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Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 10-15-04, Memorial,St Teresa of Jesus, [Avila] virgin & doctor
USCCB.org/New American Bible ^ | 10-15-04 | New American Bible

Posted on 10/15/2004 6:54:09 AM PDT by Salvation

October 15, 2004
Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

Psalm: Friday 44 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel


Reading I
Eph 1:11-14

Brothers and sisters:
In Christ we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.
In him you also, who have heard the word of truth,
the Gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him,
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
which is the first installment of our inheritance
toward redemption as God's possession, to the praise of his glory.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-13

R (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
R Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Gospel
Lk 12:1-7


At that time:
So many people were crowding together
that they were trampling one another underfoot.
Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
"Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.

"There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness
will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body
but after that can do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear.
Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna;
yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins?
Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be afraid.
You are worth more than many sparrows."




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1 posted on 10/15/2004 6:54:10 AM PDT by Salvation
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2 posted on 10/15/2004 6:55:31 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All
Saint Teresa of Avila[Doctor of the Church] {Long}
3 posted on 10/15/2004 7:13:15 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS—1515-1582 A.D.

SAINT TERESA OF AVILA VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS—1515-1582 A.D.
Feast: October 15
In the Autobiography which she completed towards the end of her life, Saint Teresa of Avila gives us a description of her parents, along with a disparaging estimate of her own character. "The possession of virtuous parents who lived in the fear of God, together with those favors which I received from his Divine Majesty, might have made me good, if I had not been so very wicked." A heavy consciousness of sin was prevalent in sixteenth-century Spain, and we can readily discount this avowal of guilt. What we are told of Teresa's early life does not sound in the least wicked, but it is plain that she was an unusually active, imaginative, and sensitive child. Her parents, Don Alfonso Sanchez de Capeda and Dona Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, his second wife, were people of position in Avila, a city of Old Castile, where Teresa was born on March 28, 1515. There were nine children of this marriage, of whom Teresa was the third, and three children of her father's first marriage.

Piously reared as she was, Teresa became completely fascinated by stories of the saints and martyrs, as was her brother Roderigo, who was near her own age and her partner in youthful adventures. Once, when Teresa was seven, they made a plan to run away to Africa, where they might be beheaded by the infidel Moors and so achieve martyrdom. They set out secretly, expecting to beg their way like the poor friars, but had gone only a short distance from home when they were met by an uncle and brought back to their anxious mother, who had sent servants into the streets to search for them. She and her brother now thought they would like to become hermits, and tried to build themselves little cells from stones they found in the garden. Thus we see that religious thoughts and influences dominated the mind of the future saint in childhood.

Teresa was only fourteen when her mother died, and she later wrote of her sorrow in these words: "As soon as I began to understand how great a loss I had sustained by losing her, I was very much afflicted; and so I went before an image of our Blessed Lady and besought her with many tears that she would vouchsafe to be my mother." Visits from a girl cousin were most welcome at this time, but they had the effect of stimulating her interest in superficial things. Reading tales of chivalry was one of their diversions, and Teresa even tried to write romantic stories. "These tales," she says in her Autobiography, "did not fail to cool my good desires, and were the cause of my falling insensibly into other defects. I was so enchanted that I could not be happy without some new tale in my hands. I began to imitate the fashions, to enjoy being well dressed, to take great care of my hands, to use perfumes, and wear all the vain ornaments which my position in the world allowed." Noting this sudden change in his daughter's personality, Teresa's father decided to place her in a convent of Augustinian nuns in Avila, where other young women of her class were being educated. This action made Teresa aware that her danger had been greater than she knew. After a year and a half in the convent she fell ill with what seems to have been a malignant type of malaria, and Don Alfonso brought her home. After recovering, she went to stay with her eldest sister, who had married and gone to live in the country. Then she visited an uncle, Peter Sanchez de Capeda, a very sober and pious man. At home once more, and fearing that an uncongenial marriage would be forced upon her, she began to deliberate whether or not she should undertake the religious life. Reading the <Letters of St. Jerome>,[1] helped her to reach a decision. St. Jerome's realism and ardor were akin to her own Castilian spirit, with its mixture of the practical and the idealistic. She now announced to her father her desire to become a nun, but he withheld consent, saying that after his death she might do as she pleased

