Saint Teresa of the Andes, The Ascent of Mount Carmel and Mount Horeb

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

Sacred Scripture celebrated the beauty of Carmel where the prophet Elijah defended the purity of Israel's faith in the living God. In the twelfth century, hermits withdrew to that mountain and later founded the Carmelite order devoted to the contemplative life under the patronage of Mary, the holy Mother of God.

Below Mount Carmel, Bahai's gardens and Haifa

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: edward booth
To: Donald Nunraw  
Sent: Sunday, 15 July 2012, 23:34
Subject: Poem and extract from Saint Teresa of the Andes

Dear Father Donald,

I thought that you might like to see these.
I wrote the poem for the Sclerder Carmelites in Cornwall, and am
sending it in the FAX format in which I shall send it to them
tomorrow.
Also a passage from a beautiful letter from Saint Teresa of the Andes,
which they wanted to have. It was the end of a sermon, and I give the
introduction as well. My internet source did not give a reference to
where it is to be found.

Perhaps H... would like to have copies as well.

Here we are having the sun when the UK seems to be having unending rain.

Blessings in Domino,

fr Edward O.P.

St  Teresa of the Andes
Virgin of our Order
Feast Day: 13 July 

Let's live intimately united with Him, since one who loves tends to be united with the one loved.
The fusing of two souls is done through love. Saint Teresa of the Andes
faithofthefatherssaintquote.blogspot.com

….. The Saint celebrated by the Carmelite Sisters today is modern and extremely interesting: Saint Teresa of the Andes., who was born in 1900 and died in 1920, still a novice. She was a Chilean, the daughter of an apparently rich but frankly badly organised landowner, who lived her life with zest, playing the piano, loving to ride horses, but all the time nurturing the desire to be a Carmelite at the monastery known as "Los Andes", at Vinar del Alar. In her first year as a Carmelite she died of typhoid fever. The intensity of her spirituality matched the intensity of her character. She was canonised as the result of a miracle: the restoration to life of a child caught and drowned in the force of water at a water extraction pump in a swimming bath. She left behind her a collection of letters, of which I quote to you this extract:

“There will never be any separation between our souls. I will live in Him. Search for Jesus and in Him you’ll find me; and there the three of us will continue our intimate conversations, the ones we’ll be carrying on there forever in eternity. Love is the fusion of two souls in one in order to bring about mutual perfection. Though I am absent from you, this changes nothing in our relationship. I am always with you, invisibly assisting you in all you do. And if my prayers are worth anything, you can count on them for the rest of my life; because every day I have you with me at Communion time. How much time has passed since we last saw each other, but our souls are always one in the Divine Jesus. A Carmelite sanctifies herself in order to make all the Church’s members holy. The goal she (a Carmelite) proposes to herself is very great: to pray and sanctify herself for sinners and priests. To sanctify herself for sinners and priests. To sanctify herself so that the divine sap may be communicated through the union that exists between the faithful and all members of the Church. She immolates herself on the cross, and her blood falls on sinners, pleading for mercy and repentance, for on the cross she is intimately united to Jesus Christ. Her blood, then, is mixed with His Divine Blood. A Carmelite is a sister to priests. Both priest and sister offer a host of holocaust for the salvation of the world. A Sister sanctifies herself, that by being more united to God, the blood of the Divine Prisoner which she receives in her soul might circulate through the other members of Christ’s Body. In a word, a Sister sanctifies herself to sanctify her brothers. This pains me greatly; to see that I’m sensibly experiencing feelings of great love. Sometimes it even reaches the point of taking my strength away or the desire to do anything but stretch out on the bed. Let’s live intimately united with Him, since one who loves tends to be united with the one loved. The fusing of two souls is done through love. It’s true, my dear little sister, we don’t live together; but you live in God and I do, too. There, in that abyss of love, we’ll live as one. Everything in God is indivisible; we, too, will be inseparable. Sometimes I felt such great love it seemed I could not go on living if these desires continued any longer…Once when the violence of love took hold of me, I grasped a needle and on my chest drew these letters: J.A.M., which means Jesus My Love. Despite the distance separating us, my soul will always be one with yours. We both form but a single soul, isn’t that so? “ Amen.                                           

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Relief of Angel feeding Elijaj in Church at Muraka Mount Carmel

Dear Donald,

Here is the text of the poem "Ascent ..." with my corrections from this morning.
Thank you for telephoning. It was good to hear your voice.

Blessings in Domino,

Edward  

“The Ascent of Mount Carmel and Mount Horeb”, 

from Fr. Edward O.P.  

There was confusion on Mount Carmel

except in the mind of Elias.

He disposed his mind and lips

to communicate the message of the Lord.

Firstly he told the Israelites there was no place for wavering

and he wavered never,

and set up a test for divine self-authentication.

Two bulls from a common stock:

he gave the Baalites first choice to sacrifice.

They – four hundred and fifty prophets plus four hundred from forest-shrines -

clamoured to Baal.

No answer came; no spark descended.

(Elias mocked: “Shout louder; perhaps he's sleeping!”)

All to no avail.

Elias re-erected an ancient altar to Yahweh; doused the wood with water

to make the test harder.

He prayed.

The divine fire fell …

He herded the Baalists to a valley below and slaughtered the lot.

Nor was the drought forgotten: “I hear a noise like a rain-storm!”

He reascended the mountain, sent his servants to spy over the sea.

A little cloud appeared, sized like a foot-print, rising upwards:

a material miracle; the cloud covering Mirjam's Conception was divine.

“Back!” said Elias; “tell the king to be off before the rain descends in torrents.”

Sky darkening, clouds gathering, rain deluging; back to Samaria.

Elias belted his cloak, ran with Achab's fatal chariot.

Jezebel being told terrified Elias, who ran to the desert, slept inder a juniper.

There he discovered his isolation.

An angel gave him bread cooked in the ashes, and water;

Elijah's Hollow Mt Sinai

impelled him to Horeb, mount of Moses' encounter with Yahweh in Sinai;

feeling his isolation more, barely carrying its weight, he climbed to a cave.

He made a passage from the common sacrifice of common humanity.

He must stand in the Yahweh's presence as he passed by.

For the prayer, the flame, the common wind and rain

there was wind plus an earthquake,and fire correspondingly greater,

but Yahweh was in the whisper of the following gentle breeze.

Elias wrapped his face before this ultimate state, stood at the entrance.

Yahweh affirmed his infinite transcendence and Elias's honest confusion:

“Elias, what are you doing here?”

With loneliness greater still he complained, “Israel has foresaken its covenant;

I am the only prophet left ...”.

eternal depth understood this self-discovering depth, and loved his prophet.

He sent him on a mission to Syrian Damascus, north of Galilee,

to anoint its king, another king for Israel, with his own successor

– a fiery chariot already in mind to ascend him into heaven.

A view of the southern end of Mt Carmel with the city of Haifa in the distance