Feast of the Transverberation of the Heart of St Teresa

Brethren: the word of God is living and affectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thought and intents of the heart (Hebrew 4).

Amid the other virtues of Teresa, the love of God shone forth with particular lustre. It burned in her heart so strongly that the confessors of Theresa marvelled thereat, and extolled it as the love belonging to the Cherubim rather than to man. Our Lord Jesus Christ increased it, in a wonderful manner, by many visions and revelations, for once he adopted her as His spouse, giving to her His right hand, and holding forth to her a nail. He moreover vouchsafed to speak to her in these words: "Henceforth thou shalt be zealous for my honour like a true Spouse; now I am wholly thine, and thou art wholly mine".
At another time she saw an angel, who pierced her heart with a fiery dart. She herself narrates the vision as follows: "I saw an angel standing at my left hand in bodily shape. He was not large, but small, and most beautiful in form. His countenance was so bright and shining that he seemed to belong to the highest choir of angels, who are all on fire, or, in other words, to those who are called Seraphim. I saw that he carried in his hands a long golden dart, even to my entrails, which he seemed to me to carry away with him when he drew forth the dart, thus leaving me all on fire with the love of God. The pain of the would was so violent that it forced me to break forth into repeated groans; and yet so excellent is the sweetness to which this intense pain gives rise, that one desires not to be freed from it, and naught is pleasing to the soul save God Himself".
In consequence of these heavenly gifts, the flames of divine love burned in her heart so strongly that, under God's guidance, she made a very difficult vow. She bound herself always to do that which she should see to be the more perfect, and that which might tend to the greater glory of God. After her death, moreover, she made known to a certain nun, in a vision, that she had died of the unbearable burning of divine love, and not from the attacks of illness.


Her heart, which was incorrupt and adorned with the marks of the piercing, was placed in the Church of the Most Holy Incarnation, belonging to the nuns of the Order of Barefooted Carmelites in Alba de Tormes, and it has been venerated down to the present day by the large and devout crowds of Christian who flock thither. All these things having been carefully examined, the Sovereign Pontiff Benedict the Thirteenth, in order to recall the remembrance of this great miracle, permitted the celebration of this feast each year in that Order.

The text after Traditional Carmelite Breviary Matins Lessons (1887 edition)

To view the previous post commemorating the Feast please follow the LINK

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St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross - Carmelite Nun.

"Those who join the Carmelite Order are not lost to their near and dear ones, but have been won for them, because it is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone....I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful. This is great comfort." (Edith Stein on Carmelite vocation, 1938). After being transferred to Dutch Carmelite convent from Cologne because of severe persecusion of Jews in Nazi Germany, she wrote in her will these words:  "Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death ... so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His Kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.""

A brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God when she was 14, Edith Stein was so captivated by reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila that she began a spiritual journey that led to her Baptism in 1922. Twelve years later she imitated Teresa by becoming a Carmelite, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Born into a prominent Jewish family in Wroclaw (Poland), Edith abandoned Judaism in her teens. As a student at the University of Göttingen, she became fascinated by phenomenology, an approach to philosophy. Excelling as a protégé of Edmund Husserl, one of the leading phenomenologists, Edith earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1916. She continued as a university teacher until 1922 when she moved to a Dominican school in Speyer; her appointment as lecturer at the Educational Institute of Munich ended under pressure from the Nazis.

After living in the Cologne Carmel (1934-38), she was moved to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands.  In Echt, Edith Stein completed her study of "The Church's Teacher of Mysticism and the Father of the Carmelites, John of the Cross, on the Occasion of the 400th Anniversary of His Birth, 1542-1942." In 1941 she wrote to a friend, who was also a member of her order: "One can only gain a scientia crucis (knowledge of the cross) if one has thoroughly experienced the cross. I have been convinced of this from the first moment onwards and have said with all my heart: 'Ave, Crux, Spes unica' (I welcome you, Cross, our only hope)." Her study on St. John of the Cross is entitled: "Kreuzeswissenschaft" (The Science of the Cross). 

In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta was arrested by the Gestapo on 2 August 1942, while she was praying in the convent's chapel with the other sisters. She was to report within five minutes, together with her sister Rosa, who had also converted and was serving at the Echt Convent. Her last words to be heard in Echt were addressed to Rosa: "Come, we are going for our people."

Together with many other Jewish Christians, the two women were taken to a transit camp in Amersfoort and then to Westerbork. This was an act of retaliation against the letter of protest written by the Dutch Roman Catholic Bishops against the pogroms and deportations of Jews. Edith commented, "I never knew that people could be like this, neither did I know that my brothers and sisters would have to suffer like this. ... I pray for them every hour. Will God hear my prayers? He will certainly hear them in their distress." Prof. Jan Nota, who was greatly attached to her, wrote later: "She is a witness to God's presence in a world where God is absent."

On 7 August, early in the morning, 987 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. It was probably on 9 August that Sister Teresia Benedicta a Cruce, her sister and many other of her people were gassed.

When Edith Stein was beatified in Cologne on 1 May 1987, the Church honoured "a daughter of Israel", as Pope John Paul II put it, who, as a Catholic during Nazi persecution, remained faithful to the crucified Lord Jesus Christ and, as a Jew, to her people in loving faithfulness."
 

To read the writings of St Teresa Benedicta on the history and spirit of Carmel, please follow LINK1

LINK2

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St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

St Mary Magdalen de Pazzi
short biography

O Mary, anyone who looks at you is comforted in any anxiety or tribulation, or pain, and is victorious over any temptation. Anyone who does not know something about God, let him have recourse to you, O Mary. Anyone who does not find mercy in God, let him have recourse to you, O Mary. Anyone whose will is not in conformity, let him have recourse to you, O Mary. Anyone who falters on account of weakness let him have recourse to you who are all strong and powerful. Anyone in constant struggle, let him have recourse to you who are a tranquil sea....Whoever is tempted,...let him have recourse to you, who are the mother of humility, and nothing drives away the devil more than humility. Let them, one and all, have recourse to you, O Mary!

***

Oh Mary, you have gone too high in telling me to love him as my Bridegroom loved him! And how did He love him? For them He left, so to speak in a certain way, the bosom of the Eternal Father, with His power, His wisdom and, in a way of speaking, His purity, in order to be able to dwell with the impurity of creatures. He left His substance and His faculties, and finally gave Himself and His own blood. And I too ought to leave myself and the love of all created things, and be prepared, should it be necessary for their salvation, to give my own blood.

***

O most pure Mary, I offer and give myself to you, not only with that purity and innocence that I received when I consecrated myself to you, but adorned beyond that, and then repurified, and then adorned you again. Receive me, therefore, O Mary, and keep me within yourself.

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A new dawn, the Carmelite nuns and Bl John Soreth - by Bl Titus Brandsma O.Carm

The Benedictine Abbot, Trithemius, calls the Blessed John Soreth "a mirror of monastic life, an honour and glory for the Order of Mount Carmel, a reformer such as the future will seldom see, absolutely bound to God and the furthering of his order, in contemplation and prayer."

