Fr. Michael-Joseph Paris, OCD

Fr. Michael-Joseph Paris of St. Thérèse, O.C.D., is a Discalced Carmelite friar of the Province of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a contemplative order devoted to seeking union with God through friendship with Jesus Christ in the spirit of Mary. He serves as subprior and director of postulants at the Carmelite community of Holy Hill in Hubertus, Wisconsin. Raised in Maryland, he returned to the faith as a young man after a period away from the Church, drawn back through Scripture and prayer toward a call to the priesthood. 

 Fr. Michael-Joseph studied philosophy at St. John’s University in New York and theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., in 2011. After several years in parish and campus ministry, he entered the Discalced Carmelites in 2016, later studying Carmelite spirituality in Ávila and Madrid and earning a License in Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical University of Comillas in 2022. He professed his final vows in 2023. A member of the Institute of Carmelite Studies and host of its Carmelcast podcast, he joined Ascension as co-host of Catholic Classics for its third season, guiding listeners through St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul.