Brother Teodoro Brovello, O.Carm., shares his reflections:
Br. Teodoro Brovello entered Carmel in March 1997 and made his Solemn Profession on October 7, 2006 at the Carmine in Florence, Italy.
From the time he was 14 years old, he studied furniture restoration "as working with wood has always been my passion," he said. "I worked eight years as a framer."
Now Br. Teodoro is in the formation program at San Martino ai Monti in Rome, in the first year of theology. "In my free time, I try to work as carpenter and factotum in the house."
"In the year of preparation for Solemn Vows, I lived in the Carmelite community of Nocera Umbra where I was able to build the community chapel. Everything is wood: floor, windows, benches and small racks for the various prayer books. I also built a bookcase three meters tall and four meters wide, everything in wood."
"I could do this thanks to the equipment that the community bought believing it useful in that it is important to work in the apostolate and also do some manual labor. In fact the Rule says "You must give yourselves to work of some kind, so that the devil may always find you busy… this is the way of holiness and goodness: see that you follow it" (Rule 20).
"During a retreat last year in a monastic community, I restored a very antique bread storage case that is now being used as an altar, in a chapel in their garden."
"In the Rule, it says ‘the brothers are to stay in their own cell or nearby, pondering the Lord's law day and night and keeping watch at prayers unless attending to some other duty' (Rule 10). I assure you that provision of the Rule is not easy in a city like Rome because you leave your cell and you find confusion, traffic and smog. So that is why I sought to create a space, a laboratory, where, when I manage to carve out a minute between studies and community commitments, I can work on icons with various images of Our Lady, Christ Pantocrater, and angels. It is a simple work that takes me to a very intimate place with my God. Only when I finish do I realize that a lot of time has gone by since I started working. I think that the talents we can have (painter, restorer, musician, and many others) can be held in esteem in religious life. For me, for example, working with wood "relaxes my body and my spirit" and is a means to continuous prayer."
