← [[session-01-f1b|Session 1: The Early History of Carmelite Spirituality]] | [[formation-I-b-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-03-f1b|Session 3: Reform of St. Teresa of Ávila]] → # Session 2: Loss of Original Home — Carmel in the West “I understand and I know from experience ‘that the Kingdom of God is within you.’ Jesus has no need of books or teachers to instruct souls; he teaches without the noise of words.” — St Thérèse of the Child Jesus (Lisieux) Required Reading: The Carmelite Tradition: Spirituality in History, pgs. xxi – xxxiii. Essential Points to Discuss: • The Rule of St Albert becomes the foundational document for the entire Carmelite spiritual tradition. • “... The Carmelites began migrating westward, making foundations in Cyprus, Sicily, southern France, England, and other parts of Europe” (xxiii). • In 1247, at the Carmelites request, Pope Innocent IV promulgated the “Innocentian” version of the Carmelite Rule, which included minor alterations to St Albert’s text (see xxii). • “With the collapse of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Carmelites lost all physical contact with their original home” (xxv). • In 1432, Pope Eugene IV granted further modifications of the Rule. • In 1452, Blessed John Soreth, prior general of the Carmelites, obtained papal approval (the papal Bull, Cum Nulla) to formally accept laity into the Order as “tertiaries,” and communities of women as Carmelite nuns (see xxvii). • The Incarnation in Avila, founded in 1479, was the earliest Carmelite women’s community in Avila, Spain. • In 1535, a lively and outgoing twenty-year-old by the name of Teresa de Ahumada y Cepeda left her father’s home to join the nearby Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila (see xxvii). Assigned Meditative Reading: (use the Book of Habakkuk over four weeks) Habakkuk – the heartbreak of exile, God’s presence and protection, serving God in all situations, detachment and peace. 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).