Life of Saints - St. Teresa of Avila
St. Teresa of Avila was born in Spain in March 1515 and her 500th birthday will be in March 2015. The Church has begun a yearlong celebration of her 500th birthday commencing from last October 15h. This shows how valuable is St. Teresa of Avila for the Church. In addition to be a giant of Spanish literature, she was a religious reformer, a mystic and a pioneer in the spiritual life.
In spite of the fact that in her days, it was assumed that women should not assert themselves in religious matters; Teresa was named a Doctor of the Church in 1970 along with Catherine of Siena as the first two women who received this honor. Her writings are still guiding the Church.
Teresa, who lost her mother when she was fourteen, entered the Carmelite convent in her hometown in her early twenties. Although that was not a place for sincere prayer and contemplation, Teresa spent 20 years studying and embracing the Carmelite ideals of silence and solitude and reflecting on the Law of the Lord. Having had an overwhelming experience of the sufferings of Jesus; the loneliness and abandonment Jesus had, she offered Him her personal companionship. With her new experience she started to reform the Carmelite order and with the permission of the provincial, she opened a small convent of St. Joseph in 1562, on an experimental basis which received the approval of the Authorities five years later.
St. Teresa of Avila was one of the most earthbound mystics of the Church. She knew how to ascend to the heavens with the Holy Spirit yet never lose her footing on earth. She described prayer as nothing but an intimate sharing between friends. Rather than describe a formula for prayer she taught an attitude for life. She taught the necessity of seeking the Lord actively during prayer so that He may do His part to bring us closer to Him.
Living a holy life was never a burden to Teresa because she could experience and enjoy the presence of Jesus with her all the time. That experience of having Jesus by her side made all her work easy and cheerful. One of her prayers was “May God deliver us from cheerless saints”. There is a story about an incident happened while she was crossing a stream on a mule, where the mule made her fall in to the stream. Teresa rescued herself covered with mud told Jesus, “No wonder you have so few friends. Look how you treat the ones you do have.” In her convent there were no formalities or exaggerated self-importance. She taught the nuns to discover God “among the pots and pans” just as when on knees in prayer.
Let us learn from this one of the most important saints of the Church not to try to show our self-importance in our small work we are doing and to enjoy whatever the work we do in the Name of the Lord. It is not our long faces but the cheerful smiles which attracts others to the Lord.
(with gratitude to “the Word Amongst us” magazine – October 2014 issue)
Saint Francis of Assisi
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Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
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