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.

Randal Malley, O. Carm.

The past century has been called the age of Mary. In defining her Immaculate Conception one hundred years ago, Pope Pius IX inspired a renewal of Marian interest that has climaxed in the truly Marian pontificate of Pope Pius XII. The apparitions of our Blessed Mother at Lourdes in 1858 and at Fatima in 1917 have helped the devotion of the faithful keep pace with the announcements of the Popes. Our age has seen the canonizations of saints devoted to Mary, the consecration of the world to her Immaculate Heart, the definition of her glorious Assumption into heaven, and the proclamation of the feast of her universal Queenship. Truly this has been a Marian era unparalleled in the history of Christianity.

In proclaiming these prerogatives of Mary, the Church does not intend to cause any sense of separation between this sweet Mother and her children. All Mary's glories flow from her greatest privilege, being Mother of God, and this Motherhood is our surest claim to her love and protection—for she is our Mother too. Jesus is called her « first-born » Son because as Mother of His Mystical Body she will have so many spiritual children. Christ announced this doctrine at the moment of our Redemption; He called us to be sons of God by making us children of Mary: Woman, behold thy son... Son, behold thy mother (John 19, 26).

To remind us of our spiritual adoption and to bring us back to the spirit of childhood during this Marian age, God has called upon a special child of Mary, St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Because of the public emphasis on Mary's perfections, her Immaculate Conception and Assumption, we sometimes tend to place our Blessed Mother on an unapproachable pedestal. We forget that her glory now is the result of her life on earth; she attained sanctity by practicing the lowly hidden virtues which are well within our power. We lose sight of the truth that Mary is our most lovable Mother. St. Therese's mission is to help us regain a childlike love and trust in our Blessed Lady. The Little Flower made known her aim in these words: « It is good to speak of Mary's prerogatives, but one must not stop there. We must make her loved. » Therese was Mary's child and she looked upon her Mother as a model to imitate: « I wish to be Mary's good little daughter. Mary is my dear Mother, and usually daughters resemble their mother. »

In looking at the characteristics of Therese's little way of spiritual childhood we find a striking resemblance to the life of Our Lady. The conviction that Mary had walked in the same way of littleness encouraged Therese in her difficult path to holiness:

And thou, by practising the lowliest virtues here
Hast shown me how to find and tread the narrow way.
O Queen of the elect, if I but follow thee,
Thou'lt guide my faltering feet so that they never stray.
(Poem : Why I love you, Mary)

I. Simplicity

We know very little of the facts of Mary's life on earth, but from her portrait in the Gospels we may conclude that there was little that was outwardly extraordinary. After the miraculous birth of her Son and the visit of the Wise Men, Mary led a secluded life, growing in wisdom and grace before God by performing the simple tasks of a carpenter's wife. Her life of sacrifice consisted in denying herself, taking up her cross daily and following Christ. Our Lady found in her daily life opportunities enough to prove her love for God and to advance in holiness.

Therese, « the little child of Mary, » modeled her life according to the picture presented at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Cana and Calvary. She saw Mary practicing the virtues of charity, humility and confidence in a sublime and unparalleled degree, but yet in so simple a setting that she exclaimed : « One can well understand that the real life at Nazareth and afterwards must have been quite ordinary. He was subject to them. How simple that is! » Therese strove to imitate this simplicity.

Like our Blessed Mother, Therese did not seek great occasions to practice virtues; the hidden opportunities were her choice. She endeavored to do the « ordinary things extraordinarily well » and in this lies her greatness: « I made my mortifications consist solely in breaking my will, keeping back a word of retort, rendering little services without making much of them, and a thousand other things of this kind.» Hidden in Carmel she studied and fashioned herself upon the perfect model of simplicity, the Virgin of Nazareth.

Her ordinary life in the convent once drew the comment : « What could possibly be written of Sister Therese after her death? » What has she done worthy to be recorded? This thought concerning the Little Flower seems to echo an impression of our Blessed Mother contained in a Gospel story. After Jesus had preached in His own town of Nazareth, many of the people were astonished at His wisdom. Was He not the Son of a common laborer and is not His Mother called Mary (Matthew 13, 5 5)? The people of her own village considered Mary to be quite simple and ordinary; why should her Son preach to them? But in such simplicity lies Therese's as well as Mary's greatness. Saint Pius X once corrected a priest who criticized the lack of the extraordinary in the life of the Little Flower: « Ah! What is most extraordinary of all in her life is precisely her extreme simplicity. » Therese in taking the 0 little way » of simplicity was exploring a path too often deserted since the time of the Virgin Mary. There have been few souls who have so well understood the lessons of Nazareth.

