Discalced Carmelite Nuns Mobile, AL
MASS TIMES
MONDAY 7:00 AM
TUESDAY-FRIDAY 8:00 AM
SATURDAY 7:00 AM
EVERY THIRD SATURDAY9:00 AM
SUNDAY 6:OO AM
Who are these Carmelite Nuns?
They are cloistered nuns who have given their lives to God to pray for the world, observing perpetual abstinence and the austerities of the Carmelite Rule. In this materialistic age, Cloistered Nuns are looked upon as drones in the bee-hive. All that the world appreciates is what it can see and hear, touch or taste--hence the age old cry: Why don't they DO SOMETHING?
Did not the same cry ascend to the ears of Christ as He hung dying on the Cross?
'If thou be the Christ, come down from the Cross:' Did He come down? Was He DOING SOMETHING by staying on the Cross?
Well do we know the answer.
“In their Cloistered Monastery in Mobile, the nuns continue Christ's work for souls--by doing nothing, except to pray, even as did their Lord and God. They pray for all who are in distress, who have special urgent intentions and who appeal to them to beg God's help in distress, who have special urgent intentions and who appeal to them to beg God's help in their time of trial and affliction."
Mother Francis of the Five Wounds, O.C.D.
The plan for a Carmelite Monastery in Alabama began with Fr. Frank Casey, S.S.E., the superior of the Edmundite Fathers. He envisioned a monastery where the prayers and sacrifices of the nuns would silently intercede with God for the success of the Edmundites in their challenging work.
Archbishop Thomas J. Toolen requested nuns from the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On October 7, 1943, four nuns arrived in Mobile.
Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston provided the funds to purchase the Holcombe estate, a farmhouse situated on over six acres of land at 716 Fulton Rd. (now Dauphin Island Parkway), for the new monastery.
The nuns devoted themselves to living their Carmelite vocations for many years. In 2010, they invited Archbishop Rodi for a visit.
In early 2010, the Carmelite nuns asked if I could visit. They explained that they had reached a decision: maintaining the monastery had become too burdensome for the four of them. They struggled to care for each other while also continuing the most important aspect of their lives—their life of prayer. They had two requests: first, could help be provided in finding them a new place to live? Second, if possible, could another Carmelite community take over the monastery to maintain it as a place of prayer?
Through the collaboration of Archbishop Rodi, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Sisters of Mercy a community from Nha Trang, Vietnam agreed to come to Mobile. On February 20, 2011 eight nuns arrived in Mobile to continue the mission of prayer at the Carmelite Monastery.
