Discerning a Carmelite vocation

How do you know if you are called to be a lay (Secular) Carmelite?  As an OCDS Regional Representative I have had many conversations over the past ten years with inquirers.  I have heard a variety of fascinating stories from them, stories that are very different while having a common thread.  That thread is the attraction of the great Carmelite saints – in particular Therese of Lisieux and Teresa of Avila.  This is not fundamentally an intellectual or mental attraction, it is nothing more or less than a kind of love affair.  We are drawn to these saints and many others because we grow to love them.  The attraction does often have a cerebral dimension but deep down it is a matter of the heart.  When the Good Lord is drawing a person to Carmel, that person starts to find himself wanting to identify with this or that Carmelite saint, wanting to know her, wanting to pray as she did, wanting to love the Lord as she did.  One of the delightful aspects of our meetings is that our discussions of Carmelite writings are about absorbing the Carmelite spirit, not about fulfilling the requirements of a study course.  We can look forward to those discussions as explorations rather than as worrying tests of our knowledge.

Intercessions:

Cancer: Brian Davis, Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Sue B, Theresa K, Fr Jon

Siena, Elara – sick children

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David OCDS – housebound; Martin Gilham – unable to attend community meetings

Sophia – blind infant

Joy Smith OCDS – seriously ill

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)