The Dominican, Magister Rolandus Briso, praises him at his election as General, 1451, as the most worthy priest of God's church, and father Brugman, a Franciscan, although loving his own Order, exclaimed: "Father Soreth firm leader, light and prop not only for his own Order but for all mendicants. O immortal God, how I wish the Order of Friars Minors had received from Thy bounty such a governor. How our affairs would prosper, how my beloved Order would grow and flourish."
Indeed, he was God's man for our Order in this difficult age, and above all things, elected to give life to so elevated an institution as the Order of Carmelite Sisters, St Teresa says that God always grants special grace to the founders of an Order. They have to give so much that unless they themselves have richness and affluence of spiritual goods, they cannot share with those whom they have to lead and support. Was there still another intention, besides that of letting a new group of soul partake in all the gracious privileges of the Order of Mount Carmel? I will have to answer this question in the negative and history confirms my statement. No, the object was not merely to swell the numbers, but to let thousands of women share in what thousands of men enjoyed in the Order.
It cannot be denied that through contact with the world the Order had lost much of its original fervour, in spite of having at its head a man who had no peer in his age and in spite of the fact that the order numbered among its ranks several hidden saints, whose holiness time has revealed and the Church confirmed. Portugal had a Blessed Nonius, the father of the royal house of Braganza, who became a lay brother in the Carmel of Lisbon. Italy had an Angelus Augustinus Mazzinghi, the chief instrument of the Italian reforms; a Blessed Bartholomaeus Fanti and a Blessed Baptista Mantuanus, chief actors in another North-Italian reformation of the Order; the blessed Avertanus and Romaeus, pious pilgrims dying on the way from home and revered as saints in Luca; Blessed Jacobinus, a lay brother, a miraculous example of obedience. But the list grow to an inordinate length if I called to mind the names of all those of this age whose memory is blessed for the sanctity of their lives.
We may say that on the one hand the sanctity of many of its members earned for the Order new graces and favours from God; on the other hand, that the institution of the Sisters was a free and entirely voluntary gift conferred by God on the Order. Blessed John Soreth put a high value on this insitution as the Sisters through their stricter contemplative life could supply in the Order what the Fathers, because of their growing activity in the world, not precisely forgot, but put more ot less into the background, in spite of the fact that it was a salient characteristic of the Order.
Not only was the Community increased by the access of new members, so essential to its being, but the mystical God-bound life received at once a great number of new aspirants to its delights. A large number of saintly women joined the Fathers to emphasize yet more the contemplative elelment in the Carmelite vocation. Yet we should not conclude that by this displacement the fathers left contemplation and its joys to the sisters entirely - the life of the Bl John Soreth himself shows the contrary. As before, the contemplation of the Law of God remained the chief aim of the Order, but there is no room for doubt that the increasing active life often left the fathers little time to devote to contemplation and the fullness of a mystic life and that it distracted them from the high ideal.
The institution of Carmelite Sisters as a second Order in an organization that from then onwards should contain both men and women gave the assurance that the first and highest aim of the order was henceforth to be worthily striven after. The Sisters were not only called upon to supply what the Fathers in the stress and trouble of pastoral duties in the world were likely to forget, but they are called upon to do even more. Their service was to strenghten and confirm the mystical character, to make it more brilliant than ever.
Being much stricter in their seclusion from the world, they could easily occupy themselves with more intensity with God and God accordingly rewarded their intercessory efforts. They were, so to speak, the crown and glory of the Order. They proved that the most blessed thing on this earth, the contemplation of God, was again Carmel's own. They were an untiring group of women who considered it their vocation to be a Mary in the solitude of their convent, a Mary who chose the better part, which should not be taken from her.

Thus, not only was a formidable shortcoming made good, a telling want filled, but there was a positive gain to be set down because the Order now again fulfilled its calling in the greater part of its members. It is best to try to see things in a positive light and the surety of the attainment of its set purpose, be it only a restricted number of its members, must be called an inestimable gain.

So we welcome the Carmelite Sisters of Geldern and of all convents that came after, with unmitigated joy. We see with our mind's eye the interminable procession of Sisters as so many soldiers, and succesful ones, for the ideal of our Order. Together we feel stronger and safer; with them we may go through the world sharing the same ideal. Generally, the Fathers are called upon to keep the memory of this ideal green in the souls and hearts of the Sisters; conversely, the example of the Sisters will stimulate the Fathers to a more complete striving after their mutual ideal. When Holy Scripture says that brother aided by brother is strong, like a fortified town, how strong is the Order, how strong the brothers, now that they see at their side, since the founding of Geldern, this numberless host of Sisters. It is as if the vision of the prophet Eliseus displays itself before my eyes, as if I see the Order surrounded and enclosed by a numberless armed host who banish the fear from my heart that the spirit of this world will one day drag them down.

To be continued..

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Bl Titus Brandsma on Bl John Soreth and Carmelite Nuns, practical advice on prayer, meditations and rules of spiritual life in pre-Teresian Carmel

Frances d’Amboise and Her House. Example of Observance.

The convent of Geldern (Spanish Netherlands at that time) did not long remain the only one. The foundation of many convents and religious houses in Belgium, in the Northern provinces of Holland and the Northern part of France followed after. A little later they sprang up in Italy and Spain as well.

A very favourable circumstance, such as Our Lord often allows to happen at the beginning of an Order, occurred in the north of France. It was the entrance into the Order of a saint who drew much attention to the new Order and made it known in wider circles. I refer to Frances d'Amboise, Duchess of Brittany, who scorned all earthly love after the early death of her husband, and completely dedicated herself to Our Lord.

God had intended the ways of Blessed John Soreth and Frances d'Amboise to cross and the two saintly souls at once understood each other. Notwithstanding all opposition, even of the royal house, Frances entered the Order and received the veil at the hands of John Soreth. Her example attracted many followers and soon the community where she had been received had grown so large that a second house had to be founded. This house, Les Couets, near Nantes, came under her direction only because the Pope commanded her under Obedience -- on no other account could she be moved to accept the leadership. Under her direction this place became known for its heroic virtue and God rewarded it by many a mystical experience. For long years it was looked upon as the prototype of Carmelite convents. Not only during her lifetime, but many years after, it maintained its splendid reputation. When in later times St. Teresa, contemplating a stricter observance of her Rule, as she writes in one of her books, thought of going to a convent in the North where the Rule was better observed and which flourished in an exceptional way, it is thought that she meant the convent of Nantes, set on this path of virtue by Blessed Frances d'Amboise.

Explanation of the Rule. Solitude in Interior and Exterior Cell
Blessed John Soreth, also wrote, as an aid to his attempts at reformation, an exposition of the Rule after its new mitigation in 1431. It is worthy of note that BI. John Soreth founded the Carmelite Nuns under this mitigated Rule and that the observance of this Rule brought the Sisters to the highest heights of mystical life and the greatest perfection. We can in some chapters see what was foremost in his mind when he founded the Carmelite Nuns. It strikes us at once that he is lavish in his praise of solitude and the high value in sanctifying the appointed cell. He makes a play on the Latin word, coelum , and points out how the fervent intercourse with God in the silent cell is found to life the mind to God. But he at once distinguishes between an internal and an external cell. The latter is the means of communing as much as possible with God; to know Him as present. Besides he indicates that the cell must be a positive good, not only to keep us tree from the world and its shortcomings, but above all to bring us nearer to God, to give us peace and quiet of heart and total surrender.

