SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

I was looking up today’s saint, the Franciscan St Leonard of Porto Maurizio (1676-1751), known throughout Italy for his missions and retreats, and came across this on the Catholic Ireland website: ‘ Leonard realised that he needed time to pray alone, and so he regularly began to make use of the ritiri (houses of recollection) that he helped establish throughout Italy. The first he founded in 1710 on a peak in the mountains where he and his assistants could retire from time to

Off to Hereford today to visit the Benedictine Belmont Abbey.  The monks have recently opened a new retreat house and we are hoping to hold a Seculars Retreat there in 2026 to replace our planned Douai Abbey retreat - which has had unfortunately to be cancelled.  The Benedictines have a wonderful record of offering premises for retreats – we have used their Abbey at Ampleforth for many years.  For a couple of years we did enjoy the services of our fellow Carmelites at Aylesfo

I have recently taken over as Registrar for the Seculars, a task which Chris Noble performed valiantly for many years.  There is a wonderful old book containing a record of Promises made since 1882!  Sadly, it is not complete because it relies on group leaders and Community Presidents keeping the Registrar informed, and for various reasons that does not always happen.  One striking feature of the record is that right up to the 1970s and 1980s Seculars would take a new name in

A fascinating feature of our Carmelite saints for me is that as we discuss their writings in our Secular meetings, we find ourselves drawn into issues where our faith does not provide any direct and simple answers.  The Catechism lays down principles, but we have then to apply those principles in our daily lives, and that brings us face to face with dilemmas.  How to share our faith with our children, what to do when they rebel, how to cope with relationship challenges, how t

Some years ago I was talking to someone about a particular Carmelite convent I had visited; this convent had impressed me very much and I was shocked to hear that it was closing.  I asked somebody who knew the convent well why this had happened and she immediately referred to damaging leadership.  In meditating the life of St Edmund King and Martyr – feast day today – I find myself turning my thoughts again to this topic of leadership, a perennial issue that affects us all. 

The Frenchman St Hugh of Lincoln (1135-1200, today’s saint) was an influential figure in his day, an adviser to monarchs.  I confess a particular attachment to him because he is the patron of Nottingham Diocese - in which I have been based for the past thirty-three years.  I can’t come up with a connection to Carmel – he died before the Carmelites arrived here in flight from the Holy Land, but he was a Carthusian, and as a Carmelite I always feel a kinship with that Order; th

Why do a blog on our website?  My idea is that a website like ours is somewhat static – apart from the news section it inevitably does not change a great deal, so after a person has looked at it once, there may be no great incentive for that person to look back at it again.  The blog of course does change and in theory at least it provides a reason for people to return to the website.  Nowadays by the way the website is a very important entry point for newcomers to the Secula

B orn in Bratislava in the kingdom of Hungary, St Elizabeth of Hungary (whose feast day is today) was betrothed at the age of four to Ludwig of Thuringia (Germany) in order to reinforce political alliances between the families and sent to live at his father’s court in Wartburg. Their marriage was solemnised when she was fourteen and he twenty-one.   They had three children in quick succession, and seem to have been happily married . I n 1223, Franciscan friars arrived, and El

Many Carmelites have a favourite Carmelite saint or author.  Perhaps it is the one who first introduced them to Carmel.  Perhaps it is the one who wrote their favourite Carmelite text.  That is all to the good, because people are so very different, we differ by our personalities, by our characters, by our interest, by our inclinations, and by our preferences.  I was originally introduced to Carmel by St John of the Cross and it took a while for me to grow in appreciation of S

Late home last night after a rather long journey to Manchester where we have a wonderful new OCDS group.  We talked about yesterday’s saint – Josaphat – who was born in what is now Ukraine, and we said a prayer for Ukraine.  I compare him with our St Thomas More and St John Fisher and the other Reformation martyrs, because like them he suffered martyrdom in defence of the unity of the Church with the See of Peter.  Down to this day, so many fail to understand that this is a f

Today’s feast of St Josaphat, Archbishop of Polotsk and martyr (1580-1623) draws our attention to a part of the world (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia) that is tormented by conflict at the present time.  The story of this saint is hard to follow because it involved struggles with which most of us are not familiar, but the long and the short of it is that he as an Eastern Catholic promoted unity with Rome in a part of the world dominated by the Orthodox Church and he was put to death

When you are long enough in Carmel, they start to ask you to be responsible for the formation of others, and that is a wonderful blessing.  Spiritual sharing is one of life’s magical experiences, it involves souls drawing close to one another.  It provides an opportunity for heart to speak to heart.  The Carmelite saints bring us into the depths of ourselves and enable us to get a glimpse of the depths of others.  It’s a kind of sharing that doesn’t necessarily happen much in

Carmel has influenced my life in so many ways, conscious and unconscious, Carmel has given me so many and varied gifts.  For example, it was only when I became a Carmelite that I started to follow the daily Office of Readings, and to me one of the stars of this Office is St Leo the Great (400-461), whose feast day is today.  He has a gift for clarity and vividness of expression, and to me he is one of the greatest of the Church Fathers (and not just for his writings, for his

Today we remember the Spanish priest Francisco Palau y Quer OCD (in religion Francisco of Jesus, Mary and Joseph , 1811 – 1872).  To read an account of his life is to be confronted with the challenges and conflicts that engulfed the Church in his country in the nineteenth century.  Until recently I did not realise how much persecution Catholics endured in Spain in the nineteenth century from some of their governments.  At one point he was forced to take refuge in France, wher

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