Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph: Alexandria, South Dakota

The Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph is home to a community of Discalced Carmelite Nuns. It was founded from the Carmel of Buffalo in 1997, when five Sisters traveled to Alexandria, SD, and began the work of converting a senior citizens' manor into their new monastery, the first monastery of contemplative nuns in that state. Since then, an addition has been made to accommodate their new vocations, along with various workrooms.

Life in Carmel is cloistered and simple, austere and demanding, but joyful. Work (cooking, cleaning, sewing, gardening) leaves the sisters' minds free to converse with God, and seven times a day they meet to recite the Divine Office on behalf of all God's people, and especially for priests. They maintain a vegetarian diet and sleep on straw mattresses. The sisters never leave the enclosure, except for medical purposes, and may receive visits (from immediate family members only) only through a double grating, once every other month.

The Discalced Nuns of the Order of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel were founded in Avila, Spain, by St. Teresa of Jesus in 1562, as a reform of the ancient Order of Carmel. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite, summed up her vocation: "To be love in the heart of my Mother, the Church, for should love ever fail, apostles would no longer preach the Gospel and martyrs would refuse to shed their blood."