SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

I always love to read testimonies of the influence of the Carmelite saints. This one is from children’s author, writer, and podcaster Thomas J Salerno. ‘Not long ago, on a whim, I picked up a copy of St. Teresa of Ávila’s autobiography. I knew of this saint only as a famous Carmelite mystic and doctor of the Church. I was mostly unfamiliar with her writing and had expected ethereal meditations on her many raptures and visions. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find tha

I came across this account of today’s saint, John Berchmans SJ, one of a whole multitude of Catholic saints who died young, and I was interested because the author, a fellow Jesuit named Fr John Hardon (1914-2000), compares him to St Therese of Lisieux. ‘St. John Berchmans was born in 1599 in Berbont, Belgium and died in Rome in 1621 at the ripe age of twenty-two. Unlike Saints Stanislaus and Aloysius who were members of the nobility, aristocratic, wealthy – John was from a

Today’s feast day of St Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641), co-founder with St Francis de Sales of the Order of the Visitation, is a reminder of the miraculous spread of Carmel in seventeenth-century France. Jane Frances was counselled and mentored by Francis de Sales and he was intimately involved in the establishment of Carmel in their country. On the face of it, we might think that this was not a particularly difficult task to complete, but there were all kinds of compl

This feast day of St Clare of Assisi (1193-1253), foundress of the Poor Clares, reminds us of her influence on St Teresa. In Chapter 33 of Teresa’s Life we read the following: “On Saint Clare's [feast] day, as I was going to Communion, that Saint [Clare] appeared to me in great beauty and told me to put forth all my efforts and proceed with what I had begun and she would help me. I conceived a great devotion for her and her words turned out to be the exact truth, for a conve

We had an extraordinary meeting in Manchester last week. The group is just one year old and there were fourteen of us - including a member who actually lives in Austria; he attends meetings onscreen via Teams. It’s not often that an OCDS meeting attracts such a large number. Some of them of course were what we call inquirers or aspirants or visitors. What struck me was that the key factor in this is the contagious enthusiasm of the Seculars for the meetings and for the Or

We have received a report from American Catholic broadcaster EWTN on the recent World Meeting of Discalced Carmelites, and I have extracted a few passages from it below: ‘The first world meeting of OCDS Carmelites in the history of the order was held July 23–26, 2026, in Ávila, Spain, where the leaders of the Order of Discalced Carmelites called upon their almost 33,000 Seculars to fully embrace their vocation as coequal members of the order. This historic call was enthusias

I found this inspiring quote on the website of the Australian Carmelites; it is particularly appropriate on today’s Feast of the Transfiguration and it speaks volumes about our Carmelite vocation. ‘Transfiguration means to be shot-through with the presence of God. Being transfigured is about allowing the presence of God to completely transform us; it’s a revolution of mind and heart driven by God’s Spirit and enabled by our open heartedness. Our life as Christians is about

The state of play regarding OCDS in England and Wales is very mixed at the present moment. It is true on the one hand that new groups have been springing up in various areas, but on the other hand some older groups have been shrinking or simply ageing. The fresh shoots are very encouraging but in some cases they do present an appearance of fragility – one of them has been stuck on a membership of only three for a couple of years. However the quality of commitment of those

I came across this delightful story that reminds us of the great love St John Vianney – whose feast day is today – had for the scapular. ‘Abbé Francis Trochu, in his book, ‘The Curé d’Ars’, relates a story of a young lady who, having decided to consecrate her life to religion, sought the holy pastor of Ars, Saint John Vianney, for a general confession. When she finished relating her sins, St. John Vianney asked her if she was not forgetting something. The girl, upon recolle

Although I myself did not have the privilege of attending the recent World Meeting of the Secular Carmelites in Avila, I have heard reports from one or two who were present, and they have been deeply moved by the experience: their excitement is palpable. However, coming back from a period of exceptional inspiration to immerse oneself again in the humdrum realities of daily living can itself be a bit of a struggle. I have never forgotten a beautiful fortnight I once spent in