Framing Prayer 14 Carmelites and The Cross

Continuing with the same meditation of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, one reads:

"....there is also a danger that any natural affection may degenerate into passion with all of its devastating consequences. God has provided two remedies for this : marriage and virginity. Virginity is the more radical and precisely therefore the easier...Marriage is already a great mystery as the symbol of the bond between Christ and the Church and at the same time as its instrument. But virginity is still the deeper mystery. It is not only the symbol and instrument of bridal union with Christ and of the union's supernatural fruitfulness, but also participates in the union. It originates in the depths of the divine life and leads back to it again. The eternal Father in unconditional love has given his entire being to his Son. ..."

These thoughts are why one priest I know encourages young men to either choose celibacy as a brother, or get married, as there are graces in the decision of a lifestyle if one does not feel called to be a priest.

One's prayer flows out of one's vocation. God the Son came into the world into order to bring us all up to His Father. The saint writes, "This is the divine fertility of his (Jesus) eternal virginity: that he can give souls supernatural life."

"Divine virginity has a characteristic aversion to sin as the contrary of divine holiness."

And, yet, sinners find love from the true celibate, as they share in Christ's love. "Christ has come to tear sinners away from sin and to restore the divine image in defiled souls. He comes as a child of sin--his genealogy and the entire history  of the Old Covenant show this--and he seeks the company of sinners as as to take all the sins of the world upon himself and carry them away to the infamous wood of the cross, which thereby precisely becomes the sign of his victory."

St. Teresa Benedicta writes that the virginal soul has no fear of sin. Mary at the foot of the Cross, the most perfect of humans and most pure, "becomes the Mother of Grace."

For the laity, choice of vocation determines prayer, but the Carmelite embracing of the Cross may be a very useful focus in these times for many lay people.

This end the view taken from the works of Edith Stein. Tomorrow I move back to Elizabeth of the Trinity, looked at briefly early this year.

Framing Prayer 10 Carmelites Continued.....

Titus Brandsma learned to pray in the deep silence of his training as a Carmelite. So, too, Elizabeth of the Trinity, of whom I have many posts, (so follow the tag), learned prayer in suffering and silence in her convent.

One died as a martyr after bringing the strength of his prayer to Dachau. One died extremely young, from a lingering illness, cared for by her sisters in the Lord.

What these two saints have in common is the grounding of a relationship with God in prayer. But, a relationship needs time to develop. Giving Christ time is loving Him already.

We pay attention to those we love.

We have time for those we love.

We try and be perfect in the presence of those we love. But, only Christ can reach down and raise us up.

Here is the young saint. Elizabeth, with words to begin this section on her life of prayer:

O Lord, what does it matter, when I can retire within myself, enlightened by faith, whether I feel or don’t feel, whether I am in light or darkness, enjoy or do not enjoy?  I am struck by a kind of shame at making any distinction between such things and, despising myself utterly for such want of love, I turn at once to You …above the sweetness and consolations which flow from You, because I have resolved to pass by all else in order to be united with You.

Framing Prayer 8 Carmelites Again

I shall return again soon to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, but I want to sum up a few ideas regarding prayer in times of turmoil.

One of the hardest things to do is to create and keep order in times of chaos. We are not God, who can create ex nihilo. We need something to use to create something, like the raw material of our lives.

What both St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and Titus Brandsma show us is not only the need for intense prayer in times of struggle, but the possibility of praying in times of trouble.

I have been learning this lesson myself in the past several months of turmoil in my life, turmoil which has included multiple moves, unsettled housing difficulties, financial problems, and the loss of treasured goods because of stealing. On top of this have been two health issues which cannot be addressed until I am in a place for some time.

But, God does not want me to put my prayer life on hold while I figure out how to put order into my daily life. He expects me to do at least the minimum of some of the Monastic Diurnal, or Divine Office, go to daily Mass, read the Scriptures and or holy books, and meditate or do affective prayer and intentional, also called acquired, contemplation.

