St Teresa of Avila

 Oct 15 - Feast of St Teresa of Avila

 

Happy Feast of St Teresa of Avila [also known as St Teresa of Jesus].

Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus, is one of the most dynamic, charismatic, and intellectually formidable figures in Christian history. Celebrated on October 15, her feast day honors a Spanish Carmelite nun who was simultaneously a profound mystic, a practical reformer, an accomplished author, and a master administrator.

Early life

St Teresa, whose name was Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, was born in Avila, Spain, in 1515 into a large family, her “father and mother, who were devout and feared God”, she also had three sisters and nine brothers. 

While she was still a child and not yet nine years old she had the opportunity to read the lives of several Martyrs which inspired in her such a longing for martyrdom that she briefly ran away from home in order to die a Martyr’s death and to go to Heaven (cf. Vida, [Life], 1, 4); “I want to see God”, the little girl told her parents. 

She was guided by two fundamental principles.On the one hand was the fact that “all things of this world will pass away” while on the other God alone is “for ever, ever, ever”, a topic that recurs in her best known poem: “God Alone Suffices: Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things pass, only God does not change. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing: God alone suffices Let your desire be to see God, your fear to lose Him, your sorrow not to possess Him, let your joy be that which can lead you towards Him and you will live in great peace."

Religious life

She was about 12 years old when her mother died and she implored the Virgin Most Holy to be her mother (cf. Vida, I, 7). When she was 20 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation, also in Avila when convents had become fashionable retreats for noblewomen, often lacking true spiritual rigour. In her religious life she took the name “Teresa of Jesus”. 

In 1543 she lost her closest relatives; her father died and all her siblings, one after another, emigrated to America. In Lent 1554, when she was 39 years old, Teresa reached the climax of her struggle against her own weaknesses. The fortuitous discovery of the statue of “a Christ most grievously wounded”, left a deep mark on her life (cf. Vida, 9).

Parallel to her inner development, the Saint began in practice to realize her ideal of the reform of the Carmelite Order. Determined to restore strict contemplative discipline, poverty, and sincere prayer, she founded the Discalced Carmelites ("discalced" meaning shoeless, symbolizing poverty). Three years later she fell seriously ill, so ill that she remained in a coma for four days, looking as if she were dead (cf. Vida, 5, 9).: in 1562 she founded the first reformed Carmel in Avila, with the support of the city’s Bishop, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, and shortly afterwards also received the approval of John Baptist Rossi, the Order’s Superior General.

In the years that followed, she continued her foundations of new Carmelite convents, 17 in all. Her meeting with St John of the Cross was fundamental. With him, in 1568, she set up the first convent of Discalced Carmelites in Duruelo, not far from Avila.

In 1580 she obtained from Rome the authorization for her reformed Carmels as a separate, autonomous Province. This was the starting point for the Discalced Carmelite Order.

Deep devotion to the Holy Eucharist

St Teresa of Avila once said, "Here on earth it’s impossible to perform a more meritorious act than visiting Jesus often in the Eucharist. If you took all of the good works done by all of the humans who have ever lived in all of history and stacked them all up and multiplied them by a million, they wouldn’t equal the merit, the virtue and the worth of one Mass. The Eucharistic sacrifice is Christ’s infinite merit, infinite value".

May St. Teresa of Ávila intercede for us, that our hearts may always burn with love for Jesus, and that we may never cease to seek His face in the Eucharist! 

Spiritual Masterpiece Writings

Teresa was a gifted writer whose works remain classics of Spanish literature and mystical theology:

• The Interior Castle (El Castillo Interior): Her masterwork on prayer and the soul. She compares the soul to a castle made of a single crystal containing many "mansions" or rooms, guiding the seeker through successive stages of prayer toward deep union with God.
•  The Way of Perfection (Camino de Perfección): In 1566, Teresa wrote El Camino de Perfección [The Way of Perfection], composed for the 12 novices of the Carmel of St Joseph in Avila. Teresa proposes to them an intense programme of contemplative life at the service of the Church, at the root of which are the evangelical virtues and prayer. She introduces the symbol of the silk worm reborn as a butterfly, in order to express the passage from the natural to the supernatural. Prayer is life and develops gradually, in pace with the growth of Christian life: it begins with vocal prayer, passes through interiorization by means of meditation and recollection, until it attains the union of love with Christ and with the Holy Trinity.
•  The Book of Her Life (Vida): Her candid autobiography detailing her inner struggles, severe physical illnesses, and mystical visions.

Indeed, Teresa’s earthly life ended while she was in the middle of her founding activities. She died on the night of 15 October 1582 in Alba de Tormes, after setting up the Carmelite Convent in Burgos, while on her way back to Avila. Her last humble words were: “After all I die as a child of the Church”, and “O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another”.

St Teresa of Avila is the patron saint of Spain, headache sufferers, writers, lacemakers, and people ridiculed for their piety.

Doctor of the Church

In 1970, Pope Paul VI declared Saint Teresa of Ávila a Doctor of the Church—a rare title reserved for saints who made extraordinarily significant contributions to doctrine and theology. She was the first woman in history to receive this title.

Pope Benedict XVI said, "St Teresa of Jesus is a true teacher of Christian life for the faithful of every time. In our society, which all too often lacks spiritual values, St Teresa teaches us to be unflagging witnesses of God, of his presence and of his action. She teaches us truly to feel this thirst for God that exists in the depths of our hearts, this desire to see God, to seek God, to be in conversation with him and to be his friends."

Let's end with a popular prayer by St Teresa of Avila

"Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world." 

References

1. General audience of Pope Benedict XVI on Saint Teresa of Avila. (2 February 2011). https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110202.html