II. Humility

Humility is the true evaluation of our worth in the sight of God. This means a realization of our essential worthlessness, since we have nothing that is not due to God. Mary, although Mother of God, was nothing in her own eyes and attributed all her glories to their true Source: because He who is mighty has done great things for me... He has exalted the lowly (Luke 1, 49). She expressed her humility soon after the birth of her Son, when like any other mother she humbly brought her Divine Child to the temple and offered Him to God. In her daily submission to St. Joseph at Nazareth Our Lady was but cultivating the flower of humility which blossomed in all its splendor on Calvary when she took her place by the cross of her dying Son.

As Eve sinned through pride, it was fitting that Mary should bring the redemption of mankind about through humility: He has looked graciously upon the humility of His handmaid (Luke 1, 48). Through her littleness—Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word—the Incarnation and whole process of our redemption was set in motion.

In meditating on the Magnificat, Therese saw where Mary's greatness lay:

God's little handmaid — how I love thee by that name,
For thou didst capture God by thy humility.
That priceless virtue is the cause of all thy powers
Since to thy heart it drew the Blessed Trinity.

On littleness then, in union with Jesus and Mary, would Therese lay the foundation of her « little way of spiritual childhood. » Convinced of her nothingness, the 0. little handmaid of Mary » depended entirely on her heavenly Father and Mother. Like a child, she had no confidence in herself, knowing that « the moment God sees we are convinced of our nothingness He stretches out His hand. »

In Therese's life as in Mary's humility opened the soul to God. She never denied the acts of virtue she performed, but with the fullest gratitude attributed them to the Holy Trinity living in her. Humility in her own words was no more than o seeing the truth and accepting it. And the truth is that God is everything and that, without Him, we are nothing. »

In her weakness Therese, again like a child, placed all her confidence in our Blessed Mother who was watching over her moment by moment with tender care. Her very littleness was an irresistible appeal to Mary whenever she began to falter in her little way. As Mary's child, Therese knew that our Blessed Mother's virtues would supply for the defects in her own:

For am I not thy child, Mother most dear to me?
Thy virtues and thy love, are they not wholly mine?

III.  Faith

The basis of the supernatural life is faith. At the message of the angel Gabriel Our Lady made a perfect act of faith saying: Be it done to me according to thy word. With these words she conceived in her womb Jesus Christ, the Saviour of men. The Holy Spirit inspired St. Elizabeth to say in praise of Mary's faith: Blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken unto thee by the Lord (Luke 1, 45).

When we meditate on the life of the Holy Family at Nazareth, we usually think of days of intimacy and love between Joseph and Mary and the Child Jesus. This picture is not false—love was the binding force between them—but it must also have been a time of vibrant faith. The Jewish people always thought of God as the Lord of might and majesty, but He was Mary's helpless Child. Even though the miraculous visit of the angel Gabriel was stamped upon her memory, how frequently must Mary have made acts of faith during Our Lord's thirty years with her. This Son, who depended entirely on her in His infancy, whom she taught and trained in His boyhood days, and who even in His manhood was «like to us in everything except sin,» was truly her God and Creator.

In our own time Therese is perhaps the supreme example of perfection fashioned in the school of faith, and how closely does she resemble the Blessed Mother. Mary, throughout the years at Nazareth, performed menial tasks, passed through periods of anguish and spiritual suffering and lived by faith. In Mary's garden, Carmel, the Little Flower followed her model along this same path. During her last eighteen months of sickness, her trial of faith was extreme: « Our Lord allowed my own soul to be plunged in thickest gloom and the thought of heaven so dear from my earliest years to become for me a subject of torture... But I try to live by faith... » On her deathbed she made the admission: «have made more acts of faith during this past year than in all the rest of my life. » But never once did she doubt the final outcome, for she had only to glance at the result of this same trial of faith in Our Lady's life. Mary, who for Therese was « possible of imitation, practicing the hidden virtues and living by faith just as we do, » was assumed into heaven and crowned in glory.

Therese saw in our Blessed Mother's soul the dispositions she tried to fashion in her own: to conform herself to God's will and to depend on Him alone. The Little Flower spent her life in the o silent martyrdom of love, » walking by faith in the trials God sent her. She learned this life of silence and faith from Mary, who, when she did not understand the words Jesus spoke to her, kept all these things carefully in her heart:

And now I understand the Temple mystery,
And why my loving King answered His Mother so.
Mary, He would that thou shouldst the example be
For souls who, seeking Him, the night of faith must know.

