Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
St. Teresa of the Andes, calling herself "a rebellious bit of dust," offers a heartfelt prayer to Jesus, clinging to his love, tenderness and mercy: "forget my ungratefulness and take me to Yourself completely... May I live submerged in your love."
Brother Lawrence offers concrete advice to those who struggle with besetting sins; he says that we much carefully examine “which sins we commit most often, and which are the most frequent and inevitable of our falls.” Then, “we must have recourse to God with complete confidence at the moment of combat.”
Continue reading →
St. John of the Cross offers a commentary on our Sunday Gospel in The Ascent of Mount Carmel when he discusses "the vanity of rejoicing over riches, titles, status, positions," etc. "If people were better servants of God by being richer, they would be obliged to rejoice in riches."
We share excerpts from Père Jacques' 1943 retreat conference on Hope and Abandonment: "When we sin against against hope, we effectively say to God: "I reject. You are wicked and heartless. I have no confidence whatsoever in you goodness"..." Père Jacques gives us the antidote and a beautiful prayer that is pleasing and powerful in the eyes of God.
St. Edith Stein examines woman's sins and defects of character that are as old as the fall of Adam and Eve.
It is hardly surprising to learn that the poet Jessica Powers was a great hymn writer, too. One of the hymns that she wrote for the Carmelite liturgies appears on the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In it, she mentions the gift of the scapular.
Père Jacques commented on evil during a preached retreat in the fall of 1943: "The profound problem of evil is a scandal that keeps many people far from God and drives many others away from him... Take war, for example, with its deliberate destruction of cities and its unjustifiable slaughter of the elderly and the innocent, of women and children..."
Commenting on the Gospel story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, Fr. Denis-Marie Ghesquières, OCD writes, "Jesus challenges each one of the onlookers to search his heart and, faced with the woman's sin, to question himself! A new path can open up by setting out from the truth about oneself in the presence of Jesus..."
I have not forgotten your business matter, but nothing more can be done now, although I have a great desire to do so. Entrust this earnestly to God and take our Lady and St. Joseph as your advocates in it.
I began to have devotion towards several saints, but, before all, to the holy angels and to St. Joseph, whom, in my childlike simplicity, I took to be an angel.
Lord, nothing here below can comfort me, neither creation, nor Heaven, nor earth, nor men, nor angels, nothing can give me the joy, the peace that I have lost in losing you, my God.
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."
We recall that on 3 February 1944 the three Jewish boys who Father Jacques had hidden in his school were deported to Auschwitz
O God of my soul, how we hasten to offend You and how You hasten even more to pardon us! What reason is there, Lord, for such deranged boldness? Could it be that we have already understood Your great mercy and have forgotten that Your justice is just? The sorrows of death surround me [Ps... Continue Reading →
At the foot of the cross, seeing its savior drink the bitter chalice to the very dregs, solely out of love for her, seeing him immolate himself for her sins, the soul dissolves with love for him
Approaching confession from the abyss of her misery, she casts off everything, desiring to preserve in herself only the image of God according to which she was created
Beneath the cross the Virgin of virgins becomes the Mother of Grace
The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night
Your love, Lord, and the hatred of sin
O my Jesus! What a sight it is when You through Your mercy return to offer Your hand...
!["I took for my advocate and lord the glorious St. Joseph and earnestly recommended myself to him. [...] I don’t recall up to this day ever having petitioned him for anything that he failed to grant."](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t39.30808-6/336879821_1374507696727108_3000064146961560788_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=GeKBPoaKfMcAX-2CJ_7&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfAOwDmzGbvKJed7AFCD1ChdYnt61Be4vkR02blVp3JCQA&oe=641F987B)
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