O beautiful flower of Carmel, most fruitful vine, holy and singular, who did bring forth the Son of God, ever still remaining a pure Virgin, assist us in our necessity.
Oh Star of the Sea, help and protect us.
Show us that thou art our Mother.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel,
pray for us.
Amen
Day 1
*Pray the Flos Carmeli
I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.
Hosea 2:14
Mary, Queen of Carmel, take us to the places where God spoke to your heart. Teach our hearts to soften, to open as yours did, that we might hear what the Lord has to say in that tender voice of his. Clear our minds of their scurrying, and help us to be still. Lead us, gentle star, into the deepest depths of quiet and peace by your side. Draw us into the Heart of Jesus.
Spend a quiet moment with Mary now. Walk with her in silence the craggy path to the peaks of Mt. Carmel overlooking the sea. A gentle breeze flutters her veil. Watching, you realize the breeze is a voice speaking to you, that it is the Holy Spirit. What does the Spirit say to you as it ruffles your hair and kisses your face?
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.
Day 2
*Pray the Flos Carmeli
The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.
Isaiah 35:1
In you, Mary, the Word was treasured as you meditated in your heart, and in you the Gospel blossomed abundantly. Your soul and your body were miraculously fruitful. In your humble simplicity the Spirit crowned you with splendor and glory beyond our understanding. But when I see you, Mary, you are quiet and smiling- your ornaments all within. Teach us to adorn ourselves with humility and simplicity. Draw us after you by the scent of your flowers of the heart, warmed by the sun that is the Lord’s joy shining on us.
Spend a quiet moment with Mary now. She is walking in a field of wildflowers. Catch up to her. She is picking flowers and filling the hem of her mantle with them. She motions to you and you offer her the bottom of your shirt for the overflow. She smiles and begins to fill the pocket you made for all these flowers. You have to sit down so she can fill your lap too. Lift some to your face and breathe in their scent.
Mary, beauty and glory of Carmel, pray for us
Day 3
*Pray the Flos Carmeli
Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.
Mark 3:33-35
Mary, you leapt to do the will of God at every sign of it with the love and trust of a little child, with the courage of a warrior bold. You were not only the physical Mother of the Lord, you were his spiritual mother and sister as well. You not only pondered the word of God given to you, but acted on it. Always you “arose and went with haste” wherever the Spirit called you. Teach us to listen, ponder, pray and to act on God’s word to us as you did unfailingly.
*Spend a quiet moment with Mary now. She puts a plate of food in front of you; bread, lentils and dates perhaps. She sits down to eat with you. As you bless the food together, you think, “Let us eat the bread of the will of God.” She smiles at you. You know you will have everything you need to do just that. And this is really good food, too.
Mary, Mother of the Word, pray for us.
Day 4
*The Flos Carmeli
God lives. I am standing in his presence. – The Prophet Elijah . (See 1Kings 17:1)
Mother of Carmel, you tended the fire of continual awareness of God’s presence in your heart daily as you swept the floor, made dinner, worked in the fields, held your Child, shopped in the market, loved and served the people around you. Open our hearts to perceive God within us, and in our daily lives; among the pots and pans, in the work we do daily, in the stolen moment of quiet, in the breaths before sleep. Help us come into the glow of constant contact with God you lived in within you and around you. Teach us the Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence)
*Spend a quiet moment with Mary now, tending the hearth, keeping the fire burning brightly, talking with her about this and that. Feel the fire’s warm glow on your face. She leans her head on your shoulder.
Mother in whose heart we live, where we find our Beloved, pray for us.
(St. Maryam of Jesus Crucified said, “I live in the Heart of my Mother. There I find my Beloved.”)
Day 5
*The Flos Carmeli
The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.
Habakkuk 2:20
Mary you were the temple of the Lord in a unique way. How beautifully you show us the truth that we who love Jesus are his temples too. Help us to make time to be alone and silent before God in the temple of our hearts with the One who we know loves us. (Teresa of Avila) As you did, let us cherish the Lord within us, love him, know him, listen to him, silently speak to him, look at him and let him look at us.
Take Mary’s hand now and allow her to lead you gently to your inner Temple where Jesus waits. Be there for a moment.
Mother of Divine Love, pray for us.
Day 6
*Pray the Flos Carmeli
I have set myself in silence and peace,
as a little child has rest in in it’s mother’s arms,
even so my soul.
Psalm 131: 2
Oh Mary, the lowly handmaid, the simple girl who loved God in your littleness, teach us to be little too. Help us to be humble in your easy, joyful way. Help us to be free to run lightly in God’s paths, to laugh easily, to dance without thinking, to be happy in his world that is so beautiful, and vast. The world around us is sign of his creative love, a glimpse of the Kingdom to come we are helping to make present by being little and humble in the arms of Jesus.
