SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

Following on from reflections on St Bernadette yesterday, more thoughts on Carmel and Lourdes. Mother Theresa of Jesus arrived in Lourdes to found the community of the Carmel of Lourdes on July 16, 1876. It happens that 16 July (1858) was the day of the 18th and last apparition of Mary to Bernadette. And of course this same July 16 is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Lourdes is special for me in all sorts of ways but one of the beauties of the shrine is that I find

My thoughts turn to the wonderful St Bernadette on this her feast day. She would have loved to become a Carmelite but her poor health would have made it impossible for her to cope with the austerity of the life. However, ‘there is a strong link between the Carmelites and Lourdes. The last apparition of Our Lady took place on the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, 16th July 1858. Bernadette recalled that Our Lady looked more radiant and beautiful than ever. Due to the crowds t

Working on a talk for the John of the Cross Summit at Boars Hill Friary in July. I have chosen the theme Spiritual Surgery with St John of the Cross. I love the way that this great saint probes into the human psyche as the surgeon probes into the body, diggng out and exhibiting the hidden kinks in our nature which hold us back on our spiritual journey. One of my favourites is his analysis of ‘spiritual gluttony’. John tells us that ‘ on account of the sweetness which t

I have just come across this story of how St Therese of Lisieux came into someone’s life. ‘I suffer from bipolar disorder. Thanks to professional medical attention and medication, it has been 20 years since I have had a manic episode. However, I remember that in 1990, after ten years of normalcy, I had a manic attack which was brief, however it was followed by a period of depression that was most debilitating. Although I had struggled through dark moods before, this was part

In my capacity as OCDS Outreach representative I am the gateway for inquirers who ask about the Seculars as a result of looking at the website. It is my job to route them to the Regional Representative of the area in which they live, and that person should be able to find them a group or community near enough to where they live to be accessible. The Seculars nationally are organised into Regions for purposes of administration and mutual encouragement through annual Regional

A couple of days ago I wrote about the amazing St Julie Billiart (1751-1816) and her connection with the Carmelites, and today we have another beautiful example of a saint with a strong Carmelite association from the same era – St Magdalene of Canossa (1774-1835). Born into a wealthy family in northern Italy, at age 15 she announced she wished to become a nun. After trying out her vocation with the cloistered Carmelites , she realized her desire was to serve the needy withou

I came back from spending Easter in the US greatly heartened, for there are signs of a resurgence of interest in the faith on the part of a younger generation. I watched for myself in New York’s St Patrick’s Basilica as a large number were received into full communion with the Church. One commentator even spoke of St Joseph’s in Greenwich Village as ‘the hottest place in New York’, reporting long queues of young people wanting to attend mass. I always thought of this parti

Today is the feast day of such a truly astonishing French saint with strong Carmelite connections that I can’t resist blogging about her - St Julie Billiart (1751-1816) – because her story is so extraordinary and it is worth reading at greater length than the paragraph I normally restrict myself to. ‘ By the age of seven she had memorized the whole catechism. When she was eight, she was already gathering poor children and teaching them religion and how to read and write. Whi

Due to travels. Wishing all readers many graces in Holy Week and Easter. Intercessions Cancer : Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Fr Jon Bielowski (Plymouth Diocese), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Sister Daranee Teapthong Illness : Hilary Solomon Siena, Elara – sick children David OCDS – housebound Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family health problems Michael – youngster with occult influences Defence of the unborn and

Fascinated to discover the close association between St Oscar Romero (1917-1980), whose feast day is today, and the Carmelites. Archbishop Romero of El Salvador was assassinated because of his defence of justice and opposition to political violence. At Romero's side at the time of his martyrdom — when he was shedding blood from his nose and mouth — two Carmelite sisters tried in vain to save his life of the saint, something captured in historic photos of that day. The siste

We are celebrating the 300 th anniversary of the canonisation of St John of the Cross this year, but another great Spaniard was also canonised in the same month (December) in that year – his near contemporary St Turibius of Mogrovejo, the Apostle of Peru (1538-1606 – St John was born in 1542 and died in 1591). Turibius frequently prayed, fasted, and gave to the poor even as a child, and eventually developed the daily habit of praying the Rosary along with the Little Office o

‘Christ prayed throughout His entire life, whereas He spent only three years preaching. Since God does not distribute His graces to men except through prayer, because He wishes us to recognize Him as the source from which all good things flow; in like manner, He does not wish to save us from danger, or cure our wounds, or console us in affliction, except by means of this same exercise of prayer.’ This passage is from the ‘Carmelite Quotes’ website and it comes originally fro

One cannot draw close to St Teresa without becoming aware of her devotion to St Joseph (Feast Day today). St. Teresa reminds us why St. Joseph is such a great intercessor. “To other saints, Our Lord seems to have given power to succour us in some special necessity,” she wrote, “but to this glorious saint (I know by my experience), he has given the power to help us in all things. Our Lord would have us understand that, as he was subject to Joseph on earth — St. Joseph, bearin

We were debating last night in a little local prayer group about changing the name under which we operate. It has been called a ‘Going Deeper’ group from the beginning but it has dwindled drastically in numbers and we feel it needs a rebrand. We have come up with ‘Tuning into Prayer’ as a title – apparently the expression ‘tune in’ is popular today. It’s actually a kind of Carmelite Spirituality group without being called that. We start by saying Evening Prayer together,

I leave others to discourse eloquently about glorious St Patrick today; I would just comment that the Irish Catholics have surely done their country proud in their travels around the world, carrying our faith along with them and planting it all over. I just want to mention something that happened recently in a tiny new OCDS group. We were discussing who to choose as our patron, and one member who is thoroughly Welsh but with strong Polish connections suggested the Polish sa

I have recently been talking to a couple of men who are to be received into the Church soon – one at Easter, one at Pentecost. There is something special about souls on the verge of joining us, there is a freshness and an excitement in them. Both of these men have made a particular impression on me, each in a different way. One of them is already thinking about Carmel, as he explained to me. He realises that although it may feel like the end of a long search, entering the

‘From prayer, we must draw the water that nourishes and preserves the flowers of the virtues. If we do not go to that divine fountain to draw this water, how could those virtues grow in the garden of our soul, or remain fresh—those that our Lord may have granted us by some particular grace of His? Rather, through our own fault and negligence, they would wither if we remain idle in prayer, spending our time thinking about irrelevant things, when instead we ought to be working

A very powerful message on prayer from the Early Church Father Tertullian in this morning’s Office of Readings. ‘ Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God’, he writes. This alone is a very beautiful thought – that we have the power to ‘conquer God’. Then he goes on to a very beautiful paragraph: ‘ All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look out to heaven and call out, lifti

‘What does it profit you to give God one thing if He asks of you another? Consider what it is God wants, and then do it.’ This reflection is taken from Sayings of Light and Love by St John of the Cross, and it certainly resonates for me in my life. I spent many years offering my life to God in the context of a certain vocation only to have it borne in on me that this was not to be my vocation. Gradually I had to accept that God had other plans for my life; offering my lif

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting up with E for lunch. We first met many years ago as students. At that time we were acquaintances and nothing more, though we shared an enthusiasm for the Lord as evangelical (born-again) Christians. Our paths crossed again some years later after we had graduated, but still as acquaintances. I had become a Catholic by then. Years later our paths crossed yet again on one particular day when I happened to be giving a talk and E turned