Pentecost is such a special day for all of us! When we think of the Holy Spirit, maybe we think of the Spirit's seven gifts, His role as comforter and healer, the Paraclete who enlightens our minds and tongues, and assists us in the development of virtues. So many beautiful images are used to denote the Holy Spirit in our faith: the dove, tongues of fire, the color red (or sometimes white), and the Church. We often think of Our Lady gathered with the Apostles in the Upper Room, as the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, preparing them to receive His divine touch.
I would like to share a little article I wrote about the imagery of bees and honey as it relates to our Discalced Carmelite Order, and so many of the themes we associate with the Holy Spirit: the gifts of prophesy and wisdom, Our Lady, prayer, and the development of virtue. I hope you enjoy it!
Spiritual imagery abounds in our Carmelite Order, and has been used by our most beloved Carmelite saints to help describe the mystical life and how to strive for Union with God. Indeed, the very word “Carmel
I would like to explore this imagery of bees producing spiritual honey, and see how it can be utilized to further our journey in Carmel
Bees and Honey: Symbolic of Elijah’s Spirit of Prophesy and Wisdom
Eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off. (Proverbs 24:13 -14)
The Old Testament uses the imagery of bees and their delectable by-product of honey to describe abundance, wisdom, and prophesy. Bees are used to denote messengers or “prophets” who speak the truth of God. Since the Old Testament, bees were seen as symbols of prophesy and wisdom. In fact, the very word “Deborah” can trace its meaning to “bee or small speech” and is synonymous with a messenger who speaks the truth to her people.[3] Further evidence is seen when we reflect on the words of Solomon cited above, where he uses honey as a symbol of wisdom, and tells us that such wisdom, produces “friends of God and prophets.” (Wisdom 7: 27b) Indeed, prophesy is seen as speaking the honey sweetness of God, as illustrated in Ezekiel (3:3) when the prophet consumes the scroll of God, and reports that it, “was as sweet as honey.”
This is in keeping with the Spirit of Elijah, whose prophesies and defense of the one true God against Baal on Mt. Carmel (1KG 18:19-40) epitomize the essence of our Carmelite charism to know God, seek His face and witness His Divine Truth to the entire world.[4] As a symbol of these gifts of prophesy, the Gospel of Matthew speaks of John the Baptist as imitating the ways of Elijah in that he wore “a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.” (Mt 3:4) The school of prophets that sought to imitate the ways of their master Elijah on Mt. Carmel focused on these gifts of prophesy and wisdom, through contemplation, asceticism, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, St. Bernard de Clairvaux compared the bee to the Holy Spirit, Spouse of the Virgin Mary, in giving the gifts of spirit and understanding. The “honey doctor” developed his doctrine of wisdom as follows, "It is the spirit of wisdom and understanding which, like a bee bearing both wax and honey, is able to kindle the light of knowledge and to pour in the savor of grace." [5] Was it not the Holy Spirit that presented Himself to Elijah in the cave on Mt. Horeb
As a bee quietly delivers pollen to produce honey for its interior community hive, we are called upon to utilize these gifts to build our interior Carmelite garden. As a consequence, our laboring for spiritual honey through prayer can result in the production of sweet honey (truth) to the greater world, as well as the sowing of seeds of love. As God promised Moses and the Israelites “a land flowing with milk and honey”, so too does prophetic truth lead to great blessings that reflect the ultimate truth – the saving sweet grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was described by Isaiah as one who would “eat curds and honey, that He may know to refuse evil and to choose the good” (Is 7:15). Indeed, Our Lord fulfilled all prophesies as signified when he ate broiled fish and a honeycomb with his apostles following his resurrection, and then pronounced, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (Lk24:44)
This image can further explain the dual call of our mendicant order to follow Elijah’s school of contemplation and active apostolic service simultaneously.[6] Let us seek to create a secret interior garden where a honeycomb of virtues flourish, while in tandem pouring forth acts of mercy to sweeten the world with love.
Virgin Bees: Symbols of Our Lady and her Dutiful Servants
“I am the Mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
In me is all grace of the way and of the truth; in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.
For my spirit is sweet above honey,
and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.
I have brought you into the land of Carmel
(Ecclesiastes 24:28-31)
Secondly, bees also have an historic association with Our Lady, the Virgin Mary. As early as the Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary and her Immaculate Conception were symbolized by virgin bees and the beehive itself.[7] In Eastern Europe , the Virgin Mary is the protectress of bees and beekeepers, and consecrated honey is offered on alters on the Feast of the Assumption. Throughout Europe , hives are decorated with the Madonna to honor her queenship.[8]
On the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the above-cited reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes is proclaimed to celebrate our Blessed Mother as the honeycomb of all virtue, gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Carmelites especially venerate Our Lady as the Mother of God, so often depicted by the imagery of the honeycomb itself. Hildegard von Bingen wrote to St. Bernard de Clairvaux that the Father “sent the Word with sweet fruitfulness into the womb of the Virgin, from which He soaked up flesh, just like honey is surrounded by the honeycomb.”[9] Indeed, we venerate our Lady as “Theotokos”, the bearer of Christ who is the very tabernacle or hive of the Christ Himself.[10]
To further this association between honeybees and the Virgin Mary, more detailed etymology reveals that Carmelus is derived from “car” (sponse) and “melos” (laus), which mean “praise of the bride” or “song of the beloved.” Secondly, the term “carios mellis” means “a gift of honey”, and is said to refer to our beloved Lady of Mt. Carmel.[11] This is in keeping with the comment of Blessed Titus Brandsma, O Carm who noted in his Lectures that in the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary we approach Mary, our Mother, as bees who “fly towards this mystical flower (Mary) to behold in it the fairness of the mystical life in its highest bloom, namely God, become man in her, so that He can also be born in us who belong to her.”[12]
It is clear that the closer we stay to Our Lady, the closer will we be to Her Son. By imitating her ways and wearing her garment (the Brown Scapular), Carmelites can learn the ways of virtue and store up spiritual honey that unite us to Our Lord, while positively impacting the world around us through our simultaneous call to service. As children of Mary, are we not called to carry Our Lord in the depths of our hearts to the world, as a hive stores its sweet honey?
