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Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2026-05-31 · 17:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 1 June: Blessed Mary Josephine

In giving thanks to God—together with all of you, beginning with the Most Eminent and Venerable Brother Archbishop Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe—for the great gift to the Church of Naples, the new Blessed Mary Josephine of Jesus Crucified, Thomas Merton’s reflection comes to mind. He stated: “There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel,” which finds further confirmation in this Solemn Rite [Merton, 1951].
Indeed, today the Church of Naples owes to Carmel, as a place and school of holiness, not only the precious gift of one of its daughters elevated to the honor of the altars, but also the most authoritative reminder of the universal vocation to holiness, its irreplaceable value, and its perennial relevance.
As the Representative of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI in presiding over today’s beatification, I feel honored and delighted to witness the marvelous works of God, and even more so to admire His masterpieces, which are always the saints and the blessed. This venerable archdiocese, with its considerable and growing number of Blesseds and Saints, offers them to the admiration of the entire Church.
The great, biblical words of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, addressed precisely to the Discalced Carmelite friars [during a general audience on July 11, 1973], fit like a glove: “You are ‘sons of saints,’ look carefully at the immense spiritual inheritance that is handed down to you…” [Original text: Vos estis «filii sanctorum» (Tob 2:18): immensam intuemini hereditatem spiritualem] Words that I like to apply to the men and women brought forth in the faith in this Neapolitan Church.
Yes, dear people of Naples, you too are children of saints: from them we learn to elevate the horizons of hope to heavenly realities, without setting aside our commitment to building up the earthly city, despite all its urgent and disturbing problems. The more we contemplate the Lord among His Saints, entering into living communion with Him, the stronger the hope within us grows for an active and effective commitment to improving and changing the world around us.
Looking particularly at the story and message of Blessed Josephine, we better understand the inescapable need for the contemplative dimension in the life of every Christian. Her example also shows us the concrete way to cultivate it. Her existence was a true school of charity, both toward her fellow sisters and toward the vast field of the apostolate, which she, though a cloistered nun, cultivated solely to make people love the Lord more. She, too, like St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, did not want “to be a saint by halves” [cf. LT 247 to Abbé Bellière], albeit with her peculiarities and mystical gifts, and various extraordinary spiritual experiences.
Everything is summed up in a phrase that constituted the unifying program of the Blessed’s entire life: “I want to live by feeding on God’s will… I want my will to be united with God’s will as one.” And again in her Diary: “I ardently desire to live in the will of God; I know that saints are made in this way, and I want to make myself saintly to give glory to God.”
Such a program must be the great aspiration of every Christian, in full conformity with the word of Christ, the One, Supreme Model: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34), because “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn 2:17).
I end with the great honor of sharing with you the special apostolic blessing and greeting of Benedict XVI, who, as he has shown, carries Naples, this Church, its Venerable Pastor, and all the members of the People of God in his heart. I entrust you to the powerful intercession of the new Blessed, that she may protect you all and lead you on the path of holiness.
José Cardinal Saraiva Martins
Prefect, Congregation of the Causes of the Saints
Homily, Mass of Beatification of Blessed Mary Josephine
1 June 2008, Cathedral of St. Januarius, Naples
Note: Cardinal Saraiva Martins opens his homily with a passage from Thomas Merton’s The Ascent to Truth. The words come from the Author’s Note before the Prologue, where Merton wrote: “There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel. But there are few who owe more to the saints of Carmel and to its Queen than does the author. Above all, this book was written, so to speak, under her direction and tutelage.”
Later in the homily, Cardinal Saraiva Martins quotes Blessed Mary Josephine, who said: “I want my will to be united with God’s will as one.” The Italian word she uses is impasto, literally “dough” or “paste.” In context, it suggests the close blending of the human will with the will of God, as dough is worked until it becomes one cohesive whole.
Blessed Mary Josephine of Jesus Crucified with one of her nuns kneeling before her. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: This is a detail from an artist’s rendering of a well-known photo of Blessed Mary Josephine, who was captured seated outdoors, smiling broadly. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
#beatification #BlessedMaryJosephineOfJesusCrucified #StThérèseOfLisieux #ThomasMerton #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #thomasmerton #stthereseoflisieux #blessedmaryjosephineofjesuscrucified #beatification
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2026-03-24 · 17:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 25 March: Blessed Marie-Eugène

Before the Annunciation, Mary was the daughter of God in prayer. Certainly, she didn’t yet know about her divine motherhood. She was aware of her grace, the treasure she possessed, the abundance of this grace; yet she remained unaware of herself in the sense that she didn’t recognize the superiority of this grace over ordinary and common grace.
The Virgin was concerned only with uniting herself to God. It was this self-forgetfulness, this purity, that allowed God to pour Himself into her. She continually sought Him, going to find Him in the Temple, and orienting herself toward Him like a child to her Father.
Let us not think that simplicity implies limited horizons. From a human perspective, Mary surely does not seek satisfaction for her faculties; no, she turns solely toward God, practicing in her external actions—required by this simple orientation—the virtue of obedience, like a child who does what is asked without seeking anything beyond it, without even becoming attached to the work itself.
We, on the other hand, are restless in our faculties; Mary is not. She finds this peace in faith. Everything else would be an unnecessary distraction, diverting her from her contact with God. For her, this contact is entirely simple, without ecstasies or raptures, for her faculties are flexible enough to receive and endure—without leaving a trace in her senses—the brilliance and anointing of the Divinity present within her.
What matters, in fact, is not strength but flexibility. The strong are inevitably broken; the flexible bend and endure. In the Virgin, simplicity and flexibility reach perfection. Nothing externalizes itself in her. “She is so simple that I fear she will not be recognized,” they said about Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. The same can be said of the Virgin at that moment.
Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus
La Vierge Marie toute Mère (The Virgin Mary, All Mother)
Présence Maternelle: La prière de Marie (Maternal presence, Mary’s prayer)

de l’Enfant-Jésus, M 2019, La Vierge Marie Toute Mère, edited by Institut Notre-Dame de Vie, Éditions du Carmel, Toulouse.
Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured Image: This detail from The Annunciation by the Italian artist Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) is an oil on canvas painting executed in 1623 for Charles Emmanuel I, the Duke of Savoy. It is one of the masterpieces found in the collections of the Musei Reali di Torino. Image credit: Adobe Stock (stock photo)
#Annunciation #BlessedMarieEugeneOfTheChildJesus #BlessedVirginMary #prayer #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #prayer #blessedvirginmary #blessedmarieeugeneofthechildjesus #annunciation
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2026-01-20 · 18:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 21 January: Mother Agnès of Jesus
Recently a tiny shellfish gave me a lesson in interior recollection. I had difficulty in opening it because it resisted strongly, and I said to myself: “It is quite a vigorous little creature: no one would think it is so far from the sea.”
It taught me a great lesson. I must be sufficiently filled with the water of recollection to resist as strongly as he did the pressure of work and various happenings of the day, anything that could make me lose the drop of water which makes possible my union with God.
Mother Agnès of Jesus, o.c.d. (Pauline Martin)

Little Counsels of Mother Agnes of Jesus, OCD Saint Therese’s Sister, Pauline (excerpt), Compiled by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Ada (Parnell) Michigan
Featured image: Comboni Missionary Father David Bohnsack, mccj captures the humble, contemplative gaze of a child in Abéché, Chad. Image credit: David Bohnsack, mccj (By permission).
#counsel #MotherAgnesOfJesus #PaulineMartin #recollection #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #recollection #paulinemartin #motheragnesofjesus #counsel
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-12-04 · 16:22 UTC
St. John of the Cross Novena Compendium
“What profit is there in anything that is not the love of God, and what value has it in God’s sight?”
St. John of the Cross
Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book III, Chapter 30

Seven Years With Saint John of the Cross (2018–2024)
This compendium brings together seven novenas to Saint John of the Cross, prayed over the years with varying themes, voices, and approaches, yet all rooted in the same desire to draw closer to God through the wisdom of the Mystical Doctor. Some novenas follow John’s classic texts in steady sequence; others explore particular dimensions of his teaching—humility, the dark night, the spousal love of the Bridegroom, or the daily work of conversion. Whether presented with simple questions, pastoral reflections, or the insights of guest authors, each novena offers a different doorway into John’s vision of the soul’s ascent to God. Taken together, they form a rich and varied path of prayer, inviting readers to encounter St. John anew and to walk with him toward the transforming union for which every heart is made.

2018 Novena: From Detachment to Peace
This 2018 novena brings together nine short texts from Saint John of the Cross—taken from the Ascent, the Sayings of Light and Love, his letters, the Spiritual Canticle, and the Living Flame. Presented with brief Scripture passages and a traditional novena prayer, these selections trace a simple but steady movement through John’s major themes: the call to walk the path of Christ, to live in peace, to embrace virtue and detachment, to receive instruction in the dark night, and to be drawn toward union with God.
Link to 2018 Day 1

2019 Novena: Humility and Inner Conversion
This 2019 novena on Humility and Inner Conversion invites the soul to stand in truth before God, following Saint John of the Cross along the path of self-emptying, contrition, and trust. Drawing especially from the Sayings of Light and Love, each day confronts the illusions of self-reliance and pride, calling the heart to descend into the “wholly loving trust” that alone opens us to God’s mercy. Through Scripture, John’s terse and luminous counsels, and the daily novena prayer, readers are led into a deeper formation of conscience and a more earnest desire for the transforming grace that restores humility and shapes a life of authentic discipleship.
Link to 2019 Day 1

2020 Novena: Journey to Union
This 2020 novena revisits the same readings from Saint John of the Cross that appeared in the 2018 series. Instead of introducing new material, it re-presents those earlier selections—drawn from the Ascent, the Sayings of Light and Love, his letters, the Spiritual Canticle, and the Living Flame of Love—with revised titles and a fresh presentation. This repetition was intentional: the same words of John can speak differently from year to year, offering another opportunity to pray more deeply with his teaching.
Link to 2020 Day 1

2021 Novena: Examining the Heart
The 2021 novena also draws on the familiar nine readings from Saint John of the Cross but approaches them in a new way. This time the familiar texts are framed by simple, searching questions—What do you want? What must I do? How can I understand?—inviting a more personal examen in light of John’s teaching. With the daily Scripture passage, John’s brief selection, and the novena prayer from Carmel in Nigeria, the focus is less on introducing new material and more on letting the saint’s words probe the heart again, offering fresh grace through repeated prayer and reflection.
Link to 2021 Introduction

2022 Novena: The Night That Gives Sight (with Fr. Quang D. Tran, S.J.)
In this 2022 novena, Father Quang D. Tran, S.J., reflects on Saint John of the Cross’s teaching on the “dark night,” the purifying work by which God strips away the artificial lights in our lives so that we may see the true Light more clearly. Drawing on John’s own suffering and the wisdom of other spiritual masters, he shows how faith—stripped of lesser consolations—guides us more surely toward God. In the spirit of Advent, with its call to watchfulness and discernment, this novena helps us distinguish between the lights that blind and the Light that strengthens faith, hope, and love even in our darkest moments.
Link to 2022 Introduction

2023 Novena: Our Bridegroom and Friend
In this 2023 novena, guest author Laura Ercolino reflects on Saint John of the Cross’s teaching on the soul’s spousal relationship with Christ, drawing deeply from the Song of Songs and John’s own Spiritual Canticle. She reminds us that John understood the Canticle as the scriptural key to the soul’s journey toward transforming union—the divine marriage for which every heart is made. As the novena pairs John’s writings with verses from the Song of Songs, Laura invites readers to notice how the Divine Bridegroom is already wooing and drawing them into intimacy, offering foretastes of union even as we continue our ascent toward the eternal wedding feast.
Link to 2023 Introduction

2024 Novena: Walking the Path of Love
The 2024 novena, Walking the Path of Love, presented the nine classic readings from Saint John of the Cross with added depth through daily “Thoughts to Ponder” and a podcast introduction. Each day unfolded one of John’s central themes—rejoicing in God alone, responding to divine love, cultivating peace, embracing suffering with Christ, detachment, guidance in the dark night, spiritual marriage, and union—while inviting readers to reflect personally on how these teachings speak to their own journey. With the traditional novena prayer from the Carmelite nuns of Little Rock, this year’s novena offered a more catechetical and reflective approach, encouraging a sincere engagement with John’s wisdom and a renewed openness to the transforming work of divine love.
Link to 2024 Introduction

How to Use This Collection
Each novena follows the same structure: a brief introduction followed by nine days of prayer and reflection. You can pray them:
- Around St. John of the Cross’s solemnity (14 December)
- During times of personal need for his intercession
- As part of your spiritual reading throughout the year
- With family or prayer groups seeking his guidance
If you’re new to Saint John of the Cross, the 2019 novena is an excellent place to begin. Drawing from the Sayings of Light and Love, it introduces John’s spirituality in short, accessible steps and provides a helpful foundation for the deeper themes explored in the other novenas.
Novena Prayer
O seraphic St. John of the Cross,
the ardent love which burned always in your heart
led you to see all things only in God
and to seek only His glory.
It was to increase this love
and thus unite yourself more closely to God
that you led such a penitential life.
Mention your request
I beg you, inflame my heart with a love like yours,
so that I may have the courage to mortify myself
and give myself generously to the practice of virtue.
Thus may I truly love God
with all the fervor of which I am capable.
Amen.
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory be…
Saint John of the Cross, pray for us!

John of the Cross, St 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, rev. edn, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Joseph.
Let us unite in prayer
Featured image: The bronze figure of Saint John of the Cross is part of the public artwork Homenaje al primer encuentro de Santa Teresa de Jesús y San Juan de la Cruz en Medina del Campo en 1567. Photograph by Ángel Cantero, October 2015. Image source: Iglesia en Valladolid on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Collage for the Novena Compendium created by Carmelite Quotes in Adobe Express.
#faith #love #novena #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod
#unionwithgod #stjohnofthecross #novena #love #faith
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-12-01 · 18:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 2 December: St. John of the Cross
Union with God in this life, and direct communication with him, demands that we be united with the darkness in which, as Solomon said [1 Kgs 8:12], God promised to dwell, and that we approach the dark air in which God was pleased to reveal his secrets to Job.
Individuals must take in darkness the earthenware jars of Gideon [Judg 7:16–20] and hold in their hands (the works of their wills) the lamp (the union of love, though in the darkness of faith), so that when the clay jar of this life, which is all that impedes the light of faith, is broken, they may see God face to face in glory.
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. 2, chap. 9, no. 4

John of the Cross, St 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, rev. edn, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Photographer Cherry Laithang captures this striking image of a hand reaching out in the darkness. Image credit: Cherry Laithang / Unsplash (Stock photo)
#faith #glory #spiritualDirection #stJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stjohnofthecross #spiritualdirection #glory #faith
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-09-06 · 17:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 7 September: St. John of the Cross
In the measure that the memory becomes dispossessed of things, in that measure it will have hope, and the more hope it has the greater will be its union with God; for in relation to God, the more a soul hopes the more it attains. And it hopes more when, precisely, it is more dispossessed of things; when it has reached perfect dispossession it will remain with perfect possession of God in divine union.
But there are many who do not want to go without the sweetness and delight of this knowledge in the memory, and therefore they do not reach supreme possession and complete sweetness. For whoever does not renounce all possessions cannot be Christ’s disciple [Lk 14:33].
Saint John of the Cross
Ascent of Mount Carmel, book 3, chap. 7, no. 2

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Eagle silhouette against sunrise over mountain landscape. Image credit: Stock photography
#discipleship #dispossession #hope #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stjohnofthecross #hope #dispossession #discipleship
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-08-16 · 17:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 17 August: St. John of the Cross
Faith is the proximate and proportionate means to the intellect for the attainment of the divine union of love.
We can gather from what has been said that to be prepared for this divine union the intellect must be cleansed and emptied of everything relating to sense, divested and liberated of everything clearly intelligible, inwardly pacified and silenced, and supported by faith alone, which is the only proximate and proportionate means to union with God.
For the likeness between faith and God is so close that no other difference exists than that between believing in God and seeing him. Just as God is infinite, faith proposes him to us as infinite. Just as there are three Persons in one God, it presents him to us in this way. And just as God is darkness to our intellect, so faith dazzles and blinds us.
Only by means of faith, in divine light exceeding all understanding, does God manifest himself to the soul. The greater one’s faith the closer is one’s union with God.
St. Paul indicated this in the passage cited above: The one who would be united with God must believe [Heb 11:6]. This means that people must walk by faith in their journey to God.
The intellect must be blind and dark and abide in faith alone, because it is joined with God under this cloud. And as David proclaims, God is hidden under the cloud: He set darkness under his feet. And he rose above the cherubim and flew on the wings of the wind. He made darkness and the dark water his hiding place [Ps 18:10–11].
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. 2, chap. 9, no. 1

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Photo by Rahul on Pexels.com

#faith #infinite #spiritualDirection #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stjohnofthecross #spiritualdirection #infinite #faith
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-05-24 · 17:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 25 May: St. Teresa of Avila
In this seventh dwelling place, the union comes about in a different way: our good God now desires to remove the scales from the soul’s eyes and let it see and understand, although in a strange way, something of the favor He grants it.
When the soul is brought into that dwelling place, the Most Blessed Trinity, all three Persons, through an intellectual vision, is revealed to it through a certain representation of the truth.
First, there comes an enkindling in the spirit in the manner of a cloud of magnificent splendor; and these Persons are distinct, and through an admirable knowledge, the soul understands as a most profound truth that all three Persons are one substance and one power and one knowledge and one God alone.
It knows in such a way that what we hold by faith, it understands, we can say, through sight—although the sight is not with the bodily eyes nor with the eyes of the soul, because we are not dealing with an imaginative vision.
Here all three Persons communicate themselves to it, speak to it, and explain those words of the Lord in the Gospel: that He and the Father and the Holy Spirit will come to dwell with the soul that loves Him and keeps His commandments [cf. Jn 14:23].
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Interior Castle, VII, chap. 1, no. 6

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Our featured image is an early portrait of St. Teresa of Avila by an unknown artist that prominently features the traditional banner bearing these words from Psalm 89:1, “Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo” (I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever). Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (Public domain)
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Do I live as someone in whom God truly dwells—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.
#dwellingPlace #faith #HolyTrinity #indwelling #intellectualVision #mysticalExperience #StTeresaOfAvila #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stteresaofavila #mysticalexperience #intellectualvision #indwelling #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-05-09 · 16:28 UTC

Quote of the day, 10 May: Pope Leo XIV
This reflection is drawn from a homily delivered by Pope Leo XIV while serving as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Callao, Peru. Preached on the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 17 January 2021, he invites the faithful to renew their relationship with Jesus.

The readings we have heard at this Mass for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time invite us to return to the beginning of our life of faith, to take a look at how we are living our relationship with Jesus.
In the Gospel, Jesus begins a dialogue with a question. He says to the disciples of John the Baptist—who will later become His own followers—“What are you looking for?” (Jn 1:38).
What are you looking for? What am I looking for? These are the first words of Jesus in this Gospel passage. We can say that the encounter with Jesus begins with a question: What are we looking for in life? What are we looking for in Jesus? The response of the two disciples is: “Rabbi, where are you staying?” As if to say, Where can we find you?
This question is very important for our lives—perhaps more than ever in these times—when we must seek the Lord and live our faith in new ways.
This question—Where can we find you? Where are you staying?—expresses a desire present in the hearts of all of us, of every human being—at least of those who seek something beyond the surface. Those who want to understand the true meaning of life and want to encounter God because they feel that need, that restlessness, that desire to live in union with the Lord.
When Jesus responds to the disciples’ question—“Where are you staying?”—He answers: “Come and see” (Jn 1:39).
The Lord calls us to follow Him, and if we follow, we will truly see wonders—even in the midst of suffering and pain and so many difficulties.
The Lord invites us to stay with Him, just as He did with the disciples of John. These disciples discover in Jesus the Lamb of God, the fullness of truth. That’s why Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, when he realizes he has found the Messiah, goes and finds his brother and says, “We have found the Messiah” (Jn 1:41). And then Peter too comes to know Jesus.
We want to live with Christ, to follow His example—He came to serve, not to be served. To live our faith especially through this experience of encountering Christ, through His Word—reading the Word of God, asking the Lord to enlighten us, to give us the capacity to hear His voice—through the Word and through other people who accompany us on the journey.
May the Lord help us to fulfill it, to be faithful, to live out this commitment He has asked of us. May we be faithful Christians, bearing witness with our lives—because we have already encountered Jesus. And now He wants to call us once again to accept that invitation: “Where are you staying?”
“Come and see.”
Pope Leo XIV (Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A.)

