Carmelite Quote of the Day

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Carmelite spirituality is not contemplative and apostolic. It is apostolic because it is contemplative.

Paul Marie of the Cross, O.C.D.

This classic definition of Carmelite spirituality comes from an essay by Father Paul-Marie that appeared in a 1953 survey of Catholic spirituality by Father Jacques Gautier, who was the director of the Sulpician Seminary in Paris. You can read the quote in context here.

Father Paul-Marie of the Cross (Paul Hayaux du Tilly) was born in Paris in 1902. He studied at the Sorbonne and the Paris archdiocesan seminary and was ordained a priest of the archdiocese in 1933. He was the assistant director of the historic private Catholic academy École Gerson in Paris before he discerned his call to Carmel and entered the Paris province of the Discalced Carmelites in 1941, taking the name Paul-Marie of the Cross.

When Father Paul-Marie’s confrère Father Jacques of Jesus was arrested by the Nazis for offering shelter to Jewish students at the Carmelite boarding school—the same Père Jacques made famous in the film Au Revoir les Enfants—Father Paul-Marie was the logical choice to become director of the boarding school, Little College of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

He later served as a prior in Lille, France and was in charge of spirituality programs teaching Carmelite prayer. His writings are numerous, with translations in multiple languages. The only book that is currently in print is Sacred Heart Sister Kathryn Sullivan’s 1959 translation, Carmelite Spirituality in the Teresian Tradition, which has been revised and edited by ICS Publications, the publishing house of the Discalced Carmelite Friars, Washington Province.

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After spending endless days waiting upon the Lord on a mountainside, through earthquake and forest fire, Elijah finally emerged from a cave when he perceived a gentle breeze. When God asked him what he was up to, he said, “with zeal I have been zealous for the Lord, God of Hosts.” This is the Carmelite’s motto, and it motivates these young Discalced Carmelite friars from Bangui in the Central African Republic: to follow not only Elijah’s example but also the example of the Italian friars who helped to strengthen Carmel’s mission in the CAR.
 
How this prayer they call union comes about and what it is, I don’t know how to explain. These matters are expounded in mystical theology; I wouldn’t know the proper vocabulary. […] O my Jesus! What a sight it is when You through Your mercy return to offer Your hand and raise up a soul that has fallen in sin after having reached this stage! […] Here it becomes a devotee of the Queen of heaven so that she might appease You; here it invokes the help of the saints that fell after having been called by You.

Saint Teresa of Avila
The Book of Her Life, Cf. chap. 18, n. 2 and chap. 19, n. 5

Always referring to herself as a “wretched” sinner, St Teresa was speaking from personal experience when she writes of Jesus offering his hand to “raise up a soul that has fallen in sin” after having reached the stage of union, the fourth degree of prayer that she discusses in her autobiography. You can read more of St. Teresa’s quote about devotion to the Queen of Heaven here.

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When everything was ready the Lord was pleased that on St. Bartholomew’s day the habit was received by some and the Blessed Sacrament was reserved and with all due authority and power our monastery of our most glorious father St. Joseph was founded, in 1562.

St. Teresa of Avila
The Story of Her Life, chap. 36

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"It is said in the Gospel that God will come like a Thief. He will come to steal me away very gently. Oh how I would love to aid the Thief!”

“I’m not afraid of the Thief. I see Him in the distance, and I take good care not to call out: ‘Help Thief!’ On the contrary, I call to Him saying: “Over here, over here!!!”

~Saint Thérèse of Lisieux June 9, 1897~
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From Mother Agnes of Jesus (sister of Thérèse) “Yellow Notebook.” Showing Thérèse great sense of humor even as she approached her death.
 
Holy Spirit, inspire me;
Love of God, consume me;
On the true path, lead me;
Mary my mother, look upon me;
With Jesus, bless me;
From all evil, from all illusion,
from all danger, preserve me.

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified (Mariam Baouardy)
“The Little Arab”

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These are all wonderful. Thank you!
Here’s another quote from St. Mariam of Jesus – which shows her love for Our Lady.

I should like to have lips that have been purified by fire to pronounce the name of Mary, and a gold pen to write it in gold letters…
At the feet of Mary, my dearest mother, I found life again.
Oh, all you who suffer, come to Mary, at the feet of Mary, I found life again.
Your salvation, your life are at the feet of Mary.…

– Thoughts of St. Mary of Jesus, #11
 
“I saw beside me at my left side an angel in a physical form. . . . Because of his flaming face, he seemed to belong to that lofty choir made up only of fire and love. . . . I saw a long golden dart in his hands the end of which glowed like fire. From time to time the angel pierced my heart with it. When he pulled it out again, I was entirely inflamed with love for God.”

St. Teresa of Avila

August 26 the Discalced Carmelites observe the Optional Memorial of the Transverberation of the heart of St. Teresa of Jesus, their mother and founder.

You can join in the prayers here. And you can read this quote in context from St. Edith Stein’s biography of St. Teresa here.

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I am very fond of St. Augustine because the convent where I stayed as a layperson belonged to his order; and also because he had been a sinner, for I found great consolation in sinners whom, after having been sinners, the Lord brought back to Himself.

Saint Teresa of Avila

You can read this quote from the Book of Her Life here. Saint Teresa was educated by the Augustinian nuns at the Convent of Our Lady of Grace in Avila. (Photo credit, Wikimedia Commons).

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Happy Anniversary @Mark121359 🍰 Today’s Carmelite Quote is in your honor. It pertains to the Sunday Gospel, so enjoy your cake while there’s still a bite left to enjoy! 😂

If you desire to discover peace and consolation for your soul and to serve God truly, do not find your satisfaction in what you have left behind, because in that which now concerns you you may be as impeded as you were before, or even more.