This reaction caused a new conflict, for Teresa loved her father devotedly. Feeling that delay might weaken her resolve, she went secretly to the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation[2] outside the town of Avila, where her dear friend Sister Jane Suarez was living, and applied for admission. Of this painful step, she wrote: "I remember . . . while I was going out of my father's housethe sharpness of sense will not be greater, I believe, in the very instant of agony of my death, than it was then. It seemed as if all the bones in my body were wrenched asunder.... There was no such love of God in me then as was able to quench the love I felt for my father and my friends." A year later Teresa made her profession, but when there was a recurrence of her illness, Don Alfonso had her removed from the convent, as the rule of enclosure was not then in effect. After a period of intense suffering, during which, on one occasion, at least, her life was despaired of, she gradually began to improve. She was helped by certain prayers she had begun to use. Her devout Uncle Peter had given her a little book called the <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, 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. She persuaded her father to apply himself to this form of prayer.

After three years Teresa went back to the convent. Her intelligence, warmth, and charm made her a favorite, and she found pleasure in being with people. It was the custom in Spain in those days for the young nuns to receive their acquaintances in the convent parlor, and Teresa spent much time there, chatting with friends. She was attracted to one of the visitors whose company was disturbing to her, although she told herself that there could be no question of sin, since she was only doing what so many others, better than she, were doing. During this relaxed period, she gave up her habit of mental prayer, using as a pretext the poor state of her health. "This excuse of bodily weakness," she wrote afterwards, "was not a sufficient reason why I should abandon so good a thing, which required no physical strength, but only love and habit. In the midst of sickness the best prayer may be offered, and it is a mistake to think it can only be offered in solitude." She returned to the practice of mental prayer and never again abandoned it, although she had not yet the courage to follow God completely, or to stop wasting her time and talents. But during these years of apparent wavering, her spirit was being forged. When depressed by her own unworthiness, she turned to those two great penitents, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine, and through them came experiences that helped to steady her will. One was the reading of St. Augustine's <Confessions>; another was an overpowering impulse to penitence before a picture of the suffering Lord, in which, she writes, "I felt Mary Magdalen come to my assistance.... From that day I have gone on improving in my spiritual life."

When finally Teresa withdrew from the pleasures of social intercourse, she found herself able once more to pray the "prayer of quiet," and also the "prayer of union." She began to have intellectual visions of divine things and to hear inner voices. Though she was persuaded these manifestations came from God, she was at times fearful and troubled. She consulted many persons, binding all to secrecy, but her perplexities nevertheless were spread abroad, to her great mortification. Among those she talked to was Father Gaspar Daza, a learned priest, who, after listening, reported that she was deluded, for such divine favors were not consistent with a life as full of imperfections as hers was, as she herself admitted. A friend, Don Francis de Salsedo, suggested that she talk to a priest of the newly formed Society of Jesus. To one of them, accordingly, she made a general Confession, recounting her manner of prayer and extraordinary visions. He assured her that she experienced divine graces, but warned her that she had failed to lay the foundations of a true spiritual life by practices of mortification. He advised her to try to resist the visions and voices for two months; resistance proved useless. Francis Borgia, commissary-general of the Society in Spain, then advised her not to resist further, but also not to seek such experiences.