Prevost, R.F. 2021, Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Diocese of Callao, 17 January. Available at: https://www.diocesisdelcallao.org/noticias/mons-robert-prevost-escuchando-la-palabra-de-dios-descubriremos-nuestra-vocacion
Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: Pope Leo XIV (Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A.) greets the faithful from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica following his election as Supreme Pontiff on 8 May 2025. Image credit: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk (Some rights reserved).
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Have I made space to hear Jesus’ voice in Scripture and respond to His invitation to “come and see”?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.
#disciples #followingJesus #JesusChrist #PopeLeoXIV #service #unionWithGod #vocation #witness

#witness #vocation #unionwithgod #service #popeleoxiv #jesuschrist
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-05-02 · 17:01 UTC

Quote of the day, 3 May: Anders Arborelius, ocd
In Mary, we see the true face of the Church, for Mary wants to prepare us for the perfect union of love with Christ and to give us a part of her own relationship with Him. The scapular is the symbol and sign of this common vocation of all the members of the Church who are all called to holiness. In Mary, the Immaculate One, we see the perfect realization of this universal vocation of the entire Church.
“From the overflowing heart of the Virgin Mary, blessed by God, streamed the exultant hymn of the Magnificat,” Edith Stein says. The core of our ecclesial life is to live in praise and glory of God, just as Mary did.
This vocation to glorify God means that we, through grace, take part in His salvation of mankind. We can also say that letting ourselves be saved by Him means that we participate in His work of salvation—or rather, that His redemptive love given to us overflows to others. In the Church, spiritual treasures belong to all of us in common.
Mary lives this life of continuous adoration that implies a partaking in the act of salvation by letting herself be saved. The holy scapular reminds the Carmelite of this fact of our Faith, helping us to rely upon Mary’s maternal and sisterly care in the midst of all the hardships of life.
The scapular is a sign that we, just like Mary, are totally dependent on Jesus and His redemptive love for us and for the entire world. It helps us to see that life in the Church entails adoration and salvation at the same time.
The very act of adoring God implies an apostolic participation in Christ’s act of redemption. Thus, my more or less self-centered longing for my own spiritual fulfillment can be transformed and healed.
We could even say that the scapular, this humble little sign of Mary’s maternal protection, could help our contemporaries to be healed from the wounds of total independence, the main dogma of the pervasive individualism of our day.
The scapular helps us to find our true happiness in loving surrender and confident dependence on Jesus, through Mary. Of course, this truth needs to be explained very carefully in order to avoid the accusation of being mere sentimental and childish wish-wash.
However, I think it would be worthwhile to help our contemporaries, who desperately long for true surrender to God, to find their way through this humble and simple little object that we venerate in Carmel as the holy scapular of Carmel.
Cardinal Anders Arborelius, o.c.d.
Chapter 11, The Church in the Carmelite Tradition

Arborelius OCD, A. 2020, Carmelite Spirituality: The Way of Carmelite Prayer and Contemplation, EWTN Publishing, Irondale, Alabama.
Featured image: Cardinal Anders Arborelius, o.c.d. is seen in this 2025 file photo, courtesy of the Discalced Carmelite General Curia (Used by permission).
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Where is Jesus inviting me to grow in loving dependence on Him, like Mary did?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.
#adoration #BrownScapular #CardinalAndersArborelius #CarmeliteSpirituality #church #redemption #StEdithStein #unionWithGod #VirginMary

#virginmary #unionwithgod #stedithstein #redemption #church #carmelitespirituality
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-03-08 · 20:53 UTC

Quote of the day, 9 March: St. John of the Cross
The account in St. Matthew that tells of the devil showing Christ omnia regna mundi et gloriam eorum (all the kingdoms of the world and their glory) [Mt. 4:8] is explained by some doctors as an example of spiritual suggestion by the devil because it would have been impossible for him to make Christ see with his bodily eyes all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
A great difference lies between diabolical and divine visions, for the effects of diabolical visions are unlike those produced by the divine. The devil’s visions produce spiritual dryness in one’s communion with God and an inclination to self-esteem, to admitting them and considering them important. In no way do they cause the mildness of humility and the love of God.
Neither are the forms of these diabolical visions impressed with a delicate clarity upon the soul, as are the others. These impressed forms are not lasting, but are soon obliterated from the soul, except when its esteem causes a natural remembrance of them. But the memory of them is considerably arid, and does not produce the love and humility caused by the remembrance of the good visions.
These visions cannot serve the intellect as a proximate means for union with God because they deal with creatures, which bear no proportion or essential conformity to God.
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, chap. 24, nos. 7–8
John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: A photographer captures a beautiful aerial view of mountains in Thailand surrounded by fog. Image credit: icon0.com / Pexels (Stock photo)

#creatures #devil #JesusChrist #StJohnOfTheCross #temptation #unionWithGod #visions #wilderness

#wilderness #visions #unionwithgod #temptation #stjohnofthecross #jesuschrist
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2025-01-12 · 22:09 UTC

Quote of the day, 13 January: St. Edith Stein
“By this I know that you love me, if you keep my commandments” [cf. Jn 14:15].
If we are children of God we shall be led by His hand, doing His will, not our own. We shall place every care and hope in Him and be no longer troubled about ourselves and our future. This is the reason why God’s children are free and happy.
But how few even of the truly pious, even of those ready for heroic sacriﬁces, possess this freedom. They all walk as if they were bent down by the heavy burden of their cares and duties. They all know the parable of the birds of the air and the lilies of the ﬁeld. But if they meet someone without capital or pension or insurance, and who yet lives without worrying about future, they shake their heads as if that were something extraordinary.
Indeed, if we expect from the Father in heaven that He will always provide for the income and station in life which we ourselves consider desirable, we may be very much mistaken. Only then can our trust in God remain unshaken, if it includes being prepared to accept absolutely everything from the hand of the Father, for He alone knows what is good for us.
And if one day want and the lack of even the necessities of life should be better for us than a comfortably secure income, or if we should need failure and humiliation rather than honour and reputation, we must be prepared also for this. If we do this, we can live for the present without being burdened by the future.
The words “Thy will be done” must be the rule of the Christian’s life in all their fullness. They must be the principle that regulates his day from morning to night, the course of the year, and his whole life. It then becomes the Christian’s only concern. For all other cares, the Lord will make Himself responsible; this alone will remain with us as long as we live.
From the objective point of view, it is not absolutely certain that we shall always remain in the ways of God. Just as the ﬁrst man and woman became estranged from God though they had been His children, so every one of us is always balancing, as it were, on the edge of the knife between nothingness and the fullness of the divine life. Sooner or later we shall be feeling this also subjectively.
In the infancy of the spiritual life, when we have just begun to surrender ourselves to the guidance of God, we feel His guiding hand very strongly; it is clear as daylight what we have to do and what to avoid.
But it will not remain like this. If we belong to Christ, we have to live the whole Christ-life. We must mature into His Manhood, we must one day begin the Way of the Cross to Gethsemani and to Golgotha. And all sufferings that come from without are as nothing compared with the dark night of the soul, when the divine light no longer shines, and the voice of the Lord no longer speaks.
God is there, but He is hidden and silent. Why is this so?
We are speaking of the mysteries of God, and these cannot be completely penetrated. But we may well look a little into them. God became Man in order once more to give us a share in His life. This is the beginning, and this is the last end.
But between these, there is something else. Christ is God and Man, and if we would share His life, we must share both in the divine and the human life. The human nature which He took enabled Him to suffer and to die. The divine nature which He possessed from eternity gave His suffering and death inﬁnite value and redemptive power.
Christ’s suffering and death are continued in His mystical Body and in each of His members. Every man must suffer and die. But if he is a living member of the Body of Christ, his suffering and death will receive redemptive power from the divinity of the Head.
This is the objective reason why all the saints have desired to suffer. This is not a pathological pleasure in suffering. It is true, to natural reason it appears as a perversion. But in the light of the mystery of salvation, it shows itself to be highly reasonable.
And thus, the man who is united to Christ will remain unmoved even in the dark night of feeling estranged from and abandoned by God. Perhaps divine providence is using his agony to deliver another, who is truly a prisoner cut off from God. Therefore we will say: “Thy will be done” even, and particularly so, in the darkest night.
Saint Edith Stein
The Mystery of Christmas, V. (“Thy Will Be Done”)
13 January 1931, Ludwigshafen, Germany

Stein, E 1931, The mystery of Christmas: incarnation and humanity, translated from the German by Rucker, J, Darlington Carmel, Darlington UK.
Featured image: Photographer Ian Chen captures this image of a person gazing at the Milky Way on a clear night amid the tufa spires of the Trona Pinnacles National Natural Landmark in the California Desert Conservation Area near Searles Lake, California. Image credit: ianchen0 / Unsplash (Stock photo)

#freedom #happiness #HeavenlyFather #Jesus #mystery #StEdithStein #suffering #trust #unionWithGod #willOfGod

#willofgod #unionwithgod #trust #suffering #stedithstein #mystery
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-21 · 02:18 UTC

Quote of the day, 21 November: Blessed Marie-Eugène
Before the Annunciation, Mary was the daughter of God in prayer. Certainly, she didn’t yet know about her divine motherhood. She was aware of her grace, the treasure she possessed, the abundance of this grace; yet she remained unaware of herself in the sense that she didn’t recognize the superiority of this grace over ordinary and common grace.
The Virgin was concerned only with uniting herself to God. It was this self-forgetfulness, this purity, that allowed God to pour Himself into her. She continually sought Him, going to find Him in the Temple, and orienting herself toward Him like a child to her Father.
Let us not think that simplicity implies limited horizons. From a human perspective, Mary surely does not seek satisfaction for her faculties; no, she turns solely toward God, practicing in her external actions—required by this simple orientation—the virtue of obedience, like a child who does what is asked without seeking anything beyond it, without even becoming attached to the work itself.
We, on the other hand, are restless in our faculties; Mary is not. She finds this peace in faith. Everything else would be an unnecessary distraction, diverting her from her contact with God. For her, this contact is entirely simple, without ecstasies or raptures, for her faculties are flexible enough to receive and endure—without leaving a trace in her senses—the brilliance and anointing of the Divinity present within her.
What matters, in fact, is not strength but flexibility. The strong are inevitably broken; the flexible bend and endure. In the Virgin, simplicity and flexibility reach perfection. Nothing externalizes itself in her. “She is so simple that I fear she will not be recognized,” they said about Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. The same can be said of the Virgin at that moment.
Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus
La Vierge Marie toute Mère (The Virgin Mary, All Mother)
Présence Maternelle: La prière de Marie (Maternal presence, Mary’s prayer)

de l’Enfant-Jésus, M 2019, La Vierge Marie Toute Mère, edited by Institut Notre-Dame de Vie, Éditions du Carmel, Toulouse.
Featured Image: This detail from The Annunciation by the Italian artist Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) is an oil on canvas painting executed in 1623 for Charles Emmanuel I, the Duke of Savoy. It is one of the masterpieces found in the collections of the Musei Reali di Torino. Image credit: Adobe Stock (stock photo)

#Annunciation #BlessedMarieEugeneOfTheChildJesus #BlessedVirginMary #HenriGrialou #prayer #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #prayer #henrigrialou #blessedvirginmary #blessedmarieeugeneofthechildjesus #annunciation
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-17 · 20:29 UTC

Quote of the day, 18 November: St. Teresa of the Andes
What you must strive for is to be more and more with God each day; to empty out your heart of everything that is not Him; to have no other love; not to worry about anyone and, when those thoughts of creatures come to you, to reject them that you may think of God.
Let’s respond to Him with our whole being. Oh, may everything belong to Him from this moment. Let’s live for Him alone.
For this, let’s live in intimate union with our Jesus in the depths of our souls. When we serve creatures, let’s serve Him in them with a love and perfection worthy of Him. Whatever we do, may it be for love of Him. He, at every moment, acts lovingly within us.
Tell Him: “I’m worn out: I don’t feel like working, but I’ll do it for love of You. Lord, everything I do is for You alone. It doesn’t matter whether people praise or look at me, for even if they weren’t there, I’d do it for You just the same. I desire only to be seen by You, my Love.”
Tell Him this as often as you can.
Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Letter 146 to a girlfriend
November 1919

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Detail from the last photo taken of St. Teresa of the Andes, where she is embroidering a purificator. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#GodAlone #intimacy #love #prayer #StTeresaOfTheAndes #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stteresaoftheandes #prayer #love #intimacy #godalone
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-06 · 18:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:3–8
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, no. 32
This is the measure of the holiness of the children of God: “to be holy as God, to be holy with the holiness of God” [cf. 1 Jn 3:3]; and we do this by living close to Him in the depths of the bottomless abyss “within.” “Then the soul seems in some way to resemble God Who, even though He delights in all things, yet does not delight in them as much as He does in Himself, for He possesses Himself a supereminent good before which all others disappear. Thus all the joys which the soul receives are so many reminders inviting her to enjoy by preference the good she already possesses and to which nothing else can compare” [St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, 21:12]. “Our Father who art in Heaven…” [Mt 6:9]. It is in “this little heaven” that He has made in the center of our soul that we must seek Him and above all where we must remain [St. Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, 28:5; Spiritual Canticle, 1:6].
Reflection: To Be Holy
We are called to a holiness that mirrors God’s own—a holiness born from remaining close to Him, “in the center of our soul.” St. Elizabeth urges us to seek God within, to rest in that “little heaven” where He dwells in us. What might it mean to practice His presence within us, cherishing it above all else? God invites us to a life of deep communion, where we find a joy that nothing else can match. Today, let’s embrace our call to be holy, grounded in His love.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/06/liznovena24-9/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-05 · 18:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:8–14
I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, no. 28
All the intensity of St. Paul’s soul is poured out in these lines. The object of this retreat [or, “novena”] is to make us more like our adored Master and, even more, to become so one with Him that we may say, “I live; no longer I, but He lives in me. And the life that I now live in this body of death, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” [Gal 2:20]. Oh, let us study this divine Model; His knowledge, the Apostle tells us, is so “excelling” [or, “surpassing”].
Reflection: Christ Has Made Me His Own
St. Paul’s desire to “know Christ” in every sense—His life, death, and resurrection—is echoed by St. Elizabeth’s call to unite ourselves fully with Him. We’re invited to let go of all that doesn’t lead to Him, to press on toward the “surpassing value” of knowing Christ intimately. What attachments could I release to make room for this deeper unity? To be “made one” with Christ is to let His life flow through ours, transforming our every action. Today, let’s keep our gaze on Him, our “divine Model,” drawing closer to His Sacred Heart.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/05/liznovena24-8/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-04 · 18:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:17–18
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, nos. 24–25
“Be holy for I am holy” [1 Pet 1:16, citing Lev 11:44–45]. It is the Lord who speaks. “Whatever may be our way of life or the clothing we wear, each of us must be the holy one of God.” Who then is “the most holy”? “The one who is most loving, who gazes longest on God and who most fully satisfies the desires of His gaze.” How do we satisfy the desires of God’s gaze but by remaining “simply and lovingly” turned towards Him [cf. St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, 3:33] so that He may reflect His own image as the sun is reflected through a pure crystal. “Let us make man in our own image and likeness”: such was the great desire in the Heart of our God. The form of the soul is God who must imprint Himself there like the seal on wax, like the stamp on its object. To “realize this ideal” we must “keep recollected within ourselves,” “remain silently in God’s presence,” while the soul immerses itself, expands, becomes enkindled and melts in Him, with an unlimited fullness.
Reflection: Reflecting His Own Image
To be holy is to allow God to leave His mark on us, as a seal imprints itself on wax. St. Elizabeth calls us to be a “pure crystal,” letting God’s image shine through us. Holiness doesn’t depend on our role or appearance; it’s about remaining inwardly turned toward Him. Today, consider: How do I allow God’s love to transform me? What might I let go of to become more transparent to His light? Our call is simply to be open, to let His presence reflect in us from “one degree of glory to another.”
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/04/liznovena24-7/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-03 · 21:46 UTC

I give thanks to Providence for granting me the opportunity to come and venerate the relics and recall the figure and teachings of St. John of the Cross, to whom I owe so much in my spiritual formation. I came to know him in my youth and was able to enter into an intimate dialogue with this master of the faith, with his language and thought, culminating in the development of my doctoral thesis on Faith in St. John of the Cross. Since then, I have found in him a friend and teacher, who has pointed to the light that shines in the darkness, guiding me always toward God, “with no other light or guide / than the one that burned in my heart. / This guided me / more surely than the light of noon” (The Dark Night, stanzas 3–4, trans. Kavanaugh and Rodriguez).
The Saint from Fontiveros is the great teacher of the paths leading to union with God. His writings remain relevant and, in a way, explain and complement the works of St. Teresa of Jesus. He shows the paths to knowledge through faith, for only such knowledge in faith disposes the mind to union with the living God.
How many times, with a conviction born from experience, he tells us that faith is the most fitting and appropriate means for union with God! It is enough to cite a well-known text from The Ascent of Mount Carmel, book II, chap. 9, sec. 1: “Faith alone … is the only proximate and proportionate means to union with God. … Just as God is infinite, faith proposes him to us as infinite. Just as there are three Persons in one God, it presents him to us in this way. … Only by means of faith, in divine light exceeding all understanding, does God manifest himself to the soul. The greater one’s faith the closer is one’s union with God” (The Ascent of Mount Carmel, book II, chap. 9, sec. 1, trans. Kavanaugh and Rodriguez).
With this insistence on the purity of faith, John of the Cross does not wish to deny that the knowledge of God is attained gradually from the knowledge of creatures, as taught in the Book of Wisdom and echoed by St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans (cf. Rom 1:18–21; cf. Spiritual Canticle, st. 4, sec. 1). The Mystical Doctor teaches that in faith, it is also necessary to detach oneself from creatures, both those perceived through the senses and those reached through understanding, in order to unite oneself cognitively with God Himself. This path that leads to union passes through the dark night of faith.
Saint John Paul II
Homily, 4 November 1982
Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Friars
Segovia, Spain

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: At five in the afternoon on October 31, 1982, Pope John Paul II arrived at Barajas Airport in Madrid, kissing the ground upon his arrival. When the crowd erupted in excitement, officials began placing carpets along his path, which he bypassed to continue his custom of kissing the ground. That same day, before departing Rome, he had canonized two French nuns and led the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, as he did every Sunday. This marked his 15th official trip, covering sixteen locations in nine days at an intense pace. Image credit: Marisa Flórez / prisamedia.com

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/03/jp2-4nov82homly/
#darkNight #detachment #DoctorOfTheChurch #faith #inspiration #StJohnOfTheCross #StJohnPaulII #theology #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #theology #stjohnpaulii #stjohnofthecross #inspiration #faith
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-03 · 18:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:24–27
I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, no. 20
“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” [1 Jn 4:16]. That is our great act of faith, the way to repay our God love for love; it is “the mystery hidden” in the Father’s heart, of which St. Paul speaks, which, at last, we penetrate and our whole soul thrills! When it can believe in this “exceeding love” which envelops it, we may say of it as was said of Moses, “He was unshakable in faith as if he had seen the Invisible.” It no longer rests in inclinations or feelings; it matters little to the soul whether it feels God or not, whether He sends it joy or suffering: it believes in His love. The more it is tried, the more its faith increases because it passes over all obstacles, as it were, to go rest in the heart of infinite Love who can perform only works of love. So also to this soul, wholly awakened in its faith, the Master’s voice can say in intimate secrecy the words He once addressed to Mary Magdalene: “Go in peace, your faith has saved you.”
Reflection: To Repay God Love for Love
To repay God “love for love” means trusting deeply in His love, especially when we can’t feel it. St. Elizabeth shows us a faith that goes beyond feelings, resting in the assurance that God’s love is constant, even in trials. How might I live today with this unshakable faith, seeing each moment as an invitation to believe in His goodness? God asks only that we meet His infinite love with a heart that trusts—beyond doubt, beyond fear, resting in the mystery of His kindness.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/03/liznovena24-6/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-02 · 22:27 UTC

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:4–5
We would have achieved nothing by purging the intellect and memory in order to ground them in the virtues of faith and hope had we neglected the purification of the will through charity, the third virtue.
Through charity works done in faith are living works and have high value; without it they are worth nothing, as St. James affirms: Without works of charity, faith is dead [Jas 2:20].
For a treatise on the active night and denudation of this faculty, with the aim of forming and perfecting it in this virtue of the charity of God, I have found no more appropriate passage than the one in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy, where Moses commands: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength [Dt 6:5].
This passage contains all that spiritual persons must do and all I must teach them here if they are to reach God by union of the will through charity. In it human beings receive the command to employ all the faculties, appetites, operations, and emotions of their soul in God so that they will use all this ability and strength for nothing else, in accord with David’s words: Fortitudinem meam ad te custodiam (I will keep my strength for you) [Ps 59:10].

