A Variety of Third or Secular Orders

Third Order Info on the Internet:

Augustinians—www. augustinian.org

Benedictines—www.osb.org

Carmelites— www.carmelnet.org

and

Dominicans—www.laity.op.org

Franciscans—www.nafra-sfo.org

Marists—www.maristlaity.org

Mercedarians—www.orderofmercy.org

Minims—www.minimi.it

Norbertines— www.premontre.org

Servites—www.servite.org

Trinitarians—www.trinitarianhistory.orgwww.ocdswashprov.org

A Beginning - Order of Carmel Discalced Secular (OCDS)

If you have a devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Lisieux or some other Discalced Carmelite Saint, and if you feel a call to a contemplative prayer life while still living in the world according to your state in life, perhaps you have a vocation to the Secular (or Third) Order of the Discalced Carmelites. 

I have only just begun the process of attempting to discern whether or not I have a call to Carmel.  Vocations are rather like love affairs, the question always arises - Is she in love with him or is she in love with being in love?  Being in love with the idea of being in love is much easier than being in love with a person.  Love is beautiful.  People are messy and complicated.  Vocations are romantic, living a vocation is a constant dying to self - sometimes messy and often unpleasant.

In his Rule, St. Benedict wrote that when accepting a novice the concern must be whether he truly seeks God and whether he shows eagerness for the Opus Dei-the "Work of God," (AKA the Liturgy of the Hours) and for obedience and trials (RB 58.7). This holds true for discerning a Carmelite vocation as well, the basis for contemplative prayer is desiring God, and seeking his Face, and in the Secular Order the major hours of the Office are prayed daily.  Daily Mass (to the extent possible) is required as is 30 minutes of mental prayer each day.

It is my thought to jot down my thoughts as I journey through this process.  Please feel free to comment, just so I know I'm not alone here and talking to myself.

Catholic Influence In History Part I.

Catholicsim has been used as a scapegoat by her enemies, on which to place blame for the cause of wars and problems and persecutions throughout history. These arguments are often used to detract from the positive force in this world that is The Catholic Church, as well as justify the protestant reformation. But a serious and honest study of history proves quite the contrary. I would like to post a series of threads, from time to time, regarding the postive, and often leading and ground breaking, influence of The Catholic Church for the sane and peaceful progress of this world and the development of civilization in an otherwise violent and evil world of tribes, kingdoms, and empires.

The first item I would like to share deals with the European (primarily Spanish) exploration, colonizaton, and exploitation of the New World. Catholic scholars, missionaries, and the papacy were pioneers in the development of international law and the concepts of individual liberty. The selection below is taken from "Conceived In Liberty", by Murry Rothbard, pages 28-29, Mises Institute:

"The pattern of Spanish colonization was based upon conditions in Spain in the late Middle Ages. In conrast to Europe generally, where aggressions against non-European territories had been checked by the growth of Turkish power, the Spanish and the English could still pursue the conquest of lands and peoples against the Spanish Arabs of Granada and the Celts of Ireland. Thus, the two major land-conquering and colonizing powers, Spain and England, preceded their respective transatlantic conquests by the conquest of neighboring peoples--the Moors of Granada by Spain in the late fifteenth century, and the Irish by the English, particularly during the sixteenth century. In these aggressions both the Spanish and the English not only acquired the skills and appetites for further violence, but also established the attitudes and policies to be applied to alien peoples through conquest, extermination, or enslavement.

Due to geographical and political conditions, Spain retained the military spirit of feudalism for a longer time than other European countries. The arid climate and the frontier wars with the Muslims caused the Spanish ruling class to remain essentially horsemen, who in place of agriculture emphasized sheep and cattle farming, occupations in which horseman could be untilized and trained for war. This style of life had a profound influence on Spanish colonization. The Christian and Muslim farmers conquered by the Spanish nobles were kept in feudal serfdom to provide foodstuffs for the ruling class, to whom their villages had been granted. This feudal system, which had been imposed on the conquered lands of Granada and the Canary Islands, was then applied to the larger lands of the West Indies and later to Mexico, Venezuela, and Peru. The native villages were granted to Spanish conquistadores, who were to govern them so as to live upon the work of the natives. The hapless natives were compelled to provide food, cotton, and forced labor for building the great cities where the Spanish lived and from which they governed, and to work for large mining operations of the Spaniards. Alongside the agriculture of the Indians, the conquistodores developed the raising of sheep, cattle, horses, and mules to provide profits for themselves as well as work and plentiful meat for their keepers. Generally the Spanish colonists did not pursue productive work; instead they entered government and privileged occupations, in which to live from the work of the natives whom they enslaved.

The right to conquer, coercively convert, govern, and enslave the natives of the New World was subjected to intense criticism in a series of lectures in 1539 at the University of Salamanca by the great Dominican scholastic philosopher Francisco de Vitoria. In international law based upon the natural law, insisted Vitoria, the native peoples as well as European peoples have full equality of rights. No right of conquest by Europeans could result from crimes of errors of the natives, whether they be tyranny, murder, religious differences, or rejection of Christianity. Having grave doubts of the right of the Spaniards to any government of the natives, Vitoria advocated peaceful trade, in justice and in practice, as against conquest, enslavement, and political power, whether or not the last mentioned were aimed at individual profit, tax revenue, or converstion to Christianity. Although the Spanish government prohibited further discussion of these questions, the Vitoria lectures influenced the New Laws of 1542, which gave greater legal protection to the natives in America.

Nevertheless, there were defenders of imperialism in Spain who rejected international law and scholastic individualism and returned to the slave theories of the classical authors. Based on the theory of natural servitude--that the majority of mankind is inferior and must be subdued to government by the ruling class, of course in the interest of that majority--these imperial apologists proposed that the natives be taught better morals, be converted, and be introduced to the blessings of economic development by being divided among the conquistadores, for whom they must labor.

The serfdom of the Indians was most strongly and zealously opposed by the Dominican missionary Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas. Tireless in working to influence European public opinion against the practices of Spanish officials in America, Las Casas argued that all men must have freedom so that reason, which naturally inclines men to live together in peace, justice, and cooperation, can remain free and unhampered. Therefore, concluded Las Casas, even pursuit of the great objective of conversion to Christianity cannot be used to violate these rights. Not only was all slavery evil, but the natives had a right to live independently of European government. The papacy, in 1537, condemned as heretical the concept that natives were not rational men or were naturally inferior persons. These progressive views were also reflected in the abolition of conquistador feudalism in the New Laws of 1542; however, this abolition was revoked by the Spanish Crown three years later."