No waiting for a perfect situation--if that were the case, I would never pray. These two saints teach us this lesson--they were both being harassed by an evil regime. They were under stress for themselves, their families, their congregations. But, they prayed through anxiety to peace, and prepared for the ultimate offering of their lives to God in martyrdom. Yesterday's Compline reminds us that the Prayer of the Church, the Office, said by both these saints in their Carmelite way, sustains us daily. Here is a key to the Carmelite way-private prayer, meditation, finally, contemplation, through the Dark Night to illumination, and, in the case of these two saints, union through martyrdom.

Take time, set time aside daily. Make meeting God your priority. Embrace your cross. These saints show us the way.

Psalm 143 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

A Psalm of David.

143 Hear my prayer, O Lord;
give ear to my supplications!
    In thy faithfulness answer me, in thy righteousness!
2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant;
    for no man living is righteous before thee.

3 For the enemy has pursued me;
    he has crushed my life to the ground;
    he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4 Therefore my spirit faints within me;
    my heart within me is appalled.

5 I remember the days of old,
    I meditate on all that thou hast done;
    I muse on what thy hands have wrought.
6 I stretch out my hands to thee;
    my soul thirsts for thee like a parched land.Selah

7 Make haste to answer me, O Lord!
    My spirit fails!
Hide not thy face from me,
    lest I be like those who go down to the Pit.
8 Let me hear in the morning of thy steadfast love,
    for in thee I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go,
    for to thee I lift up my soul.

9 Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies!
    I have fled to thee for refuge![a]
10 Teach me to do thy will,
    for thou art my God!
Let thy good spirit lead me
    on a level path!

11 For thy name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life!
    In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble!
12 And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies,
    and destroy all my adversaries,
    for I am thy servant.

With a little interruption on the devotion to the Holy Face,  I shall come back to Edith Stein...but after a look at that devotion, on to Elizabeth of the Trinity, again.

Framing Prayer 7 Continuing with The Carmelites

I shall return to St. Teresa Benedicta when the book I am borrowing comes in. If any readers want to help me with the purchase of some of those at the bottom of the last post, let me know.

One thing all these saints have in common, from the humble Brother Lawrence, to the great Ignatius, and all here to be covered, is the awareness that there is no holiness without first expiating for one's sins and the complete absence of vices earned through the Dark Night of purgation. The illuminative states of prayer cannot happen without this purification, a theme I have stressed over and over in the perfection series.

Life events can purged one of sin, such as hardships, failures, the loss of status. Some have told me that a brush with death saved them and brought them on the road of prayer which leads to purgation.

Not one saint skipped this step, and here, in the life of Blessed Titus Brandsma, we see a great purging brought on, through the Will of God, by suffering and martyrdom.

But, what of the prayers connected to this type of suffering and how can one incorporate such suffering into the daily life of the prayer of the laity?

Are you suffering with a long illness? Are you suffering grief, from the loss of a loved one? Is your family torn apart by sin?

How does such a creative man as Titus Brandsma speak to us in our routines of busyness and even, sadness?

First of all, Blessed Titus was a busy man, and in his writings, he was not afraid. His prayer life, that of a mystic Carmelite, trained in silence and discipline, led him to stand up against the marginalization and finally, planned destruction of the Jews early on in his career. His career as both an educator, where he refused to hand in the names of Jewish children to the authorities, and his career as a publisher, wherein he refused to print the propaganda of the Nazis, led directly to his arrest and death.

A man of action whose life was underpinned by prayer, in the midst of the obvious stages of persecution of Jews, and Catholics who continued to believe and protect the dignity of all--this was Blessed Titus Brandsma.

How does the peaceful retreat-like setting of Carmel feed such a courageous soul? 

Prayer which makes one face one's sin makes one totally dependent on God. St. John of the Cross described the terrors of the Dark Night. Titus Brandsma met these in Dachau, but he was ready for such suffering before his arrest.

