Come, disciples of the ONE
A Hymn for the Feast of St. Albert and all the Saints of Carmel.
Come, disciples of the ONE, you who run the risk of the adventure in which you may loose all,
in these desert places of agony; all alone in the depths of the Spirit.
Come, seduced by the Invincible. Wait in silence. Serve to the end.
Under the banner of the Messiah, with the wounds of the Lamb.
Come, Jesus is your Master. From his Heart, meek and humble, you receive all.
You are a fountain of life, the body of the Beloved Son.
Come, enter in the Dwelling Place. Listen to your Mother, keep watch to the end.
Because the Word fulfilled, transforms the night into day.
The call is incisive, living like the wind of the desert.
A call repeated continually; thrown out with bait, for the combatants who return from a risky adventure. This will not be less; it will be even rougher, but the arms and tactics will be different.
It is a question of risking one’s own life.
Elias the Thesbite, experienced this change: from the roaring of the hurricane to the small breeze (1 Kings 19:12).
He remained alone in the presence of God, being a witness before the people, risking his own life: “Israel, the Lord God is only ONE” (Dt. 6:4).
For a man of the desert, or a man persecuted by his enemies, the cave or the crack in the rock, offers a refuge. Here, there is no other refuge other than the Spirit. He is the one who leads to the desert (Mt. 4:1), who trains our hands for the battle (Ps. 144). The abrupt image of the deserts of agony (the root of the work struggle) also evokes Gethsemane.
You “leave me alone” (John 16:22; Luke 22:41); “in the evening He was there alone” (Matt. 14:23).
Your strength will be in your silence…
God is invincible in his weakness, thus he has been revealed in His Only Son. Following such a Captain, you lift up the Banner of humility and suffer the blows without returning any, thus uniting yourself with the Master (Way of Perfection XVIII, 5)
In a daily exodus each one goes forth to the assigned place in order to converge at the center, the Chapel, which is located in the middle of the cells to thus form the Assembly, to become a Body in the Eucharist, the true fountain of Carmel.
“The fountain which flows from the wounds of my God…”
The place where the hermitages are built is the Dwelling Place dedicated to the Virgin, the Queen, Mother and Sister. As with is servants of the Marriage feast, she says to us: “Do all that he tells you” (John 2:5) … until He comes… watching in prayer.
It is good that the Rule ends with the return of the Lord.
Dites à l’Esprit Saint que vous l’aimez, dites-lui : Esprit Saint, je t’aime !
On ne dit pas beaucoup, pas assez, à l’Esprit Saint que nous l’aimons. Nous le disons à Jésus, à la Vierge Marie …