Carmelite Saints
Everyday Contemplation
Do you yearn for a life of prayer or of deepeningof your life of prayer. Contemplation and mysticism are terms which are not much used in the Church. Yet the Jesuit theologian Karl Rainer (1904-1984) famously said “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.” Why should we care about prayer and meditation or developing a contemplative lifestyle? Doesn't it make more sense to get involved in "doing good?"
Carmelite Spirituality Study Group
Embark on the Spiritual Journey guided by the teachings of our Carmelite Saints. This group meets for silent meditation and to study the works of our Carmelite Saints and contemporary authors on Spirituality. The meeting consists of sharing and discussion on prescribed readings and a half hour of silent meditation, guided and assisted by some of the Carmelite sisters. The group meets on the last Thursday of each month
Saint Teresa of Jesus
This is the reason for prayer, my daughters, the purpose of this spiritual marriage; the birth always of good works, good works. This is what I want us to strive for and let us desire and be occupied in prayer not for the sake of our enjoyment but so as to have this strength to serve (Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle 7.4)
Saint John of the Cross
There [God] will show her how to love him as perfectly as she desires. It is precisely by giving her his love that he shows her how to love as she is loved by him. Besides teaching her how to love purely, freely, and disinterestedly, as he loves us, God makes her love him with the very strength with which he loves her. God gives her his own strength by which she can love him. As if he were to put an instrument into her hands and show her how it works by operating it jointly with her, he shows her how to love and gives her the ability to do so (John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle 38.4).
Saint Therese of Lisieux
St. Therese defined prayer as a surge of the heart: it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. “Outside of the Divine Office which I am very unworthy to recite, I do not have the courage to force myself to search out beautiful prayers in books. There are so many of them it really gives me a headache! And each prayer is more beautiful than the others. I cannot recite them all and not knowing which to choose, I do like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me.“
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. (Edith Stein)
“We went into the cathedral for a few minutes, and as we stood there in respectful silence, a woman came in with her shopping basket and knelt down in one of the pews to say a short prayer. That was something completely new to me. In a synagogue, as in Protestant churches I had visited, people only went in at the time of the service. But here was someone coming into the empty church in the middle of the day’s work as if to talk with a friend. I have never been able to forget that.” –Life in a Jewish Family
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
“O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of your mystery ! Pacify my soul!
Carmelite Resources
This is just a selection, there are many more...either on the web or in Carmelite communities throughout the world. The Carmelites are present in many different ways. The following links will give you a start if you interesting in knowing more, however it is a limited selection, dig a little and you will find great treasures.
Carmel Glasgow YouTube channel.
Sr. Constance Fitzgerald – John of the Cross and Prayer
More from the Sisters of Baltimore Carmel.
Institute of Carmelite Studies
Carmelite Institute Of Great Britain and Ireland