In a simple but touching celebration, Ronald Knight became Brother Ronald of Saint Teresa. Brother Ronald is the new novice in our small Teresian family. He will be doing his first year of novitiate in our community at Saint Teresa, Cospicua.
Half a century ago… on this day in 1970, Pope St. Paul VI declared St. Teresa of Ávila the very first female Doctor of the Church. Saint Teresa is the initiator of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers.
God constantly loads us with His gifts.
“The Carmelite monk, like a soldier, is clothed in the armor of the habit as he bravely does battle for God and for souls. Although the Holy Scapular is the habit properly speaking, each article of the monk’s clothing has been entrusted by Holy Mother Church with a significance that urges him on to the heights of holiness: mystical union with God.
The habit of the Carmelite monk is made of durable brown wool as woven after the manner St. Teresa of Jesus first taught her daughters. Brown like the cross and the soil of the earth, the Carmelite wears a robe of brown, since he is called to carry the Cross of Our Lord, Jesus Christ and to imitate the humility of the Blessed Virgin.”
See http://www.carmelitemonks.org/HolyHabit.php for more specifics.