Nedlands ‘powerhouse of prayer’ turns 75
By Bridget Spinks
History tells us that one of the last things Archbishop Patrick Clune asked for on his death bed was an assurance that the Carmelite Nuns who were destined for Perth were “on the water” and therefore would not be retained in Sydney.
The Archbishop had worked assiduously to obtain Carmelites to establish a prayer centre in the Archdiocese and was relieved to know that they were safely on their way.
Seven young Sisters (the Prioress was only 29) arrived in Perth on 28 May 1935 and stayed with the Good Shepherd Sisters until their Carmel in Nedlands was opened on June 16 the same year.
The Carmelite Monastery in Nedlands marked its 75th anniversary on 16 July, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with a solemn Mass concelebrated by Archbishop Hickey and nine priests. The Carmelites have always relied on Divine Providence and now in 2010 there are 14 Sisters in residence at Nedlands, with various cultural backgrounds including Irish, British, Burmese, Dutch, Tongan, Jewish, Vietnamese and Australian.
In preparation for the celebration, the Carmelites ensured that the whole chapel was checked for maintenance and then painted.
This year’s 22 March hailstorm that struck Perth and caused serious damage to the University of Western Australia barely affected the recently repaired chapel of the Nedlands Carmel less than twelve streets away.
“God spared us during the hailstorm. There were only a few holes in the stained glass windows and almost no damage to the chapel that we’d done up. It was Providence,” Carmelites Sr Margaret Mary and Sr Marie Therese said.
“It’s amazing how God takes care of us,” said Sr Marie Therese, who has been in the Carmel for 48 years.
“During WWII there were serious food shortages and ration cards,” the Nuns said. “The people always looked after us. They would see that the nuns didn’t lack what was needed, and the nuns gave their meat ration to the priest,” Sr Marie Therese said.
“It was serious; it was hard to get things,” added Sr Margaret Mary, who has been in the Carmel for 49 years.
“I was born in 1938,” she said, recalling childhood memories from growing up during and after the war. “The shortage didn’t last notably long, but it was real.”
They both entered on the same day but a year apart, Sr Margaret Mary on 2 February 1961 and Sr Marie Therese in 1962.
Sr Margaret Mary grew up “about a mile away” from the monastery in Nedlands, the third eldest of seven.
“The Carmel was always here; and it was a great mystery. I couldn’t understand why people would join,” she said. At the age of 21, when she knocked on the door, they preferred that she didn’t enter that year.
“I felt it was definitely God calling me, but where to? Because they made me wait, it was an attraction to me. I was intrigued,” Sr Margaret Mary said.
She spent the next year in the Kimberley teaching in a school in Bishop Jobst’s diocese in what was then called La Grange (now Bidyadanga).
Living in a remote community, she said, meant that there was time to develop a “life of personal prayer more deeply”.
“The church was really a Nissan hut with a corrugated iron roof and walls, left behind after the war,” she said.
“It was quiet; there was no radio, no traffic, no cars, no aeroplanes.”
Often she was alone with the Blessed Sacrament “which deepened the call,” she said.
Although tempted to stay and help the Aborigines in the Kimberley because “they’re crying out for help,” Sr Margaret Mary says by living in the Carmel, she is helping.
“We believe that prayer is our way of helping all people.”
There is a minimum of three hours of silent prayer in the monastery – one at dawn, one around midday and another hour at dusk not to mention the Great Silence that falls after the Office of Readings in the evenings.
“Living in the monastery enclosure is part of the call; you never really go out, except to the dentist or doctor’” Sr Margaret Mary said.
“It’s kind of freeing – you’re free to live without masks; free to concentrate on the thing you’re here for,” Sr Marie Therese added.
“If you don’t feel free, you probably aren’t called,” she said.
Sr Marie Therese said that there are things that happen and things that are said through people and through reading that “all add up”.
Sr Marie Therese, from Mukinbudin, remembers when she was enrolled in the Scapular in her first year of boarding school at Our Lady of the Missions at Sacred Heart College, Highgate.
“It was significant for me getting enrolled in the Scapular,” Sr Marie Therese said.
The recessional hymn that day was Pure As Carmel’s Snows from the Carmelite missal, whose chorus goes as follows, “Mother of Mt Carmel, hear, Shades are falling, night is near”.
That same recessional, Pure as Carmel’s Snows, was chosen as the recessional for the 75th anniversary Mass of Thanksgiving.
At the Mass, Archbishop Hickey said that “the silence, the poverty, the community and the prayer” of the Carmelite spirituality are characteristics of Mary, who is “a great model of prayer, of silence, of contemplation”.
