“What did you go out to the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7) These were Jesus’ words to the crowd. For many years the desert had become a place of encounter.
Sister Mary Colombiere
The Paschal Mystery
The Son of God left His heavenly home to come among us, to become one of us and to sacrifice His life, as a free offering to the Father, in a brutal manner, to save us and to restore us to His Father.
Advent: The Reason for the Season
“For everything, there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Fall: Winter, Spring, Summer The cycles of nature coincide with the...
St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross
These two, although years apart in age and in their lived experience of religious life first met when Teresa, beginning the foundation of her second reformed Carmel, was 52 years of age and John newly ordained as a priest was 25.
Why Consecrated Chastity?
Several years ago a voice was heard bellowing out in an airport waiting area,
“Chaste for 45 years!”
The surrounding space was electrified as heads turned toward us as I stood facing a non-Christian gentleman who had asked me if we practiced chastity and then posed to me the question of “How long have you been a Sister?”
Getting To The Heart of the Matter
In our devotion to the Sacred Heart we reflect on Jesus in His humanity. John Paul II had reminded us that “In the Heart of Christ, man’s heart learns to know the genuine and unique meaning of his life and of his destiny…” Thus the devotion to the Heart of Jesus is for us as Carmelites a very real part of our pilgrimage to the Father for we can only come to Him through Jesus.
What is the Carmelite Charism? (Pt. 2)
Every religious community is unique because it lives out the charism or gift of the Holy Spirit, that vision of how to follow Christ imparted to its founder or foundress, to fulfill a need in the upbuilding of the Church and which determines the life of the community and the mission entrusted to it…
What is a Charism? (Pt. 1)
In Chapter 10 of John’s Gospel Jesus tells us that He came that we might have life and have it to the full. Jesus does not measure His gifts; He gives over and above. He draws us to Himself by Truth, Beauty and/or Goodness. No one of these aspects can be expressed completely by one charism. A charism can only reflect back to us one facet of God’s perfection, yet even that facet itself is never exhausted…