Discalced Carmelite Nun Communities

[Chiquitunga]

Chiquitunga,

 

I have come late to this long topic:

 

May I ask if you are intending to enter Carmel?  You truly seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Carmels in the US.

 

Hi Yaatee! Yes, I am intending to enter - though Poor Clares have a big place in my heart too/whatever God wants - Carmel :smile3:  I am not free to do so now however and would rather not share my whole story here. Please pray for me. It's been much longer than I thought... I've been in religious life before also.. I'm definitely a "God writes straight with crooked lines" case :topsy:

[Yaatee]

Thanks for sharing, Chiquitunga.

 

Feel free to PM me with details if you care to--or not. 

[Chiquitunga]

linking a few of the other OCD threads here for future reference :like:

 

http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/113796-traditional-carmel-with-latin-and-strict-papal-enclosure/

http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/129496-carmelite-customs/

http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/129562-discalced-carmelite-nuns-in-mirna-pec-slovenia-1990-carmel/

 

[VeniJesuAmorMi]

JM+JT

 

Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever. :)

 

If you haven't been to the Friends of Carmel JMJ website, they have a nice little article about the First Profession that just took place last Friday. Also a picture of the recently Ordained Father Daniel Richards.

 

http://friendsofcarmeljmj.org/

 

[VeniJesuAmorMi]

I couldn't edit the other post, but the picture of the newly Ordained priest, he is the second one from the left in the front with the other Fathers.

[Chiquitunga]

JM+JT

 

Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever. :)

 

If you haven't been to the Friends of Carmel JMJ website, they have a nice little article about the First Profession that just took place last Friday. Also a picture of the recently Ordained Father Daniel Richards.

 

http://friendsofcarmeljmj.org/

 

That's wonderful! Thanks for sharing! This Friday one of the nuns at Dallas Carmel will be making her First Profession - http://veneremurcernui.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/first-vows-at-carmelite-monastery-with-tlm/ and they just had one like two weeks ago, and a few others, Solemn & First & clothings, earlier this year. They have really been growing! I believe they are 19 there now.

[Chiquitunga]

Something interesting I wanted to comment on.. so in Valparaiso's vocation booklet, there's a short description of the story of their foundation tracing back to one of St. Teresa's foundations in Caravaca, Spain - https://picasaweb.google.com/112954809546652959393/CarmelOfJesusMaryJosephValparaisoNE#5051544199422801314  It's also mentioned in this newsletter of Elysburg, http://friendsofcarmeljmj.org/about-us/our-newsletter?task=document.viewdoc&id=2

 

This made me think for a while that the nuns in Caravaca actually traveled over to Mexico in a ship (though the Friars did) to found the first Carmel in Mexico, Puebla in 1604 (not long after St. Teresa's death) However, in Journey to Carith it says Puebla was founded by the OCD Friars who gathered pious lay women, rather than being founded by nuns from another Carmel as is normally the case. This also happened in several countries in South America and Ireland. I find that very interesting.

 

Anyway, so I was searching this out online a bit and ran into this page (I only recommend reading the story in the first paragraph, after that it seems to go off into strange subjects, I didn't read them) http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mln/summary/v117/117.2schlau.html

 

"A few years ago, while on vacation in Mexico with my family, we paid a social call on the Sisters of the Discalced Carmelite convent in Puebla. While every nun in the convent (about thirteen or fourteen) came to sit with us (on their side of the reja, of course), the Abbess [Prioress that is] directed the conversation. When I said I had come to share news of their Sisters in Spain, and to bring news back, the Mother Superior told the story of the convent's first great miracle. During the early seventeenth century, when the convent was founded, the new nuns did not know exactly the colors, materials, or shape of the Discalced Carmelite habit. Fortuitously, the Mother Superior twice had a vision of Saint Teresa of Avila, who told her not to worry and promised help. Eventually, despite natural disasters, a convent in Spain (possibly Caravaca) managed to send to Puebla, with an accompanying letter, one of their habits for the Mexican nuns to copy. At this point, while continuing to tell the story, the Mother Superior had a small wooden box brought to her, which she opened and showed to us. It contained the letter from the Spanish convent and the linen toque from the habit they had sent, in perfect condition—the only piece of the original not eaten by moths in the intervening centuries. The contemporary Puebla nuns treasure this box and its contents as confirmation of Saint Teresa's special favor for their convent, as an example of her miraculous nature, and as an illustration of their select place in the Discalced Carmelite and Catholic world. The story suggests both the intimate connection that these women maintain with their Order's history and the particular bonds across the Atlantic between Sisters in the Old and New Worlds."

