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In her writings, St. Thérèse of Lisieux recounts how she perceived the imparting of each of the sacraments she received in her life...

Carmelite missionaries are coming to our country

In this year dedicated to the Holy Spirit, we should first fully realize that the Holy Spirit is indeed the creator and leader of the entire spiritual life...

Christopathy of St. John of the Cross

The Carmelite tradition in our country has been linked to a special form of veneration of Christ for several centuries: with veneration of Jesus – God and the Child, as represented by the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague...

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity and Anna Zelíková

Circular letter of the General Superiors of O.Carm. and OCD
on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Christology of Saint Teresa of Avila

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Continuation of the lecture from the international meeting in Lisieux in the summer of 1996

Circular letter of the General Superiors of O.Carm. and OCD
on the occasion of the centenary of the death of St. Therese of Lisieux

Lecture from the international meeting in Lisieux in the summer of 1996

P. Ivan Hrůša O.Carm.

When the Carmelite hermits turned to the patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Albert, at the beginning of the 13th century, asking him to write rules for communal living, he established for them, according to the tradition of the Church, as a goal "to live in obedience to Jesus Christ and to serve Him faithfully with a pure heart and a good conscience." Such a goal is nothing unusual, as it is common to all Christians. Perhaps for this reason, this year, in which the Holy Father has particularly directed our attention to Jesus Christ, should lead us to reflect on what Christ's call to obedience – to follow Him – means for us.

In Albert's time, this obedience represented a relationship that encompassed the entire Christian life. The relationship between Christ and the believing Christian reflected the bond between a lord and his vassal. Therefore, the Christian was obliged to serve his Lord faithfully, from whom he expected protection and help. Moreover, it was the time of the Crusades, battles for Christ's earthly kingdom. Some participated in these battles with arms in hand, but there were also many others who fought on the spiritual battlefield: in prayer, self-denial, a life of penance, pilgrimages to the Holy Land, or even by martyrdom, of which many endured there. Among them were the Carmelite hermits. They decided to follow Christ and live in obedience to Him by going to the Holy Land, the land of Christ, and serving Him there with fasting and prayer, a life of solitude and poverty. They wanted to remain with their Lord at the moments when for our salvation He experienced abandonment and bore the weight of our sins.

Today, we certainly do not think of any renewal or establishment of Christ's earthly kingdom. The Crusades clearly showed that this is not the way, as such a purpose does not correspond to Jesus' gospel at all. Nevertheless, the call to follow and to obey still applies. How should we today read the words of Albert's rule and what can we learn from the medieval hermits?

First of all, we can reflect on the "obvious" thing that following Christ encompasses the whole life. Thus, it includes not only prayer, church, and what is "pious", but also our work, our worries, our inability to be as we should be. A living faith and the presence of Jesus should fill even entirely mundane matters, such as fatigue after a working day, health problems, sleep, and various issues that we think we can handle ourselves. Even things usually considered "inappropriate", such as anger (cf. Eph 4:26–27), disagreement, defending one's opinion, etc.

Furthermore, Albert's rule and the example of the hermits can encourage us to put in more effort, to live Christianity more profoundly. For them, following Christ meant struggle! Often, it was truly about life. The situation is not different today, even if it more often involves an inner struggle and the death of the old man within us (cf. Rom 6:6). St. Paul speaks of obedience, of following: "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:5). The word obedience sounds harsh, if not raw, to us today, but the human heart and mind are indeed rebellious. Paul does not speak of anything violent; he simply indicates that following Jesus always means fighting.

Finally, it is worth considering the desire to live in the Holy Land, which was part of the contemporary mentality and also filled the inner life of the first Carmelites. What is the Holy Land for us today? We might say that God now gives us the land of His word. He gives us the Scripture, the gospel in our own language, so that we can read it, meditate on it, and draw knowledge of Christ from it. Indeed, the gospel can become for a person a fertile ground, a home where he can settle and find everything he needs for life. A place to which he continually returns, where his treasure is. "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," says Christ (Mt 6:21). The true treasure is He Himself. Those who traveled to Palestine in the Middle Ages did so precisely to be near Jesus and to keep their hearts with Christ. We too have this opportunity today. In the Master’s word, we can find Him even more than anywhere else.

Circular letter of the General Superiors of O.Carm. and OCD
on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux