Seasons of the Heart

The Spiritual Dynamic of the Carmelite Life

John Welch, O.Carm.

Carmelite Communications Melbourne Australia 2001

Table of Contents

1 Introduction...... 11 2 A Longing Heart – Our desire for God ...... 13 2.1 We choose all ...... 13 2.2 Desires of the Carmelites ...... 14 2.3 Summary ...... 15 2.4 Questions for reflection ...... 15 3 An Enslaved Heart – The worship of false gods ...... 17 3.1 Settling down with idols ...... 17 3.2 Disordered relationship ...... 18 3.3 A prophetic role ...... 19 3.4 Summary ...... 20 3.5 Questions for reflection ...... 20 4 A Listening Heart – The contemplative life ...... 21 4.1 God, always already there ...... 21 4.2 Lured by love ...... 22 4.3 Contemplation re-focused ...... 23 4.4 Summary ...... 23 4.5 Questions for reflection ...... 24 5 A Troubled Heart – The tragic in life ...... 25 5.1 The sorrows of humanity ...... 25 5.2 The dark love of God ...... 26 5.3 Dark nights ...... 27 5.4 A new spirituality ...... 28 5.5 Summary ...... 28 5.6 Questions for reflection ...... 29 6 A Pure Heart – Transformation of desire ...... 31 6.1 Union with God ...... 31 6.2 An awakening ...... 31 6.3 To want what God wants ...... 32 6.4 Summary ...... 33 6.5 Questions for reflection ...... 33

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a relationship which forever changes them: “... the winter is past, the rain is 1 over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has Introduction come.…” (Sg 2, 11-12)

Fundamental themes of Carmel- ite spirituality emerge in this story of the human heart. These themes reveal The Carmelite tradition could be a spiritual dynamism at the core of understood as an 800 year commen- Carmelite life which can be described tary on The Song of Songs. This ancient as “seasons of the heart”. The intent of love story in Hebrew scripture is a this discussion is to review these “sea- basic narrative capturing the experi- sons of the heart” in an attempt iden- ence of countless Carmelites. “The tify the spiritual dynamic of the Car- voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, melite life. leaping upon the mountains, bound- ing over the hills.” (2,8) Thinking they There are five “seasons” identi- were seeking an elusive God, they re- fied in this discussion: turned from their search with the conviction that God had been pursu- 1. a longing heart ing them all along in love. The yearn- (our desire for God) ing deep within the heart of the Car- melite has been revealed as the trace 2. an enslaved heart of an invitation, “Arise my love, my fair (the worship of false gods) one, and come away”. (2,10) 3. a listening heart Carmelite writers have frequently (contemplative prayer) turned to the passionate love story of The Song of Songs for words to meet 4. a troubled heart their experience. John of the Cross (the tragic in life) drew on the story and images of the Song for his love poem The Spiritual 5. a pure heart Canticle. Teresa of Avila wrote a com- (the transformation of desire). mentary on the Song. And Thérèse of Lisieux identified with its story but, unlike the waiting lover in the Song, These “seasons of the heart”, and Thérèse said she always found the Be- Carmel's response to them, are among loved in her bed. the realities which gave rise to the Carmelite tradition, establishing it as Whether consciously referring to one of the major spiritual paths for Christians. the Song or not, its lines can be found in Carmelite stories. Carmelites tell many stories, but the story of the lover restlessly awaiting the approach of the Beloved emerges as a common theme. Their union in love and their retreat into the solitude of high mountain pastures finds equivalent expression in the stories of Carmelites. John of the Cross found Hosea's words expressive of his experience, “..I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her”. (2,14) Re- sponding to an invitation from a mysterious Presence met within searching lives, Carmelites have been drawn into 12 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

NOTES Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 13

in our school, every member of our parish, every pilgrim to our shrine, 2 every candidate in our seminary has an openness to the transcendent mystery we name God. Time and time A Longing again the desire will be denied, the hunger temporarily satisfied, the Heart yearning stifled, distracted, weak. But we know it is there and it will emerge Our desire for God in one form or another. Our tradition has the power, the language, the imagery to help illumine what people are experiencing in their innermost being. “Our hearts are restless”, wrote St. Augustine, and The Carmelite tradition attempts 2.1 that truth remains funda- to name the hunger, give words to the We mental to the human con- desire, and express the journey's end choose dition. Human restless- in God. The human heart will forever all ness, human desire, hu- need this clarification of its wants. man yearning – none of it Carmel has wanted the same thing ever seems finally and fully and will walk with anyone who is met satisfied. The baby beginning to crawl along the way. We cannot satisfy their and explore the environment is an hunger, but can help them find words expression of human restlessness; the for it and know where it points. We journeying of the first Carmelites who can do it, and have done it, in art, in left their homes to gather in a valley poetry and song, in counseling and on Mount Carmel was fueled by the teaching, in simply listening and un- same desire. We are truly pilgrims. derstanding. And we can warn people that eventually all words fail and at We humans never have enough times all we have is the desire itself. because, with St. Thérèse of Lisieux, we choose all. And we will never rest One contemporary author ob- until we get it. The Carmelite tradition serves that a serious problem in spirit- recognizes this hunger in the human uality today is a naiveté about the de- heart and says we are made this way. sire or energy that drives us. Our God- We are made to seek and search, to given spiritual longing, which may be yearn and ache, until the heart finally expressed in numerous ways, includ- finds something or someone to match ing creative, erotic energy, is danger- the depth of its desire, until the heart ous for us if not carefully tended. We finds food sufficient for its hunger. We are naive about this deep desire within name that food, that fulfillment, that us and are not alert to its danger. goal of human desire, God. Carmelites Without a reverence toward this ener- have been intentionally pursuing that gy and ways of accessing it and keep- elusive, mysterious fulfillment for 800 ing it contained, most adults waver years. “I wanted to live,” wrote St. Te- between alienation from this fire and resa of Avila, “but I had no one to give therefore live in depression, or allow me life...”.1 themselves to be consumed by it and live in a state of inflation. We believe that, named or not, every human being is on this quest. Depression, in this sense, means We can assume this: that every student the inability to take child-like delight in life, to feel true joy. Inflation refers to our tendency, at times, to identify 1Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life in The Col- with this fire, this power of the gods. lected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, 1, trans. Kieran “...We are generally so full of ourselves Kavanaugh, O.C.D., and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1987), chap. 8, that we are a menace to our families, no. 12. 14 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