 

So that is how they trace their history to Spain! How interesting! Of course the nuns in Valparaiso know this, but they just had me fooled for a while that the Caravaca monastery actually sent nuns over to Mexico in a ship in 1604, like the first American Carmel from Europe in 1790. Anyway, this is all very interesting! :detective:

 

[graciandelamadrededios]

Something interesting I wanted to comment on.. so in Valparaiso's vocation booklet, there's a short description of the story of their foundation tracing back to one of St. Teresa's foundations in Caravaca, Spain - https://picasaweb.google.com/112954809546652959393/CarmelOfJesusMaryJosephValparaisoNE#5051544199422801314  It's also mentioned in this newsletter of Elysburg, http://friendsofcarmeljmj.org/about-us/our-newsletter?task=document.viewdoc&id=2

 

This made me think for a while that the nuns in Caravaca actually traveled over to Mexico in a ship (though the Friars did) to found the first Carmel in Mexico, Puebla in 1604 (not long after St. Teresa's death) However, in Journey to Carith it says Puebla was founded by the OCD Friars who gathered pious lay women, rather than being founded by nuns from another Carmel as is normally the case. This also happened in several countries in South America and Ireland. I find that very interesting.

 

Anyway, so I was searching this out online a bit and ran into this page (I only recommend reading the story in the first paragraph, after that it seems to go off into strange subjects, I didn't read them) http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mln/summary/v117/117.2schlau.html

 

"A few years ago, while on vacation in Mexico with my family, we paid a social call on the Sisters of the Discalced Carmelite convent in Puebla. While every nun in the convent (about thirteen or fourteen) came to sit with us (on their side of the reja, of course), the Abbess [Prioress that is] directed the conversation. When I said I had come to share news of their Sisters in Spain, and to bring news back, the Mother Superior told the story of the convent's first great miracle. During the early seventeenth century, when the convent was founded, the new nuns did not know exactly the colors, materials, or shape of the Discalced Carmelite habit. Fortuitously, the Mother Superior twice had a vision of Saint Teresa of Avila, who told her not to worry and promised help. Eventually, despite natural disasters, a convent in Spain (possibly Caravaca) managed to send to Puebla, with an accompanying letter, one of their habits for the Mexican nuns to copy. At this point, while continuing to tell the story, the Mother Superior had a small wooden box brought to her, which she opened and showed to us. It contained the letter from the Spanish convent and the linen toque from the habit they had sent, in perfect condition—the only piece of the original not eaten by moths in the intervening centuries. The contemporary Puebla nuns treasure this box and its contents as confirmation of Saint Teresa's special favor for their convent, as an example of her miraculous nature, and as an illustration of their select place in the Discalced Carmelite and Catholic world. The story suggests both the intimate connection that these women maintain with their Order's history and the particular bonds across the Atlantic between Sisters in the Old and New Worlds."

 

So that is how they trace their history to Spain! How interesting! Of course the nuns in Valparaiso know this, but they just had me fooled for a while that the Caravaca monastery actually sent nuns over to Mexico in a ship in 1604, like the first American Carmel from Europe in 1790. Anyway, this is all very interesting! :detective:

 

Hi Chiqui!

 

Are you referring to this?

