Reflections

Join Carmelite Bishop Greg Homeming as he leads us in discovering how St Teresa of Avila helps us understand ourselves and shows us how to pray.

Embracing failure, imperfection, and incompleteness can be a spiritual practice that brings us closer to the heart of God in Jesus Christ.

2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of St Thérèse of Lisieux. More human, sharper, and funnier than we have been allowed to believe, Thérèse is the saint of trust, of doubt – and of hell.

St Teresa of Avila has great wisdom to share with us when it comes to the challenge of believing that we are fundamentally enough. This article explores her life-giving insights.

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

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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

“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.

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?

The following article by Ruth Burrows (Sr Rachel of the Quidenham Carmelite Monastery, England) is both challenging and enriching. Burrows explores what Jesus means when he insists that we must become as little as a little child in order to enter the kingdom of God.