Carmelite Prayer
Prayer as friendship with Christ is the typical Teresian way of living our vocation for God alone in community. Prayer is our apostolate blessed with the opportunity of living together in community with others who are seeking the same ideal.
We observe the traditional three vows: Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience professed by all religious in the Church. Saint Teresa wrote a book of guidelines for her nuns and in it she gave her reason for founding the Discalced Carmelites.
“I was determined to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could, and to see that these few nuns who are here should do the same.”
As Carmelites our day is ordered in such a way to combine Prayer, work to support ourselves as well as we can, meals in common, recreation and rest. See A Day in the Life for our typical day in the monastery.
St. Teresa of Avila
When Saint Teresa founded the first monastery of Discalced Carmelite Nuns, her objective was -
“all my longing was and still is that since He has so many enemies and so few friends that these few friends be good ones.”
This theme of friendship threads through Saint Teresa's writings. Her prayer and what she teaches her nuns (and others) is based on friendship with Jesus. If you give this some thought you get a pretty good view of the charism of Carmel. Teresa came to know Christ by pondering different incidents from the Gospels. She loved the story of the woman at the well. Her narrative about this and other Gospel stories are warm and human. From her insights intimacy of friendship with Christ flows naturally.
Saint Teresa tells her nuns that one of the main reasons she brought them together and they have withdrawn from the world is to pray for priests. She explains that preachers and theologians are often so busy that they do not have time to pray. This is truly a serious neglect but we can help them by our prayers. As St. Paul tells us we are all connected in the Body of Christ and as such the interior organs - the heart and lungs - fortify the active parts of the body - mind, speech, hands and feet, etc. The body would not be alive without the enclosed organs and these need to be healthy too. What keeps this spiritual structure healthy? Contact with God and that is maintained in prayer.
Carmelite Charism
Who or What is a Carmelite?
Carmelite Prayer
Our Models - The Saints
Our History
Devotions
“Always prefer the one who tries your patience, who tests your virtue.”