But leave as well all these other things and attend to one thing alone that brings all these with it (namely, holy solitude, together with prayer and spiritual and divine reading), and persevere there in forgetfulness of all things. For if these things are not incumbent on you, you will be more pleasing to God in knowing how to guard and perfect yourself than by gaining all other things together; what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of one’s soul?

Saint John of the Cross

Sayings of Light and Love, 79

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We have another Carmelite feast day on September 1 @zgraf2 @Tis_Bearself so let’s celebrate with a maxim from our saint of the day…

Let us do all for love, and nothing will appear difficult when we reflect that love desires nothing but love.

Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Teresa Margaret belonged to the noble family of Redi, and was born in the Tuscan city of Arezzo in 1747. She entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery at Florence on September 1, 1764. She was granted a special grace of contemplative insight based on Saint John’s phrase God is love, through which she felt called to a hidden life of love and self-sacrifice. She progressed rapidly, fulfilling her vocation through heroic charity toward others. She died in Florence in 1770, aged twenty-three.

You can read excerpts from the acts of canonization here and explore a more detailed biography and florilegio of quotes in English here.

Happy feast day!

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Thanks carmelitequotes! I’m not familiar with this saint, so always good to meet a new one.
(Even though it can be hard to keep so many Carmelite saints named Teresa straight - there are at least 5 of them!)
 
Hehehe we love all of our Teresas!

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Mark121359 said:
~Blessed Mother Teresa of St. Augustine~
The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne
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Now here is a Teresa who was filled with zeal for the Lord God of Hosts like Elijah and very determined determination like Our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus!

In 2019 I did some historical digging and found the exact record in the Daily Acts of the Constituent Assembly of the French revolution, which prevented Blessed Constance the novice from pronouncing her vows when she should have at the end of her canonical year of formation.

I translated Sr. Marie of the Incarnation’s account of Blessed Constance’s refusal to leave the monastery, as well as the brief record from the Daily Acts of the Constituent Assembly. You can read those translations here.

Sr. Constance had ice in her veins when her family came to the monastery to force to her leave. A police raid took place! She told her brother that he could go home, that her parents surely couldn’t find fault with the fact that she was following her conscience. “That is all I demand of this ‛liberty’ whose benefits everyone proclaims to high heaven” she proclaimed.

At the link above, you’ll see that we have Messrs. Rousselet and Target to thank or blame for the infamous law that forbade the profession of religious vows. @Mark121359 I’m so glad to see another friend of Compiègne in the house! Great quote!

Here’s a poor quality photo of the préau of the Carmel of Compiègne that was taken before the nuns moved from the old monastery to their new location in Jonquières.

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Did you know about the Blessed Martyrs of 2 September @Mark121359? Here is a quote that has survived from one of the Blesseds, Father Desprez.

We’ve taken refuge in the oratory. Here are the revolutionaries! We can’t be any better off than at the foot of the cross to make the sacrifice of our lives.

191 martyrs from the convent of the Discalced Carmelite friars–which had been converted into a prison-- and two other locations were massacred on 2 September 1792. The Episcopal Conference of France states that more than a thousand were killed, but Church authorities were able to establish that three bishops, 127 diocesan priests, 56 religious, and five laypeople in the group died in hatred of the faith. You can learn more in English here.

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Here’s a quote for @Justin_Mary and all those Carmelite fans of #OTD trivia. On 4 September 1578 Carmelite Prior General Giovanni Battista Rossi—who St. Teresa referred to as ‘Juan Bautista Rubeo’—died as a consequence of an accident in which he fell from his mule and broke his leg. Teresa was deeply saddened when she received the news:

I was greatly grieved over the news written to me about our Father General. I feel deep sorrow, and the first day cried and cried without being able to do otherwise.

St. Teresa of Avila
Letter 272, 15 October 1578

You can read a brief biography of Padre Rubeo here. Teresa’s grief was so great because Rubeo had done so much to assist her in the reform. He believed in her mission.

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Here’s a quote for @njlisa and all fans of the Little Flower. We know that St. Teresa of Kolkata was influenced by St. Thérèse of Lisieux; we also know that Mother Teresa endured spiritual darkness. Here is the quote from St. Thérèse where she identifies her first experience of the dark night of the soul. It occurred after her uncle Isidore Guérin refused to grant his permission for her to leave her father and Céline and enter Carmel at the tender age of 15 years old.

God willed to send me a painful martyrdom lasting three days. Oh! never had I understood so well as during this trial, the sorrow of Mary and Joseph during their three-day search for the divine Child Jesus.

I was in a sad desert, or rather my soul was like a fragile boat delivered up to the mercy of the waves and having no pilot. I knew Jesus was there sleeping in my boat, but the night was so black it was impossible to see Him; nothing gave me any light, not a single flash came to break the dark clouds. No doubt, lightning is a dismal light, but at least if the storm had broken out in earnest I would have been able to see Jesus for one passing moment.

But it was night! The dark night of the soul! I felt I was all alone in the garden of Gethsemane like Jesus, and I found no consolation on earth or from heaven; God Himself seemed to have abandoned me.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Manuscript A, folio 51r

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In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say.

St. John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, II.22.3

This is the only chapter in the collected works of St. John of the Cross where he quotes Matthew 18:20, Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. He seems in that section of the chapter (Ascent, II.22.11) to be making a subtle reference to St. Teresa when he writes:

This is the trait of humble people: They do not dare deal with God independently, nor can they be completely satisfied without human counsel and direction. God wants this, for to declare and strengthen truth on the basis of natural reason, he draws near those who come together in an endeavor to know it.

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