Spend a quiet moment playing with the little Mary a game you loved as a child. Let her throw her arms around you then. Hug her back.
Child Mary, little, humble and free, pray for us.
Day 7
*The Flos Carmeli
As Elisha watched, [Elijah being taken up to Heaven] he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And he saw Elijah no more. So taking hold of his own clothes, he tore them in two. Elisha also took up the mantle that had fallen from Elijah. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. And when he had struck the waters, they parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over.…
2 Kings 2: 12-14
Holy Mother and Queen of Carmel, your Scapular is your prophetic mantle over our shoulders, a sign of our consecration to you, our silent devotion to you all though the day and during the night when we sleep figuratively wrapped in it’s protection.. The Brown Scapular is your hand on on our shoulder as we travel the Royal Road of prayer, and in the good works you lead us to. Help us to go forward with courage, to stand confidently as your children; seeing as you see, loving as you love, and serving from the heart. Help us to live as worthy sons and daughters of so wonderful a Mother.
*Spend a moment with Our Lady now. Lay your scapular in her lap and let her kiss it and put in on you again over your head and shoulders.
Mary, spiritual daughter of Elijah the Prophet, pray for us who wear your Scapular.
Day 7
*The Flos Carmeli
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galations 6:2
Mary, in Carmel you are not only Mother and Queen, you are our sister and friend. Friends bear one another’s burdens. We know that you have always helped us bear our burdens and that you hear our sorrows. We want you to know we are here for you too. Share with us the sorrows of your loving heart, your concerns for your children. We know you always lead people to your Son, that you love us all, that human cruelty breaks your heart terribly. Help us to care about all that you care about, to listen to you, and to do something to help you in your mission to humanity, to be your kindly hands in this world where there is so much hate and indifference. Help us to find joy in all that you take joy in, the good things people do, the beauty to be seen, the love that is there in everything.
*Spend a quiet moment with Mary. Sit with her at her kitchen table maybe with tea or coffee. Ask her what she wants to tell you about. What does she say? Maybe today you can act on one of her concerns.
Mary, our friend and Sister, pray for us.
Day 8
Pray the Flos Carmeli
Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
1 Kings 17:3-6
Mary, as Elijah did, you allowed the Lord to protect and take care of you, to take care of everything. You hid in the heart of God, drinking deeply from the stream of Divine Love. With you let us learn to hear the still, small voice of God, to let him care for us when we are afraid of the consequences of doing as he asks us. Remind us that when we hear him and respond, he will give us all that we need every time, just as he did for Elijah and for you.
*Spend a quiet moment with Mary now. Watch her as she fills a clay jar with water from the stream. It’s a sunny balmy morning. Birds are singing. You can hear the brook flowing. She brings you the water to drink. Drink deeply.
Mary, help of Christians, and Mother of Mystics, pray for us.
Day 9
Like a cedar in Lebanon I grew tall,
like a cypress on Mount Hermon;
I grew tall like a palm tree in Engedi,
like rosebushes in Jericho;
Like a fair olive tree in the field,
like a plane tree beside water I grew tall.
Like cinnamon and fragrant cane,
like precious myrrh I gave forth perfume;
Like galbanum and onycha and mastic,
like the odor of incense in the holy place.
I spread out my branches like a terebinth,
my branches so glorious and so graceful.
I bud forth delights like a vine;
my blossoms are glorious and rich fruit.
Come to me, all who desire me,
and be filled with my fruits.
You will remember me as sweeter than honey,
better to have than the honeycomb.
Those who eat of me will hunger still,
those who drink of me will thirst for more.
Whoever obeys me will not be put to shame,
and those who serve me will never go astray.
Sirach 24:13-22
Mary, Mother and Queen of Carmel, you are all of this and more to us, our beauty, our joy, our wisdom, our love for you an incense offered to the Lord who loves you even more than we can. Today we consecrate ourselves to you, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. We dedicate our lives to God’s beauty and glory, and to yours. We belong to you, to your Son, to light and life and love. We want to spend our lives in the sweet companionship of your Spirit.
*Spend a quiet moment with Mary now. She is luminous in loveliness, as if she were made of light. You kneel before her. Closing your eyes, to pray, then opening them to see her again, you realize you are next to her in the kitchen. She is chopping vegetables. Join her. Stay with her all day.
Mary, Mother and Queen of Carmel, our Sister the Throne of Wisdom, pray for us.
I dreamed about the Prophet Elijah a couple weeks ago. We were sitting on a mountainside talking.The conversation we had is lost to me for the most part. It seemed significant that I dreamed of him. In the time following, I re-read the stories of Elijah’s life in Scripture.
*You can find these in 1 Kings chapters 17-19, and 21,
2 Kings Chapters 1-2, and in Sirach 48:1-11.
The pattern of his life that stood out to me as I read and reflected, is the path of the holy activist.
