THE CARMELITE NUNS OF ARLINGTON, TX

The Carmelite Nuns of Arlington, Texas
The Carmelite Vocation
Reflections from Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity
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The Carmelite Nuns of Arlington, Texas

Arlington Carmel was founded in 1958. Our first monastery was in Fort Worth, Texas, in two renovated residences, where we lived our contemplative Carmelite life for 26 years. When the need for a permanent monastery became evident to us, after much prayer and help from our good friends and benefactors, we planned, designed and built our new Monastery in southwest Arlington, Texas, where we are now living since November 1984.

Our life of prayer consists in our daily praise and worship of God in the Mass, Divine Office, and personal silent prayer and recollection, and our work includes printing, ceramics, art work, assorted cards and Perpetual Remembrances, Novena notices, newsletters, and general household and yard work... basic upkeep of the monastery.

As contemplatives our apostolate is prayer, and our hidden life of continual prayer at the "heart of the Church" is lived in the silence and solitude of the cloister (Papal Enclosure), offering ourselves to God each day in intercessory prayer and sacrifice for the welfare of the Church and the world. Our Carmelite Vocation is one of joy and fulfillment, consecrated by vows and shared with one another in daily sisterly community life and devoted service, very much aware of and united in spirit with our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

For further information write to us at our Carmel in Arlington. Perhaps someone who visits our web site may be called by God to share our Carmelite Vocation. May all whom God is calling respond generously to His love. God bless you. BACK TO TOP

St. Teresa of Avila, our Foundress
The Carmelite Vocation ~ a talk given to young women interested in Carmel

The call to Carmel is a call to an extraordinary way of life... a sublime vocation, but it is offered to ordinary modern young Catholic women no different from yourselves. This call is a personal invitation from God Himself to a life of intimacy with Him through the complete gift of oneself.

We Discalced Carmelite Nuns are part of a worldwide religious family... a cloistered Order of women dedicated to the apostolate of prayer and penance at the very heart of the Church and of the world. Our history goes back to the 12th century... and, by tradition, even to Old Testament times and the prophets (particularly the great prophet Elijah), whose lives bore witness to the Presence of God among His people. The great Spanish mystic, St. Teresa of Avila, reformed the Order of Carmel in the 16th century (1562), setting up very much the same lifestyle our community follows today, together with more than 800 other Carmelite monasteries throughout the world... on every continent. Our tradition is ancient, but there is nothing old-fashioned about Carmel: our ministry, though still hidden, is as relevant to the times you live in as it ever was... our life of prayer for the Church, for the needs of the world, and for all the peoples of the earth.

Today's world needs prayer. We pray especially for priests, for the missions, for the poor, the unemployed, the sick and suffering, the hungry; for all those who call or write us continually with their special needs and intentions. Our morning Mass and the seven times each day when we gather in Choir to chant the Liturgy of the Hours, the official prayer of the Church, consisting of the psalms and readings from Scripture, are all a part of the Carmelite's offering of praise to the Lord and intercession for His people. But the real heart of our life is contemplative prayer, the silent, loving person-to-Person relationship with Jesus Christ which makes of the one who prays herself an offering... a living prayer, that draws all that she is and does into Jesus' saving work in a powerful and mysterious way. The life of Carmel is modeled on the life of Mary at Nazareth... the quiet, hidden, worshipful service of God and His Will in intimate union with Jesus... carrying out her unique role in the history of salvation.

Remaining in the Lord's presence always, getting to be His close personal friend, is aided by the peaceful prayerful silence and solitude we find within our "cloister", known as the Papal Enclosure. Once we enter, we do not leave the monastery grounds except for necessary medical care... nor does anyone else come inside the cloister except for necessary maintenance. But the walls, the grilles, the hiddenness do not cut us off from the sufferings of the world or mean that we fail to appreciate its good and beautiful values; rather our unique vantage point lets us penetrate into the very heart of things. We are free... free to reflect, to ponder life in the light of God's Word, to concentrate on love. If by our Solemn Vows of poverty, chastity and obedience we give up good things like the right to marriage and a family of our own, to be independent and seek our own ambitions, to own property or to have a rewarding career in the world, it is only to free us to have and to do something even more rewarding.

The life St. Teresa set up for her daughters strikes a healthy balance between prayer, both personal and communal, and manual labor... our daily work; and between solitude and community life. She believed that the best training for generosity with the Lord Jesus in prayer is the generosity we practice in serving our sisters. We are like hermits, but we live in the context of community: we pray together, we take our meals together, and we recreate together each day in a true spirit of sisterly joy. We work in silence, but whatever we do... whether domestic duties such as cooking the meals, cleaning the monastery, doing the laundry, or preparing the chapel for worship; everything is a service of love. It makes us mindful of the needs of others and trains us in caring... and in the love and service of one another, striving to live faithfully the Gospel of Jesus Christ... for Him and in union with Him.

