The latest newsletter of the Discalced Carmelites of the Australia, New Zealand and Oceania region is here! Enjoy the latest news from our communities of nuns, seculars, and friars, and be nourished by much other rich content.

According to the Carmelite nun Ruth Burrows, human poverty is a deep mystery that plunges us into Trinitarian depths. This article explores her insight.

Check out the latest Carmelite news from across the globe. “OCD Communicationes” is a refreshing and interesting read for all (whether you’re a Carmelite or not!).

On 7th May 2022, Brother Adalbert of the Beloved made his Solemn Profession as a Discalced Carmelite friar. The following day, Lismore Bishop Greg Homeming OCD ordained him to the diaconate. Read about Brother Adalbert’s journey here!

Sister Wendy Beckett helps us to pray with the icon of the Virgin of Kyiv, an ancient icon under the protection of the Khanenko Museum of Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

“Believe that He loves you, that He wants to help you in the struggles you have to undergo. Believe in His love, His exceeding love.” – St Elizabeth of the Trinity –

“‘Facing’ the Crucified can reveal layers of self-identity, bringing home to us the truth that we are made in God’s image and loved wildly by this God on the cross.” – Elizabeth A. Dreyer –

We have gathered together some resources to help turn our powerlessness and heartbreak over Ukraine into prayer.

Join Carmelite Bishop Greg Homeming as he leads us into the life and spirituality of St John of the Cross and their relevance to us today.

The latest edition of the local Carmelite newsletter offers news of the Carmelite family throughout the region and beyond, while also featuring the life and spiritual insights of Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus. 

Our Carmelite nuns in Tonga express gratitude to the many people who have been providing support and praying for them and their country after the volcanic eruption and tsunami – and request ongoing prayers.

“When you set yourself down to pray, what do you want? If you want God to take possession of you then you are praying. That is all prayer is. There are no secrets, no short cuts.” – Sister Wendy Beckett –

“Let us turn our gaze upon the Babe as one who shows us what God is like. He shows us the sort of heart the Father has. And what strikes us so wonderfully is that it is a vulnerable heart. A heart that offers itself to us unprotected.” – Ruth Burrows –

How does a busy person attain the interior silence that disposes them to personal transformation in Christ Jesus? John of the Cross gives us some practical advice in this article.

“We do not always have to be in church to be with God. We can make of our hearts a chapel where we can withdraw from time to time to converse with him there, gently, humbly, and lovingly.” – Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection –

Thomas Merton once said, “Advent is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.” To help us all enter into this sacred season, we are delighted to offer you a mini Advent Retreat. 

Do you ever find yourself wondering about the nature and purpose of asking, or petitionary, prayer? Is it a valid way of praying? Is it too selfish? What’s the point of it? In these letters, the British diplomat Mark Allen and the Carmelite nun Ruth Burrows explore these very questions. 

“In order that Love be fully satisfied, it is necessary that It lower Itself, and that it lower Itself to nothingness and transform this nothingness into fire.” – St Therese of Lisieux –

The latest edition of the local Carmelite newsletter is out now – just in time to celebrate the cherished Carmelite, St Therese of Lisieux!

“The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this Word he speaks always in eternal silence, and in silence must it be heard by the soul.” – St John of the Cross –

How do we pray about something as big and painful as Afghanistan? In this short reflection, Sister Catherine Wybourne offers an encouragement to all who are lost for words.

“It is at the very heart of human nature to desire what it is unable to achieve. We were made for infinity, for relationship with God; without it we will always be incomplete.” – Michael Casey –

“Faith alone can overcome the world and the threat the world imposes. It does not follow that we lose the feeling of anxiety and fear – we would be poorer for that – but these now play a role that is creative not destructive. Fear can cripple, paralyse, prompt us to shirk and evade life. […]

“I don’t think anyone can feel God. Those who believe in him most are most aware of his non-feelability, as it were. God is such a total mystery. – Sister Wendy Beckett –

Sandra Walkling lives in Tasmania and has been a member of the Carmelite Secular Order for over 30 years. In this beautiful short reflection, Sandra shares her experience of relating with her dog and the many insights it offers us for our relationship with God. 

“On the sure rock of God’s love we must build our lives. Every effort must be made to convince ourselves of this love: God’s unfailing, unshakable love for me, no matter what it feels like, no matter how unlike love it seems. What can matter in this life save to surrender to this love?” – Ruth […]

“Courage, for the One you love, the only One who can heal your wound, dwells within you and invites you to intimacy.” – St John of the Cross –

Want to know what the nuns, friars, and lay Carmelites of the Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania region have been up to? The latest regional newsletter is out now!

“The deepest part of our selves is far away, in our true country, beyond the land of thunder, frost, and ‘falling buildings,’ at the still center of the turning world.” – Robert Ellsberg –

“Let yourself be loved. . . . That is, without fearing that any obstacle will be a hindrance to it.” – St Elizabeth of the Trinity –

Longing for happiness? For fulfillment? In this reflection, Ruth Burrows ponders the divine glory of being human.

St Teresa of Avila is a life-giving well that never runs dry. In a recent address, Pope Francis drew up fresh and soul-quenching waters from this abundant source.

“I learn to delight in myself, that I am I and no one else. I despise nothing in myself except the desire to stand on self. I thank God for what he has done in the unique situation which is my life. Even my sins and failures, the black shadows, are seen in the context […]

The Australian Carmelite and iconographer Mary Clancy was commissioned to create an icon that speaks to the people of the central west of New South Wales – and beyond! Here is her story.