Threefold Subject of Meditation
This treatment of contemplation, to which the life in the cell must be primarily devoted, is especially noteworthy. He distinguishes a threefold meditation and calls special attention to all three forms. In the first place, he proposes the admiration of Nature, then the reading of the Sacred Scriptures and finally an introspection of our own lives. These three kinds of contemplation he does not regard as necessarily connected but rather as subjects deserving a separate treatment in various hours of meditation. Only now and then they will have to be retarded in their relation to each other.

Admiration for the wonderful works of God is the very first thing to which he calls our attention. If we call up these feelings of admiration, the question as to the secret designs of God, why He created all this, forces itself upon our minds and from this problem we shall deduct and understand the intention and the meaning of all creation.

Six Steps of Meditation on Holy Scripture and Books
The second form of meditation is reading the Sacred Scriptures and spiritual books. Here as well, he distinguishes various steps by which we can mount upwards: (1) Primarily we must read to get to know truth and to extend our knowledge of heavenly things. Love for this knowledge must urge us to take up Holy Writ and edifying books. (2) Not only must we read to know, we must let ourselves be caught by truth, we must invite it to work its influence upon our minds by mentally pondering the words. Only then will our reading be not a barren knowledge but a power to lift us up and support us. (3) Truth should not be something that only illumines our mind and satisfies our craving for knowledge; it should be a motive power lifting us above ourselves, not keeping us shut up in our own minds. (4) The fourth step is not to remain inactive, but to turn that which we have read over and over in our minds, to combine it with what has been read or heard before, that it may grow into a living whole, giving a certain direction to our acts. (5) After we have assimilated it, we must again make it the subject of our contemplation so as to find joy in the possession of truth. (8) This contemplation should vivify our love for God's laws, should deepen our sense of that same law and our sense of God's grace, so that we may be inclined to do those things that, though not obligatory, yet tend to God's honour and glory and which we ought to do if we truly love God. This love for the divine law and the glory of God will in the end bridle our passions and, ever freer and less hampered by our evil inclinations, we shall cleave to God and serve only Him.

Six Steps of Meditation on Ourselves
The third form of meditation, the inspection of our own life, also calls for a six-fold explanation. It has, to start with, always a double aspect, an inner and outer way of approach. We must keep our conscience spotless so that we always can account for our acts before God. Yet externally we must ever think of leading an exemplary life in the eyes of our neighbours. We have been placed here among our brethren by God to strive together toward the high ideals which He placed before our mind's eye but unless we guard jealously the purity of our conscience, we cannot gather merits internally.

The second point is a most perfect knowledge of ourselves. We must not only know what we are doing but we must also account for the motives which prompt our deeds, the inclinations to which we are subject when acting and try to find out where they are able to lead us. Secret inclinations are to be revealed before our own minds and above all the end to which they tend should be distinguished. This knowledge of ourselves, of our deepest being, though it is difficult, is absolutely necessary.

This will give, in the third place, a fixed direction to our life and show us the road along which we can most easily make progress. Our successes, as well as our defeats, should be subjects of medita-tion, so as to evolve at the end the most perfect schemes for success in the campaign of life What we intend to do should not be left to the inspiration of the moment but our whole life should be planned beforehand in such a way that we are sure of victory. Many people work and labour and achieve many things which perhaps appear meritorious in the sight of others, whereas they are not keen on searching out what is asked of them for their own welfare and improvement.

A fourth introspection makes us see over and over again what we have undertaken in choosing this life which we live by our vows and by the orders of our superiors. The obligatory acts should always have precedence over such deeds as we perform of our own free will. Naturally we should not restrict ourselves to meeting only the obligations; charity should urge us to go beyond this; but never should such free acts be undertaken at the cost of duty.

The fifth point is more or less a warning. It goes without saying that in those meditations which are the result of the review of our life we should neither undervalue ourselves so that we too easily despair of attaining our goal, nor overrate ourselves and attempt too much. There are hazards on both sides and we are to keep on the middle of the road.

Blessed John Soreth concludes with a sixth consideration which forces us to shut our eyes to everything except what the moment demands, so that we may not break off what we are doing under the pretext of doing some other good work.

Methodical Spiritual Life
From what I cited here from the exposition on the Rule, it is evident that BI. John Soreth had a very systematic way of practising virtue and using prayer; this is in perfect keeping with the time in which he lived and the school which he represented. The question has been raised whether St. Teresa in her wonderful writings about the Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle has not undergone in some degree the influence of the Dutch school of the Devotio Moderna which brings methodical prayer and systematic practice of virtue strongly to the fore in its Exercitia. I am inclined to see some influence but should like to look farther than the works of Thomas à Kempis, Zerboldt van Zutphen and Garcia de Cisneros and look to BI. John Soreth and the influence which he has had in the Order. His mysticism is doubtless very firmly bound up with that of the Devotio Moderna. He lays great stress on active holiness and the exercise of virtues and in this he proves himself a child of his time and of the country in which he laboured for the benefit of the Order. But in this case, the connection which is found between the demand for a more methodical mode of prayer and the school of St. Teresa is at the same time an indication that St. Teresa built on the foundations of John Soreth, on what he had stressed so particularly in his reformation and his institution of the Carmelite Sisters.

Position of Prayer in Life
He inserts a whole chapter to recommend both the practice of virtue as well as the preparation for prayer, followed by the practice of prayer. He speaks of a very slow and deliberate raising up of the building of our spiritual life and of the lasting influence of its foundations. He rejects the idea that the hours of prayer should be like oases in the desert of life but affirms strongly that prayer should be woven into our lives, grafted into it, so that our prayer is proof of our life and conversely our life proves the sincerity of our prayer. Before we begin to pray, we should first get into such a mental state as we should wish to be found in while praying. Therefore, the Rule says that we are first to contemplate the Laws of God and our own life in order to obtain the required state before beginning to pray. That which is to dominate our prayer should first be evoked by meditation. Speaking later about the spiritual armour, he reverts to this image. He points to David, who had to take off the armour which Saul had given him because he had not practised in it. That is the reason, he says, why our Rule demands a never-ending activity, both of body and soul. We must exercise all our faculties and in this con-nection he points out to us the two sublime examples which should be ever inthe mind of a perfect Carmelite; Our Lady and Elias the Prophet.

The Precious Pearl
Blessed John Soreth compares the practice of the Rule, in the section about the weekly chapter, with the precious pearl of the gospel which keeps its value in spite of its being despised by some. The wise merchant sells everything he possesses in order to buy the field in which the treasure is hidden. Then the treasure must be dug for. I should like to apply this image here, to explain how we are to draw ever farther back into ourselves to find Christ and live with Him. BI. John Soreth has made the Rule known to us like the pearl of the Gospels and has taught us to sell everything to obtain it, but at the same time he has taught us how to dig up the treasure by living a life of the greatest possible piety. Therefore, this life has to be aided, borne upward and nourished through a never flagging exercise of virtue. In the shining of these virtues the glory of the pearl will be set off.

