OUR APOSTOLATES
I. The Apostolate of the Community
The mission of Daughters of Carmel and CSE is to witness the loving and saving presence of God in this world, through their way of life as well as through the proclamation of the Gospel. The main apostolate is to bring people to the encounter with the living God, having themselves first encountered Him in daily conversion and prayer. They are called to lead others into the living presence of the Lord and to teach them how to walk in the Spirit, how to live in the Spirit, and to lead them into the way of prayer and contemplation; to teach people how to avoid the pitfalls and to overcome all the hindrances and obstacles, and finally to be entirely docile to the Holy Spirit and His activities.
The main ministries of Daughters of Carmel is retreat-work, spiritual formation, spiritual direction, and praying for people, mainly for lay people. However, many religious have also been coming to their monasteries for spiritual direction and inner healing in the last few years. They are also invited by religious communities to direct retreats for them. At present, they have six big retreat centers in Asia and the two biggest are in Java, one in East Java and the other is in West Java; and also one in Kalimantan. Each of them can accommodate more than 400 people, with two to four occupancies in a room. In the two biggest retreat houses, the nuns and brothers offer people a yearly retreat programs, between 18-26 retreats a year. People can choose what suit them most. As a rule, however, taken out of experiences, people have to start with what they call the initial retreat and only after that can people join the other retreat programs. The Initial Retreat is a retreat where people are led into real conversions to God and to the experience of His saving and transforming Love. They are prepared to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In this baptism of the Holy Spirit most people experience in a very real way, the love of God and His presence that converts and transforms them, making them a new creature, for whom God and Jesus Christ become lively real.
The main ministries of Daughters of Carmel is retreat-work, spiritual formation, spiritual direction, and praying for people, mainly for lay people. However, many religious have also been coming to their monasteries for spiritual direction and inner healing in the last few years. They are also invited by religious communities to direct retreats for them. At present, they have six big retreat centers in Asia and the two biggest are in Java, one in East Java and the other is in West Java; and also one in Kalimantan. Each of them can accommodate more than 400 people, with two to four occupancies in a room. In the two biggest retreat houses, the nuns and brothers offer people a yearly retreat programs, between 18-26 retreats a year. People can choose what suit them most. As a rule, however, taken out of experiences, people have to start with what they call the initial retreat and only after that can people join the other retreat programs. The Initial Retreat is a retreat where people are led into real conversions to God and to the experience of His saving and transforming Love. They are prepared to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In this baptism of the Holy Spirit most people experience in a very real way, the love of God and His presence that converts and transforms them, making them a new creature, for whom God and Jesus Christ become lively real.
Adoration to the Blessed Sacrament during the youth camp.
To help people grow into the Life of the Spirit, after experiencing the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the nuns and brothers offer them the Inner Healing retreat. This is to help them receive healing of memories, and to remove the obstacles in their journey and service to God, so that they can serve the Lord more freely and more joyfully.
After these two initial retreats, they have a follow-up retreat with different themes, for example growth, initiation to prayers, principles of the spiritual life, a study of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a study of Scripture, study of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux, and many more. In short we offer programs for spiritual formation, combining theory and praxis, so that besides the talk, we bring them into the experience of God’s love through prayer, Lectio Divina and Jesus prayer (forms of contemplative prayer), and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Some of the retreats, like the Initial Retreat, Inner Healing, are usually very crowded, so that in order to be able to join these retreats, people have to be on the waiting list, although every time we receive about 400 people. This is especially true for the center in West Java. For these retreats we never make any advertisement, but people know about these retreats only through words of mouth.
Besides these retreats, we organize every year what we call a Youth-Camp, which is in fact a weeklong retreat for young people. Every year more than 2000 young people participate in these camps, usually between 2100 – 2600 people all together. During these camps some of them slept in tents.
Our goal in organizing these retreats is to instill them a real faith, so they can become fully Catholics, for whom God is a living reality, and who are aware of their grand heritage. After these retreats most of the people return to their own parishes and usually become very involved in their parish life with a new conviction. Many of them afterwards held very important positions in their parishes. We try to give these people some spiritual formation, complementing what they lack in their own parishes.
Besides the programs offered by the community in their retreat houses, the nuns and brothers are also very much in demand by the people hence they travel a lot to conduct retreats in different cities and towns throughout Indonesia, even to countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Europe. Except for Malaysia and Singapore, they minister to the Indonesian speaking people in those countries.
These forms of apostolate or ministries can be done on the condition that they are not in contradiction with the primacy of prayer and contemplation. That is why certain works, such as running a school, hospital, etc are excluded from their apostolate. It is not because they despise them, for the sincerely recognize the necessities and the beauty of all the other vocations. It is because they are aware of their own limitations and that they cannot do everything and because they feel that their vocation and charism is somewhere else.
“Amidst the materialism and atheism of the modern world, the houses of Daughters of Carmel (and CSE) must be an oasis for those who search for God in this barren land. Their houses must be a center of spiritual refreshment and healing for the whole man. Their houses must be the sign and place of God’s presence, where people can find Him, be reconciled to Him and be renewed. Furthermore their houses must be a sign and place of hope for the desperate, a place of consolation for those in sorrow and suffering, and a guide towards the encounter with the living God for those who are looking for Him. Therefore: beside prayer, this is their main mission: to prepare a place and spiritual environment, where people can encounter the Lord, be reconciled to Him, be renewed and be healed totally, spirit, soul and body” (DOC Constitutions).