 

 

Our History   The Community of Discalced Carmelite Nuns of San Antonio, Texas In Mexico City, at the beginning of the 1600's, two Sisters read the autobiography of our Holy Mother St. Teresa and felt a great desire to live the life founded by her. Since there were no Discalced Carmelite Nuns in that city, they went to the Discalced Carmelite Friars, who had a monastery there. The fathers readily instructed and formed them in the way of this Order. After a time of dialogue, discernment, and instruction, the Fathers wrote to our Carmelite Nuns in Avila, Spain to obtain from them a copy of the Order's Constitutions for the Nuns, and some habits with which to invest the new Carmelites. On October 15, 1616 these two women, renewed their vows as Discalced Carmelites , and began the first community of our Order in Mexico City. The Sisters were Inez de la Cruz (Castillete) who was born in Toledo, Spain, and Mariana de la Incarnacíon, born in Mexico. A postulant from Mexico, who later became Sister Beatrice de Santigo, O.C.D. entered that same day.

[Chiquitunga]

 

Hi Chiqui!

 

Are you referring to this?

 

 

Our History   The Community of Discalced Carmelite Nuns of San Antonio, Texas In Mexico City, at the beginning of the 1600's, two Sisters read the autobiography of our Holy Mother St. Teresa and felt a great desire to live the life founded by her. Since there were no Discalced Carmelite Nuns in that city, they went to the Discalced Carmelite Friars, who had a monastery there. The fathers readily instructed and formed them in the way of this Order. After a time of dialogue, discernment, and instruction, the Fathers wrote to our Carmelite Nuns in Avila, Spain to obtain from them a copy of the Order's Constitutions for the Nuns, and some habits with which to invest the new Carmelites. On October 15, 1616 these two women, renewed their vows as Discalced Carmelites , and began the first community of our Order in Mexico City. The Sisters were Inez de la Cruz (Castillete) who was born in Toledo, Spain, and Mariana de la Incarnacíon, born in Mexico. A postulant from Mexico, who later became Sister Beatrice de Santigo, O.C.D. entered that same day.

 

 

Actually, no, that's the story of the founding of the second (I'm pretty sure) Carmel in Mexico, first in Mexico City. Puebla came a little before this in 1604. I know you already know this though, as you were the one who pointed this out to me via email a while ago :like: (about Puebla not coming directly from Spain, then I found that story above and it all came together about why Valparaiso would say they trace their roots to Caravaca)

 

This is very neat to read though about Mexico City! So then they got their first habits from Avila :saint: while Puebla got theirs from Caravaca. All very interesting...  :detective:

[graciandelamadrededios]

Actually, no, that's the story of the founding of the second (I'm pretty sure) Carmel in Mexico, first in Mexico City. Puebla came a little before this in 1604. I know you already know this though, as you were the one who pointed this out to me via email a while ago :like: (about Puebla not coming directly from Spain, then I found that story above and it all came together about why Valparaiso would say they trace their roots to Caravaca)

 

This is very neat to read though about Mexico City! So then they got their first habits from Avila :saint: while Puebla got theirs from Caravaca. All very interesting...  :detective:

 

Pardon me....  Sorry for the mix up with Puebla and Caravaca.

 

Yup, I read Journey to Carith long time ago and there are some monasteries that are not founded directly from an establish Carmels. 

 

I recommend "Journey to Carith: The Sources and Story of the Discalced Carmelite" by Fr. Peter-Thomas Rohrback , OCD.  This is a great source of information on anything about Carmel.  This book was recommended to me by a Discalced Carmelite Extern Sister during one of my visits to Baguio Carmel.

