On Discerning a Carmelite Vocation

To discern a Carmelite Vocation, means you open yourself up and let God take control. In the writing of St. Teresa of Avila, you learn how you are to open yourself up to God and free your soul to have enough room for God.







How do we do this? I will tell you in steps.





1. Humility.







We need true humility in our life and prayer life. A proud soul does not pray well but a humble soul does. In Holy Scripture we read and learn which the two are. The pharisee is the proud soul, telling God how good he is and praising himself and not God. The humble soul is the tax collector who can't lift his head up to Heaven but asks for Mercy from God and to forgive him for cheating his people. He is also in the back corner and not up front as the first person.





To learn humility we must ask for it; we go to God and beg Him to help make you humble and take away the pridefulness that is dangerous to your soul; the bad pride which is sin. Also, you learn humility by humbling yourself in the Confessional. Kneeling down to a priest who is in the Person of Christ and you tell him your sins.



True prayer needs true humility.




2. Silence



We need Silence to hear God and before the reform of the Carmelite Order; it was noisy and busy at the convent. St. Teresa of Avila's friend said that St. Teresa should reform it and after Mass one day; she did. Where they observed or followed the ancient rule of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; where it was cloistered and no more talking. Everyone worked in silence and had smaller cells and lived a very severe life.

Our prayer life should be done in silence; but later on I will touch on vocal prayer. We must live a life of contemplative prayer; it is very simple prayer; where you and God talk in your heart.

St. Teresa had a very hard time and she used good holy books; books on prayer to help her to meditate and she became a Master in the Spiritual Life; just as her reform helper with the friars; St. John of the Cross.

To hear God speak to you; we must be silent; we must shut our mouth and open our heart to be able to hear God speak to you. St. Jean Marie Vianney said it best when asked how he prayed, "I look at Him and He looks at me."

Nothing else; it is simple to pray. You look at Jesus and He looks at you; you do not say anything with your mouth with physical words but spiritual in silence. All we have to do; is be willing to be silent and sit still and listen to Our good God and He will help you grow in your prayer life.

In Silence in the Presence of God; you grow closer to Him in your relationship and this is true as St. Teresa of Avila wrote so well on.




3. True Compassion and Love For God




To have a relationship with God and grow in this relationship; one must have true love and compassion for God.

What does it mean to love God truly?

To love God truly means to have a fear of God. This is where people get confused; "The Fear of the Lord" means to have a fear not to disobey God; because God is our Father and we have a fear not to disobey our earthly dad; because he will be upset and sadden we have disobeyed him and he will punish us; which God does.

To love God is to do what God commands us to do and not to disobey Him.

When we have true compassion and love for God when we pray; we must have True love for God and that means we fully trust in Him; to have love for God; means we must trust in Him.


Now, how are we to pray to God; with humility and compassion for God; we ask as St. Teresa of Avila says, "we ask for great things but nothing out of pride." We ask for great gifts from God. What can we ask from God; to make us saints; what else is there?


Nothing else, if we ask for this; I would think everything else comes with it that takes to become a saint. We aren't to ask for silly things, like a round ball and a square hole and then ask God to make it fit; God would never do that; because it is unlogical. God is the God of Logic, the devil is unlogical.



4. Final



Now, to grow close to God; we should have a relationship with His mother; Mary. The vocal prayer is the Rosary, Litanies and also the Liturgy of the Hours and the Holy Mass.

The greatest form of prayer is the Holy Mass that is done correctly and reverently. This is why the Carmelite monks in Wyoming are using the Traditional Mass; the Latin Mass and Gregorian Chant. To grow closer to God and be able to lift up their spirits at the Mass or at the Liturgy of the Hours with the Gregorian Chant; which comes to slow down our self and remove our self from the world and place our self into the sacred.

Discerning a Carmelite Vocation; means to die to self and put on the heavenly. This is what happened at your baptism; you take off the earthly and we rise with Christ. We no longer focus on the earthly but on the things of above; as St. Paul writes and tells us in his letters.

When you enter the cloister; you remove your earthly clothes and put on the clothes of eternal life; where you detach yourself from the world and grow closer to God and you start to ascend the mansions of your soul and once you start learning and living humility in your prayer life; you move up to one and at the end; when you reach the summit of Mount Carmel; you are in the final mansion with the King and the King is God and you share in His Divine Life.

Once this happens, you have become a saint; because St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and the Little Flower are in that Mansion with the King with all the saints in Heaven. But, you could be a living saint and always humble.

God Bless