Building support: a guild forms to provide support to the Carmel of Jesus Crucified

 Students from Sacred Heart Catholic School construct a “speak room” for the Carmel of Jesus Crucified. (NTC/Thomas Otto)

In a matter of weeks, the people and parishes of Cooke County rose to the challenge of providing land and materials to build a temporary dwelling place for the Carmel of Jesus Crucified, a new Discalced Carmelite Monastery established in the rolling, wooded hills south of the Red River. On Dec. 8, 2025, Bishop Michael Olson celebrated Mass and performed the Rite of Enclosure for the cloister.

To prepare for the monastery’s founding, benefactors donated land and a manufactured home; carpenters, electricians, and plumbers transformed the home to accommodate eight cells; and parishioners cleaned, organized, and sewed curtains. 

Currently, local farmers provide eggs, milk, cheese, and produce to the Carmel; a fisherman sends his catch on a regular basis; and woodworkers are constructing bookcases, hanging racks, and a table and benches. Students at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Muenster are building a “speak room” to enable the nuns to host a visitor without breaking their enclosure.

Another new structure is being built: the Guild of the Carmel of Jesus Crucified, an auxiliary organization to provide a “sustainable, systematic way to help” with the needs of the six nuns and two women in formation, said Mary Del Olmo, a consecrated virgin who lives nearby and serves as a bridge between the community and the nuns.

Sustainable, Del Olmo explained, so that a burden of needs doesn’t fall on one person, and systematic, so that if someone steps away for one reason or another, support continues seamlessly.

The guild hopes to create a community of supporters across the diocese to “support the needs of the Carmelite nuns of the Carmel of Jesus Crucified in a practical and concrete way while at the same time supporting their spiritual mission of prayer, solitude, and silence,” their mission statement describes.

Broader Support

The faithful of Sacred Heart Parish in Muenster, St. Peter Parish in Lindsay, and St. Mary Parish in Gainesville have been “unbelievably excellent and immensely helpful,” said Elaine Schilling, a Sacred Heart parishioner who is helping establish the guild.

One of the guild’s early objectives is to broaden the base of prayerful and practical support for the Carmel.

Beth Kelley, business manager of St. Peter Parish in Lindsay, is a founding member of the guild and coordinates a weekly grocery run for the cloister.

Kelley said, “I’m hoping that people become aware of them, not just in Cooke County, but in the whole diocese. They’re not just here for us. They’re here for the whole diocese.

“I hope in the long range that all the community feels their love and support and their prayers — that it becomes a part of all of our lives; we all help take care of them. And as they’re praying and serving us, that we as a community are able to serve them as well.”

Mutual Support

In a recent letter to Carmel supporters, Mother Marie of the Incarnation, OCD, wrote that each of us is being called by God, and our calls can be interdependent. “You know this, for even our call to found here in your midst, you have accepted and received as your call from God. Today, we want to take this moment to thank you for your yes to this call and for all that yes has meant for us.”

After thanking the community for their material support and friendship, Mother Marie continued, “God has been so good to us. We see His light shining brightly in you, in the charity with which you have welcomed us. God called us here to pray. To pray for priests, to pray for the dear, dear people of your diocese who are very obviously close to the heart of Jesus, and to pray for those who have wandered away from God. 

“As we pray for all of you and thank you for all that you do to help us maintain the solitude and silence proper to our life, we ask you likewise to pray for us to be faithful to our proper calling — faithful to the hidden prayer to which we have been called. In this way, we will support each other and bring abundant fruits of holiness to gladden the heart of Holy Mother Church.”

Quiet place to pray

In addition to the development of a guild, initial plans are underway regarding a permanent site for the monastery on abour 40 acres of land near the temporary enclosure. The nuns will reside at their current site as long as necessary for the permanent monastery to be funded and built.

Del Olmo, who is also a member of the guild, said, “What people don’t realize is this type of life that they live — this monastic life, this enclosed life — just puts them so near Jesus’ heart. There are so few distractions in their day-to-day life. And so the prayer that they offer for us, it’s just so powerful.

“And they’re praying for all of us, whether we’ve asked for it or not. And somebody’s praying all the time for us, for whatever our needs are.

“They’ve given everything to follow Jesus to that quiet spot to pray. Even Jesus left the world to go pray on the mountain. Even He left the apostolic life to just go to be with the Father. That’s what they’re doing. And so that grace is going to just spread all around our entire diocese and bless all of us,” Del Olmo explained.

Prayer requests may be made by mail: Mother Marie of the Incarnation, OCD 
Carmel of Jesus Crucified
P.O. Box 308 
Muenster, TX 76252 
For those wanting to provide financial support, checks can be made to “Carmel of Jesus Crucified” or search for "Carmel of Jesus Crucified" on Amazon Wish List.