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Let nothing disturbs you; Let nothing frighten you; All things are passing. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Nothing is wanting to him who passes God. God alone suffices.
Our Story
History of Order
The Discalced Carmel acknowledges Saint Teresa as its mother and foundress. It is the only Order which has a woman as its foundress and, distinct from the other Orders which have male and female branches, the nuns were established before the friars.
We are not going into the old discussion about the charism of the reformer and the charism of the founder. Mother Teresa’s desire was “to wish to preserve the continuity of Carmel”. What is new is not the past in itself, but progress, looking to the future, which leads us to think that Saint Teresa “wanted to give birth to a new style of religious life”, and she does so always in fidelity to the Church.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our order belongs to the Blessed Virgin Mary and we keep Mary as our mother and patroness, we place ourselves under her protection and her union with Christ as its ideal model of our consecration.
Infant Jesus
Devotion to the Infancy of Jesus has been cultivated in the Order of Carmel and gained more prominence since St. Teresa of Avila established the Reform. There is a story in the Order of Teresa having a vision of the Child Jesus. She met a little boy in the cloister and the boy asked her: "Who are you?" Teresa answered, "I am Teresa of Jesus." And she in turn asked him, "And who are you?" The child answered, "I am Jesus of Teresa." Devotion to the Infant of Prague began in the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers of Prague about the year 1628. The religious of the monastery received the gift of the statue from Princess Polixena. In the year 1631, when Prague fell to the hands of the enemies of the Church, the Holy Infant was thrown into a heap of garbage only to be found by Fr. Cyril The image had broken hands. One day, the image spoke to Fr. Cyril with these words: "Have pity on Me and I will have pity on you; restore My hands and I will give you peace; the more you honor Me, the more I will bless you."
St. Therese took her religious name in honor of the Child Jesus and made it her mission the Spiritual Childhood.
St. Joseph
Our holy Father st. joseph is the special patron of our monastery.
Our Holy mother St. Therese of Jesus always considered him as a powerful intercessor more than any other saints. All the Wednesdays are kept for the special devotion to our Father St. joseph. there are many ways through which we show the devotion to Our Father like monthly devotion, weekly veneration like night sentence for the night clapper : "Numerous may be the patron saints, Always rank St. Joseph first For he has great power with God pray to him for all your needs. Our Holy Mother St. Terese of Jesus build the first chapel dedicated to St. Joseph in Avila.
St. Elijah
St Elijah, the biblical prophet is the source of our inspiration and we his spirit of Prophet Elijah, a life of solitude & prayer. So our order begins from Mt. Carmel in Palestine. Elijah is a bone fide hero of faith. He is larger than life: faithful, confident and authoritative. He is able to bring about miracles through prayer, even raising the dead and calling fire down from heaven. He is able to confront a powerful king and accuse him for sin, and he dares to challenge a large crowd of Baalists.
St. Teresa our Holy Mother and the reformer
Our Holy Mother St.Teresa of Jesus was a manly woman with full of zeal and spirit. Her life breathes only the love of god and the love of souls. At the age of 18 she entered the Carmelite monastery in of the incarnation at Avila the twenty years spent in this monastery were for her a preparation for the great work she was destined to accomplish.
Inspired by the divine grace she commenced the reform of carmel, and succeeded not only with the nuns but with the friars before her death thirty –two monasteries were established, 17 for the former and fifteen for the latter; this she did without money or revenues, confiding in the providence of god alone.
St. John of the Cross our Holy Father
Who is St. John of the Cross for our Holy Mother St. Teresa and for the carmels?
Being the great mystic of the mystics and the doctor of the church he is the backbone for st. teresa’s personal spiritual life and he was the spiritual director and a great spiritual strength for the nuns. He is a man of depth silence and interiority.
In the evening of life we will be judged on love alone. God desires the smallest degree of purity of conscience in you more than all the works you can perform
Mount Carmel
The word Carmel means a garden, a beautiful hill a choice orchard, a highly cultivated ground. In Ecclesiasticus, we are told that Elias, the successor of St. Elijah reunited a large number of disciples on Carmel and they led a life in common, sanctified by prayer and celibacy.
This fact has given rise to the name of one of the principal caverns of the mountain, called the "School of the Prophets". This era of the Prophets is known as the prophetic era of the order, comprising the centuries from the time of the Prophet Elias to the age of Christianity.
After the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven, a new era i.e. the Greek era, dawned for the Order of Elias; St. John the Baptist made a start to this era. It extends to the time of St.Berthold.
God made use of the persecutions in the East to spread the knowledge of the order in the west. The coming of the Crusaders introduced the Latin element; many of these valiant soldiers remained in Palestine and were destined by God, which gave birth to the Latin era that extends from St. Berthold to the end of the world.
The Organization of Nuns of the Order
The institution of the nuns is generally attributed to Bl. John Soreth.
The Carmelite Emblem
- In the center of the shield rises the holy mountain of Carmel, the cradle of Order, the symbol of prayer and contemplation.
