Mystics of Carmel: A Journey into the Heart of Divine Love
Date: 31st January – 27th June 2025
Time: 7pm (London, UK)
6 Sessions
£100 for all Sessions
£20 for single sessions
In a world yearning for depth and meaning, the wisdom of the Carmelite mystics offers timeless insights. The “Mystics of Carmel” series invites you to explore the lives and spiritual teachings of some of Carmel’s most renowned mystics, who reveal the depths of God’s love and inspire us to live more fully. Through their transformative experiences, these saintly mystics reached the heart of divine love, embodying a profound openness to God’s presence.
Each lecture, delivered by eminent scholars in Carmelite spirituality, will show how figures like St. Nuno of St. Mary, St. John of the Cross, Jerome Gratian, John of St. Samson, Lawrence of the Resurrection, and Ven. Michael of St. Augustine can guide us to a deeper awareness of God’s love. Their lives are a testament to how responding to this love can help us realize our fullest potential and embrace our call to become truly human. The Mystics of Carmel series is a sequel to spirituality series — The Daughters of St Teresa—which featured four exceptional Carmelites – Mary Maravillas of Jesus, Mary of Jesus Crucified, Mary of the Angels and Mary of St Joseph – whose life manifest a particular legacy of St Teresa.
Join us as we journey with these Carmelite mystics in this series to discover what it means to live with a heart attuned the divine in our world today.
Speakers & dates
What’s Included
Registration
Concessions
Presenter: Friar Patrick Mullins, O. Carm.
Pat is a Carmelite friar renowned for his in-depth familiarity with Carmelite history. He has doctorates in Systematic Theology and Spirituality and has been Director of Studies in the Carmelite Institute of Britain and Ireland (CIBI) since its foundation.
31 January 2025
Zealous for God: The Military, Marian and Eucharistic Spirituality of St. Nuno of St. Mary (1360 – 1431)
This lecture will give a sketch of Nuno’s life that outlines his military victories as Constable of Portugal, the wealth he acquired as Count of Barcelos, Ourém and Arraiolos, and his noble lineage through his daughter, Beatriz, before focusing on his exemplary life as a Catholic layman, and the circumstances, following the death of his wife, under which he founded the first Carmelite monastery in Portugal, and became a Carmelite Oblate there. It will conclude by identifying some of the significant elements of his military, Marian and Eucharistic spirituality.
£20.00
Presenter: Matt Blake OCD
Fr Matt is a Discalced Carmelite priest, and a renowned speaker and authority on Carmelite spirituality. He is currently the sub-prior of the Discalced Carmelite community at Kensington, London.
28th February 2025
St John of the Cross and the Mystical Landscape of Divine Love (1542 – 1591)
“My beloved, the mountains, and lonely wooded valleys, strange islands, and resounding rivers, the whistling of love-stirring breezes. The tranquil night at the time of the rising dawn, silent music, sounding solitude, the supper that refreshes and deepens love”.
This lecture will explore the life-giving and mysterious places the teaching of John of the Cross takes us to.
£20.00
Presenter: John McGowan OCD
Fr John McGowan, OCD is a Discalced Carmelite priest and author. He is currently a member of the Discalced Carmelite community at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
28th March 2025
A Witness of Redemptive Suffering: Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God (1545-1614)
Jerome Gratian is the great unknown figure in the Reform undertaken by Teresa of Avila. Historically the outstanding figure of John of the Cross has, rightly and justifiably, been associated with Teresa. However, it may surprise many to know that she dealt more with Jerome Gratian and that her relationship with him was much closer. It was Gratian, rather than John, who fully understood Teresa and the Reform she was undertaking. Teresa says that her first meeting with Gratian had the effect on her like that of an arrow in her heart. She depended on him. She made a vow of obedience to him. He was the man for whom she had been looking.
This lecture will present Jerome Gratian as a model mystic who uniting himself to the suffering Christ, allowed the humiliation and slanders he experienced to be a source of transformation for himself and a channel of grace for the birth of a new Order with a new charism – the Teresian charism.
£20.00
Presenter: Fr Luke Dominic Onwe OCD
Fr Luke is a Discalced Carmelite priest and retreat director with advance degrees in Systematic Theology and Spirituality. He is also the Assistant Director of the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS).
25 April 2025
John of St Samson: A Charismatic Mystic (1571 – 1636)
‘It is not the men who explore the spaces of creation that are the great adventurers of our time, but those…who have the courage to explore the very Creator of the universe…the contemplatives, who are the spiritual “astronauts” of our time’.
This lecture will explore the life of Ven. John of St Samson, a reformer, a unique charismatic mystic who possessed the gifts of healing, discernment, wisdom, and prophecy; a man regarded as St John of the Cross of the French Carmel.
£20.00
Presenter: Dr Heather Ward OCDS
Heather Ward is a member of the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites, an author and a formator with the secular Carmelites. Heather has been an accompanier and lecturer on the Spiritual Direction Formation Programme of the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS) since its foundation. She has also written modules for Carmelite Institute of Britain and Ireland (CIBI).
30 May 2025
Abiding in Divine Presence: The Spiritual Wisdom of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1614-1691)
Throughout the last three centuries Brother Lawrence is one of the most widely appreciated mystics of the Carmelite tradition among Christians of all denominations.
He speaks to the personal experience of any person who is seriously seeking union with God in and through the events of daily life. In the short collection of his conversations and letters he offers us a clear distillation of essential themes in Carmelite spirituality as he lived them as cook in his friary.
This lecture will explore such themes as divine indwelling, the absolute centrality of Christ, spiritual freedom issuing from detachment from ego and the experience of purification in the light of the life and teaching of Brother Lawrence.
His advice that “the whole secret of spiritual life is to do in future for God what you have hitherto done for yourself” sounds simple, but as the poet T S Eliot might say, it is a simplicity “costing not less than everything.” It is my hope that this talk will let Brother Lawrence lead us into this simplicity.
£20.00
Presenter: Dr Joanne Mosley
Joanne Mosley is an editor, writer and speaker, specialising in Carmelite spirituality, and is the author of Edith Stein: Woman of Prayer and Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Unfolding of her Message.
27 June 2025
Living with God and with Mary: Drawing on the Marian Wisdom of Ven. Michael of St Augustine (1621-1684)
This talk will look at Ven. Michael of St Augustine, O. Carm. (1621-1684) and his treatise on the Marian life, along with insights from his spiritual daughter, Ven. Marie Petyt (1623-1677), a Carmelite tertiary. These two Carmelite figures are outstanding for their Marian mysticism – showing us the transformative potential for our lives when we live both with God, and with Mary who is in God.
£20.00
- By registering you will be given access to the talk’s recordings for six months.
- One hour of live presentation 7pm (UK time).
- Each talk stands alone and may be attended as such, but taken together they weave a common thread of helping us to take a different look and understanding of the legacy left by Our Carmelite saints.
- Whatever the stage of your journey meet fellow meditators with whom to reflect and share your thoughts about this series in a safe environment.
- We offer the opportunity to meditate together at the start of each session.
Register for the full series
REGISTER FOR THE INDIVIDUAL LECTURES
31 January 2025
St. Nuno of St. Mary
Speaker: Friar Patrick Mullins, O. Carm
28 March 2025
Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God
Speaker: John McGowan OCD
30 May 2025
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection
Speaker: Dr Heather Ward OCDS
28 February 2025
St John of the Cross
Speaker: Matt Blake OCD
25 April 2025
John of St Samson
Speaker: Fr Luke Dominic Onwe OCD
27 June 2025
Ven. Michael of St Augustine
Speaker: Dr Joanne Mosley
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2024-11-13