THE CARMEL 

When a young woman has decided to enter our Carmel and she passes through the enclosure door, she sees a plaque posted over the lintel. It has a quotation from our Foundress, St. Teresa of Jesus, which says, “This Monastery is a paradise for anyone who finds her sole happiness in pleasing God.” The only reason a woman becomes a Nun is because she has realized how much God loves her, and that He is calling her to come to Him along the path of the religious life. “Love is repaid by love alone,” and the love in her heart responds to the love in His. This is what it means to please God, and this is why life in a Monastery is truly a paradise, if all you want is to respond to God’s love for you.

People often ask this. The answer to that is we try to turn everything into prayer. We take the ordinary things of everyday living and we try to transform them into prayer. We try to turn housework into prayer, to turn garden work into prayer, to turn laughter and conversation into prayer. And most of all, we try to turn prayers into prayer, for saying prayers is only the doorway to prayer, which is to look at the hidden face of God. In this, our days are filled with everything from the ordinary to the extraordiinary. We do common household chores and gardening, we greet guests and speak with those in need, and we work on our various projects with our printing press and in our gift shop.

No. There are some religions where members can take a vow of silence, but that does not exist in the Catholic Church. For us, words are sacred because they are meant to be echoes of the one Word of God who “became flesh and lived among us.” However, because we worship the Word made Flesh, we greatly value silence. Silence, interior and exterior silence, is necessary for listening, and only a silent heart can hear the Word of God. As St. John of the Cross wrote, The Father spoke one word, who was His Son, and this He speaks always in eternal silence, and only in silence is it heard by the soul.” (Sayings of Light and Love, # 99)

Scapular is derived from the Latin word “scapula” which means “shoulder.” It was originally worn as an apron, but very quickly became a symbol of the protection of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and of the Carmelites’ devotion to her. Down through the centuries, Mary has shown that she protects and guides those who entrust themselves to her under the sign of the Brown Scapular. Carmelite friars and nuns wear the full-length scapular, but there is also the small version, and anyone can wear that. You can learn more about it here: http://ocarm.org/en/content/ocarm/scapular and https://ocdfriarsvocation.org/the-habit-of-the-discalced-carmels/

Discalced simply means 'unshod'. 'Calceus' is the Latin for 'shoe' and 'dis' means “without.” When St. Teresa began her reformed branch of the Carmelites, she wanted a life of greater poverty and so instead of wearing shoes, which were very expensive at that time, and still are, she decided that her Nuns and Friars would wear sandals, the footgear of poor people.