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- Carmel has never been a very formal place. Our spirituality is one of letting go, not of adding on, so let go of the little customs and focus on the only thing that matters: the love of God for you revealed in Christ Jesus who became human for your sake, and who offered his life on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.
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Why is Mary important in Carmelite spirituality?
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The first Carmelites centred their lives on the Eucharist, and dedicated a chapel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of ‘The Lady of the Place’. Even after their migration to Europe and particularly the big cities, the Carmelites did not lose their mountain identity and Charism. It is through silence and solitude (prayer) that ...
- Brown Scapular Confraternity
Millions of people around the world wear the small brown...
- Saints of Carmel
Across the centuries the Carmelite Order has given witness...
- At Prayer With Carmel
The prayer of the Carmelite community is a sign of the...
- Letters to The Carmelite Family
To mark significant occasions letters to the whole Carmelite...
- The Evangelical Counsels
All Christians are invited to practice the ‘Evangelical...
- The Carmelite Charism
These patrons of the Order have inspired Carmelites over the...
- Medieval Spirituality of The Order
The medieval Carmelite Order first articulated what it is to...
- Contemporary Authors A-J
Günter is a friar of the Upper German Province of...
- Pre-Vatican II Texts
The Directory was intended for novices, but soon it became a...
- Living in Allegiance to Jesus Christ
In that text the Carmelite is described as one whole lives...
- Brown Scapular Confraternity
The Carmelites of the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, in allegiance to Jesus Christ, live in a prophetic and contemplative stance of prayer, common life, and service. Inspired by Elijah and Mary and informed by the Carmelite Rule, we give witness to an eight-hundred-year-old tradition of spiritual transformation in the United States ...
CARMELITE SPIRITUALITY by PAUL MARIE DE LA CROIX of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. INTRODUCTION. The Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel counts among its members many mystics and many saints, its roots are plunged deep in the Old Testament, its mission is specifically spiritual and yet at no time in the past does it seem to have made any ...
Carmelite Order, p. 37) Charisms of Carmelite Spirituality 2. Community –armel is not an organization, even a Christian organization, but a Christian community committed to leading an evangelical life. It is one way among many in which Christians can live out their baptismal call to discipleship. Consequently, the Call to Carmel is a vocation.
- Carmel is Christocentric
- Carmel is Eucharistic
- Carmel is scriptural
- Carmel is in harmony with the teaching office of the Pope and the bishops
- Carmel is in the classic Catholic Tradition
- Carmel is Marian
- Carmel is Elijan
- Carmel is about Community
- Carmel has its roots in the Laity
- Some final thoughts
The first characteristic of Carmel is that we are Christocentric. Carmel is first and foremost about following Jesus Christ. The Rule of Saint Albert outlines the purpose of our vocation. It says: ‘Many and varied are the ways in which our saintly predecessors laid down, how everyone, whatever one’s station in life, or kind of religious observance ...
The second characteristic I’d like to talk about is that Carmel is Eucharistic. Carmelite life has always been centred around the Eucharistic celebration. The first hermits on Mount Carmel gathered daily for the Eucharist. The Eucharist was their one, daily community exercise. That first generation of Carmelites prayed the Psalms alone in their cel...
We are a community centred on the word of God. The prayer book of the Carmelite is the Bible. Lectio Divina is a prayer form that the whole Order is rediscovering. Lectio Divina means the ‘Sacred Reading’, the prayerful, prayer filled, attentive reading of the Word of God. This takes place certainly in the liturgy, both in the Liturgy of the Hours ...
Carmel is a family within the hierarchical Church. This is very necessary, I think, for us to reiterate today. We are not a Church unto ourselves but we’re one part of a Church that stretches around our globe, the Catholic Church. Our Prior General, Father Fernando Millán Romeral, is directly accountable to the Holy See. And every Carmelite friar, ...
There are too many people in the Church these days hitting each other over the head with the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the decrees of the Second Vatican Council or the encyclical letters of the Pope, or decrees from Roman congregations. All these documents are good and fine, but we should remember that they are doorways into an ancient tr...
The next characteristic I would like to speak about is that Carmel is Marian. We belong to Mary. But if you notice, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is always depicted as holding the Child Jesus. Carmelites love Mary and honour her as the one who introduces us to Jesus. Strangely Mary is never mentioned in The Rule of Saint Albert, the document that initia...
That means we look to the prophet Elijah, the great prophet who lived on Mount Carmel eight centuries before Jesus, and we find great inspiration in him. Carmelites from the very beginning of the Order have looked to Elijah for inspiration. They saw in the prophet everything that they wanted to be. He was a man of deep contemplation, one who sought...
The next characteristic I want to talk about is the fact that Carmel is communitarian. One of the most frightening phenomena of the twentieth century has been the breakdown of community at almost every level of society. Pope John Paul II repeatedly wrote and spoke on this subject. And he was particularly critical of North American Society on this a...
My final point in the tape recoding that I made twelve years ago for the American Lay Carmelites was that Carmel is essentially a lay organization. I must admit that I have never been happy with that formulation because it is not quite accurate. In this regard, it is easier to say what we are not, rather than what we are. We are not, at least if we...
I am very concerned about the rapid growth of Lay Carmel. Recently one of my Discalced Carmelite confreres said: ‘The good news is that we are growing very fast and the bad news is that we are growing very fast’. We are growing faster perhaps than we can shape Lay Carmel in harmony with the larger Order. We do not want ideas and practices that are ...
Faithful to the Order’s spiritual heritage, we focus our work, in its various dimensions, on increasing the search for God, and we invite men and women of our time to the experience of contemplation, sharing with them the richness of our spiritual tradition.
The Carmelite Order today Since the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965), Carmelites have reflected at length on their identity, on their charism, on what is fundamental in their lives and what is for them a "life-project", namely "to live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ and serve him faithfully with a pure heart and a good ...
