I suspect that it was the writings of St John in the Scriptures which first sowed the Carmelite seed in me when I encountered them as a child. What he writes is at once simple, it is direct, and it is utterly breathtaking. It is also hauntingly beautiful. It is above all an invitation for us to go deeper into love, to go deeper into God, to go deeper into ourselves. And that is what Carmel is about. In my youth I did not have this love for God that he wrote about, nor did I have the love for others that he spoke of, but his teaching was a signpost showing me the way to go and a magnetic attraction pulling me on that way. First it made me think about the need for me to pray, then it made me go deep into the Scriptures, then it drew me into the Catholic Church, and then it called me into Carmel. The spirit of Carmel is the spirit of St John.
Intercessions:
Cancer – Marie, Bernard, Agnes
Sick infants – Siena, Elara
Multiple afflictions – Rosemarie
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