CARMEL, LAND OF THE SOUL

Noverim Te, noverim me (May I know You, may I know myself). St. Augustine’s cry of the heart so long ago, is an insightful summing up of the goal of everyone’s spiritual journey. Noverim me – may I know myself – is of particular interest to Carmelites.

Their approach to God through self-knowledge and contemplative prayer had typified the Order throughout the centuries. It had gathered momentum with the passing of years, until contemplative prayer is almost synonymous with the Carmelite charism. Beginning with “As Carmelite Pilgrims,” followed by “Food for the journey,” “Traveling Light,” “Desert Land,” “Body and Soul,” “Stewards of Conservation,” “On the Mountain” and culminating in “Alpine Peaks” – the author, a Secular Carmelite, offers guidelines and admonition for our spiritual journey. This work, manifestly the fruit of deep personal experience in prayer, is full of wise observations and counsels, and will surely be of signal help to all those who have set their feet resolutely on the way to God.

It will help them persevere in their pilgrimage, until, as the Carmelite liturgy puts it: “They come to the Holy Mountain, Christ the Lord” – the goal of all our contemplative strivings.

About the Author: Carolyn Humphreys, OCDS, OTR is a Discalced Carmelite secular and registered occupational therapist. She is the author of From Ash the Fire: A Contemporary Journey through the Interior Castle of Teresa of Avila.