Elijah embodies the prophetic response to times of upheaval and injustice. He is an icon of a prophet arising in a time of darkness, burning like a torch. He spoke truth to power, confronted corruption, and defended the vulnerable. He drew his strength and inspiration from God as he served the hungry, healed the sick, and returned to a hostile land he had run in fear from. Sometimes he was afraid for his life, frustrated, burned out. Then he charged back into the fray, blazing, lit by God’s transforming love. Elijah’s life is a map lighting the path of the holy activist.
Elijah confronted corrupt leaders
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were horrible, shameless, lawless people. They were greedy, murderous, corrupt idolaters and false accusers leading the people into apostasy. Elijah confronted them several times over killing the prophets and destroying God’s altars, taking from and murdering the poor, warning of consequences to come.
During one of his confrontations with Ahab, the king called Elijah his enemy, blaming him for causing trouble. This happens a lot to anyone who speaks up against wrongdoing. Elijah doesn’t care what the King says. He contradicts him briefly, undeterred. He doesn’t let himself be drawn into argument. He delivers God’s message with its warning and walks away, leaving the results in God’s hands.
If you have to call out corruption or injustice, remember to detach from what happens after you have spoken. You can do your part and the rest is up to the hearers to choose how to respond.
Elijah spoke truth to power
Baal, a pagan god whose worship included child sacrifice, was popular at the time just as destructive ideologies have so much sway now. Elijah was the only prophet of the God of Israel left and the Queen was trying to kill him as well. Sometimes we have to speak the truth at great risk.
Elijah called the priests of Baal to meet him for a duel between their false god and the true God of Israel. The prophet of God stands alone against 450 priests of Baal and before his own people who had gone over to them. He trusted God to act. Dramatically and miraculously, God came through, sending fire from Heaven to consume Elijah’s sacrifice.
God will give us everything we need to do as he asks; to stand up and speak out even if we are all alone in doing so, he is with us.
Elijah made use of humor
I want to add that Elijah made fun of the prophets of Baal as they called to their false god. He taunted them sarcastically about whether their god was sleeping, or deaf or busy. “Maybe you should yell a little louder.”
Making fun of the powerful can be a good thing at times like these so we aren’t overcome by fear or hopelessness. Those late night comedians keep me going sometimes. I’m all for it. After all, Elijah ends up slaying the false prophets and there are more ways than one to slay.
So if you can, find ways to laugh. Bring the powerful down to size with humor.
Elijah served the needy with faith and compassion
After a time of frustration and even despair, God sends Elijah on a journey to help a poor widow and her son who are on the brink of starvation.
By the prophet’s prayers and the woman’s trust, her oil jug never runs dry and her flour jar never runs out of flour until the famine is over.
Elijah prayed over her son when he fell ill and died while he was there, which brought the child back to life. Elijah shows himself to be a man of profound compassion and faith. His service to the widow renews him and helps him grow.
If you’re freaking out, an act of kindness or service will help your perspective and give you peace.
Defending the poor and oppressed
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel conspired to take the ancestral land of a man named Naboth after he refused to sell. It was already against Jewish law to press someone to sell their family land. Then Jezebel arranged false accusations against Naboth because of which he was executed. Then the King took over the man’s land. Naboth stands for all of the poor who suffer injustice and oppression, from the greed of the rich and powerful, from unjust systems.
Always defend the poor and oppressed and be sure that even if you don’t think you succeed in doing so, God will, either now or in the future.
Being guided by God, motivated by love
One of the times Elijah was in hiding, God asked him, “Elijah, what are you doing?” Elijah pours out his heart to the Lord. He tells him how scared he is with the Queen trying to have him killed. Then he tells God of his burning, intense love for him, which is the spark of his zeal. This is what it means to be a holy activist. Our inspiration, our strength, our courage to confront people in power, our compassion, our hunger and thirst for righteousness, are all from God.
Now and then it’s important for an activist of faith to do some soul searching with God. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Is God with you on this?
Elijah experienced burnout and renewal
Twice in Elijah’s life story, we see him in hiding, scared and frustrated, overwhelmed to the point he wants to die and asks God to let him. He suffers from exhaustion, fear, frustration and self doubt. Twice God comes to him like a gentle parent, giving him bread, telling him to drink some water and have something to eat. Elijah rests, gets some sleep, and is fed by God until he is ready for a new mission, and sets out restored and reassured.
If you’re overwhelmed or burned out, let God care for you for a while. Rest, get extra sleep, until you’re ready and receive new guidance.
Elijah encounters God profoundly
God calls Elijah to the mouth of the cave he has been staying in, and invites him to experience him passing by. There is a mighty wind, but the wind is not God. There is an earthquake but neither is this God. When Elijah hears a “still, small voice” within himself, in a gesture of reverence as he covers his face with his cloak, recognizing the presence of the Lord.
