I’m finally beginning this blog, however modest, to offer some occasional reflections on theDiscalced Carmelite vocation and spirituality within the Church.  I offer these thoughts (and at times articles and links) as my own, with the hope that they may be helpful to others who seek God.  As vocation director of the Washington Province (U.S.A.) of Discalced Carmelite Friars, I am especially interested in assisting others who are discerning a call to this way of life.  It is a prophetic life, a standing before the face of God in the obscurity of faith, a living witness to the primacy of love at the heart of the Church.  The blog is titled “Called to the Royal Road of Prayer” because St. Teresa of Jesus, foundress of the Discalced Carmel, understood this vocation in the Church as a camino, a sure way of union with God through faithful prayer and loving service to one’s neighbors.  A faithful walking through, with, and in Christ Jesus.  So let’s begin….