The Carmelite Directory of the Spiritual Life Quotes

“It is in this wise that our relations with each of the Divine Persons are so wonderfully characterized: The Father, Whose adopted sons we are and Who has made us partakers of His divine nature, comes to us.  The only-begotten Son of God, Who has assumed our flesh and has redeemed us by His death that we might be His brothers and coheirs and that, by our adopted sonship, we might show forth His eternal sonship, comes to us also.  So, too, the Holy Spirit, through Whom charity is poured forth in our hearts so that we, freed from the slavery of the material, may also be rendered spiritual, comes to us.”
― Austin Chadwell, The Carmelite Directory of the Spiritual Life

“since the soul is spiritual, it enjoys free will. Man was created for freedom, not indeed in the sense that he may freely follow the concupiscences of the flesh (then indeed he would be reduced to slavery of the flesh) ; nor in the sense that he may choose his own way independently of God, his Creator and Lord (for then he would abandon the fount of life, as we have seen, and would necessarily plunge into darkness and death) ; but he was created rather that he might knowingly and willingly cling to God, and devote his whole life to Him. If he does this, he will truly and perfectly express in himself the image of God, imitating the divine perfections.”
― Austin Chadwell, The Carmelite Directory of the Spiritual Life

“God is apprehended and known not so much through study and understanding, as by love and interior communion with Him. Love itself is knowledge, say the masters of the spiritual life. He who has not sought God in his heart, will not come to know Him through books. Further, the more one dies to himself by detachment from sin and all creatures, the more will he love and know God, since God will manifest Himself to a holy heart free from every sin”
― Austin Chadwell, The Carmelite Directory of the Spiritual Life