Clothing a novice

It has been a long time since we have had the clothing of a novice in our province. The last novice we clothed left after a few years to study for the diocese of Nashville. So it was with great joy that we celebrated the clothing of a novice in Oklahoma City on December 30^th. It was the first clothing, to my knowledge we ever had in Oklahoma. We began receiving novices in San Antonio in 1933. Then we moved our provincial novitiate to Marylake in Arkansas in 1951.

Our present Director of Vocations is Luis Joaquin Castañeda. In the first photo of December 30, Father Luis presents to our Fr. Provincial the candidate to be clothed in our Carmelite habit. He tells the provincial that the postulant came to us on January 8, 2007, and after spending eight months in Oklahoma City, he spent three months at our House of Studies in New Orleans. The provincial council has approved him to be admitted into our province as a novice. The Provincial then asks the postulant if he is ready to be clothed.

The Provincial and Director of Postulants then bless the habit (on the table in the photo) with holy water. Our habit was modified in the 16^th century by Saint Teresa of Avila. She cut off what she thought was excess material from the original Carmelite habit, and added sandals as a sign of the 16^th century reform.

Father Gregory, our Provincial then invests Juan Guillermo in the woolen tunic, and leather belt. You can see it’s a rather long belt. Saint Teresa, with a woman’s keen eye, even measured how long it would be, and this one looks just about the way she envisioned it. That's the pastor, Fr. Ralph Reyes, seated in back. The provincial is preparing to give Brother Juan the scapular which is the principal part of the Carmelite habit, signifying our devotion to Jesus’ Blessed mother.

I don’t know what’s going on in this picture. I think maybe the Provincial is straightening him out, now that he’s got the scapular and capuche or hood which serves as the friar’s hat. And now that I see that belt below the scapular, it does look a little long. Either that or the scapular may be a bit short. I’ll have to look up how many inches Teresa wanted it to drop below the scapular. We men, of course, could not care less, but women have a better fashion sense than most of us. It’s late. More pictures of this later.