Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
St. Teresa of Avila favors meditating on the humanity of Christ: "We have him so near in the Blessed Sacrament... Behold Him here without suffering, full of glory, before ascending into heaven."
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St. Titus Brandsma and prisoners in Amersfoort were forced to hang decorations for Hitler’s birthday, 20 April 1942. When some prisoners were released for the occasion, Titus passed a message about his poor health to a friend in Amsterdam.
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St Raphael Kalinowski’s years of hard labor in Siberia became a great grace that prepared him for life as a Carmelite: he knew that life’s biggest and most difficult problems are resolved on one’s knees.
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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.”
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For St. Teresa, it was essential to her spiritual growth and to that of her sisters to be educated by knowledgeable people in the realm of the interior life. One way of preparing for her feast day is to prayerfully read and reflect on her writings.
Teresian scholar Father Kieran Kavanaugh, o.c.d. states that St. Teresa didn’t believe that in order to pray “it was sufficient to follow the rubrics and pronounce” the [Latin] words. Thus, she taught her nuns to be aware of the One to whom they were speaking.
St. John of the Cross is fond of quoting from St. Matthew's gospel, with over 50 citations in John's collected works. Today we see him quote “my yoke is sweet and my burden light” in the all-important Chapter 7, Book II of the Ascent of Mount Carmel: "Indeed the gate is very narrow, more so than you think."
St John of the Cross has advice for us about asking God for favors: He has “more compassion when He beholds the need and resignation of a soul that loves Him;” in other words, God doesn’t need our opinions about what is best for us!
In August 1591, roughly four months before his death, St. John of the Cross writes to a benefactor about his experience in the Desert of La Peñuela, where he had just arrived about nine days earlier from Segovia. The Desert of La Peñuela was a Discalced Carmelite monastery for the friars that was more secluded and eremitic than any of their other convents. Thus, St. John of the Cross could give himself totally to prayer. "God grant that I may stay here," he writes.
Writing to a nun, as he could to each one of us, Brother Lawrence prays for patience and strength that she may be able to suffer as long as God desires. "Find consolation in him... happy are they who suffer with him."
Writing to a former student from St. Magdalena teachers college in Speyer, St. Edith Stein assumes the role of spiritual director. In this letter from 1936, she counsels the young woman not to seek changes that are "apt to disturb one's inner peace" because whenever we attempt to get rid of one cross, we usually get a heavier cross, instead. Two years later, this student would become a Discalced Carmelite postulant in the Carmel of Kordel.
Well-known Carmelite author Ruth Burrows (Sr. Rachel Gregory, OCD) uses the story of Martha and Mary to explain who is really doing the serving and feeding during prayer. When Jesus enters our home, he serves and nourishes us, not the other way around.
Practical and prudent St. Teresa reminds us of the example of the sons of Zebedee, James and John, whose mother asked Jesus to declare that her sons should sit at his side in the kingdom. The Gospel tells us, "But Jesus answered, 'You do not know what you are asking'." St. Teresa reminds her Sisters of this many times in her writings, as she reminds us all in today's quote from the Interior Castle: we may think we are prepared to face trials in our spiritual life, but God knows what is best for us. "There's no need for us to be advising Him about what He should give us, for He can rightly tell us that we don't know what we're asking for."
Sister Constance of Jesus, the novice and protomartyr of Compiègne, was seized with fear before their arrest. A clandestine priest offered her spiritual counsel: "you feel your head separated from your body and you enter paradise; are you happy?" She replied, "Yes, I'm no longer afraid."
St. Thérèse of Lisieux explains what the work of a Good Samaritan can be in everyday life: "A word and a kind smile often are enough to cheer up a sad soul."
Within the first days of her postulancy, St. Teresa of the Andes made her confession to the spiritual director for the Carmel of Los Andes, Fray Avertano of the Most Blessed Sacrament, OCD. She writes: "I went to Confession to Father Avertano. I give thanks to God for having given me a director so learned and holy."
"There is no assurance in God's revelations," writes St. John of the Cross. He cites examples from the lives of Saints Peter and Paul where they both need guidance and correction in their ministries.
Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew describes her experiences as Prioress in Paris in the year 1605. She tells us that four professed religious and two novices left Paris to found a new Discalced Carmelite monastery in Amiens on Pentecost. There was a Pontifical Mass and the Bishop had the head of St. John the Baptist carried in procession!
"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 John of the Cross urges us to practice interior solitude so that our hearts may focus on God alone.
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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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