Summer 2005
Our Newsnotes have already introduced the Father General of the Discalced Carmelite Order to our readers: in part because of his poetic efforts, Fr. Luis Arostegui Gamboa was featured in the Fall 2003 installment.
We picture him here to highlight both his poetic and international side. He is shown standing in front of the peace window at United Nations Headquarters in New York—positioned over Fr. Luis’ left shoulder is good Saint Francis, “channel” of God’s peace, in the stained glass created by famed artist Marc Chagall.
Fr. Luis visited the U.N. to confer with officials about ways our Order can effectively function as an N.G.O. accredited with the world body. During his visit he also got the chance to view the work of the Jesuits at America magazine; acquaint himself with the efforts of Carmelite sisters (of “the Aged and Infirm”) caring for elderly people; and visit a new monastery of Carmelite nuns in the borough of Brooklyn. (Moving from place to place he saw some of the streets of Spanish Harlem, too.)
These events serve as a reminder that one of ICS Publications’ authors, the Carmelite Sr. Miriam or Jessica Powers, recognized American poet, lived for a time in New York City (1937-1941) and has left us some haunting images of what she saw in that metropolis. Her vision incorporated persons in need of caring individuals and vigilant institutions like those that Fr. Luis saw early in June 2005. Here are two poems from that period of Jessica Powers’ life evoking both New York
and the world at-large (see The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers, 1999).The Master Beggar
Worse than the poorest mendicant alive,
the pencil man, the blind man with his breath
of music shaming all who do not give,
are You to me, Jesus of Nazareth.Must You take up Your post on every block
of every street? Do I have no release?
Is there no room of earth that I can lock
to Your sad face, Your pitiful whisper “Please”?I seek the counters of time’s gleaming store
but make no purchases, for You are there.
How can I waste one coin while you implore
with tear-soiled cheeks and dark blood-matted hair?And when I offer You in charity
pennies minted by love, still, still You stand
fixing your sorrowful wide eyes on me.
Must all my purse be emptied in Your hand?Jesus, my beggar, what would You have of me?
Father and mother? The lover I longed to know?
The child I would have cherished tenderly?
Even the blood that through my heart’s valves flow?I too would be a beggar. Long tormented.
I dream to grant You all and stand apart
with You on some bleak corner, tear-frequented,
and trouble mankind for its human heart. (1937)
The Terminal
Some nights were meant for tears, and some for laughter;It was Fifth Avenue, and it was April.
Who would have dreamed such wind and flying snow?
The terminal gleamed gold far in the distance.
And then I thought: where truly do we go?Is it not thus we wander out of time
down the bright canyons of white whirling air,
too cold and tired for beauty, and too sad
to utter secrets that are warm to share?
and some to hold in trust, and some to spend.
But portents were astir that night we sighted
the terminal that stands at the world’s end. (1939)
It has been sixty years since the United Nations began and has been seeking to “trouble mankind for its human heart.” We go on hoping that it might, with revived strength and renewed structures, evoke ever more human and humane responses of help for those so much in need of relief around the globe.
Fr. Luis visited Mr. P. Hoeffel, N.G.O. Chief of Public Information on June 10, 2005
Since our last installment Pope John Paul II died and has passed into history, and Pope Benedict XVI has passed onto the stage of ministry
to
the universal Church as the "Servant of the Servants of God."
Both of them will be characterized one day as intellectual popes, keen to promote orthodox interpretation of Church teaching.
While musings about Pope Benedict's interest in Carmelite topics are being mooted here and there, we would not want the change-over to pass by unnoticed as far as John Paul II is concerned. Aside from the Carmelites he canonized and beatified, and started on the road to those "honors of the altars," he will be remembered for at least three important actions that imply a desire to mine the Carmelite heritage for lessons in understanding of the faith. In chronological order, then:
Pope John Paul II did well at fulfilling the old toast "Ad multos annos" (Many years to you!), thus exceeding all expectations at the time he began his pontificate back in 1978. We await the dispositions of Providence to guide the time ahead for the experienced theologian who is now our new pope. "Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord."
