Quote of the day, 30 April: Aloysius Deeney, ocd

To seek the face of God

This element expresses the content of the Promises [of the Discalced Carmelite Secular Order]. I could rephrase this element in various ways: “to pray,” “to meditate,” and “to live the spiritual life.” I have chosen this one (to seek the face of God) because it is scriptural and expresses the nature of contemplation—a wondering observation of God’s word and work in order to know, love, and serve him.

The contemplative aspect of Carmelite life focuses on God, recognizing always that contemplation is a gift of God, not an acquisition as a result of putting in sufficient time.

This is the commitment to personal holiness. The OCDS wants to see God, wants to know God, and recognizes that prayer and meditation now take on a greater importance. The Promises are a commitment to a new way of life in which “allegiance to Jesus Christ” marks the person and the way this person lives.

The personal life of the Secular Carmelite becomes contemplative. The style of life changes with the growth in the virtues that accompany the growth in the Spirit. It is impossible to live a life of prayer, meditation, and study without changing.

Is the essence of Carmel prayer? Many times I have heard or read that affirmation. I am never sure just how to answer that. Not because I do not know what prayer is or because prayer is not of great importance for any Carmelite, but because I never know what the speaker or writer wishes to justify by the statement.

If the person means by prayer personal holiness and the pursuit of a genuine spirituality that recognizes the supremacy of God and of God’s will for the human family, then yes, I agree. If the person means that I as a Carmelite fulfill my entire obligation as a Carmelite by being faithful to my prayer and that there is nothing else that I need do, then no, I do not agree.

Personal holiness is not the same as a personal pursuit of holiness. For a baptized member of the Church, holiness is always ecclesial, never self-centered or self-content. I am never the judge of my own holiness.

Aloysius Deeney, o.c.d.

Testing and Discerning a Vocation to the Secular Order

Deeney, A 2009, Welcome to the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, Washington, DC.

Featured image: Detail from Afternoon – Yellow Room by Frederick Carl Frieseke (American, 1874-1939), oil on canvas painted in 1910. Image credit: Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (Public domain).

#AloysiusDeeney #contemplation #OCDS #spiritualLife #TeresianPrayer

Quote of the day, 1 February: OCDS Constitutions

Christ is the center of our lives and of Christian experience. Members of the Secular Order are called to live the demands of following Christ in union with Him, by accepting His teachings and devoting themselves to Him. To follow Jesus is to take part in His saving mission of proclaiming the Good News and the establishment of God’s Kingdom (Mt 4:18-19). There are various ways of following Jesus: all Christians must follow Him, must make Him the law for their lives and be disposed to fulfil three fundamental demands: to place family ties beneath the interests of the Kingdom and Jesus himself (Mt 10:37-39; Lk 14:25-26); to live in detachment from wealth in order to show that the arrival of the Kingdom does not depend on human means but rather on God’s strength and the willingness of the human person before Him (Lk 14:33); to carry the cross of accepting God’s will revealed in the mission that He has confided to each person (Lk 14:33; 9:23).

Following Jesus as members of the Secular Order is expressed by the promise to strive for evangelical perfection in the spirit of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience and through the Beatitudes. By means of this promise the member’s baptismal commitment is strengthened for the service of God’s plan in the world. This promise is a pledge to pursue personal holiness, which necessarily carries with it a commitment to serving the Church in faithfulness to the Teresian Carmelite charism. The promise is taken before the members of the community, representing the whole Church and in the presence of the Delegate of the Superior of the Order.

Discalced Carmelite Secular Order

Constitutions, 10–11

Order of Discalced Carmelites, Secular (OCDS) (2003) Constitutions of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. Rome: Order of Discalced Carmelites. Available at: https://www.ocdswashprov.org/s/OCDSconstitutions.pdf (Accessed: 30 January 2026).

Featured image: Snapshots of Brazilian OCDS members are featured, showing the participation of many during the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama. Image credit: OCDS Brasil (by permission).

#beatitudes #Constitutions #DiscalcedCarmeliteSecularOrder #followingJesus #OCDS

Quote of the day, 8 May: St. John Paul II

Was Saint John Paul II a Carmelite?

Some years ago, a lively discussion arose online about whether Saint John Paul II was formally affiliated with the Discalced Carmelite Order.

