While the demographics of the Carmelite community members have changed over the years, their life of prayer in intimate friendship with Christ remains constant. Source: Hobart Archdiocese.
This is a reflection of the Prioress, Mother Teresa Benedicta OCD, on the 50th anniversary of the blessing and opening of the Carmelite Monastery in West Launceston.
Launceston Parish assistant priest Fr Vinco Muriyadan was the celebrant at a Mass of Thanksgiving last month to mark the occasion.
As it was only two years on from celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Carmelites in Tasmania, and as community members were in retreat between Ascension and Pentecost, celebrations were low key.
“Being in retreat, preparing for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, was a most fitting way to mark this significant milestone, as we used the occasion to recommit ourselves to our hidden life of prayer and sacrifice,” Mother Teresa Benedicta said.
“Later, when we were out of retreat, we spent some very enjoyable time as a community looking back over our archive photos and sharing stories that had been handed on to us by the Sisters who formed the community at the time of the move from Longford in 1975.”
The Carmelite Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was founded at Longford, in Northern Tasmania, in 1948 and moved to Launceston to be nearer to the priests and parishioners.
“In terms of similarities, our life is essentially the same as it was 50 years ago: that is, a harmonious rhythm of prayer, manual work, silence, solitude and community life, all of which elements tend towards making possible a life of prayer understood as intimate friendship with Christ so as to be transformed by his grace for the sake of the Church, especially in Tasmania, and for the whole world,” Mother Teresa Benedicta said.
“The same desires, albeit expressed in unique ways for each Sister, have brought our current community members to our Tasmanian Carmel, and this was the case also for each Sister who lived in the Longford monastery and who brought the community to Launceston.”
The Prioress hopes that the next phase of the community will see the “same commitment to prayer and our hidden life of service of the Church that has characterised every stage of our history since we first came from Adelaide in 1948” .
FULL STORY
Carmelite Monastery an oasis of peace and prayer for 50 years (By Wendy Shaw, Hobart Archdiocese)
