by Fr. Patrick Thomas McMahon, O.Carm.

Lay Carmelites seek God's presence in prayer while living an active life in the world. This duality of contemplative prayer and active ministry was modeled by the first Carmelites who lived as hermits on Mount Carmel, then later became mendicants in the cities of Europe.

Carmel is about Community

The next characteristic I want to talk about is the fact that Carmel is communitarian. One of the most frightening phenomena of the twentieth century has been the breakdown of community at almost every level of society. Pope John Paul II repeatedly wrote and spoke on this subject. And he was particularly critical of North American Society on this account, and not without reason. Both the United States and Canadian peoples tend to be individualists. We are very strong on individual rights. And we are suspicious of any grouping that demands a loyalty over our own personal interests. Two hundred years ago when the Frenchman Alex de Tocqueville visited the United States he characterized the then new nation as a nation of individualists. He saw this as one of the great strengths of American society. But it is also one of the great weaknesses. Indeed individualism has become a cancer that has eaten our cultural soul from within. Look at the problem. People are no longer interested in the common wheal. They’re interested only in their own personal good. The most frightening breakdown of community has been the collapse of the family. Most families no longer eat a meal together daily. And where there is no supper table there is no longer any family. People take their food from the common table and move it to the television, to their own room, to the computer, to the patio. They read the paper or a book while eating. One person eats now; another in a half hour; the third ate an hour ago. We have televisions in different rooms. We have our dens to escape to. We have our own workshop or sewing room. And while it is good for each of us to have our own space, it eats away our soul for us to have no common time and no common space whatsoever with our families.

Carmel must be committed to restoring community on every level, in our families, in our Lay Carmelite groups, and in our parishes. Our parishes, are they communities? Maybe the liturgies are lively, or our social outreach is strong, but do people know each other? Do they have a sense of belonging to one another? Can they turn to one another for help, or advice or encouragement? For many, the Church is simply a place where you go; it no longer is a group of people to whom you belong. And that is not the Church founded by Jesus Christ. There are those for whom the Church is a private affair, their time alone with the Lord. They come early and they silently kneel. They bury their face in their hands during the liturgy. They remain afterwards gazing at the tabernacle. And they leave without ever having spoken a word to anyone. They think they’ve encountered Jesus in the Eucharist, but unless they have met their sister and their brother in charity they have replaced the Eucharistic Lord with a Jesus of their own imagination. Until we understand that the Church itself is the Body of Christ, we will not authentically encounter Jesus in the Eucharist. Lay Carmelites must be an invigorating force for community within their parishes, even as the friars and nuns are called by their vocation to be a witness to the value of community in the larger Church.

As a priest, I am frightened by how few people really know Jesus. So many have invented a fantasy figure of their own devotion whom they call Jesus, but they couldn’t find ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ if they had a reserved seat for it. The Jesus whom they have invented is simply an imaginary figure who reinforces their own opinions and whom they can conveniently tuck away when it is time to get on with the tough decisions of daily life. As Catholic Christians we know that there is an essential connection between Jesus in the community of the faithful and Jesus present in the Eucharistic banquet; between Jesus present in the least of his brothers and sisters, and Jesus speaking in the Scriptures. It is one Christ.

As Catholic Christians our life takes its meaning not from our individualism but from our belonging to a community of people who together belong to the Lord. There is no salvation for those who remain individuals. Salvation comes, we Catholics believe, from being in the bark of Christ in the community of the faithful. So Carmel is essentially communitarian. Carmelites, because of our origin as hermits, value silence and solitude, but we do not value individualism. Our roots are among a community of hermits. Notice: a community of hermits. We too, while we are happy and content to be alone much of the time, we come together to pray, we come together to encourage one another, and we come together to help each other follow Jesus because no one can follow Jesus alone. Carmel is communitarian. We are about communities. Part of our mission is to form communities. And Lay Carmelites must be rooted in their communities, faithful to their communities, praying with their communities, in touch with each other, supportive of one another. When Lay Carmelites move somewhere where there is no Lay Carmelite community they need to start one. We need to find other good Catholic men and women and invite them into community, into the community of Carmel.

Scott Peck, the pop psychiatrist, writes and writes well that: ‘The future of the world is community’. And he’s right. It is our future, our only future. It was the plan of Jesus when he established the Church, and it was the plan of those first hermits on Mount Carmel, and it is our plan today. We must be a community of Carmelites. We have no future if we’re not a community and there is no future if we do not learn how to be a community.

by Fr. Patrick Thomas McMahon, O.Carm.