Another Jesuit, Father Balthasar Alvarez, who now became her director, pointed out certain traits that were incompatible with perfect grace. He told her that she would do well to beg God to direct her to what was most pleasing to Him, and to recite daily the hymn of St. Gregory the Great, "<Veni Creator Spiritus>!" One day, as she repeated the stanzas, she was seized with a rapture in which she heard the words, "I will not have you hold conversation with men, but with angels." For three years, while Father Balthasar was her director, she suffered from the disapproval of those around her; and for two years, from extreme desolation of soul. She was censured for her austerities and ridiculed as a victim of delusion or a hypocrite. A confessor to whom she went during Father Balthasar's absence said that her very prayer was an illusion, and commanded her, when she saw any vision, to make the sign of the cross and repel it as if it were an evil spirit. But Teresa tells us that the visions now brought with them their own evidence of ,authenticity, so that it was impossible to doubt they were from God. Nevertheless, she obeyed this order of her confessor. Pope Gregory XV, in his bull of canonization, commends her obedience in these words: "She was wont to say that she might be deceived in discerning visions and revelations, but could not be in obeying superiors."

In 1557 Peter of Alcantara, a Franciscan of the Observance, came to Avila. Few saints have been more experienced in the inner life, and he found in Teresa unmistakable evidence of the Holy Spirit. He openly expressed compassion for what she endured from slander and predicted that she was not at the end of her tribulations. However, as her mystical experiences continued, the greatness and goodness of God, the sweetness of His service, became more and more manifest to her. She was sometimes lifted from the ground, an experience other saints have known. "God," she says, "seems not content with drawing the soul to Himself, but he must needs draw up the very body too, even while it is mortal and compounded of so unclean a clay as we have made it by our sins."

It was at this time, she tells us, that her most singular experience took place, her mystical marriage to Christ, and the piercing of her heart. Of the latter she writes: "I saw an angel very near me, towards my left side, in bodily form, which is not usual with me; for though angels are often represented to me, it is only in my mental vision. This angel appeared rather small than large, and very beautiful. His face was so shining that he seemed to be one of those highest angels called seraphs, who look as if all on fire with divine love. He had in his hands a long golden dart; at the end of the point methought there was a little fire. And I felt him thrust it several times through my heart in such a way that it passed through my very bowels. And when he drew it out, methought it pulled them out with it and left me wholly on fire with a great love of God." The pain in her soul spread to her body, but it was accompanied by great delight too; she was like one transported, caring neither to see nor to speak but only to be consumed with the mingled pain and happiness.[3]

Teresa's longing to die that she might be united with God was tempered by her desire to suffer for Him on earth. The account which the <Autobiography> gives of her revelations is marked by sincerity, genuine simplicity of style, and scrupulous precision. An unlettered woman, she wrote in the Castilian vernacular, setting down her experiences reluctantly, out of obedience to her confessor, and submitting everything to his judgment and that of the Church, merely complaining that the task kept her from spinning. Teresa wrote of herself without self-love or pride. Towards her persecutors she was respectful, representing them as honest servants of God.

Teresa's other literary works came later, during the fifteen years when she was actively engaged in founding new convents of reformed Carmelite nuns. They are proof of her industry and her power of memory, as well as of a real talent for expression. <The Way of Perfection> she composed for the special guidance of her nuns, and the <Foundations> for their further edification. <The Interior Castle> was perhaps meant for all Catholics; in it she writes with authority on the spiritual life. One admiring critic says: "She lays bare in her writings the most impenetrable secrets of true wisdom in what we call mystical theology, of which God has given the key to a small number of his favored servants. This thought may somewhat lessen our surprise that an unlearned woman should have expounded what the greatest doctors never attained, for God employs in His works what instruments He wills."

We have seen how undisciplined the Carmelite nuns had become, how the convent parlor at Avila was a social gathering place, and how easily nuns might leave their enclosure. Any woman, in fact, who wanted a sheltered life without much responsibility could find it in a convent in sixteenth-century Spain. The religious themselves, for the most part, were not even aware of how far they fell short of what their profession demanded. So when one of the nuns at the House of the Incarnation began talking of the possibility of founding a new and stricter community, the idea struck Teresa as an inspiration from Heaven. She determined to undertake its establishment herself and received a promise of help from a wealthy widow, Dona Guiomar de Ulloa. The project was approved by Peter of Alcantara and Father Angelo de Salazar, provincial of the Carmelite Order. The latter was soon compelled to withdraw his permission, for Teresa's fellow nuns, the local nobility, the magistrates, and others united to thwart the project. Father Ibanez, a Dominican, secretly encouraged Teresa and urged Dona Guiomar to continue to lend her support. One of Teresa's married sisters began with her husband to erect a small convent at Avila in 1561 to shelter the new establishment; outsiders took it for a house intended for the use of her family.