In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
— ah, the sheer grace! —
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.
This second verse refers to the fire of love that, like material fire acting on wood, penetrates the soul in this night of painful contemplation.
Although this enkindling of love we are now discussing is in some way similar to what occurs in the sensory part of the soul, it is as different from it, in another way, as is the soul from the body or the spiritual part from the sensory part. For this enkindling of love occurs in the spirit. Through it, the soul in the midst of these dark conflicts feels vividly and keenly that it is being wounded by a strong divine love, and it has a certain feeling and foretaste of God.
The spirit herein experiences an impassioned and intense love because this spiritual inflaming engenders the passion of love. Since this love is infused, it is more passive than active and thus generates in the soul a strong passion of love.
This love is now beginning to possess something of union with God and thereby shares to a certain extent in the properties of this union. One might, then, in a certain way ponder how remarkable and how strong this enkindling of love in the spirit can be.
God gathers together all the strength, faculties, and appetites of the soul, spiritual and sensory alike, so the energy and power of this whole harmonious composite may be employed in this love.
The soul consequently arrives at the true fulfillment of the first commandment which, neither disdaining anything human nor excluding it from this love, states: You shall love your God with your whole heart, and with your whole mind, and with your whole soul, and with all your strength [Dt. 6:5].
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, III, chap. 16
The Dark Night, II, chap. 11

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Saint Jerome by the famed Italian artist Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi, 1571–1610) was executed in oil on canvas and is found in the collections of Rome’s Galleria Borghese. The museum tells us that the painting’s “main features are the illusionistic representation of the still life on the table and the power of the red cloak enveloping the white-haired figure of the saint. In this artwork, Saint Jerome is not depicted as a penitent, as is often the case, but rather as a scholar” of Sacred Scripture. “His head counterbalanced with the skull, he is focused on reading and annotating the sacred passages and symbolically counters the futility of worldly goods. The concept of St. Jerome’s Writing is itself an astonishing achievement, in which the composition and the subject strengthen each other: an aging saint, hectically concentrating on what he has written, extends a twisting hand to the inkwell on the other side of the table, and at the same time points to the skull, a reminder about death, which symmetrically observes him in his very struggle to overcome it.” Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/02/juan-deut6/
#charity #God #love #Moses #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stjohnofthecross #moses #love #god #charity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-02 · 17:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:15–17
I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, no. 18
When we receive Christ “with interior devotion, His blood, full of warmth and glory, flows into our veins and a fire is enkindled in our depths.” “We receive the likeness of His virtues, and He lives in us and we in Him. He gives us His soul with the fullness of grace, by which the soul perseveres in love and praise of the Father!” “Love draws its object into itself; we draw Jesus into ourselves; Jesus draws us into Himself. Then carried above ourselves into love’s interior,” seeking God, “we go to meet Him, to meet His Spirit, which is His love, and this love burns us, consumes us, and draws us into unity where beatitude awaits us.” “Jesus meant this when He said: ‘With great desire have I desired to eat this pasch with you’” [Lk 22:15].
Reflection: Carried into Love’s Interior
In the Eucharist, Christ draws us deeply into His own life, sharing with us the fullness of His grace and virtues. St. Elizabeth speaks of being “carried above ourselves into love’s interior,” where we’re drawn into unity with God. How do I approach the Eucharist—do I see it as an invitation to be transformed, to let Christ’s love consume me and draw me closer to Him? Today, as I receive or meditate on the Eucharist, I will ask to be led ever deeper into the mystery of His love.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/02/liznovena24-5/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-11-01 · 17:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:28–29
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, nos. 13–14
Our God, wrote St. Paul, is a consuming Fire, that is “a fire of love” which destroys, which “transforms into itself everything that it touches” [St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, 2:2]. “The delights of the divine enkindling are renewed in our depths by an unremitting activity: the enkindling of love in a mutual and eternal satisfaction. … Certain souls “have chosen this refuge to rest there eternally, and this is the silence in which, somehow, they have lost themselves.” They think much less of the work of destruction and detachment that remains for them to do than of plunging into the Furnace of love burning within them which is none other than the Holy Spirit, the same Love which in the Trinity is the bond between the Father and His Word.
Reflection: God Is the Fire of Love
St. Elizabeth teaches us that God’s love is a consuming fire, not to harm, but to transform us completely. This fire is the Holy Spirit, dwelling within, uniting us with the Father and the Son. Today, consider: Am I open to letting God’s love burn away what keeps me from Him? What might I surrender to His purifying fire? As we rest in this “Furnace of love,” we discover the joy of being continually transformed in God’s own life.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/01/liznovena24-4/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-10-31 · 17:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:1–2
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, nos. 9–10
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home in him” [Jn 14:23]. The Master once more expresses His desire to dwell in us. “If anyone loves Me”! It is love that attracts, that draws God to His creatures: not a sensible love but that love “strong as death that deep waters cannot quench” [Song 8:6–7]. “The property of love is never to seek self, to keep back nothing, but to give everything to the one it loves” [St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, 32:2]. “Blessed the soul that loves” in truth; “the Lord has become its captive through love”! [Spiritual Canticle, 32:1].
Reflection: Blessed the Soul That Loves
Christ invites us to love as He loves—freely, without holding back. St. Elizabeth reminds us that true love keeps nothing back. It’s a love that welcomes God to dwell in our hearts fully, as His “beloved children.” Today, consider: How can I offer myself more completely to God? Is there something I’m still holding back? This love “strong as death” calls us to surrender all to Him, trusting that He, too, will give Himself completely in return.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/31/liznovena24-3/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-10-30 · 17:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 3:16–19
I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, nos. 5–6
“The kingdom of God is within you” [Lk 17:21]. Awhile ago God invited us to “remain in Him” [cf. Jn 15:4], to live spiritually in His glorious heritage. And now He reveals to us that we do not have to go out of ourselves to find Him: “The kingdom of God is within”!… St. John of the Cross says that “it is in the substance of the soul where neither the devil nor the world can reach” [St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, 1:9] that God gives Himself to it; then “all its movements are divine, and although they are from God they also belong to the soul, because God works them in it and with it” [ibid.] The same saint also says that “God is the center of the soul. So when the soul with all” its “strength will know God perfectly, love and enjoy Him fully, then it will have reached the deepest center that can be attained in Him” [ibid., 1:13] … Since love is what unites us to God, the more intense this love is, the more deeply the soul enters into God and the more it is centered in Him.
Reflection: The Kingdom of God Is Within
St. Elizabeth reminds us that we don’t need to look outside ourselves to find God; He’s already present, dwelling within. Today, consider: How often do I seek God within, in the quiet center of my soul? Do I allow His love to draw me deeper? God invites us to be “rooted and grounded in love,” making His presence our foundation.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/30/liznovena24-2/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-10-29 · 22:00 UTC

Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:1–4
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
St. Elizabeth Speaks: Heaven in Faith, nos. 3–4
“Remain in Me” [Jn 15:4]. It is the Word of God who gives this order, expresses this wish. Remain in Me, not for a few moments, a few hours which must pass away, but “remain…” permanently, habitually, Remain in Me, pray in Me, adore in Me, love in Me, suffer in Me, work and act in Me. Remain in Me so that you may be able to encounter anyone or anything; penetrate further still into these depths.
Reflection: Remain in Me
St. Elizabeth calls us to “remain” in Christ, not just in prayer, but as a way of life. What would it mean for you to live in Him today—not just to pray, but to work, to meet others, even to suffer, in Him? This “hidden life” with Christ asks us to draw closer, finding His presence in our everyday moments.
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/29/liznovena24-1/
#HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #novena #prayer #presenceOfGod #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #presenceofgod #prayer #novena #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-10-29 · 16:41 UTC
“In Heaven” each soul is a praise of glory of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, for each soul is established in pure love and “lives no longer its own life, but the life of God.” Then it knows Him, St. Paul says, as it is known by Him.
Heaven in Faith, no. 42
Novena Introduction: Abiding in God’s Presence
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity invites us to an interior journey where the presence of God isn’t just an occasional visitor but the very heart of our lives. Rooted in a love “strong as death” (Song 8:6) and inspired by St. Paul’s letters, this novena leads us day by day into a deeper understanding of what it means to live “no longer its own life, but the life of God.” Whether in prayer, work, or silent moments, St. Elizabeth calls us to remain close to Him, letting His love transform us from within.
This novena draws from Heaven in Faith, a retreat St. Elizabeth wrote in early August 1906 for her sister Guite, left untitled but later named by editor Father Conrad de Meester, OCD. Throughout these nine days, we’ll explore themes central to St. Elizabeth—union with God, the transforming fire of His love, and the joy of becoming a “praise of glory.” Each meditation brings us closer to her vision of a soul “established in pure love,” living a life hidden in God.
Whether you’re new to St. Elizabeth or returning to her writings, this novena offers a chance to dwell with God, to find Him as close as the quiet of your heart. Together, let’s accept her invitation to journey into love’s interior, where we encounter the fullness of God’s grace.
Note on Citations:
In this novena, you’ll find select references to scripture and key Carmelite texts from St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. These citations are here to enrich your meditation and connect St. Elizabeth’s reflections with the wider Carmelite tradition. For a more contemplative experience, you’re invited to simply read and pray with St. Elizabeth’s words, knowing these references serve as optional guides to deeper study.
Novena Meditations:
Join us in daily prayer! Each day of our novena, a new link will appear with meditations inspired by St. Elizabeth of the Trinity.
- Day 1
  Remain in Me
- Day 2
  The Kingdom of God Is Within
- Day 3
  Blessed the Soul That Loves
- Day 4
  God Is the Fire of Love
- Day 5
  Carried into Love’s Interior
- Day 6
  To Repay God Love for Love
- Day 7
  Reflecting His Own Image
- Day 8
  Christ Has Made Me His Own
- Day 9
  To Be Holy
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

https://youtu.be/-oodCfYEqIM?si=ecPhICrXb1cP9PaL

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Featured image: This image shows a detail from a monumental oil painting of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, which adorns the ceiling of the Church of St. Teresa in Cospicua (Bormla), Malta. Manuel Farrugia, an artist from Gozo, Malta, was commissioned to create a series of paintings of Discalced Carmelite saints and blesseds. The series includes Saints Elizabeth, Teresa of the Andes, Mary of Jesus Crucified, and Edith Stein, as well as four Carmelite friars: Blesseds Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, Francis Palau, Alphonsus Mary Mazurek, and Saint Raphael Kalinowski. Above the altar, Farrugia also installed a painting of the church’s patron, Saint Teresa of Avila, depicting her vision of August 15, 1561, in which Our Lady and St. Joseph clothed her in a “white robe of shining brightness” and placed a “very beautiful golden necklace” with a “highly valuable cross” around her neck (The Book of Her Life, 33:14). Notably, the Discalced Carmelite friars established their first convent in Malta at Cospicua in 1624. By 1626, they built a temporary chapel—the first in the world dedicated to Saint Teresa of Avila. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/29/liznovena24-0/
#abidingPresence #HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #love #novena #prayer #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod
#abidingpresence #heaveninfaith #holytrinity #love #novena #prayer
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-10-29 · 16:41 UTC
“In Heaven” each soul is a praise of glory of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, for each soul is established in pure love and “lives no longer its own life, but the life of God.” Then it knows Him, St. Paul says, as it is known by Him.
Heaven in Faith, no. 42
Novena Introduction: Abiding in God’s Presence
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity invites us to an interior journey where the presence of God isn’t just an occasional visitor but the very heart of our lives. Rooted in a love “strong as death” (Song 8:6) and inspired by St. Paul’s letters, this novena leads us day by day into a deeper understanding of what it means to live “no longer its own life, but the life of God.” Whether in prayer, work, or silent moments, St. Elizabeth calls us to remain close to Him, letting His love transform us from within.
This novena draws from Heaven in Faith, a retreat St. Elizabeth wrote in early August 1906 for her sister Guite, left untitled but later named by editor Father Conrad de Meester, OCD. Throughout these nine days, we’ll explore themes central to St. Elizabeth—union with God, the transforming fire of His love, and the joy of becoming a “praise of glory.” Each meditation brings us closer to her vision of a soul “established in pure love,” living a life hidden in God.
Whether you’re new to St. Elizabeth or returning to her writings, this novena offers a chance to dwell with God, to find Him as close as the quiet of your heart. Together, let’s accept her invitation to journey into love’s interior, where we encounter the fullness of God’s grace.
Note on Citations:
In this novena, you’ll find select references to scripture and key Carmelite texts from St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. These citations are here to enrich your meditation and connect St. Elizabeth’s reflections with the wider Carmelite tradition. For a more contemplative experience, you’re invited to simply read and pray with St. Elizabeth’s words, knowing these references serve as optional guides to deeper study.
Novena Meditations:
Join us in daily prayer! Each day of our novena, a new link will appear with meditations inspired by St. Elizabeth of the Trinity.
- Day 1
  Remain in Me
- Day 2
  The Kingdom of God Is Within
- Day 3
  Blessed the Soul That Loves
- Day 4
  God Is the Fire of Love
- Day 5
  Carried into Love’s Interior
- Day 6
  To Repay God Love for Love
- Day 7
  Reflecting His Own Image
- Day 8
  Christ Has Made Me His Own
- Day 9
  To Be Holy
Novena Prayer
O Saint Elizabeth,
in your great love for God,
you were always so close
to the needs of your friends.
Now that you are in Heaven,
before the Face of the Lord,
intercede with Him
for the intentions we entrust to you.
(Mention your intentions)
Teach us,
in faith and love,
to live with the Holy Trinity
in the depths of our hearts.
Teach us, like you,
to radiate God’s love
among all people,
in our daily lives,
so that we may become a praise of His Glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly to God dwelling within you)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

https://youtu.be/-oodCfYEqIM?si=ecPhICrXb1cP9PaL

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Featured image: This image shows a detail from a monumental oil painting of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, which adorns the ceiling of the Church of St. Teresa in Cospicua (Bormla), Malta. Manuel Farrugia, an artist from Gozo, Malta, was commissioned to create a series of paintings of Discalced Carmelite saints and blesseds. The series includes Saints Elizabeth, Teresa of the Andes, Mary of Jesus Crucified, and Edith Stein, as well as four Carmelite friars: Blesseds Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, Francis Palau, Alphonsus Mary Mazurek, and Saint Raphael Kalinowski. Above the altar, Farrugia also installed a painting of the church’s patron, Saint Teresa of Avila, depicting her vision of August 15, 1561, in which Our Lady and St. Joseph clothed her in a “white robe of shining brightness” and placed a “very beautiful golden necklace” with a “highly valuable cross” around her neck (The Book of Her Life, 33:14). Notably, the Discalced Carmelite friars established their first convent in Malta at Cospicua in 1624. By 1626, they built a temporary chapel—the first in the world dedicated to Saint Teresa of Avila. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/29/liznovena24-0/
#abidingPresence #HeavenInFaith #HolyTrinity #love #novena #prayer #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #unionWithGod
#unionwithgod #stelizabethofthetrinity #prayer #novena #love #holytrinity
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-10-17 · 18:00 UTC

Yes, dear Madame, my happiness has never been so great, so true as it has since God deigned to associate me with the sufferings of the divine Crucified, so “I might suffer in my flesh what is lacking in His passion” (Col 1:24), as Saint Paul said.
I think I will soon be going to join your little Cécile in the bosom of Light and Love. Together, we will turn God’s graces and gifts in your direction…. We will watch over your dear son so He may keep him wholly pure, wholly worthy of the home where God has willed to shelter him; and also allow our little Marie-Madeleine, your beautiful little lily so beloved of my heart.
For you, dear Madame, we will ask, if you allow, those graces of union with the Master that give so much strength to the soul for passing through any trial and that transform life through continual contact with Him!
If you knew how well cared for I am in my dear Carmel, what a Mother I have unceasingly near me…. She is a true mama for her little patient. You would have tears in your eyes if you could see through the grilles the goodness lavished on me by this heart whom God has made so motherly.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
Letter 326 to Madame Farrat, around 18 October 1906
Note: Cécile was the granddaughter Madame Farrat had lost. The Farrat family were neighbors of the Catez family. The “dear son” would have been young Olivier, who made his first Communion on 17 May 1903. Marie-Madeleine was born on 13 September 1901 in Dijon.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2003, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel, translated from the French by Nash, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Latvian photographer Aleksejs Bergmanis captured this view of sunset above a sea of clouds in October 2017. Image credit: Aleksejs Bermanis / Pexels (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/17/sabeth-18oct06/
#CarmelOfDijon #fruit #goodness #intercession #loveForNeighbor #prioress #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #StPaul #unionWithGod

#unionwithgod #stpaul #stelizabethofthetrinity #prioress #loveforneighbor #intercession
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-09-22 · 22:06 UTC

With every passing day, Rev. Father, I love our Lord more and I unite myself more to Him in everything. All I do is directed to Him with love, since this is the strength that enables me do even things for which I feel the greatest repugnance.
In prayer I have greater fervor, so that sometimes I spend twenty minutes completely immersed in Him, as if in a great ocean, where I lose myself and at other times, as though drawn by His immensity. Then I feel a great desire to be united with Him.
Oh, how good Our Lord is! At each moment it seems I can touch and hold Him close to my heart. So close to Him do I feel that at times, when my eyes are closed, I imagine I’ll see Him when I open them.
Still, Rev. Father, don’t think that everything is joy. I’m in such an atrocious state of doubt that I don’t even know how to make a decision as to whether I should become a Carmelite or a Sacred Heart Sister. That’s why I’m searching for light.
You, Rev. Father, know me well. Since I’ve allowed you to read everything in my soul, you will be able to advise me. I only want to do God’s will.
A Carmelite needs to be united to God and completely filled with Him, but she keeps this spirit; while a Sacred Heart Sister must be filled with God and give Him to souls. She, therefore, needs greater union; for, if she doesn’t possess it, she’ll remain without God and will have nothing to give to souls.
But what terrifies me, Rev. Father, is that I don’t remain united to God when dealing a great deal with creatures. For I’ve learned from experience that by dealing a little more with them, I grow colder in my love for God.
I also think that Our Lord has very clearly made known to me that I should become a Carmelite, even though I don’t know any Carmelites. But I believe this because I’ve already read the Life of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus.
What I’m perfectly sure of is, that ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to join a very austere community and have no dealings with the world.
Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Letter 45 to Father José Blanch, C.M.F. (excerpts)
13 December 1918

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: The Andes mountains are always a stunning view in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The Cuernos del Paine are one of the features that await tourists to the nation’s Southern Patagonia region. Image credit: Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/22/andes-ltr45/
#autobiography #Carmelite #cloisteredLife #discernment #SacredHeart #spiritualDirection #StTeresaOfTheAndes #StThérèseOfLisieux #unionWithGod #vocation

#vocation #unionwithgod #stthereseoflisieux #stteresaoftheandes #spiritualdirection #sacredheart
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 02:32 UTC

A bird caught in birdlime has a twofold task: It must free itself and cleanse itself. And by satisfying their appetites, people suffer in a twofold way: They must detach themselves and, after being detached, clean themselves of what has clung to them.
Those who do not allow their appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird that lacks no feathers.
Sayings of Light and Love, nos. 22–23

Here we have the reason for stating that two wills become one. And this one will is God’s will, which also becomes the soul’s. If a person were to desire an imperfection unwanted by God, this one will of God would be undone because of the desire for what God does not will.
Clearly, for a soul to reach union with God through its will and love, it must first be freed from every appetite, however slight. That is, one must not give consent of the will advertently and knowingly to an imperfection, and one must have the power and freedom to be able, upon advertence, to refuse this consent.
Some examples of these habitual imperfections are: the common habit of being very talkative; a small attachment one never really desires to conquer, for example, to a person, to clothing, to a book or a cell, or to the way food is prepared, and to other trifling conversations and little satisfactions in tasting, knowing, and hearing things, and so on.
Any of these habitual imperfections to which there is attachment is as harmful to progress in virtue as the daily commission of many other imperfections and sporadic venial sins that do not result from a bad habit. These latter will not hinder a person as much as will the attachment to something. As long as this attachment remains, it is impossible to make progress in perfection, even though the imperfection may be very small.
It makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. Even if it is tied by thread, the bird will be held bound just as surely as if it were tied by cord; that is, it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread. Admittedly the thread is easier to break, but no matter how easily this may be done, the bird will not fly away without first doing so.
This is the lot of those who are attached to something: No matter how much virtue they have they will not reach the freedom of the divine union.
An individual’s appetite and attachment resemble the remora, which, if successful in clinging to a ship, will hold it back and prevent it from reaching port, or even from sailing, even though this fish is exceptionally small.
It is regrettable, then, to behold some souls, laden as rich vessels with wealth, deeds, spiritual exercises, virtues, and favors from God, who never advance because they lack the courage to make a complete break with some little satisfaction, attachment, or affection (which are all about the same) and thereby never reach the port of perfection.
This requires no more than a sudden flap of one’s wings in order to tear the thread of attachment, or to get rid of the clinging remora.
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, chap. 11, nos. 3–4

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Photographer Djalma Paiva Armelin captured this image of a glittering-throated emerald hummingbird (Chionomesa fimbriata) feeding in Brazil in 2017. Image credit: Djalma Paiva Armelin / pexels.com (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/22/juan-birdlime/
#attachment #bird #freedom #love #perfection #power #sin #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod #willOfGod

#attachment #bird #freedom #love #perfection #power
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 02:32 UTC

A bird caught in birdlime has a twofold task: It must free itself and cleanse itself. And by satisfying their appetites, people suffer in a twofold way: They must detach themselves and, after being detached, clean themselves of what has clung to them.
Those who do not allow their appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird that lacks no feathers.
Sayings of Light and Love, nos. 22–23

Here we have the reason for stating that two wills become one. And this one will is God’s will, which also becomes the soul’s. If a person were to desire an imperfection unwanted by God, this one will of God would be undone because of the desire for what God does not will.
Clearly, for a soul to reach union with God through its will and love, it must first be freed from every appetite, however slight. That is, one must not give consent of the will advertently and knowingly to an imperfection, and one must have the power and freedom to be able, upon advertence, to refuse this consent.
Some examples of these habitual imperfections are: the common habit of being very talkative; a small attachment one never really desires to conquer, for example, to a person, to clothing, to a book or a cell, or to the way food is prepared, and to other trifling conversations and little satisfactions in tasting, knowing, and hearing things, and so on.
Any of these habitual imperfections to which there is attachment is as harmful to progress in virtue as the daily commission of many other imperfections and sporadic venial sins that do not result from a bad habit. These latter will not hinder a person as much as will the attachment to something. As long as this attachment remains, it is impossible to make progress in perfection, even though the imperfection may be very small.
It makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. Even if it is tied by thread, the bird will be held bound just as surely as if it were tied by cord; that is, it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread. Admittedly the thread is easier to break, but no matter how easily this may be done, the bird will not fly away without first doing so.
This is the lot of those who are attached to something: No matter how much virtue they have they will not reach the freedom of the divine union.
An individual’s appetite and attachment resemble the remora, which, if successful in clinging to a ship, will hold it back and prevent it from reaching port, or even from sailing, even though this fish is exceptionally small.
It is regrettable, then, to behold some souls, laden as rich vessels with wealth, deeds, spiritual exercises, virtues, and favors from God, who never advance because they lack the courage to make a complete break with some little satisfaction, attachment, or affection (which are all about the same) and thereby never reach the port of perfection.
This requires no more than a sudden flap of one’s wings in order to tear the thread of attachment, or to get rid of the clinging remora.
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, chap. 11, nos. 3–4

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Photographer Djalma Paiva Armelin captured this image of a glittering-throated emerald hummingbird (Chionomesa fimbriata) feeding in Brazil in 2017. Image credit: Djalma Paiva Armelin / pexels.com (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/22/juan-birdlime/
#attachment #bird #freedom #love #perfection #power #sin #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod #willOfGod

#willofgod #unionwithgod #stjohnofthecross #sin #power #perfection
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-08-14 · 00:10 UTC

