Carmelite QuotesQuote of the day, 4 November: Fr. Paul-Marie, ocd
Many and varied are the ways in which our saintly forefathers laid down how everyone, whatever his station or the kind of religious observance he has chosen, should live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ – how, pure in heart and stout in conscience, he must be unswerving in the service of the Master.
Rule of St. Albert, 2
Henceforth, the Carmelite is not to look away from Christ; in dependence on him, the Carmelite intends to live. [Carmel’s spiritual ancestors] were searching for God and union with God.
Then came the Son of God, God himself. Turning towards him, Carmelites did no more than continue along the path that had always been theirs. In virtue of an essential and profound continuity, Carmel, which is biblical and remains biblical, becomes evangelical. In fact, born under the [spirit of the] Old Testament, formed by the divine Word, Carmel awaits its fulfillment.
With Elijah and the prophets, it watches for “him who is to come”; it can look at nothing else. It finds that, like the prophets, its natural study is to desire the coming of the Savior, to hasten his arrival.
Filled with the preparation that abounds in the Sacred Books, Carmel turns toward Christ with the certitude of finding in him all it seeks. It seeks God as an object of knowledge and love; where then could it better find and embrace him than in his Son, who was made flesh and given to us?
Carmel awaits the fulfillment of the divine Word. Now Saint John of the Cross tells us that “the Father spoke one Word, which was his Son” [Sayings of Light and Love, 100].
Carmel has received as a legacy the awareness of the greatness of God, of the “nothingness” of the creature, and of its divine vocation. How then could it not place all its hope in a Mediator and Savior, all its hope in Christ suffering and dying for us through love?
Father Paul-Marie of the Cross, O.C.D.
Carmelite Spirituality in the Teresian Tradition, ch. III
Note: Paul-Marie of the Cross, OCD (1902–1975), was born Paul Hayaux du Tilly in Paris. Ordained a diocesan priest of Paris in 1933, he entered the Discalced Carmelites in 1941 and became director of the Petit Collège at Avon following the arrest of Père Jacques.
Carmelite Order 1999, Rule of Saint Albert, translated by Edwards, B, https://carmelite.org/spirituality/rule-of-saint-albert/
of the Cross, P-M, Payne, S 1997, Carmelite Spirituality in the Teresian Tradition, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Detail of Santa Teresa de Jesús consulta a san Francisco de Borja by José Segrelles, 1956, oil on canvas, altarpiece of the Sagrario chapel, Ducal Palace of Gandía, Valencia. Image credit: delaruecaalapluma.com
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