This year we celebrate the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Albert of Jerusalem: because of that, this edition of CITOC-magazine is centred on the commemoration of that event. The Patriarch’s letter to the hermits of Mount Carmel became our Rule. With the passing of the years it has lost nothing of its originality. It is ever current and ever a source of inspiration, for the first hermits gathered around the spring of Elijah on Mount Carmel, and for the whole Carmelite Family, spread today throughout all five continents.

A short biography illustrates the life of the legislator, and an article looks at the historical context in which St. Albert responded to the request of the hermits for a “norm for their life”. Some thoughts about our Rule in the light of the ecclesiology of the II Vatican Council, and a number of testimonies from members of the Carmelite Family as to how to live out the Rule in daily life, create a bridge to our own days.

This edition also reports on a number of joyful events that show how our Rule is being followed in various nations and in various circumstances: the 125th anniversary of the arrival in New York of the first Carmelites from Ireland, which marked the beginnings of the American Province of St. Elias; the 25th anniversary of the refounding of the Order in France, restoring a presence that was interrupted by the French Revolution; the 25th anniversary of the Spanish Carmelite youth movement called Jucar.

Our Rule is being followed today in new and different settings. We see one response to the challenges of the moving tides of history, in the report on the unification of the Province of Aragon and Valencia with the Province of Castile, to form the one Province of Aragon, Castile and Valencia.

In addition to all these articles and the other items of information, we offer our customary selection of news items, some of which have already been published in CITOC-online, to give some idea of what is happening in the Order at the moment.

We hope all our readers will enjoy reading this latest issue of CITOC-magazine

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Fr. Christian Körner, O.Carm.

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

 It is difficult for us as humans to understand the suffering that Christ had to bear during his passion and dying on the Cross, particularly in the context of an obedience to the Father. In his human nature, Jesus is like anyone else in all things ‘except sin’ (Hebrew 4:15). He is in himself the most perfect of all our humanity. His ordeal of the passion was unworthy of him, of his person, dignity, wisdom and goodness. During his mortal life, he bore our infirmities, our labours, our pains and our tears. He wept as anyone else would, touched by the sadness and love of friends. The Scripture says that he was moved by compassion at things or people he saw. Indeed his human nature being more perfect, his natural response or sensibility was also more delicate, more intense. It is all that is to be expected, since in his humanity he is the reflection of his Father’s infinite being, ‘the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature’ (Hebrew 1:13).

Yet Jesus suffered and died ‘for us.’ Can we understand why the Father demanded of the Son the debt due to Him in justice because of our sin? The Father willed that Jesus would be bruised for our wickedness. Jesus, our brother, saw the sickness that consumes our world, the evil that brings all class of pain, agony and disease on humans, the mindlessness that created unimaginable torments to human beings. What is described as Christ’s Agony in the Garden of Olives began with a flood of sadness, fear and weariness, which gradually gave way to pain and even to a 'sweat of blood.’ Can we see him offering us love as he is overwhelmed by the torrents of our iniquities? In fact in his natural reaction of revulsion, he pleads with his Father: ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine’ (Luke 22:42). In fact, Jesus was surrounded by the powers of darkness. Betrayed by one of his own company, the Sinless One was first handed over to the soldiers who make a mockery of him to chide the Jews. They beat him; torture and scourge him as a common criminal. Ignominy is heaped on the Holy One of God. Eventually he is condemned and fastened to a Cross, mounted between two thieves. The Prophet Isaiah had foretold the outrages that afflicted him and the humiliations that oppressed him. The Prophet foretold the scene at Calvary: ‘As the crowds were appalled on seeing him, so disfigured did he look that he seemed no longer human, so will the crowds be astonished at him. Without beauty, without majesty we see him, no looks to attract our eyes; a thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, a man to make people screen their faces; He was despised and we took no account of him’ (Isaiah 52:14; 53:2-3).

His passion and death was Christ’s sacrifice that gives infinite glory to his Father and expresses in his love what the Father asked for. It would redeem humanity, restore the proper order in creation and open for us the springs of everlasting life. So St. Paul was able to tell the Romans: ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do; sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit’ (Romans 8:1-5).

The love that Jesus showed for the Father was prompted by his love and concern for the apostles and all who would accept them and their successors throughout the centuries. ‘Greater love than this no man has, than a man lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). St Paul states this as; ‘Christ die for all’ (2Corinthians 5:15).

