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Shine your Light

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In recent weeks here in Kilmacud Carmel, we have been gradually replacing old power-hungry light bulbs with new lower-energy LED bulbs. Many people we know are doing the same. It is part of our attempt towards sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint. We hope that our efforts will have an impact, albeit small, towards protecting our world, our “common home”. This week on the feast of All Carmelite Saints, our chaplain told us of the story of a little boy who was asked “what is a saint?” and his reply, inspired by the stained-glass windows in the church was: “someone who lets the light shine through them”. We know that the Gospel exhorts us Christians to let our light shine in the world and not to hide it under a bushel and this message has been the inspiration towards many songs. One popular children’s song goes: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine… let it shine….” We all know ordinary people – not canonised by the Church – who were and are shining lights in
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Elizabeth of the Trinity

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On November 8, we celebrate the Feast of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity who was a Carmelite nun at Dijon in France. Born Elizabeth Catez in 1880, she had one younger sister Marguerite, known as Guite. When the little girls were aged 4 and 7 their father died suddenly, as the result of a heart attack, and some time afterwards their mother enrolled them both in the Dijon Conservatoire to study music. Elizabeth began her studies there when she was 8. If God had not called her to Carmel she might well have been a celebrated concert pianist. When she was thirteen she won first prize f or her playing, having already won first prize for theory of music. The following year she won the much coveted Prize of Excellence for piano, but already her heart was set on God. Elizabeth had a natural capacity for contemplative prayer. Long before she entered Carmel she had an intense awareness that she was living in God’s presence. Elizabeth’s deep prayer animated her and she became actively involved in
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My mission – your mission

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    My mother often told me as a  child that we are each born with a mission.  You have something to do for God that only you can do. No one else can fill your space. She was a wise deep little woman and how right she was comes home to me when I hear St. Teresa speaking of the dignity and beauty of every single person made in the image and likeness of God. He dwells within us. If only we could grasp how precious each of us is in His sight – with what tenderness He bends over each one of us. St. John Henry Newman had a sense of it in his beautiful prayer. The mission of my life   God has created me to do Him   some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.   I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work.   I shall be an angel of peace, while not intending it i
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Our journey through November

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  Next week we begin a month to remember the Holy Souls. November can be a bleak month with dark misty days and cooler challenging weather.   But the first day of the month begins with All Saints Day. It sets a positive tone to the month.   The Church is saying to us as we remember our beloved dead; we are all included in the feast of All Saints. The Holy Souls are in God’s Presence, already in the embrace of God. It is nice to have a month to remember the un-named saints. The little saints rather than the well known bigger Saints. We all know people we have lived with, people who did not consider themselves saints but were good, compassionate and always ready to listen to others.   And there are saints we would be surprised to learn that they are included! They may not have belonged to any particular Church or Religion but they were compassionate, honest, searchers of the Truth. Take some time over the next few weeks and during the month to remember these people. If we have unreso
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75 Years on the Carmelite Road

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  “E.M.S. is not what you think ” is the title of a book by my nephew in the States sharing his exciting experiences as a paramedic in E.M.S. (Emergency Medical Services). Carmelite life is not what you might think, about “strict fasting and hard corporal penances”! On my final visit to Kilmacud Carmel before entering, the novice mistress advised me, as a preparation for the Carmelite life, to make “little acts of self-denial” – what my mother in her native tongue along with St Therese would call “petites sacrifices”. It was simple advice, and wise too! As a novice, my mother gave me a present of a Bible (trans. Ronald Knox). Two powerful passages have really sustained me all down the years. “It is I, the Lord your God, who hold you by the hand and whisper to you: ‘do not be afraid for I am here to help you’ “ (Is.41:13). “As the Father loves me, I love you. Remain in my love.” (John 15:9) I witnessed the election of several Prioresses. Great characters with different person
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Letting Go

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It is the season of letting go. Trees are letting go leaves, and animals are preparing for winter.  Recently I have noticed how many ways we can experience loss. On a large scale, we see reports of wars causing widespread destruction of human life and property and we hear of people forced to leave their homes with few belongings. We learn of the deaths of people closer to home, our own or loved ones of people we know. There is loss associated with ageing, reduced mobility or energy levels. There are also smaller daily losses when life interrupts our well-set plans and schedules. All these losses cause s greater or lesser amount of stress and grief that we need to work through and move on from. Letting go is indeed painful and difficult. Years ago, a wise person gave me some great advice for times of grief and loss. He said that because we are physical beings, it can be very helpful to create a personalised and practical ritual of letting go that is specific to the experience we are g
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St Therese

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      In a nut- shell Therese tells each of us - you are God’s precious child. He delights in you. You are the apple of His eye.   Have boundless confidence in   your merciful loving Abba Father.   Dare to   hope. That same power which raised Jesus from the dead   is working in you too.   Nourish your life on the Scriptures. Be love in the heart of the church and the world..     But Therese, tell us again how you came by this wisdom at a time when God was seen as a stern judge. Your Mother died of breast cancer when you were only 4 and   the life nearly went out of you with grief and loss. Your sisters became your little mothers but you were still fragile and lost. “God would have to work a little miracle to make me grow up. I was really unbearable because of my extreme touchiness. It was Christmas night of 1886 that I received the grace of my complete conversion…He made me a fisher of souls. I felt charity enter into my soul and the need to forget myself and please others: since the
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