An episode famous in Teresa's life occurred at this time. Her little nephew was crushed by a wall of the new structure which fell on him as he was playing, and he was carried, apparently lifeless, to Teresa. She held the child in her arms and prayed. After some minutes she restored him alive and sound to his mother. The miracle was presented at the process for Teresa's canonization. Another seemingly solid wall of the convent collapsed during the night. Teresa's brother-in-law was going to refuse to pay the masons, but Teresa assured him that it was all the work of evil spirits and insisted that the men be paid.

A wealthy woman of Toledo, Countess Louise de la Cerda, happened at the time to be mourning the recent death of her husband, and asked the Carmelite provincial to order Teresa, whose goodness she had heard praised, to come to her. Teresa was accordingly sent to the woman, and stayed with her for six months, using a part of the time, at the request of Father Ibanez, to write, and to develop further her ideas for the convent. While at Toledo she met Maria of Jesus, of the Carmelite convent at Granada, who had had revelations concerning a reform of the order, and this meeting strengthened Teresa's own desires. Back in Avila, on the very evening of her arrival, the Pope's letter authorizing the new reformed convent was brought to her. Teresa's adherents now persuaded the bishop of Avila to concur, and the convent, dedicated to St. Joseph, was quietly opened. On St. Bartholomew's day, 1562 the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the little chapel, and four novices took the habit.

The news soon spread in the town and opposition flared into the open. The prioress of the Incarnation convent sent for Teresa, who was required to explain her conduct. Detained almost as a prisoner, Teresa did not lose her poise. The prioress was joined in her disapproval by the mayor and magistrates, always fearful that an unendowed convent would be a burden on the townspeople. Some were for demolishing the building forthwith. Meanwhile Don Francis sent a priest to Madrid, to plead for the new establishment before the King's Council. Teresa was allowed to go back to her convent and shortly afterward the bishop officially appointed her prioress. The hubbub now quickly subsided. Teresa was hence. forth known simply as Teresa of Jesus, mother of the reform of Carmel. The nuns were strictly cloistered, under a rule of poverty and almost complete silence; the constant chatter of women's voices was one of the things that Teresa had most deplored at the Incarnation. They were poor, without regular revenues; they wore habits of coarse serge and sandals instead of shoes, and for this reason were called the "discalced" or shoeless Carmelites. Although the prioress was now in her late forties, and frail, her great achievement still lay in the future.

Convinced that too many women under one roof made for relaxation of discipline, Teresa limited the number of nuns to thirteen; later, when houses were being founded with endowments and hence were not wholly dependent on alms, the number was increased to twenty-one. The prior general of the Carmelites, John Baptist Rubeo of Ravenna, visiting Avila in 1567, carried away a fine impression of Teresa's sincerity and prudent rule. He gave her full authority to found other convents on the same plan, in spite of the fact that St. Joseph's had been established without his knowledge.

Five peaceful years were spent with the thirteen nuns in the little convent of St. Joseph. Teresa trained the sisters in every kind of useful work and in all religious observances, but whether at spinning or at prayer, she herself was always first and most diligent. In August, 1567, she founded a second convent at Medina del Campo. The Countess de la Cerda was anxious to found a similar house in her native town of Malagon, and Teresa went to advise her about it. When this third community had been launched, the intrepid nun moved on to Valladolid, and there founded a fourth; then a fifth at Toledo. On beginning this work, she had no more than four or five ducats (approximately ten dollars), but she said, "Teresa and this money are nothing; but God, Teresa, and these ducats suffice." At Medina del Campo she encountered two friars who had heard of her reform and wished to adopt it: Antony de Heredia, prior of the Carmelite monastery there, and John of the Cross. With their aid, in 1568, and the authority given her by the prior general, she established a reformed house for men at Durelo, and in 1569 a second one at Pastrana, both on a pattern of extreme poverty and austerity. She left to John of the Cross, who at this time was in his late twenties, the direction of these and other reformed communities that might be started for men. Refusing to obey the order of his provincial to return to Medina, he was imprisoned at Toledo for nine months. After his escape he became vicar-general of Andalusia, and strove for papal recognition of the order. John, later to attain fame as a poet, mystic confessor, and finally saint, became Teresa's friend; a close spiritual bond developed between the young friar and the aging prioress, and he was made director and confessor in the mother house at Avila.