When speaking of the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep, Jesus says ‘The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as it is in my power to take it up again; and this is the command I have been given by my Father’ (John 10:17). Before his arrest, Jesus resisted the temple guards, arguing that ‘I sat daily with you in the Temple and you laid no hands on me’ (Matthew 26:55). When he is brought before Pilate, he makes it clear to him, ‘You would have no power over me, if it had not been given you from above’ (John 19:11). However, because it is his Father’s will, he submits himself to Pilate - for our sakes.

Patrick Burke, O.Carm. Carmelite Family: Number 13, Spring 2002.

from http://www.carmelites.ie/responselove.html

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

The Second Vatican Council called the Church to new life in the Spirit who gives life to, unifies and moves the whole body. “Christ fills the Church, which is his body and his fullness, with his divine gifts so that it may increase and attain to all the fullness of God” (LG 7). All the baptised, centred in Christ and strengthened by God’s word and sacrament, form one community of faith, hope and love.

Within this ecclesial setting, the Carmelite Family offers a specified spirituality to help God’s people meet the demands of a gospel way of life in the midst of our modern secularist world. The Carmelite tradition has served the Church and the people with charisms centred on prayer, community and service. Its prophetic and Marian heritage has inspired its members throughout the centuries in the persons of Elijah and the Blessed Virgin Mary, enkindling new life and inspiration in every age.

The Church recognises that “by reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will” (LG 31). Called by God and being led by the spirit of the Gospel, they may contribute to the sanctification of the world by fulfilling their own particular duties, manifesting Christ to others. The faithful Christian, then, has a vocation, arising from this secular character, to deal with worldly matters and to order them according to God’s law. The individuals live their lives in their secular occupations and professions and in the ordinary conditions of the family and society. In so far as they can and united with like people, the laity work so that “the institutions and conditions of the world may be conformed to the norms of justice, favouring rather than hindering the practice of virtue” (LG 31).

The Church sees the individual Christian as the Church, and not just belonging to the Church. The mission of all Christians is to “Go, make disciples of all nations,” which is realised in the family, at work, and in worship. The neighbour, business, sickness, children — all demand the giving of self, as the Eucharistic Christ.

The lay Christian is one who lives their secular identity as a member of the Church. As such, each one cannot be really a passive member. Pope John Paul II on his visit to Columbia in July 1986, summed up the role of the lay person: “You lay people, loyal to your secular identity, must stay in the world as in your own environment and there realise an active and evangelical presence — a dynamic and transforming presence — as the leaven in the dough, as the salt giving the Christian sense to the light of work, as the light in the midst of the darkness of indifference.”

Guided by the Holy Spirit, Church authority from Apostolic times fostered the spread of various forms of religious life lived in solitude or community, in imitation of Christ through the gospel counsels. Different religious families in time came into existence, in which certain aspects and gifts of the Spirit are cultivated for the good of the Church and a help towards holiness for their members (LG 43). Some lay people, attracted by the specific charisms or gifts of a religious family became more associated with it and in some instances took vows according to the characteristic way of life of the religious family, living however in the ordinary circumstances of secular family and social life.

The distinguishing element of each religious family is its spirituality, lived out of the same charisms, inspiration and values. The Church in approving a religious family encourages it to foster among the laity the characteristics of the spiritual life proper to the family. In modem times, the laity can follow the Rule of the Order or religious family, but in keeping with their lay status and circumstances of life.

The Carmelite spirituality is based on a commitment “To live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ and to serve him faithfully with a pure heart and a clear conscience,” inspired by St. Paul’s words and proposed by St. Albert as the foundation on which their way of life is constructed. (Con 14). Carmelites are committed to seek the face of the living God (prayer dimension), through fraternity (community) and through service in the midst of the people, totally dedicated to a prayerful attention to the Word, celebrating and praising the Lord with zeal. The Rule speaks of a community whose members are open to the indwelling of the Spirit and formed by the Spirit’s values.

From its beginning, the Carmelite Order, living and functioning in the service of the Church, made its own the Church’s devotion to Our Lady, conscious of a special charism of bonding to her as “Mother and Splendour of Carmel”. In imitation of Mary, they strove to make God present in their world by deepening their union with God through prayer. In leaving Mount Carmel, the early Carmelites took with them the prophetic spirit and inspiration of the Prophet Elijah. From him the Carmelites throughout the centuries more easily understood and internalised, lived out and proclaimed the truth that makes us free (Con 25).

