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American Catholic’s Saint of the Day

October 15, 2005

St. Teresa of Avila

(1515-1582)

Teresa lived in an age of exploration as well as political, social and religious upheaval. It was the 16th century, a time of turmoil and reform. Her life began with the culmination of the Protestant Reformation, and ended shortly after the Council of Trent.

The gift of God to Teresa in and through which she became holy and left her mark on the Church and the world is threefold: She was a woman; she was a contemplative; she was an active reformer.

As a woman, Teresa stood on her own two feet, even in the man's world of her time. She was "her own woman," entering the Carmelites despite strong opposition from her father. She is a person wrapped not so much in silence as in mystery. Beautiful, talented, outgoing, adaptable, affectionate, courageous, enthusiastic, she was totally human. Like Jesus, she was a mystery of paradoxes: wise, yet practical; intelligent, yet much in tune with her experience; a mystic, yet an energetic reformer. A holy woman, a womanly woman.

Teresa was a woman "for God," a woman of prayer, discipline and compassion. Her heart belonged to God. Her own conversion was no overnight affair; it was an arduous lifelong struggle, involving ongoing purification and suffering. She was misunderstood, misjudged, opposed in her efforts at reform. Yet she struggled on, courageous and faithful; she struggled with her own mediocrity, her illness, her opposition. And in the midst of all this she clung to God in life and in prayer. Her writings on prayer and contemplation are drawn from her experience: powerful, practical and graceful. A woman of prayer; a woman for God.

Teresa was a woman "for others." Though a contemplative, she spent much of her time and energy seeking to reform herself and the Carmelites, to lead them back to the full observance of the primitive Rule. She founded over a half-dozen new monasteries. She traveled, wrote, fought—always to renew, to reform. In her self, in her prayer, in her life, in her efforts to reform, in all the people she touched, she was a woman for others, a woman who inspired and gave life.

In 1970 the Church gave her the title she had long held in the popular mind: Doctor of the Church. She and St. Catherine of Siena were the first women so honored.

Comment:

Today we live in a time of turmoil, a time of reform and a time of liberation. Modern women have in Teresa a challenging example. Promoters of renewal, promoters of prayer, all have in Teresa a woman to reckon with, one whom they can admire and imitate.

Quote:

Teresa knew well the continued presence and value of suffering (physical illness, opposition to reform, difficulties in prayer), but she grew to be able to embrace suffering, even desire it: "Lord, either to suffer or to die." Toward the end of her life she exclaimed: "Oh, my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value."

Doctors of the Catholic Church

Saint Teresa is the Doctor of Prayer. Her writings on this subject are unsurpassed. One of her favorite prayers for many years was the Our Father Prayer and through it she was raised to the heights of contemplation despite numerous distractions, traveling, and diversified duties in her reform efforts with the Order of Mount Carmel called the Discalced Carmelites. However, despite major disappointments, setbacks, and discouragements, nothing prevented her from staying focused in doing God's holy will in all manners. She was mainly responsible for the renewal, reform, and the expansion of the Carmelites throughout Spain for many years despite poor health and a host of spiritual challenges. Her patience in organizing, continual prayer, and goodwill helped her acheive major expansions and the rebuilding of the Order at a time when laxity and a easy lifestyle permeated into the contemplative life for religious living.

Complacency and lack of disciple prevailed and Teresa felt a call by the Lord for more dedicated and consecrated efforts to live out one's religious vows with prayer and sacrifice and for the building up of the holiness of the church and individual sanctity.

Not without reason did the church proclaimed Sts Teresa and St Catherine of Siena the first women Doctors of the Church in 1970. Teresa was a wise and practical woman who was extraordinarily kind and charitable, and greatly gifted in the explanations of the highest degrees of prayer and union with God, and love of neighbor.

Teresa assures us that those who practice prayer faithfully will receive all they ask beyond their greatest expectations and hope. God used her to rebuild and expand many convents and monasteries as she radiated smiles, humor, and goodwill amidst heavy crosses and conflicts. She wrote: "Anyone who has not begun to pray,(regularly and daily ) I beg, for the love of the Lord, not to miss so great a blessing. There is no place here (in the convent) for fear, but only desire."

This extraordinary Hispanic woman was beset with numerous challenges both within the church and in her own religious order. Despite the insurmountable hardships she faced, her obedience to authority, faithfulness to prayer, and docility to the Holy Spirit to carry out her call and mission, never wavered despite great controversies and sufferings. Her trust in God and Jesus Christ, her Beloved, was what she treasured and what she held onto with her whole being. She confessed that "...I know from experience-namely that no one who has begun this practice (of daily prayer) however many sins he may commit, should never forsake it."

St Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582. Doctor of Prayer, Feast Oct 15th.