“The soul is like a castle”
“The dark night of the soul”
These insights come from two Carmelites: Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.
Both have inspired me with their works, like “The Interior Castle”, or “Ascent to Mount Carmel”. They write about the mystery of the soul. They write about the mystery of God. They write about contemplation, and the mystery of prayer.
The following quotations come from their 1995 Constitutions – Carmelites are a living order to this day:
Prayer is the centre of our lives, and authentic community and ministry spring from this source
in our spirituality we integrate our love for the world and our sense of the transcendent
Many of my poems have been inspired by these two Carmelite mystics, St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
In a noisy, busy world, they lead us into a deeper reality – the reality we see in silence, the reality we perceive in contemplation, and the reality of God.
Flowering Poverello 