Draw from the Source of all life, and practice attentiveness to God’s presence at all times. You will grow exponentially in love, strength and compassion, reflecting the Lord you love and listen to.
Elijah mentored the next generation to take on the work
An important part of activism is handing on the spirit of the work to the next generation. Elijah, after training Elisha at his side, grants him a double portion of his spirit before he is taken up to heaven. Elisha takes the mantle of his mentor over his shoulders, going on to do the great work of a prophet.
Whatever form of activism or mission you are involved in, always take time to talk to interested young people and pass on your wisdom and experience.
I’ve been so worried about so many things going on in our country, in our world. Maybe you have been too. Let us look to the Prophet Elijah to light our way, asking him for a double portion of his spirit, praying for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out. * from the 11th Step of AA
“The lord lives! I am standing in his presence.”
*Antiphon from the Carmelite proper, feast of Elijah the Prophet, July 20
if you’re dealing with a profound loss, the after effects of tragedy or post traumatic stress you may be feeling spiritually dead. Maybe you think you’ve lost your faith or that God has left you. It may be helpful for you to know there are neurological reasons for this apparent loss of your spiritual senses.
When there is a traumatic event or a terrible loss in our lives, our brains are actually affected. Trauma can disrupt the brain’s ability to process spiritual experiences by affecting its prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal lobes. These areas are also involved in emotional regulation, memory, and our sense of self, even our feeling of connection with something greater than ourselves. Dysfunction in these regions can lead to a disconcerting loss of or distortion in a person’s spiritual life. It’s difficult for us to feel God with us, or to reach the peace we used to find in prayer and the practice of our faith.
The prefrontal cortex is responsible for self-reflection and focus. It helps us in practices like contemplative prayer and meditation by supporting awareness and attention. When this part of the brain is dealing with trauma we can’t seem to relax. We may feel void of any spirituality at all. Even the sacraments we believe in feel oddly empty as if we are merely spectators. Everything may seem meaningless to us now because the brain is preoccupied with stress and survival due to its injuries from trauma.
The amygdala and hippocampus process emotions, especially fear and joy. It gives us a sense of our life stories, of our own history. Spiritual experiences often evoke intense emotions and build on a relationship with God that we have developed over time. Trauma can even shrink the hippocampus . It may be hard to remember the love we once knew with God. Without this memory of the lived experience of God’s love and mercy, it’s hard to trust the Lord or that he is still there at all.
With post traumatic stress the amygdala becomes hyperactive, keeping our brains in a state of fear and hypervigilance. We might also feel emotionally overwhelmed and dysregulated making daily life difficult let alone communion with God.
The temporal lobes of the brain are associated with mystical experiences, and our perception of religious imagery. They also help us integrate our sensory experiences in life into spiritual meaning. Sustaining trauma can cause either overactivation or underactivation of the temporal lobes. This can lead to either intense visions or else fear-based religious thoughts. On the other hand, we may feel emotionally and spiritually blank. Where is God?
“God my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:33-34
Our anterior cingulate cortex helps us feel empathy and compassion. It’s also involved in the regulation of emotions and our sense of the Divine.The damage of trauma can impair the ACC. We may feel lost, cut off emotionally from our friends. We feel empty and alienated from people and God.
“Friend and neighbor you have taken away.
My one companion is darkness.” Ps. 88:18
The insula processes sensations and emotions, contributing to a sense of the nearness of God or a feeling of transcendence during prayer or meditation.Trauma can impair the functioning of the insula leading to either low body awareness or too much of it. We can feel a strange detachment from our bodies, unaware of even our physical needs. Conversely we may be overwhelmed by physical sensations, making it hard to relax or focus when we want to pray.
The good news is that contemplative prayer and meditation have been shown to be healing and even restorative to these areas of the brain impaired by trauma. Interior prayer practices and meditation can calm the amygdala, improve prefrontal cortex regulation, and enhance the connectivity of the ACC and insula, restoring emotional balance and renewing our sense of connection.
It means a lot to me that Jesus experienced trauma and that he allowed himself to descend into the depths of the abyss of abandonment when he cried out from the cross his desolation.
St. John of the Cross taught about the “Dark Night of the Soul,” a phase of the spiritual life of many Christian contemplatives and mystics, which seems to have similar effects as trauma does on our prayer life. St. John of the Cross wrote that “in the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.” He teaches us that God is nearer than ever before at times we feel he is farthest away. He says to go on “naked faith” and not to give up.
I have found it true that “God is close to the broken hearted, those whose spirit is crushed he will save.” (Psalm 34:18)
So if you are grieving a tragedy, experiencing trauma or post traumatic stress, and your’re having trouble with spirituality as a result don’t blame yourself. You haven’t done anything wrong. Nor have you lost God.
