July 16 Mass of Thanksgiving to celebrate Carmelite sisters’ ministry

This statue of St. Teresa of Avila, also known as St. Teresa of Jesus, graces an alcove on the front wall of the Carmelite Monastery of the Resurrection in Indianapolis. In 2007, the Indianapolis Carmel marked 85 years as a Carmelite foundation, first in New Albany then 75 years of contemplative prayer at the monastery at 2500 Cold Spring Road. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Archdiocesan Catholics are invited to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral during a Mass of Thanksgiving for the Carmelite sisters who recently moved from Indianapolis to Oldenburg.

“Everyone is invited to the 6 p.m. Mass at the cathedral,” said Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general. “We hope to have a large crowd of people here to celebrate with us and the sisters. After the Mass, there will be a simple reception across the street at the [Archbishop O’Meara] Catholic Center and some light refreshments.”

On June 30, the nine members of the Indianapolis Carmel moved from the Monastery of the Resurrection at 2500 Cold Spring Road to Theresa Hall on the campus of the motherhouse of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Oldenburg.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis recently purchased the 17-acre monastery property for use as the Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary.

“Many Catholics my age would remember the great crowds that attended the [outdoor] Carmelite novena at the Carmelite monastery when novenas were a more popular form of devotion in the Church,” Msgr. Schaedel said. “The culminating night of the novena would always be on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16.”

The vicar general said the archdiocese is grateful to the sisters for their seven decades of contemplative prayer at the Indianapolis Carmel.

“We are appreciative of so many things in the Carmelite sisters’ tradition of all their years here in Indianapolis,” Msgr. Schaedel said. “When I was meeting with the sisters about the transfer of property, they reminded me that part of their charism—according to their great refoundress, St. Teresa of Avila—is to pray for priests. They have always prayed for priests and will continue to do so. We appreciate that.

“We also appreciate their presence all these years in Indianapolis,” he said, “and all that they have contributed to the spirituality of so many people who have come to the Carmelite monastery as a place of peace and prayer. We’re also very grateful that the sisters are not leaving the archdiocese.”

In 2007, the Indianapolis Carmel marked 85 years as a Carmelite foundation, first in New Albany then 75 years of contemplative prayer at the Monastery of the Resurrection.

Carmelite Sister Jean Alice McGoff, prioress of the Indianapolis Carmel, said as the sisters “go deeper into the solitude and quiet of our new home on the rural campus of the Franciscan sisters, our intercession for all those we love and the world community will only expand.”

She said the sisters are discontinuing their Web site—www.praythenews.com—but its spirit will “live on as we redirect our energy into a new path of prayer and contemplative mindfulness that was the heart of its message.”

(The Carmelite sisters’ new mailing address is P.O. Box 260, Oldenburg, IN 47036-0100. Their telephone number is 812-932-2075 and their e-mail address is indycarmelites@yahoo.com.) †