“The pure and everlasting source of spiritual life”: The Bible in the Carme- lite heart

In the adhortation Verbum Domini Pope Benedict XVI recalls the writings of the Carmelite theologians who applied to the Holy Scripture the scheme of four biblical “senses” – the literal sense, allegorical, moral and anagogical. To make this insight more profound some examples were chosen in this paper: St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of Ávila. In their spiritual meditations the texts of the Old Testament become a key to understanding those coming from the New Testament and the Christian spirituality rediscovers its biblical dimension.