Articles

Secular Carmelite Update 2023

News from the Secular Carmelite Groups in the Nottingham Diocese (adapted from an article published in The Vine, the magazine of the Secular Discalced Carmeite Community in England and Wales)

Our Communities

In the Nottingham Diocese there are three closely linked but autonomous communities of Secular Carmelites.

Carmelite News Summer 2021

At last, we were able to meet in person at the end of June! Ten of us congregated at the church hall of Our Lady and St Thomas in Ilkeston by kind permission of Fr Andrew Hardy, for our usual monthly prayer and study day.

Carmelite Contemplative Circle (Online)

The Carmelite Contemplative Circles (Online) are open to anyone interested in Carmel’s 800-year old tradition.  A new initiative by the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality especially helpful during this time of isolation due to Covid.

Carmelite News Autumn 2020: Carmel and Covid!

Despite the many difficulties and hardships of this year because of the pandemic, the Secular Carmelite group in Nottingham has continued to grow and indeed, through God’s grace and care, to thrive. 

Nottingham Community Retreat 2019

The Nottingham group returned to The Claret Centre at Buckden Towers in the pretty villlage of Buckden near St Neots in August for the annual weekend retreat. 

Nottingham Community Retreat 2018

The Nottingham group returned to The Claret Centre at Buckden Towers in the pretty villlage of Buckden near St Neots in July for the annual weekend retreat. 

The Promises.

Committing our lives to God through the promise “to live in the spirit of the Evangelical Counsels and the Beatitudes” doesn’t add anything to our baptism – it’s the way to live them fully

The Origins of Carmel

The first Carmelites were laymen, probably Crusaders and pilgrims. They found a deeper way of fighting for Christ, an interior way of seeking the Holy Place. Like many lay people of their day they wanted a committed following of Christ characterised by simplicity, poverty and community. They wanted to live close to Christ, imitating his life and the life of the earliest Christians, where poverty was expressed primarily through holding all things in common.

Reading, Silence, Inner Solitude and Recollection

Spiritual reading is not like ordinary reading. There’s no skimming& skipping, picking-out interesting bits & leaving the rest, reading the end or middle first before we even begin. Spiritual reading asks us to slow down, to chew over the words and brood on them. 

The Primitive Rule of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

The Primitive Rule of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel given by St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem and corrected, emended and confirmed by Pope Innocent IV. This Rule is one of only four in the Church. It is deeply biblical and close to the Rule of St Augustine in its inspiration from the early Church in Acts. The Rule combines this communal life of brotherly love with the imitation of the solitary prayer of Jesus.

Living the Beatitudes

 Being committed to living the Beatitudes is being committed to an interior imitation of Christ.

Elijah

Elijah is a model of Carmelite life as prophetic-contemplative-apostolic.

Desert Spirituality

The desert is a place where God is met & speaks to us and a place of struggle with all the things that prevent our surrender to God in love

Our Promises

We are called to commit ourselves to this way of life, and when we have decided to do so, we make promises to our community.

Powered by CouchCMS