Lay Carmelites seek God's presence in prayer while living an active life in the world. This duality of contemplative prayer and active ministry was modeled by the first Carmelites who lived as hermits on Mount Carmel, then later became mendicants in the cities of Europe.

Carmel is Elijan

That means we look to the prophet Elijah, the great prophet who lived on Mount Carmel eight centuries before Jesus, and we find great inspiration in him. Carmelites from the very beginning of the Order have looked to Elijah for inspiration. They saw in the prophet everything that they wanted to be. He was a man of deep contemplation, one who sought solitude in the wadi Carith or in the cave at Mount Horeb. All Carmelites need to know the Elijah stories that we find at the end of the First Book of Kings, and in the beginning of the Second Book of Kings in the Bible.

We see in these stories that Elijah was a restless man. He was filled with energy for God like we want to be, and he was anxious to spend that energy on God’s kingdom. But he was always searching to know what God asked of him. He is the model, along with Mary, for each of us Carmelites. Elijah was a fearless prophet who stood strong and tall against the injustice of his day. He defended the farmer and the peasant against the mighty kings and lords. And that is why the Order of Carmel today has stood with the Church in making the preferential option for the poor. Carmel chooses to stand up for the cause of the poor. We stand with the teachings of Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, and now Pope Benedict XVI, and with their teaching about the rights of immigrants and the rights of workers and the rights of women and the rights of all human persons for housing, health care, and education. Carmel stands for nothing more than what the popes have stood for in their brilliant encyclical letters when they call for rights of the poor to be protected.

The trouble is that many Catholics do not know what the Church teaches in the areas of social justice. Let me say that, tragically, our bishops and our priests often have not done their job in this area. Too often the laity intimidate them from speaking the truth. Too often some clergy preach only that part of the Church’s magisterium that their congregations already agree with. But we Carmelites cannot depend on others for our knowledge of the Church’s teaching. Carmelites have an obligation to learn the social gospel of the Catholic Church and to put it into practice. I am going to be very blunt on this point. If our politics aren’t formed by our Christian and Catholic faith then we’re not good Christians, good Catholics or good Carmelites. Some Catholics think that all they have to do is vote for the candidates that are opposed to abortion, but while the protection of human life from the moment of natural conception until the moment of natural death will always be the chief priority, the social teaching of the Catholic Church is far broader than that one issue. We must know our faith. We must be familiar with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Papal Encyclicals. The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Papal Encyclicals belong in our hands as we vote, even as they belong in our hands for every decision we make in our lives. Some might say ‘Render to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s,’ but I can tell you what is not Caesar’s business and where in my life I don’t have to be obedient to Caesar. But you tell me where you don’t have to be obedient to God. You tell me what in life is not God’s concern, what is not subject to God’s authority. The whole world belongs to God. And our whole life belongs to God. And every decision we make must be according to the will of God. The Carmelite, like Elijah, is enflamed with the spirit of God and stands for truth in the face of every obstacle. The Carmelite, like Elijah stands up for the poor, for the victims of injustice, for those who have no voice of their own with which to cry out to heaven.

by Fr. Patrick Thomas McMahon, O.Carm.

Lay Carmelites seek God's presence in prayer while living an active life in the world. This duality of contemplative prayer and active ministry was modeled by the first Carmelites who lived as hermits on Mount Carmel, then later became mendicants in the cities of Europe.

Carmel is Marian

The next characteristic I would like to speak about is that Carmel is Marian. We belong to Mary. But if you notice, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is always depicted as holding the Child Jesus. Carmelites love Mary and honour her as the one who introduces us to Jesus. Strangely Mary is never mentioned in The Rule of Saint Albert, the document that initially defines Carmel and its spirituality. In fact, Mary is mentioned relatively rarely in the ancient documents of the Order until the Book of the Institution of the First Monks (The Ten Books on the Way of Life and Great Deeds of the Carmelites) which was composed in the final quarter of the fourteenth century. (I don’t mean by this to overlook John Baconthorpés Commentary on the Carmelite Rule in which he explains the Rule outlining for the Carmelite a way of life in which we can incorporate in our lives all the virtues lived by Mary in hers.) Furthermore, Mary is mentioned surprisingly rarely in the writings of St. Teresa or St. John of the Cross. Even St. Thérèse of Lisieux or Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity or St. Edith Stein mention her but rarely. Yet she is always present in the Carmelite tradition and her presence, though somewhat inconspicuous, is fundamental.

