October 15th is the Memorial of St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), Virgin and Doctor of the Catholic Church. Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in Ávila, Spain, the 3rd of nine children from her fathers second marriage. Her father had three other children from his first marriage. Her was able to purchased a knighthood in the kingdom of Castille in order to assimilate into Christian society after his father, a Jewish convert to Christianity, was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for allegedly returning to the Jewish faith. Teresas mother, raised her children to be devout Christians. An example of this is when Teresa 7 years old, being fascinated by stories of the lives of the saints, ran away from home with her brother. They got as far as the road outside the city walls when their uncle stopped them. When Teresa was asked why she wanted to run away she replied, I want to see God, and I must die before I can see Him, for their plan was to run away to Africa, where they might be beheaded by the Moors and so achieve martyrdom. She and her brother than built a hermitage in the garden for a place to pray. At the age of 15 Teresas mother died, she grieved deeply and turned to the Virgin Mary to be her spiritual mother. However, she also developed an immoderate interest in reading popular fiction of medieval tales of knighthood and romance and an excessive concern for her own appearance. Her father noticed this sudden change in his daughters personality. With no one to care for his daughter after Teresas older sister married, he to sent Teresa to live with the Augustinian nuns in Avila for her education. While there, she became ill and returned home after a year and half. She remained with her father and then with her married sister, which allowed her to visit her uncle who acquainted her with the Letters of St. Jerome. These writings influenced her decision to enter Religious life, not that it attracted her, but it seemed the safest course to avoid being forced to marry. However, her father refused to give his consent, stating she would have to wait until after his death. This created a conflict between them and was a source of suffering for Teresa. She believed that a such delay would weaken her resolve to enter Religious life, so in 1535 when was 20 years old she secretly left her fathers house and entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation outside the town of Avila, where her friend was a religious sister and she applied for admission, which had a membership of 140 nuns. Leaving her family caused her great pain, which she later compared to that of death. She and her father finally reconciled when Teresa received the Carmelite habit in 1536. A year later Teresa made profession of vows at the age of 22, but afterwards she again became very seriously ill. Her father had her return home to undergo a prolonged and unskilled medical treatment, which caused her health to be permanently impaired. During this time, her devout uncle gave her a spiritual book, Third Spiritual Alphabet, by Father Francis de Osuna, which dealt with prayers of recollection and quiet. Taking this book as her guide, she began to concentrate on mental prayer, and progressed towards the prayer of quiet, with the soul resting in divine contemplation with all earthly things forgotten. Occasionally, for brief moments, she attained the prayer of union, in which all the powers of the soul are absorbed in God. Teresa returned to the after three years 1540. She joined in the Spanish custom of the young nuns receiving their acquaintances in the convent parlor to visit and chat. She became a favorite of visitors who found her intelligent, warm and charming and so she participated in frivolous conversations, which her slowed her growth towards perfection in the spiritual life. She was even attracted to one visitor, which disturbed her, but she convinced herself that there was no sin involved and she was only doing what so many others were doing. She discontinued spending time in mental prayer, using her poor health as an excuse and fearing her conversations with frequent visitors made her unworthy of the graces God bestowed on her in prayer. Yet God continued to gift her with intellectual visions and locutions (words directly impressed upon her mind), which reprimanded her for her unfaithfulness, gave her strength in trials and consoled her in her troubles. She was unable to reconcile such graces with her shortcomings, which she felt were grievous faults, so she sought out priests to be her confessors and also to some saintly laymen. The more she sought to resist the visions and locutions, the more powerfully God worked in her soul. The entire city of Avila was troubled by the reports of her visions, while she sought spiritual direction from Dominicans, Jesuits, and other religious and secular priests to discern the work of God in her life. Among these were the Jesuit priest St. Francis Borgia and Franciscan priest St. Peter of Alcantara. She experienced the spiritual espousals and the mystical marriage and the piercing or transverberation of her heart, which the Italian sculptor, Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) illustrated in his work, Ecstasy of St. Teresa, that to this day is found in the the Cornaro Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Vittoria in Rome. St. Teresa this vision of the seraph angel: I saw in his hands a long golden spear, and at the point of the iron there seemed to be a little fire. This I thought that he thrust several times into my heart, and that it penetrated to my entrails. When he drew out the spear he seemed to be drawing them with it, leaving me all on fire with a wondrous love for God. The pain was so great that it caused me to utter several moans; and yet so exceeding sweet is this greatest of pains that it is impossible to desire to be rid of it, or for the soul to be content with less than God. The memory of this episode served as an inspiration throughout the rest of her life, and motivated her lifelong imitation of the life and suffering of Jesus the motto usually associated with her: Lord, either let me suffer or let me die. Teresa was inspired during her deep prayer that God was asking her to reform of the Carmelite Order. After many difficulties and much opposition, she received full permission from the Superior General of the Order to found as many houses as feasible. Over a period of 20 years, she founded 17 convents for the Sisters, and 15 others for priests of the Reform during her lifetime, with the aid of St. John of the Cross. Traveling through the country was hazardous, but nothing did not stop Teresa from doing the Will of God. One day when the cart she rode in overturned and she broke her leg, she prayed, Dear Lord, if this is how You treat Your friends, it is no wonder You have so few! Teresas last words were: My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another. She died October 4, 1582 and 40 years latter was canonized in 1622. In 1970 along with St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa was declared a Doctor of the Catholic Church, making them the first women to be recognized for their contribution to theology and teaching on the spiritual life. St. Teresas mortal remains are as extraordinary as her earthly life. The wooden coffin that contained her body nine months after her death caved in and her body was found to be perfectly conserved, though her religious clothing had rotted. When they clothed her body anew, a fine perfume exuded and spread throughout the entire monastery. Parts of her body were later removed as relics and her heart showed the marks of the transverberation. At the last exhumation in 1914, her body was found to remain in the same condition as when it was previously seen, still recognizable and very fragrant with the same intense perfume. St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us. Let us pray, O God, who through Your Spirit raised up Saint Teresa of Jesus to show the Church the way to seek perfection, grant that we may always be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching and fired with longing for true holiness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us. From a work by Saint Teresa of Avila, virgin If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God takes delight. Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example. What more do we desire from such a good friend at our side? Unlike our friends in the world, he will never abandon us when we are troubled or distressed. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him near. Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of Siena. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s hands. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly. Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:08:43 +0000
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