friends, communities, and ourselves.” we have a hunger for which only God Unable to handle this energy we ei- is sufficient food. ther feel dead inside or are hyper- Thérèse of Lisieux found her active and restless. “Spirituality is deepest desires captured by the image about finding the proper ways, disci- of heaven: heaven as the never-ending plines, by which to both access that Sunday, the eternal retreat, the eter- energy and contain it.”2 nal shore. The eternal shore is a particularly evocative expression holding her This dilemma would be heart's yearning. She chose all in life, understood by the and this image for her is an expression 2.2 saints of Carmel, They of all that she desires. But no image or Desires approached this flame concept fully expresses her longings: of the found deep in their I feel how powerless I am to express in hu- Carmelites humanity and were man language the secrets of heaven, and burned and purified by after writing page upon page I find that I it in their encounter. have not yet begun. There are so many dif- Teresa of Avila understood it as the ferent horizons, so many nuances of infi- water Jesus offered the Samaritan nite variety....(SS. 189) woman. More fire than water, it in- creases one's desire. “How thirsty one We reach out to this and that, becomes for this thirst!”3 John of the lured by a promise of fulfillment, but Cross begins his poem The Spiritual only to be disappointed time and time Canticle by complaining, “Where have again. Using Thérèse's image, we ar- you hidden, Beloved, and left me rive at many shores, but each time we moaning? You fled like the stag after realize it is not the eternal shore. wounding me; I went out calling you, but you were gone”.4 John's under- Spirit and psyche inhabit the standing of our humanity is that we same country of the mind. Spirit is the wake up in the middle of a love story. dynamism in us to fullness of being, to Someone has touched our hearts, knowing all, loving all, being one with wounding them, and making them all. Psyche expresses these desires with ache for fulfillment. Who has done primordial images drawn from the this to us, and where has that one body, from the earth. Psyche connects gone? Those questions haunt every the organism of the body and its root- human being's journey, and propel edness in the cosmos with the tran- every step from the crawling of a baby, scendence of spirit and its yearning to a Pope's pilgrimage to the Holy for fullness. Our images of hope, such Land, and all the human endeavor in- as “eternal shore”, express both psy- between. che and spirit.

John complained that our desires Psyche's images are freighted are like little children. We pay atten- with spirit's yearnings. They may stir tion to them and they settle down for up and express our longings for peace a while. But soon they are up and nois- and justice, they may open us to pro- ily disrupting the peace of the house. found repentance, they may throw Or, our desires are like a longed-for light on our existence and illumine day with a loved one; but the day turns our path, they may provide hopeful out to be a big disappointment! John's scenarios of our future beyond this understanding of our humanity is that life, as Thérèse's did. But, none of them is adequate to finally and fully express the desires within us, the de- 2Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing (New York: sire that we are. Our deepest yearning Doubleday, 1999), 27. to know and to love, to be one with, all 3Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, chap. 19, no. 2. there is, is never fulfilled. Our deepest 4John of the Cross, "The Spiritual Canticle”, in The hungers never find sufficient food in Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. this life. Our wants are given voice, but Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. (Washington D.C.: ICS Publications, 1991), what do we want? stanza 1. Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 15

Theologian Bernard Lonergan force of their desires in affectionate believed that if we follow the trail of friendship with the Lord and one an- our deepest desires, expressing them other. She encouraged them to follow in truth, facing them, and responding the lure of their depths as their frag- to their call in our lives, we will un- mented desires found healing and dergo conversions. Our wants, our reorientation. Both she and Thérèse desires will be purified and trans- believed firmly that if God has given formed, until more and more we want us such longings God will ultimately what God wants in a consonance of fulfill them. We are not a useless pas- desire. sion.

What do the men and women in Our Carmelite tradition our parishes, our retreat houses, in acknowledges the hun- counseling want? Everything! Count 2.3 ger for God deep in the on it, and minister to it. And we say to Summary human heart. This ourselves and them, that the hunger yearning or longing within us is so deep and powerful that, propels us through our acknowledged or not, only God is suf- lives as we seek a fulfillment of our ficient food. When Jesus preached the heart's desire. This deep current of present and coming Reign of God he desire within our lives is the result of was speaking precisely to the deep de- God having first desired us. God, the sires, the holy longing in the hearts of first contemplative, gazed on us and his listeners. made us lovable, and alluring to God. The Carmelite tradition does not March 24, 2000 was the 20th an- speak of an annihilation of desire, but niversary of the assassination of Arch- a transformation of desire so that more bishop Oscar Romero in San Salvador. and more we desire what God desires He was killed while celebrating Eu- in a consonance of desire. As Teresa charist in a Carmelite chapel. of Avila said simply, ‘now I want what Romero's conversion from a rather You want’. traditional, professional cleric with a sincere but otherworldly piety, to an 1. How do I experi- outspoken courageous shepherd of his ence this longing, people, came because he saw the long- 2.4 this hunger, which ing in the faces of his people. As he Questions is ultimately for celebrated the funerals of those killed for God? Am I aware of by the powerful, and read off the reflection a fundamental dis- names of the disappeared, he found it ease, restlessness? was his duty more and more to give Can I find places in voice to these voiceless ones, to ex- my life where this yearning is express their oppressed longings - to pressing itself? embody in his courageous presence the holy longing of the Salvadoran 2. What gives me deepest joy and people. delight in life? When do I feel the most creative and alive? Do I push To assist people in hearing and away, ignore, or suppress it, or do voicing their deepest longing is part of I find ways of honoring this fire Carmel's continuing ministry. The within me? first Carmelites established conditions in their small valley which would bring 3. How do I give expression to my order to their multiple desires. Each deepest longings? What activity inhabited a cell and the cells sur- embodies them and keeps me rounded a chapel, in which they daily hungering for their ultimate ful- remembered God's desire for them. fillment? Teresa of Avila founded enclosed communities within which the women could open themselves to the full 16 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

4. How do the people, among whom I minister, express their deepest yearning, their hearts' desires?

5. How do I, with them, find the language for this yearning, and cele- brate it as gift which points to God? Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 17

“Let creatures speak to you of their maker”. 3 In our exuberance however, we continually ask of God's creation more An Enslaved than it can be. We regularly pour our heart's desires into some part of God's Heart creation and ask it to be the fulfillment we seek. We ask some part of The worship of false gods God's creation to be uncreated. We take a good and ask it to be a god.