When Mary is present in the Carmelite writings she is almost invariably eclipsed by her Son. It is a reminder that, even though we cannot see the moon when the sun is shinning, the moon is always there, and it draws its light from the sun. In the same way, Carmelites remember that while our sight is focused on Jesus, Mary is still there. Like the moon she sheds not light of her own, but reflects the Light from her Divine Son.

One significant Carmelite author who does focus on the Blessed Virgin Mary is Michael of Saint-Augustine, a Carmelite friar of the seventeenth-century Touraine Reform in France. In many ways Michael of Saint-Augustine’s writings anticipate the doctrines of St. Louis Grignon de Montfort. Devotees of St. Louis de Montfort tell us that in his writings he offers a Marian Spirituality, that is, a spirituality in which Mary plays the pivotal role in defining the relationship of the believer to her Son and to the Trinity. Michael of Saint-Augustine could be said to do the same. Yet a careful reading of their writings shows us that neither Montfort nor Michael of Saint-Augustine proposes a spirituality that does not begin and end in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the Marian emphasis of Michael of Saint-Augustine is quite unique to him among Carmelite spiritual writers. For the other authors in our tradition, Carmel offers a Christocentric spirituality in which Mary plays a key, but supportive, role. The Carmelite celebrates his or her devotion to Mary primarily by means of imitation of the Blessed Virgin. That is why we often reflect in our meditation on the mystery of salvation from Mary’s point of view. We don’t reflect on Mary. We reflect on Jesus as Mary saw him. We often, but not always, approach the Incarnation, for example, from Mary’s perspective. What is it like for an angel to come to Mary? In what ways does God’s angel come to me? What did it mean for Mary to say ‘Yes!’ to God’s request? What does it mean for me to say ‘Yes!’ to God’s request? How did Mary feel about carrying Jesus within her for nine months? In what ways do I carry Jesus in me? In what ways do I give birth to Jesus? In what ways do I nurse Jesus? In what ways do I educate Jesus? In what ways do I feed the Child Jesus? Or, how did Mary feel when she saw her son naked and bleeding and dying on the cross? How do I feel when I see Jesus naked and bleeding and dying on a cross? When and where do I see Jesus dying on the cross? What was it like when the risen Lord came to his mother? Where and in what ways does the risen Lord come to me? The possibilities for prayerfully seeing Christ through the eyes of his mother are endless, and the Carmelite often turns toward them. For the Carmelite, Mary is always offering Jesus to us – Jesus, whom our Rule calls ‘our only Saviour’ (Chapter 19). The Carmelite knows and always remembers that Jesus is our only hope, our only mediator of salvation, our only intercessor with God the Father. The Carmelite always looks at Mary smiling, as she puts your hand into the hand of her Son, and as she sees your gaze turn from her to him and the love that you have for him come alive in your heart as it has in hers ever since that moment when the angel gave his greeting.

For us Carmelites, the principle sign of our devotion to Mary is imitation. And the outward manifestation of our Carmelite devotion to her is the Brown Scapular. Unfortunately in the years since the Fatima apparitions, the connection between the brown scapular and the Carmelite Order has been broken. And many people who wear the scapular do not even know that this badge of devotion is the gift to the Church of our Carmelite family. We need to wear the scapular. We also need to learn what the Church and what the Order is teaching about the scapular. Much has changed in this regard. Very much has changed in this regard in the last four decades and we have a need to re-educate ourselves on this beautiful symbol. It must be a priority for the Order to continue to develop new catechetical materials on the scapular.

