As sentinels keeping watch around the holy encampment, Christ has called the extern monks to serve as the special guardians of the enclosure. These extern monks show themselves to be true fathers to their cloistered brothers as they work outside the monastery's walls; experience clearly proves that without the extern vocation the enclosure is slowly compromised, so the Carmelite monks promote this particular vocation as a call to sacrificial love. The call to the extern vocation is not for those who are unfit to live the enclosed life, but rather for those who have been called by the Queen of Carmel to immolate their lives in charity for their cloistered brothers.

The extern monks are fathers and brothers advanced in the practice of charity and holy obedience, edifying all who come to the monastery. These externs have the beautiful vocation of conveying the spirit of the community and the grace of the cloistered life to those in the world. The extern monks are a reflection of the entire community.