The Superior General of the Discalced Carmelite Order, Father Saverio Cannistra, sent around a packed-with-good-things reflection as the order celebrated the 450th anniversary of the beginning of St. Teresa of Avila’s reform of the Carmelites when the first convent of the reform opened Aug. 24, 1562.

His encouraging words can be useful to non-Carmelites also since we all feel the impact of the many crises in the world today.

“The story of the first foundation is a tangle of labors, of doubts, of persecutions and of every kind of obstacle, but at the same time of consolations, of providential meetings, of unexpected help and especially of continually renewed interior certitude,” Father Saverio says. “Because of this, the account of it is transformed from an autobiographical narrative into a confession of lived faith, into an account of the history of salvation ... .”

“It is good to make an appeal to the human will and intelligence” when faced with the crises of life, he says after reflecting briefly on the modern challenges to religious life. “However, we need to realize that our own projects are not going to save us. We need to drink from a fount of living water that wells up from a more profound vein, where the human person does not make anything happen but allows it to happen, does not choose but accepts being chosen, where one’s own wisdom and power are not experienced but rather one’s foolishness and weakness ... .”

Father Saverio recommends “… entering deeply into the present crisis, descending to its very roots, to that level where things can be seen differently, where agitation and fear are put to rest and the prayer of the poor begins to rise up, more pure, more humble and more true.

“From here we can take on again the journey … It is a journey that has prayer as a staff and forgetfulness of self as a knapsack, and thus resembles the journey of the disciples of Jesus, called to leave everything and follow him in whom they believe and from whom they hope for everything.”

Father Saverio is recommending, not inaction, but action that rises up from within our souls where God resides. God sees things differently. He is willing to help us see the world from His much-bigger perspective and help us act accordingly.

By allowing God to be in control, by allowing Him to choose us, by letting Him be the one who is wise and strong, we can become free to serve in amazing ways.

Think of the courage and confidence evident in all the various saints once they made it a habit to say “yes” to God. The journey of faith requires many responses of “yes” to God as we go along and often find increasingly difficult challenges. We say we “practice” our faith, and indeed it is a matter of practicing, over and over, to say “yes” to what God asks of us.

The more generous-hearted among us move along more quickly as they accept God’s invitations and quickly receive the graces needed to progress. I’m in awe of how great-hearted some people are when God asks something difficult of them.

The rest of us are talented at making things harder on ourselves. We get distracted by worldly things, wistfully look back at former hopes and dreams, or we get scared, saying “okay” but then finding ourselves unable to move. In those “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” times, it helps to yell for help to heaven and give the saints who respond permission to push, pull and drag us along until we can find our feet again.

Perhaps you realize by now that the “prayer of the poor” that Father Saverio mentions needs to be our prayer. Our journey to true discipleship depends on our realizing how poor we are compared to God. That reality plus knowledge of God at work within us can lead to the inner freedom we need to become holy, to truly become a good and faithful servant.

Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the crises of life, we then can take the steps, one at a time, that God wants us to take, trusting Him to put everyone’s steps together to make a holy difference.

Father Saverio sums up the impact of St. Teresa’s step-by-step work when he says, “It is perhaps ‘the little that depends on us,’ that Teresa chose to fulfill at the time she became aware of the gravity of the situation that the Church and the world were in and of the mission that the Lord was entrusting to her.

“I know that it may truly seem very little, but it is precisely from the small and the little, not to mention the nothing, that God creates everything.”