This 80th edition of the Thomas More Centre’s newsletter coincides with the Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a Marian patronage of the ancient order of hermits and contemplative women who were first founded in the 12th century in the Holy Land in the site of Mount Carmel.
The hermits settled in the region which is pitted with rocky grottoes so that they could return to an austere and purified faith in the spirit of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Pope Benedict XVI reflects that it was Elijah who “courageously defended the purity of faith in the one true God against idolatry”.
It was this reforming spirit and purity that can be seen in some of the Carmelite Orders and the Church’s truly great spiritual visionaries, doctors and reformers: Saints Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Elizabeth of the Trinity and many others.
Today’s date is marked because of the vision relating to the sacramental Brown Scapular given to the early English Carmelite Prior, St Simon Stock.
There is a real affinity between the fresh air of the Carmelite spirit and the expansive state of Western Australia, where we have visited this week in places such as Fremantle, Geraldton, Mullewa and today the resilient town of Moora and the remarkable spiritual centre of New Norcia Abbey.
There is nothing like these places, personalities and the visions that inspired them anywhere else in the country. So much of the talent, industry, independence of spirit and mind has been on show in these lands. Last week, TMC team members Isabelle and Warwick hosted an intimate dinner at which I spoke, and we were able to spend time with our wonderful WA donors and were inspired by their dedication, concerns and ideas. Thanks to all of you!
In WA, it is impossible to escape the vast and ancient natural and cultural history of our country.
Our only regret is that we are about four weeks too early for the spectacular wildflower season which, with 12,000 or more species of flowers, dazzles the various regions here.
At the recent Home Conference run by our friends at the Dawson Society, Professor Emeritus John Kinder reminded us of the important and complex links between indigenous language and country engraved into the soil here. It was a sobering reminder of how our ethos of “home” needs the insights of our earliest brothers and sisters.
One other cultural and spiritual treasure of the West aligns beautifully with today’s feast day, and that is the extraordinary figure of Monsignor John Cyril Hawes (1876-1956) – an Englishman and originally an Anglican priest who converted to the Catholic Church and came to Western Australia with the soul of a hermit and the imagination of an architect/priest.
His work was fuelled by the Arts and Crafts Movement which aimed to revive beauty, the handcrafted and place-sensitive buildings and artefacts.
One of his most remarkable designs and creations, along with the mighty cathedral in Geraldton, is the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the town of Mullewa.
Hawes was, for a time, parish priest of Mullewa and between 1921 and 1927, he designed and built this church with his own hands and a small crew of local farmers and workers. The site is built out of local Mullewa stone, hand-mixed concrete and terracotta tiles. It is rich with his own interpretations of Christian iconography and his own Franciscan spiritual tastes.
The Church and the nearby Priest House is an eclectic but moving tribute to his profound spiritual vision and the inspiration of Spanish Mission and Romanesque styles. The Church and house are extraordinary and the place and the building were the closest to the heart of this remarkable man, who lived out his final years as a hermit priest named Brother Jerome in the Bahamas.
We also visited the moving “Mass Rock”.
Monsignor Hawes’ cause for canonisation has been introduced and he is now titled Servant of God.
Fr Robert Cross, the chancellor and director of cultural heritage in Geraldton, was very generous in giving us a wonderful insight into the man and the mission of Monsignor Hawes. A comprehensive talk about Hawes is available here.
With immense gratitude for so many Western lights,
Anna Krohn
Executive Director
Thomas More Centre