Lay people are attracted to the Carmelite Order by its spirituality. For them too, the contemplative dimension of Carmelite prayer expresses an attitude of openness to God whose presence Carmelites discover everywhere. It constitutes the inner journey, a journey in the desert to meet God, to be overpowered by his love. This love empties us of our limited and imperfect ways of thinking, loving and acting; and transforms them into God’s way.

For the lay person the contemplative attitude towards the world around us makes us discover God present in our daily experiences and makes us find him especially in one another. In this way the Lay Carmelites are led to value the mystery of the persons around them with whom they share their life. On the basis of what they experience in Carmel, they seek dialogue, reconciliation and healing in their relationships. Lay Carmelites are being constantly formed by the Word through lectio divina in which they ponder the law of the Lord (Rule 7).

In the tradition of Carmel, they seek the face of God in the heart of the world. They are open to others, capable of listening, and of being questioned by our culture and environment; and offering ourselves to collaborate with those who commit themselves to the search for the kingdom of God. Contemplation, community and service thus constitute the Lay Carmelite calling and their particular way of serving God and his Church in their world.

The Carmelites seek to serve the living God in the worship of our lips and of our lives. The lay persons associated with the Order in any way express our Carmelite calling in the concrete living of our place in the world. They live our Baptismal and Confirmation vocation supported and inspired by the Carmelite spirit and ideal, by the example, encouragement and help of our brothers and sisters of Carmel. They embrace as far as their lay state and the duties of their state in life allow the central ideas of the Rule. They give some time daily to the lectio divina, to pondering the Scripture in their hearts. They see the Mass as the centre of Carmelite life, its ‘source and summit’ (LG 11). They say if possible some of the Liturgy of the Hours. They value their group meetings and give them a high priority.

Despite this practical formulation of the Lay Carmelites’ way of life, there is a real need for a theological exposition of the wide spectrum of lay commitment and a corresponding but deeper presentation of their Carmelite spirituality. It must be “a specific process whereby a person becomes identified with the living programme centred on Christ as for any Christian but animated by the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary and by the inspiration of Elijah, all in accordance with the particular charisms of the Carmelite Order.”

Because of the presence of Lay Carmelites in the situations of ordinary life which are not served by the Friars or Sisters, truly great incentives for the Church have been instituted in the public service, reflecting the creativity of individuals responding to their Carmelite charisms and the variety of personal gifts with which they are endowed. This phenomenon draws attention to the need for a basic and comprehensive formation programme for all aspirants to the lay associations of the Order. The additional programmes must recognise too the presence of the variety of gifts in the Carmelite Family and provide for it accordingly. It this respect the role of women in the Carmelite Family is essential.

The work of the Friars and Sisters in the fields of new evangelisation should be partnered and recognised as such in the wider Carmelite Family. Local efforts at establishing the Carmelites in missionary areas should be tied to the local efforts elsewhere in fostering the ties of the Carmelite Family.

The vicissitudes of Carmelite history are always a hopeful assurance of God’s presence and of the work of the Order in the service of the Kingdom. The building up of the Carmelite Family is itself a commitment to evangelisation. But this presumes a better understanding of the criteria appropriate to people in our society today which itself must recognise the primary desire for a better prayer life. What prayer life? Union in the Spirit appropriate to their spiritual make-up.

Abbreviations used:

LG = Lumen gentium. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 1965.

The first part of the celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Father Jerome Gracián (Valladolid, June 6, 1545 - Brussels, 21 September 1614) took place on September 21, 2014, exactly 400 years after his death, in the church of the Discalzed Carmelites, Brussels, Belgium. Presiding at the Eucharistic celebration was the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Fr Saverio Cannistrà, OCD., and concelebrating members of our Order were the Prior General Fr Fernando Millán Romeral, O. Carm, Vice Prior General Fr Christian Körner, O. Carm., and the Councillor General for Europe, Fr John Keating, O. Carm . Also present was a member of our Dutch Province and Discalced Carmelites from Belgium, Italy, France, England and Spain. In his homily, Father Saverio reflected on the virtues of this great friend of St. Teresa of Jesus. Following the Eucharistic celebration, the two Generals unveiled a plaque in the church to mark the event.

The second part of the anniversary celebrations will be held from the 12th to 13th of November 2014 in Madrid with a conference on the life and spiritual profile of Fr. Gracián. (see citoc-online 3/2014)  Also in Madrid on Friday, November 14, the Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O. Carm., will preside in the church of San José a Eucharistic celebration concluding this centenary.

