Climbing mountains

I was having coffee with a friend after mass yesterday and we were talking - as you do at this time of year - about holidays. She announced 'I want to go and climb a mountain'. She did not really mean 'mountaineering' as such - but she had a desire to spend some days up in the hills, perhaps of the north of England. By coincidence I have been reading an extraordinary book which compares the ascent of Mount Carmel as described by spiritual writers like St John of the Cross with the experiences of earthly mountaineers. The author has done some reading in mountaineering literature, which she quotes here and there. Not the least surprising aspect of this book is that it has been written by a lady who is a Bishop in the Swedish Lutheran Church. Her subject is a comparison between the great trio of our saints - Therese, Teresa, St John of the Cross - with Martin Luther. I am not writing about this in order to recommend the book, because I have problems with the comparison, but I just like the idea of the mountaineering theme with which the author begins. I have never been attracted to earthly mountaineering myself, but I guess we Carmelites understand our calling as a kind of spiritual mountaineering. On the other hand, Therese wants us to take the elevator to heaven. Life is full of these paradoxes ...