The basics of Carmelite Spirituality

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YehoiakhinEx232

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I’m thinking of exploring Carmelite Spirituality. The diocese neighboring mine has a Carmelite monastery, and as I’ve mentioned a couple of times in the past, I asked around my diocese for a spiritual director, and was told that no one in my own diocese was qualified to be one. If I could move to that neighboring diocese (I’m not saying I’m going to, whether I do or not is ultimately, up to the Lord.) perhaps they’d have a Carmelite there, who could be my spiritual director and help me with my problems. I’m also currently reading St. Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul, and I think the Little Way, may be the best option for me in my life. On top of that, I’m also exploring my family’s Hispanic heritage and I recently discovered that the Patron Saint of Chile (my dad is from Chile) is Our Lady of Mount Carmel and I’ve always had a bit of devotion to that title of Our Lady.

I was wondering if anyone here could give me an overview of the basics of Carmelite Spirituality, and any advice you think I should have about how I should go about exploring it?
 
I’ve looked into that in my diocese. There is a chapter, convenient meeting day and time, but far. I don’t know if they are focused on study of mystical theology, are SJWs, or ? In my diocese, no way of telling.
I’ve also been thinking about a spiritual director but it would have to be a male, very orthodox if not TLM affiliated, strongly versed in moral theology. A tall order
 
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If you google Discalced Carmelites and /or Carmelite Secular or Third Orders, you’ll come up with a lot of websites and info.

My favorite is the Order of Carmelites website. Their website is chock full of information about the Carmelite Order, articles about prayer and spirituality, lectio divina, etc. and they have info on the website about their Secular Order:


http://ocarm.org/en/category/carmelite-family/lay-people

http://ocarm.org/en/content/ocarm/olmc/carmelite-spirituality
 
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First, St Theresa of Lisieux, is a Discalced Carmelite, OCD not to be confused with O’Carm.

Which is the monastery near you ?

Both orders are contemplative orders, but I’m only familiar with OCD, so I’ll try to briefly explain our spirituality.

We are focused on Contemplative Prayer as taught by St Teresa of Avila, and St John of the Cross. In their day they referred to it as “Quiet Interior Prayer.”

We have a devotion to Our Lady of Mt Carmel and pray to her daily.

I’m a member of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, OCDS, which is essentially a 3rd order.

We follow the spirituality of the Discalced Carmelites, while remaining in our state of life.

We follow the Constitutions for OCDS, which originally were called a “rule of life.”

This website has more about OCDS, but also has links to the Washington Province, which we’re under.


Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
We are focused on Contemplative Prayer as taught by St Teresa of Avila, and St John of the Cross. In their day they referred to it as “Quiet Interior Prayer.”
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If I had my life over again I would go in this direction or a Benedictine, for sure. To live in the spirit world like that must be awesome.
 
YehoiakhinEx232 said:
The diocese neighboring mine has a Carmelite monastery, and as I’ve mentioned a couple of times in the past, I asked around my diocese for a spiritual director, and was told that no one in my own diocese was qualified to be one. If I could move to that neighboring diocese (I’m not saying I’m going to, whether I do or not is ultimately, up to the Lord.) perhaps they’d have a Carmelite there, who could be my spiritual director and help me with my problems.
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You don’t have to live in the diocese to have a spiritual director there. If the monastery is within reasonable distance, you could see someone there for spiritual direction. People often have to drive a distance to see their spiritual directors.
 
It appears that all the cities and towns in these diocese are over 4 hours away.

Still, I’ll see what I can do.
 
I would recommend visiting one or more OCDS communities in your area. While their core spirituality is the same, each will have its own personality. You can learn a lot about the Carmelites online but you need to visit in person to see if your are truly being called.
 
Unfortunately, I think this is the monastery I can be able to explore, as I said before, it’s over 4 hours away, all the other monasteries and convents are even further.
 
YehoiakhinEx232 said:
Unfortunately, I think this is the monastery I can be able to explore, as I said before, it’s over 4 hours away, all the other monasteries and convents are even further.
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Not all OCDS communities are fortunate enough to be associated with a monastery. You should be able to find out where the nearest communities are with a Google search. The province’s have websites, and so do many of the communities.
 
Any Catholic can join the OCDS, or the Benedictine Oblates, or the secular Franciscans.
I’m more the Opus Dei or maybe Regnum Christi type, myself. But I’m sure you can find a secular group to suit you.
 
No one in my diocese is qualified to be a spiritual director. The neighboring diocese is the only option I can think of for finding a spiritual director, and exploring this, or any other spirituality.
 
I think we have two different issues here. The first is about looking for an OCDS community, the second (which I think is your real issue) is that you are looking for a spiritual director. Joining a lay community is not the same as finding a spiritual director. Lay communities have a spiritual advisor for the community, not the individual members.
If you are looking for a spiritual director and not necessarily the life of a lay Carmelite I would start by talking to your pastor and asking for his recommendations. Just because he isn’t a Carmelite doesn’t mean he can’t help.
 
No one in my diocese is qualified to be a spiritual director.
 
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