Knowing ThySelf

The soul collects its  faculties together and enters within itself to be with its God. (Chapter 28 'The Way of Perfection')

We all have a body that is visible and a Soul that is Invisible. Just as we tend to the needs of our body, we also have to see to the needs of our souls. 

A good way of doing so is to 'recollect our outward senses' and begin the journey inwards. ….. Detaching from our anxieties and concerns ...

And in that process comes into 'a gradual increase of self-control and an end to vain wandering .....; it means conquering, which is a making use of one's senses for the sake of the inner life.' (Chapter 29 'The Way of Perfection')

#self control #self #soul #saint teresa of avila #saint teresa #carmelite #spirituality

Way of Love

" 'Love works so in me
that whether things go well or badly
love turns them to one sweetness
transforming the soul in ITSELF. '
(from the Poetry of St John of the Cross)

How sweet is the way of love, dear Mother. True one can fall or commit infidelities, but, knowing how to draw profit from everything, love quickly consumes everything that can be displeasing to Jesus; it leaves nothing but a humble and profound peace in the depths of the heart. "

Upon reflecting, it is indeed a humble gesture to place one's will in the hands of another, and an act of love to sacrifice one's own desire. Slowly but surly, one will go about uniting one's will to that of the Heavenly Father, in this journey of love.

#st therese of lisieux #st therese #therese #carmelite #spirituality #way #love

Love of the Divine Heart

Today on our National Day, is also the Feast Day of

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

(also known as Edith Stein)

She described herself as mercurially lively and precocious, as a kid, in her autobiography 'Life in a Jewish Family'. One of her teachers, described her to be, many steps ahead of her peers, in her studies.

Eventually, she became a prominent figure in society, and in one her lectures, complied in the book entitled 'Women', said :

God's love is an overflowing love which wants nothing for itself but bestows itself freely; mercifully, it bends down to everyone who is in need, healing the sick and awakening the dead to life, protecting, cherishing, nourishing, teaching, and forming; it is a love which sorrows with the sorrowful and rejoices with the joyful; it serves each human being to attain the end destined for it by the Father. In one word, it is the love of the divine Heart.

Empowered by this Divine Love, everyone can discover her own unique gift, for the good of others.

#contemplative #carmelite #spirituality #divine love #divine #love

Hut of God

Following along the theme of 'Hut of God' or 'House of a Presence', it brings to mind someone, whose name means just that.

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

(As the name Elizabeth means 'House of God')

In 'Heaven in Faith', written a few months before her death, she wrote

"Remain in Me, pray in Me, adore in Me, love in Me, suffer in Me, work and act in Me. Remain in Me so that you may be able to encounter anyone or anything...." (1st Day; 2nd Prayer)

These are words which I will hold in my heart, as I journey through life. Always remembering

"Remain in me, as I in you." (Jn 15; vs 4)  

#carmelite #spirituality #faith #elizabeth #trinity

Queen of Carmel

Joyous Feast Day to All the Carmelite Religious and the Carmelite-at-Heart

I am always reminded of this lovely poem by Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit, OCD, on this feast :

The Cloud of Carmel

"The Lord promised that He would dwell in a cloud." (2 Chronicles 6:1)

Symbol of star or lily of the snows,
Rainbow or root or vine or fruit-filled tree :
These image the Immaculate to me
Less than a little cloud, a little light cloud rising
From Orient waters cleft by prophecy.
And as the Virgin in a most surprising
Maternity bore God and our doomed race,
I who bear God in mysteries of grace
Beseech her : Cloud, encompass God and me.

Nothing defiled can touch the cloud of Mary.
God as a child willed to be safe in her,
And the Divine Indweller sets His throne
Deep in a cloud in me, His sanctuary.
I pray, Oh, wrap me, Cloud, light Cloud of Carmel
Within whose purity my vows were sown
To lift their secrecies to God alone.
Say to my soul, the timorous and small
House of a Presence that it cannot see,
And frightened acre of a Deity,
Say in the fulness of thy clemency:
I have enclosed thee all.
Thou art in whiteness of a lighted lamb wool,
Thou art in softness of a summer wind lull.
O hut of God, hush thine anxiety.
Enfolded in this motherhood of mine
All that is beautiful and all divine
Is safe in thee.

#carmelite #spirituality #carmel #divine #cloud