← [[session-02-f1a|Prayer for Apostolic Purpose]] | [[formation-I-a-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-04-f1a|Foundation of Prayer (continued)]] → # Foundation of Prayer and the Atmosphere Favorable to Meditation and Contemplation Fraternal Charity: The limitless loving devotion to God, and the gift God makes of Himself to you, are the highest elevation of which the heart is capable; it is the highest degree of prayer. The souls that have reached this point are truly the heart of the Church. —St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) Required Reading: The Way of Perfection chapters 4-9; 1Cor 13:4-7 St Paul’s song of love. Additional Reading: Our First Duties as Carmelites, by Fr. David Centner, OCD (Appendix E); 1Cor 13. WP Study Edition Glossary: Love – For one another; God’s love for us; Our love for God, (WP pgs. 509-510; or Appendix A of this handbook) Explanatory Note: Session three and four deal with the foundation of prayer and the atmosphere favorable to meditation/contemplation - fraternal charity, detachment, and true humility. “... for it is very important that we understand how much the practice of these three things helps us to process inwardly and outwardly the peace our Lord recommended so highly to us” (4:4). Essential Points to Discuss: • God gives certain knowledge – “...this knowledge comes from seeing and feeling what is gained by the one love and lost by the other…” (6.3). • True wisdom cannot esteem the love that lasts only here on earth (see 6:9). • Love is not self-seeking. All that it desires or wants is to see the other soul rich with heavenly blessings (see 7:1). • Suffer the faults of others; recommend them to God and practice the opposite virtue (see 7:7). • Deeds against charity – factions, ambition, holding grudges – are very destructive to community life (see 7:10-11). Assigned Meditative Reading: Taken from Story of a Soul by St Therese of Lisieux, Study Edition. ICS Publications, 2005, Chapter X. Manuscript C, (Appendix F). Introductory note: Chapter X deals with the spiritual support of Therese’ Prioress (1-7, 11-15), the Little Way (8-9), Therese’ expected death (10, 16-17, 30-32), her experience of the Dark Night of Faith (17-27), vocation to the missions (33-38), obedience (39-40), and the practice of charity and holy poverty (41-64). Reading the whole chapter is optional. 11 Points for meditation/reflection (choose one per week): How did St Therese practice the virtue of charity in her Lisieux Carmel? There are three fundamental truths about charity that Therese addresses in chapter X. The following three points were taken from interpretive notes of Fr. Marc Foley, OCD. • The first is that charity is not a feeling but a choice – an act of the will. “I told myself that charity must not consist in feelings but in works” (paragraph 51). • The second is that it is very difficult to be charitable to people whom we don’t like, people toward whom we have a “natural antipathy,” to use Therese’s phrase (paragraphs 51-52). • Third, it is precisely in loving those to whom we have a natural aversion that our love becomes divine because such love requires that we love with the charity of Jesus himself (paragraphs 45-46). Scripture passages: • 1 John 4:7-21 – Love one another. • Luke 6:32-36 – “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” (Love your enemies…) • Luke 1:39 – Mary visits Elizabeth “in haste” • Luke 10:25-37 – the Parable of the Good Samaritan --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation I Year A: The Way of Perfection* (US National Formation Program, 2024).