A soothing Carmelite

I was discussing St John of the Cross with a fellow Carmelite yesterday and she used an extraordinary word to describe him, saying that she finds his words ‘soothing’.  I can identify with that, because although his emphasis on darkness and nothingness can make him seem quite forbidding, the message at the heart of his thought is that nothing matters more than God.  But if nothing matters more than God - and we know that God is unchanging and his love our ultimate resource – we can face the challenges, the heartaches, the discomforts, the bitterness of life with some measure of equanimity.  There is one firm unchanging cave we can retreat to amidst the storms, therein to rest in the arms of Jesus, as the wonderful St Therese would put it.

Intercessions:

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Theresa K, Fr Jon B, Catherine,

Illness: Roy Seymour, Catherine Keeling

Siena, Elara – sick children

David OCDS – housebound

Sophia – blind infant

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)

Lucia – Overwhelmed by weariness

Mark – brain infection

Defence of the unborn and the elderly

RIP Richard Parker, Martin Gilham, Sue Burton, Wojtek, Joy Smith OCDS