Dear Visitor,
As a reflection on
the wonder of the website and all our
modern means of communication, I am more than
ever drawn to praise of God. What wonderous
means and helps we now have to diffuse knowledge
of our Carmelite ideals and way of life.
The Carmelite Order
is widespread throughout the world --
men and women religious and members of the Secular
Order. Yet all this development came from a very
small nucleus or seed. This seed was planted early
in the 13th century in the Holy Land, on
Mt. Carmel. A small group of men got
together for the first time, in a little
valley looking out on the Mediterranian,
where there was a source of water which in time
was called the Fount of Elijah. They envisioned
a way of life for themselves, in community, based
on allegience to Jesus Christ, prayer and
apostolic endeavour.
They requested and
obtained a Rule of Life from St. Albert,
Patriarch of Jerusalem. Fidelity to that Rule of
Life in the course of seven centuries has brought
the Carmelite Order to its status in the Church
today -- pre-eminent for constancy of prayer
and devotion to Mary, mother and queen
of Carmel. It is now a religious order
which includes within its fold, as well
as religious, the well-known lay organisation
called the Secular Order. Read on...
Fr. Michael Buckley, OCD
Spiritual Assistant (Emeritus)
OCDS Provincial Delegate (Emeritus)
Carmelite House of Prayer, Oakville, California
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