SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

Many people find solace in Teresa's famous saying  Let nothing frighten you,  All things pass away:  God never changes.  Patience obtains...

Still thinking about St Mary of Jesus Crucified - otherwise known as Mariam Bouardy OCD (1846-1878), or 'the little Arab'. Born in Upper...

'Every Christian needs a half hour of prayer each day, except when he is busy, then he needs an hour'. I just came across this quote...

I guess we are just at the beginning of the internet age. We in Carmel are faced with the challenge of making use of this tool to fulfil...

Perhaps the most famous image of our St Teresa is Bernini's sculpture representing her transverberation - the piercing of her heart by a...

I have been learning about Mariam Baouardy, known as 'the little Arab ', who was born in the Holy Land in the nineteenth century. Her...

I have spent the night at the Bridgettines Guest House at Iver Heath. This branch of the ancient Order was founded by Maria Hasselblad,...

Today's Office of Readings has a wonderful passage from St Pius X - whose feast day is toda - on the Psalms. In Carmel we say Psalms...

If you google St Bernard (c1090-1153) - whose feast is celebrated today - you will find shedloads of information about the dog breed but...

The question of meetings in August is a funny one. August is of course the holiday month, so some group members will be away. Is that...

We Carmelites have always revelled in our relationship with St Elijah. But now his successor St Elishah can be celebrated on 14 June, as...

Before I became a Catholic I looked on the dogma of the Assumption with great scepticism. It seemed like just another novelty produced...

This day in 1941 saw the death of a great Catholic saint: like Edith Stein and Titus Brandsma, the Carmelite saints who had both perished...

Yesterday I wrote a few lines comparing the physical and the spiritual ascent (cf. John of the Cross). There is a famous remark...

I was having coffee with a friend after mass yesterday and we were talking - as you do at this time of year - about holidays. She...

These words are said to have been spoken by St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross OCD (Edith Stein) as she was forcibly removed from the...

Today's feast of St Dominic set me thinking about those periods in history which seem to produce spectacular lives of sanctity, lives of...

If you have ever been to Sicily, you might have taken the ferry from the mainland to the port of Messina.  It was there that a great...

Tomorrow is the funeral of Evelyn Rodgers, who has died at the age of 100. Evelyn was a member of the OCDS community in Wincanton in the...

At our Coventry meeting on Saturday I was struck by how our discussion of a text by Therese of Lisieux led into the difficulties all of...