The recently concluded first OCDS World Meeting 2026 in Avila has generated great excitement and is proving to be a landmark event for Secular Carmel. To mark the occasion, we reproduce below the compilation of a daily blog written over four days during the event and originally published on the UK Secular Carmel Blog. This has been expanded to include highlights from the official photograph album.
In addition, we are pleased to announce that Mount Carmel plans to publish a special commemorative quarterly edition on the OCDS World Encounter in January 2027. This will provide an opportunity for delegates to share their insights on some of the key themes covered in the event with the wider Carmelite family and to reflect upon their implications for future directions in the Secular Order. If you would like to share a reflection for possible inclusion in the publication, please get in touch with the editorial team at mountcarmel@carmelite.org.uk.
22nd July 2026 – Homecoming
In everyday life, Secular Carmelites rarely “just run into each other”. For a start, we are few and far between. On top of that, there are no visible signs that would allow us to recognize each other, even if our paths crossed. In some sense, we are undercover agents hidden in the crowd.
Yet as our journey takes us closer to Avila for the July 2026 OCDS World Congress, this everyday reality begins to buckle. It all starts on the train heading out from Madrid, where we notice a few other people wearing Carmelite crosses, but still feel too shy to make the connection.
Once we get off at the train station in Avila, the signs are too overwhelming to ignore. A group in matching brown Carmelite t-shirts are discussing transport options animatedly in Portuguese. We introduce ourselves and are greeted with an embrace like long lost relatives. “We’ve just travelled over two nights from southern Brazil, the first night on a bus the second night on a plane. We’re so glad to be here.”
Outside in the queue for the taxi, we meet another community from Lima Peru, and at the hotel reception we greet yet more Secular Carmelites, all the way from Illinois and Oregon in the United States. In a startling inversion of everyday reality, suddenly it seems as though everyone we encounter is an OCDS!
One member of our group tries to engage with another suspect, but encountering a language barrier simply reaches inside his shirt for his scapular, which he starts to brandish like a business card. It draws an immediate smile of recognition from across the language barrier.
As I settle into our accommodation on the first evening, I sit down to read the introductory conference message from Fr Ramiro Casale OCD, the General Delegate of the Order for the OCDS. Two words of his particularly stand out for me and resonate: “Welcome home!” Yes, indeed.
Credit: Gonzalo Gonzalez de Vega Pomar, official photographer of the OCDS World Meeting 2026.
23rd July 2026 – Community
The OCDS meeting in Avila is a first of a kind, with nothing on a comparable scale having taken place before. According to the organizers it is supposed to be not so much a “World Congress” as a “Global Encounter”.
This is certainly evident as some 900 delegates from around 80 nations, many of them wielding national flags, gather into a single vast and airy conference hall on the first morning. Even troubled countries such as Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Ukraine manage to field delegations.
The atmosphere is exuberant, and joyful beyond expectation. The vibe is somewhere between the United Nations, a Papal Visit and the FIFA World Cup. Although as somebody pointed out: we are all on the same team! Something far deeper than either sporting prowess or national identity is here…
As Fr Ramiro Cásale, OCD General Delegate of the Order for the OCDS puts it during his welcoming remarks, “These are moments, above all, for communion”. It was fitting then that the theme of fraternal communion and community life emerged so prominently throughout the first day.
Notably, the Italian OCDS represented by Linda Levy, insisted that Carmelite community should be a communion of souls that are mutually supportive, journeying together towards sanctity. This is so central, she said, that an important part of discerning a Secular Carmelite vocation must be whether a person is able to integrate into the community. Not everyone has the aptitude for community life.
The address from our Father General, Fr Miguel Marquez Calle OCD, expresses his vision for a higher order communion between the three branches of the one Order. “We need a new way of relating to each other,” he says, “One that is not characterized either by paternalism or infantilism.” He expresses his confidence that most challenges can be addressed through good communication. “That means heart to heart communication, that is sincere and confident, as well as mutually receptive.” But the most important aspect of communication, he reflected, is the ability to listen to each other profoundly, which is a real mark of maturity and humility.