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St Therese of Lisieux week

Beautiful poem in honour of Our Lady written by St Therese - Why I Love You, O Mary - will adorn this blog's Saturday posts this month - part 1

Oh! I would like to sing, Mary, why I love you,
Why your sweet name thrills my heart,
And why the thought of your supreme greatness
Could not bring fear to my soul.
If I gazed upon youn in your sublime glory,
Surpassing the splendor of all blessed,
I could not believe that I am your child
O Mary, before you I would lower my eyes!

If a child is to cherish his mother,
She has to cry with him and share his sorrows,
O my dearest Mother, on this foreign shore
How many tears you shed to draw me to you!...
In pondering your life in the holy Gospels,
I dare look at you and come near you.
It's not difficult for me to believe I'm your child,
For I see you human and suffering like me...

When an angel from Heaven bids you be the Mother
Of God who is to reign for all eternity,
I see you prefer, O Mary, what a mystery!
the ineffable treasure of virginity.
O Immaculate Virgin, I understand how your soul
Is dearer to the Lord than his heavenly dwelling.
I understand how your soul, Humble and Sweet Valley,
Can contain Jesus, the Ocean of Love!...

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Lanherne, the oldest Carmel in England - the whole story

Is is good to ponder sometimes on old, happier times, when vocations flourished, convents, monasteries and churches were full to the brim and people were probably much happier than today. It may help to keep us hopeful and prayerful for better times to come, trusting in Our Lady of Mount Carmel love for her Order.

Lanherne ancient Manor House in a beautiful Cornish village of St Mawgan-in-Pydar set in Vale of Lanherne has always been the jewel of the village, and was endowed to the Carmelite nuns by the Arundells of Lanherne who lived there from the 13th to 18th centuries.

The Chapel of Lanherne serves as the Roman Catholic Parish Church. It is very small, built in the style of Louis XIV, with some highly decorative features including the Bathstone altar with carved medallions depicting the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion and the Last Supper. Of particular interest is the Arundell sanctuary lamp. Tradition claims that it has not been extinguished since pre-Reformation days. Lanherne is the oldest Carmel in England founded by Antwerp Carmel in 1619. In that year Ven Anne of Jesus, the chosen companion of the great St Teresa, being unable to go to Antwerp in person, sent two of her community to that City to open a Convent for English Carmelites. She was assisted financially in foundation work by Lady Mary Lovel. This lady, who was left a widow in 1616, had a great desire to help Catholics persecuted at Penal times in their own country. Lady Lovel, after seeking advice decided upon the establishment of an English Carmel in Flanders. Both St Teresa and Ven Anne of Jesus loved England, and there were already three English nuns in the Order: Anne Worsley - Sister Anne of the Ascension who was sub-Prioress at Mechlin; Teresa Ward - Sister Teresa of Jesus who has just returned to Mons after being sub-Prioress at Cracow (Poland) for six years, and Clare Leithwaite - Sister Clare of Jesus who entered at Louvain. These three were sent to the new convent at Antwerp which was established in that quarter of the city called Hopland, the site having been shown by the Blessed Virgin on three different occassions to Lady Lovel, Anne Worseley, and the Provincial of the DIscalced Carmelite Friars.
The foundation flourished greatly, and before her death in 1644 the first Prioress, Anne Worsley, gave the habit to fifty ladies and sent filiations to Bois-le-Duc (later removed to Alost), Cologne (associated later with St Edith Stein), and Dusseldorf. The first Prioress, Teresa Ward, (sister of Mary Ward, the foundress of the "English Ladies" or Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary) made a foundation at Lierre, which is now Darlington. In 1687, a third English foundation was made at Hoogstraet, now the Carmelite Convent at Chichester. These three Carmels remained wholly English, but nuns from Antwerp made foundations and ruled as Prioresses, or filled other important offices in Munstereigel and Neuburg, as well as in Aix-la-Chapelle. And so for 175 years the work went on, as generation after generation of English women, many of noble birth, crossed the sea to Belgium, to learn at the feet of Our Lady of Mount Carmel the virtues of the inner life, the home of Nazareth. At length God willed that they should be transplanted to their own country. In 1794 the French revolutionary armies attacked Belgium for the second time, and the nuns had to flee the country. The Toleration Act of 1781 had brought an improvement in the status of Catholics in England, and by the passing of the Act, the oaths and declarations required of Catholics in previous reigns were no longer enforced, they were permitted to live in London, and religious worship was permitted in those Chapels which had been certified at the quarter sessions. On Sunday morning, June 29th, in company with the Augustinian nuns of Bruges they chartered a corn boat from Rotterdam and set sail for their native land. They arrived at Wapping on the 12th of July. The little party of nuns from Antwerp were entertained for some weeks in London by Mrs Tunstall at her house - 3 Orchard Street, Portman Sq, then through the kindness of Lord and Lady Arundell of Wardour the old Manor House of Lanherne was placed at their disposal.




On the 10th of September, 1794, the Mother Prioress Elizabeth Maddocks accompanied by twelve nens and three lay sisters took up their residence in that halllowed spot. The house, however, had fallen into state of disrepair through prolonged absence of its owners. Noble family of Arundell has always been dedicated and illustrious Catholics and suffered a lot during Penal times, the Manor House returned to the family some time before the nuns arrived and required a lot of refurbishment. One of the nuns shortly after their arrival from Antwerp wrote: "only three rooms were habitable, it was a place where smugglers hid their goods, having free ingress at all times, so much so that one of our sisters once met one of these gentlemen, to his great surprise." The repairs to the Convent, dedicated to St Joseph and St Anne, took several years, and it was not until February 27th, 1797, that the first plan of enclosure was drawn up by Dr. Walmsey, Bishop of Rama and Vicar Apostolic. After the alterations were completed, with what thankful hearts the sisters must have resumed their lives of prayer and penance in this historic spot, where the light of the true Faith has burned brightly through so many centuries of history.


The Convent Building.


The setting of the house alone would have brought peace and atonement; situated as it is on a little height at the end of one of the sweetest valleys in Cornwall; nestling among green fields and orchards, with a gallant band of age-old elms to screen it from the gaze of the passer-by. At the foot of the hill a little stream rustles its way through the ever-widening valley to the sea two miles distant. It is a rocky coast at Mowgan Parth, and in the winter, and on stormy nights, the roar of the great Atlantic breakers must often reach the ears of the nuns in their quiet retreat. But on a fine summer evening, when the waves roll in the slow and easy motion, and we retrace our steps up the valley, we find the cows standing knee deep in the pools of the stream, silently one or two anglers watch for the trout to dart from behind the boulders; the smell of thousands of small wild flowers hangs sweetly on the air, only the chirrup of crickets breaks the stillness, and the tiny breeze of sunset, which has accompanied us on our way, rippling the stream, and bending the lush grasses, dies away in a sigh among the aged elms standing sentinel before the Convent. And peace, the very peace of heaven it would seem, settles over the vale of Lanherne.




The entrance to the Convent, the old staircase, and the windows on the centre court inside the Convent are Elizabethan. Sir Christopher Wren refaced the building and in later days Bishop Vaughan caused considerable alterations to be made.

