The penance of reason

One person was taken into formation last night in our St Elijah Community in Oxford.  I witnessed another being taken into formation during the retreat at Belmont Abbey last week.  The week before that, four were taken into formation in the new Manchester group.  Each time I witness this I am taken back to my own admission to formation more than twenty years ago.  When performing the admission rite in Belmont Abbey Fr Matt Blake made a point of saying that our formation continues throughout our lives as Carmelites, and I can vouch for that.  It is a wonderful but sometimes challenging journey up the slope of Mount Carmel (as John of the Cross portrays it).  Challenging because from time to time you have to let go of things which seem important at the time; only in retrospect do you see that you are better off without them.  For myself, I had to let go of my excessive trust in my reason, my intellect, my cerebral side and give more trust to divinely given intuitions.  Only recently I came across a profound saying of John of the Cross which is very relevant in this connection: ‘Obedience is the penance of reason’.

Intercessions

RIP Mervyn Leach, father of two Secular Carmelites; Daranee Teapthong

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Fr Jon Bielowski (Plymouth Diocese), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Theresa K

Sophie – newborn having heart surgery; Sianna, young child in the post-operative phase; James, recovering from heart surgery

Ivy – sick child

Brian (recovering from Pneumonia)

Kevin (heart attack)

William Gove (recovering from stroke)

Illness:  Katy Keeling

Siena, Elara – sick children

David OCDS – housebound

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

Mark – brain infection

Michael, Kira – vulnerable youngsters

Defence of the unborn and the elderly

We are asked to pray for the Diocese of Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand, as the Northern Mission celebrates its centenary. The process of selecting a new bishop continues.