24th July 2026 – Mission
One of the most inspiring things about the World Encounter is hearing from OCDS leaders around the world. Several talks highlight the theme of OCDS mission, insisting that Carmel is not closed in on itself and that the touchstone of an authentic life of prayer is the desire to share God with others.
Meg Ramos OCDS of the Philippines opens her presentation posing a provocative question: “When people meet us do they encounter a living contemplative witness or merely another member of a devotional association?”
She points towards a commonly encountered OCDS syndrome, namely a sense that we are leading a double life, trying to be both religious and secular and not entirely succeeding at either. On the contrary, the goal of OCDS, she insists, is to destroy the artificial wall between the sacred and the secular. Our aim is to let prayer soak so deeply into our lives that everything we do becomes prayerful. At that point, daily life is no longer a distraction from our mission but the very arena in which it is played out.
Our goal is “to become a person in whom others can perceive the reality of God.” As “sidewalk contemplatives”, our contribution is to give Carmelite spirituality its “street credibility”, providing tangible evidence of its relevance in all the gritty circumstances of everyday life.
Manuel Vasquez Loja, OCDS President in Ecuador, for his part, explains that while our mission may sometimes be expressed through words and actions, more often it will take the form of simply being a “luminous presence”. He speaks of the Teresian Carmelite community as “a silent prophetic presence in the world, without needing to make much noise, we are – simply by existing – a sign that God lives in the midst of his people”. Fr Miguel later echoes this highlighting that the first mission of a Secular Carmelite is “to be what God is in each of us” and that this precedes saying or doing anything.
Yet doing also has its place, and Ramos provides us with much useful guidance on this aspect. She reminds us that mission should be driven by love rather than by activism. “We do not serve out of a desire to be useful, but because our heart has been so stretched by prayer that love overflows on to the world. If religious busyness interferes with this, then we are drying up our own source.”
Ramos also highlights that whatever action we take in our mission needs to be consistent with our charism. “As Carmelites, our specific type of service – whether through retreat work, spiritual accompaniment, or facilitating prayer – should always point people towards interiority, listening and contemplation.”
25th July 2026 – Identity
As the OCDS World Encounter in Avila draws to a close, the Order leaves us with something of a self-portrait, one painted in numbers as well as words, one that can help us to advance in a kind of collective version of Teresian self-knowledge.
For a start, we are privileged to get a preview of the results of the recently-concluded OCDS Global Census. It turns out that we are over 32,000 OCDS worldwide, spread across 1,255 communities on five continents. (For context, globally there are some 4,000 OCD Friars and 9,000 OCD Nuns.) What is particularly interesting, though is the growth dynamic, with as many as 20% of those members and as many as 40% of those communities still in early stages of formation. At the same time, the average age of our membership is 60, suggesting that while growing we are also aging. Our geographic centre of gravity is now Asia with over 9,000 members, and our largest country is USA with some 4,000 members.
We are also treated to excerpts from a survey conducted among Secular Carmelites ahead of the World Meeting. In their responses, members highlight how in a world afflicted with hyperactivity and superficiality, the Teresian Carmel offers a spirituality of interiority and depth. The best way we can bear credible witness to this is to lead lives characterized by coherence between words and actions, serenity before daily difficulties, and authentic fraternal love. In our day, the church needs us to be people who are spiritually mature with a solid formation, people who are faithful to the vocation of leading a deep life of prayer, and people who can communicate about this in accessible language via modern means.
As our delegation comes together one final time on Sunday evening, we share some of the moments that each of us will treasure. Hearing inspirational addresses from Secular Carmelites around the world. Being led in silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by a cloistered OCD nun. Seeing Fr Miguel listening so attentively to every presentation from the front row of the auditorium. Hearing some 900 voices chanting “Nada te turbe” in unison across so many language barriers. Watching video greetings from various communities of OCD nuns around the world. Standing up with our flag when our country was called out in the vast assembly hall.
As Fr Ramiro Casale OCD said in his closing remarks, “Let us remember the past with gratitude and look to the future with hope. Let us take the spirit of Avila back to our communities.” After Avila 2026, Secular Carmel will never feel quite the same again.
