Carmelite Charism
Consecrated Religious
Contemplatives
Carmelites
Discalced Nuns
We are:
Consecrated Religious
Since the time of the Apostles there have been disciples who leave all to follow Christ in answer to His call. Like Him and at His suggestion, they are poor, chaste and obedient. As this vocation matured, these counsels became the more formal vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience.
Contemplatives
There is nothing greater that we can do than adore God. It is what we will do for all eternity in Heaven. Some Religious have been called by the Church to apply themselves exclusively to this great work. They sit at the feet of the Master like Mary of Bethany. More than all other works done by the members of the Church, this is the most fruitful because it is love in the heart of the Church.
Carmelites
Our religious family, called the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, has ancient roots. Informally we can claim kinship with Elijah the Prophet who spent time on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Structurally we descend from a group of hermits who gathered on that mountain and who have lived by written standards called the Rule of Saint Albert since the 13th Century. This makes us semi-erimetical (half-hermits!) with an emphasis on solitude and silence.
Discalced Nuns
In 1562, in Avila, Spain, Saint Teresa of Jesus began a reform of the Order. Called Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites, they typically wore sandals instead of shoes, the most visible of many symbols of a more radical living of the original ideals of the Rule, the embrace of the poverty and simplicity of the Gospel, and the fellowship of the primitive Church described in the Acts of the Apostles.
Carmelite Charism
Who or What is a Carmelite?
Carmelite Prayer
Our Models - The Saints
Our History
Devotions
“In the measure you desire Him, you will find Him.”