SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

I spent yesterday morning listening to the life story of an extraordinary man whose life has been given to God from his twenties.  He and his wife have devoted themselves to service of the Lord for these last thirty years - and it has taken them and their large family into a great deal of shocking suffering.  As I listened, I was reminded of how I offered myself to Jesus at the age of 17, fondly thinking that if a person surrenders his life in that way, all will be straightfo

Someone mentioned in an OCDS group the other day the book entitled Divine Intimacy, by Fr Gabriel of St Magdalen.   On the website entitled Goodreads I found the following description of it: ‘It is a book that shows how to join prayer and action and put the Catholic doctrine on the spiritual life into practice daily. [It] has been translated into all principal languages and has met with extraordinary success, bringing encouragement and spiritual profit to lay people as well a

Sometimes in search of inspiration for the day’s blog I like to search the net by combining the name of the saint of the day with the words ‘Carmel’ or ‘Carmelites’.  Today’s saint is the Frenchman St Hilaire, and by this means I found a story about a Carmelite community in the south of France.  The Abbaye Saint Hilaire in the Vaucluse is believed to have been founded in the 12th century and dedicated to one of the local Provençal saints, another Saint Hilaire.  It was built

Carmelite Formation has been somewhat on my mind of late.  ‘What exactly is it?’ asked a member of a new group recently.  The truth is that approaches to formation vary considerably.  I am aware that in the US formation can be rather more demanding than in the UK.  However, the truth is that formation is something of a mysterious process because it is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit and it is not accomplished by this or that method alone.  Lest this might be thought a

Another Carmelite Prelate is celebrated by the Church today.  After St Peter Thomas yesterday we have St Andrew Corsini (1302-1373/4).  After a Frenchman, an Italian who was actually a contemporary of his and just three years older.  Both men served as papal legates.  Corsini was canonised in 1629, Peter Thomas a year earlier, and both were canonised by Pope Urban VIII.  The story goes that when Pope Clement VI appointed him Bishop of Fiesole, St Andrew went into hiding.  The

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

Delighted to discover the beautiful and inspiring website of an enclosed community of Carmelite friars in Wyoming in the USA.  It is good to end the calendar (natural) year on a positive note.  I quote from their website: ‘The Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel is a monastic, cloistered Roman Catholic community founded in the Rocky Mountains in the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming. In the solitude and silence of the mountain wilderness, the Carmelite monks of

I like this quote from Fr François de Sainte-Marie, a twentieth-century French Discalced Carmelite who was a prolific author and editor.  ‘Jesus continues to be born, to grow, and to die in the course of history, according to the very rhythm of the liturgical year, which takes up and gives voice to all the aspirations, the sufferings, the joys, and all the love of his own. And the Virgin, beside her Son, continues her watch of love through the souls who are devoted to her.’  

Great and encouraging news from Australia!  The Aleteia website informs us of a new Carmelite monastery in New South Wales – the Carmel of Elijah: ‘Cardinal Mykola Bychok of Sydney and Bishop Columba Macbeth-Green of Wilcannia-Forbes will preside over the groundbreaking of a new monastery for an order of Discalced Carmelite nuns on January 10, as the order officially establishes a presence in the town of Mathoura, New South Wales, Australia.  The Discalced Carmelites arrived

Christmas greetings to all readers. Although I have visited Carmel City in California, I have never been to the city of Carmel, Indiana, but you might like to know that they claim to have 'the best Christmas Market in the US'! Wikipedia says ' this town, founded in 1837, was originally called 'Bethlehem'. A post office was established as "Carmel" in 1846 because Indiana already had a post office called Bethlehem .  The name Carmel is a reference to 1 Samuel 25:2 mentioning

Below is a poem appropriate to the season by Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit OCD). ‘Come is the love song of our race and Come our basic word of individual wooing. It lifts audacious arms of lowliness to majesty’s most amiable undoing, to Godhood fleshed and cradled and made least. It whispers through closed doors a hurry, hurry to Tierce and fiery feast. The liturgy of Advent plucks its bud from the green shrub of love’s compendium: O Wisdom, Adonai, Root of

I found this on a Carmelite website about a rather beautiful custom that the Sisters have: ‘One of the most treasured customs of our sisters is the Carmelite tradition of picking a day to spend in silence and solitude with the Infant Jesus statue in our cell. Each sister draws from a set of cards the particular day she will have as her “Hermit Day” during Advent. She will prepare her cell in any creative way she desires in order to welcome the special Guest. After vespers the

Some years ago I started a ‘ Going Deeper ’ monthly meeting in my parish.  My purpose was to encourage those members of the congregation who were ready to go deeper into their faith and prayer life and give them food and advice for the journey inwards.  The food and the advice were to come from the writings of our great Carmelite saints.  Our meetings - lasting ninety minutes - have been structured on the pattern of OCDS meetings with Evening Prayer said together, discussion

We buried my good friend Richard yesterday.  I had known him for more than thirty years but I did not realise how very fond I was of him until he left us.  I found myself thinking – how does Carmel help us to cope with death and bereavement?  There are many ways of answering this question, but I recall reading somewhere that as Catholics and Carmelites we have already died in this life because we have pledged to go beyond the ties which bind us to this earth.  We have declare

Today I came across the story of Blessed Agnes of Jesus (1602-1634), a French Dominican nun who is particularly remembered in connection with prayer for priests - which of course is an important part of our Carmelite vocation. I have lifted the following information from a Dominican website, telling of a miraculous instance of prayer for priests: ' At the cloister in Langeac, Agnes gave herself fully to the religious life, burning with an ardent love for Christ crucified an

I shall be travelling to help celebrate some birthdays over the next few days, so the blog will be suspended till Wednesday 17th December (when I have to attend a funeral!)