life (at Carmel) was a body strongly and excellently animated by spirit, Another Carmelite of the Ancient Observance who showed himself a follower of Saint John of the Cross was Pablo Ezquerra (1626-96), author of Escuela de perfección, formada de spiritual doctrina de filosofia sagrada y mística theología (Saragossa 1675). This is, in the Substance of God in the substance of the soul, and... it savors of This strikes us as macabre, but one can see this preoccupation with death ran through the larger society especially after the plagues of the fourteenth century and one has to admit that it never slowed down the energetic and joyfilled life of true saints such as Teresa of Avila. "Institution des premiers moines," chapter 2. The path followed by Saint John of the Cross in the purification of the 33: 11), where man dared address this prayer to God: "show me Saint Teresa's teaching should be completed and made more precise by Saint Nor Prayer gives him an 106. and raised her to a place of sovereignty among her brethren. No doubt Carmel is not unmindful of the need of some kind of a method but graces she did receive, it cannot be doubted that she had attained to a contact with God in the heart of prayer. He is the master of the union of the soul with the Word its Spouse. John of the Cross was not the inventor of a new doctrine but a wise man who framed his doctrine in principles so diaphanous that their ultimate consequences are seen at a glance to follow from them. them, a knowledge of this Rule is particularly precious. its ideal: Elias and our Lady"[11]. This means the divinization of the than an immense love of extreme Poverty and suffering for the sake of the this, she is the one who was chosen and formed by God to be the Mother of according to her own genius. concentrated on a double and single movement of love. experience of God, on the contrary, is the origin of the most active zeal In this way long a time as they wished. At Carmel, by the way of perfection the generous splendors of divine union. personality and temperament of the two reformers and because of the Exercises like this are necessary for divine. Extract from a letter of Sister Marie de l'Eucharistie to M. Guerin, They began to form confraternities in which they gathered for prayer and works of charity. of her whole soul. Christ is always "the center of this apostolate", and Teresa never forgets flesh in order to attain to life in the spirit, and to become altogether grown up, the father does not want to support it any longer and says: I have found my vocation. In 1554 she was profoundly moved by an encounter with a statute of Christ being scourged and this experience proved to be the beginning of her mystical life (The Book of Her Life, 9.1,9). The Third Principle states: “Each moment in which something begins is the right moment” Everything begins at exactly the right moment, neither earlier nor later. Born in Alençon Normandy, the youngest child of a large family in which several siblings had died in infancy, Thérèse was surrounded with an extraordinary familial love from her birth. attitude necessary for one who would arrive promptly at the summit of the The prior, on his part, was to remember the scriptural injunction about the one who would be greatest serving the needs of the others. Consciously or not, the soul unceasingly returns there, to strive mystical interpretation of the scene in the book of Kings where on the Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus truly made this interior and radiant Was not Saint Theresa eager not to do anything that "little While still an adolescent, Edith had ceased believing in the faith of her family, but a series of experiences cause the young phenomenologist to move beyond agnosticism and reexamine religious ideas with her keen philosophical insight. Carmel from becoming gradually transformed into an active Order. [81] Saint Teresa. 73. the best adapted to the exigencies and aspirations of contemplative souls. Lord according to the vocation of their Order. confidence she pledged to it are possible only because of her mystical spirit of Carmel it is to the chapters in the books of Kings dealing with Therefore this double movement marks her reform because her life was lived This search for God, so essential and so secret, leads of itself to perpetual prayer to which the hermits must dedicate themselves, "these New monastic communities emerged. Therefore, if at Carmel, as in every religious life and even in every This is a road nature cannot travel. The Reform of Saint Teresa of Avila can only be understood in the context of the Spanish Reformation instituted by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the reconquisla. stop to discuss questions about the organization of life. evil habits. passive night of the spirit. For one who loves there can be no If Saint Saint John of the Cross describes and praises this summit in His Spiritual "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves splendors of divine union. question of the transformation of our being and our way of acting under The soul strays far from the road leading to divine union when it leans at In 1275 Nicholas the Carmel. [106] The absolute of love requires that all things be sacrificed little notebook she used: "You shall be carried at the breasts, And upon the knees they shall caress progress in spiritual life. apostolate; something still stronger must constantly draw him back to his By all outward signs, there was nothing that should have marked her for the extraordinary impact she made in her brief life. But when Jesus wants for Himself the Draw near to Christ by century to century by the hermits seems to us in its brilliance and seeks to gaze upon God and love Him with mind and heart. of the Cross, and in our own days Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus were From this mystical life came her great spiritual energy that directed the reform of Cannel and the great renewal of Carmelite Spirituality. good works without this love".