Blessed Are the Weak
In her autobiography, St. Teresa of Avila describes a challenge she was not able to meet. It was around 1542, and Teresa was having experiences that caused her serious concern. I arranged that the priest I said was such a...
Author: Sister Gabriela of the Incarnation, O.C.D.
To Obey or Not To Obey, That is the Question. Or Is It?
Back in January, I published an article on Where Peter Is about St. Maravillas of Jesus, a Spanish Discalced Carmelite Nun and Foundress who died in 1974 and who has had a noticeable impact on a number of Carmelite monasteries...
The Circle of Vision: An Architecture for Synodality
Some years ago, Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., gave a series of conferences to my Community on “Images of the Church.” He said that you can also call these images Models of the Church. These models are words or phrases, nearly...
Habits of Synodality
When I was learning French, there was a phrase I picked up without paying much attention to it. The phrase was « Je n’ai pas de voix au chapitre » and it means “I have no say in the matter.” It was...
The Improvised Life
This article is dedicated to Paul Fahey who by a post published on SmartCatholics galvanized some volatile thoughts to come together and form an article. Thank you, Paul! I enjoy reading articles about science–when they are written in a way...
More Lessons from the 49ers
We saw in an earlier article how the experiences of miners during the Gold Rush can illustrate some facets of the discernment of spirits. An inexperienced gold miner could mistake pyrite or Fool’s Gold for real gold and be led...
Panning for God
Panning for gold “is slow, backbreaking work.”[i] The panner stands knee-deep in cold, running water, scooping up the deposit at the bottom of the stream and slowly swirling it in his pan. The heavier rocky material, such as gold, remains...
Panning For Gold – Part One
In his homily for the opening of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis presented three verbs that “characterize the Synod.” These three verbs are encounter, listen and discern. In a general sense, to “discern” means to” perceive or recognize (something)....
Something For Everyone
In our first article, Lessons From the 49ers, we took a deeper look at the formation period for Carmelite nuns as presented in St. Teresa’s masterpiece, The Interior Castle. We saw that she puts the formation of her nuns as...
Lessons From the 49ers
In recent months, there have been a number of articles on Catholic websites about the situation of cloistered contemplatives following the promulgation of Cor Orans, the Instruction from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life...
St. Maravillas: A prophetic witness for Vatican II
On January 8, 2022, Crisis Magazine published an article by Mary Cuff, “The Beauty of Austerity.” In her article, Ms. Cuff presents St. Maravillas de Jesús, the Spanish Discalced Carmelite and Foundress, as the model and patron saint of resistance...
Walking on the Water – Traditional or Truly Traditional?
Editor’s note: This is the eighth and final article in “Combat For Contemplative Life,” a series about the responses — inside and outside the cloister — to Pope Francis’s reforms for women religious in contemplative communities. Part one, by Mike...
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