II. MEANS

1.Reflecting at a community, provincial and general level.

The demand of the Church to renew the Constitutions of Religious Institutes initiated a process of reflection beginning at grass roots and which involved, first of all the communities, then the Provinces and, much later, the General Chapters both ordinary and extraordinary at the end of the 1960's. The fruit of these reflections on a general level returned to the ground level and with their support served as a departure point for drawing up the new Constitutions. In Chapter 1 of these, the charism of our institute as well as its accompanying spirituality was clearly defined.

2. Ongoing formation courses on our charism and spirituality

In my Congregation, as well as in many others, the statement of Vatican II on the role of formation for the future of religious life was taken seriously. For this reason, many documents of the General Curia in postconciliar years emphasised the need of organizing systematic courses on the charism and spirituality for all our religious. The attempt was made above all at a Provincial level to organize spiritual exercises and other courses on the history of the Order and its spirituality to help reinforce their own identity. Sabbatical periods began to be organized in places that are special to the Order: Mount Carmel the birth-place of the Order and Avila the cradle of the Teresian refoundation. In these Sabbatical periods courses for deepening knowledge of Carmel’s spirituality and its biblical roots were offered to groups of our religious from all over the world.

3. Creation of Spirituality Institutes

Another significant step along the was of refounding the charism through living its spirituality was the creation of Institutes of Spirituality in various countries, as a means of living out the demands of our charism and placing it at the service of the Church. Before the Council we had but one Spirituality Institute: the Teresianum at Rome. Now we have 3 in India, 5 in Latin America, 3 in Europe and one in Africa. To this we should add that around ninety of the little more than 500 communities we have in the world (in 72 nations) are devoted to the apostolate of spirituality: houses of prayer and retreat houses.

4. Periodial meetings with the Provincials (every two years)

Another important means for refounding the charism has been periodical meetings with the Provincials, which we call extraordinary Definitories. In each one of them there has been an insistence upon the need for formation in the spirituality of the Order and to give a particular stamp to our apostolates with an accent on the life of prayer and by revealing and transmitting the wealth of Christian spirituality.

5. International Congresses on various aspects of our charism and spirituality

Finally, we arrange every year an international congress on various aspects of our charism: formation, Secular Carmel, the apostolate of spirituality, missions, the media and in all these the import aspect is our spirituality, living it out and spreading it.