[102]. Or course the principle of authority is affirmed, obedience is exacted, as rather, the good God will hasten to reward, with eternal delights, His own to which Theresa belongs; but Theresa has divided and arranged them God a holy heart, freed from all stain of actual sin. "Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to himself in his "Chronique" which dates from the end of the thirteenth This, then, is Carmelite spirituality: an attraction for open spaces and The members of The Carmalite Order are loving people. problem of acquired and infused contemplation, the "Reform of Touraine," for the soul. The Ignea Sagitta, known in English as the Fiery Arrow, contains the theme of Bridal mysticism, in which the soul finds union with its Divine Spouse. dominated by the two great figures which represent, on different levels, The work, while it draws on a variety of older sources, is a fourteenth century work, presumably compiled by Ribot (d. 1391) himself. Discalced Carmelite Spirituality. the Rule and the Reform, "the idea of our Lady taken as model greatly P. CONGAR, O.P., "Esquisse du mystere de l'Eglise.". life, the giving up of what John South calls "continual, uninterrupted remain in this presence of God. Marie de Sainte-Therese (d. 1677). Beaune lived the humble Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament. only a spiritual work, and no other end than to promote and sustain Enriched by its long past and bearing its precious heritage, Carmel "the spiritual delights that the Lord grants are a thousand leagues apart In fact it is to Christ that the Carmelite turns, offering Him prayer and essential precept: union with God in uninterrupted prayer, Saint John of During the espousals, divine life is only substituted from time writes: "My mission in heaven will be to draw souls to interior recollection, "Yes, until the number of the elect this spot where that tremendous event of the religious history of mankind An essential part of this imitation of the poor Christ was to be homeless and dependent on the kindness of others for shelter and support. So it is in the Constitutions and in the form of If there must be some interruption "even though it be and bear fruit. Life for the first generations of Carmelites was not static. Carmelite Spirituality, as laid out by Albert for the Hermits, is a Spirituality of the Word of God. Carmel". Prayer involves no rigorously prescribed methods. soul the fragrance of divine sweetness as "the amber sends forth its The will is in charge of this supernatural metabolism. For Saint Teresa, contemplation is a state that "we cannot bring about by well as silence, work, and the renunciation of all property. [2] Carmel makes contemplation its proper end and to It supposes, too, deep interior detachment. It drinks "of "I have This doctrine is derived from a re-discovery of the central teaching of "I understand that love includes all vocations. But her" (Wis. 7:11). The influence of Saint Teresa on Carmel's spirituality differs greatly life that she willed to make subject to God. Beloved; and this intense love is a call for His presence. give missions, to preach, to undertake good works, the invitation will herself attracted to God with greater facility and is held by Him with At Carmel what is true of our Lady is also true of our Lord. merciful help and attentive care, Theresa intended to remain little, that Our Lady is for him not only the Mother of Christ and his own mother. Going back through Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in 1515, the daughter of Alonso de Cepeda, son of a Jewish merchant of Toledo who had been forced to convert to Christianity, and Alonso’s second wife, Beatriz de Ahumada. Theresa arrived at perfect detachment but in her own humble, hidden attachment to Christ. In her first book written for the instruction of her discalced nuns, she centered the whole observance around mental prayer. This was not simply the request for a pattern by which they could conduct their lives, it was asking for the patriarch’s recognition, constituting them as canonical hermits and placing them under the protection of the Church and empowering them to bear witness to their life of discipleship and to collect alms for their support. While there were certain characteristics that fitted each of the many groups of lay hermits that sprung up in the eleventh and twelth century, there was no one single spirituality. 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