IV. Confidence

In ordinary human life a small child has supreme trust in his parents; in our spiritual life we must have such confidence in our heavenly Father. Instances of this childlike hope abound in the life of Our Lady and her child, Therese. Mary did not fully understand the harmony between the divine motherhood and her vow of virginity, but she accepted the angel's word and uttered her fiat. It would be difficult to gauge the anguish in Joseph's heart in discovering that she was with child, but Our Lady remained silent and put her confidence in God. The profound impression Mary's silence and hope in God made upon the Little Flower is recorded in her poem:

With what sweet eloquence thy silence speaks to me! The loveliest melody can have no purer tone. Listening, I learn the power, the greatness of a soul, That seeks no other aid than that of heaven alone.

Reading the Gospel, Therese could not help but see the confidence of Mary portrayed there. In the difficult journey to Bethlehem there was no murmur; in the flight into Egypt, no hesitation. And especially was Mary's child struck by the marvelous example of simple trust shown at the marriage feast of Cana. They have no wine, said Our Lady, and in spite of an apparent denial of her request she then said to the waiters: Do whatever He tells you (John 2, 5). Who could refuse to follow such complete confidence!

In Carmel Therese had many opportunities to perfect her hope in God and show her childlike reliance on her loving Mother. Very often we read in her autobiography that when she was unjustly reprimanded for not doing a task properly, or when her words were interpreted wrongly, imitating Mary she took refuge in humble silence. Even when she was grievously tempted by the devil to think her little way was a delusion, her confidence never wavered. She could truly say: u I am never discouraged; I abandon myself in the arms of Jesus. » Her way to the Heart of God was one of spiritual childhood, and like a small child Therese never even considered that her heavenly Father and all-loving Mother would fail her.

One of the most beautiful resemblances between Mary's and Therese's confidence is exemplified by the prophecies of each of them which are being fulfilled even today. While in the hill country of Judea before the birth of her Son, Mary, a young Hebrew virgin, had uttered the tremendous words: Behold all generations shall call me blessed. And nineteen-hundred years later in a secluded convent in France, Therese, an unknown Carmelite virgin, echoed the words of her Mother, saying: Ah! I know it well, all the world will love me! Only true humility and supreme confidence in God could enable Mother and child to say these words with such assurance.

V. Love

St. Therese tells us that love is the heart and goal of her little way. o My vocation is love! » she exclaimed. a I would so love Jesus, love Him as never yet He has been loved. » In her love as in everything else Mary was both the ideal and guide. For our Blessed Mother had the beautiful privilege of loving her God while loving her Child. In showering her motherly love upon her Son while laying Him in a manger, Mary was adoring the very God of heaven and earth. Her maternal love led Mary to take her place beneath the cross: There was standing by the cross of Jesus His mother... (John 19, 25). She had nursed and taken care of her Son during life; she could not abandon Him in death.

Therese's little way is one of spiritual childhood: God is her loving Father, Mary her understanding Mother. In human life the relationship of a child to its parents is above all a relationship of love. Therese modeled her spiritual life upon this truth. All her sacrifices, all her acts of virtue were prompted and motivated by love. « Never have I given to the great God aught but love. » In expressing her love for God, St. Therese, like any child, first centered it upon her Mother; Mary would purify it, endow it with her own fervent love and then direct it to her beloved Son. Therese identified herself with Mary, and in this union her love for God assumed a purer quality.

Therese knew the tender spot she held in her Mother's heart; Mary had pointed this out to her as a child. In curing her at the age of ten, Mary chose a smile as the sign of the grace she meant to confer. And this smile—the only language between a mother and her infant—was the mark of love and union between them. Therese sought to win and return our Blessed Mother's love by her own love and confidence. «. How I love our Blessed Mother. If I had been a priest how lovingly would I have sung her praises, » she said as she was dying. Especially did she rely on her love for Mary as her approach to God. As Mary's child she could well say: « I very often ask the Blessed Virgin to tell God that He must not bother Himself on my account and that she will look after my commissions. » This love for Mary inevitably led Therese to the font of all love, the Sacred Heart of her Son.

