SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

Due to travels. Wishing all readers many graces in Holy Week and Easter. Intercessions Cancer : Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Fr Jon Bielowski (Plymouth Diocese), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Sister Daranee Teapthong Illness :  Hilary Solomon Siena, Elara – sick children David OCDS – housebound Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family health problems Michael – youngster with occult influences Defence of the unborn and

Fascinated to discover the close association between St Oscar Romero (1917-1980), whose feast day is today, and the Carmelites.  Archbishop Romero of El Salvador was assassinated because of his defence of justice and opposition to political violence.  At Romero's side at the time of his martyrdom — when he was shedding blood from his nose and mouth — two Carmelite sisters tried in vain to save his life of the saint, something captured in historic photos of that day. The siste

We are celebrating the 300 th  anniversary of the canonisation of St John of the Cross this year, but another great Spaniard was also canonised in the same month (December) in that year – his near contemporary St Turibius of Mogrovejo, the Apostle of Peru (1538-1606 – St John was born in 1542 and died in 1591). Turibius frequently prayed, fasted, and gave to the poor even as a child, and eventually developed the daily habit of praying the Rosary along with the Little Office o

‘Christ prayed throughout His entire life, whereas He spent only three years preaching. Since God does not distribute His graces to men except through prayer, because He wishes us to recognize Him as the source from which all good things flow; in like manner, He does not wish to save us from danger, or cure our wounds, or console us in affliction, except by means of this same exercise of prayer.’  This passage is from the ‘Carmelite Quotes’ website and it comes originally fro

One cannot draw close to St Teresa without becoming aware of her devotion to St Joseph (Feast Day today).  St. Teresa reminds us why St. Joseph is such a great intercessor. “To other saints, Our Lord seems to have given power to succour us in some special necessity,” she wrote, “but to this glorious saint (I know by my experience), he has given the power to help us in all things. Our Lord would have us understand that, as he was subject to Joseph on earth — St. Joseph, bearin

We were debating last night in a little local prayer group about changing the name under which we operate.  It has been called a ‘Going Deeper’ group from the beginning but it has dwindled drastically in numbers and we feel it needs a rebrand.  We have come up with ‘Tuning into Prayer’ as a title – apparently the expression ‘tune in’ is popular today.  It’s actually a kind of Carmelite Spirituality group without being called that.  We start by saying Evening Prayer together,

I leave others to discourse eloquently about glorious St Patrick today; I would just comment that the Irish Catholics have surely done their country proud in their travels around the world, carrying our faith along with them and planting it all over.  I just want to mention something that happened recently in a tiny new OCDS group.  We were discussing who to choose as our patron, and one member who is thoroughly Welsh but with strong Polish connections suggested the Polish sa

I have recently been talking to a couple of men who are to be received into the Church soon – one at Easter, one at Pentecost.  There is something special about souls on the verge of joining us, there is a freshness and an excitement in them.  Both of these men have made a particular impression on me, each in a different way.  One of them is already thinking about Carmel, as he explained to me.  He realises that although it may feel like the end of a long search, entering the

‘From prayer, we must draw the water that nourishes and preserves the flowers of the virtues. If we do not go to that divine fountain to draw this water, how could those virtues grow in the garden of our soul, or remain fresh—those that our Lord may have granted us by some particular grace of His?  Rather, through our own fault and negligence, they would wither if we remain idle in prayer, spending our time thinking about irrelevant things, when instead we ought to be working

A very powerful message on prayer from the Early Church Father Tertullian in this morning’s Office of Readings.  ‘ Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God’, he writes.   This alone is a very beautiful thought – that we have the power to ‘conquer God’.  Then he goes on to a very beautiful paragraph: ‘ All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look out to heaven and call out, lifti

‘What does it profit you to give God one thing if He asks of you another?  Consider what it is God wants, and then do it.’  This reflection is taken from Sayings of Light and Love by St John of the Cross, and it certainly resonates for me in my life.  I spent many years offering my life to God in the context of a certain vocation only to have it borne in on me that this was not to be my vocation.  Gradually I had to accept that God had other plans for my life; offering my lif

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting up with E for lunch.  We first met many years ago as students.  At that time we were acquaintances and nothing more, though we shared an enthusiasm for the Lord as evangelical (born-again) Christians.  Our paths crossed again some years later after we had graduated, but still as acquaintances.  I had become a Catholic by then.  Years later our paths crossed yet again on one particular day when I happened to be giving a talk and E turned

A great day in the Coventry OCDS group on Saturday.  We recently celebrated our second birthday, and our present on Saturday was a visit to the group from Fr Matt Blake OCD, Delegate from the Friars to the Seculars.  Our Coventry meetings begin with our participation in the 9.30 mass for the parish followed by a Holy Hour with Adoration and Confessions.  Fr Matt celebrated the mass at the kind invitation of the parish priest.  We gathered in the parish room at 11 and Fr Matt

At a recent OCDS meeting we got to discussing retreats and how they helped in our spiritual development.  One member observed that her journey to Carmel had actually begun with a retreat in which she became aware of her spiritual hunger.  Another member spoke about attending ‘really severe’ Buddhist retreats (fasting and solitude) in the days before she became a Catholic.  She recalled how these retreats focussed on helping individuals to go inwards and face up to the violenc

These first few months of the year our meetings are sometimes diminished because of the ravages of the sicknesses of the season among the members.  This brings an element of unpredictability to our programmes but we get through.  Coping with unpredictability is one of the graces we receive as Carmelites.  It’s wonderful the way that the Holy Spirit works in us as individuals but also in our meetings.  From the beginning when I first joined Carmel I have been aware of this gra

Today we are directed by the Church to celebrate the memory of St Casimir (1458-1484), a Prince of Poland and Lithuania.  Casimir was known for his love of God in the midst of the life of a Court with all its accompanying temptations.  I found out about a rather special Carmelite community in Lithuania, the Mary Gate of Dawn and Little Theresa Community, founded in 1994.  At the request of several young women, the idea of founding a non – cloistered Carmelite convent for publ

I met with someone who is planning to come into the Church at Pentecost yesterday.  He has quite a few material difficulties in his daily life as he has a large family, but I am struck by his courageous attitude.  He and his wife have been living a very sacrificial life for years. We talked about many things and I was reminded of the question I was faced after my conversion.  I said to myself, ‘OK, I am now a Catholic, but what sort of Catholic am I going to be?’ I decided I

Today is the feast of yet another one who was thwarted in her desire to become a Carmelite, St Angela of the Cross (1846 – 1932), foundress of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross, a religious institute dedicated to helping the abandoned poor and the ill with no one to care for them. She was born in Seville and at the age of 12 had to go and work in a shoe repair shop as her family were so poor. Guerrero's supervisor at the shop was Antonia Maldonado, a devout lady who enc

Today’s saint, Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (born Francesco Possenti 1 March 1838 – 27 February 1862) was an Italian Passionist seminarian. Born to a professional family, he gave up ambitions of a secular career to enter the Passionist congregation. His life in the monastery was not extraordinary, yet he followed the rule of the congregation perfectly and was known for his great devotion to the sorrows of the Virgin Mary. He died from tuberculosis at the age of 23 in Isola

I was talking to someone on zoom yesterday who was inquiring about joining an OCDS group and I was very taken with her spiritual maturity.  This is something that has been borne in on me recently, the fact that many (though not all) of those who come to Carmel are already spiritually mature.  Often they are already deeply committed to ministry or other work in their parishes.  And yet they come to join us in sitting at the feet of the Carmelite saints.  The more you offer you