The Chapel.
As the Teresian Carmelites are strictly enclosed, the only part of the Convent open to the public is the comparatively modern chapel attached to the main building. The Chapel, small in dimension, is built in the style of Louis XIV with rich ornamentations, and contains a beautiful altar of Bath stone in the Gothic style; three exquisite medallions in the front of the altar represent the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Crucifixion, and the Last Supper; in the niches are finely sculptured figures representing Our Lady, St John the Baptist, St Anne, St Teresa, St Joseph, and the Angel Raphael. Pillars of marble and alabaster surmounted by four beautifully carved angels in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. The nuns' choir is behind the grille on the left hand site of the Chapel facing the second altar. The old silver lamp burning before the Blessed Sacrament is the one which tradition claims has not been extinguished since pre-reformation days; it bears the crest of the Arundells - three swallows; "les hirondelles" was formerly a punning version of the name.


During September, 1895, the nuns kept the centenary of their arrival at Lanherne. Pontifical High Mass was sung by the Right Rev C. Graham DD (Coadjutor Bishop of Plymouth) in celebration of the event. On the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16th, 1919, they celebrated the third centenary of Antwerp foundation, the late Bishop of Plymouth (Rev. John Kelly) pontificating on this occasion. The convent Chapel serves as the parish church for the Catholics of Mowgan and the district, the beautiful neighbouring 13th century church having passed at the reformation into Anglican parish.


The Arundell aisle in this church remained for some years the property of that family and of the Convent, and ten of the Carmelite nuns are buried there.

The old Cross of Lanherne.

Near the chapel door, in what was formerly the nuns' burial ground, stands the four-holed cross of Lanherne. It is one of the most beautifully executed specimens of a decorated Celtic Cross in the country and is in a very good state of preservation. It is made of Pentewan stone, and it makes it softer and easier to work than granite. It was brought to Lanherne chapel many years ago from the field called "Chapel Close" on the Barton of Roseworthy in the parish of Gwinear near Camborne. It has inscriptions in Hiberno-Saxon characters possibly of the name of Bl Ide the Irish Martyr. The cross is very similat to the one set in the churchyard of St Ives (depicted below).


The Treasures of Lanherne
The most guarded treasure of Lanherne Convent was the skul of the Blessed Martyr, Cuthbert Mayne, Catholic convert and companion of St Edmund Campion at St John College in Oxford. He was ordained Catholic priest at Douai in 1575 and was martyred on November 29th 1577. He is one of Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.


It was lent annually by the nuns, for the pilgrimage to Louceston, when this holy relic is carried in procession through the streets of the town. Among many valuable and ancient vestments, the Community prized especially the set of vestments worked by Lady Lovel for the opening of the Antwerp Carmel in 1619, and which were worn by the late Bishop of Plymouth at the celebration of the third centenary of the foundation in 1919. A fine oil painting of the Scourging of our Lord, attributed to Rubens, was brought over from Antwerp, the Reverend Mother carrying it rolled round her person during the nuns' flight from that town. The Community also possess portraits of ten of the English martyrs, which came to them through Miss Mary Gifford, of Staffordshire, in remarkable circumstances. The Carmel of Antwerp being at one time short of vocations, the nuns made a novena to the English Martyrs; shortly after miss Giffort presented herself; she was admitted, and in due course made her profession on April 8th, 1681, taking the name of Sister Mary of the English Martyrs. She brought with her to Antwerp the portraits of the Holy Martyrs with whom her own father had been for a time imprisoned for the Faith. On the eve of their execution he draw their portraits, and although he had never before done any drawing or painting, he succeded in a marvelous manner. Another member of the family - Margaret - entered the order much earlier; she was professed on June 17th, 1627, her name in religion being Sister Angela of the Holy Ghost.



In June 1914 a little band of sisters set out from Notting Hill Carmel to found the Carmel of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, in Eccleston, St. Helens. Interestingly, at least half of them were converts. The Community flourished and the peaceful rythm of Carmelite Life was lived with deep prayer. In the late eighties extensive dry rot was found in the old mansion house and so new living accommodation had to be built. The Chapel, Choir etc. which had been built at the time of the foundation were not affected. This new building led in time to the next stage in the history of the convent. In the Summer of 2001 the Carmel of Lanherne amalgamated with Carmel of St Helen.

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The English Teresians and their American Sisters - to be continued

Today I commence posting pieces of my little study on the history of Carmel in the post-Reformation era in England and America. It might be helpful to those interested in Carmelite Spirituality, to understand it better in the context of historical development of the Order and its missionary work. These needs arose after suppression of Catholicism in England. The text is based on very informative yet charming in zeal and devotion book compiled from approved sources by anonymous in the Convent of Discalced Carmelites of Boston and Santa Clara and entitled "Carmel - its history, spirit, and saints" (1927) with imprimatur by Archbishops of Boston and San Francisco.

Venerable Mother Ann of the Ascension (Worsley)

After the suppression of monastic life in England the first Carmel Community for English ladies was established in the year 1619 in Antwerp (Belgium) thanks to charity and zeal of Lady Lovel. The first Prioress was Mother Ann of the Ascension (Worsley). She was of noble birth, her father went over to Low Countries with King Philip of Spain and followed the King to Spain preferring life of immigrant rather than to remain under the rule of a Protestant Queen in his own country. Over the following years he married a noble Spanish lady of royal blood and became a father to two illustrious for their sanctity daughters, for both of them entered Carmel and became shining lights in the Order. The younger girl, Teresa of Jesus, was the first novice to head the Profession Book in the English convent at Antwerp, of which her older sister was Prioress. The admirable traits which these two noble souls had inherited from their parents naturally fitted them for the the work God called them to do, which was to engraft upon the solidity of the English character the lofty enthusiasm and seraphic love of the glorious daughter of Spain, the incomparable Teresa. The attestation of the work of Mother Ann can be found in the letter preserved in old Chronicle of the Monastery in Antwerp and written in the year 1621 by Br Mathias of St Francis, General of the Discalced Province, who visited English Monastery of St Joseph and have found the nuns 'well disposed' by the grace of God, both spiritual and temporal, most virtuous and observant. The Chronicle relate further significant increase of vocations from among English ladies of the most ancient families who 'in flower of their youth hearkening to the inspirations of the Divine Spirit, became forgetful of the house of their father and, forsaking their friends and native land, came to Israel, which He has shown them, where they lived in such great perfection and union of minds as it might be truly said of them with the primitive Christians, 'This happy multitude had but one heart and one soul'. In all proceedings, great sincerity, alacrity, and peace of mind, zeal of observance, love of poverty, a high esteem of their vocation; and such an obedience as it was sufficient for them to understand the inclinations of their Superiors; a total fortgetfulness and contempt of the world; a continual emulation in the progress of virtue'...'The temporal means at first were small, and necessary expenses many, yet we never wanted, Divine Providence admirably supplying by sending alms when we were in need. Many times pieces of gold were laid in the Turn without the Turn sister knowing how they came there, and one day, wanting bread for dinner, we found in the Turn just as much as was necessary without ever knowing whence it came.'
Before the death of Venerable Mother Ann of the Ascension, the Divine Majesty was pleased to show many signs to the Community. A full choir of voices was heard singing these words of the Office of All Saints, "Vidi turbam magnam", and music was heard that could not come by any natural means. At the very time of her decease, one of the Religious, being absent, was wakened out of her sleep by the sound of music, at which being frightened, for it was about midnight, she came with great speed, conceiving our Mother was dying, as indeed she was, or rather beginning a better life, adorned with celestial graces and merits, she being the first person who brought our Blessed Mother Teresa into the English nation, and maintained the Community from its very infancy , not only in perfect observance, but in a matchless and divine spirit of peace and love. Thus, after many labours and languishing desires after the Beloved of her heart, repeating these words, "Veni Domini, et noli tardare" - "Come, Lord, and tarry not" - she went to enjoy in His Divine Presence the eternal reward of her labours, dying in great fame and opinion of sanctity in the year of our Lord 1644. Our Most Reverend Lord Bishop Gaspar Nemius, out of devotion and affection towards her, sang the mass, preached the funeral sermon and buried her. This illustrious prelate was wont to call this Community "the Children of his heart," which he made appear on all occasions, declaring publicly the interior satisfaction he received from their obervance and union. This he testified under his hand to Pope Innocent IV, of which we yet keep a copy. Similar report was given by the predecessor of Bb Nemius, Lord John Maldernus, where he affirmed that the true Constitutions of our glorious Mother St Teresa were here in vigour and that in his visits and in all the informations which were brought him, he had never found anything that could amount to a venial sin.
There can be found more testimonies of from other Superiors, including Lord Bishop of Antwerp and Lord Bishop Ambrosius Capello who wrote to Archb Mechlin as follows: "I assure your Lordship, that in all my Diocese I have not any Monastery of Nuns in which there is greater regular observance, charity and edifying love, than in these two English houses of Antwerp and Lierre, which may truly serve as patterns to all the Monasteries in the world."
Mother Ann of the Ascension was succeeded in office by great and worthy souls, who continued the work she had begun; the Religious were remarkable for their sanctity and the lives of several have been written, giving accounts of these chosen souls. In the course of one hundred years, seven incorrupt bodies were found in the three Carmelite communities of Antwerp, Musterfeld and Newburg (the latter two being founded from Antwerp). The Chronicles continue: "the heroical actions of leaving friends, country and plentiful fortunes, in young ladies of the prime nobility and some of the blood royal of England, endowed with many others gifts of nature, may give us a sufficient idea of the many celestial graces and favours with which God is often pleased to reward such even in this life.