We know Mary and Joseph were holy and faithful people but they still lost Jesus for three days. Maybe you feel bereft but he is still there in the temple of your heart and you will find him again just as they did.
It’s ok to pray in ways you can handle. Don’t hold yourself to what you used to do. For me emotional overwhelm kept me from deeper methods of prayer after a tragedy in my life. I talked to Jesus about it. I told him, “I still love you. I just need you not to come so close for now. Can you sit farther away but still nearby?” So he sat with me but not too close. I chose what felt to me a less personal or emotional method of prayer. I memorized psalms, set prayers or passages from the mystics I love like St. Teresa of Avila and Julian of Norwich. When I could handle it I sat quietly and slowly went over them in my mind as a form of prayer/meditation. Other times all I could do was hold my rosary. These things slowly began to bring me peace again.
My friend Jim had said “the devil will try to kick you when you’re down and darkness tries to overwhelm you at times like this so keep doing the things that are of light: the rosary, going to mass, whatever you can do.” He said that would keep my lamp alight no matter what I was going through. He was right.
And after all:
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
“We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.”
St. Teresa teach me how to find Jesus within myself where you say he is enthroned in the center of my heart. Show me how to go within, to see his beauty, know his tenderness. You overcame impediments from the world, and reluctance of your own, to seek him and keep him company with growing love and joy. Lead me in the first steps onto the Royal Road of prayer meant for me, so that I may walk in the glow of your lamp held high to light my way.
Pray now a slow, attentive Our Father.
Day 2 The Sacred Humanity of Jesus
“Never set aside the Sacred Humanity of Christ. To do so is to lose your anchor.”
We are not Angel spirits as St. Teresa pointed out. We are human. We need a hug. We need to know that Jesus had and has hands and feet, had to blow his nose sometimes, that he sweated over his work, that his feet were often dirty in his sandals from all that walking he did, that he cried, that he laughed that he needed his friends as well as time alone. He knows all the stars by name but he also knows and cares about every tear we shed. He is glory beyond glory but when he takes our hands we can feel that they are work roughened and warm. You can trace your thumb along the deep scar in his palm.
Let yourself be captured by his eyes; dark and lovely. Ask him now: Jesus be real to me.
Day 3: Friendship with Christ
“It is a great thing to have experienced the friendship of Jesus Christ, because the friendship of His Majesty is full of love and reward.”
St. Teresa’s spirituality is rooted in friendship with Jesus, which implies intimacy, informality, and mutuality. She cautioned us not to be irreverent toward the Lord. She often called him “Your Majesty” when she spoke to him. At the same time she had a complete trust in his love and regard for her as his friend, his dear friend, a friend he trusted and loved to be with. She loved him back in a deeply personal way. She strove to bring her loving attentiveness to his presence into all that she did throughout the day, and to make time to be alone with him in conversation or sweet silence.
Jesus no longer calls us servants but friends. Try thinking of him as the Friend who you know loves you and who you love back.
Make friends with Jesus. Teresa says the best way to start is to ask him humbly for his friendship.
Here he is. Ask him now.
Day 4: Come into the castle of your soul
“I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.”
“The door of entry into this castle is prayer and meditation.”
Oh Teresa what a beautiful vision you had of what I look like inside and Who lives there!
Help me to find my way to the Lord within. Show me how to open the beautiful doors of my heart to see the One I love so intensely. I want to sit at his feet. I want to be in his arms against his Sacred Heart listening to its beating.
Call to me Lord, draw me, help me to love you truly, to be all yours, to listen to you, know you, to walk through the rooms of the castle seeking your hand.
Let me hear your voice and see your face for your voice is sweet and your face is beautiful.
Day 5 Solitude and silence
”Settle yourself in solitude, and you will
come upon him in yourself.”
“Silence is God’s first language.”
Sometimes Jesus went off by himself to be alone and to pray. How much more do we need to do the same, to go into our inner room, close the door on the outside world with its sights and sounds and interruptions for a time.
Teresa talked about this as recollecting the senses and bringing them within ourselves like bees returning to the hive to make honey.
Let’s find time to be alone today in quiet, even for a few minutes, to go within ourselves where Jesus waits.
Greet him by the name you most love to call him.
Do you have anything you need to say to Jesus? Does he say anything to you?
Maybe you have a conversation with him.
Now sit with him in silence in a comfortable kind of way, the way friends do.
St. Teresa pray for us that we will come to love silence and solitude where we can be alone with God.
Day 6 Talking to Jesus
“But above all things, I want to impress upon you that, when we are speaking to him, we should look at him and remain in his presence, and not turn our backs upon him.”
