Of Sandals, Symbols and Similar Subjects

Introduction

            In June, 2022, I gave a talk about St. Maravillas of Jesus as part of the series The Daughters of St. Teresa organized by our Carmelite Friars in Oxford, England. I have been asked by a Sister to elaborate on some points that I made in that talk, and so I want to look more closely at the purification journey from rigid adherence to the externals of religious observance, to the "arrival" at the spirit behind the observances. We do not have many letters concerning Madre Maravillas’s spiritual journey, but what we do have focuses on an important moment in that journey that illustrates very well the process of spiritual transformation. I will consider that moment in the light of the Church’s traditional teaching on the spiritual life and growth.