When I was in seminary, my professor Dr. Roberta Bondi talked a lot about the Carmelites. I'll confess I had no idea what she was talking about. I asked her once and she told me that they like caramel. In fact it was a brotherhood called Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. In 1452 the Carmel order of nuns were founded. They've been around a long time.
Today in my morning prayer devotion I found this quote from "Therese of Lisieux, a nineteenth-century Carmelite who sought to follow Christ’s 'little way,' wrote, 'The only way to make rapid progress along the path of divine love is to remain very little and put all our trust in Almighty God'.”
When I read this I immediately thought of being a child. I thought about the ways in which I would sit on the grass, during recess in the spring, picking the flowers from the clover to make bracelets. I remember thinking how great it would be to be a grown-up and getting to make my own rules. The rules that would be fun. Well, now as a grown-up I do make rules and seldom are they fun. Which got me thinking about Jesus in Matthew 18:2-5 "He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: 'truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." How might we be more childlike in all of this?
Children - what can you teach us adults in this time? Adults - are we willing to be less serious so that we might find growth on the path of divine love. I'm going to try to find my childlike self more in these days. Will you join me?
God we love you and we know you love us. Help us find you in all that we do. In Jesus name, amen.