Spiritual Exercises

All members of the Brown Scapular Confraternity are Carmelites and thus called to the spirit of Carmelite prayer. So this work, which is prepared for religious will also be useful for all who wear the brown scapular. What pleases me above all is that the author insists so much on the meditation of the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the pure doctrine of our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, and of our Father St. John of the Cross. "No one can advance in virtue", says the latter, "but in following Our Lord Jesus Christ; He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only gate by which anyone who pretends to be saved, should enter. Let the first care of your heart therefore be, to excite in yourself an ardent desire to imitate Jesus Christ in all your works, trying to do everything as Our Lord Himself would do it. And our Holy Mother Teresa teaches us that "in the beginning of the life of prayer; we should meditate assiduously on the life of Jesus Christ", that "meditation on the Passion is the method of prayer by which all should commence and continue"; that "it is a sure and excellent road which we should not leave: until Our Lord Himself raises us to higher ways". Finally she assures us that "if we accustom ourselves to remain with Him, He will never abandon us; He will assist us in all our needs, and will accompany us wherever we go". I could cite many other texts also, but these profound words of our two great mystical Doctors are powerful enough to convince the soul that will take these "Spiritual Exercises" for a guide, that in the beginning of her retreat she should resolutely enter the school of Jesus Christ as she is often reminded during the course of these instructions. The author himself, I am convinced, insists so much on this because he was inspired not only by the doctrine of our Holy Parents, but also by that of the great St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose plan he has followed as traced in the retreat of Manresa.