Diamond Jubilee of Sr. Catherine
Diamond Jubilee of Religious Profession
February 3, 2024
Sr. Catherine of the Holy Family
First Vows of Sr. Marie Therese
Sr. Marie Therese of the Child Jesus
First Profession of Vows - December 8, 2022
Perpetual Profession of Sr. Bernadette
Perpetual Profession of Sr. Bernadette
Our Sr. Bernadette of the Immaculate Conception made her Perpetual Vows as an Extern Sister dearly loved by all, on Sunday, October 3, 2021. Fr. Daniel Chowning, OCD was the main celebrant and homilist for the Mass of Profession, which also included a Blessing of Roses honoring St. Therese. The most precious “rose” we received on this day was the gift of another Sister pronouncing her “forever” to Christ and his Church! We end here with these inspiring words from Fr. Daniel’s homily:
“What does it mean ‘to be love in the Heart of the Church’? It means that you are called to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, that the Spirit will transform you into the radiance of God’s love for all people. Your life will radiate the love of God to those with whom you live and beyond the walls of the monastery. It means to do everything for the love of God. To choose love as the motivating force of your daily life…. We Carmelites believe that love is the greatest healing energy in the world; we believe that contemplative prayer, contemplative love, heals and transforms the world. This is the core of our vocation to Carmel…”
In loving memory of Mother Regina of Christ the King, O.C.D.
In loving memory of Mother Regina of Christ the King, O.C.D.
(March 25, 1937 – June 16, 2021)
On June 23, 2021 the Mass of Christaian Burial was celebrated by Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel, Bishop of Lafayette and concelebrated by Bishop Michael Jarrel, Emmeritus Bishop of Lafayette, five Discalced Carmelite Priests and other priests of the diocese. Fr. Vinko Mamic, O.C.D. delivered the homily which gave beautiful tribute to Mother Regina’s outstanding life.
Mother Regina of Christ the King (Kathleen Margaret Mullins) was born March 25, 1937 in Atchison, Kansas the fourth of seven children of Laurence Anthony Mullins and Mary Angela Bergan. Her father was a football star under the famous Knute Rockne and later a successful coach and athletic director. The family was a close knit and happy one, formed by the Christian example of their parents, with the siblings working, playing, and supporting one another. The family Rosary was a must each night, bonding them even closer through their love of Mary. Kathleen was a good student, a cheerleader, and, as to be expected, loved and participated in every sport, winning awards in baseball and basketball. She heard the call to religious life on October 25, 1953, the feast of Christ the King, when she was 16 years old. That very evening she told her parents of her decision and received their wholehearted support. Despite being refused by Maryknoll (she was “too young”), which she at first tried to join and then then more than a dozen Carmels to whom she wrote, she did not give up. Providentially, she wrote to Mother Theresa Margaret Hermes in Lafayette. From Mother’s first letter to Kathleen it was “love at first sight.” She entered the Lafayette Carmel on September 24, 1954 when she was seventeen years old, bringing with her an enthusiasm and exuberance that never waned. “The thrill of waking up each morning in Carmel, kissing my scapular, and renewing my consecration to Our Lady is unbounded joy,” she would later say. Mother Regina was a hard worker and served the community in many capacities: as seamstress and infirmarian, in the kitchen and sacristy, as correspondent, Council Sister, and Prioress. She worked very closely with the late Mother Theresa Margaret, co-foundress of the Lafayette Carmel. Mother Regina’s spirituality, wisdom, dedication to Carmel, generosity, and wholehearted gift of self to her community and to others in Christ-like love is a legacy that will never be forgotten.
Espousals of Mary & Joseph
+2003
January 23, 2021
Espousals of Mary & Joseph
The following is a reflection given by Mother Theresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart to our community.
The whole Catholic Church, in fact, all of Christendom and even beyond, is founded on mystery. If we stop to really look at it, we will see that practically everything that we believe and that we practice belongs to the realm of mystery. Now, mystery is something that we cannot comprehend with our normal reasoning. It is something beyond that because its source is God himself, who is divine and we are human. It is only when the divine penetrates the human that we begin to have some supernatural understanding of these mysteries. To enter into the mystery of God opens up a whole realm of beauty, security, love, faith, hope… everything that is good for our souls.
