Our Future Carmel
"Holy Mother Teresa, look down from heaven and see: visit this vineyard and finish it which your right hand has planted."
-Carmelite Invocation
THE PLANS
Future Construction Coming Soon!
Donate Now to Make These Pictures a Reality for the Greater Glory of God!
Conceptual Design Plans (April 2025) by Baker Architects
Contact
BUILDING PROJECT MANAGER
Andrew T. Seaver, Sr Engineer GE2T Consulting 912-346-2917
Atseaver@ge2t.com
Time, Talent, and Treasure
We will post here periodically any donations of in-kind gifts, services, or volunteering that would greatly benefit our building project construction progress. For additional ways to make a donations, please see the Donate page.
“Let us do our part, and God will then do what He wills. This is God’s cause, and all will end well. My hope is in Him; do not be distressed.”
--Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Avila
We kindly seek the in-kind donations of:
-Currently seeking a Contractor/Builder
-Building materials and resources
-Artisans work for Icons and Holy Images to adorn the new Chapel
-Carpenters, Stone workers, craftsmen of all works: we will connect you to our team of engineers and builders to help donate your talent for our cause
-Traditional Catholic books to supply the Nuns' Library for Spiritual Reading
-Writing material: legal-sized envelopes, roll of stamps, printing paper
-Any crafting beads & rosary parts we can use for our rosary making
For more information, please kindly Contact us with your name, phone number and email address.
ARCHIVED PLANS
Conceptual Design Drafts (March 2025) by Baker Architects
Initial Site Design
Initial Site Design: Site Layout
Land Survey
Carmel: "Garden of God"
Habit Forming Sisters Corporation desires by the grace of God to build a simple, solemn monastic house of prayer for our community and for future generations of Discalced Carmelites Nuns of Saint Teresa of Avila. We seek to build our monastery according to what is necessary to sustain a family-sized religious community.
The main physical property of a monastery includes the chapel and the cloister, the latter which is the enclosure of the nuns and includes areas such as the individual cells, the kitchen and refectory for eating, work area, gardens, and areas for recreation and study. One traditional design especially used by Irish Carmelites is called the "quadrangle." The Quadrangle design utilizes an equal distribution of space and a harmony of setting. This allows the nuns to follow the schedule of their life of prayer in perfect silence and recollection as they process from one location to another throughout the day.
Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila also encouraged her nuns to live by a life of prayer and holy renunciation, relying on the Divine Providence and the work of their hands for sustenance. Our new monastery will focus on a small-scale farmstead for its garden design, where we hope to raise animals, plant vegetables and fruit orchards, tend herb and flower gardens, and house a few honeybees.
According to our Carmelite Constitutions:
"The [Monastery], with the exception of the Church, should have nothing ornamental in its construction: the woodwork should be simple, the Convent small, and the apartments low, so that what is necessary and not what is superfluous may be attended to."
"The walls should be as solid as possible; those of the enclosure high, within which there should be ground enough to build some hermitages, that the religious, after the example of the Holy Fathers, may retire to them for prayer."
Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Avila always desired that the greatest glory of a monastery should be seen within the chapel where Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is truly present in the Holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. It is there that the true beauty of Carmel, meaning "Garden of God", should shine forth for all to see.
Construction in Progress
Our Photo Gallery showcases 10 acres of land donated for the building of a new Traditional Carmelite Monastery in Gilchrist County Florida, siteprep and construction in progress. Learn more in Events.