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
When the tools are put in their places and the day’s work is done, When between Carmel and the Jordan, Israel falls asleep in the wheatfields and the night, As when he was once a young boy ant it began to get too dark for reading, Joseph enters with a deep sight into conversation with God. He preferred Widson and she had been brought to him for marriage. He is as silent as the earth when the dew rises, He feels the fullness of night, and he is at ease with joy and with truth. Mary is in his possession and he surrounds her on all sides. It is not in a single day he learned how not to be alone any more. A woman won over each part of his heart which is now prudent and fatherly. Again he is in Paradise with Eve ! The face which all men need turns with love and submission toward Joseph. It is no longer the same prayer and no longer the ancient waiting since he has felt Like an arm suddenly without hate the pressure of his profound and innocent being. It is no longer bare Faith in the night, it is love explaining and working. Joseph is with Mary and Mary is with the Father.
Today, November 14th the Church celebrates All Carmelite Saints. As a Lay Carmelite I considered all those saintly men and women in Carmel my family and my friends. They are mentors in my journey, intercessors, soul friends. I feel their presence in my daily life. I pray to them. I read their writings and learn so much about this great gift of spirituality which is Carmel and contains treasures of everlasting rivers of fresh and living water that satisfy our souls. I’m eternally grateful for their love, for their exemplary lives and for their intercessions not only to our Carmelite family but to the whole world.
Beloved Saints of Carmel, pray for us!
❤
To Love
My Sisters, I’m from Bethany Where I met the Lord. Sister Agnes, who had followed me, Felt the melting of the heart. Yes, it was truly ineffable To prepare a feast for Him, While that adorable Master We offered a divine meal. “It was the banquet of love” Where Jesus gives himself, Because his good always prevails The soul who seeks it and who loves it: In the measure of his faith She reaches the Sovereign King.
To love, for a Carmelite, Is to surrender like Jesus A true love never hesitates, It wishes to give always more and more. Let us be a faithful image Of our Bridegroom sacrifices, Retrace in us the model Of this divine Crucified One. Looking at him night and day Let’s climb the austere mountain, It is the home of Love, His palace and his sanctuary. In this mysterious temple Sacrifice ourselves with a happy heart.
To love is to forget oneself Like the Angel of Lisieux To become lost in the one we love And be consumed in his fires. Sister Thérèse knew how to understand In its great simplicity This call so strong and so tender “Stay in my charity” “I love both the night and the day” Such was the divine song From the victim of love To Jesus, his mystic Bridegroom. “My vocation is love…” “I love both night and day.”
To love is, like Magdalene Never to leave the Lord But to stand in full peace At the feet of this divine Saviour. She listened in silence “The word He told him.” Better to savour his presence Oh, everything in her was silent. His soul finally took hold Jesus the One Necessary. Before this divine Being All the earth vanished. Buried in his love She surrendered without return.
To love is to be apostolic Zealous for the honour of the living God It is truly the ancient heritage That the great seer left us. Collected by St. Thérèse Who gave it to us in turn. Carmel became the furnace, The home of divine Love. Our saints had understood it so well… As they were enflaming souls! All in them gave Jesus Christ By radiating his bright flames. My Sisters, let’s be real Apostles of Charity.
To love is to imitate Mary Exalting in God’s greatness While her soul delighted Sang her song to the Lord. Your centre, o faithful Virgin, Was the annihilation, For Jesus, everlasting splendour, Hides in abasement. It’s always through humility May your soul magnify him. The Apostle in his infirmity Cried out, “I boast In the strength of the Redeemer Living and triumphant in my heart.”
To love is to testify To our Christ, to our King; And give our life as a pledge To better affirm our faith. Like our sixteen blessed, May we shed our blood Singing in our happy souls A hymn all grateful. Truth, speaking one day Says this supreme word: “The greatest proof of love Is to die for the One we love.” O my Sisters, “let us die every day” To make Him love for love.
“To the praise of his glory” Let us sacrifice ourselves always Because to win the victory God claims our help. Let us imitate our revered mothers In their zeal and fervor. We will come out of our miseries And our King will be victorious. We will redouble fidelity For this plan to be realized. By our generosity We will help the Holy Church And we will see love reigning, A foretaste of the divine abode.
~Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity Poetry
“What numbers of saints we have in heaven who have worn this habit of ours! We must have the holy audacity to aspire, with God’s help, to be like them. The struggle will not last long, but the outcome will be eternal.” ~ St. Teresa of Avila
Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Photo taken by me in Alba de Tormes, Spain)
Oh Heavenly Queen of Carmel, pure and sublime beauty!
Mother of Carmel, I carry you deeply in my heart. Cover my soul with your mantel, sweet Mother of mine and fill it with your care and warmth. My soul is secure in you, joined together with your love. Your hands guide my steps, Lighting them night and day. You are my lighthouse that leads me to safe harbor. Oh Star of the Sea!
Carmel is your garden and your perfume permeates all the flowers. What a joy to feel you near! What a blessing to have you as a Mother! Your scent envelopes my soul when I tend to the roses and the jasmine. Roses salute you, their beauty adorn your steps. Your Carmel is a garden with green prairies and abundant flowers, with many springs of living, fresh and healing water.
I thank you Blessed Mother for inviting me to your abode and for teaching me to live day by day, step by step with you. Let me rest in your sweet heart, Virgen del Carmen for there is where I find the One I seek… The Beloved!
❤
~ My personal reflection/poem
Roses for Mary (Photo taken by me)
Carmel is the mountain of flowers and with full hands the children of Carmel have strewn these flowers over the earth. ~ BlTitus Brandsma (My photo)
Wishing you all a very happy and blessed Feast Day of Our lady of Mount Carmel! Ora Pro Nobis!
❤
“O God, O Creator, O Spirit of life overwhelming Your creatures with ever new graces!
You grant to Your chosen ones the gift which is ever renewed:
The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!”
~ St. Angela of Foligno
The Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Art by Cecilia Lawrence ~ 2018
This sonnet is about the experience of receiving Holy Communion:
This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how He comes. Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.
~ A Sonnet for Corpus Christi, by Malcolm Guite. It was published in ‘Sounding the Seasons’ a cycle of seventy sonnets for the Church Year.
“The eternal tide flows hid in Living Bread. That with its heavenly life too be fed…” ~ St. John of the Cross, O.C.D
Wishing you all a very Blessed Feast of Corpus Christi! ❤
Here we are, in our meeting place. Our secret garden, in a beautiful day of June late afternoon.
I find You in the flowers. I find You in the birds, the trees, the ducks, the butterflies. All rejoice and praise You. Your presence is here with me among the lilies. Your fragrance is everywhere. Your love and tenderness follows me wherever I go.
Beloved,
Nature is Your playground. The sky is Your canvas. I stop and let all these precious moments stay with me forever.
They console my heart.
You know my heart is aching
from the losses of three dear friends.
Three beautiful souls that recently departed
To Your loving arms.
May You welcome them in your Kingdom,
where there are no more tears and pain.
Blessed them with Your everlasting love and peace.
Beloved,
Your Heart I seek. I want my heart to become a shrine for Your Sacred Heart. A place where You can rest and I can rest in You. My Jesus, my All and my God.
~ My short poem to Jesus
❤
Photo taken by me at Gairloch Gardens ~ June 2020
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Romans 8:39
Photo taken by me at Gairloch Gardens ~ June 2020
If God gave the soul his whole creation she would not be filled thereby but only with himself.
Meister Eckhart
Photo taken by me at Gairloch Gardens ~ June 2020
From the creation, learn to admire the Lord! Indeed the magnitude and beauty of creation display a God who is the artificer of the universe. He has made the mode of creation to be our best teacher. ~ St. John Chrysostom
Photo taken by me at Gairloch Gardens ~ June 2020
The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God. ~ St. John Damascus
Photo taken by me at Gairloch Gardens ~ June 2020
God passes through the thicket of the world, and wherever His glance falls He turns all things to beauty. ~ St. John of the Cross
Photo taken by me at Gairloch Gardens ~ June 2020
I asked the whole frame of the world about my God; and he answered, I am not He, but He made me.
