Used by permission from Fr. Mario Esposito’s talk at the Lay Carmelite Convocation, July 2011, entitled “Our Future is Formed by Our Identity.”

The original group on Mt. Carmel came from many European countries, from certain groups within the church and they were overwhelmingly lay people, most likely with some clerics among them. Essentially, Carmel began as a lay movement. Carmel began at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries, and not unlike today, it was a time of tremendous religious and social change.

The age of the monasteries and monks was yielding to the new movements and the friars. The cities, the guilds, commerce, everything was changing. The Holy Spirit was calling forth within the church new responses to these new realities and the seed of Elijah’s inspiration on Mt. Carmel burst forth into new fruit, but not in a vacuum – rather, among lay people.

The historians tell us that the first Carmelites came from four groups – each group brought something to the mix of Carmel and each group left something of themselves in the Rule. To this day, their spirit and our future identity will reflect these elements. I would suggest we need to hold on to those elements to bring us safely into the future.

The first group on Mt. Carmel included four groups each of which could be asked the question that God asked Elijah on Mt. Horeb, “Why are you here?”

1) The Pilgrims were men and, we presume women too, who left Europe and came to the Holy Land to be in the land of Christ, near Christ.  In those days pilgrimages were not an 8-day journey to the Holy Land and back, but a long, dangerous, time-consuming process of journeying. Many died on the open seas.

We might say that this is the group searching for Christ, wanting to get closer, traveling, not standing still, on pilgrimage, wanting to follow in Christ’s footsteps. 

Why are you here on Mt. Carmel? 

I am searching for God, for the face of the living God in my/our world.

The pilgrims represent the thread in Carmel that searches for God – something we must do today and in the future: to be willing to pick up and let go and search to uncover and find amidst the change and pain, the living and loving face of God.  This search in prayer and discernment is part of our identity to bring us into the future.

 2) The Penitents were also men, and we presume some women, who left Europe and came to the Holy Land to be in the land of Christ, near Christ, but with a different purpose:  they took upon themselves a penitential, simple, poor life in order to undergo a deep spiritual conversion, turning from sin to virtue. 

Fasting and abstinence was part of their life. We can say that this is the group undergoing conversion for Christ. 

Why are you here on Mt. Carmel? 

I want to be totally converted to Christ, to become new, purified in mind and spirit and heart.

The penitents represent the thread in Carmel that seeks to be changed into the new man, the new person in Christ and who accepts the call to be purified and whole, and who invites others to live in this kind of honesty and wholeness. The penitent stands as a witness to integrity: a virtue which we need now and in the future in order to be able to listen to ourselves, others and our world with clean ears, to see with clean eyes, to speak with a clean tongue and to love with a clean heart, God’s heart.  Lifelong conversion and change is part of our identity to bring us into the future.

3) The Crusaders the third group we may sometimes forget about. Many of the first Carmelites were Crusaders; men who left home and family to fight for Christ, to free the holy places from pagan hands, ready to give their lives for Christ. We can sense this group in the Rule of St. Albert which, borrowing the imagery of St. Paul to the Ephesians, speaks of “putting on the armor of God” fighting with the sword of the Word, deflecting the arrows of the enemy, & protecting ourselves with faith. The only offensive weapon in their arsenal, or ours, is the Word of God. 

No longer fighting to free the soil of the Holy Land from the Saracens. This group now in community on Mt. Carmel is fighting for the holy land of their own souls, to free themselves from the snares of the devil. 

Why are you here on Mt. Carmel? 

To fight for Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom. We can’t be naïve: in today’s world and in the future, we need to be ready to fight and die in the witness of our faith in Christ. The Church today needs witnesses and prophets, prayerful and courageous, to speak up for “Jesus, the way, the truth and the life.”

We must all, in a God-like way fight for the Kingdom, for justice, not armed with bullets, but charity, the Word of God, and conviction.  Now and in the future, readiness for combat, zeal is part of our identity.

4) The Hermits finally and most well-known, the last group on Mt. Carmel were the Hermits – those who seek to be alone with Christ. They also are searchers, penitents and spiritual fighters, but their goal is union, a solitary abiding with Christ, even if they live as a community of hermits.

These early Carmelites sought to live under the inspiration of Elijah, the man of God, the model monk, the celibate, who stood aside from everything to commune with God in prayer. 

They turned to Mary, the model of the soul perfectly turned toward God as their model and Patroness, their Lady.

Why are you here on Mt. Carmel? 

I am here to be alone with Christ in silence and prayer, to dwell with Him in the unity of the Father and the Spirit.

Now and in the future, this call to be alone with God in the eremitical manner, to savor God’s presence in the cave, the cell of our hearts, within our homes, family and church, will and must be part of our identity.

Married, single, widowed, the Lay Carmelite of today and the future in the fullness of their vocation will need to:

• Search for Christ – like the pilgrims to Mt. Carmel
• Be converted to Christ – like the penitents on Mt. Carmel
• Fight for Christ – like the crusaders going to Mt. Carmel
• Stay with Christ – like the hermits gathered on Mt. Carmel

If all of us remain faithful to these roots of our vocation, the future, directed by the Holy Spirit will form itself, according to our identity.