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The Carmelite Third Order: Its Spirit and Apostolate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 August 2024
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‘Secular Tertiaries’, says Canon Law, ‘are those who in the world under the jurisdiction and the influence of a Religious Order try to tend to Christian perfection according to a rule adapted to their secular state of life and approved by the Apostolic See, It is necessary to bear this definition in mind in reading what follows.
The thirteenth century was a period of great expansion for the hermits who had come from Mount Carmel to Europe, but if in the same way as the Dominicans and Franciscans they attracted layfolk to them in an organized Third Order little evidence of it has survived. That some people went to live near Carmelite houses as recluses we know, but this was entirely separate from the Tertiary movement. On the other hand recently discovered documents have shown that there was some sort of fraternity at Venice in existence between the years 1280 and 1208 with regular monthly meetings, the saying of Office in common, the wearing of a habit and the rest. More research is needed to establish whether such a state of things was general.
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- Copyright © 1947 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Canon 702. Though much of this article may be applied to the Third Order under the jurisdiction of the Calced as well as that directed by the Discalced Carmelites, it is well to point out that it deals ex professo with that of Discalced alone.
2 Published in Analecta Ordinis Carmelitarum , October 1915, p. 260.
3 In the archives of Discalced Carmelites in Dublin is a rule trans, into English by Fr James of St Bernard O.D.C. The translation, which was made in 1719, would seem to be made from the Rule of 1618.
4 The Discalced Carmelites add the name of St Teresa because she, as the reformer of the Carmelite Order, virtually founded it in the Discalced branch, and her sons and daughters look to her teaching as the true interpretation of the Carmelite spirit.
5 Until lately little has been heard of it in this country. There is a certain number of isolated Tertiaries, but no organized fraternity, and beyond the publication of the Manual (Carmelite Priory, 41 Church Street, Kensington, London, W.8) little has appeared to explain it to English Catholics. For this reason one can welcome the publication last year of the Way of Perfection for the Laity by Fr Kevin, O.D.C., the present provincial of the Anglo-Irish Province (Pp. xvi, 318: Brown and Nolan Ltd, 8s. 6d.). It gives a detailed and practical commentary on every paragraph of the Rule. The instruction on mental prayer is indeed more than a commentary; it is a complete treatise in small compass and gives all the essentials can discern what is the Carmelite spirit, and, of equal importance, what is its of the teaching of St John of the Cross and of St Teresa. In reading this book one application to modern times.
6 Cf. Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, Carmelite of Dijon: on vient tout simplement d Celui qu’on aime, on se tient tout près de Lui, comme près de ceux qu’on aime, et on laisse aller son coeur .
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