Many Carmelites find Mary and prayers and devotions such as the Rosary tremendous helps in their spiritual life. And the Order encourages us in this devotion. These devotional prayers never replace the Prayer of the Church, that is, the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, though the individual Lay Carmelite may decide from time to time, even with some frequency, to substitute the Rosary for the private recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours. The Lay Carmelite community, like the friars and the nuns when they gather in prayer, always focuses on the Liturgy of the Hours which it prays as part of the official Prayer of the Church. This praying the Liturgy of the Hours is one of the signs of the unity of the Carmelite with the universal Church. It is our goal, and our hope, and our ambition, that the Liturgy of the Hours will be part of the prayer life for each and every Carmelite in their private life and also part of the meeting of each and every Lay Carmelite community. Similarly, while Carmelites are always prepared to honour the Mother of God we do so, as we normally do all our prayer, in the solitude of our cells. Carmelites may occasionally go on a pilgrimage but it is not our spirituality to go running from site to site in search of miracles and signs. We have the only sign that we need and that is the sign of Jonah. We find our joy in contemplating the mystery that just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so was the Son of Man in the belly of the earth, in the grave, until he was raised. And while the opportunity to visit Lourdes or Fatima or other approved shrines can be a source of tremendous grace, the Carmelite doesn’t feel the need or the inspiration to chase Mary from site to site of approved or alleged apparitions. Furthermore we always follow the authority of the Church which alone approves or can disapprove of an apparition. If you want to honour Mary then listen to her Son and put his teaching into practice in your lives.

Solemn “Rededication” in Olinda, Brazil, of the first Carmelite church in the American continent.

On the 5th of August of this year, the solemn rededication of the first Carmelite church in the American continent, took place in Olinda, Brasil. This church was founded by four portuguese Carmelites in 1580. The Metropolitan Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Antonio Fernando Saburido presided at the celebration of the Eucharist. He was accompanied by five Carmelite bishops, (Vitalis Wilderink, Paolo Cardoso, Antonio Muniz, João José Costa and Wilmar Santin), by the Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., by the Councilor General for the Americas, Raul Maraví, O.Carm., the Prior Provincial of Pernambuco, Roberval Mendes Pereira, O.Carm., and a large number of Carmelites from all parts of Brazil. The Commissary General of Portugal, Agostinho Castro also took part in the celebration. He presented a relic of St. Nuno de Santa Maria, founder of the Carmelite house in Lisbon, from which the Carmelite founders in Brasil set out.

The celebration was preceded by a Triduum and by a congress on the history and significance of the Carmelite presence in Olinda. At that congress the Prior General introduced the official letter which will be addressed to the whole Carmelite Family on this occasion, with the title, “Carmel in America: past, present and future”. Furthermore, there was an official meeting with the civil authorities to whom the Carmelites expressed their gratitude for the handing over and restoration of this beautiful church, which had been in the hands of the Brazilian State since 1877 and which from now on will be the location of the residence of the Prior Provincial.

On Monday, the 6th of August, Vatican Radio broadcast an extensive interview with the Prior General and with Fr. Francisco de Sales Alencar (in Spanish and in Portuguese respectively) concerning the importance and significance of this occasion (This can be heard in Spanish at:
http://www.radiovaticana.org/spa/Articolo.asp?c=605143 and in Portuguese at
http://www.radiovaticana.org/bra/Articolo.asp?c=611019)

Finally, it is important to mention that His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI sent a brief message of congratulations via the Secretary of State in which he referred to the historical and pastoral importance of this event.

M. Rev. Kilian Healy, O.Carm.

From the dawn of reason the heart of St. Thérèse was raised to God. As she grew in years she was blessed with insight into his merciful love. Her desire was to always do his will. At the reception of her first holy communion she told our Lord that she is giving herself to him forever.

After her entrance to Carmel at the age of fifteen she set full sail on her pursuit of holiness. She came to believe that God had bent down, lifted her up and embraced her in his loving arms (Story of a Soul, translated by John Clarke, O.C.D. 199; hereafter abbreviated as S).

In February 1895, two and one half years before her death she composed one of her most beautiful poems “Living on Love” (Poetry of Saint Thérèse, trans. by Donald Kenny, O.C.D., PN 17; hereafter PN). It was the fruit of an inspiration on an evening spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament during the Forty Hours devotion. In this poem she sings of the merciful love of God and of her desire to be aflame with love for him. She longs to live on love alone and to die of love.

The Carmelite Librarians’ Association (CLA) met from July 24 to July 27, 2012, in the city of Prague, Czech Republic.

There were 22 participants, including  two members of the General Council, Fr Josef Jancar (Procurator General) and Fr Desiré Unen Alimange (General Councillor for Africa). The meeting was welcomed and generously assisted by the General Delegate of Bohemia and Moravia, Fr Gorazd Pavel Cetkovsky.

