Carmel of Maria Regina

“The ceaseless quest for God in solitude is like an exodus into the desert. God draws and guides us there in order to speak to our heart.”  ~ Constitutions of the Discalced Nuns of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, 1991; Chapter 6, #105 When we hear the term, “cloister,” it can sound medieval to the modern ear. Or it may trigger a memory of visiting or hearing about “The Cloisters Museum” in New York. Yet, cloisters are not merely a thing of the past. They are still in existence today. So what is a “cloister?”  The cloister is an enclosure, wherein a person voluntarily enters to be separated from the world for the sake of Christ and His Church, yet mysteriously remains in the world; like a little Heaven on Earth. What sets contemplative orders apart from active orders is that they tend to be “cloistered,” meaning that they are “set apart” for God in a very special way—as Elizabeth of the Trinity would say, to become a “praise to His glory”—in order to r...

Welcome back! Last time we looked at day three of creation in relation to the Mass, since in our community's schedule, the Mass typically precedes Terce. This time we will examine Terce. It may be a "little hour," and it roughly only takes about five minutes to pray each morning, but there is a lot to explore within this little hour and the time of the day in which it is prayed. We are currently only relating Terce to the first half of day three of creation, which says: "Then God said: Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear. And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land “earth,” and the basin of water He called “Sea.” God saw that it was good… ”  ~ Genesis 1:9 - 10  We will examine part two of day three later. Also, last time we said that the separation of water from land creates a desert where we make sacrifices and are purified.  With...

Terce is the first of the “little hours” of the divine Office. The time for this hour varies, due to Mass schedules. Typically, Mass follows Lauds (or Morning Prayer—around 7:30am), then Terce follows the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If we look at the third day of creation in light of this part of our day, it’s mind boggling how much it reveals. Day three is in two parts. Let’s look at the first part for now: “ Then God said: Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear. And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land “earth,” and the basin of water He called “Sea.” God saw that it was good… ”  ~ Genesis 1:9 - 10 The separation of the water from the land, of course, creates a desert. Deserts in the Bible are a place of purification, desolation, and sacrifice. For example, Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert and was tempted by Satan. The Jews were or...

“Then God said: Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other. God made the dome, and it separated the water below the dome from the water above the dome. And so it happened. God called the dome “sky.” Evening came, and morning followed — the second day.” ~ Genesis 1:3-5 My heart is ready, O God; I will sing, sing your praise. Awake, my soul; Awake, lyre and harp. I will awake the dawn. ~ Psalm 107 (108) Ringing in the dawn The day of a Carmelite Nun really begins at 6:00am, when we  "awake the dawn" with the Angelus. A ll of creation is emerging from the deepest darkness of night, rising to life again with a stirring of praise for the Heavenly Creator. Nature’s time for awaking shifts with the changing of the seasons, yet, birds begin chirping—singing their praises to God—even before the sun begins to appear (lately our peacock begins his morning serenade to the Heavens at 3:30am!). “And you every bird in the sky, O bless the ...