Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: The Carmelite twofold Vocation, and personal mission

Saturday, November 9, 2024

The Carmelite twofold Vocation, and personal mission

St Thérèse of Lisieux said that her vocation was to be love in the heart of the Church, and she believed her mission in heaven will be to help souls to love God. She chose to be a Victim of Divine Love and a Little Flower in the Garden of God to bring souls to blossom in the garden where they are planted.

St Teresa of Avila felt called to support the Church through personal holiness and through her reforms to provide dedicated, devoted and loyal friends to Jesus who would intimately love him through prayer. Teaching others to spend time with God in prayer, as intimate friends on the Way of Perfection was her mission.

St John of the Cross taught the unconditional necessity of the way of Nada, of the purification and transformation of the Will in Love to arrive on the summit of Mount Carmel. He taught silence and renunciation as the key to union with the Beloved who Wounds us with Love and the guides us through Darkness and Faith to Transformative Union.

St Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein) believed that it is the vocation of all Carmelites to intercede for others and like the Prophet Elijah to stand before the Presence of the Lord who lives. She taught that the Mystical Marriage and Bridal Union can only occur though the Science of the Cross.

St Elizabeth of the Trinity said that Carmelites are called to become another Mediatrix together with Christ so he can continue the work of salvation through their humanity. She also believed her mission in heaven would be to draw souls into interior recollection with the Blessed Trinity.

St Teresa of the Andes believed that the life of a Carmelite should be no other than of continually contemplating, adoring and loving God. She wanted to be totally immersed in the Ocean of God so that she was captured by the Divine Fisherman, trusting in him as her Captain and Friend, so that others may learn to also fall madly in love with God.

St Titus Brandsma believed his mission was to help reawaken in people the wonderful reality of mysticism, and what it means for us that we have the Indwelling of God within us as the ground of our being. The Virgin Mary is our examplar and guide in the mystical life of union with God, who teaches us to relive the mystery of the Incarnation in our own bodies. To be Carmelite for him, is to be completely Marian to the point of conceiving God and teaching others how to live this mystical transformative union.

For myself as a Carmelite hermit, I see my own personal mission to be an example and witness for all those who feel unwanted or that don’t have a place in the Church. To follow the Holy Spirit to the places and people where others do not or would not go, living on the peripheries and bringing the Gospel to the dark places even when I myself feel lost in the dark. That even in the face of all my weaknesses and sins that there is always hope! So that I can help others not to fall into despair, but to trust that the Lord has a plan for each and everyone of them no matter how much they struggle or want to give up. If the Lord can work through me and change me, then he can do it for anyone!

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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.