In 10 working sessions, the meeting dealt with several issues pertaining to our Carmelite Libraries in various parts of the world. Particular attention was given to understanding some of the new, and future technologies and applications pertinent to library science. The Association is particularly committed to the formation of our young candidates by assisting new libraries in emerging parts of the Order. To this end, the Association is willing to send specifically requested books and is preparing a type of Manual for incipient, non professional librarians in the Order. Many of our libraries have catalogues which are now online and the service of digitizing rare books and manuscripts is available for all those who request it. In between working sessions, we were able to visit, under the very erudite leadership and guidance of Fr Gorazd, some of our former Carmelite churches and also the famous Premostratensian Strahov Library.

Since the Association meets every 18 months, it was decided that the next meeting will be January 6 (arrivals) to January 11 (departures) 2014,  in the city of Nairobi, Kenya.

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A collection of quotes by St. Therese of Lesieux. Quotes from St Therese Story of a Soul and her letters.

• “A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.”

• “And it is the Lord, it is Jesus, Who is my judge. Therefore I will try always to think leniently of others, that He may judge me leniently, or rather not at all, since He says:

• "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.”

• “Do you realize

  that Jesus is there

  in the tabernacle

  expressly for you-

  for you alone? He

  burns with the

  desire to come into

  your heart… don’t

  listen to the demon,

  laugh at him, and

  go without fear to

  receive the Jesus of

  peace and love…”

• “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. For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.”

• “For me, prayer is 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.”

• “Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.”

• “I am convinced that one should tell one's spiritual director if one has a great desire for Communion, for Our Lord does not come from Heaven every day to stay in a golden ciborium; He comes to find another heaven, the heaven of our soul in which He loves to dwell.”

• “i can nourish myself on nothing but truth”

• “I choose them all! I want them all!”

• “I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbours' defects--not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.”

• “I say nothing to him I love him”

• “I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden.”

• “If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”

• “If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient, but I only look at the present, I forget the past, and I take good care not to forestall the future.”

• “It is there for each and every one of us.”

• “Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

• “Let us not be justices of the peace, but angels of peace.”

• “May today there be peace within.

• “May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

• “May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

• “May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

• “May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

• “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

• “My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by experience.”

• “One word or a pleasing smile is often enough to raise up a saddened and wounded soul.”

• “Sufferings gladly borne for others convert more people than sermons.”

• “The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.”

• “The splendor of the rose and the whitness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its lovliness.”

• “The world's thy ship and not thy home.”

• “Trust and trust alone should lead us to love”

• “When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens,I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.”

• “When one loves, one does not calculate.”

• “Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.”

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A collection of quotes attributed to Spanish mystic and Carmelite nun Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).

“ Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.”

“ Always think of yourself as everyone's servant; look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for them all.”

“All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.”

“Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”

“It is love alone that gives worth to all things.”

“Let nothing disturb thee;
 Let nothing dismay thee:
 All thing pass;
 God never changes.
 Patience attains
 All that it strives for.
 He who has God
 Finds he lacks nothing:
 God alone suffices.”

“Never affirm anything unless you are sure it is true.”

“Never compare one person with another: comparisons are odious.”

“Never exaggerate, but express your feelings with moderation.”

“O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.”

“Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.”

“Pain is never permanent.”

“Reflect upon the providence and wisdom of God in all created things and praise Him in them all.”

“The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.”

“There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.”

“To have courage for whatever comes in life — everything lies in that.”
God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.”

"God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.”

"I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.”

"It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found - not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater.”

"Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ looks compassion into the world.
Yours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world."

“I am afraid that if we begin to put our trust in human help, some of our Divine help will fail us.”

“I would never want any prayer that would not make the virtues grow within me.”

“It is love alone that gives worth to all things.”

“Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.”

“One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer. “

“Our greatest gain is to lose the wealth that is of such brief duration and, by comparison with eternal things, of such little worth; yet we get upset about it and our gain turns to loss.”

“Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one Glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing. “

“Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal.”

“The most potent and acceptable prayer is the prayer that leaves the best effects. I don't mean it must immediately fill the soul with desire . . . The best effects [are] those that are followed up by actions-----when the soul not only desires the honor of God, but really strives for it. “

“The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.”

“To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.”

“Truth suffers, but never dies.”

“Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer-----however much the lips may move.”

“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.”

“We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble.”

“What a great favor God does to those He places in the company of good people!”

“You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.”

“As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men, the anguish in our neighbor's soul must break all precept. All that we do is a means to an end, but love is an end in itself, because God is love.

