On the Danger of Compromise & the Necessity of Solitude

"During the years 1430 and 1433, the chapter fathers, confronted by the general breakdown in monastic discipline, chose to seek a solution by that most hazardous of routes: an expedient compromise born out of fear and uncertainty. Since so many of the Carmelites were not following the rule, they argued, a solution might be found by mitigating the rule and lessening its severity, thereby making legal and official that which was already being done in practice."

"But the contemporary Carmelites and their succession realized what the changes implied: these reductions in solitude and austerity were a major divorcement from Carmel's historical traditions, practices which profoundly changed the inner spirit of the Order and its original vision. The prophetic vocation, the imitation of the prophet Elijah, demanded solitude and an intensive program of penance, and with an abandonment of this tradition the Order was beginning a further confused descent."

Taken from "Journey to Carith" by Peter-Thomas Rohrbach