How did Our Lady pray?
We could say almost the same thing about her prayer as about Our Lord’s.
Prayer is a request, a lifting up of our soul to God. But in the Virgin’s case, this union with God is constant, and even her outward activity in no way detracts from this union. Could it be an expression of need? But she found everything in her union.
Yet the Virgin prayed.
She prayed, too, to pay God her homage of dependence, but above all she prayed because she was a mother: the mother of humankind.
The Virgin bore an immense grace that united her to the Word. She prayed for this grace of her Son to pass into souls and be realized, for his reign to come and for the Mystical Body to be constituted.
Under what conditions did Mary pray? Did she need and seek silence?
Yes, but she needed it so much less than we do! Her union with God removed her, almost as a matter of course, from the noise and bustle of external events. For the Annunciation, the Virgin was in the solitude of Nazareth, and later she returned there, far from the noise.
This is a lesson for us: we must seek solitude and silence to pray.
How did the Virgin pray?
Vocal prayer, most likely, with all the people, singing the psalms. It was an act of submission to God. But we need to go further to understand her prayer: we need to return to Our Lord.
Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus
La prière de Marie (excerpt)

Marie-Eugène de l’Enfant-Jésus 2019, La Vierge Marie Toute Mère, edited by Institut Notre-Dame de Vie, Éditions du Carmel, Toulouse.
Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: Henry Ossawa Tanner created this stunning painting of Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, seen here in detail, around the year 1908. Executed in oil on canvas, it comes from the Dallas Museum of Art. Image credit: Dallas Museum of Art (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/13/grialou-virginpray/
#BlessedMarieEugeneOfTheChildJesus #grace #MysticalBody #OurLady #prayer #Psalms #silence #solitude #unionWithGod #VirginMary #vocalPrayer

#blessedmarieeugeneofthechildjesus #grace #mysticalbody #ourlady #prayer #psalms
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-08-14 · 00:10 UTC

How did Our Lady pray?
We could say almost the same thing about her prayer as about Our Lord’s.
Prayer is a request, a lifting up of our soul to God. But in the Virgin’s case, this union with God is constant, and even her outward activity in no way detracts from this union. Could it be an expression of need? But she found everything in her union.
Yet the Virgin prayed.
She prayed, too, to pay God her homage of dependence, but above all she prayed because she was a mother: the mother of humankind.
The Virgin bore an immense grace that united her to the Word. She prayed for this grace of her Son to pass into souls and be realized, for his reign to come and for the Mystical Body to be constituted.
Under what conditions did Mary pray? Did she need and seek silence?
Yes, but she needed it so much less than we do! Her union with God removed her, almost as a matter of course, from the noise and bustle of external events. For the Annunciation, the Virgin was in the solitude of Nazareth, and later she returned there, far from the noise.
This is a lesson for us: we must seek solitude and silence to pray.
How did the Virgin pray?
Vocal prayer, most likely, with all the people, singing the psalms. It was an act of submission to God. But we need to go further to understand her prayer: we need to return to Our Lord.
Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus
La prière de Marie (excerpt)

Marie-Eugène de l’Enfant-Jésus 2019, La Vierge Marie Toute Mère, edited by Institut Notre-Dame de Vie, Éditions du Carmel, Toulouse.
Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: Henry Ossawa Tanner created this stunning painting of Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, seen here in detail, around the year 1908. Executed in oil on canvas, it comes from the Dallas Museum of Art. Image credit: Dallas Museum of Art (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/13/grialou-virginpray/
#BlessedMarieEugeneOfTheChildJesus #grace #MysticalBody #OurLady #prayer #Psalms #silence #solitude #unionWithGod #VirginMary #vocalPrayer

#vocalprayer #virginmary #unionwithgod #solitude #silence #psalms
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2018-12-10 · 06:51 UTC
Novena to St. John of the Cross, Day 5: Supreme goodness
Scripture
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
(Luke 18:18-30)
Reading
Compared to the infinite goodness of God, all the goodness of the creatures of the world can be called wickedness. Nothing is good save God only [Lk. 18:19]. Those who set their hearts on the good things of the world become extremely wicked in the sight of God. Since wickedness does not comprehend goodness, such persons will be incapable of union with God, who is supreme goodness.
The Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book One, Chapter 4
Prayer
O St. John of the Cross
You were endowed by our Lord with the spirit of self-denial
and a love of the cross.
Obtain for us the grace to follow your example
that we may come to the eternal vision of the glory of God.
O Saint of Christ’s redeeming cross
the road of life is dark and long.
Teach us always to be resigned to God’s holy will
in all the circumstances of our lives
and grant us the special favor
which we now ask of thee.
Mention your request
Above all, obtain for us the grace of final perseverance,
a holy and happy death and everlasting life with you
and all the saints in heaven.
Amen.
Let’s continue in prayer…
- Day 1 — What profit is there?
- Day 2 — An open wound
- Day 3 — Your heart in peace
- Day 4 — An imitation of his life
- Day 5 — Supreme goodness
- Day 6 — Guided through the dark night
- Day 7 — Surrender
- Day 8 — Inspired with love
- Day 9 — All things are forgotten
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Joseph.
Let us unite in prayer
#carmelitequotes #ascentOfMountCarmel #carmel #carmelitas #carmelitasDescalzas #carmelite #creator #creatures #discalcedCarmelite #goodness #goodnessOfGod #infinite #mountCarmel #novena #secularCarmelites #stJohnOfTheCross #teresianCarmel #union #unionWithGod #wickedness
#carmelitequotes #ascentofmountcarmel #carmel #carmelitas #carmelitasdescalzas #carmelite
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2018-12-10 · 06:51 UTC
Novena to St. John of the Cross, Day 5: Supreme goodness
Scripture
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
(Luke 18:18-30)
Reading
Compared to the infinite goodness of God, all the goodness of the creatures of the world can be called wickedness. Nothing is good save God only [Lk. 18:19]. Those who set their hearts on the good things of the world become extremely wicked in the sight of God. Since wickedness does not comprehend goodness, such persons will be incapable of union with God, who is supreme goodness.
The Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book One, Chapter 4
Prayer
O St. John of the Cross
You were endowed by our Lord with the spirit of self-denial
and a love of the cross.
Obtain for us the grace to follow your example
that we may come to the eternal vision of the glory of God.
O Saint of Christ’s redeeming cross
the road of life is dark and long.
Teach us always to be resigned to God’s holy will
in all the circumstances of our lives
and grant us the special favor
which we now ask of thee.
Mention your request
Above all, obtain for us the grace of final perseverance,
a holy and happy death and everlasting life with you
and all the saints in heaven.
Amen.
Let’s continue in prayer…
- Day 1 — What profit is there?
- Day 2 — An open wound
- Day 3 — Your heart in peace
- Day 4 — An imitation of his life
- Day 5 — Supreme goodness
- Day 6 — Guided through the dark night
- Day 7 — Surrender
- Day 8 — Inspired with love
- Day 9 — All things are forgotten
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Joseph.
Let us unite in prayer
#carmelitequotes #ascentOfMountCarmel #carmel #carmelitas #carmelitasDescalzas #carmelite #creator #creatures #discalcedCarmelite #goodness #goodnessOfGod #infinite #mountCarmel #novena #secularCarmelites #stJohnOfTheCross #teresianCarmel #union #unionWithGod #wickedness
#carmelitequotes #ascentofmountcarmel #carmel #carmelitas #carmelitasdescalzas #carmelite
Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2018-12-10 · 06:51 UTC
Novena to St. John of the Cross, Day 5: Supreme goodness
Scripture
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
(Luke 18:18-30)
Reading
Compared to the infinite goodness of God, all the goodness of the creatures of the world can be called wickedness. Nothing is good save God only [Lk. 18:19]. Those who set their hearts on the good things of the world become extremely wicked in the sight of God. Since wickedness does not comprehend goodness, such persons will be incapable of union with God, who is supreme goodness.
The Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book One, Chapter 4
Prayer
O St. John of the Cross
You were endowed by our Lord with the spirit of self-denial
and a love of the cross.
Obtain for us the grace to follow your example
that we may come to the eternal vision of the glory of God.
O Saint of Christ’s redeeming cross
the road of life is dark and long.
Teach us always to be resigned to God’s holy will
in all the circumstances of our lives
and grant us the special favor
which we now ask of thee.
Mention your request
Above all, obtain for us the grace of final perseverance,
a holy and happy death and everlasting life with you
and all the saints in heaven.
Amen.
Let’s continue in prayer…
- Day 1 — What profit is there?
- Day 2 — An open wound
- Day 3 — Your heart in peace
- Day 4 — An imitation of his life
- Day 5 — Supreme goodness
- Day 6 — Guided through the dark night
- Day 7 — Surrender
- Day 8 — Inspired with love
- Day 9 — All things are forgotten
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Joseph.
Let us unite in prayer
#carmelitequotes #ascentOfMountCarmel #carmel #carmelitas #carmelitasDescalzas #carmelite #creator #creatures #discalcedCarmelite #goodness #goodnessOfGod #infinite #mountCarmel #novena #secularCarmelites #stJohnOfTheCross #teresianCarmel #union #unionWithGod #wickedness
#wickedness #unionwithgod #union #teresiancarmel #stjohnofthecross #secularcarmelites
LaurenRELarkin.com @[email protected] · 2024-07-21 · 16:34 UTC

Psalm 23:1-3 Abba God is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. Abba God makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. God revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for God’s Name’s sake.
Introduction
At the end of last’s week sermon, we ended talking about remembrance, hope, and prayer. For Christians, when we gather to speak of, read of, hear of, and consume together with Christ in our weekly fellowship and worship, we are remembering Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are not just remembering Christ but participating the work of God made tangible in Christ: the divine revolution and mission of love, life, and liberation in the world for the beloved. This is truly εὐαγγέλιον. And if this is truly εὐαγγέλιον, then it is also the source and foundation of our hope that exists to sustain us today.
In remembering and having hope we are led to pray, to bring ourselves deeply into God, to bend our knee (literal or figurative), to be creatures fully dependent on God. We remember, we have hope, and we pray, and it is this that is the beginning of all our activity within the walls of the church and without. As mentioned last week, “Prayer does not resign the believer to non-activity as if it is the final act in the face of trouble; it is the starting point. Prayer is how the believer unites with God and God’s passion for life, love, and liberation.[1] It is the bold request for God to enter in, to act; in prayer God is spoken to and from, in prayer God is remembered, so, too, the neighbor.”[2]
But the author of Ephesians isn’t done with us yet as if it’s just about remembering and hoping and praying. But that this remembering, hoping, and praying participates in making believers one with God and with each other in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and bringing them into the true peace that surpasses all understanding.
Ephesians 2:11-22
For [Christ] is our peace, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity… (Eph. 2:14-15)
So, the author of Ephesians verbally exhorts us (using an imperative!) to remember. To remember what? Not only Christ but who we were prior to being encountered by Christ in the event of faith. …remember that in the past you [were] Gentiles in the flesh, the ones who were called “The Uncircumcised” by the ones who were called “The Circumcised” in the flesh done by [human] hands (v. 11). But that isn’t enough; Paul asks his audience to remember, further, that they were for a time without Christ, having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel and a stranger of the covenant of the promise, not possessing hope and [were] without God in the cosmos (v 12). Paul is eager to recreate the situation for the Ephesians to cause more than just recall but real, heart-felt remembering,[3] pressing into the reality that apart from Christ they were dead in their false-steps and missing the mark (sin) (v 1), they were strangers to the promises of God, to Christ, and to the hope of God which is the hope of the reign of God in Christ.[4],[5] According to Ephesians, the Gentiles were overcome by their own desires, turned in on themselves, stuck in place by division, and consumed by hostility. This isn’t something that someone can work themselves out of, no matter how hard they try. For Paul, it is only through the encounter with Christ where one finds God, finds their neighbor, and finds themself; it is only in Christ where one finds true life, love, and liberation.[6] But at this time you who were once far off you became near by the blood of Christ (v 13). In other words, this is not done by human hands (χειροποιήτου in v 11), but by the love of God in Christ done by the power of the Spirit[7] as the down-payment in lives of the believers in Ephesus.
This is why Christ is the peace of everyone—for [Christ] is our peace (v 14a)—Children of Israel and Gentiles combined. Because, as Paul writes, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity (vv 14b-15). There is now no longer us v. them, insiders v. outsiders, elected v. not-elected, Israel v. Gentiles, the circumcised v. the not circumcised.[8] There are not two groups, but one group. Thus, this peace Jesus brings in his own flesh, by the blood of the cross event and the glory of his resurrection is not just for privatized souls but for deprivatized humanity; it’s a socio-political event.[9] There is now no wall that keeps some in and some out, some included and some excluded; there is now (absolutely) no line—whether 2-D or 3-D—that can render some humans “good” and others “bad” based on which side of that line they fall because that line has been destroyed[10] and is now anathema for the believers and followers of Christ who benefit from the destruction of the division-wall of the fence by being included in to the heredity and mission of God by the work of Christ on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirits dwelling in their hearts.
And if the wall has been destroyed, so, too, division according to enmity,[11] which is the hostility and intolerance fomented between the two groups that was the fruit of the division wall; it is the anger of the kingdoms of humanity turned inward to tear humanity apart.[12] This includes the laws and public commandments used to make some clean and some unclean, some righteous and others unrighteous; these, too, like the wall and the enmity, have become inoperative in solidifying groups of people against each other. For Paul then writes, and so he might completely reconcile both in one body for God through the cross he killed the hostility in himself (v 16).By Christ’s work[13]—the mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation for the world—there is now no wall, thus no enmity, thus no law[14] that can keep anyone out and in this radical establishment of divine equity, there is peace[15]—true peace that is not contingent on one group suffering under the weight of another.
Then the letter continues, [Christ] came and brought peace to you (all) who were far-off and peace to you (all) who were near because through him we—both in one spirit—possess access to God therefore now you are no longer a stranger and sojourner but you are a fellow citizens with the saints and of the family of God (vv 17-19). In Christ, these two have become one[16] and together they will dwell in and with God and they will have real peace—the type of peace that threatens the principalities and powers of the kingdom of humanity. [17] But this peace brought by Christ is more than reconciliation with each other, it is also reconciliation with God, thus, these two who are now one become the dwelling place of God. [18] As Paul continues, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets—Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone—in whom all building is being fitted together and grows itself into a holy temple in the lord in whom you, you also were built together into the dwelling place of God in Spirit (vv 20-22). Boldly Ephesians declares, where there is a lack of enmity and hostility, division walls and lines, laws and commands geared to keep some in and some out, there God is and there the saints of God are; no one is excluded and left out and the church is caught up in this radical inclusion and equity, snatched into this divine peace that knows absolutely positively no walls or dividing lines.[19],[20]
Conclusion
The church is without excuse here, according to Ephesians. Peace—the very peace Christ brings through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension—is peace that is not contingent on the kingdom of humanity but dependent on the reign of God. It is peace that arises in the communion of humanity with humanity, humanity with God, and humanity with creation; it is peace that manifests within and among humanity in its unity to the glory of God, which is in opposition to the “peace” (i.e. “security” (“control”)) of the kingdom of humanity that thrives on the humanity’s disunity. None of us who claim to follow Christ can afford to support systems dead set on dividing and conquering, oppressing and marginalizing, and fostering anger and fear; these systems are antithetical to the gospel of Christ and to the faith and praxis of the believer in the world before God and neighbor. None of us who claim to follow Christ can find peace (and hope) anywhere else apart from God: not in federal positions and presidents, not in parties and platforms, not in promises and progress made with human hands. We can only find true peace in our reconciliation with God, which is reconciliation with our neighbor, and, thus, these two combined give us reconciliation with ourselves because we have been made one with our neighbor and thus have become the dwelling place of God.
We cannot find peace by building the world we long for with human hands because as soon as we build it it has expired and must be torn down to allow something new to be born. We cannot find peace by turning the gospel into a law as if it can found a nation that would only gift life, love, and liberation to those who qualify. We cannot find peace by letting enmity and hostility be the mortar holding the bricks of the division-wall together. We cannot find peace by legislating Christianity because the doctrines born of the second word of God that form the tissue of the Christian Church inherently resist such socio-political ossification. We can and will only find peace by pressing further into God, clinging to God’s Word in Christ, and leaning into the guidance and leading of the Spirit of God, the guarantor of the new covenant, the down payment of our adoption into God, and the fertile soil making us one with God, with our neighbor, thus, with ourselves. It is only here, in God and with God, do we find true and lasting peace that surpasses all understanding.

[1] See Sölle, Choosing Life, pp. 92-93
[2] This portion is taken from, Lauren R.E. Larkin, “Leaving Heaven Behind: Paradoxical Identity as the Anchor of Dorothee Sölle’s Theology of Political Resistance,” PhD Dissertation (University of Aberdeen, 2024), 202.
[3] Barth, Markus, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1-3, The Anchor Bible Series (Garden City: Doubleday, 1971), 254. “Repentance, decision, and gratitude are called for, not a mental recollection only.”
[4] Barth, Ephesians, 257. “In Eph 2:12 a status of strangership is described, not an event leading to estrangement.”
[5] Barth, Ephesians, 259. \“Unless Paul flippantly denied or dispossessed the Gentiles of any hope he must have meant a specific hope. This ‘hope,’ then, could be understood as fostered in the minds of the Jews, because it was founded and guaranteed in the heart of God or ‘laid up in heaven’……It is the hope for the promised messiah from the root of David…”
[6] Barth, Ephesians, 254. “Paul’s thought moves from men in the grip of ‘flesh’ (2:11), over the work performed in ‘Christ’s flesh’ (2:14, to the operation of the ‘Spirit’ (2:18). Nothing can prevent the ‘Spirit’ from operating ‘in the realm of flesh.’”
[7] Barth, Ephesians, 255. “As the building of the temple by God is contrasted to the construction of temples by men, so circumcision of the heart…highly excels handmade circumcision.”
[8] Allen Verhey and Joseph S. Harvard, Ephesians, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 93. “If it was especially the Jewish Christian who needed to be reminded earlier that all are ‘sinners,’ not just the ‘uncircumcised,’ not just the Gentiles, and that all are brought from death to life by the gift of God’s grace, not by ‘works’ of the law, the Gentiles are now reminded of the promises to Israel and that it is in the Jewish Messiah that they are given a share in them.”
[9] Barth, Ephesians, 262. “Christ is praised here not primarily for the peace he bring to individual souls; rather the peace he brings is a social and political event…”
[10] Barth, Ephesians, 263-264. “The combination of the two Greek nouns yields a composite sense: it is a wall that prevents certain person from entering a house or a city (cf. 2:19), and is as much a mark of hostility (2:14, 16) as, e.g. a ghetto wall, the Iron Curtain the Berlin Wall, a racial barrier, or a railroad track that separates the right from the wrong side of the city, not to speak of the wall between state and church.”
[11] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “In this case, the ‘enmity’ is as much the object of destruction as the wall.”
[12] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “The word ‘enmity’ defines the separation between Jews and Gentiles more specifically: this segregation implies intolerance, and is a passionate, totalitarian, bellicose affair. While the ‘enmity’ mentioned at the end of vs. 16 is the one-sided enmity of man against God, the ‘enmity’ of vs. 14 is mutual among men.”
[13] Barth, Ephesians, 265. “…the context of Eph 2:15 reveals that for the author (as much as for Paul himself) the death of Christ rather than the promulgation of new decrees stood behind the abolition of the divisive statutes.”
[14] Barth, Ephesians, 264. Wall, enmity, and law “Each of these terms throws light on the others; the author wants them to be considered as synonyms.”
[15] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 96. “…God seals a ‘new covenant’ in ‘the blood of Christ.” And in that ‘new covenant’ there is a new community, a community of both Jew and Gentile, a community that shares the memory of Christ and the hope of God’s promises with a common meal.”
[16] Barth, Ephesians, 272. “After showing that the church exists only as a unity, that is, as one new man created out of Jews and Gentiles, the apostle does not proceed to split t into halves.”
[17] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 97. “But this was not merely an idea, as the reality of baptism makes clear. This was not merely an ideal that exists outside history and toward which we must strive. This was and is a reality wrought in Christ on the cross and displayed in the churches when God initiates diverse people into Christ and into the church. Ideals are powerless against the forces in this world that divide and abuse, against the principalities and power that nurture cultures of enmity. But those forces are and will be finally powerless against the promise and reality of God’s future.”
[18] Barth, Ephesians, 274. “The church herself is not reconciliation but she lives form it and manifests it. She serves the glory of God inasmuch as her members mutually assist, support, and strengthen one another. Neither jews nor Gentiles nor any individual can independently claim after Christ’s coming to offer an appropriate residence For God but Jews and Gentiles together are now ordained by God to become his temple.”
[19] Barth, Ephesians, 324-325. “Now the church is the sign of his mercy, his peace, and his nearness the whole world. If God can and will use people are who are as tempted and weak as the Christian are, then he is certainly able and willing to exclude no one from his realm. The church lives by this hope and bears witness to it publicly.”
[20] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 98. “They are called to break down the walls and to perform this new social reality by forming friendships with the people on the other side of the aisle, or on the other side of town.”
https://laurenrelarkin.com/2024/07/21/6623/
#Beloved #ChoosingLife #ChristianNationalism #DividingWall #DivineLove #DivinePeace #Division #DorotheeSölle #Ephesians #Hope #Jesus #LawAndGospel #Love #LoveOfNeighbor #MarkusBarth #Peace #UnionWithGod #UnionWithSelf #UnionWithTheNeighbor

#beloved #choosinglife #christiannationalism #dividingwall #divinelove #divinepeace
LaurenRELarkin.com @[email protected] · 2024-07-21 · 16:34 UTC

