← [[session-04-f1b|Session 4: The New Monastery of the Glorious St. Joseph]] | [[formation-I-b-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-06-f1b|Session 6: Origin and Basic Identity of the Secular Order]] → # Session 5: Foundation of the First Monastery for Discalced Carmelite Friars “O my Jesus, what a soul inflamed in Your love accomplishes! How highly we must esteem such a soul and how we must beg the Lord to let it remain in this life! Whoever has this same love must follow after these souls if he can.” — St Teresa of Avila Required Reading: Excerpts from The Foundations by St Teresa of Avila. (Appendix G) Chapter 2: Paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 Chapter 3: Paragraph 17 Chapter 13: Paragraphs 1-7 Chapter 14: Paragraph 6, 11 Additional Reading: Excerpt from The Collected Works of Edith Stein: The Hidden Life, Saint Joseph’s of Avila, the First Monastery of the Reform, pp. 58-61. (Appendix E) Excerpt from Journey to Carith pp. 157-169. (Appendix H) Essential Points to Discuss: • “After some days passed, I was thinking about how necessary it would be if monasteries of nuns were to be founded that there be friars observing the same rule” (2:5). • St. Teresa received permission from Father General Fray Juan Bautista de Ravena for the foundation of Discalced Carmelite monasteries for friars (see 2:5). “Everything now seemed very possible, and so I set to work” (2:6). “O greatness of God! How You manifest Your power in giving courage to an ant!” (2:7). • An important meeting took place in Medina del Campo between St Teresa and St John of the Cross (see 3:17). • Don Rafael, a gentleman from Avila, offered St Teresa a home he owned in a little town named Duruelo (see 13:2). • While St Teresa was waiting for the workmen to get the house ready, she had an opportunity to teach St John of the Cross about the Discalced Carmelite way of life so that he would have clear understanding of everything (see 13:5). • “...in the year 1568, the first Mass was said in the little stable of Bethlehem...” (14:6). • “I experienced the greatest interior joy, for it seemed to me that I saw a beginning that would be of much benefit to our order and service to our Lord. May it please His Majesty that things will continue as they are now, and that my plan will indeed be realized” (14:11). Side note: The Discalced Carmelites were established as a separate province within the order in 1581. Finally, on Dec. 20, 1593, Pope Clement VIII established the Discalced Carmelites as an independent religious order with their own superior general and administration. 13 Assigned Meditative Reading: • John 17:6-12 – Jesus’ prayer for his disciples • John 17:13-19 – “that they may be sanctified” • John 17:20-26 – and for those who will believe through them “that they may be one in us” • Psalm 133: – “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation I Year B: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life* (US National Formation Program, 2024).