The heart, weary from its continual pilgrimage, seeks to settle down A second perennial and make camp, refusing to go on. It theme in Carmel's spir- settles down with lesser gods, finding 3.1 ituality is the need to some joy, peace, identity , security or Settling decide which God to other alleviations of its desires. This down with follow. Our tradition short term relief masks a spiritual idols was born on Mount problem and also a problem in human Carmel, the scene of development. John of the Cross was the struggle between convinced that when the individual the followers of Yahweh and the fol- centers on something or someone lowers of Baal. Elijah encouraged the other than God, the personality even- people to be clear about their choice tually becomes dysfunctional. of the one, true God. The Carmelite community as well as individual Car- Such “attachments” create a situa- melites have had to continually wrestle tion of death. Whatever or whomever I with the forces of disintegration and am asking to be my god, my desires' fragmentation brought about by the deepest fulfillment, cannot bear the pursuit of idols. expectation. The idol will begin to crumble under such pressure as I ask Nicholas the Frenchman in his it to be my “all”. And because we can- Fiery Arrow letter to the Order accused not grow past our gods, a lesser god members of losing their way as they means a lesser human being. Conse- migrated from the desert to the city quently, that to which I am “attached” and its allurements. He accused them is dying under my need, and I am dy- of following their own disordered de- ing because my deepest desires can sires under the guise of necessary min- find nothing and no one to match istry. The reforms of Albi, Mantua, their intensity. John Soreth, Teresa of Avila, and Tou- raine continually reminded Carmelites The self-transcending dynamism to have one God, and to serve that within our humanity will not allow us God with all their heart. to declare that we have “arrived” at journey's end. By declaring a prema- The saints in our tradition knew ture victory as we cling to idols, we are how hard it is to find and follow the engaging in inauthentic self- true God, among the many gods of- transcendence. In other words, the fered us. This Presence deep within heart is no longer free to hear and our lives is met in the world around follow the invitation of the Beloved. us. In his Spiritual Canticle poem John This slavery of the heart is the result of of the Cross observes that “All who are disordered desire. The solution, the free tell me a thousand graceful things liberation of the heart, is not accom- of You...”.5 Teresa of Avila counseled, plished by annihilation of desire but by its reorientation.

5John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, st. 7. 18 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

When our tradition The Carmelite tradition is ad- talks about attach- dressing those whose hearts have gone 3.2 ments, it does not out to the world seeking fulfillment Disordered mean that relation- and have become scattered and frag- relationship ship with the word is mented in their search. Pouring their a problem. Certainly, heart's desires into possessions and sometimes the world relationships which cannot meet the is a problem. But we have to relate to intensity of these desires, the Christian the one world we have. Relating to the begins to experience an impasse in world is not the basic problem in at- life. It is a deteriorating situation. The tachment; it is how we are relating that world the Christian is clutching so becomes the problem. Our saints are frantically is having life squeezed out talking to adults whose heart has been of it by the expectations. And the enslaved by someone or something in Christian is being conformed to idols, place of God. It is not necessarily the not transformed into God. person or thing that is the problem, but the way we are relating to them, A contemporary theme related to the disordered way our desire or long- our traditional theme of attachment is ing is being expressed. addiction. We are coming to realize that we are all addicted in one way or It is immaterial whether the idol another, and that only God's grace is valuable or not. The relationship is can free us from our addictions. One the critical factor. An incident in the can be addicted to obviously destruc- life of John of the Cross is illustrative. tive things, but one can also be ad- One of John's friars had a simple cross dicted to the church, addicted to the made of palm. John took it from him. Pope, addicted to religious practices, The friar had little else, and the cross even addicted to Carmel, and addict- was certainly not valuable, but John ed to God as we create God to be. discerned that the friar was clinging to his crude cross in a disordered way. It In other words, we can ask part of apparently had become a non- God's creation to be uncreated, to be negotiable indicating that the friar's the nourishment for the deepest hun- relationship to it was skewed. gers within us as individuals and as a people. We are asking from God's John observed that whether the creation what only God can give. And bird is tied by a cord or a thin thread, our tradition insists that nada (noth- it is still tied. The heart is enslaved by ing), no part of God's creation, can be its idols and no longer free to hear the substituted for God. Only the one who invitation of the Beloved. John identi- is nada (no thing, yet everything) can fies a craving in attachments which be sufficient food for our hunger. makes the person poorly attuned to God. John was convinced that a per- When John of the Cross drew a son becomes like that which she loves. stylized mountain to picture the jour- This false god will encourage a false ney of transformation he drew three self. paths up the mountain. The two outside paths, one of worldly goods, the It is important to emphasize that other of spiritual goods, did not reach the Carmelite tradition does not advo- the top. Only the middle path of the cate withdrawal from the world. It is nadas attained the summit of Carmel. advocating a right relationship with He amplified his teaching in the pic- God's world. Without interpretation ture with several lines of text at the Carmel could be understood to be bottom. The lines of the text were var- saying that involvement with the world iations of the theme, “to possess all, is a hindrance to relationship with possess nothing”. God. On the contrary, it is in God's world that God is met. The text at the bottom of the picture gives insight into John's basic un- Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 19 derstanding of the spiritual journey. give ourselves away to idols? Is not the He agrees that we are made to possess Carmelite critique a challenge to not all, know all, be all, etc. But he also cling to anything, to not make any- understands that we will never have all thing center in one's life, other than if we ask any part of God's creation to the Mystery who haunts our lives. And be sufficient for these hungers. His in that purity of heart, really only counsel to possess nothing in order to achieved by God's spirit, are we able to possess all is a cryptic encouragement love others well and live in this world to never ask some thing (some part of wisely. The Carmelite challenge is to God's creation) to be all. Only the one cooperate with God's love, often dark, who is no-thing can be our All. which is enlivening and healing us.

Such asceticism sounds difficult This continual listening for the unless one understands that John is approach of God, in the middle of all addressing men and women who have the words and structures we have con- tried the other paths in life for fulfill- structed, is a prophetic task for Car- ment. Their hearts have gone out in mel. Which God are we to follow? The search of the one who loved them and gods of our addictions? The gods of they have become enmeshed in life ideologies and limited theologies? The with hearts broken and scattered. gods of oppressive economic and po- John's counsels are words of life for litical systems? The gods of all the people dying for lack of proper nour- “isms” of our time? Or is our God the ishment. He is pointing out the path God who transforms, heals, liberates, of life for pilgrims who have lost their enlivens? way. Archbishop Oscar Romero was a One writer suggested traditional, careful, studious cleric. He that the Carmelite was a good man, reserved, pious, 3.3 vocation is to be prayerful. But his conversion came A prophetic suspended between when he saw another face of Christ, a role heaven and earth, find- face somewhat different from the ing no support in ei- Christ of his piety and prayer, a face ther place. That is a somewhat different from his theology, rather dramatic way of a face different from the Christ famil- saying that ultimately our faith, our iar to the hierarchy of El Salvador. It confidence and trust in God may have was the face of Christ in the face of to be its own support, and God leads the people of El Salvador; it was the us beyond all of our earthly and spir- face of Christ truly incarnated in his- itual constructs. At the end of her life, tory and finding its outlines in the Thérèse of Lisieux found her life-long struggles of his people. Romero said, hope for heaven mocking her. John of We learn to see the face of Christ – the face the Cross reminded us of St. Paul's of Christ that also is the face of a suffering observations: if we already have what human being, the face of the crucified, the we hope for, it is not hope; hope is in face of the poor, the face of a saint, and the what we do not possess. The spirituali- face of every person – and we love each one ty of John of the Cross has been de- with the criteria with which we will be scribed as a continual hermeneutic on judged: “I was hungry and you gave me to the nature of God. eat”.6

