Minnesota Carmelite hermits building large chapel to make room for new vocations

A community of Carmelite hermits in Lake Elmo, Minn., is looking to expand after running out of space to accept new vocations. The first step, they say, is a new chapel.

“We must build to accept more men into this ancient order,” Father John Mary, prior of the Hermits of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, said while asking for support online. “We must build for the good of our families, our community, our country and our world. We must build so the faithful can pray with us!”

Right now, men are waiting to enter the monastery that houses nine priests and brothers. The cloistered community plans to change that: first, by raising $3.75 million to complete their new chapel, then by building four new hermitages, or “cells.”

The construction for the chapel — the Chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel — began in the fall of 2022. It is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025.

“The favorite part of the chapel for me will be its beauty,” Father John Mary told Our Sunday Visitor. “Beauty is one of the attributes of God and the way in which he created the world.”

The chapel’s design, inspired by the early Christian churches of Rome and Ravenna, Italy, comes from award-winning architect Duncan Stroik, an architecture professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

“Beauty inspires us to see beyond ourself with all our contradictions and shortcomings, and to glimpse something of the eternal,” Father John Mary said. “Beauty stirs awe in us and motivates us to seek something better in our personal moral life.”

Father John Mary shared the history of the hermits, who consider themselves one of only two communities of Carmelite hermits in the United States that are part of the ancient order of Carmel.

Together, he said, they serve as a semi-eremitical (or semi-solitary) community within the Order of Carmelites.

“Hermits and pilgrims from Western European countries settled on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land in the mid and late 12th century,” he explained. “They requested St. Albert, the archbishop of Jerusalem, to write a rule of life for them and erect them into a contemplative religious community.”

From Mount Carmel, he said, the Carmelites spread and are now present on six continents.

“Over time, the priests of the Carmelite Order adopted a more apostolic life of priestly ministry,” he added, “but certain communities retained the earlier semi-eremitical life of prayer and contemplation.”

Their life consists of three elements — prayer, work and study — with a balance between life in community and time spent in solitude, he said.

“The solemn celebration of the liturgy is important to us, as is a generous amount of time spent in contemplative meditation and the prayer of the heart,” Father John Mary said. “We engage in a number of arts and crafts for our livelihood, including gardening, woodworking, painting, carving and calligraphy.”

They also welcome visitors to share in their prayer, request confession and spiritual guidance, and visit their gift shop (also available online), which includes art from their sacred art studio.

The new chapel, Father John Mary said, will serve two purposes.

“Firstly, it will provide more space to our community for the celebration of the holy Mass and the Divine Office,” he said.

Currently, all nine of the Carmelites squeeze into a tiny, private chapel measuring 18 feet by 18 feet.

“It will be a more recollecting and prayerful environment for the members of our community and for future members who join our community,” he said.

As for the second purpose, the future chapel will accommodate the laity (with seating for up to 44 guests).

“Quite a few friends, benefactors and neighbors have asked to attend Mass or share in our Divine Office,” he said. “We have not been able to say yes to these requests due to lack of space.”

Father John Mary applauded Stroik as a leading Catholic architect and “one of the strongest advocates for a return to the traditions of Catholic Church architecture.”

For his part, Stroik said that he has known the Carmelites at Lake Elmo for more than 25 years.

“The chapel is the pièce de résistance of a monastery inspired by one of the greatest shrines of Christendom, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem,” he said of the new chapel. “We have worked with Father John Mary and the brothers for over a decade to design an appropriate basilica for their community of hermits.”

He highlighted the chapel’s features.

“It has an elegant Ravenna-esque patterned brick exterior with a stone and plaster basilica interior, including marble columns and arches, side aisles, clearstory, triple apses and a series of Carmelite saints processing toward the altar,” he said. “We are thrilled that it is under construction and hope it will draw many pilgrims to experience its beauty and the solemn liturgy of Carmel.”

To raise the $3.75 million needed for the chapel, the community invites the faithful to join their “Brick Legacy Guild” by purchasing a $50 brick for the chapel.

A few years ago, the community received a bequest of more than $3 million. But, Father John Mary revealed, inflation after the pandemic raised the chapel’s cost by 20%. The total cost now approaches $7 million.

For those who buy a brick (or two), the hermits promise to remember them in a monthly Mass, among other things. And, when the chapel opens, they hope supporters will join them for Mass.

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