- The three stars symbolizes
- Prophetic Era (From St. Elijah to St. John the Baptist)
- Greek Era(from St. john the Baptist to St. Berthold the first Latin General (1155AD)
- Latin Era (from Berthold to the end of the world)
- The cross on the summit of the Mountain:- It was added on the 16 th century as the distinctive sign of the Discalced Carmelites.
- The arm with the Flaming Sword at the top represents st. elijah
- The words on the ribbon of st. Elijah is our motto :- "with zeal I have been zealous for the Lord God of heaven"
- The twelve stars of the Crown represents the attributes of our Lady, the Virgin Mary and the twelve points of the rule.
The History of Christianity in India
The Catholic Church in India has got its roots at the beginning of the Christianity.
Since India has got merchant relationship with the holy land from the time immemorial, the Jews were living here especially in Kerala. So an apostle like the fervent St. Thomas came in this country as the other apostles did, and he propagated the faith so well that he is called the apostle of india. Now his body is in Mylapore Basilica which is one the only three Basilicas build on the tomb of an apostle. (the other two are the basilica of st. peter in rome and st. james in Santiago de compostle in spain.The mission of the apostle focused mainly in kerala and it is from him the oriental churches like Syro Malabar and the syro malankara church and some other non catholic churches got their faith. They were generally known as" st. thomas Christians. "Come let's go and die with him. The faith remained and was nourished by many missionaries from orders like Franciscans (1517), Jesuits with St. Francis Xavier (1542) Dominicans (1548), Augustinians (1572) and at last our order (Carmelites) came in 1619. So 2019 was the occasion for the great celebration of the 400 years in Goa.
Come let's go and die with him.
Carmel in India
The Mission of Carmelites in Kerala
The influence of Carmelites in forming the Kerala church is outstanding.
At the request of the Archdeacon Thomas Parambil in the name of the St. Thomas Christians, Pope Alexander VII sent two groups of discalced Carmelites to Malabar in 1656, one under Fr. Hyacinth of St.Vincent by sea and another under fr. Joseph of St. Mary, later known as Msgr. Joseph Sebastiani by land, to settle the dispute and bring harmony between the St. Thomas Christians and their Jesuit archbishop of Cranganore. Though intended as a temporary mission, events turned in such a way that the Carmelite mission in Kerala came to be permanent. They have made significant movement, evangelization of non Christians, formation of native clergy, founding of the native religious congregations and socio- educational activities.
The first Carmelite Monastery for Nuns in India
This little Arab, who providentially entered in the Carmel of Pau in France and took the name “Mary of Jesus crucified” is considered as the foundress of the Carmel in India. Being blessed with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and great mystic she came to Mangalore in India to start the carmel with other nuns from france. Now there are 36 carmels in india.
The History of Carmels in Kerala
Six daughters of St. Maravillas of Jesus from Spain, came to kerala to start the very first carmel in kerala at kottayam under the leadership of Mother Maria Rosario of Jesus.
Now there are 8 carmels in Kerala. They are in Trivandrum, Kottiyam, Thiruvalla, Eramalloor, Malayattoor, Kannur & Thamarassery.
The Malayattoor Carmel
As a tribute to the meritorious work done by the Carmelites in Kerala, His Eminence Cardinal varkey Vithayathil (Late) had an ardent desire to start a carmel in Syro Malabar rite. Through the selfless services of so many generous minds it came into a reality in 2008 at Malayatoor. By the abundant mercy and love shown by the almighty upon the malayattoor carmel, now within the short time period of 10 years, Carmel in Thamarassery is being established.
The Carmel Calicut (Thamarassery)
Having reflected deeply on the repeated requests of His Excellency Dr. Remigiose Ingianickal, the Bishop of Tharamarassery, we have decided to found a new Carmel in this Diocese. The OCD Fathers of the Malabar Province, have graciously donated us enough land to establish this new Foundation.
we are 10 in number, 8 solemnly professed sisters and 2 novices. At present we are in Kakkadampoyil a parish in Thamarassery Diocese. This house belong to the SKD sisters (kristudasi)They have generously given this house to us to use until the construction of our monastery at erood is over.
Vision
Carmelite life is Christian life. Hence, it is a life of constant conversion as we strive to live in allegiance to and discipleship of Jesus Christ. In this endeavour, the Blessed Virgin Mary is our model and companion. Like her, our call is to a 'hidden union with God' for the sake of the Church and the world.
Mission
Carmelite mission is in the service of the Church and of all humankind. In keeping with the charism and inspiration of St. Teresa, Carmelite prayer and contemplation are ardently apostolic and ecclesial. They are graces for the Church in her service to the world. Carmelite prayer and contemplation are directed to the support, welfare, and apostolic fruitfulness of all those engaged in the work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Teresian Charism
St. Teresa founded Carmel as a contemplative Order and centres our entire day on prayer. Still, she teaches that to close oneself up in the serenity of prayer was not enough. She wrote: "The Lord wants deeds... He wants good works! Such is true union with Christ!" (cf Interior Castle)
She made a vow in her life to do the most perfect thing always. Such was her burning desire to love God with all her heart, mind and soul and to surrender her life into his hands for the good of the Church and for the salvation of souls.
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