Does this suspicion of human in- The idols of our times are not just tentions and constructs make Carmel- personal loves and possessions, but are ites eternally curmudgeons? Or does it especially the idols of power, prestige, allow us to bring a sharp critique re- control, and dominance which leave garding the human heart and its idol- most of humankind looking in at the making propensity? Is it not actually a banquet of life. Romero commented: ministry of liberation, freeing us from all the ways we enslave ourselves and 6Marie Dennis, Renny Golden, Scott Wright, Oscar Romero (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2000), 19. 20 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

The poor person is the one who has been 1. What are the idols, converted to God and puts all his faith in the non- him, and the rich person is one who has not 3.5 negotiables, that been converted to God and puts his confi- Questions have become part dence in idols: money, power, material for of my life? What things....Our work should be directed to- reflection are those things ward converting ourselves and all people to without which I this authentic meaning of poverty.7 cannot go on? Am I hurting them by Many of our provinces have par- clinging so tightly to them? ticipated in confronting the idols of our times through liberation move- 2. Where and how have I become ments in many areas of the world, in- unfree in life? Am I unfree to fol- cluding the Philippines, Latin Ameri- low my deepest desires? Am I un- ca, North America, Africa, Indonesia, free to hear God's call into God's and eastern Europe. Today, the ineq- future, which is dark to me? Am I uities between north and south often unfree to hear my community's point to idols of “isms” which keep a needs? majority of the world in a marginated condition. 3. Have I, unconsciously, been building my kingdom rather than The hungers of our watching for the reign of God? heart send us into the Have I, without being aware of it, 3.4 world seeking nourish- removed God from the center of Summary ment. In many ways we my life and placed in that center ask the world, “Have you my noble goals, my prophetic work, seen the one who did my understanding of the demands this to my heart, causing of the kingdom? Have I slowly it to ache?” Our heart finds itself scat- over the years forgotten to ask, tered over the landscape as we ask “What does God want?” each person and each possession and each activity to tell us more about the 4. Have the passions which brought Mystery at the core of our lives. me to Carmel been domesticated and left to wither? Have I become So enamored by the messengers compulsively active, perhaps be- of God, the soul mistakes them for coming more a functionary of an God. We take the good things of God institution rather than a disciple and ask that they be god. The heart, of the Lord? tired of its pilgrimage, seeks to settle down and make a home. It pours its deepest desires into relationships, possessions, plans, activities, goals, and asks that they bring fulfillment to our deepest hungers. We ask too much from them and they begin to crumble under our expectations. Over and over the Carmelite saints remind us that only God is sufficient food for the hungers of the heart.

7Ibid., 28. Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 21

frequently, and then closed his response with a humble statement about 4 having “written stupidities”. Teresa then chastised him for characterizing the words of St. Paul as “stupidities”. A Listening She said she had a mind to hand him over to the Inquisition. Heart John of the Cross must have re- The contemplative life sponded that “Seek yourself in me” required that she be dead to the world in order to seek herself in God. Tere- sa's answer to him was a prayer to be saved from people as spiritual as John One of the most im- of the Cross. His answer was good for pressive messages from members of the Company of Jesus, she 4.1 our Carmelite saints, said, but not for those she had in God, has been the realiza- mind. Life is not long enough if we always tion that God loves us have to die to the world before we find already first, as we are. Think- God. Teresa pointed to the gospels there ing they were looking and observed that Mary Magdalene for an absent God and was not dead to the world before she that life was a pursuit of met Jesus; nor was the Canaanite God, they returned woman dead to the world before she from their efforts testifying that God asked for crumbs from the table. And had been pursuing them all along. the Samaritan woman had not died to That the story of our lives is not our the world before encountering Jesus search for God, but God's desire for, at the well. She was who she was and and pursuit of, us. The hungers of our Jesus accepted her. Teresa closed her heart, the desire that we are, is the response to John of the Cross by result of God first desiring us and thanking him for answering what she 8 coming to us in love. In time, we may did not ask! be so transformed that we live with a consonance of desire, our human de- Teresa's point is, God meets us sire fully participating in God's desire. and accepts us where we are in our lives. We have been accepted all along. On one occasion, Teresa of Avila The challenge for us is to accept the heard these words in prayer: “Seek acceptance, and allow that accepting yourself in me!” She asked a number Presence to change us. The reality of of her friends and directors in Avila that embrace is the basis for our pray- the meaning of “Seek yourself in me!” er. To pray, then, is to step trustingly Among the respondents were a lay into that relationship as the founda- spiritual director, Francisco de tion of our lives. It is easy to talk Salcedo, her brother Lorenzo de about, but very difficult to live day by Cepeda, and John of the Cross. These day. gentlemen met to discuss their re- sponses but Teresa was absent. So they One theologian summed up Te- sent their replies to her. resa's message in this way: a faithful and perduring attentiveness to our In imitation of academic sparring depths and center is the best coopera- sometimes practiced in the schools, tion we can give to God who is reori- Teresa playfully determined to find enting our life. fault with each answer and gently mock it. We do not have their re- sponses, but we do have her rejections of their answers. One respondent, Francisco de Salcedo, quoted St. Paul 8Teresa of Avila, A Satirical Critique in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, 3, 359-362. 22 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

The Carmelite tradition and called for “victim souls” to ap- can be misread. Carmel pease God's wrath. Nonetheless, when 4.2 could easily appear to be told she could no longer receive Holy Lured by saying to people that a Communion, she simply said it was a love rigorous asceticism will grace when she could receive, and achieve union with God; now that she cannot receive, it is still a that the idols of our lives grace. “Everything is a grace!” can be toppled with our courageous efforts and isolated, rugged living. Thérèse was convinced that God When in fact, Carmel's message to was always present to her, that God people is the necessity for God's grace, loved her, and that this love was freely and the good news that grace is always given; it was absolutely unmerited by available. All we need do is open our her. When speaking of merit, she lives to it. simply said “I have none”.

