I came to our high desert monastery in 1994, my heart filled with gratitude for the 35 years I had the privilege of being a Sister of Notre Dame and for the 14 years I lived and worked among the people in rural West Virginia. Both were enriching experiences that gently guided me home to Carmel. The contemplative lifestyle and spirit of this community, along with the hospitality, compassion, and love of the sisters, and the many friends in our extended community have blessed my life beyond measure. It is with a humble and grateful heart that I hope to continue to journey with all of you, doing what we can to leave an imprint of kindness, mercy, and compassion upon our earth.

After living twenty two joyful years as a Sister of Notre Dame, where I was privileged to live and teach with many outstanding women, my path led me to this “monastery on the hill!” The past eighteen years here have been so blest, and the joy of living with a community filled with care and compassion, while at the same time always growing, and living what we have envisioned together, knows no bounds. I am grateful beyond words for the friendship of the sisters and all those wonderful friends that are part of our extended community who have helped us in so many ways.  I hope to continue to live this Carmelite life, being always mindful of those in need, and in great care for our world.

I arrived at the Reno Carmel in 1968. The sisters had graciously invited me to come from the Indianapolis Carmel, where I had been for twenty-three years, to see if Nevada’s dry, sunny climate would help my arthritis. I’ve been here ever since – flourishing in the company of my wonderful religious community and the broader community of our many friends. Nevada’s mountains, open skies and sage-covered hills lift up my heart daily in praise of our loving, providential God.  

Many years ago when I was “a young lieutenant” (to borrow an expression from General Clem, Sister Anne’s father), things were still just beginning for the Carmel of Reno on Virginia Street near UNR. It was 1956 when I volunteered to help out for a year or two, because Sister Marie was dying, and to enable Sister Marian’s return to Indianapolis Carmel for health reasons. As Divine Providence would have it, “the nun who came to dinner” has stayed for forty-nine years. Those years have held much grace, countless blessings and many wonderful friendships for which I thank God daily. I hold in my heart and prayer all those faithful friends who helped to make our monastery on the hill a reality and whose assistance enables us to remain a permanent part of the Church in Nevada.

The year was 1954. Bishop Dwyer of Reno had asked that we, the Carmelites of Indianapolis, establish a house of prayer in the Reno Diocese. Would I join the sisters in the venture? Feeling in my heart that God wanted this, I joined with seven other sisters. We came west. Little did I know or guess how life’s journey would continue.

Nevada, Desert-land      
Land of Pyramid Lake and mountains
Land our acreage we would transform       
and make an oasis in the desert
all of it revealing--the journey     
desert land my prayer before my God
but just as well when needed--the looking up to
mountain height
or lesser height--the great sequoias we planted
the mountain running streams--the curious deer in flight that paused and gazed at me.

I  am the grateful recipient of the work of the Founding Sisters and those who came shortly after the foundation began in 1954.  Beneath a big sky and surrounded by the love of the Reno community, our desert Carmel has flourished. Our Carmelite spirituality has grown and been transformed with the realities of our time and place. I believe we received and heard a call to be renewed by the events which shaped these past years: the Second Vatican Council within fifteen years of our founding, our efforts to support ourselves with the print shop, the scriptural renewal and the liturgical movement. As we begin our future we have been blessed with a clear vision of the contemplative life and the expanding company of one another on this faith journey.

Each day I thank God for my Carmelite vocation and for my Reno community of sisters and friends.

Two score and six years ago I uprooted from New England and transplanted to the mountains of Northern Nevada because in my youthful enthusiasm I thought that‘s where the action was. Pioneer Carmelites who had just recently come west were moving into their new home in the hills outside Reno. A lifetime later, my theology is a lot better but I am grateful to that youthful impulse which brought me to the right place at the right time. The defining inspiration of my life in Carmel has been our community’s commitment to follow the call of Vatican II: to renew Carmel’s life of prayer in the Spirit of a new Pentecost. I am a child of that Council and our journey of renewal continues opening up the unfathomable depths of the Church. With gratitude I acknowledge the ever more inclusive experience of church I experience, especially in the liturgy celebrated with sisters and brothers in Carmel, men, women and children in our local community and beyond. Lots and lots of incredible children who just keep on growing “more so.” In this golden moment

Our Lady of the Mountains is a perfect name for this Carmel. Our Lady’s prayer, “My soul magnifies our God” who speaks to the lowly, echoes through our lives touched by the beauty of the mountains and the people surrounding us.  Living in a community that is open to all peoples and to God’s Spirit is energizing and creative. Someone said, “We are all mystics” as we all have this silent cry of God within us. As we listen daily to this cry within us and in all those who come to our door, this cry becomes more and more audible, loving and transforming. It is with a grateful heart to my community and to all those who have supported, loved and nourished us with their faith and trust that I say, thank you. What a wonderful journey we are on together!

