"I am with you until the end of time" (Mt 28, 20)

We live in a time of computers, of the virtual, of the immediate. News travels from one side of the world to the other in a fraction of a second. We have immediate access to a mountain of information. All of this undoubtedly has a positive value, as the Church has pointed out on numerous occasions. However, we do also run the risk of falling into the worrying superficiality of data with no criteria for analysis; information without formation, a light, post-modern culture which exalts the empty, the passing, the insignificant.

Perhaps what this society needs, more than ever, is something that the Carmelite charism can offer: the meaning of contemplation, of spiritual depth. The Carmelite should be a man or woman with inner life, with depth, with spiritual riches, a man or woman who in the midst of the hustle and bustle of daily life, of the problems and contradictions of our time is able to create the inner silence in which God may speak.

Sometimes we too are swept up in prejudice, hurried opinions, fads, etc. Perhaps then we should focus on what St. Teresa said to her nuns: “Do not let us suppose that the interior of the soul is empty.” (Way 28, 10)

The contemplative man or woman is precisely the one who, looking at the reality around them, can find the mysterious presence of the Lord in their lives. They do not just look up, they look around, and even down, towards the most needy, the most humble, who are marginalised by the world, and discover in them that presence, more mysterious than ever. True contemplation and true spirituality become a stance of service and of generous giving.

Therefore the mystic, the truly mystic, the spiritual, the truly spiritual, or the contemplative, the truly contemplative, man or woman must be a master of humanity and compassion, and reflect, with their way of being and living in the world, the mercy and tenderness of God.