In The Ascent of Mount Carmel John Thérèse knew about God's jus- of the Cross offers several counsels for tice, and she was aware that devout detaching from the idols which have people often offered themselves as fooled us into their service. The coun- victims to that justice so that sinners sels at first seem unnecessarily restric- may be spared and God appeased. tive and even imbalanced. But John is This God was not familiar to Thérèse. quick to point out that willpower and None of the faces of God in her life asceticism alone cannot free the heart demanded appeasement, not her enslaved to idols. The idol, at least, is mother, or her father, not Pauline, providing some nourishment for the nor Celine, nor Marie, not the God heart hungering for God. The idol the Hebrew Bible who loved little perhaps is providing some joy, some ones, not Jesus who called little ones identity, some security to the famished to him, not the Beloved in the Song of pilgrim. On its own, the heart is not Songs or in the poetry of John of the going to be able to tear itself away Cross. She believed that God is just, from this nourishment and go into an but that this justice will be well aware affective vacuum and await the Lord. of our littleness.

John testifies that it is only when Thérèse of Lisieux was once de- the heart has a better offer can it let scribed as “Vatican II in miniature”. go of what it has been clinging to for The recent attention paid to her mes- dear life. Only when God enters a life sage reminds us that priority should and kindles a love deep in the person be given not to our merits and efforts, that lures the person past lesser loves but to living with confidence and can a person open his or her grasp of trust. Thérèse begins her autobiog- idols. With the invitation of such a raphy with St. Paul's words to the Ro- love, then what was impossible before mans: “So it depends not on human (letting go of one's grasp on idols) will or exertion, but on God who becomes gently possible as idols melt shows mercy”.9 away. The heart then is going from love to love. Because John is con- Thérèse anticipated today's the- vinced that God is the soul's center, ology which understands grace as un- the task is not to find a distant God created grace, the loving, healing pres- but to awake to the reality of a God ence of the Father, Son, and Spirit. who is “always already there”. When we speak of contemplation, we are simply encouraging an openness “Everything is a grace”, said Thé- to this freely given love. God is con- rèse of Lisieux. She expressed this tinually coming toward us inviting us conviction while dying of tuberculosis, more deeply into our lives, into a wid- surrounded by a spirituality which er freedom, and into a loving relation- deeply mistrusted human nature, believed that we had to merit God's love, 9Romans, 9, 16. Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 23 ship. Contemplation is being open to gagement with God's people in vari- that transforming love, no matter how ous ministries. it is approaching. Archbishop Romero was trans- One of the recent formed and converted by God's love developments in the not only in the solitude of his prayer, 4.3 understanding of but in his engagement with the Lord Contemplation the Carmelite char- in history, in the messy efforts of the re-focused ism has been the re- people to find their place at the ban- locating of contem- quet of life. Contemplation should be plation among our the deepest source of compassion for priorities. We had our world. The contemplative is one always spoken about prayer, commu- who has been led into the absolute nity, and ministry as the three corners poverty and powerlessness of a soul of our charism. Contemplation was apart from God. The contemplative seen as a higher or deeper form of learns to wait in hope with all who wait prayer and, at times in our history, in hope for God's mercy. In this con- ministry and contemplation appeared templative listening one learns to say, to be in competition. However, here is “We poor!” a description of contemplation found in the Carmelite Order's recent doc- Our contemplative living, our ument on formation: openness to God's love coming toward ...a progressive and continual transfor- us in good times and bad is the gift we mation in Christ worked in us by the Spirit, can give to others. What happened in by which God attracts us toward Himself by the lives of Carmel's saints, what is means of an interior process which leads happening in the lives of Carmelites from a dispersed periphery of life to the more today, is happening in everyone's life. interior cell of our being, where He dwells We witness best by keeping a focus on and unites us to Himself.10 who we are: a contemplative fraternity living in the midst of the people. We are understanding now that contemplation is an activity which Speaking to the Order's General grounds and links prayer, community, Congregation in 1999 a German Car- and ministry. The door is prayer, but melite stressed this contemplative God's love is offered us in various ways charism: in those realities of our lives and one I strongly believe that our first task is to put can enter into this contemplative quite a bit of our energy, time, and personal openness to God, in other words live a talents and qualities into this process of a life of authentic faith, hope, and love, growing relationship with the God of life through any of those three avenues. and love. Our personal human and spir- They are not pitted one against an- itual growth as well as our future as an other, but they are windows to the Order depend on how much we as individ- transcendent reality at the depth of uals and communities yield to and develop our lives and offer contact with that this intimate friendship with God so that he Mystery. can transform us according to the image of Christ, acting through us for the sake of the It is important to stress this per- Church and the world.11 spective because Carmel has had 800 years of ministry in response to the The story of the Beloved church and God's people, and, God- coming toward the lover willing, will have many more centuries 4.4 to lure her heart into a of unselfish service. And none of it is Summary deep union is the arche- inimical to a contemplative life. Many typal story Carmelites a Carmelite has been transformed into have rehearsed time and a more loving person through en-

11Günter Benker, "Open to the Future of God" in The Mission of Carmel for the Third Milennium (Mel- 10Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitanae, #27. bourne: Carmelite Communications, 1999), 51. 24 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

time again. Our lives cannot be wres- 2. Among the signs of God's love at tled into submission unless led by love. work are a growing trust in the We cannot release our grasp on our mercy of God, and a growing idols unless God kindles a deeper love freedom from what enslaves the in the soul. The heart then has some- heart. Do I experience that great- where to go and can trustingly let go er trust? Am I aware of a greater of its its attachments, its addictions, its freedom? Have I really surren- idols. God's love, always present and dered myself to the Mystery at the offered, lures the heart into God's core of my life, or do I continue wilderness, “deeper into the thicket”12, to struggle to secure my own ex- and there encounters the suffering of istence? the world. Our contemplative stance does not remove us from the world's 3. Have I seen the face of Christ in cares but opens us to the full force of the face of the people I serve? Can its struggle. I recognize the invitation of God's transforming love as it approaches 1. Like “a watch in the cloaked in a culture? night”, do I keep 4.5 alert to the ap- 4. In my community and in my min- Questions proach of God's istry, how can I help create condi- for love? Where in my tions for a “listening heart”? reflection life am I called to a deeper listening? Where are the continual challenges to my mind and heart? Are these challenges invita- tions to surrender more deeply to God's transforming love?

