Living the Challenges of Cor Orans - Part 1
With the permission of the Editor of our St. Joseph’s Association newsletter, “Amigas”, we re-print this article on the effects of Vultum Dei quaerere and Cor orans.
Glimpses Into the Past
With Gratitude to Pope Francis
In the genuine Teresian spirit, [the members of the Association] will bear witness of loving obedience to the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Church. (St. Joseph’s Association Statutes, 7, c)
Two years ago, the St. Joseph’s Association had its meeting in Darien, Il. There were 17 of us, Prioresses, Delegates and Guests, and we spent three, hard-working days updating our Statutes to conform to the demands of Vultum Dei quaerere and Cor orans. We were successful because, during the previous 12 months, since Cor orans had been promulgated, there had been intensive work between the member Carmels preparing the papers we would discuss at the meeting.
Looking further back into the past, six years ago, the Coordinator of the SJA and her Delegate were present in Rome for five equally intense days of work organized by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Looking still further back, the St. Joseph’s Association was erected in 1976. Between 1976 and the Meeting in Rome in 2016, life in the Association resembled that of a small town far off the beaten track where life went on peacefully without any upheavals and from time to time a train would stop with some news. The “news” for the SJA was “Amigas” which came three times a year and which reminded us that we belonged to an Association. To be honest, it is doubtful if most of the Carmels in the Association could have told you who the other members were! Aside from “Amigas”, our contact with one another was rare, and had little to do with the Association.
THEN CAME POPE FRANCIS! There was the hint of “something in the air” in 2014, when CICLSAL sent around their questionnaire concerning cloistered contemplative life. This was followed by the news that a document would be coming from Rome about that cloistered contemplative life. The meeting in Rome made us aware of the difficulties and challenges that many, if not most, cloistered communities were struggling with. It also revealed how deeply the Vatican cherishes her contemplative nuns. One very practical sign of this was that, out of the 4,000 consecrated persons who attended the meeting, the Vatican paid for the food and board of the 350 cloistered contemplatives, so much did the Church want us to be a living part of its ministry.
We knew that a document was coming from Rome. We waited 2 ½ years for it, and then we were given Vultum Dei quaerere, the beautiful document by our Holy Father in which he calls us to wake up and deepen our understanding of our God-given vocation. Eighteen months later, it was followed by Cor orans. This was more than a wake-up call: it was an electric shock treatment! It may not be too much to compare it to an AED shock, galvanizing the heart of the Association to bring it fully alive.
The St. Joseph’s Association is not a club. It is a living member of the Church, and, what is true for the Church as a whole, is true for the Association in a smaller way: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many…But God has so arranged the body, …that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. (1 Cor. 12, 14, 24-26)
The quiet, sleepy town that was the St. Joseph’s Association is now a vibrant, living body of Communities who are concerned for one another and quick to respond to those members who are in need, but also to those who have reason to rejoice! Several Carmels can witness to the help which they have received in the past two years from the Council, but most especially from our dear Coordinator, Sr. Mary Elizabeth! Would this help have been forthcoming without the wake-up call from Pope Francis? Would it have been as deep and as total as it has been? We will let those Carmels answer these questions who have been the recipients of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s unremitting, self-sacrificing and totally loving concern. We have discovered that we are Sisters of one another in a way and to a degree which we never imagined. We owe this to our Holy Father, Pope Francis.
Simon, Simon,… I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. (Lk. 22, 31-32)
Dear Holy Father, thank you for not only strengthening our faith, but for causing it to be enlarged to enable us to embrace our Sisters in an immeasurably deeper way.
See also our other articles in the series Living the Challenges of Cor Orans: A Wonderful Teresian Time and Glimpses Into the Present.