Through prayer, Carmelites can help the Church and God’s people

"Our Rule calls us to contemplate the Word of God day and night (Rule 10). We let the Word of God abound in our mouth and hearts (Rule 19). The Word of God becomes comfort and strength for us, burning with passion for God, defeating the depression and temptations of surrender within us. Through contemplation, we can help the Church to discern the signs of the times and how the Spirit of God is leading us into an unknown future, our future, where the Holy Spirit will surprise and challenge our love and service. It is important for us today to experience the Word of God, to live with the Word of God, and to witness to the Word of God. The good news is that we proclaim God’s love and mercy to all creatures because God so loved the world that he offered his Son (I Jn 3:16). We proclaim Jesus Christ is our Lord, our God, and our Saviour because through his life, death, and resurrection, He desires to bring all people to God’s hands. Following the footsteps of Jesus Christ, we experience the grace of God even as we experience the disgrace of the world. We challenge the world with its sinful structures that cause injustice and which oppresses human dignity. Like Elijah, the Carmelites try to be faithful to God and to point out the injustice of the world. Through prayer, the Carmelites can help the Church and God’s people in the way of prayer, to feed their spiritual hunger for God. We can help the Church and the world to pray for God’s love and mercy and the conversion of the world in these times threatened by terrorism, and undermined by moral relativism. Our prayer, joined to the prayer of the Church, praises God, converts the sinners, and prophetically challenges the existing sinful structures of the world around us."


--  The carmelite charism at the service of the church today by Peter Hoang Nguyen, OCarm