Have you ever heard the rosary being prayed in church and thought it kind of sounded like an auction underway? It’s so easy to slip into vain repetition – meaning not paying attention to what we are saying or to Whom we are speaking. If the Lord is our friend we want to look at him when we talk to him, to know what we’re saying to him. To be attentive and not mechanical it’s important to slow down, and make conscious contact rather than reciting a formula. Jesus is here wanting us. He is the Friend, the Brother, a Father, our Spouse. St. Teresa advised us to speak to him one way and at other times another. She wants us to speak from the heart whether with our words or with silent love.
Speak to the Lord today, either in the words of a set traditional prayer, your own words, or in quiet attentiveness. In all of these keep the eyes of your soul on him, present within you, listening to you and loving you.
Day 7 Determined determination
St. Teresa you faced so many trials along the path of your spiritual life. Sometimes you laughed at threats like the Inquisition being suspicious of your work and ways. Other times like when a spiritual director thought your prayer experiences were from the devil you cried and you wanted to die and were afraid to be alone.
But God blessed you all the more with the consolations you were told to reject.
At times you even gave up prayer, feeling unworthy.
You dealt with other people’s fears and resentments toward you, opposition and obstacles. Somehow you accomplished all that the Lord asked of you. Once you knew what it was to pray with satisfaction, and once you truly knew the presence and love of God you were unwilling to ever give up prayer again.
You urged us on, reminding us that life is like one night at a bad inn and the prize, Christ himself was worth anything at all we could go through to get to him. You called this single minded persistence determined determination. Pray for us as we make our way inward and ultimately to Heaven, that we will proceed with “determined determination” as you did. Lead us straight into the Heart of Jesus.
Day 8 Holy Mary
It seems to me that there is no better teacher for prayer than the glorious Virgin.”
”Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Luke 2:19
Mary had a listening heart, attentive to every sign of God’s will and inspiration. Immaculately conceived and free from spiritual impediment she had a clarity of perception and relationship with God. She had one great visitation by the Angel Gabriel but we have no record of any visions and extraordinary signs she received otherwise. Mary live by faith as we do, living an ordinary life that was nevertheless quietly extraordinary.
In her heart she pondered and treasured the Word of God himself within herself, then in his daily presence, and remained United with him just as much in spirit as he began his ministry.
Teresa assimilated Mary’s spirit of contemplation, cherishing the Lord within, remaining attentive and united to him at all times. This is why Teresa’s Order of Discalced Carmelites sees Mary as Mother. Sister and Queen, and our primary devotion to her is meditation in the heart, contemplative prayer, perceiving God as within ourselves.
Oh beautiful Flower of Carmel, holy and singular, who brought forth the Son of God, ever still remaining a pure Virgin, assist us in our necessity! Show us that thou art Our Mother! Our Lady if Mt. Carmel, pray for us. .
Day 9 Love
”Amor saca amor.” Love draws out love.
Prayer leads us into union with God and union with God fills us with love, his love becoming ours. Teresa taught us that we should “make many acts of love.” She knew that love was active and effective, more than emotion it blossomed into friendship and service and compassion. The love of God is transformative and the more we pray the more we see that love of others deepens our prayer and prayer deepens the love with which we serve and our desire to serve.
Not only that but prayer becomes almost indistinguishable from love. Prayer becomes love and love becomes prayer.
St. Teresa pray for us and lead us into the depths of love with God. Brighten our way along the Royal Road of the spiritual life. Help us to truly know the Lord we love and live for. Remind us that love is both the means and the goal of this journey. We wish you a happy feast day and we pray for all the intentions you have for the Church, for priests, for the sanctification of the people of God, that Jesus will have the best and trustiest of friends and that we will be among them, that he will be followed and loved and praised and known by all of us. In your special honor we ask all of this of the Lord and in the sweet Name of Jesus.
St. Teresa pray for us. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.
This summer I finished my manuscript for a new book. The working title is Pray Like Teresa; how to pray the Prayer of Recollection of St. Teresa of Avila. The publisher will decide the official title. I agonized a lot writing it but that seems to be part of my creative process unfortunately. It was also my solace during a stressful summer as it turned out to be.
When I have a project on I continually “write” in my head until it’s finished. Then it’s hard for me to stop messing with it and to stop thinking about it all the time. I enjoyed St. Teresa’s accompaniment during the months of working on this little book for her. I hope she is happy with it.
The book is short, only 15,000 words, about half the length of my first one, Come to Mary’s House; spending time with Our Blessed Mother. It is also more instructional than Come to Mary’s House. I would describe the general vibe of the book as St. Teresa with a Shawn twist. I tried to stay absolutely true to Tersa’s teachings and to work in my own Teresian spirituality and experience as well.
An important goal I had for this book was to help everyday Catholics and others to get to know Teresa’s teachings in a friendly way. I included St. Teresa’s struggles and sense of humor along with her teachings on the Prayer of Recollection and her basic foundational teachings that underpin it. I hope for the reader to see that contemplative prayer is for everyone and that this method of prayer is one anyone can do.