12John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, st. 36. Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 25

in the valley of sorrows. It is good to rehearse their difficulties. 5 For example, many people today can identify with the problems of Thé- A Troubled rèse of Lisieux. As a child Thérèse experienced the loss not only of her real Heart mother, but also of subsequent “mothers” who cared for her. Her The tragic in life fragile psyche knew the sufferings of neuroticism and the debilitation of psycho-somatic illness. She helplessly watched the mental deterioration and eventual institutionalization of her Part of the appeal of father, an heroic figure in her life. She the Carmelite tradi- experienced Carmel as a desert and in 5.1 tion is its honest wres- her final physical and psychological The sorrows tling with the prob- illness she knew the temptation to sui- of humanity lems and dark forces cide. Devotees of Thérèse have never that attack the body been fooled by the sweet exterior. and spirit. Carmel They recognized in her a fellow suf- does not avoid the ferer who knew by experience just tragic in life but deals with it directly. how difficult life can be. And yet, she Suffering is such a major part of peo- testified to a love present in it all ple's experience that a spirituality which will not fail. which does not acknowledge the suffering will be ignored. Carmel's saints Thérèse expressed a life-long de- deeply shared in the difficulties of life. sire to suffer. It had a mysterious at- traction for her, which would be sus- Edith Stein and Titus Brandsma pect had she not related it to love. experienced the depth of human cru- From the time she entered Carmel, elty and inexplicable evil. Thérèse of Thérèse began to experience dryness Lisieux, in her short, hidden life, ex- in prayer and remained in this condi- perienced a surprising amount of suf- tion throughout the rest of her brief fering. Teresa of Avila knew the dam- time in Carmel. And, most amazingly, age caused by warfare both outside much of her autobiography with its and inside her soul. The heavy reputa- especially appealing manuscript “B” tion of John of the Cross, his very was written while Thérèse was suffer- name, and his image of the “dark ing an extremely dark night of the night” speak of a spirituality that is spirit when all was in doubt. The idea serious about coming to terms with of heaven, which had been her life- the dark side of life. Think, too, about long inspiration, was mocking her for the first Carmelites who went to the her belief in it. Cognitively and affec- periphery of society and there, with- tively she had no assurance regarding out distractions, opened their lives to the direction in her life. Meanwhile the inner warfare of evil and good she was writing the beautiful passages spirits. about being love in the heart of the church, and sending inspiring letters People are drawn to a spirituality to her missionary brothers. which finds words for their deepest sorrows, yet offers hope in the heart of Thérèse was undergoing her own these dark times. Carmel's saints, transformation in the furnace of a though of differing centuries and cul- dark love. All she had left was the core tures, entered into the common sor- of faith, confidence and love. When rows of humanity. A pilgrim in any era she encourages us to have trust and to can relate to the sufferings of Carmel's believe that “everything is a grace” she saints and call on them as companions does so not from a position of tangible 26 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

delights in the loving presence of God needs, Teresa wrote, is self-knowledge. but from an experience of God's ab- And the door to self-knowledge, the sence and the taunts of her own mind. door to the interior castle, is prayer Cardinal Daneels wondered if Thérèse and reflection could not be called the “Doctor of Hope” because of her testimony to the Without a prayerful effort, we human possibility to continue on in remain hopelessly locked on the pe- life when all the props have been re- riphery of our lives asking others and moved. God's creation to tell us what only God can tell us, that is, who we are. Teresa of Avila warned Without a true center emerging in our that the battles within lives we live with many “centers”, 5.2 our fragile psyches are fragmented and scattered, asking each The dark much more difficult to fulfill our heart's desires. The pain- love of God than the wars outside ful battle to enter within oneself in us. Teresa had numer- prayer is the only antidote to a stag- ous obstacles to over- nating situation locked in the embrace come in her reform. She had to con- of one's idols. tend with opponents of her reform, purchase appropriate buildings for Modern readers can sympathize her communities, hire men to reno- with Teresa as she rehearses a catalog vate them, raise funds for their of difficulties in her life, including maintenance, recruit community being overly praised and being unfair- members, relate to various ecclesias- ly criticized; she suffered the contra- tics not all of whom were supportive, diction of good men who thought her travel the difficult roads of Spain in prayer experiences were from the dev- extreme conditions, and at times deal il; and daily she dealt with poor with litigation in the courts. health.

However, she reported, these bat- But a most difficult experience tles did not compare with the battles arose just when her relationship with waged within her soul as she prayerful- the Lord was the most intimate. She ly attended to her depths. “...Hearing began to question her entire journey His voice is a greater trial than not and wondered if it were rooted in her hearing it.”13 One would assume, Te- imagination rather than the reality of resa mused, that “going within one- God's presence in her life. Had she self” would be like going home; that simply imagined that God had been the wars outside are one thing, but good to her in the past? Had she been within the soul all is harmonious. good in the past or simply made it up? However, she reported that she went In other words, just when the friend- within herself, and found she was at ship with God would be expected to war with herself. be on solid ground, the question flares up, “Is there anybody home at the Prayer throws light on previously center?” Having given one's life and unexamined corners of the soul. best energy to the following of her Compulsions, addictions, inauthentic perceived call, she began to wonder if ways of living, false selves, and false it were all an illusion. gods all become apparent as the person becomes grounded in truth. This Another way the question has uncomfortable experience can lead to been asked is, “Is the ultimate gra- fear and faint-heartedness, and a cious?” Is whatever or whoever it is all temptation to abandon the journey. about for us? Or are we a useless pas- Teresa's call for courage and determi- sion? Are the immense desires of our nation in the pursuit of a prayer life hearts, the hungers of our soul, meant are not overly-dramatic. What the soul to be ultimately frustrated? Or is there a reality, a love awaiting us equal to 13Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, The Second Dwelling Places, chap. 1, no. 2. Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 27 our yearning? These questions get to could not distinguish god-symbols the heart of the human journey. from self-symbols. When an individual loses her God-symbol the personality Time and perseverance, and begins to disintegrate. This dark con- God's grace, eventually answered Te- dition lasts until a new god-symbol resa's doubts. She later reports the emerges or a new relationship devel- absence of such gnawing doubts and ops with the old god-symbol. the surety of a profound, but not pre- occupying, relationship with the Lord. The counsel of John of the Cross But even in that condition she identi- during these crises in life is most help- fies as the “spiritual marriage” she still ful. He assures us that God's love is reports that she trusts suffering more. somewhere present in the debris of Not as hard on herself as when she was our life, but it will not be experienced locked out of herself and locked into as love initially. John encourages pa- the periphery of her life, she still knew tience, trust, and perseverance. This that the disciple of Jesus would carry loving activity of God is freeing us the cross, and through the cross life from idols and restoring health to the would emerge. She did not artificially soul. “Gods” are dying in the night constructs crosses in her life, but she and the soul needs to undergo a griev- did not dodge the crosses life pre- ing process. The wrong path would be sents. She had learned to trust in the to artificially solve or heal the condi- sometimes dark love of God. tion, or deny it altogether. John encourages facing the condition, enter- The dark night meta- ing into it with patience, and there phor of John of the where the heart is struggling hardest 5.3 Cross reminds us that to be alert for the approach of love. Dark nights the experience of John calls for a “loving attentiveness” God's love is not always in the dark; it is time to be a watch in a peak experience of the night. Contemplation is an open- the unity of all crea- ness to God's transforming love, espe- tion. In the dark night God's love ap- cially when it approaches in such a proaches in a way which seems to ne- disguised manner. gate us. In the night God seems over against us. Nothing in the loves is dark An intense experience which or destructive, John maintains, but John calls the night of the spirit is because of who we are and the purifi- simultaneously a powerful experience cation we need the love is experienced of our sinfulness, the finiteness of our as dark. human condition, and God's ever- emerging transcendence. While in this John provides an especially pow- condition, words are meaningless. erful description of times in life when John writes it is time to “put one's consolations evaporate and prayer is mouth in the dust”. All one can do is all but impossible. Desire is still pre- the next loving thing which presents sent but it has exhausted itself looking itself. In this desert the pilgrim con- for relief from its idols. Theologian tinues the journey in life, relying only Karl Rahner commented that all sym- on the guidance of a truly biblical phonies in life remain unfinished. In faith. John is convinced that only this every relationship, in every possession purified faith is the context for a an incompleteness will eventually sur- proper relationship with God. As with face. This frustration of desire and the Thérèse of Lisieux's disappearing lure of something more or beyond is thought of heaven, the pilgrim no the unease caused by God's continual longer possess the object of her hope, invitation into deeper union. and is reminded that hope is in what we do not possess. When gods die in the night, the personality goes into an eclipse. Psy- John's writings do not wallow in chologist Carl Jung observed that he suffering. His poetry, and their com- 28 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