Psalm 23:1-3 Abba God is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. Abba God makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. God revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for God’s Name’s sake.
Introduction
At the end of last’s week sermon, we ended talking about remembrance, hope, and prayer. For Christians, when we gather to speak of, read of, hear of, and consume together with Christ in our weekly fellowship and worship, we are remembering Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are not just remembering Christ but participating the work of God made tangible in Christ: the divine revolution and mission of love, life, and liberation in the world for the beloved. This is truly εὐαγγέλιον. And if this is truly εὐαγγέλιον, then it is also the source and foundation of our hope that exists to sustain us today.
In remembering and having hope we are led to pray, to bring ourselves deeply into God, to bend our knee (literal or figurative), to be creatures fully dependent on God. We remember, we have hope, and we pray, and it is this that is the beginning of all our activity within the walls of the church and without. As mentioned last week, “Prayer does not resign the believer to non-activity as if it is the final act in the face of trouble; it is the starting point. Prayer is how the believer unites with God and God’s passion for life, love, and liberation.[1] It is the bold request for God to enter in, to act; in prayer God is spoken to and from, in prayer God is remembered, so, too, the neighbor.”[2]
But the author of Ephesians isn’t done with us yet as if it’s just about remembering and hoping and praying. But that this remembering, hoping, and praying participates in making believers one with God and with each other in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and bringing them into the true peace that surpasses all understanding.
Ephesians 2:11-22
For [Christ] is our peace, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity… (Eph. 2:14-15)
So, the author of Ephesians verbally exhorts us (using an imperative!) to remember. To remember what? Not only Christ but who we were prior to being encountered by Christ in the event of faith. …remember that in the past you [were] Gentiles in the flesh, the ones who were called “The Uncircumcised” by the ones who were called “The Circumcised” in the flesh done by [human] hands (v. 11). But that isn’t enough; Paul asks his audience to remember, further, that they were for a time without Christ, having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel and a stranger of the covenant of the promise, not possessing hope and [were] without God in the cosmos (v 12). Paul is eager to recreate the situation for the Ephesians to cause more than just recall but real, heart-felt remembering,[3] pressing into the reality that apart from Christ they were dead in their false-steps and missing the mark (sin) (v 1), they were strangers to the promises of God, to Christ, and to the hope of God which is the hope of the reign of God in Christ.[4],[5] According to Ephesians, the Gentiles were overcome by their own desires, turned in on themselves, stuck in place by division, and consumed by hostility. This isn’t something that someone can work themselves out of, no matter how hard they try. For Paul, it is only through the encounter with Christ where one finds God, finds their neighbor, and finds themself; it is only in Christ where one finds true life, love, and liberation.[6] But at this time you who were once far off you became near by the blood of Christ (v 13). In other words, this is not done by human hands (χειροποιήτου in v 11), but by the love of God in Christ done by the power of the Spirit[7] as the down-payment in lives of the believers in Ephesus.
This is why Christ is the peace of everyone—for [Christ] is our peace (v 14a)—Children of Israel and Gentiles combined. Because, as Paul writes, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity (vv 14b-15). There is now no longer us v. them, insiders v. outsiders, elected v. not-elected, Israel v. Gentiles, the circumcised v. the not circumcised.[8] There are not two groups, but one group. Thus, this peace Jesus brings in his own flesh, by the blood of the cross event and the glory of his resurrection is not just for privatized souls but for deprivatized humanity; it’s a socio-political event.[9] There is now no wall that keeps some in and some out, some included and some excluded; there is now (absolutely) no line—whether 2-D or 3-D—that can render some humans “good” and others “bad” based on which side of that line they fall because that line has been destroyed[10] and is now anathema for the believers and followers of Christ who benefit from the destruction of the division-wall of the fence by being included in to the heredity and mission of God by the work of Christ on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirits dwelling in their hearts.
And if the wall has been destroyed, so, too, division according to enmity,[11] which is the hostility and intolerance fomented between the two groups that was the fruit of the division wall; it is the anger of the kingdoms of humanity turned inward to tear humanity apart.[12] This includes the laws and public commandments used to make some clean and some unclean, some righteous and others unrighteous; these, too, like the wall and the enmity, have become inoperative in solidifying groups of people against each other. For Paul then writes, and so he might completely reconcile both in one body for God through the cross he killed the hostility in himself (v 16).By Christ’s work[13]—the mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation for the world—there is now no wall, thus no enmity, thus no law[14] that can keep anyone out and in this radical establishment of divine equity, there is peace[15]—true peace that is not contingent on one group suffering under the weight of another.
Then the letter continues, [Christ] came and brought peace to you (all) who were far-off and peace to you (all) who were near because through him we—both in one spirit—possess access to God therefore now you are no longer a stranger and sojourner but you are a fellow citizens with the saints and of the family of God (vv 17-19). In Christ, these two have become one[16] and together they will dwell in and with God and they will have real peace—the type of peace that threatens the principalities and powers of the kingdom of humanity. [17] But this peace brought by Christ is more than reconciliation with each other, it is also reconciliation with God, thus, these two who are now one become the dwelling place of God. [18] As Paul continues, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets—Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone—in whom all building is being fitted together and grows itself into a holy temple in the lord in whom you, you also were built together into the dwelling place of God in Spirit (vv 20-22). Boldly Ephesians declares, where there is a lack of enmity and hostility, division walls and lines, laws and commands geared to keep some in and some out, there God is and there the saints of God are; no one is excluded and left out and the church is caught up in this radical inclusion and equity, snatched into this divine peace that knows absolutely positively no walls or dividing lines.[19],[20]
Conclusion
The church is without excuse here, according to Ephesians. Peace—the very peace Christ brings through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension—is peace that is not contingent on the kingdom of humanity but dependent on the reign of God. It is peace that arises in the communion of humanity with humanity, humanity with God, and humanity with creation; it is peace that manifests within and among humanity in its unity to the glory of God, which is in opposition to the “peace” (i.e. “security” (“control”)) of the kingdom of humanity that thrives on the humanity’s disunity. None of us who claim to follow Christ can afford to support systems dead set on dividing and conquering, oppressing and marginalizing, and fostering anger and fear; these systems are antithetical to the gospel of Christ and to the faith and praxis of the believer in the world before God and neighbor. None of us who claim to follow Christ can find peace (and hope) anywhere else apart from God: not in federal positions and presidents, not in parties and platforms, not in promises and progress made with human hands. We can only find true peace in our reconciliation with God, which is reconciliation with our neighbor, and, thus, these two combined give us reconciliation with ourselves because we have been made one with our neighbor and thus have become the dwelling place of God.
We cannot find peace by building the world we long for with human hands because as soon as we build it it has expired and must be torn down to allow something new to be born. We cannot find peace by turning the gospel into a law as if it can found a nation that would only gift life, love, and liberation to those who qualify. We cannot find peace by letting enmity and hostility be the mortar holding the bricks of the division-wall together. We cannot find peace by legislating Christianity because the doctrines born of the second word of God that form the tissue of the Christian Church inherently resist such socio-political ossification. We can and will only find peace by pressing further into God, clinging to God’s Word in Christ, and leaning into the guidance and leading of the Spirit of God, the guarantor of the new covenant, the down payment of our adoption into God, and the fertile soil making us one with God, with our neighbor, thus, with ourselves. It is only here, in God and with God, do we find true and lasting peace that surpasses all understanding.

[1] See Sölle, Choosing Life, pp. 92-93
[2] This portion is taken from, Lauren R.E. Larkin, “Leaving Heaven Behind: Paradoxical Identity as the Anchor of Dorothee Sölle’s Theology of Political Resistance,” PhD Dissertation (University of Aberdeen, 2024), 202.
[3] Barth, Markus, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1-3, The Anchor Bible Series (Garden City: Doubleday, 1971), 254. “Repentance, decision, and gratitude are called for, not a mental recollection only.”
[4] Barth, Ephesians, 257. “In Eph 2:12 a status of strangership is described, not an event leading to estrangement.”
[5] Barth, Ephesians, 259. \“Unless Paul flippantly denied or dispossessed the Gentiles of any hope he must have meant a specific hope. This ‘hope,’ then, could be understood as fostered in the minds of the Jews, because it was founded and guaranteed in the heart of God or ‘laid up in heaven’……It is the hope for the promised messiah from the root of David…”
[6] Barth, Ephesians, 254. “Paul’s thought moves from men in the grip of ‘flesh’ (2:11), over the work performed in ‘Christ’s flesh’ (2:14, to the operation of the ‘Spirit’ (2:18). Nothing can prevent the ‘Spirit’ from operating ‘in the realm of flesh.’”
[7] Barth, Ephesians, 255. “As the building of the temple by God is contrasted to the construction of temples by men, so circumcision of the heart…highly excels handmade circumcision.”
[8] Allen Verhey and Joseph S. Harvard, Ephesians, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 93. “If it was especially the Jewish Christian who needed to be reminded earlier that all are ‘sinners,’ not just the ‘uncircumcised,’ not just the Gentiles, and that all are brought from death to life by the gift of God’s grace, not by ‘works’ of the law, the Gentiles are now reminded of the promises to Israel and that it is in the Jewish Messiah that they are given a share in them.”
[9] Barth, Ephesians, 262. “Christ is praised here not primarily for the peace he bring to individual souls; rather the peace he brings is a social and political event…”
[10] Barth, Ephesians, 263-264. “The combination of the two Greek nouns yields a composite sense: it is a wall that prevents certain person from entering a house or a city (cf. 2:19), and is as much a mark of hostility (2:14, 16) as, e.g. a ghetto wall, the Iron Curtain the Berlin Wall, a racial barrier, or a railroad track that separates the right from the wrong side of the city, not to speak of the wall between state and church.”
[11] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “In this case, the ‘enmity’ is as much the object of destruction as the wall.”
[12] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “The word ‘enmity’ defines the separation between Jews and Gentiles more specifically: this segregation implies intolerance, and is a passionate, totalitarian, bellicose affair. While the ‘enmity’ mentioned at the end of vs. 16 is the one-sided enmity of man against God, the ‘enmity’ of vs. 14 is mutual among men.”
[13] Barth, Ephesians, 265. “…the context of Eph 2:15 reveals that for the author (as much as for Paul himself) the death of Christ rather than the promulgation of new decrees stood behind the abolition of the divisive statutes.”
[14] Barth, Ephesians, 264. Wall, enmity, and law “Each of these terms throws light on the others; the author wants them to be considered as synonyms.”
[15] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 96. “…God seals a ‘new covenant’ in ‘the blood of Christ.” And in that ‘new covenant’ there is a new community, a community of both Jew and Gentile, a community that shares the memory of Christ and the hope of God’s promises with a common meal.”
[16] Barth, Ephesians, 272. “After showing that the church exists only as a unity, that is, as one new man created out of Jews and Gentiles, the apostle does not proceed to split t into halves.”
[17] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 97. “But this was not merely an idea, as the reality of baptism makes clear. This was not merely an ideal that exists outside history and toward which we must strive. This was and is a reality wrought in Christ on the cross and displayed in the churches when God initiates diverse people into Christ and into the church. Ideals are powerless against the forces in this world that divide and abuse, against the principalities and power that nurture cultures of enmity. But those forces are and will be finally powerless against the promise and reality of God’s future.”
[18] Barth, Ephesians, 274. “The church herself is not reconciliation but she lives form it and manifests it. She serves the glory of God inasmuch as her members mutually assist, support, and strengthen one another. Neither jews nor Gentiles nor any individual can independently claim after Christ’s coming to offer an appropriate residence For God but Jews and Gentiles together are now ordained by God to become his temple.”
[19] Barth, Ephesians, 324-325. “Now the church is the sign of his mercy, his peace, and his nearness the whole world. If God can and will use people are who are as tempted and weak as the Christian are, then he is certainly able and willing to exclude no one from his realm. The church lives by this hope and bears witness to it publicly.”
[20] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 98. “They are called to break down the walls and to perform this new social reality by forming friendships with the people on the other side of the aisle, or on the other side of town.”
https://laurenrelarkin.com/2024/07/21/6623/
#Beloved #ChoosingLife #ChristianNationalism #DividingWall #DivineLove #DivinePeace #Division #DorotheeSölle #Ephesians #Hope #Jesus #LawAndGospel #Love #LoveOfNeighbor #MarkusBarth #Peace #UnionWithGod #UnionWithSelf #UnionWithTheNeighbor

#beloved #choosinglife #christiannationalism #dividingwall #divinelove #divinepeace
Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven @[email protected] · 2014-02-27 · 11:50 UTC
Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation
Tuesday-night at the meeting of the Ecclesia Brussel–Leuven we read Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 1+3, looking at the difficulties we have encountered the last few months and how we had to cope with it but also how we should continue our way.
Sometimes we do get to recognise we could not re-conciliate but have to turn over the page and leave those who did not want to be amicably connected with us on their own. Sometimes a community has the priority to protect its own flock and has to take measures which do not seem so pleasant for all people involved. When certain people prefer to stand on their own and are not willing to co-operate the community than has to decide to let them go their own way, but when they themselves did everything to blacken that community, they should not have to keep contact any more. As such we decided to leave the man from the North and his organisation far what they are, and shall concentrate ourselves on bringing people to Christ ourselves, without their help.
Jesus Christ is the man who opened the way to his Father. He is the One Mediator between God and man and is the cornerstone of the Church of God.
We do trust the Most High, Elohim Hashem Jehovah, Who shall call people and Who shall guide us and give us that what we need according to His time.
In Him we trust and give all our hope to build up His Church in Belgium and other parts in the world.
+++
Related articles
New on the ASOR Blog- Ecclesia Diaboli (I Thought It Was Going to be about the Methodists…) (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
Alexander Michalak writes: My preliminary examination of several Second Temple texts, 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, Joseph and Aseneth, Testament of Job, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs indicates that there is already at this time a connection between demons and the cult of foreign gods, although they are not always explicitly identified with one another. Sometimes the demonic spirits are said only to lead people astray, that is, to lead people toward Gentile worship and toward idolatry, whereas in other cases it is the demonic spirits who are the objects of worship, or the pagan gods themselves.
The House of Worship (causeitfeelsright.wordpress.com)
The Greek word that should have been translated to church was only used twice in the New Testament. It means “the Lord’s” and was used for the Lord’s day and the Lord’s supper. But this instance is ecclesia. It means “to call forth from out of”. Matthew says if you and the other person can’t work out your problems go get help. Go find a few more people to help because maybe they’ll understand a different perspective. If that doesn’t work go find the ones who have been called out of darkness (1 Peter). When you are in darkness you can’t see clearly and when you are “in the dark” you are ignorant which simply means you don’t know. So someone who has been called out can see clearly, or they are knowledgeable or “in the know” which is having “inside” information.
Mary, Martha & Lazarus – the family in Bethany (hadvarim.wordpress.com)
The gospel narrative then is largely concerned with Christ exposing the apostate Jewish leaders, and building up his apostles as “other husbandmen” to replace them. The parables recorded of the Kingdom of heaven throughout Matthew describe the kingdom of Israel in existence (Mat 11:12), under the governance of the prince of this world – the apostate Jewish leaders (John 12:31, 16:11, Eph 2:2, Luke 10:18, Mat 24:27), and then later to be replaced with the new heavens founded upon Christ as the Abrahamic seed stars are raised to the political heavens (Gen 15:5, Dan 12:2-3, Psa 19:4, 1 Cor 15:40-49, Apoc 4:1).
+
A people for his Name
Christ is described as the second Adam as compared to the first Adam (1 Cor 15:45-47). Both of them the “son of God” (Luke 3:38), and both typically created the same way. The body of Christ is the Ecclesia εκκλησια (Eph 5:23, 30, Col 1:18,24), and it is being formed from the Abrahamic dust, the seed of Abraham according to the promises of old; compare Gen 2:7 with Gen 13:16, 28:14.
+The mortal children of Israel are described as Elohim, mighty ones, or as we have in the AV “gods”. Elohim describes the the mental state of the person, not their physical nature. Ambassadors of the father, regardless of whether they are mortal people or immortal angels. If they are empowered by the will of the spirit, they are indeed mighty ones.
When mortal Elohim, mighty ones, do not keep the commandments of Yahweh then they are not immune – by any means – to the consequences of their actions. They will “die like men”.
Therefore we ought to take earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We have all the scriptures… even the testimony of the Son, which brings with it great responsibility (Heb 2:1-3). We comfort in that if we turn from wickedness we will be forgiven. Yet vigilant in the warning that turning to wickedness means rejection (Ezk 33:11-19).
Ecclesia Plantanda (vicaranne.wordpress.com)
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787) … Englishman William Carey … Both men understood that sharing good news need not and must not wait for people to learn the evangelist’s tongue.
church oh church1 (ozyikhiedwardblog.wordpress.com)
why substitute “ecclesia” for “kyriakon”?to support the regular congregating of early Christians,who didn’t understand what Paul and Silas were doing!
What did the New Covenant writers mean when they used the word “Ecclesia” to describe a Christian body of people?? We can safely denote that they intended to convey the original Greek meaning of the word:”A body of Christian called out of Roman and Judean systems of Government,to live under a seperate civil mentality,”a politically autonomous body of Christians,under no other King but Yeshua,under no other civil laws,than that of Yeshua.But some misguided folks misunderstood the missions of Paul, that was why these Christians ran into trouble with kings and rulers,were arrested,crucified,and martyred. They dropped Caesar as their King,and took up Christ. The writers of the New covenant didn’t substitute “kyriakon” with “Ecclesia” to mean entertainment every Sundays,and Tuesdays,and so on!
Apostasy in the Highest Places (mysteryoftheiniquity.com)
The church, the Ecclesia, is a body of people who are redeemed called out to represent GOD and HIS Authority which means they are called to carry our HIS Laws. We are granted the responsibility of not only this but we are accountable for these actions.
The fact that the church is failing man is an undeniable truth but it’s also devastating to the people. How do I mean they are failing the people?
Priority to form a loving brotherhood (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
There might be people who do not like that others share the love of Christ with each other and do not mind being under Christ instead of being under one or the other organisation.
Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
Coming together in each-others houses, forming housechurches as a church of disciples they also were an assembly of learners. We too so many years later should be like them a church of Christian disciples and an assembly of persons who believe the things of the Kingdom of God, and of the Name of the lord Jesus, and, thus believing, have been immersed into Christ and patiently continue in the faith and well doing of their vocation, reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting all things revealed in the scriptures of truth.
Stepping Toes

In the readings of today we look at the brothers and sisters in Corinth some 2000 years ago.
In Belgium the community has been troubled by persons perhaps wanting to claim to have the right to make foundations and to direct the groups of people wanting to come together under the name of Christ.
Paul the Apostle, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We remember how the apostle Paul makes the argument that he has borne witness to the people of Corinth, he has shared the gospel, he has brought them to Christ and showed them the way but that he has to be sad because he only could see division between those who should be united as brethren and sisters in Christ.
The apostle Paul in his 5th letter to the Romans and his first three letters to the Corinths, also talks…