The desolation of the desert of the spirit-the Dark Night of the senses and spirit, in which one is called to pursue God through faith alone would have prepared Titus for his ordeal.

What has this type of holiness got to do with a busy lay person, a dad, a mum, a student?

Several bullet points:

• No experience should be wasted by non-reflection. Reflect on everything which happens. God speaks daily to us in events, through people, even in nature around us. Waste nothing.
• Remember that love is in the will. One wills to love others, God...Titus would have loved the Jewish people even under threat, not only in his heart but in acts of the will, as times became dangerous for him.
• Being faithful to moral teachings of the Church, as we are witnessing today, means suffering. Titus has to accept this reality by focussing on Christ and not himself.
• Testing in God, like the loss of a job, a spouse, friends, is only as valuable as prayer and reflection make these. Take time to respond to events by examining where, how, when God is involved in your life. Titus grew, most likely, through testing--first in the warnings given to him by the Nazis, then through the warnings he received from his superiors, and finally in the solitude of his prison cell.
• Blessed Solitude. I already feel completely at home in this little cell. I haven’t been bored at all, in fact just the opposite. I am here alone, but never was our Lord so close to me. I could shout for joy that He has again let himself be found by me without me being able to be among people or people with me. He is now my only refuge and I feel safe and happy. I would like to stay here always, If He wills that. I have seldom been so happy and so content.
• How could he be so content, in such horrible conditions? Practice, practice of self-denial. One does not become a saint overnight......
• Now you are asking me what all these has to do with prayer in the home? That Titus Brandsma "held down" full-time jobs and manage to give time to God in order to face martyrdom.  We make choices daily for truth and these choices come out of our life of prayer. Of course, Mary, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is the patron of the order and much loved by all the Carmelites.
• So, what type of prayer is Carmelite prayer? Like the Benedictines, Carmelites study, read holy books, and meditate on a psalm or an episode from the Life of Christ. Devotion to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is also part of Carmelite prayer. The emphasis is not on saying the Divine Office together, but in one's cell, or on one's own, which is a something the lay person can do daily, without a community. The Tertiaries base their prayer on the prayer guidelines from the various constitutions of their groups. By the way, in America, the Tertiaries are now called "Seculars".  These Seculars say at least three hours of the Divine Office, on their own daily, plus a half-hour of mental prayer. Titus Brandsma's life would be a great example for all those aspiring to follow the Carmelite.

St. Teresa's guidelines to prayer may be found in her books, already highlighted on this blog. 

to be continued....

Framing Prayer 6 Carmelites Continued-Edith Stein

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross brought one of the greatest minds of her generation into the convent. She was Edmund Husserl's greatest student, but a student who grew out of the strictures of atheistic phenomenology, into a Catholic version, and finally, embracing Thomism for her studies and prayer.

For the lay person, Teresa Benedicta, or Edith Stein, as she is known in the world still, allows one to apply prayer to the daily anxieties of living in extremely difficult times. Being a Jewish-Catholic, Edith was protected for a time by her order, which moved her to what was thought to be a safe place. However, as we know from her biography, both Sister Teresa and her sister, a lay sister, were arrested and murdered at Auschwitz in 1942. St. Teresa Benedicta was fifty at the time of her death.

What intrigues me about this Carmelite are three points for us to consider when looking at her life and prayer. The first point is that she was converted to Catholicism by reading books-by St. Teresa of Avila. This fact alone points to the importance of daily spiritual reading for the lay person. Edith Stein was a lay person when she was drawn to the important books by this Doctor of the Church. Although we must admit that Edith Stein is one of the philosophical stars in the firmament, her example of being converted through reading should be a habit we can easily emulate, even in this day of anti-intellectualism. 

The busy mom and dad can take time to stop and read something daily. Turn off the radio, the baseball game, go into a quiet corner and read. God blesses us when we take time to read the lives of the saints and their suggestions for a life of holiness.

