Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites

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The Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCDS), formerly known as the Third Secular Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and of the Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus, is an association of the Roman Catholic laity who are an integral part of the Discalced Carmelite Order, and are in "fraternal communion" with the contemplative friars and cloistered nuns of the Order. They have a "fidelity to contemplative prayer with the spirit of detachment it entails…."

Part of the Rule of Life (Regula vitæ) is to pray for at least a half an hour each day "in an atmosphere of interior silence and solitude," and to recite Morning and Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office). The Tertiaries will "gladly mortify themselves in union with the Sacrifice of Christ," and their "interior life must be permeated by an intense devotion to Our Lady." They must wear the small Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (the Habit of the Third Order), and attend monthly meetings.

The Carmelite Order is divided into two sections: the Ancient Observance (OCarm) and the Discalced (OCD). The latter's Foundress was Saint Teresa of Jesus (of Ávila). Among the other canonized saints of the Discalced Carmelites are John of the Cross, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face (of Lisieux), and Teresia Benedicta of the Cross (née Edith Stein). Among the beatified is Blessed Élisabeth of the Trinity.

[edit] Reference

• "The Rule of Life," The Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, 1979.