Sister Mary of St Albert (Trentum)

We read in Chronicles, her practice of virtues, self-denials and mortifications were exemplary and her silence was so exact that she could never accuse herself to have broken it with reflection. She lived in constant awareness of the presence of Almighty God and so great was her internal joy therein, that she was often forced to divert herself to keep it from appearing publicly. After her death her confessor said we might esteem her for her virtues and practices as a second to none.

Sister Mary of Jesus (Morgan)
Was descendant of Herberts family and was heiress to the large and ample possessions of her father, and as well for that as for the perfections and graces of her person, was asked in marriage by the greatest Earls of the Kingdom. Her particular vocation to the Carmelite Order was admirable, for so contrary to her complexion were all our observances, that she knew they must shorten her life, as in reality it proved; but this knowledge she kept to herself, and with an unwearied fervor, constantly persevered in all observances without the least dispensation, till her last sickness, which was but three days before her happy death;..Her obedience was most exemplary, and this obedience she observed not only to her superiors, but to the least subordinate official, with an incomparable sweetness and humility, which was the more admirable in her by reason of the natural greatness of her mind and the habitual sudtom she had to command. Her charity and love to the Community appeared by the entire donation she made to this Monastery of her whole estate, which ahd been sufficient to found in a plentiful manner two other such monasteries, had not the miseries of our distressed country detained ud from our right. Her humility was do great, that she thought herself the most incapable person in the world. She lived only five years (in the convent), yet the examples of her virtues are innumerable and never and never to be forgotten in the Community.

Sister Ann of the Angels (Lady Mary Somerset)
She could not be contend till she became poor in the house of Jesus Christ, in which she ever sought the meanest employment, performing them with such delight as was of most exemplary edification. Her friends, considering her physical weakness, thought our Order much too hard for her, but breaking through many difficulties and oppositions to enter amongst us, she truly experienced and showed to the world hos light love makes the heaviest burdens. She was particularly favoured by our Lord in a supernatural way; whereby the Divine Majesty finding her ripe for Heaven, took her to His Celestial Paradise, there to receive the reward of her great virtues.

In the profession list of Antwerp are found the names of seven of the Howard family and several of Wakemans.

Sister Mary of St Joseph (Vaughn) of Courtfield
She was born in 1632 and was professed in 1649 and the age of seventeen. She had been sent as novice on the new foundation to Lierre, which had been began in 1648, and was not completed until the following year. She died at the ripe age of seventy-seven years, in 1709, having during that long religious life never lost her first fervour, but increased every day in continual tendency to religious perfection.

The Vaughns were always staunch Catholics; their record of fine, imprisonment, and double land tax for their fidelity to the old faith, is superb one. Bishop Challoner says of Rev Thomas Vaughn, ordained at Douai, 1622, that though he did not suffer at the common place of execution, he was a martyr for his character and religion, and took his life in his hands, serving the English Missions for many years. he appears to have died at Cardiff after "suffering hard usage", in 1650 just after the Profession of his young relative in Carmel.

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Little gem from St Therese.

To prove that God looks only to the love which inspires our actions, one day Soeur Therese related the following story to us:

"Once there was a great lord who built a church in his realm as a lasting memorial to his liberality. On the day of the grand dedication, this sovereign's name and the name of his family could be clearly seen, carved in bold letters on one of the prominent stones of the building. The next day, hhowever, the only name to be seen on the stone was that of some unknown woman. Needless to say, the original inscription, which had been completely obliterated, was restored at once, but the same phenomenon again took place. After several renewed attempts to by-pass the miracle were similarly frustrated, the orate lord began an investigation. he had at the outset forbidden his subject to contribute, even in a small way, to this project; he was to be the sole donor.. Now he began to suspect that somebody had secretly interfered with his plan. the unknown name was, therefore, duly identified, and the guilty woman summoned to justice. Denying, at first, all responsibility in the matter, she suddenly remembered....During the building operations, she had noticed how difficult it was for the horses to drag along the heavy cartloads of stone, and with her last coin, she had bought a truss of hay for them. 'These dumb animals are, in certain way, participating in this great work,' she had reasoned,'and as I have been deprived of the privilage of contributing directly to this temple, perhaps God will accept the offering I am making through them...' That was the extent of her guilt. The humbled sovereign fully understood...and there was no further interferance with the miraculous inscription."

"This proves," Therese added, "that the most trivial work, the least action when inspired by love, is often of greater merit than the most outstanding achievement. It is not on their face value that God judges our deeds, even when they bear the stamp of apparent holiness, but solely on the measure of love we put into them....And there is no one," she concluded, "who can object that he is incapable of even this much, for such love is within the reach of all men."

from 'A memoir of my sister St Therese'
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This story is said by St Therese' sister, Celine, and refers to the time both sisters shared in the Convent. This particular fragment showing us Therese in the last months of her illness in great suffering but still retaining warm, loving and light-hearted personality.

