SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

This Feast Day of SS Simon and Jude reminds me of the O.Carm National Shrine of St Jude in Faversham, Kent, a part of the world I have never yet visited. Reading about the Shrine I was struck by the figure of Adam Kossowski (1905-1986), an artist who did a great amount of work for the Carmelites and indeed for the Catholic Church in England. Before coming to these shores he was a prisoner of the Soviets from 1939 to 1942. In the depths of his suffering he had promised God

I heard during my weekend in Helsinki about the recent centenary of the Act on the Freedom of Religion passed in Finland in 1923 after centuries of troubles for Catholics since the Sixteenth-Century Reformation. This reminded me that we Catholics have in the UK a big anniversary coming up before too long – the bicentenary of Catholic Emancipation in 2029. For all the troubles of our church in this country, we are so blessed to live in a time when we are free to practise our

I got back home from Helsinki last night after a visit there to speak to the Seculars about St John of the Cross. In fact the audience was larger than just the small number of Helsinki Seculars and there was another speaker who was more familiar to the locals, a Finnish Lutheran pastor who has written a doctorate on our saint. He gave a hugely professional and impressive talk about the Dark Night. This was an event that Heidi, leader of the Helsinki OCDS, had arranged as t

I am to fly out to Helsinki tomorrow and won’t be blogging that day. I have been invited by the Helsinki Seculars to speak to them about St John of the Cross. I believe they are the only group in the country, but they sometimes meet up with a group based in Tallinn, Estonia. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be so isolated. My contact in Finland – a deeply Protestant country - wrote this lovely passage in an email to me. ‘On the internet I discovered and read you

We had a marvellous OCDS National Council meeting Monday and yesterday at Wistaston Hall near Crewe. It is run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who keep it in an impeccable state. Everywhere is spotless and beautifully presented. There has been a building on the site since the time of William the Conqueror and the Walthall family resided there for three hundred years until 1922. The Oblates took over in 1943. Their founder was St Eugene de Mazenod (1782-1861

I am off later this morning to Wistaston Hall, near Crewe, for the annual gathering of the OCDS National Council. This takes place over two days (I won’t be blogging tomorrow); our other meetings are online nowadays and they each last a morning. The Council is composed of the Regional Representatives, the National President, the National Treasurer, and of course Fr Matt Blake, our wonderful Delegate from the Friars. I squeeze in because, although I am no longer a Regional

On this feast day of St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart, I am reminded of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles. Their website states: ‘Rooted in the spirit of Carmel, we accompany others in their personal encounter of the healing and transformative love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus through education, retreats and healthcare.’ I learn this about the foundress of their Order, Mother Luisita, from their webs

I found this passage on our foundress, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582, feast day today) on catholicireland.net. It was written by Eugene McCaffrey OCD about her in her historical context. ‘Like ourselves, Teresa lived in the age of a great council. The Council of Trent opened in 1545 and continued intermittently till 1563. These years correspond to one of the most crucial periods in Teresa’s life – her own interior struggle to surrender herself whole-heartedly to God and her ex

Friends have been inspired recently by the Holy Face devotion. I came across these paragraphs in reference to St Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. ‘Saint Therese was introduced to the devotion by Sister Agnes of Jesus. She studied it in a personal way …. She did this principally at the time of her father’s illness. She signed her name for the first time as “Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face” the day she received the habit on January 10, 1889

I was privileged last night to take part in a Zoom for UK converts to the Catholic Church. This had its origins in the magnificent ministry of the American Coming Home Network. They have produced a plethora of videos and podcasts containing a wealth of apologetics materials and inspirational conversion stories. They have helped many individuals on the way into the Church, and that includes reverts – people with a Catholic upbringing who have wandered away and subsequently

We continue to investigate the restoration of OCDS groups in Birmingham and Wolverhampton and we have some contacts who are interested - but not quite enough to launch. I tend to think that four or five persons are a basic minimum if a new group is to be established. This work requires great patience! Venues have been offered and are available as of now, but of course it is all in God’s hands. These are God’s groups and it is God’s work. ‘Everything is Grace’ said our Th

I was wondering if St John Henry Newman (1801-1890, feast day today) had any particular connection with the Carmelites and I found this online: ‘Newman … had friendly connections with the steadily growing Third Order Carmelite community in Birmingham, including his close colleague Rev. Dr. Henry Weedall, priest, president of Oscott College, first provost of the Birmingham cathedral advisory chapter, and secular or third order Carmelite. … his best friend and close collaborat

We had a happy meeting of the young Manchester OCDS group last night. Four in the group already in formation and several due to take the step in December. Such love for Our Lord evident and such enthusiasm to share. We were looking at Teresa’s Life where she talks about her early illness and her close encounter with death – they had even put wax on her eyes and prepared a grave for her, and her recovery was well-nigh miraculous. Somebody spoke about how people don’t know

I have found a reminder of how our Carmelite saints nourish the Church at large way beyond the Carmelite Order in the attractive website run by the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel. This congregation (I have mentioned it before) was founded in Bayonne, France, by an English convert named Sophie Leeves (1823-1906 who became Mother Mary Veronica of the Passion) under the guidance of Bishop Marie Ephrem OCD. Both of these individuals moved to India and the Congregation flo

It is always a delight to encounter a Third Order saint like the Italian Franciscan St Mary Frances of the Five Wounds (1715-1791, feast day today) who devoted herself to prayer and care for the poor in Naples. As a tertiary (equivalent to 'secular' in our usage) myself, I feel some kind of kinship with other tertiaries. Moreover Mary Frances was a member of the Tertiaries of St Peter of Alcantara, a major influence on St Teresa. This man (1499-1562) performed a role among

It is astonishing to see how the Divine Mercy picture has appeared in so many of our churches, the picture associated with St Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), whose feast day is today. I found this passage about her devotion to Therese online: ‘At one point when St. Faustina was a novice, she was going through some interior struggles. She began to make novenas to various saints, but instead of getting better the situation grew worse and was affecting her exterior life. In a b

Part of my role in Carmel is to be the gateway into the groups. When inquiries come to our website about the Seculars I am tasked with forwarding them to the appropriate Regional Representative for their geographical area. We receive an increasing number of inquiries about our Virtual Carmelite meeting, which gathers on zoom once a month. This functions as a kind of Carmelite Spirituality group and it has not been doing formation. However, in response to a growing number o

I don’t always blog about the Carmelite saint of the day but who could pass this day without speaking about St Therese? She is an incomparable treasure, her little book feeds and nurtures the spiritual life of many thousands of believers today, as it has done ever since she died. I have a friend for example who was a Baptist, and his Pastor at the time actually gave him a copy of Story of a Soul. Tony credits that book with marking the start of his journey to the Catholic

Carmelites should feel most indebted to the Spanish priest St Francis Borgia SJ (1510-1572, feast day today), for St Teresa herself tells us what a help he was to her in her spiritual journey. ‘For almost two months I was trying to resist with all my might the gifts and favours of God. In resisting these consolations and favours of God, I gained by learning something from His Majesty. For in the past I had thought that to receive favours in prayer much seclusion was necessar

I just came across a Carmelite Secular movement new to me while surfing the net: ‘ The Secular Missionary Carmel (CMS Carmelo Misionero Seglar) was established in 1994 on the initiative of Morelia Suárez, a young lay Catholic, attracted to Carmelite spirituality and the missionary dynamism of the Blessed Francisco Palau, founder of the Carmelite Missionaries. She put a proposal to the Sisters in Colombia to set up a lay association to share the Palautian charism. In 1996 the