VI. Conclusion

When Pope Pius XI canonized the Little Flower in 1925, he proclaimed to the world that Therese had obeyed the Rule of her Order to perfection; for a religious, this is what sanctity consists in. Therese was a Carmelite, and a Carmelite's aim is to reflect the life of Our Blessed Mother. In Carmel there is no need to speak continually of devotion to Our Lady because a Carmelite must become her living image. St. Therese saw Mary as o possible of imitation, » and by living the Carmelite Rule to perfection, she became, in the words of Pope Pius XI, a o new and ineffable smile of the Immaculate Virgin. »

Near the end of her life Therese said : « Mary is more Mother than Queen. » She had attained the Carmelite ideal of becoming a child of Our Mother. Her simplicity and humility were fashioned in the atmosphere of Nazareth; her faith, confidence and love of God were reflections of the virtues of the Mother and model of her little way. Therese, whom Pope Pius XII has called the « little flower of Mary, » has brought back into reality childlike love of God. It is for us to imitate this « sweet mirror of the most merciful Virgin Mary. »

Randal Malley, O. Carm.,

From the 19th to the 23rd of August 2014 the first part of the Carmelite European Youth programme “Awakening” took place at Casa São Nuno, Fatima, Portugal. In all there were 58 participants from the Spanish provinces, Ireland, The Netherlands and Portugal. Also participating were the novices from the European Carmelite Novitiate at Salamanca and a group with the Hermanas de la Virgen Maria del Monte Carmelo.

The “Awakening” Project, which was presented at the General Chapter of 2013 and supported by the European Provincials, is part of an on-going engagement with young people in Europe in Carmelite spirituality and history. This intensive programme of formation at Fatima was led by the Carmelite European Youth Committee, Sabrina Rubio Perez, Aoife Merrins, Victor Navarrro Poncela and Carmelites Luca Sciarelli, Dave Twohig and Tommaso Bacci, and coordinated by the General Councillor for Europe, John Keating. Speaking during the meeting were the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral (on Saints Nuno and Edith Stein and Blessed Titus Brandsma), Fr. Michael Plattig, (on Prayer with reference to Saints Teresa of Avila and John of Cross), Sister Rosario Alvaros, HVMMC (on the Virgin Mary in our tradition) and Fr. Desidero García Martínez (on the Carmelite Rule, history and tradition). Fr. Raul Maraví, Councillor General for the Americas also participated and helped with translations. During the gathering the group visited Batalha a place connected with the life of Saint Nuno, and they concluded their programme by participating in the Saturday evening candlelit procession at the Shrine of our Lady of Fatima.

The event was made possible through the generous hospitality of the Portuguese General Commissariat. The Commissary General, Fr. Ricardo dos Reis Rainho and the director of Casa São Nuno, Fr. Agostinho Marques Castro were present throughout the meeting.

The second part of the programme for the Carmelite “Awakening” Project will take place in August of next year (2015) at San Felice del Benaco, Italy. This second part is intended for the other half of the European Geographical Area -  the Italian Provinces, Malta, Germany, Poland, France and the Czech Republic.

Víctor M. Navarro Poncela

Last night a dear friend asked me to tell him the story of an experience and a thousand feelings came to me as I locked into the unyielding pages a dream and an image.

An Image

The doors of the main chapel in Sassone are closed; inside, there are human shapes, dressed in brown, many of them, filling the rustic benches that shape the lower part of the chapel space, their bodies turned towards the altar, they keep a respectful silence at the beginning of the celebration to which they are called each day. The dim light that penetrates the darkness is enough to pick out the different shades in the habits that they wear like sheets of water in an earthy ocean. Then suddenly, something to attract the attention of the onlooker, something that breaks that image of uniformity, one, two, maybe three maybe even four shots of colour breaking away from the colour that seemed to be the only one. It’s hard for the onlooker to understand: Where did they come from? What are they doing here? Someone gives the answer, “they are not religious, they are lay people.”

There are many who, contemplating this image, are able at the same time to pick up one or two more features: the separation between religious and lay people in the Catholic Church, the strange customs of a group lost in the mists of time, or the intrusion of a few into a place that does not belong to them.  Thanks be to God, a long time ago a young prince convinced me to look with the eyes of the heart, and ever since then my mental x-rays seem to find new meaning wherever I look. The proof of this is that as I looked at the scene that came before, all I could see was a family gathered for supper.

Then, in the General Audience with Pope Francis, that all the participants of the General Chapter went to in the middle of the week dedicated to the Carmelite Family, the Pope chose to talk about the Church as the mother who takes care of her children. As I mulled over the words of the Pontiff, I began to realise that if the Church is Mother of all Christians, and God is undoubtedly our Father, then the relationship between all their children cannot be other than a relationship of fraternity. Holding on to that model I began to try to understand the way that Christian, religious and lay, do see themselves, or should see themselves.