During the winter 1896-1897, in order to protect Therese's feet from the cold, Mere Marie de Gonzague, our Prioress, gave her an order of obedience to use a foot-warmer. This would enable my little sister who was already in a decline to have a warm pair of alpargates (sandals worn by Carmelites) always at hand. But the Saint never used this dispensation unless the necessity was great - and even then, only because it was Reverend mother's wish. Consequently, except when she was unusually chilled, Therese allowed the foot-warmer to cool off, much to my evident displeasure. "Other souls, at death," she observed in her light-hearted way, "present themselves before the heavenly court weighted down by their instruments of penance, whereas I shall appear there holding up my chaufferette (foot-warmer). Never mind, it is only love and obedience that count..."

taken from "A Memoir of My Sister St Therese", by Sr Genevieve (Celine Martin). Read whole post......

St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi week

The Saint's own words on many subjects.

About the Church:
O my beloved Spouse and loving Word, you engender the Body of the holy Church in a way which you alone know and understand...By means of your Blood, you make a well-organized, well-formed body of which you are the head. The angels delight in its beauty, the archangels admire it, the seraphim are enraptured by it, all the angelic spirits marvel at it, and all the souls of the blessed in heaven rejoice in it. the Blessed Trinity takes delight in it in a manner beyond our comprehension ("The Complete Works of St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi" 3)

About Our Lady:

O Mary, anyone who looks at you is comforted in any anxiety or tribulation or pain, and is victorious over any temptation. Anyone who does not know something about God, let him have recourse to you, O Mary. Anyone who does not find mercy in God, let him have recourse to you, O Mary. Anyone whose will is not in conformity, let him have recourse to you, O Mary. Anyone who falters on account of weakness, let him have recourse to you who are all strong and powerful. Anyone in constant struggle, let him have recourse to you who are a tranquil sea...Whoever is tempted...let him have recourse to you, who are the mother of humility, and nothing drives away the devil mote than humility. Let them, one and all, have recourse to you, O Mary! (CW3)

About charity toward the neighbour:

O Lord, if I see my neighbour committing sin, I shall make an excuse for him on the grounds of his intention, which being hidden cannot be seen, and even if I see plainly that his intention was distorted and evil, help me to know how to make allowance for the temptation, which is something from which no mortal is excluded. And if someone should come to speak to me of my neighbour's faults, I do not want to listen, and I shall answer that I will pray for him and ask the Lord to let me first amend myself. Besides, it will be easier for me to speak to my erring neighbour himself about his fault than to talk about it with others, because instead of remedying that fault, many others, much more serious, may be committed than those that are being discussed. (after Divine Intimacy - 'Probation')

About Eucharist

O Lord, the soul's mouth....lovingly tastes you; it savour the purity of the divine essence and of your humanity and attains to such a knowledge of your purity that that which used to seem virtue to it, now seems like a shortcoming both in itself and in others. Receiving the Holy Sacraments which draw strength from your Blood and from your Passion, and of the Blood that was she therein. We savour this most fully when we receive the holy Sacrament of your Body and Blood, for there more than anywhere else this sweetness and grace are found hidden, when the Sacrament is really received with purity and honesty. Let whoever wishes to taste of your gentleness and sweetness approach this Blood and there he will find all rest and consolation. The soul will be washed with this Blood, cleansed in this Blood, nourished by this Blood (after "The Complete Works of St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi" vol 3).

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

O Holy Spirit, you show us what we must do to please the Trinity, interiorly through your inspirations, and exteriorly through preaching and warnings, and that all proceeds from you, since no one can say the sweet and holy name of Jesus unless he is moved by you. You are the dispenser of the treasures hidden in the bosom of the Father and treasurer of the counsels which pass between the Father and the Word. You are that rod that strikes the rock and makes it bring forth the water that satisfies every creature. The cataracts of heaven are always open to send down grace, but we do not have the mouth of our desire open to receive it. Come, come O most gentle Spirit! Spirit of goodness! I contemplate you as you leave the bosom of the Father, and enter the side of the Word, then leaving by the heart of the Word, come to us here on earth. From the bosom of the Son burning love. (DI, vol4, 'Revelations and Enlightenments', CW vol 4)

Wisdom of God and human wisdom:

Your wisdom, O Word, is like the bush you showed to Moses, which burned, but was not consumed...Those who seek and go after the wisdom that is human abhor your wisdom, but to God human wisdom is foolishness....In addition, by abhorring your wisdom, they deny themselves union with you, for by offending you they deprive themselves both of you and of it....

What do you do, O wisdom of my Word? You raise up the soul and you submerge it in the depths: you erect and tear down every building; always weeping and singing, watching and sleeping, walking and never moving - you are wisdom, containing in yourself every treasure and remaining far from foolishness...

And how is this wisdom acquired? It is acquired by an enlightened understanding of God's being, by continual affection and desire for God in God. Those who have reached this point have acquired the pleasure of wisdom. Those who savour it, taste it; and those who know nothing, understand it. Oh, why do we not pursue this wisdom continually without ever stopping? ( Drink of the Stream)

Her love for the Holy Spirit

Looking at myself, O God of Love, I would never raise my mind and my will to ask for this Comforter. But looking again at Your Being, which is goodness and love, and mercy, I cannot but long for the coming of Your Holy Spirit. I know, though not as well as I should, that I am not in any way a vessel suitable to receive You. But considering that you are He Who makes suitable every heart; and with the offering of the Blood of the Word, ... which offering i pray the saints to make for me to the Most Holy Trinity....I take courage to ask and beg for this Holy Spirit.

Wherefore I pray you, all you angelic spirits and saintly souls in heaven, in your act of love and through that same continued act of love that is yours, pray to the Holy Ghost that he may come and dwell in me and in all the other daughters of Mary. Moreover, in asking for this Holy Spirit, I intend to receive the entire Holy Trinity. (after "Seraph among Angels" - by Sr Mary Minima O.Carm)

Her vision of Jesus

And suddenly Jesus presented Himself to her in that age of young manhood, at which sight she greatly rejoiced and remained for a long while looking upon His beauty with great admiration. then she began to speak, saying: My Jesus, in this flowery age of Your young manhood, I shall see You everywhere, excepting those places in which I am to see You as a child and as a youth. When I shall see You in those so beautiful and gracious age when You left us Yourself and suffered Your Passion......I am much please to look upon You as You show me Yourself now, that is sitting on the well, where You were asking questions and giving enlightening answers...If I were desirous of change, i could go on discoursing with my intellect in many places, for You worked so much during this time; but I shall be content to stay with You and sit on the well. And sometimes I shall also anoint You with the Magdalen... The ointment will be love of my neighbour... The tears with which I have to wash Your holy feet will be that charity of which St Paul spoke: "Weep with them that weep; rejoice with them that rejoice" (Rom 12:15). The hair, which is something almost superfluous, will be the condescension that the soul which understands You in an exalted way must practice; for it must accommodate itself to the weakness and littleness of its neighbour....

I will now return to looking at You on the well, where I see that on the right You have a cross, dark and resplendent; for although my intense suffering of soul, known to You, has ended, nevertheless I shall still have this cross of seeing that You are neither loved nor known, and that that which is Your will is not put into effect. I am speaking of the work of renewal of Your bride, the Church, the work so well understood by me and which, in every case, will be a cross for me. For whether it is understood or not understood, whether it is carried out or not carried out, it will be a cross for me, but a cross resplendent and glorious... You have written in Your hands ll my words.

