Praying Alone Together

The God of the Bible Is the God of Our Life A centerpiece of this journey for God’s people was the Exodus: the liberation from slavery, the ...

The Chosen People’s Experience of God I recall a simple gesture in one my classes some time ago. A husband arrived late and gave a short, af...

Reflection I It was 1954, nine years before Vatican II. I was completely packed to leave for the Carmelite seminary. My dilemma was that I s...

Part Two The third dwelling places make clear that deep personal prayer is the way to move beyond the restraining power of our personal brok...

Part One The third dwelling places is where the “good guys” become “bad guys”. Only when they recognize themselves as “bad guys” are they ab...

Part Two (In the second dwelling places it becomes clear that Teresa is not primarily interested in offering a method of prayer. Her goal is...

A Call to Deep Personal Prayer This is first in a series of reflections of learning to pray in the context of Carmelite Spirituality. I Tere...

Section One For john of the Cross the Dark Night, contemplation and the transforming action of God in our lives are all intimately connected...

Trouble will be there until the end. We see the mixture of good and evil in all levels of reality: the family, our community, our parish, ou...

John of the cross was both a theologian and a mystic. As a theologian explaining the Dark Night, John seems to pursue endless definitions an...

In our day, John of the Cross’ Dark Night really needs a creative press agent. His great teaching suffers from misinformation on all sides. ...

Preamble to a Few Reflections on the Dark Night In the Interior Castle, Teresa draws a rather attractive picture of a person in the Third Dw...

In the fourth dwelling places something different happens. There is a profound but subtle change. The experience of God in prayer at this ne...

Christian Meditation enriches but does not replace other prayers such as Lectio Divina, the liturgy, spiritual reading and devotions. Christ...

Fr. Ernest Larkin, O. Carm. was a highly respected spokesperson for the Carmelite tradition. He was a pioneer of modern Carmelite spirituali...

Homecoming for Contemplative Prayer  For several centuries contemplative prayer was all but forbidden. It was considered appropriate for a f...

Teresa sets the stage for the journey with the image of the castle. In reality, she is talking about the human person. The path is to God at...

This is a brief description of Teresa of Avila’s classic, The Interior Castle. The first and obvious question when approaching this spiritua...