I also wanted to show why contemplative prayer is desirable, not only for the growth of the person who prays but for the good of the Church and the whole world. In this way I believe deepening inner prayer and contact with God, friendship with Jesus, and the practice of a life of prayer are urgent necessities in our world today and for the renewal of the Church.
A lot of people may be intimidated by Teresa of Avila because of her profound mystical experiences, because she is the “Doctor of Prayer,” and such a great figure of Catholic spirituality. Maybe they had not thought of reading her works before because they were written about 500 years ago and they assume she is inaccessible and too Medieval to be understandable or applicable to their lives.
I hope the reader will find that St. Teresa was also very human, witty, funny, practical and grounded. Her wisdom is relevant to anyone wanting to live the spiritual life, to grow in prayer, to this day. I hope I have provided a simple way to take up this prayer that Teresa said the Lord himself taught her, to anyone who picks this book up.
I think it would be a perfect book to take to Adoration with you, enriching your prayer in that hour with Jesus, or to keep by the place you like to sit when you pray daily. One could easily read a section each day and try the part of the prayer that section suggests.
I intend to encourage everyone who reads this book to try the prayer, to stick with it, along with giving practical ideas to help them be consistent.
I arranged it as an introduction to Teresa herself, and then I played out reflectively her basic discoveries about prayer such as friendship with Jesus, his Sacred Humanity, and God being experienced as within us.
Then I wrote a section about each step of the prayer and how to do it, each one headed by a quote from Teresa or from Scripture.
I allowed myself the pleasure of writing about the effects of the prayer as well and let myself get poetic about those but not overly so I hope. I wanted to communicate the beauty and joy of intimate love of God.
I am hoping this book will appeal to the everyday Catholic who may be being called by God to cast their nets into the deep or at least the deeper or even a little bit deeper. Whether the reader takes up everything in the book as part of their daily prayer life or not I hope reading it will improve their prayer life and their relationship with the Lord at least a little. I think it will.
My parish is primarily young people in college. They are remarkably devout, however. I can imagine some of them being interested in this book. I thought of them while I was writing, but also of people my own age or so (I’m 56) who at this time of life may be more interested in contemplation and want to give it daily time. I want it to speak to anyone who looks through it.
I turned in my manuscript to Our Sunday Visitor on Assumption Day, a few days early. But I thought it was a good way to honor Our Lady and St. Teresa, whose habit (the Carmelite habit) she wore.
Catholicly speaking October is a month rich with beloved Saints. Tonight we pass from grumpy old St. Jerome to the young sweet spiritual giant St. Therese. Tonight her Basilica in San Antonio has 1900 roses ready for the “mass of the roses..”
There will be roses all over the world tomorrow because of something she said when she was dying at the age of 24; “Oh I will come down! I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth! I will let fall a shower of roses from heaven!” And she will, too. Somewhere in all those roses ready for her feast day, there is one for you. Maybe she is already holding it close to her heart.
Every morning as sunlight makes its way across the earth, the praises of God awaken from the heart of the praying Church. Behind the sunrise the praises and petitions continue through the hours of the day. As each time zone turns into the darkness, Night Prayer is raised to God beneath the moon and stars.
This is the official prayer of the Church called The Liturgy of the Hours, The Divine Office, “The Work of God,” prayed by Catholics of every vocation, by Pope Francis, by our Bishops, priests, religious, and by many lay people as well; the same words of prayer in every language of humanity.
It is an anchor in the day, a way to sanctify time, express unity with the whole Church, and to call our hearts back to God again and again.
Morning and Evening Prayer are laid out for us daily as a hymn, two Psalms, and a Scriptural Canticle, (a poem or song in the Bible that is not a Psalm) each with antiphons, (a reflective one line prayer) and followed by “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”
After the Psalms and Canticle there is a Scripture reading; usually from a New Testament letter.
After that there is what is called a “Responsory.” For example:
Just is the Lord, in justice he delights. — Just is the Lord, in justice he delights.
He looks with favor on the upright man; — in justice he delights.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, — Just is the Lord, in justice he delights.
This will be followed, for Morning or Evening Prayer, by a New Testament Canticle. For Morning Prayer, this will always be the Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79). In the Evening it will be Mary’s Song we call The Magnificat ( Luke 1:46-55), each with their respective antiphons..
After this are the Petitions, similar to the ones we pray at mass. These are different each day. Then we pray the Our Father and a closing prayer that changes daily.
The other daytime “Hours” : midmorning, midday and mid afternoon are more abbreviated. Night Prayer is brief and includes an Examination of Conscience and Act of Contrition or Confiteor, along with its Psalms prayers and canticles. It ends with a Marian antiphon such as the “Hail Holy Queen” to kiss our mother goodnight.
