•           Our Day
  • 4:00   Rise
  • 4:30   Matins
  • 5:00   Lectio
  • 5:45   Mental Prayer
  • 6:45   Lauds
  • 7:30   Holy Mass
  •           Thanksgiving
  •           Terce
  • 8:30   Breakfast
  •           Manual Labor
  • 11:00 Sext/Examen
  • 11:20 Dinner
  • 12:00 Recreation
  • 12:55 Free Time
  • 1:40   Rosary
  • 2:00   None
  • 2:25   Spiritual Reading
  • 3:00   Manual Labor
  • 4:30   Vespers
  • 5:00   Mental Prayer
  • 6:00   Supper
  • 6:40   Recreation
  • 7:40   Compline
  • 8:00   Free Time
  • 9:30   Retire

Our Daily Life: Living The Call

Each day in Carmel is a journey that brings us one day closer to Heaven. St. Teresa of Avila called this journey "the royal road to Heaven.” This is the joyful hope that draws us through each day. Our day is modeled after the Holy Family of Nazareth, a life of simplicity, intended in its routines and rhythms to foster a lifestyle of prayer and contemplation. During each hour of the day, we strive to make our every action and prayer a sacrificial offering of love to God for the good of the whole world.

Life in a Carmelite Monastery today is substantially, with minor modifications, what it was in 1562 when St. Teresa founded her first monastery of St. Joseph in Avila, Spain. Discalced Carmelites observe strict papal enclosure and live in silence and solitude, retaining the eremitical (hermit-like) spirit of their first Fathers on Mount Carmel while participating in a strong and joyful community life. The life is simple and austere, yet full of the warmth, peace and contentment that characterizes a family united in love and centered on Christ.

Each day begins with a call to praise: “Praised be Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, His Mother; Come to prayer, Sisters, come to praise the Lord!” Seven times daily Carmelites join together to praise God in choral recitation of The Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours). The high point of each day in Carmel is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when the sisters worship God in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Our daily life includes devotional prayers in the Carmelite tradition; simple manual labor for the maintenance of the community; practices of mortification, fasting and penance; community recreation; meals in common with spiritual reading; private mental prayer; and spiritual reading.

“On behalf of the whole church, I express gratitude to those who, in the cloister, dedicate their lives to prayer, offering us an eloquent witness of the primacy of God and His kingdom
Pope Benedict XVI