Brother Solomon Benedict

 

 Praised be Jesus Christ!

Life offers us but a chance to praise our creator in return and to make of our life a living sacrifice for all the “good he has done for us!” Carmel is a garden enclosed where one finds in the “cave of the heart” that still small whisper of God who is constantly drawing us closer to himself. My journey to Carmel is filled with this zeal to give myself over to Him who for love us, gave Himself totally to us, hence the wonder of the incarnation of Christ. For myself Carmel is a place to grow in this awareness that God became human and walked among us in order to draw us closer into union with Him. Jesus said that, “Once I am lifted up, I will draw all peoples to Myself.” Our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila often said to those who come to Carmel “never forget the humanity of Christ.” In her words I find hope to live out my religious vocation in Carmel. In Christ’s humanity I find encouragement for my weakness. In His divinity I find the grace to overcome my weakness. My prior Br. Dennis-Anthony always tells me, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience”, and I think this is the essence of the Consecrated life. To live together as a community of spiritual beings, having a human experience of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in this context that we are formed into the likeness of Christ, to say it bluntly we are formed by the humanity of our brothers and sisters in community. This is what transforms us into what St. John of the Cross says “A soul enkindled with love is a gentle, meek, humble and patient soul. Here in the Community of Teresian Carmelites I wish to be transformed into LOVE.



Brother Solomon-Benedict of the Cross