After these two initial retreats, they have a follow-up retreat with different themes, for example growth, initiation to prayers, principles of the spiritual life, a study of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a study of Scripture, study of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux, and many more. In short we offer programs for spiritual formation, combining theory and praxis, so that besides the talk, we bring them into the experience of God’s love through prayer, Lectio Divina and Jesus prayer (forms of contemplative prayer), and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Some of the retreats, like the Initial Retreat, Inner Healing, are usually very crowded, so that in order to be able to join these retreats, people have to be on the waiting list, although every time we receive about 400 people. This is especially true for the center in West Java. For these retreats we never make any advertisement, but people know about these retreats only through words of mouth.
Besides these retreats, we organize every year what we call a Youth-Camp, which is in fact a weeklong retreat for young people. Every year more than 2000 young people participate in these camps, usually between 2100 – 2600 people all together. During these camps some of them slept in tents.
Our goal in organizing these retreats is to instill them a real faith, so they can become fully Catholics, for whom God is a living reality, and who are aware of their grand heritage. After these retreats most of the people return to their own parishes and usually become very involved in their parish life with a new conviction. Many of them afterwards held very important positions in their parishes. We try to give these people some spiritual formation, complementing what they lack in their own parishes.
Besides the programs offered by the community in their retreat houses, the nuns and brothers are also very much in demand by the people hence they travel a lot to conduct retreats in different cities and towns throughout Indonesia, even to countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Europe. Except for Malaysia and Singapore, they minister to the Indonesian speaking people in those countries.
These forms of apostolate or ministries can be done on the condition that they are not in contradiction with the primacy of prayer and contemplation. That is why certain works, such as running a school, hospital, etc are excluded from their apostolate. It is not because they despise them, for the sincerely recognize the necessities and the beauty of all the other vocations. It is because they are aware of their own limitations and that they cannot do everything and because they feel that their vocation and charism is somewhere else.
“Amidst the materialism and atheism of the modern world, the houses of Daughters of Carmel (and CSE) must be an oasis for those who search for God in this barren land. Their houses must be a center of spiritual refreshment and healing for the whole man. Their houses must be the sign and place of God’s presence, where people can find Him, be reconciled to Him and be renewed. Furthermore their houses must be a sign and place of hope for the desperate, a place of consolation for those in sorrow and suffering, and a guide towards the encounter with the living God for those who are looking for Him. Therefore: beside prayer, this is their main mission: to prepare a place and spiritual environment, where people can encounter the Lord, be reconciled to Him, be renewed and be healed totally, spirit, soul and body” (DOC Constitutions).
II. Daughters of Carmel and CSE in the Third Millenium
St. Teresa of Avila, great saint of Carmel
Daughters of Carmel and CSE are called by God to live in a very special era that bears a lot of contradictions: from one hand there is the immese discovery in science and technology, but from the other hand one assits as never before to the confusion and chaos in human society, the increase of crimes, the persecutions, terrorism, the mass murder of unborn babies, and as a consequence the meaninglessness of life and despair.
Into this situation of the world the Lord send Daughters of Carmel and CSE to be His witnesses, witnesses of His loving and merciful presence in the world, calling people to repentance and life. What the world needs most, according to the words of Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi, are witnesses of the living God. These are men and women of God who have experienced in the their own lives the saving action of God’s merciful love, so that they can testify to others about that same Love. That is why Daughters of Carmel and CSE are keen in forming their members to be first of all women and men of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, and then equipped them with skills to minister to the suffering mankind.
The houses of Daughters of Carmel and CSE have become literally oasis amidst the dry and barren desert of the world. People flooded into their houses and retreat centers. Hundreds of thousands of people came there, because there, most of them experience the presence of the Living God that touches their heart through the experience of the Holy Spirit. They went home, joyful, converted and renewed.
After that they are looking for a deeper experience of the spiritual life. To meet the needs of these people we have the experience and teachings of the great saints of Carmel: St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of the Child Jesus and others. Through the grace of the charismatic renewal we bring people to conversion and initial experience of God’s love and then we try to bring them into a deeper life in the Spirit through the teaching of the great saints of Carmel.
Into this situation of the world the Lord send Daughters of Carmel and CSE to be His witnesses, witnesses of His loving and merciful presence in the world, calling people to repentance and life. What the world needs most, according to the words of Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi, are witnesses of the living God. These are men and women of God who have experienced in the their own lives the saving action of God’s merciful love, so that they can testify to others about that same Love. That is why Daughters of Carmel and CSE are keen in forming their members to be first of all women and men of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, and then equipped them with skills to minister to the suffering mankind.
The houses of Daughters of Carmel and CSE have become literally oasis amidst the dry and barren desert of the world. People flooded into their houses and retreat centers. Hundreds of thousands of people came there, because there, most of them experience the presence of the Living God that touches their heart through the experience of the Holy Spirit. They went home, joyful, converted and renewed.
After that they are looking for a deeper experience of the spiritual life. To meet the needs of these people we have the experience and teachings of the great saints of Carmel: St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of the Child Jesus and others. Through the grace of the charismatic renewal we bring people to conversion and initial experience of God’s love and then we try to bring them into a deeper life in the Spirit through the teaching of the great saints of Carmel.
III. The amphibious life styles
Among the Holy Trinity Community youths
Conscious of the demands of such ministries that drained the energy of people, and because they are aware, that the more they are needed by the people, the more they needed God himself, that is why the nuns of Daughters of Carmel and the CSE brothers emphasized the importance of a balanced life-style: they emphasized the importance of prayer before all else and then will they be really ready to minister to the needs of the people. In this electronic age they need an amphibious style of life, like the emphibians they spend some times in the water of silence, solitude and prayer, so that afterwards they can safely go on land to minister to their fellow people, bring with them the fragrance of God’s loving and merciful presence. That is why most of their houses are in rural areas, so that after proclaiming God’s word, they can return into solitude to be refreshed anew.