Today I am travelling up to Belfast for the monthly meeting of my Carmelite Community. As you know I am a Secular Discalced Carmelite. Our community meets on the third Saturday of every month in the Poor Clare Convent on the Cliftonville Road. It was providence which brought me to this community rather than one in Dublin. Our community, dedicated to the Holy Cross, has struggled to survive for many years, and now we have the honour to be the oldest Secular Order community in Ireland. There are no Discalced friars or sisters in Belfast, so the members have not had the joy of their presence in the city. Each month a friar comes from Derry to join us for the meeting and that is a big commitment which we appreciate. Our members faced many difficulties and dangers during the years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, thankfully none of them were killed in the fighting, but relations and friends were lost.
Today's meeting will be eventful - it is election day. We will elect a new President and Council who will govern our community for three years. Also, today is my last day in formation. Next month, on the 18th December, I will make my final profession, promising to live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience according to the Rule of St Albert and the Constitutions of Secular Discalced Carmel: I will become a member of the Discalced Carmelite Order for life. So these last weeks will be a time of preparation.
In case you are wondering, according to Canon Law as a diocesan priest I am allowed to join a Third Order, my promise of obedience is channelled through my bishop, but I am still a member of the Order - I can be buried in the habit! Not that I want that to happen any time soon. I have received many graces from my membership of the Order, and the other members have become my family. Each month I "go home" to them and find great support and love from my Carmelite brothers and sisters. To my brother diocesan priests I would highly recommend joining a spiritual family, be it a Third Order or any one of the many spiritual associations and secular institutes in the Church - they can be a great blessing for our priesthood and a refuge in times of difficulty.
So changes and new beginnings.
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