The Honey of Contemplative Prayer
I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
I gather my myrrh and my spices,
I eat my honeycomb with my honey,
I drink my wine with my milk.
Daughters of Jerusalem
Eat, O friends, and drink: drink deeply, O lovers”
(Song of Songs 5:1)
This leads us to our last and most pivotal Carmelite calling that is symbolized by the bee and its heavenly dew. This is contemplative prayer and the imitation of Our Lady who fully embraced the Carmelite’s call to prayer by keeping “all these things in her heart.” (Lk 2:51)
St. Teresa compared prayer to a bee that gathers spiritual virtue through meditation and as an exemplar of how to conform our will to that of Our Triune God. In Interior Castle, our Foundress describes the room of self-knowledge as one where humility should be “always at work, like the bee making honey in the beehive” Such humility will be deepened in the room of self-knowledge when our soul flies upwards “to ponder the grandeur and majesty of God” just as “the bee doesn’t fail to leave the beehive and fly about gathering nectar from flowers.”[13]
As our self-knowledge increases, our prayer-life deepens. In the Introduction of Pope Pius XII “Address on Bees”, he quotes Saint Teresa’s Autobiography to describe the prayer of quiet and eventual union with God as she advises us to “be recollected as the wise little bee. For if no bees enter the hive and they all went about trying to bring each other in, there would not be much chance of their making honey.”[14] Just as the Magdalene sat at the feet of Jesus listening to his every word, so too do we “choose the better part” (Lk10:42) when we approach the Lord in prayer within the interior cell of our hearts where we seek to be united with Our Lord.
In his sermon entitled, “The Heart of Prayer”, St. Francis de Sales compares meditative and contemplative prayer in the same way as “bees made and gather honey: They go out gathering the honey which falls from heaven upon the flowers, and extract a little of the juice from the same flower, and then carry it to their hives. Thus we go along picking out the virtues of Our Lord one after the other in order to draw from them the desire of imitation.” [15]
Conclusion
As Carmelites, we recognize that our call consists of both the contemplative and active life. But the heart of the rule states that a Carmelite must first and foremost contemplate the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night and “watching in prayer.”[16] All apostolic action begins with prayer, where we gather up honey for our interior souls or hives, if you will. This makes our soul a garden in which the weeds are cleared out, and our cell is made receptive and fertile for the King to make His home within us. The more we root out our sins and imperfections, while cultivating God-given virtue and mercy, the more sweet honey is gathered and stored within our interior cells.
Our spring of contemplation comes from Mt. Carmel Union with God, as he sought to perfect himself first, through solitary living in prayer, and then, by responding to God’s call to share His spiritual gifts with others. Mary perfectly models the contemplative calling of Carmelites by living in quiet prayer and obedience to God’s Will, while being moved to action by His Spirit at particular moments, as seen in the Visitation, the Presentation, the Fleeing to Egypt, and the pilgrimages to Jerusalem as a member of the Holy Family.
As the bee gathers pollen and produces honey quietly for the good of the entire hive community, so too are we called to our inner cell to seek God’s face and open ourselves to His divine movements in order to beautify our surroundings. This results in a rich cross-pollination that flourishes within our families, Carmelite communities, and the greater world around us. Just as the bee inserts the pollen into the hive to serve the Queen and produce honey as a form of sustenance for the winter, so too does our contemplative prayer become a means of becoming bees in Our Lord’s garden, where we can lay up “sweet spiritual honey” as Bishop Jacques de Vitry so colorfully described so many centuries ago.
[1] McGreal, Wilfrid O. Carm, At The fountain of Elijah: The Carmelite Tradition (Orbis Books, NY, 1999) p. 19
[3] Patrick Henry Reardon, “Judge Deborah: The Hebrew Prophetess in Christian Tradition”, Touchstone Magazine, 2000.
[4] The Rule of St. Albert , The New Constitutions and the National Statutes, Carmel Clarion, Washington , DC
[5] St. Bernard de Clairvaux, In Cantica, Sermon VIII, 6; Migne, P. L., CLXXXIII, 813-a, b.
[6] Jane Ackerman, Elijah: The Prophet of Carmel
[7] The Herder Dictionary of Symbols: Symbols from Art, Archeology, Mythology, Literature, and Religion Chiron Publications, Wilmette , IL
[8] Eason, Cassandra Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal, Power Symbols CT, Greenwood Publishing Company, 2008
[9] Hildegard de Bingen, The Letters of Hildegard de Bingen, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994.
[11] Dr. Valerie Edden, “The Mantle of Elijah: Carmelite Spirituality in England
[12] Bl. Titus Brandsma, Lectures of Titus Brandsma
[13] St. Teresa of Avila , The Interior Castle
[15] St. Francis de Sales Oevres, Vol. IX (Amnecy-Nierat, 1892-1964) “The Heart of Prayer” Sermon for Palm Sunday given on April 12, 1615
[16] The Rule of St. Albert , The New Constitutions and the National Statutes, Carmel Clarion, Washington , DC