 

While checking my copy of the book, I found the following:

 

“In 1590, Doria finally acquiesced to the demands of Marguerite Spinola, a wealthy Genoese widow then travelling to Spain, who had been asking him for a foundation of Discalced Nuns in Genoa, promising to subsidize it from her considerable fortune.  A group of nuns was sent from the convent of Malagon, arriving in Genoa in December of 1590.  After Doria’s death, the convent in Genoa became the mother foundation for a succession of other convents in Italy, and at Avignon in Frnace, and at Vienna in Austria.” Page 230

 

“When Peter of the Mother of God first came to Rome he discovered a group of nuns who called themselves Discalced Carmelites living in Pincian Hill.  These Nuns, whose only connection with the Order was an acquaintance with the writings of St. Teresa, has been founded by a Spanish Oratorian, Francis de Soto.  Peter took the disorganized community in hand, instructed it in the Carmelite traditions, and officially incorporated it into the Order.  The convent, which soon became one of the most celebrated in the Eternal City, was expertly guided by Peter, and later by Jerome Gracian during the years he spent in Rome following his release from captivity in North Africa.  The Roman convent and the Genoese convent were nucleaus for the expansion of the nuns in Italy and southern Europe.”  Page 232

 

“A number of convents were established in other parts of South America suring the seventeenth century, but these were usually founded by local bishops who gathered a group of pious women and instructed them in the Carmelite life without any direct foundation from another convent.  Thus Bogota in Colombia was founded in 1606 and Leiva in 1646; and a convent was established at Lima in Pero in 1643.  A number of foundations in other countries were made by the Lima convent – Quito in Ecuador in 1653, Sucre in Bolivia in 1665, Guatemala in 1677, and Ayacucho in Peru in 1683.  Most of these convents endured, and during the twentieth century they came under a more direct supervision of the Order.  On the other hand, the convents in Mexic, beginning with the first one at Pueblo in 1604, were founded by the Carmelite friars, who usually selected the candidates from among the Spanish colonists in New Spain.” Pages 271

[VeniJesuAmorMi]

Here is a little of the book I have been reading, "Following the Path of Divine Love" by the Discalced Carmelite of Cerro de los Angeles and La Aldehuela about Saint Maravillas and the Carmelite vocation.

 

Here are words of advise for those aspiring to Carmel: Mother Maravillas advised aspirants to Carmel "to live crucified with Christ" as their sole idea and goal of their religious life. Anyone who builds her vocation on such a solid foundation cannot afterwards be deceived, and whoever embraces the life of Carmel with this spirit has advanced a great deal and is not likely to retreat before the sacrifices the life imposes. When the first splinters of Christs' Cross are felt, a novice will not be dismayed, since that is what she came to seek. Neither will the renunciations or humiliations seem excessive because she entered Carmel determined to live with her eyes fixed on Christ Crucified, and in that way everything becomes slight.

 

This is something I really enjoyed also; concerning a novice who felt she did not have the strength to continue (from a letter Saint Maravillas wrote) : "Of course, if she came seeking happiness it cannot be. One must seek Christ and the imitation of Him. The life of Christ is not one of consolation but of the Cross, although in His infinitely merciful love, He may fill us with happiness in serving Him."

 

I thought this one was very thought provoking because she says the importance of what it really means to sacrifice oneself and follow Him most closely by not seeking happiness and that if someone isn't happy in religious life it doesn't necessarily mean that its not for them, but that they have to strive more to die to yourself and in this way by seeking to become more like Him and to give ourselves more to Him by a life of sacrifice and that its in this sacrifice that we find our true joy. Also for the importance of living this life of self denial and sacrifice as the preparation for entrance and out here there are so many times we are able to practice these things especially in the world we live in today with so many distractions and things we can become attached to.

 

Here is another quote. :) "A Carmelite should place her happiness only in pleasing God and should accept the fact that her only suffering is in displeasing Him."

 

[inperpetuity]

Here is a little of the book I have been reading, "Following the Path of Divine Love" by the Discalced Carmelite of Cerro de los Angeles and La Aldehuela about Saint Maravillas and the Carmelite vocation.