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Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven @[email protected] · 2015-11-02 · 11:09 UTC
The Big conversation Why it matters
Looking at our small community we must remember that it is God Who calls and for what we can offer in our community He takes what we have and makes it go further!
- Church is the place to bring empty lives for God to fill.
- Church is about meeting not just meetings!
In our previous postings we also pointed out that some people may have a wrong opinion about unity and expect all people in a community to say the same and to act the same. But “being one” doesn’t mean “being a clone”. God blesses unity! And we should have and should share our unity in Christ and unity with Christ. All being one in following the teachings of Christ, believing what he says and following up what he asked his followers to do. Not just following a church because it pleases us but because it follows the teachings of the son of God, Jesus Christ, and stays truthful to the Words of God, following God’s Will and willing to share His Gospel. Our union should be in the love for God which should be noticeable for outsiders, being a union of loving people, loving Jehovah God and His son Christ Jesus, Jeshua the Messiah, as lovers of the truth, sharing this love and Good News and spreading unselfish, mutual, unconditional Agape brotherly love and love for all creation under the Covenant of love as beloved disciples and as Bible lovers making a circle of love under the Royal Law of love.
Having different people coming together there should be allowance for every one to have their say. All gathered should have respect for all present and give them the opportunity to share their ideas. Being together it also must be an occasion where public confession, based on a word from God, can take place. This may demand courage to stand up and declare truth, but in a real church of God this should not be a problem because that has to be a place of sharing the love of Christ and working at getting the love of God.
Spending time together to study the Word of God, must do something to those present. Change is inevitable…
except from a vending machine
said Arne Roberts, on October the tenth, at the Big Conversation. For him it is clear what is going to happen to other Bible Students which all came form the same source.
Here’s what will happen to Jehovah’s Witnesses: They will become increasingly like the religious group that influenced Charles Russell: The Christadelphians…
The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.
The Christadelphians ooze sad irrelevance and faded glory of times well passed. They are an old people’s religion – old people who don’t have the self- and other-awareness to see that they are clinging to a dead dream. The Christadelphians have long since passed their used-by date and the only ones who still ‘practice’ this religion are older individuals who cannot muster the strength to look out their windows at the real world passing them by.
This is the future of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will not go out with a bang, but who will slowly whimper to an ever slower crawl as the decades pass and the world, in its infinite fascination with religious novelty, will fix its distractable attention on to other more modern belief systems.
For Arne Roberts that is not the end. He asks us to keep in mind that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
We as followers of Christ should make sure that the Clarion of the Torah may sound. We hearing the sound loudly should make sure that there might be a stimulant for others in our community to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.
Our very tiny community at a Breaking of Bread gathering at our regular meeting place, the service centre in Heverlee, Leuven.
When people just not come to join others because they are part of a small community than that community shall never have any chance of growing. When people keep waiting before willing to join a small community because it does not attract them for it is so small that they shall be noticed, we do have to convince them that they should not hide themselves behind the numbers. It is true that when there is a small church people will be noticed. In a mega church nobody shall notice it when you come in later, slip out earlier, shall fall asleep or shall not be attentional. When we encounter such doubting people who are afraid to join a small church we can ask them
How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
It is up to us that God is in our life and that we want to share it with them. They should not be afraid to feel having a naked identity it such a small group, because as followers of Christ Jesus we have abandoned our sinful ‘I’ and actually have taken an other identity, no identity of our own apart from our union with Christ. Not that we have no unique personality or value or purpose, but that Christ defines our new life. It is that inseparable connection within Christ as a believer, which unites us and in the love of Christ we found the love for each other and have to show the world that we want to share that love. When we fail to see our true existence in Christ and fail to find our life and, thus, seek it outside of Christ we shall become victim of our own vain pursuit that only leads to frustration and angst in our God-thirsty soul.
We must understand that whatever happens the majority of people will not want to take the divine Creator as their God and lots of people shall prefer to be part of the contemporary world, belonging to it, being in it, and enjoying a worldly philosophy, inventions of men designed to rob you of your inheritance (Col.2:8-10) and as such shall not be so much attracted to the Christadelphian world, which demands a change in their attitude. The friendship with the world is for most people much more important than the friendship with God loving people. Most shall prefer to stay in the Godless world having not to wonder about their own responsibilities.
It is up to the lovers of God to show the others the light of the world and that no one should worry to much about living in this world. When people could come to know that New world better they might think twice and be prepared easier to leave the Old world for what it is, looking forward to a better and perfect world. We understand it is not easy for man to get away with the worldly traditions, so this shall always be some of the obstacles to join or to stay in our community. But people should not be afraid that they cannot take part in worldly events in a Godless world. Christadelphians for sure also can enjoy worldly life, having enough time fore worldly pleasures, and not to become frustrated under the yoke of the world.
+
Preceding articles:
Counting sands and stars
The Big conversation
The Big conversation follow up
Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
++
Additional reading
+++
Further readings:
+++
Related articles
- Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians (finalcall07.wordpress.com)
- Loving the Sinner (heartfixxer.wordpress.com)
- We stand together proudly (chronicle.augusta.com)
- A Perfect Inheritance (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
- Spiritual Growth (faithandfootsteps.wordpress.com)
- “By the Power Invested in Me” (breakawaybylintrollins.wordpress.com)
- Victory (myspiritualbreakfast.com)
- Torah for Today: What does the Torah say about the migrant crisis? (jewishnews.co.uk)
- Slavery (thought.dcwillis.com)
- The differing origins of humankind (iol.co.za)
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#19century #agape #arneroberts #beingoftheworld #biblestudents #brotherlylove
Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven @[email protected] · 2015-11-02 · 11:09 UTC
The Big conversation Why it matters
Looking at our small community we must remember that it is God Who calls and for what we can offer in our community He takes what we have and makes it go further!
- Church is the place to bring empty lives for God to fill.
- Church is about meeting not just meetings!
In our previous postings we also pointed out that some people may have a wrong opinion about unity and expect all people in a community to say the same and to act the same. But “being one” doesn’t mean “being a clone”. God blesses unity! And we should have and should share our unity in Christ and unity with Christ. All being one in following the teachings of Christ, believing what he says and following up what he asked his followers to do. Not just following a church because it pleases us but because it follows the teachings of the son of God, Jesus Christ, and stays truthful to the Words of God, following God’s Will and willing to share His Gospel. Our union should be in the love for God which should be noticeable for outsiders, being a union of loving people, loving Jehovah God and His son Christ Jesus, Jeshua the Messiah, as lovers of the truth, sharing this love and Good News and spreading unselfish, mutual, unconditional Agape brotherly love and love for all creation under the Covenant of love as beloved disciples and as Bible lovers making a circle of love under the Royal Law of love.
Having different people coming together there should be allowance for every one to have their say. All gathered should have respect for all present and give them the opportunity to share their ideas. Being together it also must be an occasion where public confession, based on a word from God, can take place. This may demand courage to stand up and declare truth, but in a real church of God this should not be a problem because that has to be a place of sharing the love of Christ and working at getting the love of God.
Spending time together to study the Word of God, must do something to those present. Change is inevitable…
except from a vending machine
said Arne Roberts, on October the tenth, at the Big Conversation. For him it is clear what is going to happen to other Bible Students which all came form the same source.
Here’s what will happen to Jehovah’s Witnesses: They will become increasingly like the religious group that influenced Charles Russell: The Christadelphians…
The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.
The Christadelphians ooze sad irrelevance and faded glory of times well passed. They are an old people’s religion – old people who don’t have the self- and other-awareness to see that they are clinging to a dead dream. The Christadelphians have long since passed their used-by date and the only ones who still ‘practice’ this religion are older individuals who cannot muster the strength to look out their windows at the real world passing them by.
This is the future of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will not go out with a bang, but who will slowly whimper to an ever slower crawl as the decades pass and the world, in its infinite fascination with religious novelty, will fix its distractable attention on to other more modern belief systems.
For Arne Roberts that is not the end. He asks us to keep in mind that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
We as followers of Christ should make sure that the Clarion of the Torah may sound. We hearing the sound loudly should make sure that there might be a stimulant for others in our community to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.
Our very tiny community at a Breaking of Bread gathering at our regular meeting place, the service centre in Heverlee, Leuven.
When people just not come to join others because they are part of a small community than that community shall never have any chance of growing. When people keep waiting before willing to join a small community because it does not attract them for it is so small that they shall be noticed, we do have to convince them that they should not hide themselves behind the numbers. It is true that when there is a small church people will be noticed. In a mega church nobody shall notice it when you come in later, slip out earlier, shall fall asleep or shall not be attentional. When we encounter such doubting people who are afraid to join a small church we can ask them
How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
It is up to us that God is in our life and that we want to share it with them. They should not be afraid to feel having a naked identity it such a small group, because as followers of Christ Jesus we have abandoned our sinful ‘I’ and actually have taken an other identity, no identity of our own apart from our union with Christ. Not that we have no unique personality or value or purpose, but that Christ defines our new life. It is that inseparable connection within Christ as a believer, which unites us and in the love of Christ we found the love for each other and have to show the world that we want to share that love. When we fail to see our true existence in Christ and fail to find our life and, thus, seek it outside of Christ we shall become victim of our own vain pursuit that only leads to frustration and angst in our God-thirsty soul.
We must understand that whatever happens the majority of people will not want to take the divine Creator as their God and lots of people shall prefer to be part of the contemporary world, belonging to it, being in it, and enjoying a worldly philosophy, inventions of men designed to rob you of your inheritance (Col.2:8-10) and as such shall not be so much attracted to the Christadelphian world, which demands a change in their attitude. The friendship with the world is for most people much more important than the friendship with God loving people. Most shall prefer to stay in the Godless world having not to wonder about their own responsibilities.
It is up to the lovers of God to show the others the light of the world and that no one should worry to much about living in this world. When people could come to know that New world better they might think twice and be prepared easier to leave the Old world for what it is, looking forward to a better and perfect world. We understand it is not easy for man to get away with the worldly traditions, so this shall always be some of the obstacles to join or to stay in our community. But people should not be afraid that they cannot take part in worldly events in a Godless world. Christadelphians for sure also can enjoy worldly life, having enough time fore worldly pleasures, and not to become frustrated under the yoke of the world.
+
Preceding articles:
Counting sands and stars
The Big conversation
The Big conversation follow up
Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
++
Additional reading
+++
Further readings:
+++
Related articles
- Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians (finalcall07.wordpress.com)
- Loving the Sinner (heartfixxer.wordpress.com)
- We stand together proudly (chronicle.augusta.com)
- A Perfect Inheritance (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
- Spiritual Growth (faithandfootsteps.wordpress.com)
- “By the Power Invested in Me” (breakawaybylintrollins.wordpress.com)
- Victory (myspiritualbreakfast.com)
- Torah for Today: What does the Torah say about the migrant crisis? (jewishnews.co.uk)
- Slavery (thought.dcwillis.com)
- The differing origins of humankind (iol.co.za)
Rate this:

#19Century #Agape #ArneRoberts #BeingOfTheWorld #BibleStudents #BrotherlyLove #CharlesRussell #ChristadelphianCommunity #ChristadelphianWorld #Confession #Cornerstone #Courage #FellowCitizens #FollowersOfChrist #FollowingAChurch #FollowingChrist #FollowingJesusChrist #FollowingTheSon #FollowingWordOfGod #FriendOfTheWorld #Frustration #Gathering #GodCalling #GodlessWorld #HouseholdOfGod #JehovahWitnesses #JehovahSWitnesses #LightOfTheWorld #LivingInThisWorld #LoveForChrist #LoveForCreation #LoveOfChrist #MegaChurch #ModernBeliefSystems #Respect #RespectForEachother #Share #SmallChurch #SmallCommunity #Stimulant #toGather #TorahSClarionCall #Union #UnionWithChristJesus #UnionWithGod #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityWithChrist #WordOfGod #WorldlyLife #WorldlyTraditions
#worldlytraditions #worldlylife #wordofgod #unitywithchrist #unityinchrist #unity
Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven @[email protected] · 2015-11-02 · 11:09 UTC
The Big conversation Why it matters
Looking at our small community we must remember that it is God Who calls and for what we can offer in our community He takes what we have and makes it go further!
- Church is the place to bring empty lives for God to fill.
- Church is about meeting not just meetings!
In our previous postings we also pointed out that some people may have a wrong opinion about unity and expect all people in a community to say the same and to act the same. But “being one” doesn’t mean “being a clone”. God blesses unity! And we should have and should share our unity in Christ and unity with Christ. All being one in following the teachings of Christ, believing what he says and following up what he asked his followers to do. Not just following a church because it pleases us but because it follows the teachings of the son of God, Jesus Christ, and stays truthful to the Words of God, following God’s Will and willing to share His Gospel. Our union should be in the love for God which should be noticeable for outsiders, being a union of loving people, loving Jehovah God and His son Christ Jesus, Jeshua the Messiah, as lovers of the truth, sharing this love and Good News and spreading unselfish, mutual, unconditional Agape brotherly love and love for all creation under the Covenant of love as beloved disciples and as Bible lovers making a circle of love under the Royal Law of love.
Having different people coming together there should be allowance for every one to have their say. All gathered should have respect for all present and give them the opportunity to share their ideas. Being together it also must be an occasion where public confession, based on a word from God, can take place. This may demand courage to stand up and declare truth, but in a real church of God this should not be a problem because that has to be a place of sharing the love of Christ and working at getting the love of God.
Spending time together to study the Word of God, must do something to those present. Change is inevitable…
except from a vending machine
said Arne Roberts, on October the tenth, at the Big Conversation. For him it is clear what is going to happen to other Bible Students which all came form the same source.
Here’s what will happen to Jehovah’s Witnesses: They will become increasingly like the religious group that influenced Charles Russell: The Christadelphians…
The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.
The Christadelphians ooze sad irrelevance and faded glory of times well passed. They are an old people’s religion – old people who don’t have the self- and other-awareness to see that they are clinging to a dead dream. The Christadelphians have long since passed their used-by date and the only ones who still ‘practice’ this religion are older individuals who cannot muster the strength to look out their windows at the real world passing them by.
This is the future of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will not go out with a bang, but who will slowly whimper to an ever slower crawl as the decades pass and the world, in its infinite fascination with religious novelty, will fix its distractable attention on to other more modern belief systems.
For Arne Roberts that is not the end. He asks us to keep in mind that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
We as followers of Christ should make sure that the Clarion of the Torah may sound. We hearing the sound loudly should make sure that there might be a stimulant for others in our community to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.
Our very tiny community at a Breaking of Bread gathering at our regular meeting place, the service centre in Heverlee, Leuven.
When people just not come to join others because they are part of a small community than that community shall never have any chance of growing. When people keep waiting before willing to join a small community because it does not attract them for it is so small that they shall be noticed, we do have to convince them that they should not hide themselves behind the numbers. It is true that when there is a small church people will be noticed. In a mega church nobody shall notice it when you come in later, slip out earlier, shall fall asleep or shall not be attentional. When we encounter such doubting people who are afraid to join a small church we can ask them
How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
It is up to us that God is in our life and that we want to share it with them. They should not be afraid to feel having a naked identity it such a small group, because as followers of Christ Jesus we have abandoned our sinful ‘I’ and actually have taken an other identity, no identity of our own apart from our union with Christ. Not that we have no unique personality or value or purpose, but that Christ defines our new life. It is that inseparable connection within Christ as a believer, which unites us and in the love of Christ we found the love for each other and have to show the world that we want to share that love. When we fail to see our true existence in Christ and fail to find our life and, thus, seek it outside of Christ we shall become victim of our own vain pursuit that only leads to frustration and angst in our God-thirsty soul.
We must understand that whatever happens the majority of people will not want to take the divine Creator as their God and lots of people shall prefer to be part of the contemporary world, belonging to it, being in it, and enjoying a worldly philosophy, inventions of men designed to rob you of your inheritance (Col.2:8-10) and as such shall not be so much attracted to the Christadelphian world, which demands a change in their attitude. The friendship with the world is for most people much more important than the friendship with God loving people. Most shall prefer to stay in the Godless world having not to wonder about their own responsibilities.
It is up to the lovers of God to show the others the light of the world and that no one should worry to much about living in this world. When people could come to know that New world better they might think twice and be prepared easier to leave the Old world for what it is, looking forward to a better and perfect world. We understand it is not easy for man to get away with the worldly traditions, so this shall always be some of the obstacles to join or to stay in our community. But people should not be afraid that they cannot take part in worldly events in a Godless world. Christadelphians for sure also can enjoy worldly life, having enough time fore worldly pleasures, and not to become frustrated under the yoke of the world.
+
Preceding articles:
Counting sands and stars
The Big conversation
The Big conversation follow up
Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
++
Additional reading
+++
Further readings:
+++
Related articles
- Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians (finalcall07.wordpress.com)
- Loving the Sinner (heartfixxer.wordpress.com)
- We stand together proudly (chronicle.augusta.com)
- A Perfect Inheritance (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
- Spiritual Growth (faithandfootsteps.wordpress.com)
- “By the Power Invested in Me” (breakawaybylintrollins.wordpress.com)
- Victory (myspiritualbreakfast.com)
- Torah for Today: What does the Torah say about the migrant crisis? (jewishnews.co.uk)
- Slavery (thought.dcwillis.com)
- The differing origins of humankind (iol.co.za)
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Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-06-01 · 02:32 UTC

In giving thanks to God—together with all of you, beginning with the Most Eminent and Venerable Brother Archbishop Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe—for the great gift to the Church of Naples, the new Blessed Maria Giuseppina of Jesus Crucified, Thomas Merton’s reflection comes to mind. He stated: “There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel,” which finds further confirmation in this Solemn Rite [Merton, 1951].
Indeed, today the Church of Naples owes to Carmel, as a place and school of holiness, not only the precious gift of one of its daughters elevated to the honor of the altars, but also the most authoritative reminder of the universal vocation to holiness, its irreplaceable value, and its perennial relevance.
As the Representative of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI in presiding over today’s beatification, I feel honored and delighted to witness the marvelous works of God, and even more so to admire His masterpieces, which are always the saints and the blessed. This venerable archdiocese, with its considerable and growing number of Blesseds and Saints, offers them to the admiration of the entire Church.
The great, biblical words of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, addressed precisely to the Discalced Carmelite friars [during a general audience on July 11, 1973], fit like a glove: “You are ‘sons of saints,’ look carefully at the immense spiritual inheritance that is handed down to you…” [Original text: Vos estis «filii sanctorum» (Tob 2:18): immensam intuemini hereditatem spiritualem] Words that I like to apply to the men and women brought forth in the faith in this Neapolitan Church.
Yes, dear people of Naples, you too are children of saints: from them we learn to elevate the horizons of hope to heavenly realities, without setting aside our commitment to building up the earthly city, despite all its urgent and disturbing problems. The more we contemplate the Lord among His Saints, entering into living communion with Him, the stronger the hope within us grows for an active and effective commitment to improving and changing the world around us.
Looking particularly at the story and message of Blessed Giuseppina, we better understand the inescapable need for the contemplative dimension in the life of every Christian. Her example also shows us the concrete way to cultivate it. Her existence was a true school of charity, both toward her fellow sisters and toward the vast field of the apostolate, which she, though a cloistered nun, cultivated solely to make people love the Lord more. She, too, like St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, did not want “to be a saint by halves” [cf. LT 247 to Abbé Bellière], albeit with her peculiarities and mystical gifts, and various extraordinary spiritual experiences.
Everything is summed up in a phrase that constituted the unifying program of the Blessed’s entire life: “I want to live by feeding on God’s will… I want my will to be united with God’s will as one.” And again in her Diary: “I ardently desire to live in the will of God; I know that saints are made in this way, and I want to make myself saintly to give glory to God.”
Such a program must be the great aspiration of every Christian, in full conformity with the word of Christ, the One, Supreme Model: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34), because “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn 2:17).
I end with the great honor of sharing with you the special apostolic blessing and greeting of Benedict XVI, who, as he has shown, carries Naples, this Church, its Venerable Pastor, and all the members of the People of God in his heart. I entrust you to the powerful intercession of the new Blessed, that she may protect you all and lead you on the path of holiness.
José Cardinal Saraiva Martins
Prefect, Congregation of the Causes of the Saints
Homily, Mass of Beatification of Blessed Maria Giuseppina
1 June 2008, Cathedral of St. Januarius, Naples
Note: Cardinal Saraiva Martins opens his homily with a quote from Thomas Merton. This quote is from the Author’s Note before the Prologue of Merton’s book, The Ascent to Truth. In context, Merton wrote: “There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel. But there are few who owe more to the saints of Carmel and to its Queen than does the author. Above all, this book was written, so to speak, under her direction and tutelage.”
Later in the homily, Cardinal Saraiva Martins quotes Blessed Maria Giuseppina, who said: “I want my will to be united with God’s will as one.” The Blessed uses the Italian word impasto, which literally translates to “dough” or “paste.” In the context of Blessed Giuseppina’s writings, impasto metaphorically conveys a deep, active blending and molding of one’s will with God’s will, much like the process of kneading dough until it becomes a cohesive, unified substance. This vivid imagery emphasizes the dynamic and transformative nature of aligning oneself completely with the divine will.
Blessed Maria Giuseppina of Jesus Crucified with one of her nuns kneeling before her. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: This is a detail from an artist’s rendering of a well-known photo of Blessed Maria Giuseppina, who was captured seated outdoors, smiling broadly. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/31/giuseppina-1jun08homily/
#beatification #BlessedMariaGiuseppinaOfJesusCrucified #CardinalJoséSaraivaMartins #DiscalcedCarmelites #GiuseppinaCatanea #homily #Naples #sanctity #StThérèseOfLisieux #ThomasMerton #unionWithGod #willOfGod

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Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven @[email protected] · 2014-02-27 · 11:50 UTC
Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation
Tuesday-night at the meeting of the Ecclesia Brussel–Leuven we read Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 1+3, looking at the difficulties we have encountered the last few months and how we had to cope with it but also how we should continue our way.
Sometimes we do get to recognise we could not re-conciliate but have to turn over the page and leave those who did not want to be amicably connected with us on their own. Sometimes a community has the priority to protect its own flock and has to take measures which do not seem so pleasant for all people involved. When certain people prefer to stand on their own and are not willing to co-operate the community than has to decide to let them go their own way, but when they themselves did everything to blacken that community, they should not have to keep contact any more. As such we decided to leave the man from the North and his organisation far what they are, and shall concentrate ourselves on bringing people to Christ ourselves, without their help.
Jesus Christ is the man who opened the way to his Father. He is the One Mediator between God and man and is the cornerstone of the Church of God.
We do trust the Most High, Elohim Hashem Jehovah, Who shall call people and Who shall guide us and give us that what we need according to His time.
In Him we trust and give all our hope to build up His Church in Belgium and other parts in the world.
+++
Related articles
New on the ASOR Blog- Ecclesia Diaboli (I Thought It Was Going to be about the Methodists…) (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
Alexander Michalak writes: My preliminary examination of several Second Temple texts, 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, Joseph and Aseneth, Testament of Job, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs indicates that there is already at this time a connection between demons and the cult of foreign gods, although they are not always explicitly identified with one another. Sometimes the demonic spirits are said only to lead people astray, that is, to lead people toward Gentile worship and toward idolatry, whereas in other cases it is the demonic spirits who are the objects of worship, or the pagan gods themselves.
The House of Worship (causeitfeelsright.wordpress.com)
The Greek word that should have been translated to church was only used twice in the New Testament. It means “the Lord’s” and was used for the Lord’s day and the Lord’s supper. But this instance is ecclesia. It means “to call forth from out of”. Matthew says if you and the other person can’t work out your problems go get help. Go find a few more people to help because maybe they’ll understand a different perspective. If that doesn’t work go find the ones who have been called out of darkness (1 Peter). When you are in darkness you can’t see clearly and when you are “in the dark” you are ignorant which simply means you don’t know. So someone who has been called out can see clearly, or they are knowledgeable or “in the know” which is having “inside” information.
Mary, Martha & Lazarus – the family in Bethany (hadvarim.wordpress.com)
The gospel narrative then is largely concerned with Christ exposing the apostate Jewish leaders, and building up his apostles as “other husbandmen” to replace them. The parables recorded of the Kingdom of heaven throughout Matthew describe the kingdom of Israel in existence (Mat 11:12), under the governance of the prince of this world – the apostate Jewish leaders (John 12:31, 16:11, Eph 2:2, Luke 10:18, Mat 24:27), and then later to be replaced with the new heavens founded upon Christ as the Abrahamic seed stars are raised to the political heavens (Gen 15:5, Dan 12:2-3, Psa 19:4, 1 Cor 15:40-49, Apoc 4:1).
+
A people for his Name
Christ is described as the second Adam as compared to the first Adam (1 Cor 15:45-47). Both of them the “son of God” (Luke 3:38), and both typically created the same way. The body of Christ is the Ecclesia εκκλησια (Eph 5:23, 30, Col 1:18,24), and it is being formed from the Abrahamic dust, the seed of Abraham according to the promises of old; compare Gen 2:7 with Gen 13:16, 28:14.
+The mortal children of Israel are described as Elohim, mighty ones, or as we have in the AV “gods”. Elohim describes the the mental state of the person, not their physical nature. Ambassadors of the father, regardless of whether they are mortal people or immortal angels. If they are empowered by the will of the spirit, they are indeed mighty ones.
When mortal Elohim, mighty ones, do not keep the commandments of Yahweh then they are not immune – by any means – to the consequences of their actions. They will “die like men”.
Therefore we ought to take earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We have all the scriptures… even the testimony of the Son, which brings with it great responsibility (Heb 2:1-3). We comfort in that if we turn from wickedness we will be forgiven. Yet vigilant in the warning that turning to wickedness means rejection (Ezk 33:11-19).
Ecclesia Plantanda (vicaranne.wordpress.com)
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787) … Englishman William Carey … Both men understood that sharing good news need not and must not wait for people to learn the evangelist’s tongue.
church oh church1 (ozyikhiedwardblog.wordpress.com)
why substitute “ecclesia” for “kyriakon”?to support the regular congregating of early Christians,who didn’t understand what Paul and Silas were doing!
What did the New Covenant writers mean when they used the word “Ecclesia” to describe a Christian body of people?? We can safely denote that they intended to convey the original Greek meaning of the word:”A body of Christian called out of Roman and Judean systems of Government,to live under a seperate civil mentality,”a politically autonomous body of Christians,under no other King but Yeshua,under no other civil laws,than that of Yeshua.But some misguided folks misunderstood the missions of Paul, that was why these Christians ran into trouble with kings and rulers,were arrested,crucified,and martyred. They dropped Caesar as their King,and took up Christ. The writers of the New covenant didn’t substitute “kyriakon” with “Ecclesia” to mean entertainment every Sundays,and Tuesdays,and so on!
Apostasy in the Highest Places (mysteryoftheiniquity.com)
The church, the Ecclesia, is a body of people who are redeemed called out to represent GOD and HIS Authority which means they are called to carry our HIS Laws. We are granted the responsibility of not only this but we are accountable for these actions.
The fact that the church is failing man is an undeniable truth but it’s also devastating to the people. How do I mean they are failing the people?
Priority to form a loving brotherhood (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
There might be people who do not like that others share the love of Christ with each other and do not mind being under Christ instead of being under one or the other organisation.
Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
Coming together in each-others houses, forming housechurches as a church of disciples they also were an assembly of learners. We too so many years later should be like them a church of Christian disciples and an assembly of persons who believe the things of the Kingdom of God, and of the Name of the lord Jesus, and, thus believing, have been immersed into Christ and patiently continue in the faith and well doing of their vocation, reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting all things revealed in the scriptures of truth.
Stepping Toes

