Differences between Carmelite spirituality and Benedictine and Jesuit spiritualities

[Tis_Bearself]

I kind of like the re-imagined Examens on that page. The “Praise, Gratitude and Service” one and the one focusing on blessings allow you to do something with the stuff you’re thinking about from your day, such as praise God or thank Him, rather than just review it in your mind while feeling like you’re at a performance review (I hate performance reviews even when the outcome is good). I might try that app for re-imagined Examens.

 

[Bluebright]

I’m not sure I remember the quote bits thing but I’ll try… nope doesnt work. Oh well. I don’t know anything about Benedictines but do know a bit about Carmelites which may help.
Carmelites are very much about the humanity of Jesus. They are contemplatives yes, they are committed to three parts, community, service and prayer. The larger part being prayer. So they are active (in the service) and contemplatives, they do come together to pray and for community activities etc. but time is always put aside for prayer, this is usually taken alone except for prayer such as the Divine Office. The Carmelite’s life is seen as a journey to meet Christ. It is often called climbing the mountain (Carmel). I think most things, have been written above which I didnt see before posting this sorry. There are lots of third order and secular orders (different sorts of lay orders) within the Carmelite family and are widespread throughout the world.

 

[jack63]

I thought about this discussion. One thing that was brought up is “Why aren’t Jesuits the missionaries they used to be?”…they used to be legends, right?

I do go to a Jesuit parish. I went to this Catholic church because it was in a convenient location by many nice restaurants. I had no idea the Jesuits ran it. I had this vague idea the Jesuits were that order who causes trouble and who are missionaries. After faithfully going for a few weeks I was stunned at what I was hearing. It was like I was on a different planet…a planet I was pleased to find.

However, quickly one of my questions was “Why with their obviously profound spirituality aren’t they the legendary missionaries they once were?” For example I thought about Pope Francis discussing the use of married priests (i.e. viri probati) in the Amazon because there were 1 priest to 10000 people, and I thought “isn’t this the job of the Jesuits…what’s going on?” I even wrote some critical posts on CAF about the Jesuits in regards to why they are not missionaries any more. In retrospect, I didn’t understand the situation and my criticisms weren’t fair.

First, they are still missionaries when it comes to education. Many Jesuits go and teach for years in other countries. Many of the Jesuits have advanced degrees like PhDs or Masters degrees. To them that effort at research and education is their mission.

Second, and most importantly, the Jesuits have crazy history. You can’t separate the Jesuit’s spirituality from their history. A good way to start to learn about their history is to watch the move “The Mission” with Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson…

The Mission (1986) - IMDb

It is a beautiful movie where you will learn a lot about Jesuit spirituality and history. We watched during a movie night at the church I go to. It discusses the Jesuit struggles to found missions in south America. Basically, they ran the show in certain parts of south America. However, as an order they were burned badly…you’ll see that in the movie. They got kicked out of many of the places they had built up. Everybody betrayed them. So why aren’t they legendary missionaries anymore? Perhaps look at their history…As an order, large scale missionary efforts have kinda been a disaster for them…they only have so many pearls to throw. It is more complicated than this…but understanding their history is a start.