Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne were beatified on 27 May 1906. Now the Holy Father has granted the opening of the Process of Equipollent Canonization. We have the details from the Discalced Carmelite General Curia.
St. Thérèse explains that during her novitiate she had difficulty during her one-on-one sessions with her novice mistress: "I had never become accustomed to speaking about my soul and I didn’t know how to express what was going on within it."
Frei Belchior de Santa Ana describes how pious recreations that prepared St Teresa's nuns for martyrdom became part of the tradition at the new monastery of San Alberto in Lisbon. But they nearly became a rehearsal for reality on 9 May 1585 when the English Armada attacked the city.
Saint Teresa of the Andes entered the Carmel of the Holy Spirit in the township of Los Andes, some 90 kilometers from her home in Santiago de Chile on Wednesday, 7 May 1919. The Prioress said that when Teresa said farewell to her oldest sister, she said, "Until heaven! Life is so short!"
On the feast day of the male religious who died in the Spanish Revolution in the 1930s, we recall St Teresa's counsel from the Way of Perfection: "It is clear that if someone is a true religious or a true person of prayer and aims to enjoy the delights of God, he must not turn his back upon the desire to die for God and suffer martyrdom."
With gratitude for the life of biographer Father Timothy Tierney, OCD (1941-2022) he quotes Kalinowski saying, "All our actions are eternal; when you work with love for God and neighbor, our actions deserve an eternal reward."
The Discalced Carmelite friars and nuns are not immune to the current crisis in Ukraine. On 28 February 2022, the Discalced Carmelite General Superior, Father Miguel Márquez Calle, interviewed Father Józef Kucharczyk, the Provincial Delegate in Ukraine, asking him to describe the Discalced Carmelite presence, their current experience, as well as their needs. Here is our translation of that interview.
Virtue always inspires love, and I hope in His Majesty that those living in this house will with the help of God always be virtuous
Formerly, little Mother, I used to like to think that in heaven I would know all the marvels of nature, all the beauty of the stars and their immensity. Now, all that holds little interest for me, and I desire only one thing — to lose myself in Him Who has done so many wonderful things....
"My Mother, here is the Bridegroom!" This was the inscription on the holy card that St. Elizabeth of the Trinity presented as a gift to her novice mistress on the day of her religious profession, 11 January 1903. Learn more about this day...
Recalling Thomas Merton's predilection for the Carmelites on today's anniversary of his death, we announce an online, live presentation on Merton and the Fruits of Contemplation sponsored by the Discalced Carmelite friars in the UK
Céline tells us that Thérèse "received an audience with the Holy Father on Sunday 20th November 1887 with the pilgrims of the dioceses of Coutances, Bayeux, and Nantes"
St. Raphael Kalinowski contributed greatly to the restoration of the Discalced Carmelites in Poland. He founded a convent for the friars at Wadowice, where St. John Paul II visited as a young man and "received many graces there".
The ninth poem in the generally acknowledged collection of St. Teresa's poetry is her brief meditation 'On Patience' called 'Nada Te Turbe'. We present two English translations and a commentary by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D.
Celebrating the centenary of the conversion of Saint Edith Stein in the summer of 1921
"To found a monastery where there will be only fifteen nuns and no possibility for any increase in numbers. They will practice a very strict enclosure and thus never go out or be seen without veils covering their faces. Their lives will be founded on prayer and mortification."
After a passage of two months, the nuns arrived at New York on the 2nd of July, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The refugees assembled for the daily prayers in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary
I want to write down a dream that I had about Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus
There is no one who knows more than he what it means to live a life of intimacy with Jesus and Mary
Carmelite Quotes 
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