The hardships and dangers involved in Teresa's labors are indicated by a little episode of the founding of a new convent at Salamanca. She and another nun took over a house which had been occupied by students. It was a large, dirty, desolate place, without furnishings, and when night came the two nuns lay down on their piles of straw, for, Teresa tells us, "the first furniture I provided wherever I founded convents was straw, for, having that, I reckoned I had beds." On this occasion, the other nun seemed very nervous, and Teresa asked her the reason. "I was wondering," was the reply, "what you would do alone with a corpse if I were to die here now." Teresa was startled, but only said, "I shall think of that when it happens, Sister. For the present, let us go to sleep."

At about this time Pope Pius V appointed a number of apostolic visitors to inquire into the relaxations of discipline in religious orders everywhere. The visitor to the Carmelites of Castile found great fault with the Incarnation convent and sent for Teresa, bidding her to assume its direction and remedy the abuses there. It was hard to be separated from her own daughters, and even more distasteful to be brought in as head of the old house which had long opposed her with bitterness and jealousy. The nuns at first refused to obey her; some of them fell into hysterics at the very idea. She told them that she came not to coerce or instruct but to serve and to learn from the least among them. By gentleness and tact she won the affection of the community, and was able to reestablish discipline. Frequent callers were forbidden, the finances of the house were set in order, and a more truly religious spirit reigned. At the end of three years, although the nuns wished to keep her longer, she was directed to return to her own convent.

Teresa organized a nunnery at Veas and while there met Father Jerome Gratian, a reformed Carmelite, and was persuaded by him to extend her work to Seville. With the exception of her first convent, none proved so hard to establish as this. Among her problems there was a disgruntled novice, who reported the nuns to the Inquisition,[4] charging them with being Illuminati.[5]

The Italian Carmelite friars had meanwhile been growing alarmed at the progress of the reform in Spain, lest, as one of their number said, they might one day be compelled to set about reforming themselves, a fear shared by their still unreformed Spanish brothers. At a general chapter at Piacenza several decrees were passed restricting the reform. The new apostolic nuncio dismissed Father Gratian from his office as visitor to the reformed Carmelites. Teresa was told to choose one of her convents and retire to it, and abstain from founding others. At this point she turned to her friends in the world, who were able to interest King Philip II[6] in her behalf, and he personally espoused her cause. He summoned the nuncio to rebuke him for his severity towards the discalced friars and nuns. In 1580 came an order from Rome exempting the reformed from the jurisdiction of the unreformed Carmelites, and giving each party its own provincial. Father Gratian was elected provincial of the reformed branch. The separation, although painful to many, brought an end to dissension.

Teresa was a person of great natural gifts. Her ardor and lively wit was balanced by her sound judgment and psychological insight. It was no mere flight of fancy when the English Catholic poet, Richard Crashaw,[7] called her "the eagle" and "the dove." She could stand up boldly and bravely for what she thought was right; she could also be severe with a prioress who by excessive austerity had made herself unfit for her duties. Yet she could be gentle as a dove, as when she writes to an erring, irresponsible nephew, "God's mercy is great in that you have been enabled to make so good a choice and marry so soon, for you began to be dissipated when you were so young that we might have had much sorrow on your account." Love, with Teresa, meant constructive action, and she had the young man's daughter, born out of wedlock, brought to the convent, and took charge of her upbringing and that of his young sister.