Sister Rosemary

I enjoy repeating in
my heart that we are
Light Keepers.

I’ll always remember how warmly and energetically I was welcomed to Reno by the community and friends of Carmel a dozen years ago. The significance of the bond between the sisters and all who worship at Carmel continues to deepen for me. It is noteworthy that the community has not stood alone for these 50 years. The early sisters’ creativity, hope and vision have been matched by dedication, enthusiasm and goodness on the part of countless families and individual friends. I am grateful to them all.
I still repeat the story about my first September in Reno. For two weeks we had nothing but sunny skies. Feeling loss and drastic change, I asked, “Will I ever see a cloud again?” Of course clouds formed, and they always do drift in and out of our lives. I enjoy repeating in my heart that we are Light Keepers. A dream during our chapel’s construction led me to express it this way.God’s gifts of comfort, peace and love are so freely bestowed on those who visit our home. It is our privilege to share what we receive from the Spirit. As a group, we move easily with each other, enjoy each other. My hope is that this prayerful, caring community will continue to flourish in Reno and that new members will always experience a full flowering in God, gentle and strong.

Carmel is a conduit of grace given to us and grace passed on through us. Beginning with her “allegiance to Jesus Christ,” each sister expresses in a unique way God’s love and faithfulness; each sister’s life has built this place of prayer on the hill through her own relationship to God and by giving to others what she has received. In a world struggling to hope and to believe, the prophetic witness of living in community with charity continues to be a beacon to others and a challenge to us. It says with our lives, “Peace and love are possible.” We continue to learn how to be Christ for one another from each one who has gone before us these 50 years and from all who are Carmel’s extended community today. I find the words of the poet William Butler Yeats running as a song in my heart: “It seemed, so great my happiness, that I was blessed and could bless.”

It is a privilege to be a member of this contemplative community whose vision and courage continually challenge each of us to live creatively the gospel values of love and service.  I thank God for our many friends who have made it possible for Carmel of Reno to grow and flourish in this beautiful high desert.  And I am humbled by the faith of so many who invite us to pray with and for them and others.

May we continue to grow as faith-filled followers of Christ who reverence all peoples and all creation, and as “a people of unity and peace, blest and broken in love and care for one another.”

As a transplant from another Carmel, I am forever indebted to the women of this community who so courageously undertook the work of renewal following the Second Vatican Council. The many years of experimentation and dialogue the sisters so conscientiously dedicated themselves to have blossomed into a renewed form of the Teresian charism which has prepared a place for me and for many others in search of a more contemporary interpretation of our contemplative life. As the sisters here leaned “to catch the stirrings of the Spirit” that brought them into “spaciousness of meadow that emulates the freedom of the sky,” so may we re-dedicate ourselves during this Jubilee year to a renewed listening to the mysterious breath of the Spirit that will blossom into an ever deeper communion of love with God, our world, our earth, our present and future community.      
Quotes from ‘To Live with the Spirit’ by Jessica Powers, OCD

Sister Clorinda

The breath-taking beauty, the spaciousness of Reno’s desert mountain horizons, the blue skies and beautiful wild flowers, all viewed from the monastery’s lovely contemporary chapel are equaled only by this community’s warm welcome, and the evidence of the sisters’ devoted care for one another. Brought here from another Carmelite community through the unexpected workings of Providence, I am one of the latest arrivals, responding to the sister’s gracious invitation to deepen here my own journey and God’s call for the future. My background is Swiss and Scottish and my professional training is in music and ballet, which I pursued from childhood in England, Switzerland and Milan and finally New York. I like to say the ‘hound of heaven’ finally caught up with me there, bringing to fruition a call to Carmel I had already experienced in my teenage years. Yes, God’s providence is a constant source of wonder to me, and my heart gratefully celebrates this Carmel's existence as a place of beauty and peace; a loving community of friends united in the same spiritual goal. I celebrate too the sisters’ openness and creative fidelity towards seeking new ways of expressing Carmel and the call to love God and our neighbor in and for our world today.

Sister Mary Margaret