Raising funds for monastery

BEACON PHOTO | MICHAEL WOJCIK

MAKEOVER  St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Morristown has been helping the cloistered Discalced Carmelite sisters repair damage to the exterior of their Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel monastery. Pictured is the repaired and repainted exterior of the monastery building.

SLIDESHOW

MORRISTOWN  Behind closed doors in the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel monastery here, a community of Discalced Carmelite sisters live out the beauty of their faith by devoting much of their time to praying for the Church and the world — far from the busy world outside its doors. But in recent years, the public face of the cloistered sisters — the exterior of its beautiful monastery — has been in need of significant cosmetic and safety repairs, including chipped plaster, cracked walls, and uneven stairs.

In the past few months, St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, also in Morristown, has started to help the community, also known as Carmelite Sisters, spruce up the exterior of the monastery on Madison Avenue. So far, Father Hernan Arias, St. Margaret’s pastor, has raised $5,000 for materials. Meanwhile, Carlos Valladares, a St. Margaret’s parishioner and owner of Bravo General Construction LLC in Morristown, already led some of his workers in repairing and repainting the cracked plaster facing on outside walls of the chapel and the monastery building. Father Arias is asking the diocesan faith community for help to raise $10,000 for materials so Valladares can complete the repairs.

“The sisters keep us in our prayers — our Diocese, our parishes, and individuals. They are dedicated to God and live by his providence, leading simple, poor lives of prayer,” said Father Arias, who noted that either he or another priest who serves St. Margaret’s, visits the monastery on Tuesdays to celebrate Mass for the sisters. “This [initiative to repair the 95-year-old building’s exterior] is a good way to help out, to say, ‘Thank you’ to the sisters and to keep the monastery safe,” he said.

Since the beginning of the year, Valladares has spent a week at the monastery with six of his workers, repairing the cement plaster above and around the brickwork of the chapel’s main entrance with “high-dry” cement. Water and natural weathering caused the damage. In addition, they fixed and repainted the plaster on the monastery building and bricks and stucco plaster around an alcove that holds a white statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Valladares said he is not charging the sisters or St. Margaret’s for his labor or for that of his workers.

Next, Valladares plans to replace about 63 concrete posts that hold up a wall that rings most of the monastery property, again damaged by the elements and water. Workers already have repainted the wall. In addition, the main stairs need to be adjusted, because the height of each step is inconsistent with each other step, Valladares said.

“The monastery needs a lot of work,” said Valladares, who admitted that the cost of the materials for the repairs “is expensive.” “I’m happy to help out because I can do something. I’m not doing it for money like with other jobs. I feel that I’m receiving great blessings from God,” he said.

In 1926, Bishop John O’Connor, then bishop of Newark, founded the monastery in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary in thanksgiving for the jubilee anniversary of his episcopal ordination. Mother Mary Magdalene of the Carmel in Wheeling, W. Va., came to Morristown on Dec. 30, 1926, accompanied by her spiritual director, Paulist Father Henry O’Keeffe, and four sisters. The chapel, dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, was consecrated on May 17, 1941. Among the prelates at the ceremony was the then-Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, according to the monastery’s history.

Today, the monastery is the physical and spiritual home of 15 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. In the afternoon, they work in the yard or in the monastery; make rosaries and scapulars, crochet blankets and decorate candles with religious drawings, which they also sell, or sing songs or engage in other recreation, 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.

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 the building, Sister Therese said.

“This [project] is a gift from St. Joseph the Worker [the focus of the Church’s current celebration of the Year of St. Joseph] and from Father Hernan’s parish,” said Mother Therese, who prayed for some help with the monastery’s exterior — prayers that God soon answered, when Father Arias offered to raise money and offered Valladares’ services. “This is a house of the Blessed Mother and I want it to look inviting to everyone, not in disrepair. Now when I pass by, I smile. I thank everyone who contributed so far. We will reward everyone with our prayers,” she said.