This is the movement of the Holy Family.

Welcome to our Rosary meditation.

Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for,

especially for Olivia and Margot through the intercession of blessed Pauline Jericho.

Two of the great masters of the spiritual life are Teresa of Avalon and John of the Cross.

We've been learning principles from Theresa this week

and today from John.

He was ordained in 1567. Then he met Teresa of Avala and she persuaded him to help her

reform the Carmelite Order. To reform them from a life of busyness and distraction in which they had no time or interest in daily meditation

to a life of committed prayer and the pursuit of God.

Well, how do you think the Carmelites responded to this effort to make them change?

Well, on December 2, 1577, a group of Carmelite monks kidnapped John, took him to Toledo, Spain, tortured and imprisoned

him in a 10 by 6 cell, where he had very little light, no change of clothes, no bed, and he lived on bread and water for nine months.

Later, John writes,

The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary

heart.

We must be emptied to be filled by God.

What do you think God was doing in John during this time?

Our Father who art in heaven, Hollow would be your name, Thy kingdom come,

I will be down on earth as it is in heaven.

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