Community life is simple and happy. St. Teresa limited the number of nuns in each monastery to twenty-one, so that we might all be true friends and sisters. The particular monastery that we enter is where we are trained in our own Novitiate and where we remain for life. The sick and elderly are cared for right here in the monastery infirmary, and we do not transfer from one Carmel to another. So it is important that each of us gets to know herself and continually strives to become more Christlike in the daily pursuit of holiness and the practice of virtue, that we may become more selfless, humble, generous, and more loving and thoughtful toward others. The challenge is never-ending. It is indeed a spiritual adventure.

"The cloistered community is also an excellent school of fraternal life; it is an expression of true communion and a force which draws towards communion.

Because of the mutual love involved, fraternal life is a God-filled space in which the mystical presence of the Risen Lord is experienced: in a spirit of communion, nuns share the grace of the same vocation with the members of their own community, helping one another to follow the same path, advancing together towards the Lord, one in heart and soul." (Verbi Sponsa)

~ Marian Life ~

"The Discalced Carmelite Nuns are, by calling, part of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. They belong to a family consecrated in a sp ecial way to loving and venerating the Holy Mother of God; and they seek to attain evangelical perfection in union with her." (Constitutions 53)

"Cloistered nuns see themselves especially in the Virgin Mary, Bride and Mother, figure of the Church; and sharing the blessedness of those who believe , they echo her “Yes” and her loving adoration of the Word of life, becoming with her the living “memory” of the Church's spousal love."
(Verbi Sponsa)

By our Solemn Profession we belong to the Blessed Virgin in a special way. Her presence permeates our house of prayer; she is our Queen and the Patroness of our Order. Therefore we take her as the model of our life, rejoicing to wear her scapular as part of our religious habit. Carmel is all Mary's.