Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
July 4, 2001
Carmelite monastery invites faithful to triduum
July 16 celebrates 750th anniversary of Carmelite scapular, graces
By Roxanne King
Hidden by a high fence that protects 16 lush acres in Littleton are nine cloistered nuns whose vocation is prayer. The steady rhythm of their supplications, both silent and sung, mark the days of the Discalced Carmelites, who have dedicated their lives to being the heart of the Church.
"It's paradise," said the prioress, Mother Judith Hartford, O.C.D., who granted only the second media interview in her 47 years at the monastery to the Register June 19. Continuing her description of Carmelite life, she said, "It's almost totally prayer."
Speaking to the Register through a metal grille — a privilege usually reserved for family with most other exchanges taking place by visitors leaving messages or items on a turnstile, which spins its contents into the hands of nuns unseen — the jolly prioress was clad in the traditional brown Carmelite habit, black veil and apron-like scapular the order is renowned for.
This year celebrates the 750th anniversary of the scapular, which prompted the interview. The nuns would like the faithful to know about the graces available to them through the devotion.
"The Blessed Mother ... appeared to Saint Simon Stock on the night of July 16, 1251, and gave him the scapular," Mother Judith said, adding that the garment came with the promise that "no one who dies clothed in this will suffer eternal fire."
Stock was a Carmelite in Cambridge, England, where some members of the order, which originated on Mount Carmel in Palestine, had emigrated, the prioress said.
The scapular's popularity "spread like wildfire all through Europe," Mother Judith said. Originally intended as part of the Carmelite habit, lay people also began wearing the garment. Over time, as styles of clothing changed, the size of the scapular worn by laity shrunk. Today, it consists of two stamp-sized pictures — one depicting Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the other the Sacred Heart of Jesus — that are stitched onto brown fabric and held together by brown ribbon.
Although not as popular as it once was, the wearing of the scapular is second only to the rosary in Marian devotion, according to a Catholic News Service report.
Even Pope John Paul II wears one. In a March letter to the Carmelites acknowledging the anniversary of the sacramental, the Holy Father wrote: "I, too, have worn the scapular over my heart for a long time."
The promise to save one from Hell doesn't work like magic, proponents say. Rather, one wears the scapular as a reminder to "clothe" oneself in the virtues modeled by the Blessed Mother. The graces come as one grows in holiness.
"It's like (having Mary's) arms around us," Mother Judith explained. "It reminds us to practice her virtues. It's a symbol of her humility, of her poverty, of her obedience, of her charity — of her virtues of purity."
In his letter to the Carmelites, the Holy Father called the scapular "a treasure" that nourishes sensitivity "to the Virgin Mother's loving presence."
"The scapular is essentially a `habit,'" the pope wrote.
Donning the "habit" associates the faithful with the Carmelites and their life of prayer and service, Pope John Paul II said. It should foster awareness that devotion to Mary "cannot be limited to prayers and tributes in her honor on certain occasions," the Holy Father said, "but must become a `habit,' that is, a permanent orientation of one's own Christian conduct," expressed in prayer and in action.
As is their annual tradition, the nuns invite the public to celebrate a triduum leading to the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which recalls the anniversary of the scapular, with prayer services 7 p.m. July 14, 15 and 16 at their chapel. Those leading the services of Scripture readings and hymns include Father José Salgado, F.S.S.P., the first night; Bishop José Gomez the second night; and Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., the final night.
The 750th anniversary of the sacramental "is a big occasion in the order," the kindly prioress said, adding that the nuns will be setting up extra chairs to accommodate the estimated 500 who attend the annual feast.
Those familiar with the nuns' Chapel of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit know that the public never sees the nuns, who participate in liturgies from behind a grille that enables them to worship with the faithful while remaining hidden from view.
"We can see the priest and they can see the priest, but we don't see the people and they don't see us," Mother Judith said. Explaining further, she added: "We're supposed to be the heart of the Church, and the heart should be hidden. If it's exposed, it's not good for the heart and it's not good for the body. So we're quiet. We just silently pray and pray and pray."
They pray for the Church, especially for priests, and they pray for the requests they get daily.
"We get many phone calls thanking us for prayer," the prioress said. "`Oh, it was a miracle — the baby was born safe,' `the tumor wasn't malignant,' `my husband didn't lose his job' or `we did sell the house.'
"God does hear prayers," she said with conviction. "Even not prayers, we just marvel at something that just went through my mind — `Wouldn't it be nice if we had this?' — I didn't ask for it, then sometimes within 24 hours here comes the thing that I just happened to think of in passing."
The Carmelite life of living in community, going about the day in silence, except for Mass and recreation, while one dedicates oneself to union with God, is "very satisfying," the prioress said.
"But to someone who isn't steeped in prayer, well it would be kind of boring, I'd think," she said with a laugh. "Keeping quiet all day and doing manual work, washing dishes and cooking meals, if it didn't have a spiritual dimension there would be nothing attractive about it."
The life requires "real concentration and dedication and severe motivation to find your satisfaction in God and nothing else," the prioress said, adding that the austerity of their life has a hard time competing with the multitude of exciting careers open to women in the secular world.
"Young women of today have the impression that there's a huge vista of possible glorious professional fields for them," she said. "I'm afraid that many of them, when they get into their 40s, find that it's not all that fulfilling in the end.
"If everyone knew how happy we are, we'd be inundated with vocations," she added with a laugh.
When there were more of them, the nuns provided for themselves by making altar linens and altar breads; today, they rely strictly on Providence. The Friends of Carmel, a branch of the Archbishop's Guild, are among the most generous of the cloister's benefactors.
Despite no contact with television or radio, and no newspapers outside the Denver Catholic Register and L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican paper, the nuns believe they know exactly what's going on in the world due to prayer requests and newspaper clippings they get.
The concern of parents and grandparents desperate over what's going on in the lives of their children and grandchildren are probably "the most poignant" requests the nuns get, the 69-year-old prioress said.
Her favorite prayer?
"The Psalms," she said. "I love the Psalms, they say what you want to say the way you want to say it — like the Hallmark cards (ad) used to say.
"The Holy Spirit inspired them and is right there showing your mind just how it applies to you," she continued. "You can't be in a mood the Psalms don't fit. Only God could have done that."
What would the nuns like the public to know?
"That we're here for them," Mother Judith said. "They're always free to call for prayers, to write for prayers. Without any request we're praying all day, all the time for everything, for whatever anyone's needs are. We just pray for everything."
The Carmelite Monastery is at 6138 S. Gallup St., Littleton. Phone 303-798-4176.
Catholic News Service contributed to this story
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