Last week, eleven friars from all three US provinces of Discalced Carmelites attended SEEK24, the annual conference of FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) held this year in St. Louis, and attended by over 20,000 mostly college students. In this blog, Fr. Pier Giorgio, OCD, reflects on his experience attending the conference and sponsoring a booth with ICS Publications, the English-language publishing house of the Discalced Carmelite Order and ministry of the Washington Province.

The Mexican friar, Father Gerardo Lopez Bonilla (born in Puebla on May 18, 1929) is a talented artist whose paintings are “powerful doorways to the metaphysical” and radiate deep “interior light.” Before finishing a year of theological studies in D.C. in 1960 with ordination to the diaconate, he gifted houses of the Province with several paintings. Now two of them still grace the main corridor of our monastery.

The following is a homily given by Fr. Daniel Chowning for the Feast of St. Thérèse - October 1, 2022.

A localized way to celebrate St. Teresa Benedicta/Edith Stein’s feast on this Province Blog during the 80th anniversary year of her passing into eternal life would be to express thanks for the person who translated the story of Edith’s early years for us into English, Life in a Jewish Family: Sister Josephine Koeppel.

The schedule in our monasteries includes an activity called the hour of recreation, in which the community gathers in a common room to talk together. It typically follows the evening hour of mental (silent) prayer, and the two share a lot in common.

Today Carmelites welcome a new saint as Pope Francis canonizes Blessed Titus Brandsma at Saint Peter's in Rome.

With the Order planning to celebrate the Fourth Centenary of our holy mother Saint Teresa's canonization, it is worth pointing out that our monastery in Washington, DC has an iconic reference to that event gracing the walls of one of its parlors. This image shows an artistic tribute to that significant day in Church history:

In the first half of this episode, we discuss what it means to be a part of the Discalced Carmelite family. Then, we have an interview with Fr. Kevin of the Blessed Trinity who has been a friar for over 65 years.

Sometimes I wonder about the Providence that willed that the first foundation of St. Teresa of Jesus would be inaugurated on this feast of St. Bartholomew, a great missionary apostle. One might ask: what business does a contemplative order such as the Discalced Carmel have in having this feast as its inauguration?

For Edith Stein the happy ending to a lengthy conversion process came with her baptism on the first day of 1922. This was preceded by her completed reading of the Autobiography of Saint Teresa of Jesus a few months previous in the summer of 1921, one hundred years ago.

Carmelites know how 16 nuns of the Compiègne Carmel during the French Revolution sang hymns on their way to their deaths on the guillotine. The Song at the Scaffold by Gertrude von le Fort was a novella that caused interest in their martyrdom at a time when Edith Stein was still alive.

The sabbatical I was granted after service as Provincial that lasted from August 2014 to November 2015 gave me the opportunity to extend my knowledge of Saint Teresa Benedicta (Edith) Stein and to speak about her to several audiences in Europe. The following fruit of those months spent at the Carmelite monastery in Kensington, England is now one way to show my appreciation and to open out on to a fascinating description created for the Vatican.

During this year commemorating the declaration in 1870 of Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church many people are revisiting sources of their devotion to the foster father of Jesus. We hear praise for Our Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus for having stirred up practical devotion for Saint Joseph in the “modern” age, that is, in the period of church history that ran between the Middle Ages and our current era.