Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity began her ten-day retreat on this day in 1904, the first since her profession retreat in January 1903. She told her sister that the extra solitude and prayer “created a very enticing schedule” because “I'm going to lose myself in Him.”
"The chief among Teresa’s virtues was the love of God, which our Lord Jesus Christ increased by means of many visions and revelations... she saw an angel with a flaming dart piercing her heart..." (Pope Gregory XV)
We recall the liberation of Lisieux on this date as we share a quote from Céline about her experiences during the summer of 1944: "After fifty years of eremitic life, suddenly to find myself displaced and thrown into the middle of the world, veil raised, is so savage for me, a real martyrdom..."
On 10 August 1567, Carmelite Prior General Giovanni Battista Rossi wrote from Barcelona giving St. Teresa permission to found two houses of "contemplative Carmelite friars" in Castile. Here is the story of how they met...
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity can't hide the fact that she has a particular love for the Divine Office. Where St. Therese of the Child Jesus found it helpful to imagine herself throwing flowers during the Church's official prayer, Elizabeth instead deeply appreciates the Latin in the Liturgy of the Hours and frequently uses Latin quotations in her retreats and letters.
On the 4th of July 1942, the Prioress of the Carmel of Le Pâquier, Switzerland proposed to the voting members of the monastic community that St. Edith Stein should transfer and be received as a member of the community. On July 5, the nuns gathered once again and held a secret vote...
Learn the story of Mother Teresa of Jesus from the first Carmel in Maryland: a relative of Francis Scott Key, author of the Star-Spangled Banner, and the daughter of Clement Sewall, famed in the history of Georgetown.
St. Teresa of the Andes meditates on the Carmelite call to a life of perfection: "Perfection of life consists in drawing close to God... What is the life of a Carmelite if not one of contemplating, adoring, and loving God incessantly?"
Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew describes her experiences as Prioress in Paris in the year 1605. She tells us that four professed religious and two novices left Paris to found a new Discalced Carmelite monastery in Amiens on Pentecost. There was a Pontifical Mass and the Bishop had the head of St. John the Baptist carried in procession!
In June 1944, Mother Agnès of Jesus was ready to sacrifice the Carmel of Lisieux to God if he wanted it. The obituary circular notice written by her nuns for the other Carmels in France testified to her valiant spirit. The nuns were terrified, while she remained calm. Read an excerpt from this circular letter.
We recall the anniversary of the profession of the foundress of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in the United States, Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson on 3 June 1773, with an excerpt from her journal of the voyage from Netherlands to America on the anniversary date.
When a smallpox epidemic broke out in Baltimore in the closing months of the year 1882, many persons begged the Discalced Carmelite nuns to pray for an end to the calamity. The nuns chanted the now-famous prayer, Stella Caeli Extirpavit to Our Lady, for help in time of pestilence.
When Sister Maria Lucia, the Fatima visionary entered the Carmel of Coimbra, the Prioress showed Lucia to her cell after the morning Mass. Above the door she saw the name of the cell: "Immaculate Heart of Mary". There was a verse addressed to its inhabitant: "My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge."
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!"
Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, one of the foundresses of the Teresian Carmel in North America, kept a journal of their journey from Holland to New York and Maryland. They set sail on 25 April 1790 from Texel, Holland bound for New York.
On Easter Sunday, 17 April 2022, Father General Miguel Márquez Calle sent video greetings to the entire Order from Bucha, Ukraine. From the burial ground where the friars had just prayed for the dead, he wished to extend resurrection greetings: "to all the Order we wish you a Happy Easter where death does not have the last word." Watch his video with our English subtitles.
Out of the thank-you letters that St. Edith Stein wrote after her first profession, her letter to Mother Petra Brüning is touching: "out of the great riches of grace on this Easter day, I let all those have a share who have given me something of their heart to take along into Carmel." We explain some of the customs that Edith mentions in her letter.
Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, better known as Madame Acarie, spared no effort in introducing the Discalced Carmelite nuns into France
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Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. ~ St. Teresa of Avila
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