In the readings of today we look at the brothers and sisters in Corinth some 2000 years ago.
In Belgium the community has been troubled by persons perhaps wanting to claim to have the right to make foundations and to direct the groups of people wanting to come together under the name of Christ.
Paul the Apostle, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We remember how the apostle Paul makes the argument that he has borne witness to the people of Corinth, he has shared the gospel, he has brought them to Christ and showed them the way but that he has to be sad because he only could see division between those who should be united as brethren and sisters in Christ.
The apostle Paul in his 5th letter to the Romans and his first three letters to the Corinths, also talks…

View original post 4,019 more words

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#ApostlePaul #Belgium #Brethren #Christadelphians #cityOfCorinth #CoOperation #Community #Corinthians #Cornerstone #Difficulties #Division #Ecclesia #Ego #Endurance #Faith #FocusOnSonOfGod #FollowersOfChrist #FollowingAChurch #FollowingJesusChrist #FoundationOfTheChurch #Gain #GainingPeace #Inion #InstrumentsOfGod #LettersToCorinthians #LettersToRomans #Meeting #Peace #Perseverance #Problems #Rejoice #ServingGod #Sorrows #Sufferings #TempleOfGod #ThinkingInHarmony #Trials #Tribulations #UnionWithGod
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Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven @[email protected] · 2014-02-27 · 11:50 UTC
Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation
Tuesday-night at the meeting of the Ecclesia Brussel–Leuven we read Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 1+3, looking at the difficulties we have encountered the last few months and how we had to cope with it but also how we should continue our way.
Sometimes we do get to recognise we could not re-conciliate but have to turn over the page and leave those who did not want to be amicably connected with us on their own. Sometimes a community has the priority to protect its own flock and has to take measures which do not seem so pleasant for all people involved. When certain people prefer to stand on their own and are not willing to co-operate the community than has to decide to let them go their own way, but when they themselves did everything to blacken that community, they should not have to keep contact any more. As such we decided to leave the man from the North and his organisation far what they are, and shall concentrate ourselves on bringing people to Christ ourselves, without their help.
Jesus Christ is the man who opened the way to his Father. He is the One Mediator between God and man and is the cornerstone of the Church of God.
We do trust the Most High, Elohim Hashem Jehovah, Who shall call people and Who shall guide us and give us that what we need according to His time.
In Him we trust and give all our hope to build up His Church in Belgium and other parts in the world.
+++
Related articles
New on the ASOR Blog- Ecclesia Diaboli (I Thought It Was Going to be about the Methodists…) (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
Alexander Michalak writes: My preliminary examination of several Second Temple texts, 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, Joseph and Aseneth, Testament of Job, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs indicates that there is already at this time a connection between demons and the cult of foreign gods, although they are not always explicitly identified with one another. Sometimes the demonic spirits are said only to lead people astray, that is, to lead people toward Gentile worship and toward idolatry, whereas in other cases it is the demonic spirits who are the objects of worship, or the pagan gods themselves.
The House of Worship (causeitfeelsright.wordpress.com)
The Greek word that should have been translated to church was only used twice in the New Testament. It means “the Lord’s” and was used for the Lord’s day and the Lord’s supper. But this instance is ecclesia. It means “to call forth from out of”. Matthew says if you and the other person can’t work out your problems go get help. Go find a few more people to help because maybe they’ll understand a different perspective. If that doesn’t work go find the ones who have been called out of darkness (1 Peter). When you are in darkness you can’t see clearly and when you are “in the dark” you are ignorant which simply means you don’t know. So someone who has been called out can see clearly, or they are knowledgeable or “in the know” which is having “inside” information.
Mary, Martha & Lazarus – the family in Bethany (hadvarim.wordpress.com)
The gospel narrative then is largely concerned with Christ exposing the apostate Jewish leaders, and building up his apostles as “other husbandmen” to replace them. The parables recorded of the Kingdom of heaven throughout Matthew describe the kingdom of Israel in existence (Mat 11:12), under the governance of the prince of this world – the apostate Jewish leaders (John 12:31, 16:11, Eph 2:2, Luke 10:18, Mat 24:27), and then later to be replaced with the new heavens founded upon Christ as the Abrahamic seed stars are raised to the political heavens (Gen 15:5, Dan 12:2-3, Psa 19:4, 1 Cor 15:40-49, Apoc 4:1).
+
A people for his Name
Christ is described as the second Adam as compared to the first Adam (1 Cor 15:45-47). Both of them the “son of God” (Luke 3:38), and both typically created the same way. The body of Christ is the Ecclesia εκκλησια (Eph 5:23, 30, Col 1:18,24), and it is being formed from the Abrahamic dust, the seed of Abraham according to the promises of old; compare Gen 2:7 with Gen 13:16, 28:14.
+The mortal children of Israel are described as Elohim, mighty ones, or as we have in the AV “gods”. Elohim describes the the mental state of the person, not their physical nature. Ambassadors of the father, regardless of whether they are mortal people or immortal angels. If they are empowered by the will of the spirit, they are indeed mighty ones.
When mortal Elohim, mighty ones, do not keep the commandments of Yahweh then they are not immune – by any means – to the consequences of their actions. They will “die like men”.
Therefore we ought to take earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We have all the scriptures… even the testimony of the Son, which brings with it great responsibility (Heb 2:1-3). We comfort in that if we turn from wickedness we will be forgiven. Yet vigilant in the warning that turning to wickedness means rejection (Ezk 33:11-19).
Ecclesia Plantanda (vicaranne.wordpress.com)
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787) … Englishman William Carey … Both men understood that sharing good news need not and must not wait for people to learn the evangelist’s tongue.
church oh church1 (ozyikhiedwardblog.wordpress.com)
why substitute “ecclesia” for “kyriakon”?to support the regular congregating of early Christians,who didn’t understand what Paul and Silas were doing!
What did the New Covenant writers mean when they used the word “Ecclesia” to describe a Christian body of people?? We can safely denote that they intended to convey the original Greek meaning of the word:”A body of Christian called out of Roman and Judean systems of Government,to live under a seperate civil mentality,”a politically autonomous body of Christians,under no other King but Yeshua,under no other civil laws,than that of Yeshua.But some misguided folks misunderstood the missions of Paul, that was why these Christians ran into trouble with kings and rulers,were arrested,crucified,and martyred. They dropped Caesar as their King,and took up Christ. The writers of the New covenant didn’t substitute “kyriakon” with “Ecclesia” to mean entertainment every Sundays,and Tuesdays,and so on!
Apostasy in the Highest Places (mysteryoftheiniquity.com)
The church, the Ecclesia, is a body of people who are redeemed called out to represent GOD and HIS Authority which means they are called to carry our HIS Laws. We are granted the responsibility of not only this but we are accountable for these actions.
The fact that the church is failing man is an undeniable truth but it’s also devastating to the people. How do I mean they are failing the people?
Priority to form a loving brotherhood (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
There might be people who do not like that others share the love of Christ with each other and do not mind being under Christ instead of being under one or the other organisation.
Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
Coming together in each-others houses, forming housechurches as a church of disciples they also were an assembly of learners. We too so many years later should be like them a church of Christian disciples and an assembly of persons who believe the things of the Kingdom of God, and of the Name of the lord Jesus, and, thus believing, have been immersed into Christ and patiently continue in the faith and well doing of their vocation, reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting all things revealed in the scriptures of truth.
Stepping Toes

In the readings of today we look at the brothers and sisters in Corinth some 2000 years ago.
In Belgium the community has been troubled by persons perhaps wanting to claim to have the right to make foundations and to direct the groups of people wanting to come together under the name of Christ.
Paul the Apostle, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We remember how the apostle Paul makes the argument that he has borne witness to the people of Corinth, he has shared the gospel, he has brought them to Christ and showed them the way but that he has to be sad because he only could see division between those who should be united as brethren and sisters in Christ.
The apostle Paul in his 5th letter to the Romans and his first three letters to the Corinths, also talks…

View original post 4,019 more words

Rate this:

#ApostlePaul #Belgium #Brethren #Christadelphians #cityOfCorinth #CoOperation #Community #Corinthians #Cornerstone #Difficulties #Division #Ecclesia #Ego #Endurance #Faith #FocusOnSonOfGod #FollowersOfChrist #FollowingAChurch #FollowingJesusChrist #FoundationOfTheChurch #Gain #GainingPeace #Inion #InstrumentsOfGod #LettersToCorinthians #LettersToRomans #Meeting #Peace #Perseverance #Problems #Rejoice #ServingGod #Sorrows #Sufferings #TempleOfGod #ThinkingInHarmony #Trials #Tribulations #UnionWithGod
#apostlepaul #belgium #brethren #christadelphians #cityofcorinth #cooperation
Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven @[email protected] · 2014-02-27 · 11:50 UTC
Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation
Tuesday-night at the meeting of the Ecclesia Brussel–Leuven we read Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 1+3, looking at the difficulties we have encountered the last few months and how we had to cope with it but also how we should continue our way.
Sometimes we do get to recognise we could not re-conciliate but have to turn over the page and leave those who did not want to be amicably connected with us on their own. Sometimes a community has the priority to protect its own flock and has to take measures which do not seem so pleasant for all people involved. When certain people prefer to stand on their own and are not willing to co-operate the community than has to decide to let them go their own way, but when they themselves did everything to blacken that community, they should not have to keep contact any more. As such we decided to leave the man from the North and his organisation far what they are, and shall concentrate ourselves on bringing people to Christ ourselves, without their help.
Jesus Christ is the man who opened the way to his Father. He is the One Mediator between God and man and is the cornerstone of the Church of God.
We do trust the Most High, Elohim Hashem Jehovah, Who shall call people and Who shall guide us and give us that what we need according to His time.
In Him we trust and give all our hope to build up His Church in Belgium and other parts in the world.
+++
Related articles
New on the ASOR Blog- Ecclesia Diaboli (I Thought It Was Going to be about the Methodists…) (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
Alexander Michalak writes: My preliminary examination of several Second Temple texts, 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, Joseph and Aseneth, Testament of Job, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs indicates that there is already at this time a connection between demons and the cult of foreign gods, although they are not always explicitly identified with one another. Sometimes the demonic spirits are said only to lead people astray, that is, to lead people toward Gentile worship and toward idolatry, whereas in other cases it is the demonic spirits who are the objects of worship, or the pagan gods themselves.
The House of Worship (causeitfeelsright.wordpress.com)
The Greek word that should have been translated to church was only used twice in the New Testament. It means “the Lord’s” and was used for the Lord’s day and the Lord’s supper. But this instance is ecclesia. It means “to call forth from out of”. Matthew says if you and the other person can’t work out your problems go get help. Go find a few more people to help because maybe they’ll understand a different perspective. If that doesn’t work go find the ones who have been called out of darkness (1 Peter). When you are in darkness you can’t see clearly and when you are “in the dark” you are ignorant which simply means you don’t know. So someone who has been called out can see clearly, or they are knowledgeable or “in the know” which is having “inside” information.
Mary, Martha & Lazarus – the family in Bethany (hadvarim.wordpress.com)
The gospel narrative then is largely concerned with Christ exposing the apostate Jewish leaders, and building up his apostles as “other husbandmen” to replace them. The parables recorded of the Kingdom of heaven throughout Matthew describe the kingdom of Israel in existence (Mat 11:12), under the governance of the prince of this world – the apostate Jewish leaders (John 12:31, 16:11, Eph 2:2, Luke 10:18, Mat 24:27), and then later to be replaced with the new heavens founded upon Christ as the Abrahamic seed stars are raised to the political heavens (Gen 15:5, Dan 12:2-3, Psa 19:4, 1 Cor 15:40-49, Apoc 4:1).
+
A people for his Name
Christ is described as the second Adam as compared to the first Adam (1 Cor 15:45-47). Both of them the “son of God” (Luke 3:38), and both typically created the same way. The body of Christ is the Ecclesia εκκλησια (Eph 5:23, 30, Col 1:18,24), and it is being formed from the Abrahamic dust, the seed of Abraham according to the promises of old; compare Gen 2:7 with Gen 13:16, 28:14.
+The mortal children of Israel are described as Elohim, mighty ones, or as we have in the AV “gods”. Elohim describes the the mental state of the person, not their physical nature. Ambassadors of the father, regardless of whether they are mortal people or immortal angels. If they are empowered by the will of the spirit, they are indeed mighty ones.
When mortal Elohim, mighty ones, do not keep the commandments of Yahweh then they are not immune – by any means – to the consequences of their actions. They will “die like men”.
Therefore we ought to take earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We have all the scriptures… even the testimony of the Son, which brings with it great responsibility (Heb 2:1-3). We comfort in that if we turn from wickedness we will be forgiven. Yet vigilant in the warning that turning to wickedness means rejection (Ezk 33:11-19).
Ecclesia Plantanda (vicaranne.wordpress.com)
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787) … Englishman William Carey … Both men understood that sharing good news need not and must not wait for people to learn the evangelist’s tongue.
church oh church1 (ozyikhiedwardblog.wordpress.com)
why substitute “ecclesia” for “kyriakon”?to support the regular congregating of early Christians,who didn’t understand what Paul and Silas were doing!
What did the New Covenant writers mean when they used the word “Ecclesia” to describe a Christian body of people?? We can safely denote that they intended to convey the original Greek meaning of the word:”A body of Christian called out of Roman and Judean systems of Government,to live under a seperate civil mentality,”a politically autonomous body of Christians,under no other King but Yeshua,under no other civil laws,than that of Yeshua.But some misguided folks misunderstood the missions of Paul, that was why these Christians ran into trouble with kings and rulers,were arrested,crucified,and martyred. They dropped Caesar as their King,and took up Christ. The writers of the New covenant didn’t substitute “kyriakon” with “Ecclesia” to mean entertainment every Sundays,and Tuesdays,and so on!
Apostasy in the Highest Places (mysteryoftheiniquity.com)
The church, the Ecclesia, is a body of people who are redeemed called out to represent GOD and HIS Authority which means they are called to carry our HIS Laws. We are granted the responsibility of not only this but we are accountable for these actions.
The fact that the church is failing man is an undeniable truth but it’s also devastating to the people. How do I mean they are failing the people?
Priority to form a loving brotherhood (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
There might be people who do not like that others share the love of Christ with each other and do not mind being under Christ instead of being under one or the other organisation.
Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
Coming together in each-others houses, forming housechurches as a church of disciples they also were an assembly of learners. We too so many years later should be like them a church of Christian disciples and an assembly of persons who believe the things of the Kingdom of God, and of the Name of the lord Jesus, and, thus believing, have been immersed into Christ and patiently continue in the faith and well doing of their vocation, reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting all things revealed in the scriptures of truth.
Stepping Toes

In the readings of today we look at the brothers and sisters in Corinth some 2000 years ago.
In Belgium the community has been troubled by persons perhaps wanting to claim to have the right to make foundations and to direct the groups of people wanting to come together under the name of Christ.
Paul the Apostle, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We remember how the apostle Paul makes the argument that he has borne witness to the people of Corinth, he has shared the gospel, he has brought them to Christ and showed them the way but that he has to be sad because he only could see division between those who should be united as brethren and sisters in Christ.
The apostle Paul in his 5th letter to the Romans and his first three letters to the Corinths, also talks…

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Carmelite Quotes @[email protected] · 2024-06-29 · 18:31 UTC
We can offer three reasons for calling this journey toward union with God a night.
1. The first has to do with the point of departure, because individuals must deprive themselves of their appetites for worldly possessions. This denial and privation is like a night for all one’s senses.
2. The second reason refers to the means or the road along which a person travels to this union. Now this road is faith, and for the intellect faith is also like a dark night.
3. The third reason pertains to the point of arrival, namely God. And God is also a dark night to the soul in this life. These three nights pass through a soul, or better, the soul passes through them in order to reach union with God.
In actuality, these three nights comprise only one night, a night divided into three parts like natural night. The first part, the night of the senses, resembles early evening, that time of twilight when things begin to fade from sight. The second part, faith, is completely dark, like midnight. The third part, representing God, is like the very early dawn just before the break of day.
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, chap. 2, nos. 1, 5

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Canadian photographer James Wheeler captured this lakeside photo of the Milky Way in 2013. Image credit: James Wheeler / Pexels (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/29/juan-asc1ch2/
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#unionwithgod #stjohnofthecross #soul #selfdenial #possessions #god
LaurenRELarkin.com @[email protected] · 2024-07-21 · 16:34 UTC