O my God, to say that You take words for works, how can this be? ... Oh yes, I understand. It is because You crown the intense desire to do a work, where there is no possibility of doing it, more than a work done without the desire. And if Your work will not be accomplished, it will not be for this reason, that it is not Your will, but because there is not the proper disposition in creatures, or generous hearts to do it, as would be necessary. (CW)

Conversation with God, the Father

O Eternal Father, that You are blessed and glorious in Yourself is no cause for wonder. That all creatures are blessed and glorious through You is no cause for wonder. But that You communicate Yourself to, and take pleasure in, a creature so vile, this is a cause for wonder.... Then he leads the soul into so much grandeur and into so much light! And still it gives You more pleasure that we give belief, obedience, to creatures, even though we know such grandeur. But this is not understood by creatures; and therefore so few give You this pleasure.... Yes, I have understood. (CW).

Selected from 'Drink of the Stream'

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St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi week

DOCTRINE (my emphasies in bold in the text)
Mary Magdalen's vision of the spiritual life is presented to us as on a twofold level: one develops in eternity, the other in time. The first introduces us into the depths of the divinity, in which the explanation of the second is rooted. The latter presents us with the mystery of the Incarnate Word and the path of man towards heaven. The explanation is based on love, which animates and resolves every situation. Essentially, God is love, the saint repeats innumerable times. Creation had its beginning as the terminus of excessive love and of exuberant fullness. Sin, freely committed, made the creature "incapable ... to receive God's gifts within himself". Man lost this capacity, but only partially; thus there was born in the Trinity "a new counsel of humility and love" to redeem man by means of the incarnation of the Word. A final "counsel of love "determined "to give sublime gifts and graces" to faithful creatures and "to each one according to his works". Mary Magdalen develops these themes unequally; by preference she lingers on the second plan dealing with the work of the redemption. Although, with other mystics, she repeatedly affirms that the Word would have become man even if man had not sinned, in fact, however, she presents Him as clothed in our flesh in order to redeem us from sin. The only motive for His coming was His great love, which led Him even to the "foolishness": Of the cross and made Him, as it were, "forget ... His wisdom"". The Word has redeemed us through His humanity, "the tabernacle" of God, which was possessed by the Holy Spirit "just as His own". Whoever does not pass through this sacred humanity cannot reach salvation: it is the "bridge", the "stairway", the "ship that leads to port". The Word Made Man, placed like "an anvil" between God's anger and men's wickedness, is the perfect instrument of redemption that began in sorrow and was consummated on the cross. No theme returns so insistently in the doctrine of the saint as the bloody and interior (mental) passion of Jesus, the passion often symbolized by Christ's blood, towards which Mary Magdalen nourished a deep devotion. The "re-creation" of mankind by means of the blood of Christ lifts mankind to a level of life superior to that oif original justice, even to the level of the angels. The love of God for man, before and after the incarnation, "is as different ... as light ... from darkness". The soul returns to such grandeur by faithfully recopying "the Book of Life", Jesus Himself. Its likeness to God is in proportion to its likeness to Christ. Just as the piety and the doctrine of the saint are decisively Christocentric, so also are they decisively Marian. She affirms the Immaculate Conception of the "Virgin Mary", her unique holiness - "the most holy person who has ever existed, both at present and as she must be for the future" - and her spiritual motherhood, her mediation of all graces. The return of man to God is conceived as a struggle between two loves: self-love and divine love, which is born of humility. After charity, there is no virtue on which she insists more than humility. Pride is destruction and disunion between God and man, between man and man. (Her description of pride and of the other vices, (II, 452, III, 24), is particularly effective on a psychological level). Humility establishes the union; it is, as it were, the mother of love and the gateway to grace. Freedom - both the greatness and the downfall of mankind - when dominated by pride, can place an obstacle to this grace. The return to the fatherland can be accomplished along one of two ways: one is broad, the other a narrow path. The laity take the first way, religious the second (II, 167:11, 132-3). The saint describes religious life on numerous occasions, detailing its specific virtues, its practices (with great emphasis on ascetical renunciations, and practically nothing on prayer), its possible defects, etc. Her doctrine is more theoretical in the
Ecstasies, but exclusively practical in the Teachings; it offers nothing specific except the ardor and the great passion with which it is expressed. If the soul is led to God by means of the cardinal virtues (of which brief descriptions, Thomistic in tone, are given) it is, nevertheless, by exercising the theological virtues that it directly and intimately adheres to Him. Wholly taken up with love, St Mary Magdalen speaks little of faith, almost nothing of hope. Love, of which she gives us some classifications on the basis of its intensity and the effects that it produces in the keystone of the whole spiritual edifice. It guides every event of our divine-human history: "created by God ... for love and with love ... it is through this way" that we are to return to Him, Love measures the progress of the soul on this way of return. It is significant that her rather poor doctrine on the sacraments is not so in regard to the Eucharist, the sacrament of love. True love of God demands love of neighbor: "one cannot exist without the other". The apostolic aspect of love, stressed with particular care, rendered Mary Magdalen sensitive, even in doctrinal matters, to the preoccupations of her times; very significant in this regard are the fifth manuscript on the reform of the Church, the repetition of dogmatic themes that were then being discussed (grace, free will, purgatory, etc.), and also her devotions (to the humanity of Christ, to her guardian angel, to the holy souls), which were typically Italian and counter-reformation. But the principal function of love is to unite the soul to God. Union with God is necessary for man in order that he be happy; it is also a need of divine love, which "cannot bear to see anything that is not equal to" itself. This union demands radical purification, which assimilates and makes free, by means of the practice of the virtues - above all, of humility-love, which leads to annihilation. The soul must "will nothing, be able to do nothing, ... hear nothing and comprehend everything". The intervention of God, asked for in humility and proportioned to love, is painful, because it purifies and enlightens: the soul must receive it with humility and abandonment. The apparent renunciation of activity, which is alluded to in the manuscripts and which so pleased several quietists of the 1600's, is not static apathy, but the simple psychological impression of the subject: "continuing to work," according to Mary Magdalen, "is to leave ourselves completely dead in God, to such an extent that God works in the soul and the soul in God; and thus the soul, while working, in a way does not perceive that it is working". In order to reach transformation, in which all is peace in the depths of the soul, despite possible struggles on the surface, and in which one has a particular knowledge of God caused by love, one must transcend every created form, even the very humanity of Jesus. The transformed soul lives the life of God and it can no longer be separated from Him; it is most precious for the Church; it will not pass through the flames of purgatory; its death will be one of love for Mary Magdalen, therefore, the spiritual life is like a circle, enlivened with love, that has God both as its starting and as it finishing point. The doctrinal influence exercised by Mary Magdalen on the spirituality and piety, especially Italian, of the 17 and 18 centuries was noteworthy. There were numerous editions of her Ecstasies during these two centuries, and the bibliographical listings of Mary Magdalen reached almost three hundred. The most famous representative of this influence is perhaps St. Alphonsus, who uses the doctrine of the Florentine Carmelite in some of his ascetical works. In the 19 cent., a crisis loomed, but it seems that this is being gradually resolved in our own days.

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