Ron and I have been discussing Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle at great length recently. I keep asking the Carmelite friars in Dallas to let me become a Carmelite, and they keep telling me "No!" because my family is too young to permit me to fulfill the obligations. But I keep asking. In the meantime, Ron and I are undertaking our own studies of the Carmelite texts.
Yesterday Ron and I were discussing the third mansions (the third of seven mansions, representing the journey inward to union with God). He said: "It is just haunting, this idea that we third-mansion-dwellers feel like we do not need God, like we do not really need the sacraments or prayer. It is horrifying to think of how pompous we are, now that we've built up a faithful Catholic life--and then proceed to leave God out of it on a minute to minute basis!"
It feels like dangling over an abyss, this thought that any of us might be offending God by our self-reliance.
God help us to need Your help!
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