SECULAR ORDER OF DISCALCED CARMELITES
England, Wales and Scotland

This morning we shall be having an OCDS National Council meeting on Zoom.  The National Council is composed of the Regional...

I have received notification of a big conference on S            t Therese of Lisieux to be held at the Boars Hill Carmelite Priory in...

I have been reading a book about the influence of St Teresa of Avila on St Therese of Lisieux.  We are so used to thinking of Therese as...

Philippa Hodges died at Christmas.  A member of the St Elijah Secular Community in Oxford, she had been connected with the Carmelites...

Somebody I was with very recently told me ‘I was wild in my youth’, so I was intrigued to learn a little from Wikipedia about the Italian...

We heard recently of the death of Fr John Hughes OCD.  He had been a presence in the Boars Hill Priory for several years.  I had occasion...

I treasure a story I heard some years ago from a Secular Carmelite named David.  He was talking about how he came to be a Secular, and he...

We have now received the first of our Therese portions for study in our meetings in 2025 from Rome.  This will be the third and last year...

No new blogs until then.

I suspect that it was the writings of St John in the Scriptures which first sowed the Carmelite seed in me when I encountered them as a...

On this St Stephen’s Day, my thoughts turn to our Carmelite Martyrs.  I wrote recently about the sixteen Compiegne Sisters, martyrs of...

I found this report online on how the Carmelite Sisters of Notting Hill in London celebrate Christmas: ‘After the long waiting of Advent,...

The detective instinct in me loves wandering around Google, and this morning I typed in ‘Carmel Christmas’ out of curiosity, and...

In our Carmelite groups the question of ecstatic experiences comes up from time to time.  How important are they? Should we as Carmelites...

Great news for Carmel!  Our Blessed martyrs of Compiegne have at last been canonised! I quote from the internet: ‘In a decision rich in...

Thanks to the wonderful zoom technology, I was able to join our valiant group of Secular Carmelites in mid-Wales last night.  Catholics...

Recently I have been reading about Eve Lavalliere (1866-1929).  A website tells us that ‘For years, Eve Lavalliere was the toast of...

A friend sent me this delightful quotation from one of the Desert Fathers. Abba Lot came to Abba Joseph and said: Father, according as I...

The Feast of St John of the Cross was celebrated appropriately on Saturday at the OCD Priory on Boars Hill outside Oxford.  There was an...

At a recent Carmelite meeting we were discussing the future structure of our meetings.  One of our number observed that in (Secular)...