Carmelite Institute - Conferences

The Carmelite Institute's Fifth Conference

The Prophetic Dimension of Our Carmelite Rule

July 25 - 29, 2007
in Warwick, Rhode Island

In the year 2007, Carmelites will celebrate the eight-hundredth anniversary of their origins in the Holy Land and their Rule of St. Albert. The order began in the thirteenth century when a small group of inhabitants of the Latin Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem began living as hermits on Mount Carmel near present day Haifa. Although we have no detailed documentation as to the precise motives that drew these men to a life of prayer and community on Mount Carmel, we believe it was principally due to their longing to follow Jesus Christ in the spirit of the Old Testament prophet Elijah, and a desire to take up an inner, spiritual warfare in order to promote God’s kingdom. Our conference will celebrate this early history of the Carmelite order, endeavoring to show its relevance for life today in the United States.

The Prophetic Dimension of Our Carmelite Rule
Keynote Lecture: Kevin Culligan, OCD

Fr. Culligan will insist that the prophetic call of the Carmelite Rule today includes, in addition to prayer and interior combat with evil, following Jesus Christ’s way of peacemaking. This includes confronting America’s disordered attachment to military power that diminishes available resources for humanitarian development, promoting the Catholic Church’s teaching on peace and justice, and calling people to moral and spiritual renewal.

Other themes of our tradition will include: Elijah, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, The Martyrs of Compiègne, Edith Stein, Titus Brandsma, and Jacques Bunel.

General Session Lectures and Presenters:

How Can The Carmelite Family Reduce Poverty and Militarism? -
Andrew Bacevich, Ph.D. (Boston University)
Ecology, Theology, and the New Cosmology -
John Haught, Ph.D. (Georgetown University)
The Prophet Elijah Becomes a Carmelite - Craig Morrison, O.Carm. (Pontifical Biblical Institute)
A Prophetic Journey: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus the Mystic
with Teresa and John - Vilma Seelaus, OCD
Holy Reflection Will Save You: Fidelity Under Fire - John Sullivan, OCD
A lecture about how Carmelites drew on the heritage of the Rule to overcome the violence imposed on them by unjust regimes. The main focus for Carmel's witness is World War II, with a reference to the Martyrs of Compiègne.
Fr. Stephen Watson, Definitor General from Rome
will be present at the conference.

An Evening of Musical Reflection:

Claire Sokol, OCD – Cello
Clorinda Stockalper, OCD – Piano

Mary Margaret Yascolt, OCD – Flute

Workshops:

Finding God in The House of The Heart, Hearth, and Earth
Michael H. Crosby, OFMCap.
The notion of the "house" is a key theme in the writings of Theresa of Avila (that is, house of many mansions), John of the Cross (The House at Rest) and Thérèse of Lisieux. Michael Crosby will suggest that a fuller understanding of this notion brings us to the heart of the Trinity, the source of all mystical and prophetic life. He will use Isaiah 6 as an archetype of what this mystical/prophetic call invites us to be and proclaim in our church and society.
Prophetic Voices Out of the Dark Night of Latin America: A Light for the First World- Peter Hinde, O.Carm.
Since the 1960s, fascist governments in Latin America, supported by United States foreign policy, met with the little or no challenge from US churches. In 1973 Peter and other missionaries set up Tabor House Community in Washington, DC, to spur churches and society to address this problem in U.S. foreign policy. The martyrs to fascism in Latin America call for a Carmelite witness today like that of Titus Brandsma and Edith Stein.
How Do We Cooperate with the Mission of the Lord? The Practice of Discernment
Edward McCormack, Ph.D. (Washington Theological Union)
Drawing on insights from St. Ignatius of Loyola and Carmelite spirituality, this workshop offers practical approaches to discernment and decision-making for Christian discipleship.

Speakers Listed Below:

Andrew J. Bacevich, Ph.D., is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and received his Ph.D. in American diplomatic history from Princeton. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which is The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (2005). He is also the editor of The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy since World War II, which has just been published. He and his wife Nancy have four children and are members of St. Timothy's Parish in Walpole, Massachusetts.

Michael H. Crosby, OFMCap., has been a Capuchin Franciscan for more than 45 years. He lives in a fraternity in downtown Milwaukee that serves people who are poor and marginated. Three fourths of his ministry is spent writing and lecturing on biblical theology geared to contemporary life. The other quarter is spent in the ministry of socially responsible investing. He has written sixteen books, including Can Religious Life be Prophetic? It received first place in the "Professional" category from the Catholic Press Association of Canada and the United States. His latest book is Francis for Following, an effort to show Francis of Assisi as a model for universal emulation.

