“The memory of the great spiritual warfare of Elias still clings to (Carmel). It was here he gathered together all Israel and flung reproach at their heads. ‘How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow Him.’ Here Israel heard his challenge in words of flame, as a burning torch. …
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.People came to Jesus and objected,“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,but your disciples do not fast?”Jesus answered them,“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?As long as they have the bridegroom with them they …
“Carmel is the natural retreat of the contemplative, and it is not unfitting that on its slopes should stand the Cloister of Carmel, the cradle of the Order. It stands above the turmoil of life, above the world’s stormy sea; its solitude is beyond the reach of ‘life’s fitful fever’; it is wrapped in the …
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feastof Passover,and when he was twelve years old,they went up according to festival custom.After they had completed its days, as they were returning,the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,but his parents did not know it.Thinking that he was in the caravan,they journeyed for a dayand looked …
“It is a happy thought, at the Centenary of the proclamation of Mary’s Motherhood of God in Ephesus in 431 that we are celebrating, that we may see in that divine Motherhood also an image of the mystical act of grace, for which every child of Mary, and indeed especially the Sisters and Brothers of …
Jesus went out along the sea.All the crowd came to him and he taught them.As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,sitting at the customs post.Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”And he got up and followed Jesus.While he was at table in his house,many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his …
“In a sermon on Sunday ‘Gaudete’, the third Sunday of Advent, (the English Carmelite Henry de Hanna) discusses, guided by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, to whom St. John also likes to appeal a lot, six ways along which the soul can climb up to the summit of its perfection. One of those ways is that the …
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,it became known that he was at home.Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,not even around the door,and he preached the word to them.They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,they opened …
“Again, and again, St. John of the Cross returns to the inexhaustible Mystery of the Incarnation. ‘That knowing’, he says is not the smallest part of our blissfulness and he reminds (us) of God’s own words: ‘In this exists eternal life, knowing You, the only true God and Your Son, whom You have sent Jesus …
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,“If you wish, you can make me clean.”Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,touched the leper, and said to him,“I do will it. Be made clean.”The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.Then …