"The Carmelite must keep himself habitually united with Christ, not only to adore Him and to love Him, but to familiarize himself with His thoughts, desires and sentiments. He will ask Jesus to work in him; he will surrender himself to the action of His spirit; he will keep himself under His influence and be guided by Him alone. He will thus reproduce himself the virtues of Christ and be for Him 'another humanity in which He relives all His mystery.' In every circumstance he will ask himself what Jesus would have done and what He would have thought, begging Him to enlighten him, to fortify him by His Spirit so as to fashion his conduct according to the pattern of the divine Master.
The union with Christ, this life in Him and by Him is, without question, the best way to practise the Carmelite life. For it is in this way that the soul is inspired in everything by the spirit of Christ and makes efforts to imitate Him, renouncing its own spirit and denying itself. In this way the spiritual life is greatly simplified. Moreover, this habitual contact with Christ by faith and love merit for the Carmelite a special grace, a more abundant participation in the virtus Christi (the strength of Christ) which helps him the better to realize the Carmelite ideal."
-- The Spirit and Prayer of Carmel by Fr François Jamart, ocd
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