Carmelite in Baroda explains what it means to be a missionary and a cloistered nun
The cloistered life does not isolate the nuns but "places them at the heart of the Church ". Nun remembers the constant prayer of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus: ‘Draw me to you. We shall run after you’. “Invisible ties unite her to Jesus and His people; ties that constitute her greatness but which at the same time impose an immense responsibility of love.”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – For Sr Mary Gemma, former prioress of the monastery of Prem Jyot (Love Light) in Baroda (Mumbai), a Carmelite "is a missionary of love because she has won over the hearts of the modern world with her simple way of approaching God, pointing out the way of satisfying the necessity of the Infinite which God Himself planted in our heart".
Speaking to AsiaNews, she explains the missionary calling of the cloistered nuns who choose to serve Christ in a convent. Such a nun "does not live as an isolated being. Invisible ties unite her to Jesus and His people; ties that constitute her greatness but which at the same time impose an immense responsibility of love.”
Her reflection follows. Titled Draw me to you. We shall run after you, her comments come as Pope Francis’s extraordinary missionary month opens.
To be a missionary is to be drawn by God who is love and embrace the whole humanity in the intimacy of that relationship that reveals His Presence – His Love. Pope Francis says in His message for this year’s World Mission Day in October, the extraordinary Missionary Month – to revive and rediscover the missionary dimension of our faith. How does a cloistered Carmelite understand it? Our Beloved Pope Francis says: ‘We are Mission because we are God’s love poured out, God’s holiness, holiness created in His own image.” Mission is not primarily what we do but what we are.
Missionary longing is an integral part of Carmel’s apostolic mission, even in the Cloistered Carmel and has been a very special task for the children of Teresa of Avila and she passed this on to her daughters as a key factor that touches the very heart of the Church. A cloistered Carmelite allows herself to be captivated by Jesus by an onward rush, the impetuosity of reciprocating love like a torrent plunging in the boundless ocean of His Love and in her silence, she irresistibly draws others to Jesus. A Carmelite is a missionary of love because she has won over the hearts of the modern world with her simple way of approaching God, pointing out the way of satisfying the necessity of the Infinite which God Himself has planted in our hearts. A Carmelite does not live as an isolated being. Invisible ties unite her to JESUS and His people; ties that constitute her greatness but which at the same time impose an immense responsibility of love.
Enclosure, silence do not isolate contemplative persons from the communion of the Mystical Body, far more, it places them at the heart of the Church. Separation from the world living in solitude is not emptiness, this wilderness invites them to be with the Lord who speaks to the heart and associates them all the more in His work of salvation. In this they have a unique model: St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus or St. Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as The Little Flower. St. Thérèse belonged to our Order. She entered Carmel on the 9th of April 1888 at the young age of 15 and died on Sep. 30th 1897 when she was just 24 years. In this short span of 9 years Thérèse heart burned with great missionary desires. She wrote: “How beautiful is our vocation! It is for us; it is for Carmel to preserve the salt of the earth. We offer our prayers and sacrifices for the apostles of the Lord; we ought ourselves to be their apostles while by word and example they preach the Gospel to our brethren!”
When her prayer list kept steadily growing, she prayed this prayer to JESUS which she found in the song of songs, “Draw me, we shall run after You.” Her longings to save souls and draw them to JESUS was so great that when she read this line from the Song of Songs, she immediately saw that all she had to do was to be drawn by JESUS and all souls would follow.
A little later when her lavish heart was still longing to be a martyr, an apostle, a priest, a missionary and more she read the First letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians and wrote this: “I understood it was Love alone that made the Church’s members act, … that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places … in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus my Love … my vocation, at last I have found it. Mu vocation is love! Yes, I have found my place in the Church and it is you, O my God, who have given me this place; in the heart of the Church my Mother, I shall be Love. Thus, I shall be everything (a martyr, an apostle, a priest, a missionary), and thus my dream will be realized.
Towards the end of her life she who had become a true image of LOVE had only this prayer, “Draw Me, We Shall Run After You.” This is our prayer too as Cloistered Carmelites in which each of you are drawn to the Lord with cords of love that can never be broken!
* Sr Marie Gemma OCD is the former Prioress, Prem Jyot Monastery, and Carmel Ashram, Baroda.
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