The second point refers to keeping a schedule even in times of chaos. What could be more chaotic for a Jewish-Catholic than the evil of Nazism? St. Teresa Benedicta's prayer and study were not set aside because of  "troubles". Indeed, some of her most beautiful writings on the Cross and the suffering of Christ were created by her under the anxiety of arrest and death. A habit of prayer transcends time, circumstances, emotional upheaval. In fact, prayer grounds one in God. Her example shows us that one can even face death with peace and courage, if one had learned patience and the death of self through intense prayer. Let me share part of the canonization homily from St. John Paul II, as the Cross was the center of St. Teresa Benedicta's prayer. The Cross must be the center of our prayer as well. This love of the Cross involves each one of us embracing suffering as well as letting Christ take us up into His own Passion and Death.

The third point I want to stress is that if one looks for truth in prayer, one will find God. Or, rather, as St. John Paul II noted below, in these excerpts, the Truth, who is a person, seizes one. If we set aside time for prayer, Truth, Who is a Person, will answer us with love. When we pray daily, we place ourselves into a path towards truth, which includes self-knowledge.

Carmelites value the cell, the solitude, the silence which takes us into the Truth more closely than we can ever imagine. The method of meditating on the Cross, Passion, and Death of Christ form the beginning of real prayer---meditation comes before contemplation. Have the courage, states St. John Paul II, to decide to follow Christ, give Him time in prayer, suffer in and with Him.

Read these bits from the longer Homily of St. John Paul II For the Canonization of Edith Stein, given on Sunday, 11 October 1998


1. “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14).

St Paul’s words to the Galatians, which we have just heard, are well suited to the human and spiritual experience of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who has been solemnly enrolled among the saints today. She too can repeat with the Apostle: Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Cross of Christ! Ever blossoming, the tree the Cross continues to bear new fruits of salvation. This is why believers look with confidence to the Cross, drawing from its mystery of love the courage and strength to walk faithfully in the footsteps of the crucified and risen Christ. Thus the message of the Cross has entered the hearts of so many men and women and changed their lives.

The spiritual experience of Edith Stein is an eloquent example of this extraordinary interior renewal. A young woman in search of the truth has become a saint and martyr through the silent workings of divine grace: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who from heaven repeats to us today all the words that marked her life: “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
2. On 1 May 1987, during my Pastoral Visit to Germany, I had the joy of beatifying this generous witness to the faith in the city of Cologne. Today, 11 years later, here in Rome, in St Peter's Square, I am able solemnly to present this eminent daughter of Israel and faithful daughter of the Church as a saint to the whole world.

Today, as then, we bow to the memory of Edith Stein, proclaiming the indomitable witness she bore during her life and especially by her death. Now alongside Teresa of Avila and Thérèse of Lisieux, another Teresa takes her place among the host of saints who do honour to the Carmelite Order.

Dear brothers and sisters who have gathered for this solemn celebration, let us give glory to God for what he has accomplished in Edith Stein.

.....

4. Dear brothers and sisters! Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholic Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: “Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed”.

From now on, as we celebrate the memory of this new saint from year to year, we must also remember the Shoah, that cruel plan to exterminate a people — a plan to which millions of our Jewish brothers and sisters fell victim. May the Lord let his face shine upon them and grant them peace (cf. Nm 6:25f.).

For the love of God and man, once again I raise an anguished cry: May such criminal deeds never be repeated against any ethnic group, against any race, in any corner of this world! It is a cry to everyone: to all people of goodwill; to all who believe in the Just and Eternal God; to all who know they are joined to Christ, the Word of God made man. We must all stand together: human dignity is at stake. There is only one human family. The new saint also insisted on this: “Our love of neighbour is the measure of our love of God. For Christians — and not only for them — no one is a ‘stranger’. The love of Christ knows no borders”.