The “Office of Readings” will have a longer reading, usually from the Old Testament, and a Patrisric reading (from a Church father or from the writings of a Saint) and can be prayed any time.
These prayers in their daily format can be found in the four volume version of The Liturgy of the Hours which unfortunately is a bit expensive for some. You can also buy the one volume version called Christian Prayer if the expense is prohibitive. Christian Prayer does not include the Office of Readings.
It’s hard to learn to navigate the volumes at first while you are getting used to this. You might want to buy what’s called The St. Joseph Guide, a little paper book that gives you all the page numbers for each day. There is a lot of page turning and going back to a page and so on. I once heard a priest describe it as “death by ribbons.” Yes it feels like that!
It was worth it to me to learn. The Liturgy of the Hours has become an indispensable part of my everyday life, connecting me consciously to God and to the whole Church at the times of day I pray it. As Secular Carmelite I am committed to pray Morning, Evening and Night Prayer daily.
Through hard times I have prayed every available “hour” to help me get through the day, which was healing and helpful for me. At all times the rhythm of it grounds and connects me with the family of God.
Morning and Evening Prayer should take about ten minutes for you to pray at a normal pace. The other “hours” are shorter.
When we pray the Psalms of Liturgy of the Hours we are praying with Jesus who prayed these too as did the generations before him. We are praying with the whole Church, with the voice of the Church.
I love praying with everyone.
Another thing I love about praying The Liturgy of the Hours all these years is that the Scriptures they contain are written in my heart. A line from a Psalm that is just right will come to me at exactly the right time when I need it. The prayers , Canticles and Psalms are woven into my life now like flowers in my hair.
I look forward to praying the Divine Office as I wait for my coffee to brew, or when I start thinking about what to make for dinner, or when I am getting ready for bed.
I enjoy praying it alongside others as well, especially my family and my Carmelites when we are together. When we are apart the liturgy connects me with them.
Know that praying The Liturgy of the Hours does something. It is never just a recitation.
“For the word of God is alive and active. (Hebrews 4:12a)
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I pupose
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)
We are praying God’s words, and the words of the Church spoken by the Holy Spirit. We are participating in the healing of the world. We are allowing ourselves to become conduits of God’s grace when we join our brothers and sisters spiritually for “The Work of God”.
Now I will tell you a secret. The secret is that nowadays you don’t have to go through “death by ribbons” unless you just want to. I feel like a cheater because I use the app now though I still cherish the books. I have the app called Divine Office on my phone. You can also pray from the Divine Office website or the other one, Universalis.
So you see? It’s not hard. Come on and join us. You’ll be glad you did.
From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the Name of the Lord be praised. (Psalm 113:3)
To me Ordinary Time is getting back to the everyday and delightful work of prayer and service that makes up our beautiful Christian lives. It means hot Texas afternoons, coming into the cool, quiet church, feeling relieved as the sweat evaporates from my face and back and peace surrounds me.
“Hi Jesus. hi. Help me pay attention at mass this time.” I can’t help but smile to myself, or really, at him, in his sweet presence there.
His presence is also right here with us, in us.
Ordinary Time beckons
with the promise of quiet inner space
to be with Jesus in the center of my heart,
I in the center of his,
drawing from the source of all life.
St. Teresa wrote about how the companionship of the Lord is magnified when we are prayerfully solitary, our awareness of him not in the least disturbing our perfect solitude.
“Contemplation is nothing more than making time to be alone with the one who we know loves us.”
Instructing us in how to go about practicing inner prayer, she writes, “And now that you are alone, daughter, make the Sign of the Cross.”
In this way you acknowledge that you are in the presence of God, with the intention of spending time alone with him.
You will notice this kind of quiet and solitude are more full than empty, and that the fullness is nourishing, often joyful. Again, it makes me smile. “Hi Jesus, hi.”
If you have trouble with your focus when you are alone, if stillness causes you anxiety, or of you have many worries that disturb your peace, here are a few things to try.
It helps me to listen to the sounds around me. If you are blessed with a silent house or a quiet chapel, these sounds will be small. Mentally note them, starting with the farthest away. Maybe a dog barks from a neighbor’s yard down the street. Someone is mowing in the distance, a car drives by. Now bring your awareness closer. Maybe you hear birds singing, children playing next door, wind in the trees outside your window, a sprinkler perhaps. How about sounds in your house or wherever you are right now? A clock ticking, a washing machine swishing, the refrigerator humming, the dog drinking its water in the kitchen;
listen.
What sounds are in your room? The ceiling fan, the air coming on… your own breathing.
Speaking of breathing, take a few deep breaths; in through your nose, out through your mouth.
Put all your worries in a little pile; Milagros to leave here in his lap while you pray. He will take care of you.
And now that you are alone, daughter, son, love of God’s life, make the Sign of the Cross.
Bethany Hang Out 