#Traditional Lay Carmelite of Fatima

[catholicmemoirs]

Carmelite Reading List for the Catholic Laity

This is my reading plan while I continue to adopt the lifestyle of the Traditional Lay Carmelites of Fatima. The prioress adopted the rule after "A Way of Perfection for the Laity", so I copied the list of readings from there.

Links to free downloads of Traditional Catholic texts:

Way of Perfection for the Laity

Carmelite 1953 Daily Missal (good for daily Gospel readings)

Goffine's Devout Instructions for Epistles and Gospels for Sundays and Holydays

Pictorial Lives of the Saints

Daily:

1. Holy Gospels

2. Lives of the Saints

This is the recommended list of authors in "A Way of Perfection for the Laity":

1. The Imitation of Christ

2. By St. Teresa of Avila

ii. The Book of the Foundations

iii. Minor Works

iv. The Letters

v. The Interior Castle

vi. The Life

3. By St. John of the Cross

i. Ascent of Mount Carmel

ii. The Dark Night of the Soul (The Obscure Night)

4. By St. Teresa of Lisieux: Story of a Soul

5. By St. Francis De Sales

i. Introduction to the Devout Life

ii. Treatise on the Love of God

6. By St. Alphonsus Liguori

i. True Spouse of Christ

ii. Glories of Mary

iii. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament

My 2025 Liturgical Reading List

I took the list above and put a different author per month. The new liturgical year begins December 1st!

Dec: The Imitation of Christ

Jan: The Way of Perfection (St. Teresa of Avila)

Feb: Ascent of Mount Carmel (St. John of the Cross)

Mar: Story of a Soul (St. Therese of Lisieux)

Apr: Introduction to the Devout Life (St. Francis De Sales)

May: True Spouse of Christ (St. Alphonsus Liguori)

Jun: The Book of the Foundations (St. Teresa of Avila)

Jul: The Dark Night of the Soul (St. John of the Cross)

Aug: Treatise on the Love of God (St. Francis De Sales)

Sep: Glories of Mary (St. Alphonsus Liguori)

Oct: Minor Works (St. Teresa of Avila)

Nov: Visits to the Blessed Sacrament (St. Alphonsus Liguori)

Enjoy!

[catholicmemoirs]

What my horarium looks like on my phone lockscreen. It also helps to keep me from scrolling aimlessly because this schedule is always the first thing I see when I try to sneak onto my phone.

[catholicmemoirs]

Letter from the Prioress & my Brown Scapular!

Feast day of All Carmelite Saints — November 14

Feast day of All Carmelite Souls — November 15

Happy Carmelite feast days!

I received a letter from the Prioress of Traditional Lay Carmelites of Fatima today. She wanted to gift me a brown scapular as I discern a lay order. What a coincidence that they arrived on the feast day of All Carmelite Saints.

I had just mentioned in a previous post that I should call her to catch up & she had the same thoughts in her letter.

There is a lot I need to look about about the ceremony behind blessing and vesting of the Brown Scapular which I will write in a later post when I have time. But for those interested, they are written in the Statutes on the website.

The main thing is finding a priest who would act as my spiritual director and guide. I would ask my own priest at my parish, but he is the Prior of his own monastic order, the Contemplatives of Saint Joseph (COSJ), which has been recently officially recognized this year. I'm still discerning if he would be the right choice.

Since it is the end of the year, I'm trying to remember the annual requirements, like:

The Annual Retreat living out the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (free book here)

Renewal of promises (Feast of the Holy Cross/September 14 & on Epiphany/January 12) with the spiritual director

I have not yet enrolled in the Scapular yet since I wish to make at least a year of living this Rule a habit before enrolling, so I will practice the requirements in private until I decide on a spiritual director.

(Although I think I may go with my parish priest or any of the other priests in his order as they have all been great teachers to me whenever I needed their advice.)

More on this another time as it's 2am. Good night, world. God bless.

[catholicmemoirs]

Working on a new horarium

Did I mention that I have self-published several Catholic journals and planners?

I haven't had time to promote it since I've been so busy with work (and the rat race of living in San Francisco Bay Area as a software engineer), my oldest son starting preschool and my youngest son having terrible bouts of sleep where he would wake up every 2 hours for months.

I've been falling into a habit of sleeping when I put the baby to sleep, so rather than sleeping after midnight, I'm asleep at 8/9pm. I sometimes wake again at random times at night like midnight, 2am or 4am. I think my body's just adjusting, but it's made such a huge difference with my energy to get that rest.

Because of the random times I wake up, I realized I need to rethink my horarium.

A horarium is a schedule that religious follow and plan their daily hours around prayer. I was inspired by the nuns at Carmel of Cristo Rey, a monastery of Carmel nuns here in San Francisco, when I was looking into their daily life. They have a horarium of their daily hours listed on their website and I was inspired because it's very similar to a schedule I made for many years.

With my odd asleep schedule, I need to make a new one. So here's my attempt:

5:00pm Vespers. Stop work, commute if in office.

6:00pm Dinner.

7:00pm Rosary.

7:30pm Kids bedtime routine.

8:30 Night prayers.

9:00pm Compline. Sleep.

12:00am Matins. Examen.

12:30am Sleep.

4:00am Lauds. Watch Latin Mass while working.

6:00am Prime.

6:15am Nap.

8:00am Rise, make breakfast.

8:30am Tierce. School dropoff.

9:00 Work.

11:30 Pilates.

12:00pm Angelus.

12:05 Sext. Lunch, walk, Lectio Divina.

1:00pm Work.

3:00pm None. School pickup (when WFH).

What I like about the practice of a horarium is that your day is planned around prayer.

I usually put in the hours and start by adding which hour of prayer it is. Then I add my regular tasks outside of prayer. I save it as a phone wallpaper and put it on my lockscreen.

It's 1:38am now and I need to get back to sleep, but here is the horarium page from the undated planner I made, called Horarium!

[catholicmemoirs]

Good morning. Coding up some Gregorian chant at 6am truly makes me at peace. This finishes up retypesetting chants progress at page 50 of 92. Making progress!

My toddler is teething and had a low fever, but luckily is sleeping well.

I need to redo my Horarium again. Singing the 7 hours of the Little Office has been a bit too much, so I'm scaling back to 2 hours - Matins/Lauds in the morning and Vespers/Compline in the evening - like the recommendation from Traditional Lay Carmelites of Fatima (TLCF).

Speaking of TLCF, I need to give the Prioress of TLCF a call some time to see how she's doing. She is a mother herself and just recently had another grandchild. As I've been discerning the way of her Traditional Carmelite order and seeking her guidance on it, she's given me such great advice about motherhood and tying it to Carmelite spirituality.

I had a whole day yesterday to focus on work while the kids were at their grandparents. I hate to admit that I need a day away from the kids to catch up on what I need to do, but I feel so much more at peace.

I updated my work hours to 6-8am and 10-5pm so that I can get focus work done in the morning. I honestly get the best work done when it's dark out. 🦉 No distractions and no one needing me helps me focus on algorithms and software design work. It really doesn't come naturally to me, so the extra focus works.

Dear St. Anthony, please pray for me so that I may find the answers I need to solve what I need to do for work.

Dear St. Joseph, please pray that I can put in a full day of work.

Dear God, thank you for my job, my education and the work that I do and for letting me walk this path in Your name. I hope to be a good example of Your will through the uncommon life I live as a Filipino-American woman in tech in California and mother of 2 boys. I'm sorry for any times I have anxiety, imposter syndrome, procrastinate or lose my temper. Please help me to offer up those shortcomings to you.