One of Teresa's charms was a sense of humor. In the early years, when an indiscreet male visitor to the convent once praised the beauty of her bare feet, she laughed and told him to take a good look at them for he would never see them again-implying that in the future he would not be admitted. Her method of selecting novices was characteristic. The first requirement, even before piety, was intelligence. A woman could attain to piety, but scarcely to intelligence, by which she meant common sense as well as brains. "An intelligent mind," she wrote, "is simple and teachable; it sees its faults and allows itself to be guided. A mind that is dull and narrow never sees its faults even when shown them. It is always pleased with itself and never learns to do right." Pretentiousness and pride annoyed her. Once a young woman of high reputation for virtue asked to be admitted to a convent in Teresa's charge, and added, as if to emphasize her intellect, "I shall bring my Bible with me." "What," exclaimed Teresa, "your Bible? Do not come to us. We are only poor women who know nothing but how to spin and do as we are told."

In spite of a naturally sturdy constitution, Teresa continued throughout her life to suffer from ailments which physicians found baffling. It would seem that sheer will power kept her alive. At the time of the definitive division of the Carmelite Order she had reached the age of sixty-five and was broken in health. Yet during the last two years of her life she somehow found strength to establish three more convents. They were at Granada, in the far south, at Burgos, in the north, and at Soria, in Portugal. The total was now sixteen. What an astounding achievement this was for one small, enfeebled woman may be better appreciated if we recall the hardships of travel. Most of this extensive journeying was done in a curtained carriage or cart drawn by mules over the extremely poor roads; her trips took her from the northern provinces down to the Mediterranean, and west into Portugal, across mountains, rivers, and arid plateaus. She and the nun who accompanied her endured all the rigors of a harsh climate as well as the steady discomfort of rude lodgings and scanty food.

In the autumn of 1582, Teresa, although ill, set out for Alva de Tormez, where an old friend was expecting a visit from her. Her companion of later years, Anne-of-St. Bartholomew, describes the journey. Teresa grew worse on the road, along which there were few habitations. They could get no food save figs, and when they arrived at the convent, Teresa went to bed in a state of exhaustion. She never recovered, and three days later, she remarked to Anne, "At last, my daughter, I have reached the house of death," a reference to her book, <The Seven Mansions>. Extreme Unction was administered by Father Antony de Heredia, a friar of the Reform, and when he asked her where she wished to be buried. she plaintively replied, "Will they deny me a little ground for my body here?" She sat up as she received the Sacrament, exclaiming, "O my Lord, now is the time that we shall see each other! " and died in Anne's arms. It was the evening of October 4. The next day, as it happened, the Gregorian calendar came into use. The readjustment made it necessary to drop ten days, so that October 5 was counted as October 15, and this latter date became Teresa's feast day. She was buried at Alva; three years later, following the decree of a. provincial chapter of Reformed Carmelites, the body was secretly removed to Avila. The next year the Duke of Alva procured an order from Rome to return it to Alva de Tormez, and there it has remained.

Teresa was canonized in 1662. Shortly after her death, Philip II, keenly aware of the Carmelite nun's contribution to Catholicism, had her manuscripts collected and brought to his great palace of the Escorial, and there placed in a rich case, the key of which he carried on his person. These writings were edited for publication by two Dominican scholars and brought out in 1587. Subsequently her works have appeared in uncounted Spanish editions, and have been translated into many languages. An ever-spreading circle of readers through the centuries have found understanding and courage in the life and works of this nun of Castile, who is one of the glories of Spain and of the Church. Teresa's emblems are a heart, an arrow, and a book.


<Excerpts from> Interior Castle

This body has one fault, that the more people pamper it, the more its wants are made known. It is strange how much it likes to be indulged. How well it finds some good pretext to deceive the poor soul! . . . Oh, you who are free from the great troubles of the world, learn to suffer a little for the love of God without everyone's knowing it! . . .

