About to Mark a Centenary

We all deal with appointments in our lives. “Managing” our time is a primary concern for us Americans trained, as we are, to place efficiency high on the list of our operative choices. Soon, by mid-month of July, when all Carmelites are celebrating their affection and devotion for Our Lady, I will have a significant appointment to respect. It will be something really out of the ordinary—a 100-years-in-coming appointment. Fr. John Sullivan, OCD

To represent our Washington community, I will go to Holy Hill monastery in southern Wisconsin and be present at the celebration of the arrival of the Discalced Carmelite friars at that Marian Shrine a hundred years ago, when the twentieth century was still young. “The Lord has done great things for us, holy is God’s Name” will undoubtedly be on the lips of all present, as we try to imitate Mary in her hymn of praise, the Magnificat. To have had a hundred years’ worth of blessings is a consoling thing. Amidst all the difficulties that went with accepting a rustic chapel on a wind-swept hillside, and through all the growing pains that then took place as the decades went by, our Carmelite confreres became channels of God’s grace for the people who came to visit their “place of pilgrimage.

Only the Lord knows the many healing moments that transpired at Holy Hill in this past century; only those who left it with deep peace in their hearts can tell us how much closer they felt to God while they walked the grounds, sang the hymns, prayed the prayers, sought sacramental forgiveness, and received Christ in his Eucharist. Beautiful things have happened in that really holy place, and we Carmelites of the Washington Province cherish the role we have shared with countless others who love Holy Hill. As the presence we have witnessed over all these years sprang from the German-speaking province centered in Bavaria, I will conclude this thanksgiving reflection with words oftentimes heard at Holy Hill in their native tongue, “Gelobt sei Jesus Christus. In Ewigkeit, Amen.” Praise be to Jesus Christ, for ever and ever, Amen.