SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

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

On this day in 1959 Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face (Celine Martin) died after sixty-three years as a Discalced Carmelite.  She was two months short of her ninetieth birthday and the last of the nine children originally born to her parents.  I always find it extraordinary that her sister St Therese died so long before her, in 1897.  That in 1959 you could still have talked to one who grew up with Therese – that seems amazing.  Therese and her family seem to belong so solidl

There is a delightful website for Carmelites out there called carmelitequotes.blog I lifted this text from there about today’s Carmelite Blessed – a fellow member of the Secular Order named   ‘Blessed Josefa Naval Girbés, who was born at Algemesi in the Archdiocese of Valencia, Spain, on December 11, 1820. As a very young woman, she consecrated herself to the Lord by a perpetual vow of chastity. Josefa’s life was simple. She stood out for her ardent love, and she made progres

I came across this prayer attributed to St Teresa of Avila, I was not familiar with it. 'Lord, grant that I may always allow myself to be guided by You, always follow Your plans, and perfectly accomplish Your Holy Will. Grant that in all things, great and small, today and all the days of my life, I may do whatever You require of me. Help me respond to the slightest prompting of Your Grace, so that I may be Your trustworthy instrument for Your honour. May Your Will be done in

I cannot do better today than reproduce today’s magnificent Second Reading from the Office of Readings, a homily from an unknown Early Church author who talks about prayer as 'hugging God in an indescribable embrace'.  I hardly need to demonstrate its relevance for us Carmelites: ‘The highest good is prayer and conversation with God, because it means that we are in God’s company and in union with him. When light enters our bodily eyes, our eyesight is sharpened; when a soul i

Today is the Feast of the Dominican Blessed Fra Angelico (1387-1455, originally named Guido di Pietro), one of the most celebrated artists in history.  ‘ Fra Angelico is probably better known as an artist than as a holy man who was already called “Beato” while he was still alive. Pope John Paul II gave this a new reality when he beatified him in 1982, observing that “He did theology by painting the beauty that shows the light of the Risen Christ in creatures”.  After his novi

I was privileged to be in the US with family members at Easter last year and we attended mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral.  It was the last Easter for Cardinal Dolan as Archbishop of New York, for he has since retired and been replaced by Archbishop Hicks.  An abiding memory of the Cardinal on that occasion is when he began jokingly and rather surprisingly ‘Now Lent is over – Thank God!’  I know some people actually look forward to Lent, but I am one of those individuals whose

I recently heard about the ‘Precious Blood of Jesus’ prayer which we are recommended to say repeatedly during the day.  It is just one sentence, Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, Save us and the whole world.  As a Carmelite I of course have the goal of staying close to Jesus as much as I can during the day but I realise that repeating the words of an actual prayer may help me to do that.  There are so many simple prayers that we can say in this way, for example the Jesus P

Yesterday was the Feast of St Claude de la Colombiere, confessor of St Margaret Mary Alacocque and promoter of the Sacred Heart Devotion.  Wondering about a connection between him and Carmel, I came across this by Sister Maria Elia, O.C.D.  ‘ As Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, we have a deep devotion to the Heart of Christ and as such, we had a long-standing interest in the cause for the canonization of Blessed Claude de la Colombiere. Blessed Claud

News reaches me of an event this Summer which will be of great interest to Carmelites everywhere.  Here is the announcement: ‘ MYSTICISM: PARADISE LOST OR PROMISED LAND. John of the Cross Saint and Doctor of the Church John of the Cross was canonized on December 27, 1726. Two hundred years later, on August 24, 1926, Pius XI proclaimed him a Doctor of the Universal Church. The year 2026, therefore, marks a double centenary for the holy doctor of the Teresian Carmel. For this r