Manual Labor - a way to holiness

“You must give yourselves to work of some kind, so that the devil may always find you busy; no idleness on your part must give him a chance to pierce the defences of your souls.” (Rule of St. Albert)

Manual labor is strongly encouraged by the Rule of St. Albert. “You must...” strong words for this precept. “No idleness on your part must give him a chance to pierce the defences of your souls.” Here we have the motivation for this point in the Rule. For when we are unoccupied we are left open to the influences of the devil who comes to knock. The imagination and memory are his favorite playgrounds, if he can gain an entrance. Left alone with our thoughts, images and memories are created which will trouble us and stir up temptations. 

It’s not that thinking is a bad thing. To think is a good thing. However, lest bad thoughts creep in, our thoughts must be general ones and should have God as their object. Consequently, when left to dream, living in the imagination can be dangerous! Thought is a dynamic force. It is the beginning of action; therefore, it can lead to sin, even serious sin!

It must be recalled that everything in the Carmelite Rule is directed towards contemplation. A soul that is contemplative truly loves God and gives God more glory than any other soul. The devil knows this and will make every effort to hinder a contemplative soul. He accomplishes this best by trying to trouble the soul by overburdening it and causing it disquiet within it. 

The devil is so clever. He will do whatever he can to accomplish this disturbance within a soul even pushing it to idleness or to a work that  overburdens it - excess or defect. Either way he will gain.

“In this respect you have both the teaching and the example of Saint Paul the Apostle, into whose mouth Christ put his own words. God made him preacher and teacher of faith and truth to the nations: with him as your leader you cannot go astray. We lived among you, he said, labouring and weary, toiling night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you; not because we had no power to do otherwise but so as to give you, in our own selves, as an example you might imitate. For the charge we gave you when we were with you was this: that whoever is not willing to work should not be allowed to eat either. For we have heard that there are certain restless idlers among you. We charge people of this kind, and implore them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they earn their own bread by silent toil. This is the way of holiness and goodness: see that you follow it.”(Rule of St. Albert)

Angels: Ascending and Descending

Angels Ascending and Descending

Excellent post from Dr. Lillies at Beginning to Pray.

Christ’s death on the Cross

Moses and the Brazen Serpent by Anthony Van Dyck

“And by it he accomplished the most marvelous work of his whole life, surpassing all the works and deeds and miracles that he had ever performed on earth or in heaven. That is, be brought about the reconciliation and union of the human race with God through grace.” (Ascent of Mount Carmel Bk II, chap 7, 11) 

On the Nativity of Mary

Entrust this to Mary

Wordless Wednesday

Silence is Beautiful

Silence is the longest precept in the Rule. For Carmelites this precept of silence is seen as a means for recollection, not as penance. It is a privative, though a happy one because it is what makes possible our union with God. 

Prayer - Silence - Solitude

These three things go together and complement each other.

By being silent one is able to stay away the evils that come about in our abuse of words. What do we have to talk about? What is it that we communicate when we speak? Ideas?

No. Actually, most of what we communicate are images and impressions - mostly foolishness and nonsense. But God gave us the gift of speech to communicate ideas. In reality the more we speak the more our interior recollection is clouded. Words which do not express ideas will only manifest matter. Matter just makes dust! While on the contrary, silence makes for recollection.

For St. John of the Cross to be silent is to be seen in terms of contemplation. 

“The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this Word he speaks always in eternal silence, and in silence must it be heard by the soul," (Sayings of Light and Love #100)

Silence is difficult and poorly observed. This we can all agree. It costs. 

Observe silence. During the day let’s wrap ourselves in silence:

      speak little         think little   

The Rule of St. Albert

Judging Others

A great post and reminder!

http://carmelitemom.blogspot.com/2011/09/judge-not.html