Practical mysticism

by Connie Rossini

St. Francis de Sales (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

CSBN has been running a series on spiritual idiolects, a phrase I coined to mean the unique way each person relates to God. I hope that you will find "kindred spirits" in these posts, and be drawn to follow bloggers who have a similar spirituality to yours--or those whose are surprisingly different.

My spiritual idiolect is practical mysticism. I've always hated the saying, "He's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good." The truly heavenly minded do the most earthly good. Think of St. Therese, who even wanted to do earthly good while in Heaven. She reached the heights of the prayer life, and actively loved her neighbors. That's what I aspire to. I want to be a contemplative wife and mother. I want to love God and my neighbor.

I loved St. Therese from the first time I read about her as a child. Her personality appealed to the romantic idealist in me.

Later, my older sister urged me to read Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales. Now, there's a great book! St. Francis taught lay people how they could be saints, giving them tips on every area of life. How do you know when temptation becomes sin? How can you practice Christian meditation? How can a lay person live in the world and be properly detached from it? St. Francis answers all these questions. I need concrete direction. That's why I love St. Francis.

The next saintly influence on my spiritual idiolect came from Teresa of Avila. Although I didn't really understand The Interior Castle the first time I read it, it drew me to a life of prayer. Eventually, I joined the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. They explained St. Teresa's teaching to me. They also introduced me to St. John of the Cross.

Today I am no longer OCDS, but I am thoroughly Carmelite in my spirituality. St. John in particular taught that mysticism is not a matter of visions, locutions, and altered states. Rather, it is a matter of a deep communion with God in prayer. Aspiring to be mystics as the world sees mysticism can be dangerous. Aspiring to grow in prayer is the call of every Christian.

Now I try to give practical spiritual help to others through my blog and ebooks. (I'm working on a full-length one right now to add to my short ebook published in June.) I like to teach people, including children, about the differences between true and false mysticism, Christian and eastern meditation, and Christian and pagan asceticism and detachment. I am striving to be holy in the little things of every day life. I am working to be heavenly minded and earthly good.


Connie Rossini is the administrator of Catholic Spirituality Blogs Network. Her personal blog is  Contemplative Homeschool.

Free e-book: Five Lessons from the Carmelite Saints That Will Change Your Life

by Connie Rossini

 

 
It’s finally here–my first e-book! I hope you’re as excited as I am. I wrote this e-book for you, to aid you in your spiritual life. And today I’m going to ask you to do something for me. But first, I want to tell you how you can receive a free copy of Five Lessons from the Carmelite Saints That Will Change Your Life.

It’s easy. All you have to do is sign up to receive my blog posts by email. At the end of the process, you will receive an email containing a link to download the e-book.

What if you are already following my blog by email? No problem. I have set up a new account at MailChimp to handle my emails to subscribers. I have also removed the old WordPress widget for email signup from my sidebar. All new subscribers will go onto the MailChimp list. If you are on the old list, simply sign up for the new list and download the e-book. Then you can click on “unsubscribe” in the email you got today for this post to remove you from the old list. That way, you will not get two emails when I post on Friday. If you have any questions about this, leave a comment or email me directly.

Buy a copy for your Kindle or Nook for $.99

If you prefer to read Five Lessons from the Carmelite Saints on Kindle, you can purchase a copy for less than a dollar. That’s the lowest price Amazon allows. This is also an option for those of you who would rather not subscribe to my blog posts. The Nook version is available now as well.

Please help me publicize this!

Several of you received advance copies of my e-book in exchange for reviews on your own blogs. You can read reviews from Kristen Johnson, Terry McDermott, Mary N,  Nancy Shuman, Jenny, and Melanie Jean Juneau. If you haven’t yet written a review, it’s not too late. Please link back to this post to make it as simple as possible for your readers to get their free e-book.

For those of you with a smaller blog audience who wanted to help out before, now is your chance. I still need lots of reviews to spread the word. Feel free to provide a link to your review in the comments below.

Don’t have a blog? I also need reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Please Tweet this, share it on Facebook, Reddit’s Catholicism subreddit, Google Plus, Pinterest, and any other social media you use. Send a link to this post by email to your friends and family who may not otherwise see it. I am really counting on my readers for publicity. There’s only so much I can do myself.

Bigger projects ahead?

This short e-book is a trial run to see how much interest there may be in a book-length manuscript on Carmelite spirituality. Your response to this e-book, and your enthusiasm in sharing it, will tell me whether it’s worth my time to write a longer e-book. Remember, besides being a wife and mother, I am a homeschooler before I am a writer. Writing a book-length manuscript will demand sacrifice. I can’t do it if the interest isn’t manifest.

It’s all about growing closer to Christ

I truly believe that the lessons in my e-book will bring you closer to Jesus. They are not secrets. They are the tried and true steps to holiness that countless saints have followed. If you are new to the Catholic spiritual life, this e-book will give you a road map for the future. If you are advanced, it will remind you of the basics. If you, like me, are somewhere in between, it will challenge and motivate you. (I am currently being changed by Lesson 5). You can come back to it again and again over the years. And it’s all taken from some of the most admired saints in the history of the Church.

Sign up for your free copy now, before you forget.


This post appeared earlier this week at  Contemplative Homeschool.

What is Carmelite spirituality?

by Connie Rossini

What is Carmelite spirituality? A couple of readers have asked me this question, and I assume several more have wondered and not asked. So I'm going to write this as a post (for maximum visibility and readership), then make it a permanent page soon.

Carmelite spirituality stems from the teaching and lifestyle of one of the oldest surviving religious orders in the Catholic Church. Like the Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, and others, the Carmelites have a particular way of living out the faith, which has been approved by the Church. St. Therese of Lisieux, one of the best-beloved saints of our age, was a Carmelite nun.

From ancient Mt. Carmel to medieval Europe

 

In the 12th century, a group of Christian hermits settled on Mt. Carmel,  where the prophet Elijah had once lived in a cave. St. Albert of Jerusalem wrote a rule of life for them to follow. They built a monastery and came together for prayer, but each lived in his own cell. They dedicated their oratory to Mary, becoming known as the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel.

As always, tensions were high in the Middle East at this time. Soon the Carmelite brothers left the Holy Land for Europe. There they assumed an active life--that is, living and working in the world. Blessed John Soreth established the Carmelite nuns in 1452. The Third Order, for seculars, began two centuries later.

The reform by Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross

 

Throughout the centuries many saints and blesseds in various countries reformed the Carmelites in their lands. The most significant reform came from saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross in 16th-century Spain. The communities they established eventually became the separate Discalced Carmelite Order. "Discalced" means "shoeless." They wore sandals as a sign of poverty and penance. Teresa and John were later named doctors of prayer by the Church. This means the Church not only approves their teaching, but recommends it to all Christians.

These days, the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance (O. Carm.) and the Discalced Carmelites (OCD) see themselves as two branches of the same family. Though their goals and teachings are somewhat different, they share much in common. There are also at least a half-dozen new members of the Carmelite family that have been approved by the Church, including the Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, to which my brother belongs.  They would probably all agree with the spirituality posts on this blog. Nevertheless, when I speak of Carmelite spirituality, I am speaking about OCDS spirituality, which is what I know most about. I was a member of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCDS) for about 15 years.

Continue reading at Contemplative Homeschool.