Carmelite Way of Life: Focus and

Apostolate

With thousands of their Discalced Carmelite sisters worldwide, the nuns of Kilmacud Carmel continue to live the cloistered contemplative life as envisioned by St. Teresa of Avila. They witness to the transcendence of God through a life of unceasing prayer and sacrifice. The heart of Carmelite life is the experience of a personal relationship with the living God, present and close, who makes himself known as a Friend. Prayer is their apostolate, permeating every aspect of the nuns’ lives. Prayer is the raison d’etre of their lives. Their prayer is essentially ecclesial, for the wellbeing of the Church and the good of all humanity. Nothing human fails to find an echo in their hearts. They make their own the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of all their sisters and brothers the world over, especially the poorest. Through their important ‘Apostolate of Listening’ and ‘Apostolate of the Pen,’ they offer comfort and encouragement to all who call or contact them for prayers. They gather each day as a community to celebrate the Eucharist and their praise and thanksgiving continues seven times throughout the day in the Prayer of the Church. They devote at least 2 hours every day to personal meditation and contemplation. Called to be ‘hermits in community’, their focus is on silent solitary prayer, and, like Mary, attentive listening to God’s word, balanced by warm sisterly relations in community. The balance between these two elements is fundamental to the Teresian Carmel and it is the tension between them that enriches and purifies them reciprocally. The Teresian charism has a strong community dimension, also characterised by friendship; “all must be friends, all must love one another, all must be cherished, and all must help one another”, (Constitutions 88). The nuns meet twice daily for recreation to upbuild relationships and to share their joy. The Teresian Community has a value in itself. It counteracts the growing individualism of today’s society and speaks to the yearning to belong that the superficial virtual relationships of the social media fail to satisfy. Teresa saw her small communities as ‘little Colleges of Christ’, whose way of being is transformed by the presence of the Lord in their midst. Teresa promoted the dignity of the person; the incomparable magnificence of the human person deriving from the fact that we were all created by God and chosen by him as his dwelling place. Her insights and conviction speak to our modern world where sadly the human person is often degraded and exploited. The nuns themselves must have a profound experience of their interiority and union with God, which transforms them into the image of Christ. This in turn impels them to recognise the presence of his Spirit in the situations of the world and the signs of God in history. The nuns endeavour to live by Gospel values. Their daily hidden life is simple; they pray work, study, and recreate within the monastery and its grounds. They try to live a counter- cultural lifestyle and witness to stability and life-long commitment in the fast-changing affluent consumer society of the 21st century. They engage in remunerative altar bread work to support themselves and to show solidarity with the poor. The Carmelite Community is inserted into the Parish of St. Laurence O’Toole, Kilmacud, and is valued for their place in the local community by the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. The Community is aware of the problems of ecology and their responsibility in safeguarding the environment. They do their best to re-duce, re-use, re-cycle. They very much welcomed Laudato Si (On Care of our Common Home), written by Pope Francis in 2015, and his Apostolic Constitution, Vultum Dei Querere on Women’s Contemplative Life of 2016, followed by Cor Orans from CICLSAL (2018). OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES Aims The aims of the Carmelite community are to be of service to the Church and the world by living their contemplative vocation following the charism of St. Teresa of Avila. They strive to witness to the transcendence of God through a life of prayer and sacrifice. They contribute to the good of society in the spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom. Activities • Spiritual/Religious / Ministries - Chapel - Prayer - Formation • Support of the members of St Joseph’s Carmelite Monastery and their mission and care for the elderly and sick sisters within the monastery. • Altar Bread Distribution and Management. • Support of other Charities • Positive Impact Investment • Sustainable living and protecting the natural biodiversity Achievements and Performance Spiritual / Religious • Chapel - Flowing from our life of prayer, our chapel and grounds offer an oasis of prayer and peace in a busy suburb. - We engage in the upkeep of our chapel. When the Covid restrictions were lifted we opened our Chapel again for Mass, Communion Services, Personal Prayer and Evening Prayer on Pentecost Sunday 2023 - We continue to be a deeply appreciated presence in this Parish of St. Laurence O’Toole after 142 years, and a public Mass centre since 1896. - During the Covid restriction people were unable to visit our chapel or attend our Liturgy. Since Pentecost Sunday 2023, people were welcome to return. Many have returned and express their appreciation. • Prayer - We engage in a tradition of contemplative prayer to which we dedicate our whole lives and we encourage others to develop prayer in their lives. - Individually and as a community we engage in Lectio Divina and study of the scriptures. We encourage others to recognise the importance of the Word of God in their own lives. - We offer support to our local church, clergy and parishioners through prayer and sacrifice. - We offered a livestream link to allow people to join with our Evening Prayer for Christian Unity from 18th -25th January 2023. Many people attended, and videos were uploaded to YouTube and many more viewed them later. - We are committed to praying for thousands of requests sent in weekly by viewers worldwide to the Chapel of Intentions on the popular Sacred Space website. The Community were faithful during 2023 to supporting with prayer the thousands of online requests posted in weekly to The Chapel of Intentions of Sacred Space. - We are open to making our parlours available for the Interdenominational Bible Fellowship Study Group. In 2023 our friends from the Interdenominational Bible Study Fellowship Group continued to meet online. - Through our community website and Social Media accounts, we post inspirational blogs, pictures, and articles to support viewers in their spiritual searching. Through this medium we also share events taking place in our community. In 2023 we continued to maintain our own community website and Social Media accounts, to promote our life and to offer inspiring literature and reflections etc. to our viewers. - Through our ‘Apostolate of Listening’ and the “Apostolate of the Pen,” we provide a source of consolation, compassion and encouragement to members of the public who call to our monastery or who contact us by post or email. - While our lifestyle cannot be judged by human standards, we believe it responds to the spiritual and temporal needs of people today. We are aware of the powerful effects of a life of prayer and the support and strength our ‘Apostolates of Listening and of the Pen’, give to those who seek our help. We receive positive feedback from our contacts at the door or through letters and emails. - We greatly support in prayer vulnerable groups like the Travelling Community, prisoners and their families, traumatised women and their families who spend time in the Women’s Refuge, those trapped in substance abuse, expectant mothers, the sick and the terminally ill, families affected by suicide, the bereaved and persecuted Christians of our time. • Formation - We welcome new members and engage in their formation and in the ongoing formation and training in liturgy, scripture, and human development of all the community. - We pray for and promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life and accompany those who are discerning a vocation to the Carmelite life. We support missionaries at home and abroad. Support of the Members • The Charity helps to support and maintain the members in their ministry. The Charity maintains its property and ensures suitable accommodation for the members. The members of St Joseph’s Carmelite Monastery who receive pensions donate them to the Charity. • The needs of the sisters within the monastery are supported and professional care is employed when necessary. Altar Bread • To be self-supporting and for the care of the members, we no longer bake altar-breads ourselves, but buy in and distribute as a service to parishes and religious congregations mainly in the Archdiocese of Dublin, but elsewhere in Ireland. Support of other Charities • We share as generously as possible from our resources with charities at home and abroad. Positive Impact Investment • The Charity seeks to invest in companies that exhibit positive corporate practices in the context of