Prayer is at the heart of our vocation. Our carmelite Rule lays down: ‘Each of you is to stay in his own cell or nearby, pondering the Lord’s law day and night, and keeping watch at his prayers, unless attending to some other duty.’
Saint Teresa of Avila tells us: ‘Represent the Lord Himself as close to you and behold how lovingly and humbly He is teaching you. Believe me, you should remain with so good a friend as long as you can. If you grow accustomed to having Him present at your side, and He sees that you do so with love and that you go about striving to please Him, you will not be able – as they say – to get away from Him. He will never fail you; He will help you in all your trials; you will find Him everywhere. Do you think it is some small matter to have a friend like this at your side?’
Our present Constitutions tell us that we are called to ‘Incarnate Christ praying on the mountain’, sharing His prayer of love to His Father, in the love of the Holy Spirit.
We have the great blessing of daily Mass, and from the Mass flows the Divine Office, the Prayer of the Church, which we pray together in common each day.
We also have two hours of silent prayer each day, and as God leads each sister, this prayer sometimes involves a lot of thought, and is sometimes very simple: ‘Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning Him’, as Saint John of the Cross says.
After our Lord Himself, our chief model of Prayer is His Blessed Mother, Mary, who ‘kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.’
We have an hour each day dedicated to spiritual reading.
