by Nirmala Carvalho

In the coming weeks these Discalced Carmelites will pronounce their final profession. In preparation they participated in an intensive course in the monastery of Baroda. The Year of Consecrated Life (November 30, 2014 - February, 2nd 2016) also marks the 500th anniversary of St. Teresa of Avila, reformer of the Carmelite order.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Today marks the19th World Day of Consecrated Life and the Discalced Carmelites in India are celebrating it with "joyful gratitude to the Lord," during the Year of Consecrated Life currently underway. In the coming weeks, six new religious will pronounce their final profession, definitively into order. 2015 will be an important year for the Carmelites because they will celebrate the 500th anniversary of St. Teresa of Avila, reformer of the order.

The six new cloistered sisters come from all over the country: Sitagarha, Patna, Goa, Sivagangai, Yercaud and Kumbakonam. To emphasize the important coincidence of their final profession with the Year of Consecrated Life, the religious have attended an intensive course at the Carmelite monastery of Baroda. Here they found a competent personality, to help them assess their contemplative choice deepening their love for Jesus and the Scriptures.

Speaking to AsiaNews, the the Prioress of the Baroda Monastery explains that the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life (30 November 2014) "was the first time that we contemplative celebrated a liturgy with the active congregations." For the occasion, in fact, the cloistered invited the Missionaries of Charity and the Auxilium Sisters to animate the Eucharist together.

"This time -the Prioress of the Baroda Monastery tells AsiaNews - is really special for us Carmelite nuns, because the height of the Year of Consecrated Life will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Teresa of Avila."

Given the extraordinary coincidence, "each religious sister has been commissioned to identify with other figures of society: a doctor, a journalist, a Hindu, a street sweeper, even Pope Francis ... And they shared their experiences. It was a deeply moving experience for all as each one shared what they saw, some enacted what they saw - all bringing out some truths or discovering a deeper shade to their own call as Carmelites and most especially the need that each of these categories had for prayer".

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• Indian cloistered celebrate with 6 new religious