Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
Father Quang D. Tran, S.J. leads our meditations this year on the theme of the night that guides our footsteps better than light and is brighter than the dawn: the night that gives sight.
Continue reading →
In 1829 Sr Stanislaus of the Child Jesus from the Carmel of Baltimore received this prayer from her Jesuit spiritual director: “No more my sins shall tempt me to despair, My Father pities and forgives and hears a child's repenting prayer.”
Continue reading →
The eloquent poetry of St John of the Cross sets the stage for our Advent reflection as we read his Romance II, “In that boundless love, proceeding from the Father and the Son, words to Him the Father utter'd comprehensible by none.”
Continue reading →
St. John of the Cross’s eleventh poem closes with a classic quote: “love works so in me that whether things go well or badly love turns them to one sweetness transforming the soul in itself.”
Continue reading →
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s biographer, Conrad de Meester, OCD notes that on November 7th and 8th she kept almost constant silence, but you could still hear her say: "I am going to Light, to Love, to Life!"
Continue reading →
The day before she died, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity foresaw her death: “It is our Lady, full of light,” she said, “who will take me by the hand to lead me into heaven.” Thank you for joining our novena!
Continue reading →
Father François de Sainte-Marie, OCD was the gifted editor of the autobiographical manuscripts of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, published in 1957. We recall his birth to eternal life or 'dies natalis' on this date in 1961, when he drowned in the Loire river.
Ask the Virgin Mary to be your guide – to be your star, the lantern that shines for you amid the darkness of your life. #StTeresaoftheAndesTweet
St. John of the Cross refers to the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation in Stanza 3 of The Living Flame of Love: "O lamps of fire! in whose splendors..." He continues, "it should be known that an overshadowing is the equivalent of casting a shadow; and casting a shadow is similar to protecting, favoring, and granting graces."
St. Titus Brandsma once again turns to St. John of the Cross and the Living Flame of Live to help explain the profound mystery of Mary's motherhood of God: "casting a shadow is similar to protecting, favoring, and granting graces."
St. Titus Brandsma applies St. John of the Cross's image of the clear pane of glass and the ray of sunlight to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Jessica Powers offers this reflection on the Virgin Mary, 'Full of Grace': "Your own reflection has revealed Your place, for she is utter light by Your own grace..."Your own grace...
"No one has penetrated the depths of the mystery of Christ," St. Elizabeth of the Trinity writes, "except the Blessed Virgin. This is the unspeakable 'secret' that she kept in mind and pondered in her heart..."
Come Holy Spirit. [...] Come, you who, descending into Mary, caused the Word to take flesh: effect in us by grace what you accomplished in her by grace and nature.
Father Paul-Marie of the Cross explains the meaning of the Marian title, "Beauty of Carmel." For Carmelites, Mary is the brightness of eternal light...
St. Edith Stein explains how the love of Christ impels virginal souls "to descend into the darkest night": in this way, they resemble the Virgin of virgins who, beneath the cross, became the Mother of Grace.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity writes to her beloved Abbé Chevignard in 1903, "To think that God calls us by our vocation to live in this holy light! What an adorable mystery of charity! I would like to respond to it by living on earth as the Blessed Virgin did, 'keeping all these things in my heart'..."
Jesus climbs a mountain to pray. Prayer is like climbing a mountain—not physically, but by entering into the depths of our being where we find God's heart filled with light.
Like our Lord in today's gospel reading, St. Teresa compares the soul to a tree that is planted by the fount of life. "There would be no freshness, no fruit, if it were not for this fount sustaining the tree, preventing it from drying up, and causing it to produce good fruit."
Bishop Báez explores the two strong words that Simon uses to describe his failure on a fishing expedition: "night" and "nothing", words that are familiar to Carmelites. The bishop explains that "Jesus doesn't want us to be failures, victims of the Night and of the Nothing."
The Real News
Everyday Life
The latest news on WordPress.com and the WordPress community.
web de espiritualidad carmelitana
Antonio Mas Arrondo
Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. ~ St. Teresa of Avila
Monasterio de las Batuecas Carmelitas Descalzos
Carmelite Quotes 
Recent comments