Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
On 31 January 1579 St. Teresa wrote a memorable letter to her nuns in Seville to encourage them in the midst of a great trial: the learned and talented prioress was unjustly deposed from office and an ill-equipped nun was appointed in her place. In this letter we read some of the great pearls of Teresian wisdom: pithy phrases of encouragement to aid her nuns in distress.
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In a beautiful prayer, St. Henry de Ósso praises and honors the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception, the "Queen, Lady, Protectress and ornament of the whole Catholic Church."
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Just as John the Baptist saw the Spirit come down from heaven and remain on Jesus, so St. Elizabeth of the Trinity begs the Spirit to come upon her and create "a kind of incarnation of the Word."
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"I offer you everything" is the motto of Blessed Chiquitunga, and with these words she begins her prayer for an increase in fervor and union with Jesus in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. We recall her birth on 12 January 1925 in Villarrica, Paraguay and revisit her beatification in video and images.
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"The world is all in flames; they want to sentence Christ again, so to speak, since they raise a thousand false witnesses against Him," cries St. Teresa of Avila, pleading: "this is not the time to be discussing with God matters that have little importance."
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“We are all pilgrims on the way to eternity,” writes Cardinal Anders Arborelius, OCD. “Through Baptism we, the Bride of Christ, may take part in the adoration that He, the Eternal Son, continually offers to His Father.”
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As St. Thérèse concludes her retreat to prepare to be clothed in the Carmelite habit, her sister Pauline writes to encourage her: "the Beloved runs over the hills; He is coming; He is here; only two days more!"
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St. Teresa of the Andes had an emergency appendectomy on 28 December 1914. Here, she tells us about her mixed emotions and her preparation for death during the risky procedure.
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Carmelite poet Jessica Powers writes, "O Wisdom, Adonai, Root of Jesse / and sign by which the mouths of kings are dumb, / O Key, O Orient, King and Cornerstone, / O our Emmanuel, come..."
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“I abandoned and forgot myself, laying my face on my Beloved…” Thank you for joining our St. John of the Cross novena; join us once again for our St. Joseph novena in March 2023.
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“Let Christ crucified be enough for you,” writes St. John of the Cross, adding: “with him suffer and take your rest…” O Lord, “even the darkness is not dark to you!” (Ps 139).
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The Virgin Mary’s charity at work in her Visitation to St Elizabeth highlights the teaching of St John of the Cross, “charity prepares the will and unites it with God through love.”
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St John of the Cross explains: “hope always pertains to the unpossessed object. If something were possessed there could no longer be hope for it.” The annunciation to St Joseph give us hope, as well.
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“When the soul is clothed in faith the devil is ignorant of how to hinder her,” says St. John of the Cross, because “faith gives her strong protection” against that “most astute enemy,” the devil.
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“Love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave,” we read in the Song of Songs. Similarly, St. John of the Cross cautions us that love doesn’t consist “in feeling great things...”
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“O night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the beloved in her Lover,” St. John writes. The Blessed Virgin’s “fiat” was her transforming moment!
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As the Eyptians pressed hard behind the Israelites, Moses told them, “you have only to be still.” In 'The Dark Night,' St. John of the Cross proclaims that he found “sheer grace” in darkness, hiddenness, and stillness.
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At the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary asked, “how can this be, since I am a virgin?” St John of the Cross says that “belief in God’s being” is the way to reach union with God, not by understanding.
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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
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