5. Dear brothers and sisters! The love of Christ was the fire that inflamed the life of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Long before she realized it, she was caught by this fire. At the beginning she devoted herself to freedom. For a long time Edith Stein was a seeker. Her mind never tired of searching and her heart always yearned for hope. She traveled the arduous path of philosophy with passionate enthusiasm. Eventually she was rewarded: she seized the truth. Or better: she was seized by it. Then she discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the incarnate Word was her One and All. Looking back as a Carmelite on this period of her life, she wrote to a Benedictine nun: “Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously”.
Although Edith Stein had been brought up religiously by her Jewish mother, at the age of 14 she “had consciously and deliberately stopped praying”. She wanted to rely exclusively on herself and was concerned to assert her freedom in making decisions about her life. At the end of a long journey, she came to the surprising realization: only those who commit themselves to the love of Christ become truly free.

This woman had to face the challenges of such a radically changing century as our own. Her experience is an example to us. The modern world boasts of the enticing door which says: everything is permitted. It ignores the narrow gate of discernment and renunciation. I am speaking especially to you, young Christians, particularly to the many altar servers who have come to Rome these days on pilgrimage: Pay attention! Your life is not an endless series of open doors! Listen to your heart! Do not stay on the surface, but go to the heart of things! And when the time is right, have the courage to decide! The Lord is waiting for you to put your freedom in his good hands.

6. St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was able to understand that the love of Christ and human freedom are intertwined, because love and truth have an intrinsic relationship. The quest for truth and its expression in love did not seem at odds to her; on the contrary she realized that they call for one another.

And, can we not identify today with what St. John Paul II said here? Also, her words quoted by the saint-pope echo the words of Fr. Chautard examined here last week.

In our time, truth is often mistaken for the opinion of the majority. In addition, there is a widespread belief that one should use the truth even against love or vice versa. But truth and love need each other. St Teresa Benedicta is a witness to this. The “martyr for love”, who gave her life for her friends, let no one surpass her in love. At the same time, with her whole being she sought the truth, of which she wrote: “No spiritual work comes into the world without great suffering. It always challenges the whole person”.

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross says to us all: Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. 

These next line can become our battle cry in these days of losing religious freedom and freedom of speech......how prophetic were these sentences at the time St. John Paul II shared them with the Church.

And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth! One without the other becomes a destructive lie.

If we learn to suffer in prayer, and prayer does bring suffering, we can face physical suffering. But, as St. Teresa Benedicta states below, suffering is a mystery for the Bride of Christ, for each one of us.

7. Finally, the new saint teaches us that love for Christ undergoes suffering. Whoever truly loves does not stop at the prospect of suffering: he accepts communion in suffering with the one he loves.

Aware of what her Jewish origins implied, Edith Stein spoke eloquently about them: “Beneath the Cross I understood the destiny of God’s People.... Indeed, today I know far better what it means to be the Lord’s bride under the sign of the Cross. But since it is a mystery, it can never be understood by reason alone”.

How timely are these words. These could be emblazoned today, especially this line--"But nothing is more eloquent than the Cross when silenced." Such is the life of the contemplative, or the martyr.

The mystery of the Cross gradually enveloped her whole life, spurring her to the point of making the supreme sacrifice. As a bride on the Cross, Sr Teresa Benedicta did not only write profound pages about the “science of the Cross”, but was thoroughly trained in the school of the Cross. Many of our contemporaries would like to silence the Cross. But nothing is more eloquent than the Cross when silenced! The true message of suffering is a lesson of love. Love makes suffering fruitful and suffering deepens love.

Through the experience of the Cross, Edith Stein was able to open the way to a new encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith and the Cross proved inseparable to her. Having matured in the school of the Cross, she found the roots to which the tree of her own life was attached. She understood that it was very important for her “to be a daughter of the chosen people and to belong to Christ not only spiritually, but also through blood”.

8. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24).

