Hermits in Community

St Teresa wanted her spiritual daughters to be “hermits in community”. The silence of Carmel is not something rigid - it creates an atmosphere of “listening love”, to discern, like the prophet Elijah, the Lord’s passing in the sound of a gentle breeze. Over the years, solitude and silence become more and more needs of the heart. They heighten our awareness, slow us down, teach us interiority: putting us in touch with the Trinity indwelling in our souls. Our cloistered life does not insulate us from reality. It is a door into reality, to truth, to self-knowledge - a challenging and, at times, a rocky road, but one leading to inner freedom. Solitude and silence tune us in to the music of life. They lead us to the wellsprings of life…. “the dearest freshness deep down things” (G.M. Hopkins: God’s Grandeur). They awaken our hearts to beauty, the healing harmonies of Nature. They fill us with reverence and wonder at the mystery of growth, the miracles-in-slow-motion that God is ever working in all of life. In silence we can hear better the cry of the poor and the groaning of our exploited planet Earth. “Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God” Laudato Si 84. Each week we have a "hermit day" when each Sister is more free to spend the time alone with God in whatever way she wishes. On a fine day, some Sisters may take their lunch outdoors! It is a day of keeping alive the spirit of the ancient origins of the Carmelite charism - the hermit monks on Mount Carmel. < BACK BEGINNING >