The Ecclesial Carmelite Movement was founded in Brescia, Italy in June of 1993 through the initiative of Father Antonio Maria Sicari, O. C. D., and was born out of the friendship of a handful of Carmelite religious and certain faithful who desired to share, in a renewed way, the riches of the ancient Carmelite charism.

The particular urgency of spreading this charism throughout the Church finds its theological foundation in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, which instructs that “all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity” (Lumen Gentium V), and in the consequent conviction that “the root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion with God” (Gaudium et Spes, 19).

On the strength of the heritage of holiness and doctrine inherited from the three great Doctors of the Church (St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux), today the Carmelite charism seems particularly adapted to furthering the access of all the faithful to the mystical experience, in the precise sense indicated by the Catechism of the Catholic Church which explicitly teaches that all the faithful are called to the mystical union:

“Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called “mystical” because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments—“the holy mysteries”—and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all” (CCC 2014).

MEC is not a 3rd order.  Rather, it is something much more comprehensive that seeks to shape a person into a contemplative living in the modern world.  As a priest of the movement once stated, "there is no reason that a lay person cannot some day become the patron saint of contemplatives!