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
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
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
Recently, I met a woman who told me how she was called to begin a charity in Ukraine. Two episodes were tantamount to her decision. The first was when she encountered a neatly dressed woman begging by the side of the road, who embraced her after she gave her a donation.
The second was when a colleague in her office in Canada brought in samples of expensive bathroom tiles she wanted to instal in her home and asked for her opinion. I immediately knew I had to turn my full attention to the greater need, she said, and that was what brought purpose and consoling meaning to my life. In the Isaiah reading, the directive to wash yourselves clean and seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan and plead for the widow is clear.
The woman's story of choosing a course of charitable action for her life shows that such decisions carry major consequences. The whole of this Sunday scripture is full of that message, that if we are willing and obedient to God's commands, then we will eat. If we refuse and rebel, we are instead devoured by the sword.
In other words, by refusing and rebelling we open ourselves to interminable violence. Such violence can be subtle. It could, as the theologian, priest and peace activist John Deere claims, being violent towards oneself through living with addictions, hatred, procrastination, revengeful thoughts, judgments and so on.
By hoping in God, we deepen faith. As Paul teaches in his letter to the Hebrews, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. What are these things we hope for and believe in? As we journey through this year's jubilee, pilgrims of hope, it is perhaps good to be reminded that hope is central to Christian life, sitting between faith and charity.
We can understand this trinity of virtues to mean that we need faith in order to hope, and hope in order to be loving and charitable. Jesus teaching in Luke's gospel illustrates hope in action. Blessed the servant found alert and prayerful, doing what the master expects while the master is away.
Two exemplars of this type of hope in action are Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Terese of Lisieux. Mother Teresa spent much of her adult life tirelessly and cheerfully serving Jesus in his distressing disguise in the poorest of the poor. Members of her missionary community were oblivious to the fact that she suffered spiritual dryness for years and was devoid of any divine consolation.
This did not deter her to hope that what she was called to do was what Jesus required of her. Terese of Lisieux's everyday sacrifices in the convent were also not perceived by her community. Her example of cheerfulness in the face of hardships and challenges to her charity are exemplary in the practise of hope and love in the little everyday things.
These two women have a shared legacy. Mother Teresa chose her religious name after Terese and taught her sisters, priests, and volunteers to do the small everyday things with great love. Both women have been canonised and one is a doctor of the church.
Their faith, hope, love, and trust in what Jesus promised brought their lives and their spirituality to the larger world. Their master had indeed put them in charge of his possessions.