In a 2001 message to the Carmelite family, the Holy Father wrote:

“I too have worn the Scapular of Carmel over my heart for a long time! Because I love the heavenly Mother we all share, whose protection I constantly experience, I hope that this Marian year will help all … to grow in her love and to radiate to the world the presence of this Woman of silence and prayer…”
— Message to the Carmelite Family, 25 March 2001

When this question of official affiliation was raised in the Carmelites Unite Facebook group, a friar of the Krakow Province, Father Włodzimierz Tochmański, OCD—a friar with deep knowledge of the Discalced Carmelite Secular Order in Poland—responded that Karol Józef Wojtyła was never canonically affiliated with the Third Order of the Teresian Carmel.

However, Fr. Tochmański emphasized the Pope’s deep spiritual affiliation with Carmel, akin to the bond shared by members of the Scapular Confraternity.

Biographers also highlight the formative role of the Discalced Carmelite friars in Wadowice, the Pope’s hometown. Although St. Raphael Kalinowski, OCD, had died in 1908—twelve years before Karol Wojtyła was born—his legacy continued to shape Carmelite life in Wadowice for decades. As a young priest, Wojtyła studied in Rome, and in 1948 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the Angelicum: “The Doctrine of Faith in St. John of the Cross.”

St. John Paul II and the Carmelite Scapular

In his homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on 16 July 1988, delivered at the Alpini pilgrimage Mass on Mount Adamello, the Pope spoke warmly of the Scapular tradition:

“It is not the time to dwell on the particular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I will only cite a few words of Pius XII, who wrote in an authoritative document: ‘No one surely is ignorant of how much the love for the most blessed Mother of God contributes to enlivening the Catholic faith and to amending lives, especially through those expressions of devotion which, more than others, seem to enrich minds with supernatural doctrine and move souls to the devout practice of the Christian life. Among these must be mentioned the devotion of the Sacred Scapular of Carmel, which, by its simplicity, adapts to the character of everyone and is widely spread among the Christian faithful, with abundant spiritual fruits.’”
— Homily on Mount Adamello, 16 July 1988

Just over a week later, in his Angelus address of 24 July 1988, the Pope returned to the theme:

“In Carmel, and in every deeply Carmelite soul, an intense life of communion and closeness with the Blessed Virgin flourishes. This becomes a ‘new way’ to live for God and continue here on earth the love of Jesus the Son for His Mother Mary.”
— Angelus, 24 July 1988

He also affirmed the Scapular as “a particular grace” passed on by Mary, recalling the tradition tied to St. Simon Stock, and described it as: “A sign of affiliation with the Carmelite Order… a means of tender and filial Marian devotion.”

A Personal Word

In a visit to the Carmelite parish of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome on 10 February 1991, Pope John Paul II offered a personal memory:

“I lived as a child in a town and parish where there was also a Carmelite monastery and convent, where I learned this great Carmelite tradition… This tradition, rooted in the Old Testament with the prophet Elijah, renewed in the Middle Ages, has come down to us—even here near the Vatican—and to this Pope, who has been connected to it since his earliest youth.”
— Address at Santa Maria in Traspontina, 10 February 1991

He closed with a blessing and a wish for all present:

“I wish you every blessing as you continue your journey under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and her Scapular, as we see in the Carmelite Third Order.”

Saint John Paul II

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Brown Scapular worn by Saint John Paul II, a gift to the Discalced Carmelite parish in Wadowice, Poland. Image credit: Discalced Carmelite Order (Used by permission)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How might I grow closer to Carmel’s spirit of silence, prayer, and Marian devotion in my own life?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#BrownScapular #DiscalcedCarmelite #OCDS #Poland #StJohnPaulII #StRaphaelKalinowski #Wadowice

First #fosdem session: transforming EU tender data into #OCDS open contracting standard data, and adding it to a #Neo4j graph interface. Same old same old: entity recognition and deduplication on messy input data. #IATI memories... https://tedective.org/

Week in review: 17 - 23 December. Exploring Lesvos, finding #vegan Greek food, working on scrapers for #OCDS data, made live a new version of my homepage (https://rhiaro.co.uk/) with better photo and photo album handling. #travel https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/12/week-in-review-4

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#Paris2024 #JO2024 Pour des Jeux exemplaires, @opencontracting propose à @Paris et aux @jeuxolympiques de publier leurs marchés publics en #opendata #ocds. https://www.open-contracting.org/2018/02/15/la-transparence-numerique-des-marches-publics-des-jeux-olympiques-de-paris-renforcera-la-confiance-du-public-favorisera-la-concurrence-et-permettra-doptimiser-les-ressources/ cc @jfmartins @etalab @TonyESTANGUET