In « The Portal of the Mystery of the Second Virtue », Charles Péguy boldly wrote: « Man’s penance is the crowning glory of God’s hope… And as we ring out our Easter bells to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus—Christ is risen!—so God rings out eternal Easter for every soul that is saved. And He says: ‘I told you so’» (1).

Now, what is holiness if not an invincible hope springing from the Heart of God, who waits ceaselessly for the return of His children and believes in eternal communion of love and bliss with them? And on the part of man, holiness can be considered a persevering, humble, and confident conversion. Our Mother Saint Teresa speaks of a « determined determination » (determinada determinación) necessary to reach the Source of Living Water promised to the Samaritan woman.

This jubilee year calls us to be « pilgrims of hope », that is, men and women who wish to go to the end of the road to drink the living water and do not stop in the face of any difficulty, obstacle, or even sin.

In his speech on September 22 to religious women—a meeting in which about twenty of us had the joy of participating with our Father General Miquel Marquez Calle and Fr. Abdo Abdo, ocd— Pope Leo XIV said, referring to the generous woman, « far more precious than jewels » (Pr. 31:10): «Even today, in fact, there is a need for generous women ». After alluding to these extraordinary women who allowed themselves to be fascinated and transformed by the Lord, thus enabling them to accomplish great things, the Pope also mentioned St. John Paul II’s very Carmelite reflection on the luminous ascents and painful descents where we see only «Jesus alone », transfigured or disfigured (3).

And Leo XIV continued: « If we remain united to Jesus, great things can happen, precisely through our poverty ».

Then he encouraged us Carmelites in particular, saying: « What you are doing is important, through your vigilant and silent presence in places sadly torn apart by hatred and violence, through your witness of trusting abandonment to God, through your constant entreaties for peace » (4).

All this stimulates and renews us in our Carmelite vocation and in the call to holiness that God, through his Church, never ceases to address to us: This is our « penance » or daily conversion, « unarmed and disarming » like peace. This is our vocation at the heart of the Church and of today’s world: to always believe in God’s love and victory over all evil, within us and around us, and to give every person the desire to know the Lord, to love Him, and to make Him loved in turn.

Is this not how the heavenly Jerusalem, the « vision of peace », joy, love, and eternal communion with God and among ourselves, is beginning to take shape here on earth?

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Notes:
1 Charles Péguy: « The Portal of the Mystery of the Second Virtue ».
2 St. Teresa of Avila: The Way of Perfection. Ch. 13 or 21, depending on the edition.
3 St. John Paul II: « Vita consecrata », March 25, 1996, no. 14.
4 Leo XIV, Address to the Discalced Carmelites and to the participants in the general chapters of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, and the Sisters of St. Catherine. Consistory Hall, Monday, September 22, 2025.