top of page
Search

Our crest

I was in a Seculars group meeting yesterday and we had a talk from the wonderful Fr Matt Blake OCDS.  He was talking about the cross and about Edith Stein and about her book The Science of the Cross.  This book is very much focussed on the writings of St John of the Cross.  Fr Matt pointed out something I had not noticed: not only has the cross always had a very special significance to the Discalced Carmelite Order, but indeed the OCD crest is to be distinguished from the traditional (O.Carm) Carmelite one by the addition of a cross in the centre.  He also pointed out that the cross was employed by the Romans not simply as a means of execution, but as an utterly shameful means of execution, so that Our Lord was not simply killed but set up for the most extreme kind of public humiliation.  There are so many lessons for us in that fact.

 

Intercessions

Chris, in intensive care

Baby S, in recovery from a complex heart operation

 

 

 

 
 
 

Recent Posts

See All
Mysterious Crosses

‘If you wish to bear only ‘reasonable’ crosses, then perfection is not for you.’ I came across this quotation from St Teresa and it struck a chord with me. Before I became a Catholic, I had begun my

 
 
 
Sanctity and Despair

St Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi O.Carm (1566-1607 – feast day today) was a much younger Italian contemporary of St Teresa; her incorrupt body remains in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence.

 
 
 
Trials overcome triumphantly

Yesterday I wrote about St Eugene de Mazenod and referred to the destruction of Carmel in the French Revolution and its later restoration in the 19th Century. A leading role in the restoration of the

 
 
 

Comments


bottom of page