Contemplative Prayer - Doing everything for God with love and charity
John Welch (1939-), a Catholic priest of the Carmelite Order, and chair of Carmelite Studies at the Washington Theological Union, in his book, The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim, says that St. Teresa of Avila warns that in the third mansion, a person could become too content to leave this place. But the purpose of prayer, Teresa reminds people, is conformity with God's will, not consolations. If one wants to do what God wants, this desire is expressed in the way a person lives his life [68].
John Welch (1939-), a Catholic priest of the Carmelite Order, and chair of Carmelite Studies at the Washington Theological Union, in his book, The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim, says that St. Teresa of Avila warns that in the third mansion, a person could become too content to leave this place. But the purpose of prayer, Teresa reminds people, is conformity with God's will, not consolations. If one wants to do what God wants, this desire is expressed in the way a person lives his life [68].
St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, describes the purgations that a soul experiences as it passes through the various levels on its way toward the divine light of perfect union with God. These purgations are purifications of the soul. These purgations also fit in with St. Bonaventure's descriptions of the Purgative and Illuminative way. On the journey, the person must first deprive himself of his desire for worldly possessions, as Bonaventure describes - the best candy, the softest clothes, and the most expensive apartment. John calls this mortification of the appetites. Since the senses are deprived of such things, it is like a night to them. As a person travels on this road, he goes by faith, and to the intellect, faith is like a dark night. He is traveling toward God, who is also like a dark night to a soul in this life [73-74, Ch 1, par 1-6].
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John Welch, O. Carm., The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1996).
John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, in the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1973).
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John Welch, O. Carm., The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1996).
John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, in the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1973).
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