Today, on the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, we celebrated the Feast with the renewal of our Holy Vows. During the Ceremony, Mother Prioress gave us a timely exhortation that will carry us through this year will into the next.

Following is the text of Mother Prioress

J.M. + J.T.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

 In one of the poems of our Holy Mother St. Teresa which she wrote for the occasion of the Profession of one of her daughters, we find this stanza:

 In darkness be my light, My greatness in the lowly place, My way on the short road, In the Cross my glory.

            These few simple lines express the profound paradox of the Carmelite life and the paradox of the evangelical life, the life of the Holy Gospel.  Our Lord Jesus says: “If a man wishes to come after Me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross and begin to follow in My footsteps. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 16:24-25).

             In our Christian life, from the moment of our Baptism, we have been marked – sealed – with the sign of the Cross.  When Jesus said to each one of us in the depths of our hearts: “Follow Me” and He called us to Carmel, He invited us to go with Him further into the “thicket” of the Cross.  A bride wants to be with her bridegroom: our Spouse, Jesus, went into “darkness” to search for us and to save us; He went to the “lowly place”, He walked on the “short road”, which is also called the “narrow way” of the Gospel, and which our Holy Mother calls the “camino real” – the “royal road”!  He went to the Cross.  Jesus says to us “Follow Me”, not just once in the beginning of our Carmelite life, but throughout our life, even every day, He renews His call to follow Him.

             Each year, on this grace filled liturgical Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we have the opportunity to publicly renew our vows before the Most Holy Trinity, before the entire Mystical Body of the Church, and in communion with our beloved Order of Carmel in Heaven and on earth.  We renew our whole-hearted “Yes” to Jesus. Yes, I will follow You along the Way of the Cross!  We enter into the Mystery of His Cross, and in this all our daily crosses, the crosses very much connected with our holy vows: the sacrifice of our own will, the sacrifice of earthly possessions and comforts, the sacrifice of earthly loves, all united with the Cross of our Spouse, contributes to bringing forth spiritual life in souls.

              So, on this day, dear Sisters, let us, with the help of Christ’s grace, renew the total gift of ourselves to Him.  Let us not be afraid to embrace the small “deaths” of our daily life.  For as our Holy Mother also says (in the same poem which I quoted at the beginning of this exhortation): In losing my gain.  Let us turn to Our Lady who followed her Son on the Way of the Cross, she endured the greatest “loss” by the death of her Son.  Let us give to her the renewed offering of our holy vows.  The Mother and Queen of Carmel, will unite us to the supreme gift of herself to her Son in the Mystery of the Cross which, always, always leads to life!  Amen.