In the heart of the young men of today, there is an ardent desire to live the ancient way of life of the glorious Carmelite Saints in its full splendor and beauty.  The Carmelite monastery in Wyoming is living proof of this powerful reality, having attracted more than five hundred inquiries in the last four years from young men throughout the United States and the entire world.  These young men come from diverse backgrounds and learning, but they share one thing in common as they seek to radically follow Christ in the paradise of the Carmelite cloister. 

            It seems that the Holy Spirit is placing deep in the hearts of the youth a desire to wholeheartedly and generously respond to the call of our Blessed Lord and His Immaculate Mother.  The many fleeing pleasures and pastimes of our society are unable to hold them back from making a complete sacrifice of their lives to be united with Jesus Crucified by laying down their life on the Cross.  An austere life of prayer and penance in the simple Carmelite tradition beckons to today’s young people as something to be discovered, an entirely holy and different way of life that the world cannot give. 

            As the monks are so fond of saying, “If the world knew the joy that each Carmelite knows day in and day out, the world would be empty; all would have fled to the cloistered monasteries.”  Young vocations seem to discover this secret, hidden deep in their hearts and all but run to enter through the monastery gates never to leave again.  The youth of today are valiant and brave, filled with zeal and love nothing can keep them from that desire of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus to be “love in the heart of the Church.”  They come to Carmel to become saints, but to be spiritual fathers and your prayer warriors.  Although their lives are hidden with Christ in God, nonetheless what a tremendous witness that “God alone suffices”.  May the holiness of the life lived by these young monks be a powerful source of grace and a testimony that the Carmelite life, albeit more than 2,800 years old, is one ever new and bursting with life.