Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: Nothingness, grace and vulnerability in the Little Way

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Nothingness, grace and vulnerability in the Little Way

Pope Francis has recently released his awaited Apostolic Exhortation on St Therese of Liseux. It is very beautifully written and is worth taking the time to read.

Although I am a Carmelite hermit, I always used to strongly dislike her as a spoilt brat. But then on her feast day last year, the Lord granted me a grace to let go of whatever it was that bothered me and I felt I had an older sister in Carmel. This happened after my affiliation to the Order was granted by the Prior General, and so I believe it to be one of the graces of my spiritual affiliation. Then during a very bad period while recently in hospital, I had some other consolations regarding St Therese and I have now accepted her as my sister in Carmel and my personal patron along with my dear friend St Titus Brandsma.

We all know she is a wonderful, inspiring and powerful saint. Young and passionate, but sensitive and spoilt. A heart full of love for Jesus, but at the same time an iron will to sacrifice herself in an oblation of love. The recent consolations I have received regarding her, have make me reconsider her Little Way and Spiritual Childhood from a new perspective. Teaching me patience, kindness, charity, and vulnerability - so that the more I experience my own nothingness and sin, then I can truly say with her that “everything is grace”.

As Pope Francis writes in the Exhortation -

“At a time of great complexity, she can help us rediscover the importance of simplicity, the absolute primacy of love, trust and abandonment, and thus move beyond a legalistic or moralistic mindset that would fill the Christian life with rules and regulations, and cause the joy of the Gospel to grow cold.”

St Therese of Liseux - pray for us to be love in the heart of the Church, to save souls and do everything for love of Jesus. Teach us to be little children of our living God, full of confidence and trust in his Providence and love for us

No comments:

Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.