And remember our holy fathers of past times and holy hermits whose life we try to imitate; what pains they endured, what loneliness, what cold, what hunger, what burning suns, without having anyone to complain to except God. Do you think that they were of iron? No, they were as much flesh as we are; and as soon as we begin, daughters, to conquer this little carcass, it will not bother us so much.... If you don't make up your mind to swallow, once and for all, death and loss of health, you will never do anything....

God deliver us from anybody who wishes to serve Him and thinks about her own dignity and fears to be disgraced.... No poison in the world so slays perfection as these things do....

There are persons, it seems, who are ready to ask God for favors as a matter of justice. A fine sort of humility! Hence He who knows all does well in giving it to them hardly ever; He sees plainly they are not fit to drink the chalice....

Sometimes the Devil proposes to us great desires, so that we shall not put our hand to what we have to do, and serve our Lord in possible things, but stay content with having desired impossible ones. Granting that you can help much by prayer, don't try to benefit all the world, but those who are in your company, and so the work will be better for you are much bounden to them.... In short, what I would conclude with is that we must not build towers without foundations; the Lord does not look so much to the grandeur of our works as to the love with which they are done; and if we do all we can, His Majesty will see to it that we are able to do more and more every day, if we do not then grow weary, and during the little that this life lastsand perhaps it will be shorter than each one thinkswe offer to Christ, inwardly and outwardly, what sacrifice we can, for His Majesty will join it with the one He made to the Father for us on the Cross, that it may have the value which our will would have merited, even though our works may be small.


<Epilogue>

Although, as I told you, I felt reluctant to begin this work, yet now it is finished I am very glad to have written it, and I think my trouble is well spent, though I confess it has cost me but little.

Considering your strict enclosure, the little recreation you have, my sisters, and how many conveniences are wanting in some of your convents, I think it may console you to enjoy yourselves in this Interior Castle, where you can enter, and walk about at will, at any hour you please, without asking leave of your superiors.

It is true you cannot enter all the mansions by your own power, however great it may appear to you, unless the Lord of the Castle Himself admits you. Therefore I advise you to use no violence if you meet with any obstacle, for that would displease Him so much' that He would never give you admission to them. He dearly loves humility: if you think yourselves unworthy to enter the third mansion, He will grant you all the sooner the favor of entering the fifth. Then if you serve Him well there, and often repair to it, He will draw you into the mansion where He dwells Himself, where you need never depart, unless called away by the Prioress, whose commands the sovereign Master wishes you to obey as if they were His own. If, by her orders, you are often absent from His presence chamber, whenever you return He will hold the door open for you. When once you have learned how to enjoy this Castle, you will always find rest, however painful your trials may be, in the hope of returning to your Lord, which no one can prevent.

Although I have only mentioned seven mansions, yet each one contains many more rooms, above, below, and around it, with fair gardens, fountains, and labyrinths, besides other things so delightful that you will wish to consume yourself in praising the great God for them, Who has created the soul in His own image and likeness. If you find anything in the plan of this treatise which helps you to know Him better, be certain that it is sent by His Majesty to encourage you, and whatever you find amiss in it is my own.

In return for my strong desire to aid you in serving Him, my God and my Lord, I implore you, whenever you read this, to praise His Majesty fervently in my name, and to beg Him to prosper His Church, to give light to the Lutherans, to pardon my sins, and to free me from purgatory, where perhaps I shall be, by the mercy of God, when you see this book, provided it is given to you after having been examined by the theologians. If these writings contain any error, it is through my ignorance; I submit in all things to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Roman Church, of which I am now a member, as I protest and promise both to live and die. May our Lord God be forever praised and blessed. Amen. Amen.

The writing of this was finished in the convent of Saint Joseph of Avila, in the year 1577, on the vigil of Saint Andrew, to the glory of God, Who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen

(<Interior Castle and Mansions>. London, 1912.)


Endnotes:

1 For extracts from St. Jerome's letters, see above, p. 93.

2 The Carmelites were an order of mendicant friars claiming descent from hermits who lived on Mt. Carmel in Palestine in the sixth century. The order was founded in 1156, when a monastery was built on the mountain; the nuns of the order, which at this time were established in the Netherlands and Spain, were divided into three observances.

