“But the Order of Carmel is not only contemplative. The active life of the apostolate is not alien to the spirit of Carmel. There are times when the priests of Carmel must engage in the active life of the church; when God must be forsaken for the sake of God. This was implied when the Order was given the status of a Mendicant Order. Henceforth its life must be mixed. Even the fiercest advocate of the contemplative life, Father General Nicholas Gallus, successor of St. Simon Stock, avows in his ‘Ignea Sagitta’ that not only then (about 1275) but even before that time the hermits of Carmel, as circumstances demanded, left not only their cells but their cloisters also and descended from the mountain to devote themselves to the work of the active Apostolate. However, this was an exception, since the Rule laid down that ‘The monks should remain in their cells or near them, day and night meditating on the law of the Lord.’ Maneant singuli in cellulis suis… die ac nocte in lege Domini meditantes, vel in orationibus vigilantes, nisi aliis justis occasionibus occupantur, ‘unless they are engaged in other legitimate works.'”
Bl. Titus Brandsma
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