Welcome

One of the questions I, as a Secular Carmelite find hardest to answer is: "What's that 'OCDS' you write after your name?". The inquirers refer to those initials tailing my byline on the Reflections that I write for the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sundays.

I believe I know what being a Secular Carmelite is, but I admit I don't know how to contain the concept in ten little words -- not even in one kilometric sentence. So after telling them what "OCDS" stands for and still they ask "So what's OCDS?", I say something like "Well, it's like being a monk in the world...". I hope this suffices, but more often than not, the inquirers look more perplexed than ever, especially if they don't have an inkling what monks do. And if they are among those who think that all monks do is pray and make guava jelly and kasuy wine, then ... the picture gets even foggier.

So I add, "uh... I mean... being an OCDS is like being in the world but not of it..." (The inquirer looks lost and says "Huh?")

I try again, "Well... uh... you know... we live in the world, but by our life we try to witness to the primacy of God. We are a prayer presence in the world... we pray for the Church... we take care of priests..." (The inquirer finally asks, "Are you a nun?")

"Oh, no! we're ordinary people like you, we're with you 'outside' with our families, jobs, businesses, but we strive to put God as Number One in our lives..."

You can just imagine what other abstractions follow, each one sounding more nebulous than the other. Yet after so much talk you still feel like you haven't communicated anything of lasting value to anyone's knowledge of Carmel, let alone of God.

Like grace, being a Secular Carmelite can never be satisfactorily explained with mere words, because the call to become a contemplative in the world is grace -- God made, God-sent, God-given. Being an 'OCDS member' is one's faith response to this call made public, a proof of one's fidelity to the Living God along the path that is Carmel. God's call and one's response to it are like the two sides of a coin that's no less than a mystery. Can any wordsmith therefore fabricate a one-sentence explanation of a mystery?

No matter how articulate or erudite we Secular Carmelites may perceive ourselves to be, our words alone will never be enough to tell the world what we are. To the question "What is an OCDS?", the world needs to hear God's answer, and God's answer is spoke n through our actions -- the fruits of our life of unceasing prayer and surrender to His will. The choices we make, the risks we take, the values our dealings reflect, our equanimity in times of trial or of triumph, the joy we radiate in leading ordinary lives, our steadfastness through life's daily offerings big or small, our dogged perseverance in faith hope and love amidst overwhelming materialism in the world -- these are among the wordless answers the world needs to hear for them to understand what secular Carmel is.

We Secular Carmelites do not reside as communities in cloisters, convents, or monasteries, but we are sons and daughters of the Church who, inspired by Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and guided by St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John on the Cross, are committed to the Order to seek God's face for the sake of the Church and the world. We are steeped in this mad but marvelous world 24 hours a day -- it's a marketplace, an amusement park, a battlefield, a circus tent, a prison camp all rolled into one -- and yet driven by a sheer desire for union with God we unceasingly strive to rediscover and preserve that sanctuary within ourselves where we embrace and are embraced by, God. By God's transforming grace. This surrender leads to our witness to the Living God -- thus do we become channels of a divine light and love in a dark world that is in constant danger of forgetting about God.

About the author: Teresa R. Tunay heads the CBCP Media Office and is editor of The CBCP Monitor, the official publication of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. She writes "Reflections for the Working Soul" for the Philippine Daily Inquirer every Sunday. A professed member of the Manila Chapter of OCDS Philippines, Teresa serves as editor-in-chief of the OCDS Newsletter, the official publication of OCDS Philippines.