Saturday, February 4, 2017

Journey to Carith

Journey to Carith: The Story of the Carmelite Order by Peter-Thomas Rohrbach, OCD, 366 pages

The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel was founded in the twelfth century on Mount Carmel, biblical home of the prophet Elijah, who at one time was commanded by God to "Go, and hide yourself by the torrent of Carith, east of the Jordan."  The medieval Carmelites, claiming Elijah's legacy for themselves, took this as a commandment to pursue charity and remove themselves from the sinful world.  Journey to Carith follows their quest to fulfill this vocation across nine centuries, through the heights of holiness and the squalid swamps of decadence, while noting those flowers of Carmel that bloomed in the latter as well as the former.

Journey to Carith was first published in the mid-'60s, and it bears the marks of its era.  Rohrbach seems uncomfortable with contemplation as an end in itself, and is therefore a bit too eager to insist on its value as a complement to the active life.  Likewise, Rohrbach is decidedly rationalistic - he flatly declares that the story of Elijah's ascension into heaven on a fiery chariot is merely a metaphor for his death - although this is an asset when dealing with the early history of the Carmelites, as shrouded in legend as it is.  The greatest strength of Journey to Carith, however, is Rohrbach's understanding of the Carmelites not primarily as an institution but as a family of prayer extending down through the centuries.

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