To Someone Who Wished to Become a Carmelite

Letter 1

A Carmelite has a soul that has looked upon the crucified God. She has seen Him offering Himself to the Father as a Victim ; and, reflecting upon this grand manifestation of the charity of Christ, she has realized His passionate love, and has willed to give herself with Him. She lives, as if in heaven, with God alone on the mountain of Carmel, in silence, in solitude, in endless prayer. He Who will one day be her beatitude and will satiate her with glory, has given Himself to her already ; He never leaves her ; He abides in her soul ; the two are but one, so that she thirsts for silence that she may ever | listen to Him and penetrate more and more deeply into His Infinitude. She is identified with Him she loves and finds Him everywhere. ( Is not that heaven on earth ? You bear this heaven within you, for Jesus knows the Carmelite by what is within her, that is, by her soul. Never leave Him ; do everything under His divine gaze, and rejoice in His peace and love.

Letter 2

Let us live in intimacy with our Beloved ; let us be all His as He is all ours. You are deprived of 1 receiving Him [in Holy Communion] as often as you J wish, but remember that His love needs no Sacrament to come to you ; you can communicate all day, since He is Jiving in your soul. ■ Listen to what our Father St. John of the Cross tells us :

I " O thou soul, most beautiful of creatures,\who so earnestly longest to know , the place where thy Beloved is, that thou mayest seek Him and be united to Him ! Thou art thyself that very tabernacle where He dwells, the secret chamber of His retreat where He is hidden. Rejoice, therefore, and exult, because all thy good and all thy hope is so near thee as to be within thee ; yea, rather, rejoice that thou canst not be without it, for lo, ( the kingdom of God is within you.' "¹

This living in Him is the whole Carmelite life : then all sacrifices, all self-denial, and all else become divine. Love silence and prayer, the essence of our life. Beg the Queen of Carmel, our Mother, to teach you to adore Jesus in His profound recollection. Pray to our holy Mother St. Teresa as well ; she loved so deeply ! . . . she died of love ! Beg her to give you her passion for God and for souls, for the Carmelite must be zealous ; all her prayers, all her sacrifices are for that.

Do you know St. John of the Cross, who penetrated so deeply into the depths of the Divinity ? I ought to have spoken first of St. Elias, our first Father. You see our Order is very ancient, since it dates back to the prophets. How I wish I could relate all its glories ! Let us love it : there is none to be compared to it! As for the Rule, you will discover all its beauties some day. Live in the spirit of them now !

Footnotes

1. " Spiritual Canticle," St. John of the Cross, stanza i., 8. ↩