Leaving aside metaphors like big brother or little brother, or more committed brothers and less committed, I began to see a solution that I found satisfying and that for that reason I would like to share in this reflection.

Religious are the children who have made the commitment to work in the same fields where their father works, help him in what he has to do, and guarantee the survival of what in another age was known as the family responsibility.

Lay people are the children who leave home to look for their future in some other place and in some other occupation, cutting themselves away materially from the figure of the father, but always united with him because of the values that he gave them from the time they were very small.

I would like to extend this metaphor a little further in order to see its full potential, but what follows might be enough as a final thought: if the father needs other pairs of hands to harvest the fruit of the land, the children who left home (lay people) will be willing to take on the task: in the same way, if there are too many workers at home, some of the children who stayed at home will have to think about other ways to used their talents and abilities. Finally, I have to confess, as a lay person, that the welcome I received from my brothers in the house of the Father was as warm as all this image of family might make us think. 

A dream

I have had a dream for a long time. It was that dream that gave me the opportunity to take part in this General Chapter. The dream began some three years ago, with the Pilgrimage of Hope (if you have not heard of it, be sure to ask), and this became stronger when the European Carmelite Youth Committee (ECYC) was set up and I was invited to be part of it. Ever since then I have been sharing my dream with seven other people, and now, after the Chapter, I know that that dream has reached the representatives of all the Carmelite provinces. I’m hoping too that through this article, even if I cannot get across to the reader all that I experienced, maybe I can arouse a desire to know more about it:

As a Christian and as a Carmelite, I dream of a Church and an Order in which young people have an important role. I mean, young people who are committed to their faith and charism, who know the real meaning, in theory and in practice, of these two terms and that precisely because of that want to include them in their lives and in their beliefs. I dream as well about a Church and an Order whose arms and hearts are open to young people, who will go out to meet them, get to know them, talk with them, and most of all, show that they are open to their new ideas and feelings, their concerns and the peculiar way that they relate to the world. 

That is why the European Carmelite Youth Committee has dreamt about a project that will be set in motion next Summer, 2014, that will bring together youth leaders from the different provinces of Europe to train them and motivate them for their task. This is all about giving incentives for the work with young people in the different parts of Europe so that the net is spread wider, as it is already working in some countries, to form a European Carmelite Youth awareness. Now it is time for this dream to stop being a dream, this is the time for the Awakening (For more information on the Awakening project, visit the web page of the Carmelite Order or write to any member of the European Carmelite Youth Committee (ECYC).

An official VMG virtual choir, "Nada Te Turbe" is one of two virtual choirs produced for the celebration of St. Teresa of Jesus's 500th birthday. The choir is made up of Carmelite Nuns from around the world and is accompanied by the Teresian Orchestra of St. James Cathedral in Seattle, Washington, USA. Music composed by Claire Sokol, OCD.

An official VMG virtual choir, "Salve Regina" is the second of two virtual choirs produced for the celebration of St. Teresa of Jesus's 500th birthday. This virtual choir is made up of Carmelite Nuns and Friars from around the world and highlights the internationality and diversity of the Carmelite Order. Music composed by Claire Sokol, OCD.

From 1 July to 14 August, the Aylesford UK community hosted a “language experience” which the following attended: Andres Trujillo Herrera (Ita-Col), Janer Fernando Gomez Torres (Ita-Col), Karol Amroz (Pol), Antonin Prikasky (BM), David Del Carpio Horcajo (Baet), Jean de la Croix Dino Bori Sumbu (Ita-RDC), Manoel da Cruz Alves da Silva (Pern) and Jimmy Vogel (Swedish seminarian).

The specific objectives to be attained by the end of the course by all the participants, not only the more advanced ones included:

• Understanding the readings at daily Mass.
• Developing homily points for the readings.
• Praying parts of the Eucharistic Prayer
• Proclaiming the Gospel or other scriptural readings.
• Giving a short introduction to the Mass.
• Taking the role of cantor or reader in the Divine Office.
• Giving a short presentation on Carmelite life in their country of origin.
• Giving a short presentation on Carmelite spirituality or history.

Classroom activities included a thorough review of some key grammatical points, reading and listening comprehension and a certain amount of more open discussion. The immersion experience consisted of living and working with the local community at prayer, at the table and at recreation. The work in the classroom and the community immersion were supplemented by a number of trips designed to offer a taste of English life and an opportunity to use the language in “real life” contexts. Places visited included: Rochester Castle and Cathedral, Maidstone, Canterbury, including Evensong in the Cathedral, the City and University of Cambridge and London.