Today we celebrate the mystery of the virginal espousals of Joseph and Mary. We are told that it was a true marriage; Joseph is the real husband of Mary and she is his wife. Yet their relationship is a mystery. In this mystery flowing out from the great mystery of God and his loving relationship with us, we see a special protection that he bestowed on them, especially on our Blessed Mother. She was predestined and created for the purpose of giving the world its Redeemer, its Savior, Son of God incarnate. This could not be done in a normal way because Jesus, her son, is God, yet God had, we might say, a concern for our Blessed Mother’s reputation. If among her associates she had gone around bearing a child without being married, she would have been an object of scorn and even worse. So he protected her by this virginal union with St. Joseph. This is a mystery. It was revealed to both of them that they were to be always virginal. That is the unusual union of man and woman–it is a mystery.
What union is there in the whole great mystery of God and his love for man that is more fruitful than that of Mary and Joseph? It is on an entirely supernatural plane. They gave the world its Savior.
What can be more fruitful than the virginal union of those whom God calls to be spouses of his son, Jesus? We, too, can give saviors to the world and be saviors ourselves. We are exhorted in our liturgy of this Feast of the Espousals of Mary and Joseph, to celebrate and rejoice that we have been drawn into the very heart of this mystery.
Clothing of Sr. Marie Therese of the Child Jesus
Sr. Marie Therese of the Child Jesus (Madeline Hayes) was Clothed in the Habit of Carmel on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th. After completing her year of postulancy, she now begins her Novitiate as a Carmelite Novice. The Clothing/Investiture Ceremony was celebrated privately at the Carmelite Monastery. Keeping to the traditional custom, the bridal dress is worn as the community led the procession to their Choir/private chapel within the cloister. As they processed, the Sisters sang an ancient hymn to Our Lady: “O Queen of all the Virgin Choirs”. The Rite of Admission to Religious Life (commonly known as the Clothing Ceremony) took place within Lauds of the Solemnly Chanted Office of the Immaculate Conception. After the Call, Madeline responded: “I ask to be admitted to this community of Mary, Mother of Grace, to experience your way of life, to follow Christ more perfectly, dedicating myself completely to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.” In receiving the Habit of Carmel and her new religious name, Sr. Marie Therese commences her life as a Carmelite Nun and her Novitiate years of preparation for First Profession of Vows. The Carmelite Nuns joyfully celebrated this day in thanksgiving for the gift of Sr. Marie Therese’s vocation. Our Carmelite Aspirant, Lily Hayes (Sr. Marie Therese and Emily’s younger sister) joined us for this special occasion. It is a special grace to have three Carmelite vocations from the same family. Now they are sisters in the spirit, with Sr. Marie Therese leading the way. Please pray for them and for many more young women to respond their fiat to a religious vocation!
All Saints of Carmel
+2003
November 14, 2020
All Saints of Carmel
The following is a reflection given by Mother Theresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart to our community.
Our reading from St. Peter today can be applied very well to this feast. St. Peter says that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people he claims for his own, and we should proclaim the glorious works of the one who has brought us from the darkness into his marvelous light. We could take each of those praises and apply it to today’s feast and our Order of Carmel and see how aptly it fits.
Are we, Carmel, a chosen race? There is no doubt about it. Carmel is a chosen race, and I am sure that every saint in Carmel would affirm this. They see now in a light that we cannot see indeed how chosen we are. It is a beautiful word, chosen, if we look into its real meaning. Chosen means that someone is particular, that they have been favored from out of the assembly, from out of the multitude. These are the chosen ones. We choose something: a man chooses a wife, we all choose or are chosen for a vocation, a work to do on earth. There are many things in human life that we can apply ‘chosen’ to, which means they are special. For us to think Carmel is special in the Church and in heaven in indeed appropriate. Of course, this is a mercy of God as the last sentence in this little scripture excerpt tells us. It is not of any merit of ours that we are chosen, but in the inscrutable wisdom of God.
