Mitigation of the rule. Appeal for methodical prayer.
Blessed John Soreth.

The mitigation of the rule pertained to two points especially. The first was the restriction of solitude. A less hermitical life was granted to the Carmelites, a life which brought them more into the life of the people. But despite this, the primitive end of the Order was not abandoned; on the contrary, as though the dangers which threatened the spirit of prayer had rendered more lively the consciousness of the Order's destiny and inspired it to take the necessary measures to assure its realization, the new constitutions explicitly recommended contemplation and insisted that a place be made for prayer and contemplation.

It is perpetually repeated, "Prayer is the best part for Carmelites;" the Carmelite should guard the contemplative life as a treasure, and the active life should not be an obstacle to it. There is a direct relationship between the reform of Bl. John Soreth who lived ordinarily at Liege and who was an intimate friend of the Duke of Burgundy, and of the propagators of the Devotio Moderna in the Lowlands. This latter did much to popularize methodical prayer, regular meditation, and a mental prayer more accessible to the greatest number because it utilized the imagination and the sensible memory more. The great Carmelite devotion to Mary was in perfect harmony with the chief spiritual themes of the Devotio Moderna, namely, the Imitation of Christ, and meditation on the life and passion of our Savior. The Carmelites were apostles of the devotion to St. Joseph, St. Anne, St. Joachim, and the Infancy of Jesus and the Holy Face. To facilitate meditation on the mysteries of Christ, several of them wrote itineraries of the Holy Land, in which imagination plays a greater part than reality, but which exercised a considerable influence on piety. It is in one of these itineraries -- that of John Pascha (d. 1530), Prior of Malines, Een devote maniere om een gheestelijke Peigrimage te trecken tot den heylighen Lande, Louvain, 1563 -- that we find the most ancient formulas of our present-day Way of the Cross with its fourteen stations. Carmelite poets relate pious legends about the sojourn of the Virgin and the Infant Jesus on Carmel on their return from Egypt. Several saints of the Order are represented with the Infant Jesus in their arms -- St. Albert of Sicily (d. 1306), Blessed Joan Scopelli (d. 1491). The Historia trium regum, so widely circulated in the 15th century, contributed to the propagation of devotion to the Infant Jesus. John Soreth was a providential man. His Expositio paranetica in Regu am armejitarum, written in 1455 and entirely animated with the ancient spirit, adapts the life of the Order to the new circumstances. A Frenchman, he underwent the influence of the Victorines and St. Bernard; but, from all evidence, he was won over to the Devotio Moderna and to systematic meditation. For him meditation has a three-fold object: 1) the book of nature in which God teaches us so many mysteries and which we should admire because it reveals God's law to us, the ordinary subject of the Carmelite's consideration according to the rule; 2) the book of Holy Scripture which must be constantly read because it was written for us and contains the law of God; 3) the book of life which God writes for each of us and which will teach us how we should observe God's law. Thus there are three distinct forms of meditation which can, however; be combined. In the exposition of the rule, the insistence on the practice of virtue and the exercise of meditation is remarkable. But what is perhaps more astonishing is the fact that this follower of the Devotio Moderna spoke so remarkably of the vision of God and of mystical graces about which the authors of this school are in general very reserved. Particularly the reading of Holy Scripture, which is the law of God, should fill us with great joy from the fact that God lives in us by his grace, and we are able to progress like giants, carried away beyond our strict obligations by the pure love and joy which is the cause of our election. Prayer is not an oasis in the desert of life: it is our life. During the hours of meditation we prepare the food which maintains it throughout the day's work and renders our prayer continuous. It is to be noted that these developments of methodical meditation serve to explain the following passages of the rule: "To meditate day and night on the law of the Lord and to watch in prayer;" for thus apostolic activity is subordinated to the primary end of the Order which is conversation with God. And so providentially exterior activity proceeds from union with God but should not interrupt it.