I am new here, and have for over the last two hours or so been reading this thread with interest, and am still not done, but thought if I was going to say anything I’d better do it now as it’s getting way past my bedtime.
Briefly, I am a secular Carmelite and am happy to see that there are other fellow-OCDS members here. I am also a product of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, first having gotten involved in the early seventies, not very long after its inception. However, I have long since not been actively involved in the movement for reasons I will not get into now. Let me just say that my long Christian pilgrimage has eventually led me into the Carmelite Order.
Due to my own life’s experiences at a certain stage, I began reading The Collected Works of St John of the Cross. Oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, I had little difficulty in understanding him. He served as a spiritual director, as it were, for me during a time of great trial in my life. His writings clarified a lot of what I was then experiencing first-hand. They reassured me that I wasn’t simply going insane. They made sense of the seemingly senseless things that were befalling me, and helped me come to terms with them even as I was experiencing them. It was not long after I had largely finished reading his works for the first time that I entered the order which he co-founded.
I realize that lots of people are intimidated by St John of the Cross, including many Carmelites, as someone else mentioned. Let me recommend a book by Iain Matthew, a Discalced Carmelite priest, called “The Impact of God” subtitled “Soundings from St John of the Cross” which may serve as a useful guide to anyone interested in getting past their apprehensions about reading St John’s works. It is published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1995 and may be out of print, but a determined search on the internet may yield some used copies.
And to those who may have little or no use for contemplative prayer, these words from the Mystical Doctor may help them to reconsider:
"You will not take from me, my God, what you once gave me in your only Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you gave me all I desire. Hence I rejoice that if I wait for you, you will not delay.
"With what procrastinations do you wait, since from this very moment you can love God in your heart?
“Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What do you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in something less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart.”
Code:
Not content with crumbs,
Gabrielis, OCDS
Be not afraid . . .
