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