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Awake the Dawn of Our Lives

Advent 2021 with Maria Montessori and St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus • www.retreat-online.karmel.at

Overlapping biographies: echoes

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897) and Maria Montes-
sori (1870-1952) are both doctors. One leads the Church towards
childhood, the other leads the child to the Church. As women and
prophets, they both drew from the same wellspring of the Gospel.
Through their voices, which respond to each other as if in echo,
God lifts the mysterious veil of His Infant Face.

The young Carmelite bequeaths to the Church the little way, sim-
ple and straight, like an elevator rising to Heaven: the path of
spiritual childhood. In Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the
Holy Face, the two faces, that of the adult and that of the child are
perfectly reconciled. In her name as in her life, she is the adult
mirror of little children, the reflection of a soul in its first spring-
time.

Maria Montessori was two years old when Thérèse Martin was born, and in 1897 when Thérèse of
the Child Jesus of the Holy Face entered eternal life, Maria herself began an
unusual public life as one of the first women doctors in Italy. The Story of a
Soul was translated from French into Italian in 1901. Did the young doctor
know about it? We only know that between 1901 and 1907 Maria Montessori
went through a more hidden, spiritual period, during which she experienced
the cross1 and clarified her life‘s call: „At first I thought I would be called to
the Servants of the Sacred Heart, and the Mother Superior can testify that
in 1904 I asked to be admitted among her daughters. But before entering,
while I was living a life of absolute recollection, I had the impression, while
in the Church of St. Teresa in Rome, that I had to do another work. In re-
sponse to this impression, while I was doing the spiritual exercises with the Servants, my method
of education became apparent. It was not I who realized this, but the mother superior who said to

1. the betrayal of the father of her child and his refusal to raise this child, whose life she will end up sharing some 12 years later.

Online Exerzitien im Advent 2021 mit Thérèse von Lisieux und Maria Montessori
1 © 2021, Karmeliten in Österreich, www.exerzitien-online.karmel.at
me, „This method here is the work that the Lord wants from you.“ And thus I discovered the method:
I loved it and defended it, I tried to understand it and develop it.“2

In line with the young Carmelite nun, Maria Montessori reveals to the Church and the world the
secrets of the child. Her method brings to light what is hidden within the child: the orientation of
his soul towards God, and the laws that govern the soul, displaying what there is to emulate in the
Child who awakens our beginnings. Dr. Montessori bears witness to the divine imprint in the heart of
every person. Not only does she show the world who the child is by origin: coming from Love, going
towards Love, capable of knowing and loving God who is love; but she proposes by her method of
education a path of reconciliation between the child and the adult, at the same time denouncing our
blindness and slowness to convert ourselves in order to welcome this child whom God created more
marvelous than we know and who begs for a simple, well-ordered, peaceful lifestyle.

With Saint Thérèse, we can speak of a path of redemption when the adult allows himself to be shak-
en, shaped and transformed by the demands of this new relationship. Without Christ living within
us, our eyes would remain blind to the hidden treasures of the child. Let us not be mistaken: it is not
from the child himself that our salvation comes; the child is not God. But like John the Baptist in the
desert, he is the favored messenger of God‘s mercy. The child is the vector of salvation, the powerful
activator of the dynamic of trust and love of which Saint Thérèse sang throughout her life.

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face becomes an indispensable landmark in this ped-
agogy: she opens the way to the necessary and all-powerful Mercy of God which alone can guide us
to the encounter with the Child within us. She testifies that the mystery of our Redemption is expe-
rienced in the reconciled relationship between the adult and the child we are, but also and above all
- between the adult and the child we are called to become.

„Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of God.“

2. Letter from Maria Montessori to Father Tacchi Venturi; cf. Maria Montessori: Une vie au service de l’enfant,
Gilsoul, M and Poussin, C 2020, Maria Montessori: Une vie au service de l’enfant, Desclée de Brouwer, Paris.

Retreat Dynamics: Towards the Child within Us.

Sunday after Sunday, in this time of Advent, the Word will invite us to be converted in order to wel-
come within us the One who is to come, the One who became a Child for our salvation.

To reach this Child within ourselves and walk with Him, we must make ourselves little, take off our
sandals, clothe ourselves in humility and listen to Him who, in a gentle whisper, guides children and
adults to the path of Peace: the Good Shepherd, the shepherd of our souls.

1st Week: „Stay Awake.”

2nd Week: «The Word of God spoke in the desert.”
3rd Week: «What should we do?»
4th week: «Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Christmas: The Child Within Uss

Online Exerzitien im Advent 2021 mit Thérèse von Lisieux und Maria Montessori
2 © 2021, Karmeliten in Österreich, www.exerzitien-online.karmel.at
 Pedagogy of the Retreat
The Sunday Gospel will be sent to you on Friday in the form of a short video for a contemplative
approach to the Word of God. The objective of these ‘lectio’ videos — which guide you in meditating
on the Sunday gospel — is to awaken our hearts to a humble, profound listening to the Scriptures
through a holistic, embodied, spiritual pedagogy, that of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd devel-
oped by Maria Montessori and Sofia Cavalletti.3

In this way, embodied and set in motion, the Word becomes a sign, a Presence. This is our hope: that
these videos facilitate the dialogue between God who speaks and the creature who listens, that they
may open a path leading to the encounter with the Child.

The first three videos that we offer you are not part of the usual presentations of the Good Shepherd
catechesis: they have been conceived especially for this Carmelite retreat based on Dr. Montessori’s
catechetical method. The Word has been presented in a concrete, visual form and as close as possible
to the biblical sources. We proceeded as we would have done with the little ones: trying to respond
with our actions to what the Gospel whispers to our childlike hearts.

3. Maria Montessori dedicated her life to meeting the needs of the child‘s soul in the school environment. She
also laid the foundation for a catechesis based on the same pedagogical foundations, with specific materials
and in a religious environment called the Atrium. Following her, Sofia Cavalletti, an Italian biblical scholar,
brought Maria Montessori‘s work in the field of religious instruction to its conclusion. This is the Catechesis of
the Good Shepherd, which is followed today by children all over the world.

Who is it for? How to watch?

Whether alone or as a couple, or in a group, community or a family, we invite you to receive the Word
in an atmosphere of silence, in order that it may resonate with each individual and elicit a personal
response, and so the soul is disposed to its inner promptings. We also suggest that you use a notebook
to allow yourself to keep track of what challenges you most.

1 - Prepare for a simple and humble listening to the Gospel by creating a ritual of silence
(lighting a candle, singing Alleluia, etc...)

2 - Read aloud the Sunday gospel without the video. Remain silent, with eyes closed,
for a few minutes.

3 - Watch the video once. Paraphrase aloud

1 word/1 verse/1 phrase that speaks to us.

4 - Watch the video a second time.

Write down in your notebook the areas upon
which you would like to meditate.

P. Marc Fortin, ocd (Lisieux), Virginie Brault,

fraternité Marie, mère du Bon Pasteur

Online Exerzitien im Advent 2021 mit Thérèse von Lisieux und Maria Montessori
3 © 2021, Karmeliten in Österreich, www.exerzitien-online.karmel.at