So we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. To the priesthood belongs the office of sacrificing to God. But this priesthood has an adjective: a ‘royal’ priesthood. We are indeed set apart, chosen to offer sacrifice with the great sacrifice, and we are able to do this in a royal manner, which means in a kingly or queenly way. A royal priesthood is the Order of Carmel. It is a holy nation. God showed his holiness to us through Jesus, so if Carmel is going to be true to its designation as a holy nation, we must find in it the holiness of Jesus, which is mirrored in the holiness of Mary. And this is the holiness that is proper to Carmel.
We should cherish the fact that we live in Carmel, that we belong to this great family, the blessed of whom we are celebrating today. Each of them had to carry out this description when they were on earth. They had to strive for and attain to the holiness of God himself. They had to remember that they were set apart, that God had claimed them for his own. And what is all of this for? Why all of this specialty? So that we might proclaim the glorious works of the one who called us from darkness into his marvelous light. How dark the world is. We hear and see that with greater emphasis day by day. We have been called apart. We have been called out of this darkness into the marvelous light of Carmel. The Carmel that shines with the light of the Mother of God, the fearless one, the immaculate one.
This feast should give us, if we meditate on its significance, a deeper appreciation of this gift that God has gifted us with. It should stir up in us a new ardor, a new desire to fulfill this description of what Carmel is and strive to become a member of this blessed company in heaven that we are celebrating today. The Saints of Carmel proclaimed the work of the Holy Spirit in their souls by traversing the interior castle, by becoming a flame of love and following the little way, that is a sure way, and that would lead us to be a member of that blessed company in heaven.
Solemnity of All Saints
+2003
November 1, 2020
Solemnity of All Saints
The following is a reflection given by Mother Theresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart to our community.
All the saints whom we are celebrating today had to become saints through prayer. We might except some of the martyrs who had to give up their lives suddenly and possibly had not been persons of deep prayer. But they had to be persons of prayer in the depths of their hearts to be open to the Holy Spirit.
In the first lesson at Office of Readings for this feast, the elders help harps and censers of aromatic spices. The harp can be interpreted as hymns and songs of praise of God. They sing new hymns: “Worthy are You to open the seal…” The golden vessels of aromatic spices can be interpreted as the quiet contemplative prayer which came from their inmost beings. The soul of contemplative prayer—prayers so precious that they’re put in golden censers—are fragrant aromatic spices. In Scripture we read that these prayers rise to God like incense. The greatest sanctity is attained through contemplative prayer.
The sweeter the prayer is, the sweeter the songs of praise offered on the harp. The saints are gathered around the throne of Him Who sits on it and the Lamb Who redeemed us by His Blood. I’m sure led by Our Lady, the great hymn of praise rises ever greater as we realize the great mercy of God.
We anticipate our going forth by sharing in the joy of the saints today. I like to think of honoring them by using them efficaciously to become a saint. St. Therese wanted to gather up all of the Precious Blood and offer it to God so souls could become saints. This is our vocation too—to gather It up by prayer and sacrifice.
Let us pray both with harp and with aromatic spices so that when our time comes, the Blood of the Lamb will prepare us—so we can be present when the Lamb opens the scroll. Look to Our Mother of Grace to give us the desire and light to know what to us our energies for—to be playing our harp of praise and filling the golden vessel with the aromatic spices of contemplative prayer.
New Life in Carmel
Entrance of Madeline Hayes
On Sunday, September 8, 2019 Madeline Hayes entered our Discalced Carmelite Community of Mary, Mother of Grace. Madeline Hayes is the daughter of Jason and Elizabeth Hayes, the third of four daughters from Owens Cross Roads (Huntsville), Alabama. Although Madeline always felt the call to the religious life from a young age, in the early summer of 2018 it became clear that her vocation was to the contemplative life and prayer of Carmel. Providentially, she came into contact with our Community through the intercession of St. Therese and the direction of our Carmelite Fathers.
In September of 2018, Madeline began her year of Aspirancy which provided some live-in experience for her with the opportunity for some first hand exposure to the Carmelite contemplative life. Her family has been a great support to her as she follows God’s call and responds to His grace.
With her Entrance to Carmel on September 8th Madeline begins the next phase in formation to becoming a Discalced Carmelite Nun as a Postulant for one year, with the hopes of receiving the Habit of Our Lady’s Order and becoming a Carmelite Novice in 2020. As a Postulant she lives and prays with the Community, Beginning her formation in Carmelite Spirituality and the consecrated, contemplative life.