Saint Albert was born towards the middle of the 12th century in Castel Gualtieri in Emilia, Italy. He entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross at Mortara, Pavia, and became Prior there in 1180. In 1184, he was named bishop of Bobbio, and the following year he was transferred to Vercelli which he governed for twenty years.  During this period, he undertook diplomatic missions of national and international importance with rare prudence and firmness: in 1194, he effected a peace between Pavia and Milan and, five years later, also between Parma and Piacenza. In 1191, he celebrated a diocesan synod which proved of great value for its disciplinary provisions which continued to serve as a model until modern times. He was also involved in a large amount of legislative work for various religious orders: he wrote the statutes for the canons of Biella and was among the advisers who drew up the Rule of the Humiliates.

In 1205, Albert was appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem and a little later nominated Papal Legate for the ecclesiastical province of Jerusalem. He arrived in Palestine early in 1206 and lived in Acre because, at that time, Jerusalem was occupied by the Saracens. In Palestine, Albert was involved in various peace initiatives, not only among Christians but also between the Christians and non-Christians and he carried out his duties with great energy. During his stay in Acre he gathered together the hermits on Mount Carmel and gave them a Formula vitae. On 14th September 1214, during a procession, he was stabbed to death by the Master of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, whom Albert had reprimanded and deposed for his evil life.

In order to mark the 8th Centenary of the death of Saint Albert of Jerusalem, the General Council of the Order have organized a weekend seminar in Rome from 10th to 12th October 2014. Those taking part will include the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millan Romeral, O.Carm., the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Fr. Saverio Cannistrà, OCD, Sr. Anastasia di Gerusalemme, O.Carm. (RAV), Fr. Vincenzo Mosca, O.Carm. (Neap), Bro. Patrick Mullins, O.Carm. (Hib) Fr. Bruno Secondin, O.Carm. (Ita) Fr. Kees Waaijman, O.Carm. (Neer) The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude, Fouad Twal will also speak at the seminar, and together with Frs. Fernando and Saverio, will celebrate Mass at the Carmelite Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, Rome at 8.00 am on Sunday 12 October (citoc-online 54/2014).

“‘See, I am making all things new.’ (Rev 21:5)

From the 29 of April to the 1 of May, 2014 the first Provincial Chapter of the new Province of  "Aragon, Castile and Valencia", erected by the Prior General on October 15, 2013, was held in the convent of St. Andrew of Salamanca.

The new province is the result of the union of the former Province of Aragon and Valencia of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, and the former Castile Province of St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross. The Province of  "Aragon, Castile and Valencia", erected under the patronage of St. John of the Cross, currently has houses in Spain, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Argentina.

The history of these provinces dates back to 1281, when in Spain the "Province of Aragonia or Hispania"  was founded, from which the other Spanish provinces were progressively born. The painful process of "secularization" and the suppression of religious orders in Spain, in 1835, was followed by the "restoration" of the Carmelite presence in 1890. The Spanish Carmel flourished, and in 1906, the Province of Aragon and Valencia and the Province of Andalusia were born. The Province of Aragon and Valencia grew considerably during the 20^th century and saw the birth of two new realities in Spain: the Commissariat of Catalonia, in 1932, and the Commissariat of Castile in 1948 Both later became Provinces.

A new spirituality for change

A friar of the new Carmelite province was asked: "Why the new province ? " His answer: "Because we wanted it." Then he explained: "That may seem a short and curt answer, but I believe it's a matter of will” It is easy to change when the brothers want it, and complicated when the brothers do not want it. "Because we wanted it", there is no clearer answer. These are new times. "Wanting" always brings joy. The theme of change and mission depends not only on the leaders or the government. It is a matter in which the "wills" of all the members of the province are involved. What are you willing to do to promote change? What are you willing to change to live in fidelity to Christ, to the charism of the Order and to the discernment of the signs of the times? The renewal of Carmelite life requires "hard work " and concrete "decisions" .

Those who allow themselves to be touched the Holy Spirit are seen immediately to be available for "displacement" and "change", understood in several ways: change of mind, community, ministries, securities, habits, etc.. "Wanting" means being subject to provincial community discernment and not being concerned solely about the organization of my life. The power of the Holy Spirit enables people to be "born again" even when they are old (cf. Jn 3:1: Nicodemus). This process of unifying provinces has not been a survival process, nor simply a strategy for feasibility. In the Provincial Chapter we stated, with a certain sense of humor, that we wanted the province to be a "new creature" that integrates tradition and the future, old and new, avoiding that the result of the union should be a "stunted creature" made of recycled material with patches and sticking plasters, under the patronage of St. Frankenstein.

