OUR FAMILY

The family of Palautian Carmel is composed by Teresian Carmelite Missionaries and the lay who share the Charism and mission.

Our Charism is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church and because of this, we can live in different ways according to our own religious or lay vocation. In the original project of the Founder, the lay had a very important participation and, being faithful to this spirit, the CMT’s have encountered on their journeying others who share the same vocation in the Church: the lay.

Conscious of the fact that the gift of Charism precedes to its incarnation in the ambience of the consecrated and the lay, we feel called, all of us, to drink from the same well and to live the same Charism out of our own specific vocation.

In our charismatic family, the religious life actual permanently follow Christ-the Church, the absolute of God, meanwhile the lay, each member from their state and situation of life commits themselves in the service of community of neighbors to advance towards a society that is more just, peaceful and solidary (MILPA Statutes).

The CMT and the lay are much more than strategic partners; they occupy a complementary and common place. Simply, we are family.

Being profound Palautian, we are also sincere Carmelite. The consecrated and the lay we are integrated in the great spiritual family of Teresian Carmel.

Teresian Carmelite Missionaries (CMT Sisters) we are a Congregation of Spanish origin founded in Ciudadela  (Menorca) in 1860 by Discalced Carmelite FRANCISCO PALAU QUER of Jesus Mary Joseph OCD.

We are born out of the charismatic experience of Fr. Francisco Palau about the mystery of the Church. The ideal of evangelization and promotion of spiritual life motivates our consecrated life. We are a missionary Congregation with ecclesial and Marian spirituality. This spirituality configures our vocation as the Church in the Church and for the Church.

Our specific charism is “to contemplate, express and announce the beauty of the Church, the mystery of communion”. The Church, experienced as God and the neighbors, and contemplated in Mary, the perfect and finished image of it.

  • The CMT lives in the ambience of a family, contemplation, fraternity and mission.
  • We pray as Church. We try to discover in prayer the needs of the Mystical Body of Christ.
  • We are a family of sisters that makes visible the Church from simplicity and shared joy.
  • We try to make each one of us and our communities a “small Church,” a visible and credible sign of the great mystery of ecclesial communion.

We are the announcers of the beauty of the Church, and through our apostolate, we put ourselves at Her service. We assume the challenge of being in our world today the witnesses of solidarity, peace and union among all the nations.

Because we are Carmelite Family, we live prayer as “a relation of friendship” with Jesus, Friend and Spouse, and we offer ourselves in it, committing to serve Him in His “Mystical Crucified Body”, according to the motto of our Founder. All that could contribute and help a person to remain open to transcendence, from the human spiritual dimension, is part of our pastoral care. We want to help discover the mystery of man and collaborate to find the answer to the great questions of life. We present Jesus Christ and his message as a life project.

Our family lives the theological life, austere and simply contemplative of the mystery and Holy Scripture. Christ-centered and ecclesial in the love of Christ and neighbor, lived in unity and nurtured in Eucharist, mystery of presence and communion, which makes the Church grow and edifies Her.

We are a Marian family in our piety to our Lady of Mount Carmel, mother and sister, mediatrix and intercessor who, in Her cult and avocations, wants to be recognized and announced as “the most alive, perfect and finished image of the Church”.

Among the most intimate and profound devotions in our religious family, it is evident in our own veneration to Saint Joseph, master and model of prayer and service.

As models of evangelical lives, we present Francisco Palau and our great Carmelite masters: Teresa of Jesus, John of the Cross and Therese of Lisieux, patroness of missions.

We cannot forget the generation of simple souls who were our ancestors and re-creators of Palautian charism and whom we represent as models, like Sr. Teresa Mira Garcia. They truly promoted spiritual life in its features of tenderness and love of the neighbor.

We are a family of sisters and lay people who recognize themselves as Church, understood as God and our neighbors. As Palautian Carmel, we are called to:

  1. CREATE COMMUNION wherever we are, living a style of relationships that recreates and makes visible the mystery of Trinitarian communion, building universal fraternity.
  2. ANNOUNCE THE BEAUTY of each human being so that he or she may discover themselves a living image of the Church and a member of its Body.
  3. Carry out a liberating and healing service of the wounded Body of the Church, which commits us to RESTORING THE BEAUTY of each person wherever it is veiled.
  4. LISTEN AND RESPOND in total availability to the most urgent needs of the Church.