Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
St. Teresa of the Andes was profoundly moved by the writings of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. “I love her,” Teresa writes in her diary. “Although she was a saint, I will imitate her and be a saint.”
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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!"
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Elizabeth summed up her heavenly calling thus: “My mission will be to draw souls into interior recollection, by helping them to go out from themselves.”
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On this date in 1906 St Elizabeth of the Trinity perceives her heavenly mission: “to draw souls by helping them go out of themselves to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within...”
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St. Elizabeth of the Trinity began her ten-day retreat on this day in 1904, the first since her profession retreat in January 1903. She told her sister that the extra solitude and prayer “created a very enticing schedule” because “I'm going to lose myself in Him.”
On Thursday evening of his retreat for the Carmel of Pontoise, Père Jacques devoted his conference to the theme of silence. "Silence is not an empty void," he told the nuns; "God dwells therein."
Père Jacques de Jésus began his preached retreat for the Discalced Carmelite nuns at the Carmel of Pontoise on this date in 1943. He reminded the nuns, “Prayer is the reason why God has placed us on earth.”
In the notes from her first retreat in the Carmel of Los Andes, St. Teresa writes that God "desires me to allow myself to be guided entirely by the Holy Spirit. My life should be a continuous praise of love. I should lose myself in God and always contemplate Him without ever losing sight of Him."
"The soul must practice the following instructions if it wishes to attain in a short time holy recollection and spiritual silence, nakedness, and poverty of spirit, where one enjoys the peaceful comfort of the Holy Spirit," writes St John of the Cross in the introduction to The Precautions.
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity writes to a seminarian in the last days before his ordination: "With the Virgin, you can sing your “Magnificat” and leap with joy in God your Savior, for the Almighty is doing great things in you, and His mercy is eternal... Then, like Mary, “keep all that in your heart.”
"The Apostle would have us keep silence, for in silence he tells us to work. As the Prophet also makes known to us: Silence is the way to foster holiness. Elsewhere he says: Your strength will lie in silence and hope."
Especially during Lent try to have periods of solitude, silence, and recollection alone with Jesus in the desert. Minister to him with the angels, work for him after the example of St. Joseph in the home of Nazareth and live in the world as if not living there...
Oh, how sweet your presence will be to me, you who are the supreme good!... I will not rest until I rejoice in your arms.
We need hours for listening silently and allowing the Word of God to act on us until it moves us to bear fruit in an offering of praise and an offering of action.
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener. It is to keep the vigil of mystery, earthless and still. One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit, strange as the wind's will.
I wish I were a painter so I could make you a sketch of the scene that surrounds me [...] the moonlight is flooding our cell through the frosted window panes, it's ravishing [...] All is calm and silent, and that makes me think of the night when the little Jesus was given to us.
The holy time of Advent is here; it seems to me that it is very especially the season of interior souls; in the silence of prayer, let us listen to Him.
I want to send you a little note from my soul for I am anxious for you to know that in the Father’s House I will pray especially for you.
Silence should penetrate deep within us and occupy every area of our inner home.
Have you ever wondered what Christ's prayer was like? Upon explanation, we realize that his prayer consisted essentially in the penetration of his very being by God.
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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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