The main issues that were discussed at the  Chapter were: a) vocations, 2) formation and internationality, 3) the life of prayer and spirituality, 4) community life and mission, 5) restructuring presences, 6) our provincial project, and 7) the approval of the provincial statutes.

Conclusion: “Back to our first love” Rev 2:4

The slogan that accompanied each of the chapter sessions was: ‘See, I am making all things new.’ (Rev 21:5)

In the book of Revelation the greatest battle is not the one between the Lord of history and the powers of this world. Do not be afraid, these have already been defeated in the Paschal Mystery. The bigger battle is, paradoxically, the one that the Lord has with his own Church, to get her out of despair, hopelessness, and mediocrity. The main problem, then as now, was not so much the secularization of the world as the lack of hope and the secularization of the believers themselves. That is often the case when "we forget our first love" (Rev 2:4). Carmel in general, and our province in particular, are no strangers to this apocalyptic description (in any sense of the word!). The more we worry about ourselves and our own conservation the more superfluous we make ourselves and the more we begin to fall apart, despite having great organisation and competent government.

The joy and the future of the Province of Aragon, Castile and Valencia does not come from its achievements as such, its strength is rooted in the Father who sent his Son so that he might “makes all things new.”

for more information about the province: https://www.carmelitas.es/
Provincial Office:

Padres Carmelitas
C/ Ayala, 35
28001 MADRID
Tel. 91-4351660
Fax 91-5776443

Vinita Hampton Wright

In being attracted to solitude and prayerful meditation, Thérèse was following in the foot-steps of her founding Carmelite saint, St. Teresa of Avila. The great reformer of the order had not only brought its religious back to a lifestyle of true poverty, work, and prayer but had, along with fellow Carmelite St. John of the Cross, further developed the concept of mental prayer.

Teresa and John were both what we would call natural mystics. They used vocal prayer—that is, prayers of the regular liturgies and of the Divine Hours—but much of their most profound spiritual formation and communion with God happened during times of silence, solitude, meditation, and deeper contemplation. Their writings, with which young Thérèse was quite familiar as a Carmelite, testified to the kind of union with God that happened when a person was alone and focused simply upon God’s presence.

Thérèse was also a natural for mental prayer. In fact, traditional modes of prayer were often difficult for her.

 “I feel then that the fervor of my sisters makes up for my lack of fervor; but when alone (I am ashamed to admit it), the recitation of the rosary is more difficult for me than the wearing of an instrument of penance. . . . I force myself in vain to meditate on the mysteries of the rosary; I don’t succeed in fixing my mind on them. . . .” When she felt so arid that it was “impossible to draw forth one single thought to unite me with God, I very slowly recite an ‘Our Father.’” Though no more conscious of what was occurring than she had been conscious of praying in the old days [as a child] when she sat behind her bed and thought about God, Thérèse’s difficulty with conventional forms signaled, according to the teaching of John of the Cross, the call to contemplation.

Not only did Thérèse have trouble with vocal prayers, she didn’t take easily to spiritual direction either. She was willing, but with the exception of one priest she had known briefly, but who subsequently moved away, she had difficulty connecting spiritually to a confessor:

I went to confession only a few times, and never spoke about my interior sentiments. The way I was walking was so straight, so clear, I needed no other guide but Jesus. I compared directors to faithful mirrors, reflecting Jesus in souls, and I said that for me God was using no intermediary, he was acting directly!

For Thérèse, as with most mystics, her spiritual nature tended toward solitude and a fellowship with the Divine that was as profound as it was uncomplicated.

Still, contemplation was not merely a matter of sitting around and allowing thoughts of God to float to the surface. Often a person would use an image to focus upon—for Thérèse it was sometimes a picture of the Holy Face of Jesus. Sometimes she used a prayer such as the “Our Father.” Thérèse mentioned that this was at least a beginning point.

But what most commonly informed Thérèse’s long hours of mental prayer were the Scriptures, and more specifically, the Gospels. This aspect of her life is discussed later, but it’s important to connect it here with the mental prayer she practiced. Without the Gospels—without God’s revelation as a foundation—any sort of contemplation would have been meaningless to Thérèse—as it would have been to Mother Teresa of Avila, whose own words were a regular part of the young nun’s life.

For Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux, and others, mental prayer has served as a powerful spiritual discipline for placing themselves in God’s presence with few, if any, outer trappings. Most mystics don’t seek this kind of relationship; rather, it is their most honest and natural mode of being with their God.

St. Thérèse

1.
Oh! how I love Thee, Jesus! my soul aspires to Thee —
And yet for one day only my simple prayer I pray!
Come reign within my heart, smile tenderly on me,
To-day, dear Lord, to-day.

2.
But if I dare take thought of what the morrow brings —
That fills my fickle heart with dreary, dull dismay;
I crave, indeed, my God, trials and sufferings,
But only for to-day!

3.
O sweetest Star of heaven! O Virgin, spotless, blest,
Shining with Jesus’ light, guiding to Him my way!
O Mother! ‘neath thy veil let my tired spirit rest,
For this brief passing day!

4.
Soon shall I fly afar among the holy choirs,
Then shall be mine the joy that never knows decay;
And then my lips shall sing, to heaven’s angelic lyres,
The eternal, glad To-day!

June, 1894.

Rev. John F. Russell, O.Carm

What is the meaning of "the little way" of St. Therese? It is an image that tries to capture her understanding of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, of seeking holiness of life in the ordinary and the everyday. St. Therese based her little way on two fundamental convictions: 1. God shows love by mercy and forgiveness and 2. She could not be perfect in following the Lord. St. Therese believed that the people of her time lived in too great fear of Gods judgment. The fear was stifling and did not allow people to experience the freedom of the children of God. St. Therese knew from her life that God is merciful love; many scripture passages in the Old and New Testaments bore out that truth. She loved the maternal images for God in the Old Testament and the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. In fact, St. Therese once wrote that she could not understand how anyone could be afraid of a God who became a child. She also knew that she would never be perfect. Therefore, she went to God as a child approaches a parentwith open arms and a profound trust. 

St. Therese translated "the little way" in terms of a commitment to the tasks and to the people we meet in our everyday lives. She took her assignments in the convent of Lisieux as ways of manifesting her love for God and for others. She worked as a sacristan by taking care of the altar and the chapel; she served in the refectory and in the laundry room; she wrote plays for the entertainment of the community. Above all, she tried to show a love for all the nuns in the community. She played no favorites; she gave of herself even to the difficult members. Her life sounds so routine and ordinary, but it was steeped in a loving commitment that knew no breakdown. It is called a little way precisely by being simple, direct, yet calling for amazing fortitude and commitment.

In living out her life of faith she sensed that everything that she was able to accomplish came from a generous love of God in her life. She was convinced that at the end of her life she would go to God with empty hands. Why? Because all was accomplished in union with God.

Catholics and other Christians have been attracted to St. Thereses style. Her little way seems to put holiness of life within the reach of ordinary people. Live out your days with confidence in Gods love for you. Recognize that each day is a gift in which your life can make a difference by the way you choose to live it. Put hope in a future in which god will be all and love will consume your spirit. Choose life, not the darkness of pettiness and greed. St. Therese knew the difference love makes by allowing love to be the statement she made each day of her life.

Rev. John F. Russell, O.Carm.
Seton Hall University

Pope Benedict XVI

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the course of the Catecheses that I have chosen to dedicate to the Fathers of the Church and to great theologians and women of the Middle Ages I have also had the opportunity to reflect on certain Saints proclaimed Doctors of the Church on account of the eminence of their teaching.

Today I would like to begin a brief series of meetings to complete the presentation on the Doctors of the Church and I am beginning with a Saint who is one of the peaks of Christian spirituality of all time — St Teresa of Avila [also known as St Teresa of Jesus].

St Teresa, whose name was Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, was born in Avila, Spain, in 1515. In her autobiography she mentions some details of her childhood: she was born into a large family, her “father and mother, who were devout and feared God”, into a large family. She had three sisters and nine brothers.

While she was still a child and not yet nine years old she had the opportunity to read the lives of several Martyrs which inspired in her such a longing for martyrdom that she briefly ran away from home in order to die a Martyr’s death and to go to Heaven (cf. Vida, [Life], 1, 4); “I want to see God”, the little girl told her parents.

A few years later Teresa was to speak of her childhood reading and to state that she had discovered in it the way of truth which she sums up in two fundamental principles.

On the one hand was the fact that “all things of this world will pass away” while on the other God alone is “for ever, ever, ever”, a topic that recurs in her best known poem: “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”. She was about 12 years old when her mother died and she implored the Virgin Most Holy to be her mother (cf. Vida, I, 7).

