The Liturgy of the Hours, or Divine Office, is not something we Lay Carmelites have to do but something we want to do.

Fr. John Malley, O. Carm, in a talk titled Introduction to the Use of Scripture, offers a practical approach to prayer using Scripture. It may be summed up in four words beginning with the letter “P”: Place, Passage, Presence of God, and Pray.

Being a hermit is harder than I thought. The biggest hurdle — praying. Not that prayer is difficult, but a concentrated discipline of prayer is. I told myself that prayer is now my “job” and I would have to work at it, like any job....