Zeal For Your Prayer Consumes Me

Something was missing

And God was listening

It was time to pray and my time to hear

God wanted me, but where?

So, I did what all Catholics have done though all of history

And looked on the internet to help solve this mystery

To make a long story short I fond a Carmelite’s name on this contraption

Called her up and took some action

It’s the highlight of my life 12 times a year

And everyday by action and in prayer.

At the request of my dear husband, I will explain a bit about the prayer routine of Secular Carmelites. (OCDS)

Everyday we are meant to:

1. Go to Daily Mass if possible

2. Pray the Divine Office (morning and evening)

3. Do a half hour of quiet prayer (maybe in front of the Blessed Sacrament)

4. Pray to the Blessed Mother/ The Rosary is most common

5. Pray a specific prayer we have for Carmelite vocations

Lord Jesus Christ, You promised that if we agree to pray for anything in Your Name, You will do it for us. Through the powerful intercession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, we ask You for the grace of good vocations. Give us young men and women of faith who are zealous to become Your strong friends and to faithfully serve as friars and nuns in the Discalced Carmelite Order.

As you have in the past, awaken hearts to fervently desire You and to carry on the charism of Carmel – to glorify the Triune God in the company of Your Mother and to be love at the Heart of Your Church. Amen.

— Prayer written by Very Rev. Michael Berry, OCD for the Discalced Carmelite Friars Vocations Office, Washington Province | ocdfriarsvocation.org

Other prayers and actions are encouraged such as, but not limited to:

Acts of charity

Following the Beatitudes

Offering up our suffering

Praying Lectio Divina

Being a Secular Carmelite is a beautiful Vocation, a gift for those men and women, married and not, living in the world but not being of the world.

We are contemplatives and always in formation doing our best to follow in the foot steps of these Canonized OCDS Saints.

“Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.
Saint Theresa of Avila

“Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God,
which if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love.”
Saint John of the Cross

“Those who join the Carmelite Order are not lost to their near and dear ones,
but have been won for them,
because it is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone.”
-Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross  (Saint Edith Stein)

“More or less from the time I was seven years old there took root in my soul the greatest devotion to my Mother, the Most Holy Virgin.
I confided to Mary everything that was happening to me, and she spoke to me.
I heard her voice within me, quite clearly and distinctly.
She advised me and told me all that I had to do to please Our Lord.
I thought that it was a perfectly normal thing, and it never occurred to me to relate to others what the Most Holy Virgin was telling me.”
St. Therese of the Andes

“Make my soul…Your cherished dwelling place, Your home of rest.
Let me never leave You there alone,
but keep me there all absorbed in You, in living faith, adoring You.”
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Always receive with equal contentment from God’s hand either consolations or sufferings, peace or distress, health or illness.
Ask nothing, refuse nothing, but always be ready to do and to suffer anything that comes from His Providence.
Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

  “Always remember to love your neighbor;
always prefer the one who tries your patience,
who tests your virtue, because with her you can always merit:
suffering is Love; the Law is Love.”
St. Mariam Baouardy

“Prayer is an aspiration of the heart.
It is a simple glance directed to heaven.
It is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy.”
Saint Therese of Lisieux

If you are looking for a prayer partner or Catholic Life Coach or just want to know more about Secular Carmelites please leave me a message at catholicbard@gmail.com

Conversing with me is free of course.

I have not even gone into detail about the depth of prayer, and love we encounter nor how our monthly meetings are set up.

Yes, we have found Jesus, or better still, He called us and we responded.

The prayers in this book were compiled to help the reader listen to the saints of Carmel throughout  the ages. In these prayers are stories of particular times, places, longings, sometimes suffering, and at other times ecstatic joy. In looking at these prayers one enters into the most intimate depths of the souls of the saints. Carmelites are called to contemplative prayer. It is a time reserved for communion with God. How better to learn than from the masters themselves.- Penny Hickey