The Archbishop referenced the moment on Calvary when Christ entrusted His Mother to John the Apostle to explain the significance of Mary’s title and special role as Mother of the Church.
“He was entrusting His mother to John and through John, to the whole Church,” he said
“Let us remember to make, like St John, a place for Mary in our home. Either in an image or perhaps beyond an image to a place in our heart, so that she is honoured and venerated,” he said.
In the monastery, Sr Marie Therese says, “Mary is someone who is always there. She’s all around the place. It’s her Order”.
“She’s so much part of Carmel; it’s as if she permeates the whole atmosphere – in the quietness, in her own contemplation. Christ is the centre of our life; she always makes Him the centre of her life,” said Sr Marie Therese.
Sr Margaret Mary agreed and added that God was the reason and the purpose of their life in Carmel.
“The sacred humanity of Christ, the Mass and the Sacraments are the centre of our life,” she said.
“And in the hours of quiet prayer, we’re very free about the way we seek God in our life. The aim is union with God. Carmelite spirituality leaves the person interiorly free to seek God at whatever stage they’re at.”
Sr Marie Therese said she “felt called by God” from an early age.
“I always thought I’d be a nun, but I didn’t tell anyone.”
“I knew in essence what the Carmel was; I knew it was union with God that you were aiming for.”
To ensure that there is an awareness that contemplative life is offered in the Catholic Church for men and women, there is an association of monasteries for Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The Holy See has encouraged the Associations (between Carmels) since the 1950s, but the one the Nedlands Carmel belongs to was established in the 1990s and has a web presence explaining the order and the vocation.
But to grow vocations, the Carmelites begin with prayer.
“We have a day to pray for vocations. The first thing is to pray to the Lord of the Harvest and try to live our life as well as we can and pray that others will join us and have reading material ready. It’s really a mystery,” Sr Marie Therese said.
“God does do a direct call,” Sr Margaret Mary added, “He puts it directly into the person’s heart.”
They said a “call” happens when a person feels an attraction and/or an inspiration to the vocation.
“I’m sure God uses various influences to attract people. If you feel it’s God’s will, you somehow know it’s what He wants. We don’t seek or try to persuade but we have some reading material about our life available so that if there’s a consciousness in people’s minds, they can make a choice,” Sr Marie Therese said. “It’s amazing, when you think about it; the wonder of it; being called by God. Sometimes I think, how is it that I’m here?” Sr Marie Therese added.
For more information about the Carmelites, their way of life and spirituality, visit: www.carmelite.com.
A day in the life of Carmel
5.30 One hour of silent prayer
6.30 Office of Morning Prayer (together)
7.00 Mass followed by Thanksgiving and the Little Office of Terce followed by breakfast and work in silence, speaking only for work or charity
11.00 Second Little Hour of prayer for the midday hour (7 minutes) and an examination of conscience
11.15 Dinner and washing up followed by an hour of recreation together – ‘lightening up’. “St Therese of the Little Flower thought they needed that,” Sr Margaret Mary said. Then the Carmelites pray the Afternoon Hour of prayer (7 minutes), which is followed by an hour of silence (resting/reading) and then work till 4.30.
4.30 The Office of Evening Prayer
4.50 Hour of silent prayer
5.50 Free time while the cook (a Carmelite Sister) prepares supper
6.30 Supper followed by some recreation, then Night Prayer and the Office of Readings and the Great Silence
10.30 Lights out.
Elaine Thomas, Prior of the Carmelite tertiaries since July says belonging to the Order is “a joy”. She has been a member of the Third Order of Carmel since 1979. The aim is to “live a normal holy life, as holy as we can,” she said.
“I try to follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ and imitate Mary in her silence and contemplative way.”
Some of the features of the prayer life for a Third Order or Secular Carmelite include the daily recitation of the Divine Office – Morning and Evening Prayer and if possible, Night Prayer – and daily Mass where possible.
There are nine active secular Carmelites in Perth and at least four “long distance” members in Western Australia who are part of the order but may be unable to attend meetings due to distance or health. Judith Greer has been a lay Carmelite for 15 years.
Living in the Carmelite-run parish of Hilton for 40 years attracted her to the order.
“Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Hilton was run by Carmelites for 50 years until about three years ago when they had to withdraw the Carmelites because there was a shortage of priests,” she said.
For Judith, the Carmelite spirituality is “very calm, very spiritual and very prayerful” and she said she appreciates the contemplative aspect too. St Teresa of Avila and St Thérese of Lisieux and Edith Stein (St Teresia Benedicta of the Cross) are in a stained glass window in the parish church at Hilton. “It’s beautiful. It’s inspiring for us,” she said.