Are you ready?

'Are you ready to leave the world behind, never more to enter it, and to live henceforth in this Carmel until the day whence you die?'

I am, said St Therese, whose feast day we celebrate today. Carmels are places of great virtue, trust in God and faith in the afterlife, where men or women place themselves as spouses of Christ until they die, forever at His service. It is a beautiful thought, to which very few are ever called and an example to us all of perfect faith and humility.

St Therese of course proved God's love once and for all by sending roses down from heaven to her sisters after she died. Even though it is tempting to make jokes about Teleflora, we are witnesses in this world to the supernatural all the time, but to very few is it ever caro factum, made flesh. Gods grace was made flesh in the life of austerity of St Therese, we should ask her to pray to God for peace in our world, where the stillness of the Carmel seems ever further away.

For peace in your country. For the victims of violence everywhere. For those struggling for peace and justice. For churches in conflict situations. For a world without war and violence. Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth, Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace, Let peace fill our beings, our world and our universe. Amen.

'You are now dead to the world, enter the Carmel of God's peace, never to return. Child of Mary, this is your home'. (from the old order of Carmelite Vows).