Mr. Abraham Maximiliano Camino

BEING AND DOING

At this time I want to share with my brothers in faith and Carmel, something that my mother taught me from childhood which is that God has something set aside for us, and in my life I have to discover it.  Several years have passed and these words have stuck with me, and each time I witness that God has many things in store for his children and thanks to Carmel I can discover them.

I want to share the wonderful experience that touched my life in the ALACAR-COLOMBIA meeting of 2009. It is through these words and the title this article “Being and Doing” that I arrive at the conclusion that today a Christian has:

To Be = Mystic and Prophet = To Do

The Carmelites in accordance with their rich history, tradition and charism, show us through their 800 years of existence how we can find criteria that tell us whether we are really close to God, if God exists and lives in us, and thus in our lay lives to find a role (propositum) to live “En Obsequio Jesucristo” – (In allegiance to Jesus Christ). 

Carmelite spirituality permits us to give a place for God or to let God BE God in our lives, but not like something occasional or temporary, but something that makes me act in freedom, to feel invaded by God’s presence in my life and come to look, act, talk, react as Christ would. Galatians 2.19 to 20: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

A lay person must be an evangelizer, not only do what Christ does but BE HIM.  Because we all have something to give. From the useless God brings out usefulness.  (Retreat of the Carmelite Family - Vacare Deo. August 2009. Lima, Peru).

Being a Prophet Today

How can we be Christ?

Carmelite mysticism tells us that being a prophet today is not only to announce and proclaim with words but to act in a Christ like manner.

Therefore we not only have to DO, we have to BE.

To be in the presence of God (like Elijah) is to allow the same God to act in my life; only then will we be recognized as sons and daughters of God.
Prophecy is nothing else but to announce what we receive from God: Love. And this we give in how we each day treat others. 

We will be known by love, whatever my service if I do it out of love and charity, all works will be meaningful. 1 Cor 13:1-13.

Everything is possible when Christ is the center of my actions in the manner of the first Carmelites who modeled their lives around Jesus Christ. That’s why they were recognized as brothers, they all had a sense of God and that is the great legacy that they left to us.
The Carmelites gifted us and presented us with their Charism, and through this beautiful spirituality linked to God under the example of holy Mary, we can be partners in building the Kingdom of God.

THROUGH:  

Contemplation and Prayer: How do I decode the language of God who talks to me all the time?
Can I differentiate what is from God and what is not from God?   Listening to the heart. Discern in the Spirit, since everything is put there to be discovered in contemplative prayer.

HERE AND NOW         
FRATERNITY:

How do I share the language of God?  Confronting and discerning with my brothers, which will give me confidence that this is God’s language, what we do together will be so that we all form this “Reign” (Kingdom of God):  Here and Now.

SERVICE AND PROPHECY: 

Understanding reality through the eyes of God leads me to proclaim the good that I receive from God and denounce what is not of God. From the love and mercy he has with me, and so you can have the same feelings of Christ (Philippians 2:5) and thus care for the poor and needy and reverence in them the living God.

The laity have a great challenge and indeed a prophetic mission, to denounce without fear in these difficult times anything that takes away from the presence of God while the world in which we live is encouraging us to become what is false. There we see the Prophecy of our father Elias, embodied in our Carmelite lives.

The history of Carmel, was no stranger to difficulties in each of its periods, and this has been demonstrated since the first Carmelites.
As committed lay Carmelites, in the spirit that guided our Father Elijah on Mount Carmel and out  sister, the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nazareth, by the example of them, we can live according to God’s will that the same spirit helps us to insert ourselves and be a main force in this reality that we live.

Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life... If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.

(St. Teresa of Jesus)