Kevin G. Culligan, OCD, is a charter member of both the Institute of Carmelite Studies and the Carmelite Forum. He is coeditor with Regis Jordan of Carmel and Contemplation: Transforming Human Consciousness (ICS Publications, 2000) and editor of A Better Wine: Essays Celebrating Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. (ICS Publications, 2007). His essays and reviews on Carmelite spirituality have appeared in Spiritual Life, Carmelite Digest, America, National Catholic Reporter, Review for Religious, and The Way. He resides in the Carmelite community in Hinton, West Virginia.

Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, O.Carm. is President of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Louisiana and the Philippines. Beth is a graduate of St. Mary’s Dominican College and the University of Notre Dame. She has taught in the congregation’s high schools in New Orleans, New Iberia, and Thibodaux, LA, in an adult education program for the poor, and at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. She has also served her congregation as vocation director, formation director, and member of the executive council. Beth currently resides in Lacombe, Louisiana where the congregation’s Carmelite Spirituality Center is located.

John F. Haught, Ph.D, is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University. His area of specialization is systematic theology, with a particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, evolution, ecology, and religion. He is the author of fifteen books and numerous articles. He lectures internationally on many issues related to science and religion. In 2002 he was the winner of the Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion and in 2004 the Sophia Award for Theological Excellence. He and his wife Evelyn have two sons and live in Falls Church, Virginia.

Peter C. Hinde, O.Carm., a member of the Chicago province has served as professor and student master at Carmelite seminaries. After three years in the Carmelite contemplative house in Austria, he worked eight years in Peru. He is the co-founder of Tabor House Community for "reverse mission" a contemplative-political action to challenge the gross abuses in US foreign policy. Tabor was first located in Washington, DC, then in San Antonio, TX, and finally in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Peter publishes an annual Tabor Newsletter in two languages, gives social analysis to US groups visiting the Juarez-El Paso border, and helps in local pastoral ministry.

Craig Morrison O.Carm., a member of the Chicago province of Carmelites, is an associate professor of biblical languages at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He also teaches on the renewal program for priests that the North American College in Rome. His articles have appeared in Bible Today, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly and other academic journals. At present he is finishing a commentary on Second Samuel for Liturgical Press.

Edward McCormack, Ph.D., is the Chair of the Pastoral Studies Department and associate professor of Christian Spirituality at Washington Theological Union. He is a graduate from Immaculate Conception Seminary and received his Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America. Ed has taught high school religion on the Island of Ponape in Micronesia and at Seaton Hall Prep in New Jersey. He has been a member of the theological faculty at Georgetown University, the Dominican House of Studies, and St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore. For twenty years Ed has conducted retreats and offered days of recollection inspired by Ignatian Spirituality. He and his wife Marianela and two daughters live in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Vilma Seelaus, OCD, is a member of the Carmelite Monastery in Barrington, Rhode Island. She has served as prioress, as formation and vocation directress, and is a member of the Carmelite Forum. She has published extensively on the Carmelite Mystical Tradition, both written and audio, with a particular focus on the works of St. Teresa of Avila. Her recent book is entitled: Distractions in Prayer: Blessing or Curse? St. Teresa of Avila's Teachings in The Interior Castle.

Claire Sokol, OCD, pursued a musical career, majoring in cello performance and graduating from Indiana University. Before entering Carmel she performed with the Omaha, Winnipeg, and Vancouver Symphonies. She composed a hymn, Thérèse's Canticle of Love for the Centenary celebrations of the Saint. More recently she composed the music for a one-woman play, Thérèse, The Story of a Soul and expanded that music for the film score of the movie Thérèse.

John Sullivan, OCD, is prior of the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Washington, DC, and past definitor general. He is chair of the Institute of Carmelite Studies, and directs its publishing operation as Publisher of ICS Publications. The Discalced Carmelites chose him to be one of two N.G.O. representatives to the U.N. He organized and directed the Centenary Lecture Series for his province during 2006.

Clorinda von Stockalper, OCD, earned a piano performance degree, gave recitals, and played a soloist with orchestras in Switzerland, England, and Italy. In the United States she trained in classical ballet and performed mainly with the Annabella Gonzalez Dance Theater. She played for ballet, including the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, the American Ballet Theater, and the Joffrey Ballet. As a Carmelite music keeps her deeply involved in liturgy and other musical events to include Carmelite meetings and retreats.

Mary Margaret Yascolt, OCD, earned a Bachelor of Music in Flute performance from the University of Michigan, School of Music. She worked for St. Patrick's Parish and the charismatic community in Providence, Rhode Island. Her musical talents allowed her to play the piano, guitar, sing, and immerse herself in liturgical music during those years. As a Carmelite she has served in leadership in her community and in the Carmelite Communities Associated. She is also involved in liturgical music at Carmelite meetings and programs.