Sweet Carmel

MORRISTOWN  At this time each year, Hazel Ilustrisimo Luayon makes several batches of her light and airy macaroons and sweet and rich hazelnut brownie cupcakes with an extra ingredient: a large helping of prayer.

Usually, Hazel Ilustrisimo Luayon brings these divine delicacies to a bake sale that she coordinates on the first weekend of December to benefit the Discalced Carmel­ites of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel here, also known as the Carmelite Sisters. Every year, she and the other members of the Friends of the Carmelite Sisters of Morristown — a group that supports and volunteers at the sisters’ monastery here — pray for good weather and turnout for their popular bake sale, held at Assumption Parish here.

However, this year, the Friends’ annual bake sale was canceled due to concerns over COVID-19. So in five months, the volunteers whipped up an idea to save the sisters’ only fundraiser each year by putting together “Sweet Carmel,” a high-end, magazine-quality and Catholic-themed cookbook of desserts. Now the Friends are praying for the success of the cookbook, available in print and digital formats, with recipes of many of the bake sale desserts ­— just in time for Christmas. Proceeds will benefit the Carmelite Sisters, a cloistered contemplative religious order, dedicated to praying for the Church and the entire world.

“The bake sale is the Friends’ way of showing love for the Carmelite Sisters who are praying for us and our intentions all day,” said Ilustrisimo Luayon, one of 28 contributors to the cookbook, put together in a wide-ranging collaborative effort headed by two Friends: Rosa Allison-Rose, and Christina Branco, a professional food photographer, who took the photos of the featured desserts. “I wish that we were having the bake sale this year but the cookbook lets people make these desserts themselves while also continuing to support the Carmelite Sisters,” Ilustrisimo Luayon said.

The Friends contributed 72 recipes to the 85-page cookbook, which features a few religiously themed desserts, such as Brown Scapular Brownies, made with dark chocolate and inspired by brown scapulars that the sisters make as part of their daily activities. Other delights include Orange Muffins, Joanne’s Delicious Crumb Cake, Jam and Cream Cheese Danish Loaf and Almond Toffee. Some recipes were handed down in families, while a few of them are gluten-free. Many desserts are photographed near a religious object, such as a prayer card, statue, crucifix or Bible, said Allison-Rose, a Friend for more than 20 years.

The book also includes literary contributions from two priests who have ties to the Carmelite Sisters. Carmelite Father Pius Sammut, the sisters’ spiritual director, wrote about foods served at the monastery, while Father Philip-Michael Tangorra, their former Sunday chaplain, wrote on the history of Carmelite foods, which dates back to their brewing beer around 1679.

“In the sweet goodness of these recipes, it is our hope that you develop a taste for the goodness of God,” writes Father Tangorra, a diocesan priest and pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Branchville.

Established in 1926, the monastery is the physical and spiritual home of the Carmelite Sisters who wear brown habits and sandals and “live a secluded life of prayer and sacrifice” within its confines. In their daily life of silence, they maintain a schedule of rising at midnight and again at 5 a.m. for prayer, as a community — part of their eight hours a day devoted to prayer. They also work in the yard or in the monastery and make rosaries and scapulars, crochet blankets and decorate candles with religious drawings, which they also sell at the bake sale.

The sisters do not ask for donations but rely on Divine Providence and the generosity of the community for their basic needs through donations of food and household products and monetary donations to assist with their medical and utility bills and the cost of maintaining a 94-year-old building. In recent years, new vocations have increased the number of sisters to 20.

“When you hear the sisters pray Adoration or their daily prayers, it sounds like heaven,” said Ilustrisimo Luayon, a Friend for more than 10 years who also assists in the office. Visitors to the monastery from the outside world, she said, cannot see the sisters who pray from behind curtains and iron grating.

The Friends started the bake sale more than 12 years ago at Assumption with the support of the late Msgr. Martin Rauscher, former pastor. Each year, parishioners look forward to the sale, which continues with the encouragement of its current pastor, Msgr. John Hart, Allison-Rose said.

“I’m disappointed about the bake sale this year but I am also grateful to God for giving us these ladies who have love and dedication for us. I admire their skills in making this cookbook to help support us,” said Sister Therese of the Child Jesus of the Immaculate Conception, a Carmelite for 22 years and the community’s superior for the past 19 years. She also called her order’s charism “a wonderful way to give our lives to God and others in prayer.”

The Friends started cooking up the recipe book during the summer. Contributors brought their finished recipes to Allison-Rose’s house where Branco photographed them during an all-day shoot. Branco attends weekly Mass with her family at the monastery.

“The Carmel is tiny, quiet and peaceful. When I’m there, I feel like I’m shutting out the world,” Branco said.

Allison-Rose called Branco “a gifted photographer who took stunning photos that brought the desserts to life — and all for the love of our sisters, a beautiful community that glorifies God with their lives. “We feel the graces of their prayers and we love them and want to share our blessings with them,” Allison-Rose said.