Years ago, I discovered this saintly nun through my studies of phemenology. I knew her first as Edith Stein, then as a great writer of meditations on the Cross. Now, I see her as calling me deeper into contemplation, a model of suffering and prayer. But, she speaks to all lay people, of the need to keep moving towards silence, towards total conversion, towards self-denial. We are all called to do this in prayer, even in our tense lives.

Dear brothers and sisters, the divine Teacher spoke these words to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. What he gave his chance but attentive listener we also find in the life of Edith Stein, in her “ascent of Mount Carmel”. The depth of the divine mystery became perceptible to her in the silence of contemplation. Gradually, throughout her life, as she grew in the knowledge of God, worshiping him in spirit and truth, she experienced ever more clearly her specific vocation to ascend the Cross with Christ, to embrace it with serenity and trust, to love it by following in the footsteps of her beloved Spouse: St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is offered to us today as a model to inspire us and a protectress to call upon.

We give thanks to God for this gift. May the new saint be an example to us in our commitment to serve freedom, in our search for the truth. May her witness constantly strengthen the bridge of mutual understanding between Jews and Christians.

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us! Amen.

I am book begging here today--right now, ICS Publications has the  Letters to Roman Ingarden by St. Teresa Benedicta. If someone would like to get this volume for me, I would appreciate it. I would also like to have the other volumes 1-11, but that is a lot to ask. God bless you all.

I shall be returning to St. Teresa Benedicta, as I asked a friend to borrow a book on her Meditations to share with you, but the book will not get here for several days. But, I am sure your can pick up where I left off here today.

Framing Prayer 4

When we think of the prayer of Carmel, we think of the great Carmelite saints, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, whose birthday in 1515 we celebrate this year, and Therese, the Little Flower. But, as members of a religious order, they speak to the laity within a context of the order of perfection-communal life, scheduled prayer and work, obedience.

However, the Carmelite way of framing prayer can be accessible to the lay person, and not only to the fortunate enough to be third order Carmelites (Tertiaries) living near an orthodox Carmel.

Sadly, the Tertiaries I have known in my life did not have a clue about the difference between meditation and contemplation, and were influenced by modern commentaries which completely ignored the rigors of repentance and daily mortification. Speaking with Tertiaries in the past, I was surprised at the lack of understanding regarding the core of the way of Carmel-silence and solitude.

The Carmelite does not have the same communal or individual ideal as to the Benedictines or the Jesuits. Carmelites who are in truly contemplative orders have cells, where they pray and come together for Mass or chores (done in silence) only. The cell provides the silence and solitude of the reformed order. The active orders, such as those which have reached out to the aged and to education, must balance meditation and contemplation with great activity, losing the contemplative focus of Teresa's renewal.

The lay person, however, can learn much from the framework of the prayer of Carmel. Follow the tags for other posts on Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, John of Avila.

Here, I want to concentrate on the manner of prayer, so as to aid those lay people who are inclined to the daily framework of a Carmelite.

In doing so, I highlight four aspects of the prayer of Carmelites in this mini-series--the devotion to Mary, the devotion to the Holy Face, the central need for study, and the role of contemplation in action.

Before I begin, I would ask readers to turn to three great modern Carmelite saints for their example of holiness in action as well as contemplation. These four Carmelites will be my examples for this section of the mini-series: Brother Lawrence, Titus Brandsma, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross,  and Elizabeth of the Trinity.

I have several posts on these saints already on this blog, but I want to emphasize how their lives and manner of praying can directly inform the lay person attracted to the spirit of Carmel. Just follow the tags, and for Elizabeth of the Trinity, look under "Indwelling of the Trinity:

Besides silence, mortification looms large in the life of a real Carmelite. One only needs to look at the lives of those four I have chosen to see the great importance in their lives of humility, which flows from self-denial.

We have the great examples of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross regarding self-denial, but in Part Five, I shall concentrate on the lives and prayer of the four to be used for this mini-series.

to be continued...