Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
St Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi was half a century younger than St Teresa, yet Mary Magdalen was drawn to the same love of poverty. Read about her 1587 call to wear a patched habit and remove her shoes.
On 23 March 1575 St Teresa of Avila made a private vow of obedience to Father Jerónimo Gracián: "not to hide any fault or sin" and to do all that he might tell her. She admits that in the beginning, "keeping this promise was hard for her."
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St. Teresa of Avila says that she was so devoted to the Nativity of Mary, that she wanted to renew her vows on the feast day. In 1575 she says that Our Lady appeared to her, and she renewed her vows in Mary's hands.
Reading time: 1 minute, 132 words
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Père Jacques, preaching to the nuns at the Carmel of Pontoise, exalts the virginity of the Mother of God: “This characteristic is one of the crown jewels of Mary’s divine motherhood.”
Reading time: 1 minute, 183 words
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Overflowing with joy after her religious profession in January 1903, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity writes: "I hope to receive the veil on the 21st for the feast of St. Agnes."
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St. Raphael Kalinowski received the Discalced Carmelite habit on 26 November 1877 and made his religious vows on the same date in 1878. Here is an excerpt from his conference for the Discalced Carmelite friars in Wadowice: “Mother of God, Hope of the World.”
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St. Titus Brandsma’s commitment to the vow of poverty in solidarity with the poor was unshakeable. He wrote, “Without poverty, a religious is a Pharisee, a gentleman of ease pretending to be a poor man.” And in his conferences he taught, “Giving alms is our way of life.”
For the renewal of vows at the Carmel of Echt in 1940, St. Edith Stein wrote a meditation for the prioress at her request. We share the final section of the meditation where Edith presents a striking response to the age-old complaint that God doesn't hear our prayers. "What right have we to be heard?" Edith asks. Her own answer is decisive: "The day on which God has unrestricted power over our hearts we shall also have unrestricted power over his."
At the foot of your Cross, Beloved… Jesus, my crucified Love I just told you again to take My heart without ever giving it back to me...
May the things of earth never be able to trouble my soul, and may nothing disturb my peace. Jesus, I ask you for nothing but peace...
I made a covenant with my eyes not to be watching to see what beauty might come down to me. Christ is my beauty; Him alone I see.
"Jesus, my Love, I resolve to be yours," was a resolution found in retreat notes that the saint had made while preparing for her religious profession.
On 10 August 1591 Saint John of the Cross transferred from the friars’ convent in Segovia to the solitude of La Peñuela
Consecrated life is a style or way of living Christian life
On St. Gregory Nazianzen's Day, May 9 they vowed not to leave
I, Sister Mary Elizabeth of the Trinity, make my profession, and I promise chastity, poverty and obedience to God
Too little love is a worse offense against the Divine Heart than too much
More than ever the cross is a sign of contradiction
Blessed Titus Brandsma: "Without (poverty) the religious is a Pharisee – a gentleman in the monastery dressed like a poor man, but without a true love for poverty"
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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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