Who among us isn’t held back from throwing ourselves into God’s arms by the memory of our past sins? Who feels “good enough” to receive the outpouring of God’s love? In this excerpt from a book by the Australian Carmelite friar Aloysius Rego, we encounter the life-giving and freeing wisdom that St Therese of Lisieux offers people who feel just as we do.

“In his aloneness on the cross – ‘My God, why…?’ – the Son of God included in his relationship with his Father all our dryness, confusion, incapacity, before the divine mystery. He consecrated it, folded it into his return to the Father’s house. Those bewildered by a Father who is not just at their disposal […]

Enter into the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus with this beautiful “Carmelite Way of the Cross.”

“Are you convinced that Jesus loves you in your absolute uniqueness? We are not a faceless crowd. The Lord is not content that you are content with touching his robe, he wants to be face to face with you. He wants your embrace, your kiss of love. No one can give him the particular love […]

The latest edition of the local Carmelite newsletter has been launched – just in time to celebrate the great feast of St Joseph!

“Do not fear the void. Live in faith and hope, even though it be in darkness, for in this darkness God is supporting the soul.” – Iain Matthew, OCD (adapted) –

How do we know if we are listening to God’s voice in prayer? Check out this article for 7 life-giving and practical tips!

“If Lent makes us think of an austere, judgmental or frightening God, we need to recall the God of the Psalms who ‘delights’ in us, the God proclaimed by the prophet Zephaniah: ‘he will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for […]

“What we cannot accept is that we are the beloved. . . . That I am the beloved. God longs for me, He presses on my heart with a tender, humble, hunger for me. He wants to possess me. . . . To be so loved and so wanted is so terrifying and so awful […]

“When we can see our poverty and fallibility shot through with God’s love, and can integrate them into our prayer, then we are finally reconciled with ourselves and become more authentic people.” – Mary McCormack, OCD –

“In the end you leave with empty hands, that I know; and it is well. At that moment you look at the crucified one and go. What comes is the everlasting mystery of God.” – Karl Rahner –

Do you ever find yourself distracted in prayer? Are you ever tempted to give up on prayer altogether because you don’t seem to be getting anywhere? This reflection may be just what you need to read.

“God is today. He is not yesterday. He is not tomorrow.” – Jessica Powers –

“I was able to offer my feelings of failure to our Lord, vaguely understanding that this would please him more than if everything had gone swimmingly and I had emerged with flying colours.” – Ruth Burrows –

The Carmelite Newsletter is an exciting development in the Discalced Carmelite world of the Australia-Oceania region.

“It should be known that if anyone is seeking God, the Beloved is seeking that person much more.” – St John of the Cross –

“Oh, to become a pure pool like the Virgin, water that lost the semblances of water and was a sky like God.” – Jessica Powers –

“Unless we are anchored in something beyond the here and now, chances are we will drown in the present moment. . . . In my experience, the extraordinary people I have known and admired all have had the same secret: they prayed.” – Ron Rolheiser –

“Prayer is essentially God’s work. Our part is to give time, do our best to keep attention, surrender ourselves as best we can. Then we can be sure that God works. Faith does not ask for signs, for tokens. When we really grasp that prayer is essentially God’s business, not ours, we will never talk […]

“When God is communicating himself to the soul, the mind’s natural field of vision has too narrow a range, and we have to engage by believing, not by focusing. Were faith to open us merely to a world of sharper ideas or more vivid impressions, then its light would indeed look bright. As it opens […]

Facing yet another Zoom meeting? Perhaps St Teresa of Avila has some wisdom that will make the experience a little less fatiguing!

“The deepest reason why so few of us are saints is because we will not let God love us.”   – Ruth Burrows –

“O souls, created for these grandeurs and called to them! What are you doing? How are you spending your time?” – St John of the Cross –

“Whatever the past, or my fears of the future, here and now, O Holy Spirit, utter within me the total ‘Yes’ of Jesus to the Father.” – Sister Wendy Beckett –

“Let nothing disturb you,” St Teresa of Avila counsels us in her famous prayer. But how can we possibly “let nothing disturb us” if we are consumed with worry, for instance, about the ill-health of a loved one, or about a relationship breakdown, or about our financial situation? In this article, Michelle Jones explores the possibility that Rembrandt’s painting “The Jewish Bride” can help us understand and live Teresa’s prayer more deeply.

“When you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been and how much you planned that has gone undone and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him.” – St Edith Stein […]

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of St Teresa of Avila being declared a Doctor of the Church – the first woman to be given this title – we allow her to share with us the secrets of prayer. It turns out that prayer is more within our grasp than we perhaps anticipated!

“Prayer belongs to all: To people of all religions, And probably also to those that don’t profess any. Prayer is born in the secret of ourselves, in that interior place that spiritual authors often call ‘the heart.’ Therefore to pray is not something peripheral to us, It is not something secondary or marginal in us, […]

This article explores critical questions perhaps asked by people drawn to the Carmelite tradition: Given the imperative for all Christians to be alert to the demands of social justice, how can we responsibly follow a call to a relatively simple life which gives priority to prayer? Do we not run the risk of camouflaging an essentially egocentric existence with the label “contemplative”? Could this not be, rather, merely a “cop-out,” avoiding the “real” concerns of Christian living?