A fine Carmelite teacher has gone to her reward

News just in of the passing of Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite nun based in Quidenham monastery in Norfolk, whose writings have been an inspiration to a great many people. Among them former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who said that his life was changed by reading one of her early books, Guidelines for Mystical Prayer. Her name in monastic life was Sister Rachel. Here is a gem from her: 'To believe in the God of Jesus Christ is to know that, through what God in his love has done for us, there is absolutely no barrier between God and ourselves. We have free access. God is always available, always there, always with us—with you, with me. What is more, we know that God made us in love, precisely because God wants us wholly united to him for his and our total happiness. Now, if we really believe that—and we must, surely, if we set aside some time to pray, affirm God's (or Jesus') loving presence and offer ourselves to him to do in us all he wants. He will not fail to purify us and gradually transform us as he unites us to himself. How can it matter that we do not feel it is happening?'