SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

Today we remember St Peter Thomas (1305-1366) who was an unusual kind of Carmelite saint.  Unusual in terms of his vocation, because he ended up serving as a papal diplomat.  He was a Frenchman from a very poor family who had to go begging to support the cost of his education; he also made money by teaching the younger pupils.  His early years were spent in Agen and the southwest of France.  After joining the Carmelites he was appointed a bishop and then a papal legate mainly

Neophiliacs - this word was coined in the 60s as a book title to label people who are in love with novelties, of whom there are all too many in the modern era.  In this respect however I have to confess that in relation to books I myself am always in search of new thoughts and ideas and discoveries - it has not been much in my nature thus far to reread books.  Why would I read such and such a book again ?  I got the message the first time.  And yet in Carmel I find myself rer

I found this lovely quote from St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross OCD about our experience of Epiphany in our lives as Carmelites.  ‘…the kings have a special meaning for us ... Even though we already belonged to the external Church, an interior impulse nevertheless drove us out of the circle of inherited viewpoints and conventions.  We knew God, but we felt that he desired to be sought and found by us in a new way. Therefore we wanted to open ourselves and sought for a star to

We are now in the year of St John of the Cross; it began in Segovia (where his tomb is) on 13 December last, the day before his saint’s day.  This year we celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of his canonisation and the centenary of the conferment of his doctorate.  I am hugely grateful to this amazing saint, for I came across The Ascent of Carmel in my twenties and it was definitely one of many signposts pointing me to the Catholic Church a few years later.  It wasn’t t

New Year’s greetings to all who are following the Carmelite way!  We are now more than a quarter of a century into the ‘new’ millennium.  Many of us can remember the first day of that millennium.  The New Year not only marks a fresh start but it also offers a reminder of the swiftness of the passage of time.  C S Lewis made an observation along these lines:  the very fact that we are so conscious of the passage of time, of the shortness of our earthly existence, suggests that