Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
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
All the Sisters with their veils raised came to greet me with such affection that I was embarrassed. They asked me when I was coming. I told them in May. Then one went to look at the calendar... It turned out the seventh was the Feast of Saint Joseph, and they commended me to him.
I see that God does grant the prayers of His Carmelites since baby and mama are doing so well... I’m sure Saint Joseph will finish his work and you’ll be able to nurse your little darling.
The Discalced Carmelites who remain in Ukraine look to the martyr Saint Edith Stein for inspiration and discernment because she was willing “to live and die in the hands of the Lord, as God wills and when God wills.” Father Józef Kucharczyk, OCD gives us an update and thanks us for our prayer and financial support.
What is the Discalced Carmelite experience in Ukraine at the moment? Provincial Delegate Father Józef Kucharczyk explains: "This is what I feel: spiritual warfare! I don’t feel like a hero... The priests and the faithful don’t feel like heroes, but we are really fighting with the devil!"
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
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"
"Jesus, my Love, I resolve to be yours," was a resolution found in retreat notes that the saint had made while preparing for her religious profession.
O more than admirable power, wisdom and goodness of my Lord and God, why am I not able to make every created being into a soul at will?
A new history celebrating one hundred years of the Carmelite community of nuns in East Anglia has just been published. Naturally, Margaret Rope (‘Sister Margaret of The Mother of God’ as she became), who joined the community in 1923, is heavily featured within the book. […]A century of Carmelites — Celebrating Margaret Rope - stained... Continue Reading →
Whatever the troubles and difficulties that weigh you down, bear them all patiently and keep in mind that these are the things which constitute your cross.
The spirit of the Beguines is an important factor in this chronicle because it exercised a definite influence on some convents of early Carmelite nuns.
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