St. Augustine of Hippo
Photo taken by me at Gairloch Gardens ~ June 2020
Let us protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect creation!
~ Pope Francis
I would like to thank all of you, my followers and readers, for your interest and support to My Carmel Blog!
I’m looking forward to another year of blogging about Carmelite Spirituality, contemplative poetry and reflections about our faith and the life of the Saints.
Aquí tenéis un precioso poema-oración de una de Carmelita Descalza de Antequera
Si sabrá la Primavera
que la estamos esperando…
Si se atreverá a cruzar
nuestros pueblos despoblados,
colgando en nuestros balcones
la magia de sus geranios.
Si dejará su sonrisa
esculpida en nuestros campos,
pintando nuestros jardines
de verde, de rojo y blanco.
Si sabrá la Primavera
que la estamos esperando…
Cuando llegue y no nos vea
ni en las calles ni en los barrios,
cuando no escuche en el parque
el paso de los ancianos,
o el bullicio siempre alegre
de los chiquillos jugando.
Si creerá que equivocó
la fecha del calendario,
la cita que desde siempre
la convoca el mes de Marzo.
Si sabrá la Primavera
que la estamos esperando…
Cuando estalle jubilosa
llenando de puntos blancos
los almendros, los ciruelos,
los jazmines, los naranjos,
y no vea que a la Virgen
la preparan para el Paso.
Que se ha guardado el incienso,
el trono, la cruz y el palio.
Y que Cristo, igual que todos,
está en su casa encerrado,
y no lo dejan salir
ni el Jueves ni el Viernes Santo…
¿Pensará la Primavera
que tal vez se ha equivocado?
¿Escuchará los lamentos
de quien se quedó en el paro,
de quien trabaja a deshoras
por ayudar a su hermano,
de aquél que expone su vida
en silencio y olvidado?
¿Escuchará cada noche
los vítores, los aplausos
que regalamos con gozo
al personal sanitario?
¿Pensará la Primavera
que tal vez se ha equivocado
y colgará sus colores
hasta la vuelta de un año?
Si sabrá la Primavera
que la estamos esperando…
Que se nos prohíbe el beso,
que está prohibido el abrazo;
el corazón, sangre y fuego,
el corazón desangrado.
Si sabrá la Primavera
que ya la estamos soñando…
Asomados al balcón
de la Esperanza, esperamos
como nunca, que ella vuelva
y nos regale el milagro
de ver florecer la vida
que hoy se nos va de las manos…
¡Bienvenida, Primavera!
Hueles a incienso y a ramos,
con tu traje de colores
y los cantos de tus pájaros.
Ven a pintar de azul-cielo
esta tierra que habitamos.
¿No sentís que en este mundo
algo nuevo está brotando?
Si será la Primavera
que está apresurando el paso.
Carmelite Monastery in Santa Clara, California ~ Art by Sylvia Waddell
Come, Love, to the vineyard In the morning dew, There we’ll watch in silence, If vineyards bloom anew, If the grapes are growing, Life with vigor glowing, Fresh the vine and true.
From the heights of Heaven Holy Mother descend, Lead unto your vineyard Our beloved friend. Dew and rain let gently Drop from His kind hand And the balm of sunshine Fall on Carmel’s land.
Young vines, newly planted, Tiny though they be, Grant them life eternal A gift of peace from Thee. Trusted vintners strengthen Their frail and feeble powers, Shield them from the enemy Who in darkness cowers.
Holy Mother grant reward For your vintners’ care Give them, I beseech you, Crown of Heaven fair. Don’t let raging fire Kill these vines, we pray, And grant your life eternal To each young shoot some day.
❤
~ A poem by St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), O.C.D.
