← [[essential-themes-f1b|The Essential Themes for Formation I, Year B]] | [[formation-I-b-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-02-f1b|Session 2: Loss of Original Home — Carmel in the West]] → # Session 1: The Early History of Carmelite Spirituality “For love of our Lord, I beg you to remember how soon everything comes to an end, to remember the favor our Lord has granted us in bringing us to this order... fix your eyes always on the ancestry from which we come, those holy prophets.” — St Teresa of Avila Required Reading: The Carmelite Tradition: Spirituality in History, pgs. xii-xxxii and pgs. 1-23. Additional Reading: Excerpt from The Collected Works of Edith Stein: The Hidden Life I.1 Before the Face of God: On the History and Spirit of Carmel, pgs. 1-6. (Appendix A) Essential Points to Discuss: • Mount Carmel: “Place from which this tradition takes its name” (Carmelite Tradition, pg. xxi, paragraphs 1-9). • Mount Carmel is forever linked with the memory of the prophet Elijah, whose mission was to summon the people back to single-hearted fidelity to the one true God (see xxi). ° Elijah suddenly bursts onto the pages of Scripture with the powerful declaration: “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word” (1 Kgs17:1) (xxi). ° A group of hermits settled on the western slope of Mount Carmel and built an oratory in the midst of the cells, which they dedicated to Our Lady. Gradually, Christian pilgrims and the Church at large came to identify this little community of hermits, according to the name of their chapel, as the “Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel” (see xxii-xxiii). ° The earliest historical spiritual documents of the Carmelite tradition are: ° Rule of St Albert (1207) – the earliest surviving document related to the Carmelites (see Carmelite Tradition, pgs. 1-9). ° The Flaming Arrow (1270) – also called The Fiery Arrow – represents the pure and prophetic spirit of the early Carmelites (see Carmelite Tradition, pgs. 10-20). ° The Book of the Institution of the First Monks (1380) – brings together the Order’s Elijan and Marian spirit, as well as the prophetic and contemplative dimensions of its spirituality (see Carmelite Tradition, pgs. 21-25). Assigned Meditative Reading: (use the following reading once per week for meditation) 1 Kings 17:1-22:40 – the story of Elijah, our spiritual father. Read slowly and with attention; pause often for reflection as the Spirit inspires. --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation I Year B: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life* (US National Formation Program, 2024).