mentaries, are all written from the to include the modern world's suffer- other side of the struggles. The night ings: has become an illuminating experi- Our age has known times of anguish which ence and a truer guide than day. The have made us understand this expression flame which once burned now cauter- better and which have furthermore given it izes and heals. And the absence which a kind of collective character. Our age drove him in search of the Beloved speaks of the silence or absence of God. It has revealed a compassionate Pres- has known so many calamities, so much ence hidden within his longing. suffering inflicted by wars and by the de- struction of so many innocent beings. The Contemporary Carmel's term dark night is now used of all of life witnesses to a faith main- and not just of a phase of the spiritual 5.4 tained in the midst of journey. The Saint's doctrine is now in- A new abject suffering are the voked in response to this unfathomable spirituality concentration camp vic- mystery of human suffering. tims, Titus Brandsma I refer to this specific world of suffer- and Edith Stein. ing ....Physical, moral and spiritual suffer- Brandsma resisted Nazi propaganda ing, like sickness - like the plagues of hun- and Stein identified with her perse- ger, like war, injustice, solitude, the lack of cuted people. They were caught in the meaning in life, the very fragility of human undertow of the 20th century's power- existence, the sorrowful knowledge of sin, ful expression of societal evil. In their the seeming absence of God - are for the experience of being stripped of all believer all purifying experiences which security and support these Carmelites might be called night of faith. witnessed to the possibility of a faith, To this experience St. John of the Cross hope, and love lived in the bleakest of has given the symbolic and evocative name conditions. In recognizing their wit- dark night, and he makes it refer explicitly ness the Church confirms the authen- to the plight and obscurity of the mystery of ticity of their lives and places them faith. He does not try to give to the appal- among those who have risked every- ling problem of suffering an answer in the thing in their following of Christ. The speculative order; but in the light of the Rule of Carmel leads to various forms Scripture and of experience he discovers of discipleship, but all forms eventual- and sifts out something of the marvelous ly embrace the Cross. transformation which God effects in the darkness, since “He know how to draw The generals of two Carmelite good from evil so wisely and beautifully” orders called for a “new spirituality” to (Cant. B 23:5). In the final analysis, we complement the “new evangelization”. are faced with living the mystery of death Will that new spirituality grow out of and resurrection in Christ in all truth.14 Carmel's ever-increasing awareness of the realities people are experiencing Carmel has no answer around the word? As the face of Car- for the mystery of evil. mel changes and new members enter 5.5 But Carmel has traveled the Order, especially from populous, Summary the hard road and offers poor countries, the situation of the a word of hope for the world's masses is brought to the first- tearful pilgrim. Deep world's doorstep. The internationality sorrow and experiences of the Order and international bonds of the tragic are part of everyone's life. forged in the family of Carmel give us The limitations of our human condi- a unique opportunity to hear the Spir- tion and the destructive forces loose in it in many diverse contexts, and the the world often assault our faith. De- opportunity to be challenged to re- spite all evidence to the contrary, spond. Carmel testifies that God's love is always present in the debris of our lives. John Paul II has amplified John of the Cross' image of the dark night 14Master in Faith, Apostolic Letter of John Paul II in Walking Side by Side with All Men and Women (Rome: Institutum Carmelitanum, 1991), 22, 23. Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 29

1. What has been my Carmel brings a particularly experience of walking powerful analysis of the impact of 5.6 a dark way? Have I God's love on the human spirit and Questions been able to let go of personality. Invited into an ever- for known paths to be led deeper relationship, the pilgrim is reflection by a way not of my challenged to let go of all supports choosing? What, par- and walk trustingly into God's future. ticularly, was most A Christian often experiences assaults helpful? on both spirit and psyche as he or she is accommodated to the divine milieu. 2. How do I proceed when the way is Carmel offers expressive language and not clear? images for these sufferings, and is most eloquent in urging a silent vigil 3. What solace or guidance does for God's approach. Carmel offer to people living in distressing situations? Carmel's saints trusted suffering, and often expressed a yearning to 4. How should the Order respond to bear the cross in their discipleship. the “dark night” suffered by many However, this desire for suffering is peoples in the world? Could this most meaningful in the context of a be part of the “new spirituality” loving response to God initiatives. The urged by the Carmelite and Dis- suffering of Jesus on the cross was calced Carmelite generals? born because of love, not because of a love of suffering. 30 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

NOTES Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 31

John uses another image for the journey, 6 6.2 besides traveling An through a night or awakening climbing a mountain. A Pure Heart He writes that “The soul's center is God” Transformation of desire and that our journey in life is to that center.15 But, instead of envisioning a

distant center requiring an arduous

journey, John says that even with one

degree of love we are in the center! With Carmelite spirituality one degree of desire, of yearning, of has frequently been hope, no matter how inarticulate, we 6.1 presented as a “high” are in the center. Union with spirituality, a rarefied

God spirituality for the cho- Our theology today reinforces sen few. It is often pre- John's observation. Strictly speaking, sented as soaring ec- there is no natural world. It is a graced static unions, or dra- world, from the beginning, creation matic sufferings more intense than the and redemption going hand in hand. usual troubles in life. Images come to In other words, our lives are permeat- mind of Bernini's statue of Teresa's ed with the loving, enlivening, healing “transverberation”, her vision of being presence of God, uncreated grace. pierced by a golden dart with all the Instead of searching for a hidden cen- accompanying ecstasy and agony. ter, the center has come to us.

