On October 15th, the Church celebrated the holiness of St. Teresa of Avila, a doctor of the Church and a master of the Christian spiritual life.

Teresa accepted a vocation as a vowed religious of the Carmelite Order. These communities of men and women accepted the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, but also sought to live them in great austerity and simplicity of life. Through the extremity of their asceticism, the Carmelites would become living images of Christ who emptied himself of Divine Glory and accepted a human nature with all its limitations and sufferings. This was the Carmelite ideal.

Teresa discerned that the Carmelite ideal was being undermined by many men and women in her community. She burned with a passion to live the Carmelite way as she believed it had been intended. Teresa launched a reform of the Carmelite Order that insisted on a return to the foundational principles of their rule of life and which emphasized a radical witness of austerity and simplicity.

Here in Thunder Bay, we have a community of The Discalced Carmelite Secular Order. If you feel drawn to the Carmelite saints, their writings, contemplative prayer, and have a longing to deepen your relationship with our Lord, striving to unite your will to God’s will, please contact Gail Gibbons (683-8981) for more information.