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It is from the roots that a plant originates and grows. Yet the roots beneath the ground remain hidden from our view, and any attempt to retrieve them will only destroy the plant and its shoots! What then is the practical implication of “Returning to the Roots," the metaphor repeatedly used as an urgent call to renew and revitalise religious life?
Two passages from Sacred Scripture seem to indicate an answer to this query: The first is from the Letter to the Hebrews, where we are exhorted to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer of our Faith." The second is a word from the Lord Jesus Himself, when He bids us to “behold” His mother, whom He has given to be “our Mother." In the same vein, our Holy Mother Teresa too tells us to call to mind our “founders"—the prophets of old. We can thus understand that the image of “returning to the roots” finds its practical implication in keeping our gaze steadily fixed on our origins, namely, the lives and teachings of our “founders." We are thus beckoned to ensure that our daily lives are indeed being lived in the spirit of the founders whom we have set out to follow. This requires a constantly vigilant taking-stock of whether the propelling spirit within us is that which compelled our saintly founders to initiate this way of living consecrated life.
Our Discalced Carmelite Order in particular finds its very basis for foundation in this momentous call to return to the roots. Our Holy Mother Teresa repeatedly states this fact in all her writings about the foundation of our Order: Her purpose was a return to the Primitive Observance of our Order—to live the Primitive Rule as it was lived at the Origins, in the solitudes of Mount Carmel. And yet, in our Holy Mother, we also have a credible witness to the fact that “old roots” constantly bring forth new shoots! Hence, from the “root” of fraternity that we find in the common prayers, meals, and meetings mentioned in the Primitive Rule, St. Teresa brought forth the “new shoot” of community recreations twice a day!
Taking up this summons, then, to return to our roots, when we attempt to do the same as our Holy Mother did – bringing forth new shoots from the old roots – let us also keep in mind the sobering Word of our Lord that every plant which His Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Ensuring a genuine connectedness to our “Church-ratified roots” is the only way to guard against bringing forth shoots doomed to destruction because they are unacceptable to the Divine Gardener.
As mentioned above, the Lord Jesus, His Blessed Mother, the prophets down from Elijah and Elisha to our saintly forefathers of the desert, and our Holy Parents, Teresa and John, are the “roots” from which we have sprung! It is therefore incumbent on each of us who seeks to live our religious consecration fruitfully, that we strive to conform our lives to the standards set for us by their example and teaching. Our Holy Mother Teresa emphatically stresses this point when she places the Lord Jesus before us as the Commander-in-Chief of Love – Whom we have to follow—and our Most Holy Mother Mary as the model we are to emulate in practicing humility, and the desert fathers as our reference in living detachment from all save God! Then, of course, our Holy Mother Foundress’ life and writings, especially the Way of Perfection and her Constitutions, most unambiguously place before us “the roots” we must constantly check our connectedness to, in our daily lives as OCD nuns.
As contemplative religious, called to be a point of reference to “The One Thing Necessary” in a fast-changing world, we have a graver responsibility to ensure our deep-rootedness in our particular vocation; lest we—the “points of reference”— ourselves be uprooted and swept away by the winds of change, or for lack of deep roots, be scorched by the heat of the opinions of the day! Earnestly taking to heart then the challenge to be deeply connected to our roots, let us study the Gospels (to imbibe the spirit of our Lord Jesus and our Blessed Mother Mary) and the writings of our Holy Parents, so as not to lose our point of reference, which is our claim to relevance!
Let us then attempt at least to take a cursory look at what practical implications in our daily lives “returning to our roots” may have:
It may happen in some of our communities that among the regular income-generating-works that we have opted for, there are some that inevitably and unavoidably require the sisters to be working together. “Returning to our roots,” we then read in our Holy Mother’s writings (in the Way of Perfection and Constitutions) that the nuns in her monasteries must be exempt from working in common workrooms. To foster our charism of continual prayer, we are required by our Mother Foundress to work in solitude. The practical implication of “returning to our roots” would in such a case simply be to give up such works, though they be very profitable in terms of meeting our financial needs.
Again, “returning to our roots,” we find that our Holy Mother Teresa teaches us that mental prayer (which is the foundation of her houses) is a loving, solitary converse with our Lord. This then requires of us the willingness to stall any attempt (or even let go of any tendency) to substitute the time of mental prayer with any kind of common-devotions.
Then again, in the Way of Perfection, our Holy Mother instructs us that slow, meditative reading will be a help for practicing mental prayer in times of spiritual aridity or physical infirmity. Therefore, “returning to our roots” in this regard will mean that we ensure that the choir, where the sisters are gathered for mental prayer, is sufficiently lit to give each sister the possibility of following this mode of prayer, as and when she may find herself in need of it.
Though several more such practical implications of “returning to our roots” come to mind, in the interest of brevity, they must be kept for another forum of sharing. Before concluding, however, let us speed a glance at the “new shoots” that could spring when we truly return to our roots:
In her Constitutions, our Holy Mother Teresa lays down that even the novices in her monasteries must be visited by their families, as the professed. In our day, the rapid advance of globalisation has fostered the reception of not just local vocations into our cloisters but rather candidates even from very distant lands. In this scenario, safeguarding the above provision of our Mother, St. Teresa, could be ensured through the “new shoot” of permitting the sisters, who cannot be visited by their families, to communicate with them using the means of social- communication at least once a month.
We know from our Holy Mother’s Treatise on the Visitation of her Monasteries how important she considered this act for the ongoing vitality-in-fidelity of an autonomous monastery. In this regard, the introduction into our Constitutions of the provision for the visitation of our monasteries to be done by the regular-visitator accompanied by one who lives our own way of life, namely the Federal President, certainly only ensures the better implementation of our Mother Foundress’ inspiration. We can thus discern this to be a new shoot that we must foster, as it springs from our old roots.
Our Primitive Rule we know, lays great stress on the importance of the weekly community chapter. Therefore, in our Constitutions to include a provision to set a fixed time in the community’s horarium for this act seems to be an opportune “new shoot” arising from our roots. Experience shows us that in the absence of such a norm, this essential act often gets left out of a community’s weekly schedule, or else “usurps” the time meant for another essential act.
These few points have been penned here with the hope that they may become a catalyst to spur us towards ever vigilant discernment on how we can implement in our vocation today the call to “Return to our Roots,” to nurture the new shoots springing thereof, and to root out those not planted by our Heavenly Father.