Traditional Latin Mass brings vocations boom to Pennsylvania Carmelite nuns
The link above includes rare video-interview (although face-to-face not permitted) with Mother Stella-Marie of Jesus.
“As soon as we took on the extraordinary form of the Mass and we returned to the traditional Carmelite rite, just everything made sense. All of our customs — we understood why we had them, because they all flowed from the liturgy, whereas before that, there had been a disconnect there.”
With the community having so many vocations it overflowed its lodgings twice, the Carmelites received permission last summer from His Excellency Ronald Gainer, bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg, to expand operations again, this time constructing a new monastery from the ground up.
Currently, the monastery at Fairfield has ten professed members, with more on the way from around the globe, including as far as Sweden.
“I think the young women are drawn to beauty in the liturgy. They know that if God exists, if God is on our altars, if God is within the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, then He needs to be worshiped as He deserves: with beauty and reverence,” Mother Stella-Marie of Jesus said of what she thinks draws young women to the Carmelites in particular. “They see that we have that here in our monastery, and they want to be a part of that. They also want something that is authentic, that goes back to the time of our holy mother, St. Teresa.”
