Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

(canonized in 2016)

Saint Maravillas de Jesus

(canonized in 2003)

Who Are the Carmelite Nuns

Only the honor and glory of God dwells on this mount.
– St. John of the Cross

A Carmelite Nun is a complete holocaust, by which her whole existence becomes a continuous worship of God in love. A Carmelite consecrates to God her entire person, thus manifesting in the Church the wonderful marriage established by God as a sign of the future life.

Our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Jesus undersood that the love of God must impel one to work generously for the Church, and she founded her monasteries so that by prayer and penance they would help the Church and her pastors to extend the Kingdom of God throughout the whole world.

 

This house is a Heaven, if one can exist on earth. It is a very happy life for anyone who is pleased with pleasing God.

                                               – St. Teresa of Avila

The Carmelite Nuns, aware of having received from God a special gift to collaborate in the salvific mission of Christ and the Church, offer their lives of prayer and penance for the good of the Church of her pastors, and for the salvation of souls. For that purpose they consecrate themselves to God, loved above all, seeking the perfection of charity, to follow Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit, through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Here in Carmel, there is nothing, nothing but God. He is all, He suffices, and one lives for Him alone and for His glory… this life of prayer and contemplation, interceding always for His people before the Face of God.

-St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

The life of a Carmelite Nun is a simple one, modeled after the hidden life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Nazareth. According to Our Holy Mother St. Teresa, for a soul that truly loves Christ, “its pleasure is in somehow imitating the laborious life Christ lived.” The Convents of the Discalced Nuns are founded in completely poverty, and although the Nuns engage in manual labor, they depend almost entirely on alms for their sustenence. They rely on the providence of God, who never fails to serve them.

With zeal I have been zealous for the Lord of hosts.

– 1 Kings 19:10

The life of a Carmelite Nun is characterized by separation from the world, solitude and silence, manual labor, poverty, penance, detachment from all created things, love for her sisters, and true humility. The life of a Carmelite nun should be a continuous communion with God in prayer and love. Prayer constitutes their specific apostolate and the contribution they make to the Church to collaborate in the redemption; to help Jesus Christ Crucified by their life of prayer and immolation.

I was drawn to the Carmelites because of my desire to imitate the life of Jesus Christ our God. 

– St. Maravillas of Jesus