If in her adolescence the reading of profane books had led to the distractions of a worldly life, her experience as a pupil of the Augustinian nuns of Santa María de las Gracias de Avila and her reading of spiritual books, especially the classics of Franciscan spirituality, introduced her to recollection and prayer.

When she was 20 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation, also in Avila. In her religious life she took the name “Teresa of Jesus”. Three years later she fell seriously ill, so ill that she remained in a coma for four days, looking as if she were dead (cf. Vida, 5, 9).

In the fight against her own illnesses too the Saint saw the combat against weaknesses and the resistance to God’s call: “I wished to live”, she wrote, “but I saw clearly that I was not living, but rather wrestling with the shadow of death; there was no one to give me life, and I was not able to take it. He who could have given it to me had good reasons for not coming to my aid, seeing that he had brought me back to himself so many times, and I as often had left him” (Vida, 7, 8).

In 1543 she lost the closeness of her relatives; her father died and all her siblings, one after another, emigrated to America. In Lent 1554, when she was 39 years old, Teresa reached the climax of her struggle against her own weaknesses. The fortuitous discovery of the statue of “a Christ most grievously wounded”, left a deep mark on her life (cf. Vida, 9).

The Saint, who in that period felt deeply in tune with the St Augustine of the Confessions, thus describes the decisive day of her mystical experience: “and... a feeling of the presence of God would come over me unexpectedly, so that I could in no wise doubt either that he was within me, or that I was wholly absorbed in him” (Vida, 10, 1).

Parallel to her inner development, the Saint began in practice to realize her ideal of the reform of the Carmelite Order: in 1562 she founded the first reformed Carmel in Avila, with the support of the city’s Bishop, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, and shortly afterwards also received the approval of John Baptist Rossi, the Order’s Superior General.

In the years that followed, she continued her foundations of new Carmelite convents, 17 in all. Her meeting with St John of the Cross was fundamental. With him, in 1568, she set up the first convent of Discalced Carmelites in Duruelo, not far from Avila.

In 1580 she obtained from Rome the authorization for her reformed Carmels as a separate, autonomous Province. This was the starting point for the Discalced Carmelite Order.

Indeed, Teresa’s earthly life ended while she was in the middle of her founding activities. She died on the night of 15 October 1582 in Alba de Tormes, after setting up the Carmelite Convent in Burgos, while on her way back to Avila. Her last humble words were: “After all I die as a child of the Church”, and “O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another”.

Teresa spent her entire life for the whole Church although she spent it in Spain. She was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1614 and canonized by Gregory XV in 1622. The Servant of God Paul VI proclaimed her a “Doctor of the Church” in 1970.

Teresa of Jesus had no academic education but always set great store by the teachings of theologians, men of letters and spiritual teachers. As a writer, she always adhered to what she had lived personally through or had seen in the experience of others (cf. Prologue to The Way of Perfection), in other words basing herself on her own first-hand knowledge.

Teresa had the opportunity to build up relations of spiritual friendship with many Saints and with St John of the Cross in particular. At the same time she nourished herself by reading the Fathers of the Church, St Jerome, St Gregory the Great and St Augustine.

Among her most important works we should mention first of all her autobiography, El libro de la vida (the book of life), which she called Libro de las misericordias del Señor [book of the Lord’s mercies].

Written in the Carmelite Convent at Avila in 1565, she describes the biographical and spiritual journey, as she herself says, to submit her soul to the discernment of the “Master of things spiritual”, St John of Avila. Her purpose was to highlight the presence and action of the merciful God in her life. For this reason the work often cites her dialogue in prayer with the Lord. It makes fascinating reading because not only does the Saint recount that she is reliving the profound experience of her relationship with God but also demonstrates it.

In 1566, Teresa wrote El Camino de Perfección [The Way of Perfection]. She called it Advertencias y consejos que da Teresa de Jesús a sus hermanas [recommendations and advice that Teresa of Jesus offers to her sisters]. It was composed for the 12 novices of the Carmel of St Joseph in Avila. Teresa proposes to them an intense programme of contemplative life at the service of the Church, at the root of which are the evangelical virtues and prayer.

Among the most precious passages is her commentary on the Our Father, as a model for prayer. St Teresa’s most famous mystical work is El Castillo interior [The Interior Castle]. She wrote it in 1577 when she was in her prime. It is a reinterpretation of her own spiritual journey and, at the same time, a codification of the possible development of Christian life towards its fullness, holiness, under the action of the Holy Spirit.

