THREAD: What do Carmelite nuns do all day?

St Teresa was a wise, practical woman and she set out a balanced daily routine of prayer, work & recreation, mostly in silent solitude but also time spent together in community. So here's a basic breakdown of our day:

(Timings may differ in various monasteries)
We get up at 5.30 and after getting ready our 1st hour of the day is silent personal prayer. We then gather in the choir (chapel) for Lauds (morning prayer), the first of 7 times we pray the Divine Office together daily.

After breakfast, it’s work: we’re self-supportive, earning our living by retailing altar breads, cards, or craft work. There’s also all the usual household jobs – cooking, cleaning, gardening, caring for our elderly and infirm Sisters, administration and looking after visitors.

The next 3 prayers of the Divine Office are the ‘Little hours’ of Terce, Sext and None, interspersed every few hours during the working day. The high point of the day is Holy Mass; during lockdown, most of our communities cannot have Mass unless they have a resident chaplain.

We have some free time after lunch, a short optional recreation (a rare opportunity to talk freely) and then a chance for some rest (or silent free time). After None (afternoon prayer) there is an hour of spiritual reading, then back to work again.

Vespers (evening prayer) is celebrated in the early evening followed by another hour of silent prayer.
After supper (a light meal) we have an hour’s recreation together, sharing the day’s news while (optionally) working on small craft projects.

At 8pm we have the Office of Readings for the following day. (Unlike some monastic orders we never had the custom of getting up during the night for this Office.) After this, we enter the Great Silence: no speaking until after Lauds the following morning unless in emergency.

There is some silent free time before Compline (night prayer) at 9pm and after this we are free to go to bed. One can read, pray or work quietly but we are meant to be in bed by 10.30, to get a decent sleep before the next 5.30 rise!

Each day is a gift of God and we give it back to God in prayer, praise & love of neighbour, whatever God asks of us in each given moment. We hope this gives some insight into a ‘typical’ Carmelite day but really there’s no such thing! What remains the same is we pray for you