Glorifying God inspires real beauty in stone and wood
The Fairfield Carmelites' Monastery
I am totally smitten with the Monastery of the Fairfield (Pennsylvania) Discalced Carmelites. They are determined to live the consecrated life in a cloister, building something for the ages as they devote themselves wholly to God.
Today I saw on their Facebook page (run by their patrons, not the actual nuns), this news:
The solid wood frame for the Extern Oratory stainglass window was fabricated and installed by Corey Morgan of Corey Morgan Wood Works and we are more than pleased with the results.
(It’s worth being on Facebook to follow this account, from which I snagged these photos.)
Everything is being built by hand in a truthful, original way, to last, as they say, a thousand years, in service of their goal to live in an enclosed garden, separate from the world. You can see how real it all is. Things don’t look ancient. They are ancient. There are no modern “systems” because the nuns don’t use electricity or town water or piped-in gas, so there is no reason to make a stone façade over a concrete base or however such things are made today.
I can’t recommend enough the films about their foundation, their vision, and their struggles against the Vatican’s aggression towards their autonomy, which is that of the constitution of the original Carmelites as founded by St. Theresa of Avila. Their way of life is described very well in this film.
Watch An Enclosed Garden of God: You may, like me, be moved to tears, especially by the good bishop who defended them in such a fatherly way; and the all-too short To Last a Thousand Years, which includes the story of how their mother superior found her mason and contractor, the aptly named Joe (Joseph of course!) Bonifate (Good Fortune!), the man who had been lamenting that he would never build anything the old way.
Not surprisingly, a whole community is growing around this monastery. I think anywhere people try to build and live with real things for the glory of God, connections will be made with others in a beautiful way.