We find God's Will in our Rule of life and the order of our day, in the directives of our superiors, in the "quiet whisper" of silent prayer in loving communion with our Blessed Lord... and living in God's will means living in joy and peace of heart.

Community life is simple and happy. St. Teresa limited the number of nuns in each monastery to twenty-one, so that we might all be true friends and sisters. The particular monastery that we enter is where we are trained in our own Novitiate and where we remain for life. The sick and elderly are cared for right here in the monastery infirmary, and we do not transfer from one Carmel to another. So it is important that each of us gets to know herself and continually strives to become more Christlike in the daily pursuit of holiness and the practice of virtue, that we may become more selfless, humble, generous, and more loving and thoughtful toward others. The challenge is never-ending. It is indeed a spiritual adventure.

Yes, the ideals of Carmel are high, but the women the Lord calls to serve Him here are just like you. We have come from all parts of the country, from all kinds of backgrounds. Some of us went to Catholic schools and grew up around sisters, and perhaps felt from childhood that we wanted to give ourselves to Jesus in a special way. Others pursued studies or careers and only discovered later that the service they were called to render the world was to offer it to God and to dedicate their own lives completely to Him in prayer and penance for His people.

The world needs generous and courageous youth, ready and willing to commit their lives with joy and enthusiasm to serve without counting the cost... to live for others and to love without measure as Jesus said: "greater love than this no one has than to lay down one's life for others..." If today you should hear His voice... calling you to this marvelous challenge, do not hesitate to "go for it"... to respond with all the love and daring of your young heart. Never doubt that Jesus means YOU, when you hear Him say... "Come, follow Me... and I will show you the fullness of life and joy in this journey of faith we make together... let us climb the mountain of Carmel to the very peak of fulfillment... complete UNION with GOD forever in the JOY of Eternal LIFE!" BACK TO TOP

Reflections from Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity on the Carmelite Vocation

To live in the presence of God; that is surely an inheritance left to the children of Carmel by the prophet Elijah, who cried out in the fervor of his faith: "The God I serve is a living God"... A life of prayer is the essence of the Carmelite vocation; the heart to heart communion that never ends, because when one loves, one no longer belongs to oneself but to the Beloved, and so lives more in Him than in oneself. That is what life in Carmel means: to live in God, contemplating His goodness and beauty, and dedicated entirely to the fulfillment of His blessed Will. Then every immolation, every sacrifice becomes divine; through everything the soul sees Him whom she loves and everything leads her to Him... it is a continual communion. All day long she surrenders herself to Love, by doing the will of God, under His gaze, with Him, in Him, for Him alone.

This is the life of a Carmelite: to be a true contemplative, another Magdalene whom nothing can distract from the 'one thing necessary'. I want to be an apostle from the depths of my beloved solitude in Carmel; I want to work for God's glory and the good of all His people, especially His priests; and for that I must be full of Him. Then I should be all-powerful: a look, a wish, would become an irresistible prayer that could obtain everything one asks in the Name of Jesus. I want to remain like Mary Magdalene silent and adoring at the Master's feet, asking Him to make the words of apostles bear fruit in souls.

As Our Lord dwells within us, His prayer is ours, and I want to share in it unceasingly, remaining like a little vessel at the spring, at the fountain of life, and so be able to communicate it to others by letting its floods of charity overflow.

How sublime is the Carmelite's mission! She should be a mediatrix with Jesus Christ, and be for Him, as it were, another humanity in which He can perpetuate His life of reparation and sacrifice, of love and praise and adoration. She abides faithfully in prayerful silence and solitude so that the Most High God may be able to realize His desires in her, accomplishing His will in her as an instrument of His love and peace among His people.

So, on the mountain of Carmel, in silence, in solitude, in a prayer which is unceasing, for nothing can interrupt it, the Carmelite already lives as though in heaven: for God alone! The same God who will one day be her beatitude and will fulfill her desires in glory, is already giving Himself to her here on earth. He never leaves her, He dwells in the depths of her being, and more wonderful still, He and she are but one. And so she is hungry for silence and prayer that she may always listen to Him and penetrate more deeply into His infinite Being. She identifies herself with Him whom she loves, she finds Him everywhere. She sees Him shining through everything. She belongs to Him alone, and trusts completely in His loving and faithful providence. Is that not heaven on earth?

When you think of the life of the Carmelite, thank Him for the beautiful portion that is hers. What will it be like in heaven, if even here below He enters into such intimate union with those who love Him?

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...

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