SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

Yesterday we visited Buckden Towers, near Huntingdon, to evaluate its suitability for an OCDS Retreat.  The buildings are magnificent, I would call them baronial, the interiors are delightfully antique.  This is in many ways perfect for one of our retreats, it is close to the A1 and the A14 (which runs East to West and connects the Midlands with East Anglia), and rail connections with London are excellent.  Believe it or not, there are actually three chapels!  There are beaut

Going to visit Buckden Towers today on behalf of the Seculars.  We are looking for a retreat venue for 2026 because plans for another OCDS Summer retreat at Douai Abbey have fallen through.  Buckden Towers is run by the Claretians, a religious Order named after St Anthony Mary Claret (1807-1870).  Their official title is the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  The premises have a long and complicated history including a long spell in the poss

As I ponder the life of today’s saint, Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), it occurs to me that his vocation paralleled that of his older contemporary St Teresa (1515-1582).  Charles set about reforming his archdiocese (Milan) as Teresa set about reforming her Carmelite Order.  They both faced opposition, Charles from his fellow priests, Teresa from her fellow Carmelites.  A hint of the state of Milan Diocese when Charles was made Archbishop is offered by the fact that he was the f

Today’s Feast Day of St Martin de Porres (1579-1639) takes me back to a time before I became a Catholic, when I was an Anglican curate in a part of London where a great number of folk from the Caribbean had settled.  The church I was serving in was St Martin’s – named in honour of the Bishop of Tours of Roman times (d. 397).  That was when I first heard about St Martin de Porres, who intrigued me because he was mixed-race.  Surrounded as I was by West Indians, I felt he was a