John of the Cross's stark drawing So, what is the journey? The of Christ on the Cross, from the per- journey, said John, is to go deeper in- spective of the Father looking down to God. But we are in union with God on his crucified Son, evokes the un- all the way; divinization is a continual remitting single-mindedness of the process. So, the goal described by our saint. Or one thinks of John's drawing Carmelite authors is one taking place showing the way up Mount Carmel. in each soul who only feebly desires The paths of material and spiritual more. possessions do not reach the top; only the middle path of the nadas opens to “And now you awake in my heart, the top where God is and nada todo where in secret you dwelt all along”, (no thing, yet everything!). Carmel wrote John of the Cross. But in his seems to represent an heroic, even commentary he corrects himself and epic journey to God. And it is only for says, “It was not ‘you’ who awoke, but experienced mountaineers who dare it was I who awoke to the love always scale its heights. present and continually offered me”.

This awakening, and the difference it If the ascent of Mount Carmel is makes in a person's life, is Carmel's such an epic feat, what are we ordi- call. A conclusion we could draw is nary Carmelites doing here? Do we that many, many Carmelites and cer- sometimes feel we are guardians of a tainly others as well reach the so-called tradition we have never really experi- “heights” of Carmel. The heights are enced? Do we feel that we often are approached, not when someone drops reporting second hand accounts of off their pew in a swoon, but when a the land that is Carmel, but have nev- life more and more is expressing er really been there ourselves? As a God's will. result of our transformation in love,

“We become god!” John of the Cross boldly proclaims. How rare is this divinization celebrated in our tradition? 15John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, st. 1, number 12. 32 • Seasons of the Heart Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project

“The purpose of prayer less and less an object of focus. Not is conformity with even God preoccupies them, because 6.3 God's will”, wrote Te- in all the ways they are living they are To want resa of Avila. The expressing their relationship with what God prayerful person is God. The goal was never to be a con- wants more and more in un- templative, or a saint, or to have a spir- ion with God and this itual life. The goal was always to want union is expressed in what God wants, in a consonance of the individual more and more wanting desire. what God wants. We do not get tough- er ascetically and thereby wrestle our In the conclusion of the Carmel- will into submitting to God's will. No, ite Rule, Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem God's love lures us into a transfor- and the law-giver, writes “Here then mation of our desire so that we desire are a few points I have written down to what God desires; we want what God provide you with a standard of con- wants. John reported, “What you de- duct to live up to; but our Lord, at his sire me to ask for, I ask for; and what Second Coming will reward anyone who you do not desire, I do not desire, nor does more than he is obliged to do”.17 Kees can I, nor does it even enter my mind Waaijman of the Brandsma Institute in to desire it”.16 Nijmegen sees this statement as a clear allusion to the Good Samaritan story. Divinization is the gradual partic- The Carmelite is placed in the role of ipation is God's knowing and loving. innkeeper. His plans and orderly The pilgrim is so transformed that all house are upset when a stranger their ways of living become expressive brings a beaten man to be cared for. of God's will. If we may interpret Jesus The stranger asks the innkeeper to as saying that God's will is the well- take care of the beaten man, and if the being of humanity, then the prayerful innkeeper incurs further expense, i.e. does person is more and more living in a more, the stranger will compensate him way which furthers that well-being. In when he returns. other words, the transformed, divi- nized person is living in a way which The stranger, Christ, asks the cooperates with God's present and Carmelite to take care of His people coming reign. in His absence. The guest is unex- pected, the order of the house is dis- These people are hard to identify. turbed. But the innkeeper dutifully Meister Eckhart warns us that some- takes care of the wounded person, one living from their center very natu- perhaps without emotional investment rally lives in accord with God's will. He or ego-involvement, and maybe with says while others fast, they are eating; very little satisfaction. Kees concludes while others keep vigil, they are that all real giving is essentially dark. asleep; and while others pray, they are The Presence met deep in Carmelite silent. After all, what is the purpose of hearts is a night that guides, a flame the vigil, the prayer, the fasting, if not that heals, an absence that reveals. to live out of the soul's center, which is God. Of course, he is exaggerating Friars need make no apologies to make a point since our pilgrimage for not being true Carmelites. Our is never finished this side of death. spirituality is not about heroic asceti- The point, I take it, is the absolute cism; it is about God's all-conquering humanness of the transformed per- love, a love that has touched every son. heart and made it ache; otherwise we would not be here. Teresa tells us that these people are not even continually conscious of their spiritual life. Interiority becomes 17Carmelite Constitutions 1995, (Rome and Middle Park Victoria, Australia: Carmelite Communications, 1996), 5. The Rule may also be found in John Welch, 16John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, st. 1, O. Carm., The Carmelite Way (Mahwah, New Jer- no. 36. sey: Paulist Press, 1996), 175-181. Horizons – Carmelite Spiritual Directory Project Seasons of the Heart • 33

Realizing that we are naturally at may describe the goal of God's desire home on the heights of Carmel, or as the well-being of humanity, then better, in the arms of God, and still the transformed Christian is living in a always in need of God's mercy, our manner which naturally cooperates spiritual ministry is to make available with the reign of God. Carmel's tradition to help our brothers and sisters “see” and “hear” the presence of God in their own lives. 1. Who are the truly holy people in my In order to tend this flame in 6.5 experience? What others, it seems right that we will have Questions do they look like? come to terms with it in our own lives. for If we listen to our hearts, we will know reflection 2. Do I understand the hearts of the people with whom we the spiritual life as live and minister. Dust off any Carmel- an heroic ascent, ite vocation and you will usually find a or an awakening to a love always glowing ember waiting to be fanned offered from the core of my be- into a flame, a flame that yearns for ing? wholeness, peace, security, joy, unity and that finds its best expression in 3. Am I able to trust, in practical service of our brothers and sisters. ways, that God's love is freely giv- That is why we came. That is why we en, unable to be earned? Are stay. there subtle ways I try to guarantee my worth? “Entering Carmel” is not simply a matter of 4. “Relax, it has been done!” said 6.4 entering a building, one theologian of grace. What Summary joining a community, might that expression mean? and taking on a ministry, whether of prayer or apostolic mission. It is that, certainly, but “entering Carmel” is also entering a drama playing out deep within every human life. That drama of the human spirit encountered by God's Spirit is essentially inexpressible.

Carmelites are explorers of an inner place of intimacy with God, a fine point of the human spirit where it is addressed by Mystery. Carmel hon- ors that pristine, privileged relationship between creature and Creator. Carmelite mystics have used bridal imagery and, regularly, the love story of the Song of Songs to capture the intimacy of this encounter. The landscape of the Song begins to give shape to the “land of Carmel”.

The purpose of prayer is conformity with God's will, writes Teresa of Avila. In this relationship the desires of the pilgrim are transformed so that more and more the life of a Christian is expressing desires which are in accord with God's desire. If we