SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

Back yesterday from our OCDS National Council meeting in the delightful Retreat Centre run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate near Crewe. ...

No more posts till Friday 30th owing to travels.

Off today for a meeting of the OCDS National Council.  We usually meet online but we try to gather in person at least once a year and...

There are connections between the Italian St Philip Neri (1515-1595 – saint of today) and our St Teresa.  They were born in the same year...

A friend who is a Secular Carmelite started out as an Anglican cleric, but had to take early retirement aged fifty because of epilepsy. ...

I have an old friend that I meet with twice a year – around the date of her birthday and around the date of my birthday.  We had one of...

We have a small ‘Going Deeper’ group in our parish.  We meet monthly, and our meetings are devoted to saying Evening Prayer together,...

Looking forward to the annual Carmelite pilgrimage to Walsingham on Saturday 28 June.  This pilgrimage has been struggling for numbers in...

I know that our new Pope Leo is rightly commanding our attention and interest right now, but I just came across this report on a talk...

St Simon Stock (feast day today) was elected the sixth general of the Carmelites in 1247 at the first Chapter - held at Aylesford in...

It is my firm conviction that life in Carmel is good for a person’s mental health.  For example, our trust in the Divine Providence helps...

St (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta and St Therese of Lisieux – what on earth could they have had in common?  The saint of Calcutta, having...

I wrote about the Carmelite connection of English Catholic convert musician Sir Lennox Berkeley yesterday, and that made me think of...

We were talking about musicians with Carmelite connections in one of our groups recently.  Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) was actually...

By coincidence, we had an OCDS meeting yesterday evening in Oxford, so we were gathered together when the white smoke was reported from...

I have been invited to a Conference for Catholic Converts towards the end of June in the magnificent setting of Ampleforth Abbey.  More...

I was discussing Constitutions no. 5 with another Carmelite yesterday.  Appealing to the example of St Elijah, it speaks of the...

I was actually staying in the Holy Land on the occasion of a Carmelite Renewal Course in 2013 at the time Pope Francis was elected.  Our...

Some people coming into Secular Carmel approach it as if it were a training course requiring the acquisition of specific knowledge, but I...

We were discussing Chapter 11 of Teresa’s Way of Perfection in an OCDS meeting last night.  The more I become immersed in this work, the...