 

Here are words of advise for those aspiring to Carmel: Mother Maravillas advised aspirants to Carmel "to live crucified with Christ" as their sole idea and goal of their religious life. Anyone who builds her vocation on such a solid foundation cannot afterwards be deceived, and whoever embraces the life of Carmel with this spirit has advanced a great deal and is not likely to retreat before the sacrifices the life imposes. When the first splinters of Christs' Cross are felt, a novice will not be dismayed, since that is what she came to seek. Neither will the renunciations or humiliations seem excessive because she entered Carmel determined to live with her eyes fixed on Christ Crucified, and in that way everything becomes slight.

 

This is something I really enjoyed also; concerning a novice who felt she did not have the strength to continue (from a letter Saint Maravillas wrote) : "Of course, if she came seeking happiness it cannot be. One must seek Christ and the imitation of Him. The life of Christ is not one of consolation but of the Cross, although in His infinitely merciful love, He may fill us with happiness in serving Him."

 

I thought this one was very thought provoking because she says the importance of what it really means to sacrifice oneself and follow Him most closely by not seeking happiness and that if someone isn't happy in religious life it doesn't necessarily mean that its not for them, but that they have to strive more to die to yourself and in this way by seeking to become more like Him and to give ourselves more to Him by a life of sacrifice and that its in this sacrifice that we find our true joy. Also for the importance of living this life of self denial and sacrifice as the preparation for entrance and out here there are so many times we are able to practice these things especially in the world we live in today with so many distractions and things we can become attached to.

 

Here is another quote. :) "A Carmelite should place her happiness only in pleasing God and should accept the fact that her only suffering is in displeasing Him."

I left the monastery because I did not get this at the time, but it is so true and I understand it much better now.

[VeniJesuAmorMi]

I left the monastery because I did not get this at the time, but it is so true and I understand it much better now.

 

I was in a similar situation also. Its hard to explain but even though I was in the monastery for about a year and a half it doesn't seem now that I was actually there, though I have the memories that come back from time to time. It seems as though I am getting to where I was supposed to be before entrance and I am learning so much about myself and this vocation that I didn't know before. We don't always see why things happen at first, but as time goes by I see through what happened the great love and mercy that He showed me and still is more than I could comprehend. I will pray for you and please say a prayer for me also. :)

[VeniJesuAmorMi]

JM+JT

 

Praised be Jesus Christ! :)

 

I came across this blog for the Carmel of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in Canyon, CA. There isn't anything about the Sisters, or photos of anything, its Mass times there for each month. I thought if someone is in that area and they wanted to attend Mass there that they could know when the times are. They do say that the times could change at any time. Sometimes they put under the time if there are any intentions for that days Mass, Carmelite feast days, and events (if any coming up) about the Sisters. It appears that recently there was a Sister at the Cristo Rey Carmel (Sr. Maria de San Jose) that has passed away as they have that information under June 4th.

 

Here is the blog: http://carmelites-of-canyon.blogspot.com/

 

I haven't heard any new news about the foundation there, but hopefully everything is going along well. I do wonder if they have been receiving many vocations yet, as they are still getting settled. I'm looking to hear soon that the Valparaiso Carmel is going to make another foundation. I wouldn't be surprised if it was sooner than later because they still have well over 21 there and more entering as well. Very exciting! The Elysburg Carmel is going to have new postulants this Summer also.

[inperpetuity]

I was in a similar situation also. Its hard to explain but even though I was in the monastery for about a year and a half it doesn't seem now that I was actually there, though I have the memories that come back from time to time. It seems as though I am getting to where I was supposed to be before entrance and I am learning so much about myself and this vocation that I didn't know before. We don't always see why things happen at first, but as time goes by I see through what happened the great love and mercy that He showed me and still is more than I could comprehend. I will pray for you and please say a prayer for me also. :)

I have experienced this very thing that you talk about here and I have been out of the monastery for years.  Thank you for your prayers, I will pray for you as well.