By the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph Monastery, Alexandria, South Dakota
“In paradisum deducant te angeli.…” May the angels lead you into paradise.… For the first time in our 27 years on the prairie, we sang the committal antiphon for one of our own. Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus had passed away two days before on the 15th of June this year, and her funeral was drawing to a close as we accompanied her casket to the enclosure door.
For 70 years in Carmel and even before that, throughout her almost 90 years, she had sought the face of God. At that moment of committal, we sincerely prayed that the Beatific Vision in all its glory was hers.
Her journey began in 1953 when at 18, she left home in New Mexico to enter the Carmel of Guadalajara, Spain. In 2006, it brought her back to the U.S., where our Carmel here in Alexandria welcomed her, only nine years after Bishop Robert J. Carlson had received us to pray for the priests and faithful of his diocese, living and deceased. Sister Teresa walked the Camino (The Way of the Cross or Stations) 365 days a year, often before 5 a.m. lauds, even behind her walker until a month before her death. And knowing her love, prayers and sacrifices for our community and the Diocese of Sioux Falls, her walk with God continues on behalf of us all.
At the sixth station, Veronica’s veil wiping the face of Jesus, did she pray that that same face would be imprinted on the souls of the living and revealed for all eternity to the souls that had passed? For the greatest suffering of the souls in purgatory is not seeing the Face of God. We do not know, but when asked three weeks before her death if she had a message from her hospital room for the sisters, she said, “Keep loving and repairing.”
Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus as revealed to the Carmelite Sister Mary of St. Peter in 1844 had taken hold of our community, and Sister Teresa pointed to that as her legacy. This devotion aims at repairing the sins of idolatry, profanation and irreverence—blasphemies against the first three commandments of God, for which the Holy Face of Jesus continues to suffer indignities today.
Desiring others to join us in this reparation of offering God the face of his Son, thereby assuaging his just anger and obtaining mercy for sinners, is the primary reason we wish to dedicate our new chapel to Jesus’ Holy Face.
Called by our Lord “the most beautiful work under the sun,” the “honor of Carmel” (our mother foundress, St. Teresa of Avila in a vision to Sister St. Peter), “destined to save society” (Pope Pius IX), it is the mother, or the greatest of all, devotions because it is directed to God in himself. It was the favorite devotion of St. Therese of Lisieux, who even added the title “Holy Face” to her religious name.
From her former Calced Carmelite National Shrine in Chicago, we rescued seven large beautiful stained-glass windows (8’ x 17’), which tell the history of Carmel, the life of our Lord and our Lady, and portray several saints in brilliant colors. These have been refurbished in the name of loved ones, and we seek others who will do the same for the construction we hope to begin in 2025, the centenary of the canonization of St. Therese.
With the Chapel of the Holy Face of Jesus and its incumbent sacristies as the focal point of the work, the expansion of our monastery will also include rooms required by our growing community: an enlarged nuns’ choir, nine cells, larger recreation room, library, applicant/visitor suite, resident chaplain’s quarters, dispensary and infirmary. In fact, we actually turned our current guest room into an infirmary for Sister Teresa the last two weeks she was with us, enabling us to accompany her in her last hours.
But we could not accompany her to the grave; there was no room for the long-cherished cemetery within our present enclosure. How salutary it is to visit the grave of a loved one, not only during November, but year-round! TSP, Inc. architecture firm in Sioux Falls, working in conjunction with Notre Dame–trained church architect, William Heyer of Ohio, have additionally designed a beautiful place of rest for our sisters in our enlarged enclosure, opposite the majestic Chapel of the Holy Face.
For now, our dear Sister Teresa is interred in the church cemetery of St. Mary of Mercy in Alexandria, awaiting the day of transferal to ours. Meanwhile, we have asked her to lead the souls in purgatory in rallying their loved ones and others here on earth to assist us in this cause for the greater honor of God. These holy and powerful “fundraisers” will have a fitting memorial in the sanctuary window across from the nuns’ choir.
Assured of their salvation, the holy souls in purgatory are also called “poor souls” because they cannot free themselves. A gift made in their memory will not only build the Chapel of the Holy Face of Jesus but will also lessen their pain and speed their entrance into heaven, where they will intercede for their benefactors before the face of God for all eternity. Our grateful prayers will accompany the same benefactors, as no doubt Sister Teresa’s will too, until you behold his face, the end of our journey!
As this article was being composed, we were presented with an image of Veronica’s veil that had been touched to the actual Veil of Veronica in Rome on June 17, 2024, the day of Sister Teresa’s funeral. Lord, shine your face upon your servant. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
“Our Lord has promised me that all those who defend his cause in this work of reparation…he will defend before his Father; at their death he will purify their souls by effacing all the blots of sin and will restore them to their primitive beauty.” – Sister Mary of St. Peter
Those interested in getting involved in or knowing more about raising the Chapel of the Holy Face of Jesus and the expansion of the monastery are encouraged to send their contact information
(name, address, phone and email) to:
Discalced Carmelite Nuns
Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph
P.O. Box 67
Alexandria, SD 57311
You may also send us your prayer requests or call 605-239-4382. May God bless, Mary keep and St. Joseph protect you and yours for your goodness to us!
