Next meeting: Sunday, January 25th, 2026

Are you looking for a more spiritual life, deep contentment, and a community to help you get to heaven?

Then look no further… you’ve arrived:

Welcome to the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, Our Lady Queen of Peace Community!

We hope you enjoy our site!  Please note that you may access the Pages of this website on the top right if you cannot see the tabs above.    If you have any further questions, please contact us on the last Page of this site.

If you are interested in joining the Secular Carmelites, you would have to be between 18 - 55 years of age, attend a prescribed amount of meetings, and then ask the Director of Formation to provide you with an application for joining.  In addition, you would present us with your Baptismal Certificate and Confirmation Certificate, plus a letter (form letter is fine) from your parish certifying that you are a member there.  Also, you need to be fully able to receive all the sacraments.  The council would then look at these materials and vote on your acceptance.

Upon acceptance, you would begin attending formation lessons (before or after the meetings).  After one year, you would receive your Scapular and choose a predicate name; after two years, you would make your First Promises; and after three years, you would make your Final Promises.

Special devotion to the Divine Child originated with the Discalced Carmelites in the city of Prague, Bohemia/Czech Republic in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Princess Polyxenia of Lobkowitz had received a small statue of the child Jesus (sculpted in Spain around 1550) as a wedding gift from her mother around 1628 during the 30 Years’ War. It was made of wood, wax, and material, signifying the Infant Jesus as king, wearing royal dress and crown. Polyxenia donated the statue to the Carmelite friars, telling them “I give you what I prize most highly in the world; honor and respect the Child Jesus and you shall not want.” Her gift was placed in the Carmelite oratory., where the novitiates could pray before it.

However, in 1631, Protestant Swedish troops ravaged Prague, forcing the Carmelites to flee. Swedish troops seized the Infant statue and threw it into a pile of trash.

In 1635, peace came to Prague and the Carmelites returned. One of them, Father Cyril, OCD, who had previously received great spiritual help through his devotion to the Infant of Prague, found the statue in the trash. Overjoyed, he again placed the statue in the oratory. Father Cyril knelt in prayer before the small statue. Suddenly, the statue spoke to him. Father Cyril was stunned as he heard these words : “Have mercy on Me and I will have mercy on you. Give Me hands and I will give you peace. The more you honor Me, the more I will bless you.”

Father Cyril then examined the statue, and found that both hands of the statue were broken off. The hands were later restored to the statue through the generosity of a sponsor of the Divine Child. In 1648, the Carmelites crowned the statue with papal approval, marking the feast we celebrate each January 14th.

St. Therese, the Little Flower, was also a most fervent venerator. For more than three centuries, this promise has inspired a worldwide devotion to the Miraculous Infant Jesus of Prague. The original statue is still preserved in the church of St. Mary of Victory in Prague.

(Sources: InfantJesusofPrague.cz; and pragjesu.cz)

A holy, third-order Discalced Carmelite from the Cracow Province, Kunegunda Swiec (1876-1955), has been made Venerable in the line of canonization by the Vatican.  Kunegunda lived her whole life in the village of Stryszawa in the mountain regions of Poland.  The tenth child of Jan and Wiktoria Siwiec, Kunegunda was a mystic and visionary, who had conversations with Jesus, Mary, and other saints.  She worked at least one miracle through her prayer to God: During World War II, Nazi soldiers were headed toward Stryszawa when the bridge they were riding on collapsed with no prior warning and the soldiers had to retreat.  Her village was spared.

Kunegunda was also a lay catechist who donated land to the Sisters of the Resurrection in order to take care of orphans from all over Poland.  Her favorite saint was St. Thérese of Lisieux, a Discalced Carmelite nun from nineteenth-century France; she practiced the “little way” that St. Therese had made famous.  Kunegunda made a vow of chastity and to honor that, remained unmarried throughout her life.  Her reputation as a spiritual advisor in the mountain region soared.  Sadly, Kunegunda lost sight in her right eye, then contracted bone cancer, and died in 1955, having offered her life to Our Lord for the sins of the world.

The next step for Kunegunde Siwiec toward sainthood is to become beatified and regarded as a Blessed, by virtue of a miracle attributed to her, as well as demonstrating “heroic virtue or offering of life” (USCCB) and, finally, canonization or sainthood, which demands a second miracle (USCCB).

Sources:

Carmelite Quotes: https://carmelitequotes.blog/2025/02/25/venkunegunda/

Kalniuk, Tomasz, “Folk mystic: A narrative of a Polish Highlander Cunegonda Siwiec,” https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2018.74.kalniuk

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), “Saints”: https://www.usccb.org/offices/public-affairs/saints

Scenes from Elizabeth’s Investiture on October 26th

Moments from our picnic/potluck on August 31, 2025

Here is a link to a wonderful article on a brave Secular Carmelite who was a Holocaust hero:

https://aleteia.org/2025/07/28/the-carmelite-cyclist-who-defied-the-nazis/

Corpus Christi 2025: Images of the decorators and our OCDS altar, near the St. Therese statue on the monastery grounds.

Some photos from our Carmelite pilgrimage to Spain 25- February to 6 March, 2025.

Some photos from our Spiritual Director’s party for the 30th anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood and his birthday…

Our OCDS Corpus Christi altar: June 2, 2024

The Shrine of Our Lady of the Scapular in Burundi, Africa, established and directed by Carmelite Missionaries (Images provided by Fr. Fryderyk Jaworski, OCD).