Teresa refers to the structure of a castle with seven rooms as an image of human interiority. She simultaneously introduces the symbol of the silk worm reborn as a butterfly, in order to express the passage from the natural to the supernatural.

The Saint draws inspiration from Sacred Scripture, particularly the Song of Songs, for the final symbol of the “Bride and Bridegroom” which enables her to describe, in the seventh room, the four crowning aspects of Christian life: the Trinitarian, the Christological, the anthropological and the ecclesial.

St Teresa devoted the Libro de la fundaciones [book of the foundations], which she wrote between 1573 and 1582, to her activity as Foundress of the reformed Carmels. In this book she speaks of the life of the nascent religious group. This account, like her autobiography, was written above all in order to give prominence to God’s action in the work of founding new monasteries.

It is far from easy to sum up in a few words Teresa’s profound and articulate spirituality. I would like to mention a few essential points. In the first place St Teresa proposes the evangelical virtues as the basis of all Christian and human life and in particular, detachment from possessions, that is, evangelical poverty, and this concerns all of us; love for one another as an essential element of community and social life; humility as love for the truth; determination as a fruit of Christian daring; theological hope, which she describes as the thirst for living water. Then we should not forget the human virtues: affability, truthfulness, modesty, courtesy, cheerfulness, culture.

Secondly, St Teresa proposes a profound harmony with the great biblical figures and eager listening to the word of God. She feels above all closely in tune with the Bride in the Song of Songs and with the Apostle Paul, as well as with Christ in the Passion and with Jesus in the Eucharist. The Saint then stresses how essential prayer is. Praying, she says, “means being on terms of friendship with God frequently conversing in secret with him who, we know, loves us” (Vida 8, 5). St Teresa’s idea coincides with Thomas Aquinas’ definition of theological charity as “amicitia quaedam hominis ad Deum”, a type of human friendship with God, who offered humanity his friendship first; it is from God that the initiative comes (cf. Summa Theologiae II-II, 23, 1).

Prayer is life and develops gradually, in pace with the growth of Christian life: it begins with vocal prayer, passes through interiorization by means of meditation and recollection, until it attains the union of love with Christ and with the Holy Trinity. Obviously, in the development of prayer climbing to the highest steps does not mean abandoning the previous type of prayer. Rather, it is a gradual deepening of the relationship with God that envelops the whole of life.

Rather than a pedagogy Teresa’s is a true “mystagogy” of prayer: she teaches those who read her works how to pray by praying with them. Indeed, she often interrupts her account or exposition with a prayerful outburst.

Another subject dear to the Saint is the centrality of Christ’s humanity. For Teresa, in fact, Christian life is the personal relationship with Jesus that culminates in union with him through grace, love and imitation. Hence the importance she attaches to meditation on the Passion and on the Eucharist as the presence of Christ in the Church for the life of every believer, and as the heart of the Liturgy. St Teresa lives out unconditional love for the Church: she shows a lively “sensus Ecclesiae”, in the face of the episodes of division and conflict in the Church of her time.

She reformed the Carmelite Order with the intention of serving and defending the “Holy Roman Catholic Church”, and was willing to give her life for the Church (cf. Vida, 33,5).

A final essential aspect of Teresian doctrine which I would like to emphasize is perfection, as the aspiration of the whole of Christian life and as its ultimate goal. The Saint has a very clear idea of the “fullness” of Christ, relived by the Christian. At the end of the route through The Interior Castle, in the last “room”, Teresa describes this fullness, achieved in the indwelling of the Trinity, in union with Christ through the mystery of his humanity.

Dear brothers and sisters, St Teresa of Jesus is a true teacher of Christian life for the faithful of every time. In our society, which all too often lacks spiritual values, St Teresa teaches us to be unflagging witnesses of God, of his presence and of his action. She teaches us truly to feel this thirst for God that exists in the depths of our hearts, this desire to see God, to seek God, to be in conversation with him and to be his friends.

This is the friendship we all need that we must seek anew, day after day. May the example of this Saint, profoundly contemplative and effectively active, spur us too every day to dedicate the right time to prayer, to this openness to God, to this journey, in order to seek God, to see him, to discover his friendship and so to find true life; indeed many of us should truly say: “I am not alive, I am not truly alive because I do not live the essence of my life”.

Therefore time devoted to prayer is not time wasted, it is time in which the path of life unfolds, the path unfolds to learning from God an ardent love for him, for his Church, and practical charity for our brothers and sisters. Many thanks.