How important is prayer in the Carmelite life?
Prayer and presence to the Holy Trinity is the very heart of our life in Carmel. We look to God’s instruction to Joshua, Son of Nun, that we find in the book of Joshua: “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it;” (2) St. John of the Cross, whom we call our ‘father founder’, teaches us to “seek in reading and you will find in meditation; knock in prayer and it will be opened to you in contemplation.” (3). The ‘Ascent of Mount Carmel’ is the title given to one of St. John’s great literary works. Another Carmelite describes the same thing that St. John is calling ‘The Ascent’, but calls it ‘Divine Intimacy’ (4).
