ELIJAH - FATHER OF CARMELITES.

" Lord teach me to seek Thee, and reveal Thyself to me when I seek Thee. For I cannot seek Thee unless Thou teach me, nor find Thee except Thou reveal Thyself. Let me seek Thee in longing, let me long for Thee in seeking, let me find Thee in love, and love Thee in finding."

                                                                                                                            St. Ambrose.

Elijah as we know was a great prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel in the 9th century B.C. during the reign of  king Ahab. The name Elijah means THE LORD IS MY GOD.The desert Fathers who took a radical decision to follow Jesus in silence and solitude in the third century, took Elijah as their model and inspiration. The hermits who lived on Mount Carmel naturally took him as their model and 'first monk' and Founder.

Carmelites understand contemplation as seeking the Face of God by standing before Him with an open heart. What does this imply? Elijah did everything at God's command. He was a man burning with zeal, - "With zeal I have been zealous  for the Lord God of Hosts." (1 King, 19:10) Elijah stands for a passionate love for God and a Carmelite is called to be aflame with the "Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God." (Rule of St. Albert.)

The Bible places before us a series of dramatic events in little snapshots. In fighting the cause of Yahweh, Elijah called a drought to befall the nation, called down fire, rebelled against authorities and ran away like a coward at Queen Jezebel's retribution, he was down in utter desolation and wished that might die... He will finally be awakened to fulness of life as the gentle breeze sweeps over his soul. He was a man capable of both extremes.

In the final analysis Yahweh-Elijah encounter is a great love story. A contemplative is the one who fights it all out with God. Elijah encourages us to take up our journey with confidence. The God of Elijah is not some one up above. He is the One with Whom we can identify. God of Elijah is One Who will feed him and chide him, talk to him and walk with him, put him to sleep and wake him up and finally will carry him in His bosom and fly away to the Fatherland.

EDITH STEIN

            “Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously.” These words of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross best describe her: a true seeker of the TRUTH. 

            St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was born in a Jewish family on 12^th October 1891,which happened to be the feast of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) that year and was named Edith Stein. From her early years, Edith showed a superior intellectual acumen and pursued a career in Philosophy, eventually earning a doctoral degree in Phenomenology.  Her intellectual pursuits, however, were not concentrated on acquiring prestigious academic positions but on a genuine search for ultimate truth.

            Around the age of 13 she not only gave upthe practice of her Jewish faith but also renounced her belief in the existence of God. Years later she would attest, “What did not lie in my plans, lay in God’s plans.” Living through a series of contradictory and mystifying experiences as well as the dark era of the First and Second World Wars, Edith kept on her pursuit for truth and ultimately found it on reading the Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. She realized that truth is found in a great love and friendship with God. She would say, “Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love, which lacks truth.”

            On the 1^st of January 1922, which was then celebrated as the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus signifying the entrance into the Jewish Covenantal relationship with God, she was baptised and entered into the New Covenant with the Triune God. She eventually became a Discalced Carmelite Nun taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross after the Mystical giants St Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

            Her life was spent, thereafter, in deeply living out the “Science of the Cross”. She believed that there are no coincidences, only the hand of God at work in the world. Her birth on the feast of the Atonement was,thus, no coincidence. She was chosen, like her spouse, as atonement for her Jewish people. Their destiny became her own. Having been an active Women’s rights advocate, while in the world, she was belligerently sought after by the Gestapo and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She died in the gas chamber, on 9^th August 1942, along with her sister Rosa (who also embraced Catholicism and became a Carmelite Nun).