Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS)'s Podcast
The Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS) is a centre for research and formation that promotes spiritual formation and renewal, drawing on the rich resources of the venerable Carmelite tradition.
It is an apostolate of the Anglo-Irish Province of the Discalced Carmelites, based at the Carmelite Priory at Boars Hill, Oxford, England.
OUR MISSION
CACS strives to achieve its mission through structured study and formation programmes in spirituality from the Carmelite perspective, especially Prayer and Spiritual Direction. At the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality, you are welcome to enter into the silence where God’s voice is heard in prayer, word and sacrament, inviting you to journey ever more deeply into a place of growth and wholeness. Our goal is to bring people to experience a life-transforming friendship with God through a lived experience of Carmelite spirituality that is authentic to its biblical roots.
Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS)'s Podcast
Holy Wednesday
HOLY WEDNESDAY
Word & Wisdom is a weekly reflection on the Sunday’s scriptures and the wisdom of the Carmelite tradition. It promises to offer you real spiritual food to sustain you on the journey.
This Word and Wisdom Podcast is brought to you by the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality, Oxford (carmelite.uk.net).
To receive audio and written copies, subscribe by emailing podcasts@cacs.org.uk
To connect with our Living Prayer Podcast on Youtube, kindly click: https://www.youtube.com/@CACSOxford
Confronting us in the readings for today are several contrasting directives that place before believers and sincere seekers radical choices. Obedience or rebellion in Isaiah, humility or vanity in Psalm 69, repentance or betrayal in Matthew 26. Again, we cannot help but see through the window of this servant song an image of our Saviour.
Did he not give his back to those who scourged him? Was he not insulted and spat up on? The servant who trusts and believes in God's promise of help, who stands his ground despite opposition, will be a recipient of grace. He will not be disgraced, however fierce a foe may attack him. Vindication, not vilification, will be his, despite being unjustly accused of wrongdoing.
This servant of God will overcome every adversary. In these few verses from the prophet, we derive an excellent picture of what discipleship really means and why suffering inevitably accompanies a true calling in Christ. In the ascent of Mount Carmel, St. John of the Cross says, I should like to persuade spiritual persons that the road leading to God does not entail a multiplicity of considerations, methods, manners, and experiences, but demands only one thing necessary, true self-denial exterior and interior through surrender of self both to suffering for Christ and to annihilation in all things.
Psalm 69 opens a window through which we view prophetically the sufferings of Jesus as when he was given on the cross vinegar to drink, but God's promise of redemption prevails. So enamoured was she of the might and majesty of the Most High that St. Therese of Lisieux made repeated acts of self-abandonment to God amid the shadow of the cross in obedience to God's will. In the gospel, Jesus attempts to convince Judas to reconsider his intentions before he crosses the bridge of no return and betrays his master.
It is significant that this scene takes place at table. Eating together suggests companionship, friendly exchanges, and genuine hospitality, not adversarial plotting, double talk, and hostility. However, with a heart hardened by consent to his own nefarious acts, Judas did what he had to do quickly, and the night of betrayal descended upon him.
In the words of St. John of the Cross, this deed has darkened the betrayer's intellect, defiled his soul, and rendered him lukewarm in practise of virtue. He says that while growing within his soul, these vipers eat away at his entrails and finally result in killing the soul in its relationship with God. From what is unfolding, we learn that the only road to freedom of spirit is to forego rebellion and choose obedience, to bow to God in humility and never succumb to vanity, and to opt for repentance over betrayal.
Judas, blindsided by greed, failed to see the purpose for why the Lord had come, not to slay his oppressors but to surrender to the will of the Father for our salvation. By this suffering, says St. John, he accomplished the most marvellous work of his whole life. He brought about the reconciliation and union of the human race with God through grace.