remain in our cell or near it." We must try to remain in the state of contemplation both in the physical cell or spiritual cell (our soul) let us remember that the apostles recommends silence, since they command us to observe it while working. Our Holy Father the Prophet Elijah testifies that silence in the service is justice and where our hope and strength be.
The rule also state that though we are not obliged to observe silence so rigorously at other times, it is better that we should be careful of talking to much, "For in the multitude of words there are mistakes and sin. We must observe silence with great diligence and care. The Holy Rule states;" it makes an express reference," extremely  heavy to the danger of sins of the tongue.
We must remember that spoken words tears man away from his spiritual solitude.

Dear brothers as Carmelite hermits and as the Holy Rule states we are nourished essentially by silence."
The Holy Rule has ordained us to observe silence from the end of Complin to the end of Prime in the  following day. And since we follow the way of perfection of Our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus of Avila, we too must follow the Teresian desserts that impose perpetual silence and embodies the spirit of the rule properly and perfectly stating: " The higher the hermit rise towards the peak of virtues, having left below earthly thoughts and desires, the fewer be their words, and since it is well known to spiritual men how great is the interior dissipation which freedom of tongue brings it ." Brothers, in this part I admit I too struggle for human as I am, the devil will try his best to destruct us of the path we admire much to accomplish to be holy and become saints.
As Carmelite Hermits of the Holy Face, our hermitism lays down in such an exact manner is an interior hermitism which coincides essentially with the Carmelite way of living contained in the primitive rule, Further more, as it is for our instruction that one and the same law. in its text joins the eremitic form of life with the exercise of a moderate apostolate, which is our charities and evangelical Holy Face promotion as our moderate apostolate, as our Holy Rule states so that our community be balanced. Let not the door of the convent be closed to those came to us to ask for help; for helping them and opening our doors to them is like opening our doors to Jesus. Having a service to the poor is the perfect way of contemplating the Holy Face of Jesus. Brothers let our charities be a reparation to the bleeding Holy Face of Jesus, and let our acts of mercy be the balm for His wounded face whom we see in the eyes of the poor.
An act of love dear brothers assist us to reach holiness in due time. For Holiness itself is Divine love and God is love. This is our mission that the Gospel of love be preached to the poor.
The manner of life which we live to carry out is not only that of being monastic but hermits. Let us remember our first fathers the Carmelites who settle in the Holy Mountain of Carmel whose lives we intend to imitate.
(To be Continued)

The Carmelite Origin

The Carmelites have a very unique background. Unlike most Religious Orders, we have no founder. Earliest historical accounts find the first Carmelites already settled as Christian hermits on Mount Carmel  - a mountainous ridge in Israel-Palestine - around the year 1200 (i.e. some 800 years ago). The hermits lived by the fountain or well of the prophet Elijah (whose exploits on Carmel are described in the Bible's Books of the Kings).
The chapel which stood in the midst of the hermits' cells was dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The process of change from a small band of hermits to a world wide family did not happen overnight. The present (1995) Constitutions of the Carmelite Order outline the basic progression from hermits to friars:

At the time of the Crusades to the Holy Land, hermits settled in various places throughout Palestine. Some of these, "following the example of Elijah, a holy man and a lover of solitude, adopted a solitary life-style on Mount Carmel, near a spring called Elijah's Fountain. In small cells, similar to the cells of a beehive, they lived as God's bees, gathering the divine honey of spiritual consolation."

Later, St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem brought the hermits together, at their request, into a single "collegium"; he gave them a formula for living which expressed their own eremetical ideals ("propositum") and reflected the spirit of the so-called pilgrimage to the Holy Land and of the early community of Jerusalem. Moved by "their love of the Holy Land", these hermits consecrated themselves in this Land to the One who had paid for it by the shedding of his blood, in order that they might serve him, clothed in the habit of religious poverty," persevering "in holy penance" and forming a fraternal community.

This way of life was approved successively by Honorius III in 1226, by Gregory IX in 1229, and by Innocent IV in 1245. In 1247, Innocent IV approved it definitively as an authentic rule of life, amending it to suit Western conditions. These adaptations became necessary when the Carmelites began to migrate to the West to escape persecution, and expressed a desire to lead a life "in which, with the help of God, they would have the joy of working for their own salvation and that of their neighbour."

As a result of the approval of the Rule by Innocent IV, the Carmelites placed themselves at the service of the Church, according to the common ideal of the Mendicant Orders...
So, we have no Francis or Dominic or Benedict (or even a Teresa as have the Discalced Carmelites) to whom we can look as a founder. This means that God's founding gift to the Order (the 'Charism') is not found in a person or a particular book but in a community of people. Being without a founder, the Carmelites have continually looked to the great figures of Elijah and Mary for inspiration - remember we settled by the Well of Elijah on Carmel and dedicated the first chapel to the Mother of God. Throughout our history, these key figures have helped us clarify our identity and renew our spirit. They provide a wonderful integration of the two streams of the contemplative Carmelite tradition: prayer blended with active service; meditation combined with prophecy; reflection informed by and informing apostolic work.

As human models, Elijah and Mary provide Carmelites with an example to imitate. Not unlike Carmelites of any era, they struggled with fear, stood in the face of very difficult questions, and felt deeply the pains of human life. Being human, they appear like us, as fragile and vulnerable. Yet they were filled with a deep conviction. It is a conviction that lies at the heart of the Carmelite spirit: God is alive! God is present! God is with us! - in the words of the Prophet Elijah "God lives, in whose presence I stand".

Between the years 1206 and 1214, the community on Mount Carmel petitioned Albert, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem for a rule of life. His response became the "formula for living" that Carmelites follow to this day as the Rule of Saint Albert. This short but profound document inspires all branches of the Carmelite Family to this day.

Hospitality was no doubt one of the original values for the early Carmelites. Mount Carmel served as a place of rest for pilgrims in the Holy Land. Some of them were so impressed by the beauty of Carmel and the simple lifestyle of the community of hermits who lived there that they stayed.The first hermits lived on Mount Carmel in Israel in the time of Elijah the Prophet, hundreds of years before Christ. Later, many Crusaders went to the Holy Land to free such holy places as Bethlehem, Nazareth and many other sites associated with the Life of The Lord Jesus, from the Moslems. After they achieved their task of freeing the Holy Land, many of them stayed on Mount Carmel; a mountain range which juts out into the Mediterranean Sea near the present city of Haifa, along the southern border of present-day Lebanon.

We can read about the Prophet Elijah in the First and Second Books of Kings. There were also Jews and Moslem Hermits on Mount Carmel dedicated to the life of Elijah the Prophet. This all took place between 1190 and 1206. The first written document of the Carmelites, our RULE, dates to 1206. The Christian Hermits from Mount Carmel went to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Albert, (not of Trapani) and asked for a Rule of Life. That was the official beginning of the Carmelites. In 1245, the Moslems recaptured much of the Holy Land. They massacred most of the Carmelites. Those who escaped returned to their home countries of Italy, France, England and Germany. It is from these 4 countries in Europe that the Order spread throughout the world. Today, there are 5200 Carmelites of all Branches of the Order, male and female, throughout the world.