Psalm 23:1-3 Abba God is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. Abba God makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. God revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for God’s Name’s sake.
Introduction
At the end of last’s week sermon, we ended talking about remembrance, hope, and prayer. For Christians, when we gather to speak of, read of, hear of, and consume together with Christ in our weekly fellowship and worship, we are remembering Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are not just remembering Christ but participating the work of God made tangible in Christ: the divine revolution and mission of love, life, and liberation in the world for the beloved. This is truly εὐαγγέλιον. And if this is truly εὐαγγέλιον, then it is also the source and foundation of our hope that exists to sustain us today.
In remembering and having hope we are led to pray, to bring ourselves deeply into God, to bend our knee (literal or figurative), to be creatures fully dependent on God. We remember, we have hope, and we pray, and it is this that is the beginning of all our activity within the walls of the church and without. As mentioned last week, “Prayer does not resign the believer to non-activity as if it is the final act in the face of trouble; it is the starting point. Prayer is how the believer unites with God and God’s passion for life, love, and liberation.[1] It is the bold request for God to enter in, to act; in prayer God is spoken to and from, in prayer God is remembered, so, too, the neighbor.”[2]
But the author of Ephesians isn’t done with us yet as if it’s just about remembering and hoping and praying. But that this remembering, hoping, and praying participates in making believers one with God and with each other in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and bringing them into the true peace that surpasses all understanding.
Ephesians 2:11-22
For [Christ] is our peace, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity… (Eph. 2:14-15)
So, the author of Ephesians verbally exhorts us (using an imperative!) to remember. To remember what? Not only Christ but who we were prior to being encountered by Christ in the event of faith. …remember that in the past you [were] Gentiles in the flesh, the ones who were called “The Uncircumcised” by the ones who were called “The Circumcised” in the flesh done by [human] hands (v. 11). But that isn’t enough; Paul asks his audience to remember, further, that they were for a time without Christ, having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel and a stranger of the covenant of the promise, not possessing hope and [were] without God in the cosmos (v 12). Paul is eager to recreate the situation for the Ephesians to cause more than just recall but real, heart-felt remembering,[3] pressing into the reality that apart from Christ they were dead in their false-steps and missing the mark (sin) (v 1), they were strangers to the promises of God, to Christ, and to the hope of God which is the hope of the reign of God in Christ.[4],[5] According to Ephesians, the Gentiles were overcome by their own desires, turned in on themselves, stuck in place by division, and consumed by hostility. This isn’t something that someone can work themselves out of, no matter how hard they try. For Paul, it is only through the encounter with Christ where one finds God, finds their neighbor, and finds themself; it is only in Christ where one finds true life, love, and liberation.[6] But at this time you who were once far off you became near by the blood of Christ (v 13). In other words, this is not done by human hands (χειροποιήτου in v 11), but by the love of God in Christ done by the power of the Spirit[7] as the down-payment in lives of the believers in Ephesus.
This is why Christ is the peace of everyone—for [Christ] is our peace (v 14a)—Children of Israel and Gentiles combined. Because, as Paul writes, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity (vv 14b-15). There is now no longer us v. them, insiders v. outsiders, elected v. not-elected, Israel v. Gentiles, the circumcised v. the not circumcised.[8] There are not two groups, but one group. Thus, this peace Jesus brings in his own flesh, by the blood of the cross event and the glory of his resurrection is not just for privatized souls but for deprivatized humanity; it’s a socio-political event.[9] There is now no wall that keeps some in and some out, some included and some excluded; there is now (absolutely) no line—whether 2-D or 3-D—that can render some humans “good” and others “bad” based on which side of that line they fall because that line has been destroyed[10] and is now anathema for the believers and followers of Christ who benefit from the destruction of the division-wall of the fence by being included in to the heredity and mission of God by the work of Christ on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirits dwelling in their hearts.
And if the wall has been destroyed, so, too, division according to enmity,[11] which is the hostility and intolerance fomented between the two groups that was the fruit of the division wall; it is the anger of the kingdoms of humanity turned inward to tear humanity apart.[12] This includes the laws and public commandments used to make some clean and some unclean, some righteous and others unrighteous; these, too, like the wall and the enmity, have become inoperative in solidifying groups of people against each other. For Paul then writes, and so he might completely reconcile both in one body for God through the cross he killed the hostility in himself (v 16).By Christ’s work[13]—the mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation for the world—there is now no wall, thus no enmity, thus no law[14] that can keep anyone out and in this radical establishment of divine equity, there is peace[15]—true peace that is not contingent on one group suffering under the weight of another.
Then the letter continues, [Christ] came and brought peace to you (all) who were far-off and peace to you (all) who were near because through him we—both in one spirit—possess access to God therefore now you are no longer a stranger and sojourner but you are a fellow citizens with the saints and of the family of God (vv 17-19). In Christ, these two have become one[16] and together they will dwell in and with God and they will have real peace—the type of peace that threatens the principalities and powers of the kingdom of humanity. [17] But this peace brought by Christ is more than reconciliation with each other, it is also reconciliation with God, thus, these two who are now one become the dwelling place of God. [18] As Paul continues, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets—Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone—in whom all building is being fitted together and grows itself into a holy temple in the lord in whom you, you also were built together into the dwelling place of God in Spirit (vv 20-22). Boldly Ephesians declares, where there is a lack of enmity and hostility, division walls and lines, laws and commands geared to keep some in and some out, there God is and there the saints of God are; no one is excluded and left out and the church is caught up in this radical inclusion and equity, snatched into this divine peace that knows absolutely positively no walls or dividing lines.[19],[20]
Conclusion
The church is without excuse here, according to Ephesians. Peace—the very peace Christ brings through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension—is peace that is not contingent on the kingdom of humanity but dependent on the reign of God. It is peace that arises in the communion of humanity with humanity, humanity with God, and humanity with creation; it is peace that manifests within and among humanity in its unity to the glory of God, which is in opposition to the “peace” (i.e. “security” (“control”)) of the kingdom of humanity that thrives on the humanity’s disunity. None of us who claim to follow Christ can afford to support systems dead set on dividing and conquering, oppressing and marginalizing, and fostering anger and fear; these systems are antithetical to the gospel of Christ and to the faith and praxis of the believer in the world before God and neighbor. None of us who claim to follow Christ can find peace (and hope) anywhere else apart from God: not in federal positions and presidents, not in parties and platforms, not in promises and progress made with human hands. We can only find true peace in our reconciliation with God, which is reconciliation with our neighbor, and, thus, these two combined give us reconciliation with ourselves because we have been made one with our neighbor and thus have become the dwelling place of God.
We cannot find peace by building the world we long for with human hands because as soon as we build it it has expired and must be torn down to allow something new to be born. We cannot find peace by turning the gospel into a law as if it can found a nation that would only gift life, love, and liberation to those who qualify. We cannot find peace by letting enmity and hostility be the mortar holding the bricks of the division-wall together. We cannot find peace by legislating Christianity because the doctrines born of the second word of God that form the tissue of the Christian Church inherently resist such socio-political ossification. We can and will only find peace by pressing further into God, clinging to God’s Word in Christ, and leaning into the guidance and leading of the Spirit of God, the guarantor of the new covenant, the down payment of our adoption into God, and the fertile soil making us one with God, with our neighbor, thus, with ourselves. It is only here, in God and with God, do we find true and lasting peace that surpasses all understanding.

[1] See Sölle, Choosing Life, pp. 92-93
[2] This portion is taken from, Lauren R.E. Larkin, “Leaving Heaven Behind: Paradoxical Identity as the Anchor of Dorothee Sölle’s Theology of Political Resistance,” PhD Dissertation (University of Aberdeen, 2024), 202.
[3] Barth, Markus, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1-3, The Anchor Bible Series (Garden City: Doubleday, 1971), 254. “Repentance, decision, and gratitude are called for, not a mental recollection only.”
[4] Barth, Ephesians, 257. “In Eph 2:12 a status of strangership is described, not an event leading to estrangement.”
[5] Barth, Ephesians, 259. \“Unless Paul flippantly denied or dispossessed the Gentiles of any hope he must have meant a specific hope. This ‘hope,’ then, could be understood as fostered in the minds of the Jews, because it was founded and guaranteed in the heart of God or ‘laid up in heaven’……It is the hope for the promised messiah from the root of David…”
[6] Barth, Ephesians, 254. “Paul’s thought moves from men in the grip of ‘flesh’ (2:11), over the work performed in ‘Christ’s flesh’ (2:14, to the operation of the ‘Spirit’ (2:18). Nothing can prevent the ‘Spirit’ from operating ‘in the realm of flesh.’”
[7] Barth, Ephesians, 255. “As the building of the temple by God is contrasted to the construction of temples by men, so circumcision of the heart…highly excels handmade circumcision.”
[8] Allen Verhey and Joseph S. Harvard, Ephesians, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 93. “If it was especially the Jewish Christian who needed to be reminded earlier that all are ‘sinners,’ not just the ‘uncircumcised,’ not just the Gentiles, and that all are brought from death to life by the gift of God’s grace, not by ‘works’ of the law, the Gentiles are now reminded of the promises to Israel and that it is in the Jewish Messiah that they are given a share in them.”
[9] Barth, Ephesians, 262. “Christ is praised here not primarily for the peace he bring to individual souls; rather the peace he brings is a social and political event…”
[10] Barth, Ephesians, 263-264. “The combination of the two Greek nouns yields a composite sense: it is a wall that prevents certain person from entering a house or a city (cf. 2:19), and is as much a mark of hostility (2:14, 16) as, e.g. a ghetto wall, the Iron Curtain the Berlin Wall, a racial barrier, or a railroad track that separates the right from the wrong side of the city, not to speak of the wall between state and church.”
[11] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “In this case, the ‘enmity’ is as much the object of destruction as the wall.”
[12] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “The word ‘enmity’ defines the separation between Jews and Gentiles more specifically: this segregation implies intolerance, and is a passionate, totalitarian, bellicose affair. While the ‘enmity’ mentioned at the end of vs. 16 is the one-sided enmity of man against God, the ‘enmity’ of vs. 14 is mutual among men.”
[13] Barth, Ephesians, 265. “…the context of Eph 2:15 reveals that for the author (as much as for Paul himself) the death of Christ rather than the promulgation of new decrees stood behind the abolition of the divisive statutes.”
[14] Barth, Ephesians, 264. Wall, enmity, and law “Each of these terms throws light on the others; the author wants them to be considered as synonyms.”
[15] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 96. “…God seals a ‘new covenant’ in ‘the blood of Christ.” And in that ‘new covenant’ there is a new community, a community of both Jew and Gentile, a community that shares the memory of Christ and the hope of God’s promises with a common meal.”
[16] Barth, Ephesians, 272. “After showing that the church exists only as a unity, that is, as one new man created out of Jews and Gentiles, the apostle does not proceed to split t into halves.”
[17] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 97. “But this was not merely an idea, as the reality of baptism makes clear. This was not merely an ideal that exists outside history and toward which we must strive. This was and is a reality wrought in Christ on the cross and displayed in the churches when God initiates diverse people into Christ and into the church. Ideals are powerless against the forces in this world that divide and abuse, against the principalities and power that nurture cultures of enmity. But those forces are and will be finally powerless against the promise and reality of God’s future.”
[18] Barth, Ephesians, 274. “The church herself is not reconciliation but she lives form it and manifests it. She serves the glory of God inasmuch as her members mutually assist, support, and strengthen one another. Neither jews nor Gentiles nor any individual can independently claim after Christ’s coming to offer an appropriate residence For God but Jews and Gentiles together are now ordained by God to become his temple.”
[19] Barth, Ephesians, 324-325. “Now the church is the sign of his mercy, his peace, and his nearness the whole world. If God can and will use people are who are as tempted and weak as the Christian are, then he is certainly able and willing to exclude no one from his realm. The church lives by this hope and bears witness to it publicly.”
[20] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 98. “They are called to break down the walls and to perform this new social reality by forming friendships with the people on the other side of the aisle, or on the other side of town.”
https://laurenrelarkin.com/2024/07/21/6623/
#Beloved #ChoosingLife #ChristianNationalism #DividingWall #DivineLove #DivinePeace #Division #DorotheeSölle #Ephesians #Hope #Jesus #LawAndGospel #Love #LoveOfNeighbor #MarkusBarth #Peace #UnionWithGod #UnionWithSelf #UnionWithTheNeighbor

#beloved #choosinglife #christiannationalism #dividingwall #divinelove #divinepeace
LaurenRELarkin.com @[email protected] · 2024-07-21 · 16:34 UTC

https://youtu.be/OZAN0zqZdts
Psalm 23:1-3 Abba God is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. Abba God makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. God revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for God’s Name’s sake.
Introduction
At the end of last’s week sermon, we ended talking about remembrance, hope, and prayer. For Christians, when we gather to speak of, read of, hear of, and consume together with Christ in our weekly fellowship and worship, we are remembering Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are not just remembering Christ but participating the work of God made tangible in Christ: the divine revolution and mission of love, life, and liberation in the world for the beloved. This is truly εὐαγγέλιον. And if this is truly εὐαγγέλιον, then it is also the source and foundation of our hope that exists to sustain us today.
In remembering and having hope we are led to pray, to bring ourselves deeply into God, to bend our knee (literal or figurative), to be creatures fully dependent on God. We remember, we have hope, and we pray, and it is this that is the beginning of all our activity within the walls of the church and without. As mentioned last week, “Prayer does not resign the believer to non-activity as if it is the final act in the face of trouble; it is the starting point. Prayer is how the believer unites with God and God’s passion for life, love, and liberation.[1] It is the bold request for God to enter in, to act; in prayer God is spoken to and from, in prayer God is remembered, so, too, the neighbor.”[2]
But the author of Ephesians isn’t done with us yet as if it’s just about remembering and hoping and praying. But that this remembering, hoping, and praying participates in making believers one with God and with each other in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and bringing them into the true peace that surpasses all understanding.
Ephesians 2:11-22
For [Christ] is our peace, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity… (Eph. 2:14-15)
So, the author of Ephesians verbally exhorts us (using an imperative!) to remember. To remember what? Not only Christ but who we were prior to being encountered by Christ in the event of faith. …remember that in the past you [were] Gentiles in the flesh, the ones who were called “The Uncircumcised” by the ones who were called “The Circumcised” in the flesh done by [human] hands (v. 11). But that isn’t enough; Paul asks his audience to remember, further, that they were for a time without Christ, having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel and a stranger of the covenant of the promise, not possessing hope and [were] without God in the cosmos (v 12). Paul is eager to recreate the situation for the Ephesians to cause more than just recall but real, heart-felt remembering,[3] pressing into the reality that apart from Christ they were dead in their false-steps and missing the mark (sin) (v 1), they were strangers to the promises of God, to Christ, and to the hope of God which is the hope of the reign of God in Christ.[4],[5] According to Ephesians, the Gentiles were overcome by their own desires, turned in on themselves, stuck in place by division, and consumed by hostility. This isn’t something that someone can work themselves out of, no matter how hard they try. For Paul, it is only through the encounter with Christ where one finds God, finds their neighbor, and finds themself; it is only in Christ where one finds true life, love, and liberation.[6] But at this time you who were once far off you became near by the blood of Christ (v 13). In other words, this is not done by human hands (χειροποιήτου in v 11), but by the love of God in Christ done by the power of the Spirit[7] as the down-payment in lives of the believers in Ephesus.
This is why Christ is the peace of everyone—for [Christ] is our peace (v 14a)—Children of Israel and Gentiles combined. Because, as Paul writes, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity (vv 14b-15). There is now no longer us v. them, insiders v. outsiders, elected v. not-elected, Israel v. Gentiles, the circumcised v. the not circumcised.[8] There are not two groups, but one group. Thus, this peace Jesus brings in his own flesh, by the blood of the cross event and the glory of his resurrection is not just for privatized souls but for deprivatized humanity; it’s a socio-political event.[9] There is now no wall that keeps some in and some out, some included and some excluded; there is now (absolutely) no line—whether 2-D or 3-D—that can render some humans “good” and others “bad” based on which side of that line they fall because that line has been destroyed[10] and is now anathema for the believers and followers of Christ who benefit from the destruction of the division-wall of the fence by being included in to the heredity and mission of God by the work of Christ on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirits dwelling in their hearts.
And if the wall has been destroyed, so, too, division according to enmity,[11] which is the hostility and intolerance fomented between the two groups that was the fruit of the division wall; it is the anger of the kingdoms of humanity turned inward to tear humanity apart.[12] This includes the laws and public commandments used to make some clean and some unclean, some righteous and others unrighteous; these, too, like the wall and the enmity, have become inoperative in solidifying groups of people against each other. For Paul then writes, and so he might completely reconcile both in one body for God through the cross he killed the hostility in himself (v 16).By Christ’s work[13]—the mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation for the world—there is now no wall, thus no enmity, thus no law[14] that can keep anyone out and in this radical establishment of divine equity, there is peace[15]—true peace that is not contingent on one group suffering under the weight of another.
Then the letter continues, [Christ] came and brought peace to you (all) who were far-off and peace to you (all) who were near because through him we—both in one spirit—possess access to God therefore now you are no longer a stranger and sojourner but you are a fellow citizens with the saints and of the family of God (vv 17-19). In Christ, these two have become one[16] and together they will dwell in and with God and they will have real peace—the type of peace that threatens the principalities and powers of the kingdom of humanity. [17] But this peace brought by Christ is more than reconciliation with each other, it is also reconciliation with God, thus, these two who are now one become the dwelling place of God. [18] As Paul continues, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets—Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone—in whom all building is being fitted together and grows itself into a holy temple in the lord in whom you, you also were built together into the dwelling place of God in Spirit (vv 20-22). Boldly Ephesians declares, where there is a lack of enmity and hostility, division walls and lines, laws and commands geared to keep some in and some out, there God is and there the saints of God are; no one is excluded and left out and the church is caught up in this radical inclusion and equity, snatched into this divine peace that knows absolutely positively no walls or dividing lines.[19],[20]
Conclusion
The church is without excuse here, according to Ephesians. Peace—the very peace Christ brings through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension—is peace that is not contingent on the kingdom of humanity but dependent on the reign of God. It is peace that arises in the communion of humanity with humanity, humanity with God, and humanity with creation; it is peace that manifests within and among humanity in its unity to the glory of God, which is in opposition to the “peace” (i.e. “security” (“control”)) of the kingdom of humanity that thrives on the humanity’s disunity. None of us who claim to follow Christ can afford to support systems dead set on dividing and conquering, oppressing and marginalizing, and fostering anger and fear; these systems are antithetical to the gospel of Christ and to the faith and praxis of the believer in the world before God and neighbor. None of us who claim to follow Christ can find peace (and hope) anywhere else apart from God: not in federal positions and presidents, not in parties and platforms, not in promises and progress made with human hands. We can only find true peace in our reconciliation with God, which is reconciliation with our neighbor, and, thus, these two combined give us reconciliation with ourselves because we have been made one with our neighbor and thus have become the dwelling place of God.
We cannot find peace by building the world we long for with human hands because as soon as we build it it has expired and must be torn down to allow something new to be born. We cannot find peace by turning the gospel into a law as if it can found a nation that would only gift life, love, and liberation to those who qualify. We cannot find peace by letting enmity and hostility be the mortar holding the bricks of the division-wall together. We cannot find peace by legislating Christianity because the doctrines born of the second word of God that form the tissue of the Christian Church inherently resist such socio-political ossification. We can and will only find peace by pressing further into God, clinging to God’s Word in Christ, and leaning into the guidance and leading of the Spirit of God, the guarantor of the new covenant, the down payment of our adoption into God, and the fertile soil making us one with God, with our neighbor, thus, with ourselves. It is only here, in God and with God, do we find true and lasting peace that surpasses all understanding.

[1] See Sölle, Choosing Life, pp. 92-93
[2] This portion is taken from, Lauren R.E. Larkin, “Leaving Heaven Behind: Paradoxical Identity as the Anchor of Dorothee Sölle’s Theology of Political Resistance,” PhD Dissertation (University of Aberdeen, 2024), 202.
[3] Barth, Markus, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1-3, The Anchor Bible Series (Garden City: Doubleday, 1971), 254. “Repentance, decision, and gratitude are called for, not a mental recollection only.”
[4] Barth, Ephesians, 257. “In Eph 2:12 a status of strangership is described, not an event leading to estrangement.”
[5] Barth, Ephesians, 259. \“Unless Paul flippantly denied or dispossessed the Gentiles of any hope he must have meant a specific hope. This ‘hope,’ then, could be understood as fostered in the minds of the Jews, because it was founded and guaranteed in the heart of God or ‘laid up in heaven’……It is the hope for the promised messiah from the root of David…”
[6] Barth, Ephesians, 254. “Paul’s thought moves from men in the grip of ‘flesh’ (2:11), over the work performed in ‘Christ’s flesh’ (2:14, to the operation of the ‘Spirit’ (2:18). Nothing can prevent the ‘Spirit’ from operating ‘in the realm of flesh.’”
[7] Barth, Ephesians, 255. “As the building of the temple by God is contrasted to the construction of temples by men, so circumcision of the heart…highly excels handmade circumcision.”
[8] Allen Verhey and Joseph S. Harvard, Ephesians, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 93. “If it was especially the Jewish Christian who needed to be reminded earlier that all are ‘sinners,’ not just the ‘uncircumcised,’ not just the Gentiles, and that all are brought from death to life by the gift of God’s grace, not by ‘works’ of the law, the Gentiles are now reminded of the promises to Israel and that it is in the Jewish Messiah that they are given a share in them.”
[9] Barth, Ephesians, 262. “Christ is praised here not primarily for the peace he bring to individual souls; rather the peace he brings is a social and political event…”
[10] Barth, Ephesians, 263-264. “The combination of the two Greek nouns yields a composite sense: it is a wall that prevents certain person from entering a house or a city (cf. 2:19), and is as much a mark of hostility (2:14, 16) as, e.g. a ghetto wall, the Iron Curtain the Berlin Wall, a racial barrier, or a railroad track that separates the right from the wrong side of the city, not to speak of the wall between state and church.”
[11] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “In this case, the ‘enmity’ is as much the object of destruction as the wall.”
[12] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “The word ‘enmity’ defines the separation between Jews and Gentiles more specifically: this segregation implies intolerance, and is a passionate, totalitarian, bellicose affair. While the ‘enmity’ mentioned at the end of vs. 16 is the one-sided enmity of man against God, the ‘enmity’ of vs. 14 is mutual among men.”
[13] Barth, Ephesians, 265. “…the context of Eph 2:15 reveals that for the author (as much as for Paul himself) the death of Christ rather than the promulgation of new decrees stood behind the abolition of the divisive statutes.”
[14] Barth, Ephesians, 264. Wall, enmity, and law “Each of these terms throws light on the others; the author wants them to be considered as synonyms.”
[15] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 96. “…God seals a ‘new covenant’ in ‘the blood of Christ.” And in that ‘new covenant’ there is a new community, a community of both Jew and Gentile, a community that shares the memory of Christ and the hope of God’s promises with a common meal.”
[16] Barth, Ephesians, 272. “After showing that the church exists only as a unity, that is, as one new man created out of Jews and Gentiles, the apostle does not proceed to split t into halves.”
[17] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 97. “But this was not merely an idea, as the reality of baptism makes clear. This was not merely an ideal that exists outside history and toward which we must strive. This was and is a reality wrought in Christ on the cross and displayed in the churches when God initiates diverse people into Christ and into the church. Ideals are powerless against the forces in this world that divide and abuse, against the principalities and power that nurture cultures of enmity. But those forces are and will be finally powerless against the promise and reality of God’s future.”
[18] Barth, Ephesians, 274. “The church herself is not reconciliation but she lives form it and manifests it. She serves the glory of God inasmuch as her members mutually assist, support, and strengthen one another. Neither jews nor Gentiles nor any individual can independently claim after Christ’s coming to offer an appropriate residence For God but Jews and Gentiles together are now ordained by God to become his temple.”
[19] Barth, Ephesians, 324-325. “Now the church is the sign of his mercy, his peace, and his nearness the whole world. If God can and will use people are who are as tempted and weak as the Christian are, then he is certainly able and willing to exclude no one from his realm. The church lives by this hope and bears witness to it publicly.”
[20] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 98. “They are called to break down the walls and to perform this new social reality by forming friendships with the people on the other side of the aisle, or on the other side of town.”
https://laurenrelarkin.com/2024/07/21/6623/
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James Bean @[email protected] · 2022-11-03 · 13:30 UTC

The Kabir Book of Prayers contains many insightful verses offering guidance about living a spiritual way of life on earth in this human form. - Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcast @ YouTube: https://youtu.be/3JSnuf8LSR8
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