“Every true prayer is a prayer of the Church; by means of that prayer the Church prays, since it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church, Who in every single soul 'prays in us with unspeakable groanings'.”

“I told our Lord that I knew it was His cross that was now being placed upon the Jewish people; that most of them did not understand this, but that those who did would have to take it up willingly in the name of all. I would do that. At the end of the service, I was certain that I had been heard. But what this carrying of the cross was to consist in, that I did not yet know.”

“If anyone comes to me, I want to lead them to Him.”

“In order to be an image of God, the spirit must turn to what is eternal, hold it in spirit, keep it in memory, and by loving it, embrace it in the will.”

“My longing for truth was a single prayer.”

“On the question of relating to our fellowman - our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love.

“One could say that in case of need, every normal and healthy woman is able to hold a position. And there is no profession which cannot be practiced by a woman.”

“The limitless loving devotion to God, and the gift God makes of Himself to you, are the highest elevation of which the heart is capable; it is the highest degree of prayer. The souls that have reached this point are truly the heart of the Church.”

“The nation... doesn't simply need what we have. It needs what we are.”

“Things were in God's plan which I had not planned at all. I am coming to the living faith and conviction that - from God's point of view - there is no chance and that the whole of my life, down to every detail, has been mapped out in God's divine providence and makes complete and perfect sense in God's all-seeing eyes.”

“Those who join the Carmelite Order are not lost to their near and dear ones, but have been won for them, because it is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone.”

by Fr. John Welch, O.Carm.

It is very hard to let go of our past. Many of us live in the past, clinging to hurts, disappointments, and especially our guilt. The Lord is always calling us forward into our future, but we are stuck in our past. When we wallow in our past, we lose perspective. We miss the daily invitations to walk forward in faith. It is like trying to drive while always looking in the rear-view mirror.

The heart can make anything into an idol, into a false god. We can readily admit to making idols out of obvious things such as wealth and power, but to see the past as an idol may be more difficult. In our preoc-cupation with the past, in our obsessive rehearsal of it, the past becomes a "god." I worship at its altar and become enslaved by it,

When we cling to our past, we are actually exalting ourselves. We are making our lives, our sins, our wrong-turns so monumental we are sure the world has never seen such a mess, and that even God has walked away. Our ego can be inflated in telling our story in this grandiose way. Ego is good at making everything about "us."

Letting Go

We cannot change the past. And we are who we are because of it. We may even have to make amends because of it. But, what can change is our relationship to it.

The past does not have to define us and hold us back. Letting go of the past can be a matter of simply being more aware of our attachment to it, and slowly, with the aid of grace, learning to live in the present.

Or, our fixation on the past may be such that only a crisis opens us to change, and a new perspective. A dark time may be the occasion for healing and a growth in wholeness. That surrender may come only after we realize we are powerless to extract ourselves from our past. In the confusion, then, our ego may be open to God's love luring us past where we have found ourselves stuck. Some wounds of the past may require professional help, but that too can be a grace-enabled effort.

Our faith tells us the Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of Christ, will be the rhythm of our days. Letting go of an unhealthy regard for our past can be one of those deaths that leads to new life. The very struggle we have with our past, and the discovery of God's mercy in that struggle, can help us be bearers of forgiveness and compassion for others. The truth of our lives is that we are loved by God in spite of everything. Mercy, forgiveness, and healing are always available.

The Bigger Picture

We do not have to make sense of it all. We may be unable to connect all the dots in our past. We cannot because we live immersed in Mystery. Only from the outside can our lives be made intelligible. God can take the jumbled pieces of our story, our ego-drama, and put them into their place in the great then-drama, the story the Spirit is telling. Our lives are really the story of God's mercies.

Consider Israel's past. Israel continually rehearsed all the ways it had not been faithful to God. But, the important memory was about all the ways God had been faithful to Israel.
The prophet Isaiah said:

Thus says the Lord:
Remember not the events of the past;
the things of long ago, consider not.
See, I am doing something new.
...It is I, I, who wipe out,
for my own sake, your offences;
your sins 1 remember no more.
Is 43:18, 19, 25

If God forgives and forgets our sinful past, what excuse do we have to remember it? Of course we will not have amnesia. But, what we will remember from the past are the blessings, the miracles that accompanied our days and years. We will remember when we were brought from slavery into freedom. And this memory will allow us to live the present in peace, and to anticipate the future without fear.