3 This event is commemorated by the Carmelites on August 27.

4 The Spanish Inquisition had been set up a century before by Ferdinand and Isabella. It was less severe in Teresa's day than it had been earlier.

5 The Illuminati was a heretical secret society that denied dependence on the Church and claimed that salvation came through the enlightenment of each individual by his own vision of God.

6 Philip II, son of the Emperor Charles V and husband of the English Catholic Queen, Mary, was a devout champion of the faith against Protestantism.

7 Crashaw left England when Charles I was beheaded, became a Catholic priest, and spent his later years in Italy. One of his most eloquent poems is the "Hymn to the Adorable St. Teresa."

Saint Teresa of Avila, Virgin, Foundress. Celebration of Feast Day is October 15. Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.



4 posted on 10/15/2004 7:18:56 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation
Many depictions of St. Teresa of Jesus (St. Teresa of Avila)


5 posted on 10/15/2004 7:19:47 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All

From: Ephesians 1:11-14

Hymn of Praise



[11] In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all
things according to the counsel of his will, [12] we who first hoped
in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of
his glory. [13] In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with
the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.



Commentary:

3-14. Verses 3-14 are a hymn of praise to God for the plan of salvation
he has devised and brought to fulfillment in benefit of men and all
creation. It is written in a liturgical style of rhythmic prose,
similar to that in Colossians 1:15-20. In the Greek it is one long
complex sentence full of relative pronouns and clauses which give it a
designed unity; we can, however, distinguish two main sections.

The first (v. 3-10), divided into four stanzas, describes the blessings
contained in God's salvific plan; St Paul terms this plan the "mystery"
of God's will. The section begins by praising God for his eternal
design, a plan, pre-dating creation, to call us to the Church, to form
a community of saints (first stanza: vv. 3f) and receive the grace of
being children of God through Jesus Christ (second stanza: vv. 5f). It
then reflects on Christ's work of redemption which brings this eternal
plan of God to fulfillment (third stanza: vv. 7f). This section reaches
its climax in the fourth stanza (vv. 9f) which proclaims Christ as Lord
of all creation, thereby revealing the full development of God's
salvific plan.

The second section, which divides into two stanzas, deals with the
application of this plan--first to the Jews (fifth stanza: vv. 11f) and
then to the Gentiles, who are also called to share what God has
promised: Jews and Gentiles join to form a single people, the Church
(sixth stanza: vv. 13f).

Hymns in praise of God, or "eulogies", occur in many parts of Sacred
Scripture (cf. Ps 8; Ps 19; Dan 2:20-23; Lk 1:46-54, 68-78; etc.); they
praise the Lord for the wonders of creation or for spectacular
interventions on behalf of his people. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, St
Paul here praises God the Father for all Christ's saving work, which
extends from God's original plan which he made before he created the
world, right up to the very end of time and the recapitulation of all
things in Christ.

We too should always have this same attitude of praise of the Lord.
"Our entire life on earth s hould take the form of praise of God, for
the never-ending joy of our future life consists in praising God, and
no one can become fit for that future life unless he train himself to
render that praise now" (St Augustine, "Enarrationes in Psalmos",
148).

Praise is in fact the most appropriate attitude for man to have towards
God: "How can you dare use that spark of divine intelligence--your
mind--in anything but in giving glory to your Lord?" ([St] J. Escriva, "The
Way", 782).

11-14. The Apostle now contemplates a further divine blessing--the
implementation of the "mystery" through the Redemption wrought by
Christ: God calls the Jews (vv. 11f) and the Gentiles (v. 13)
together, to form a single people (v. 14). Paul first refers to the
Jewish people, of which he himself is a member, which is why he uses
the term "we" (v. 12). He then speaks of the Gentile Christians and
refers to them as "you" (v. 13).

11-12. The Jewish people's expectations have been fulfilled in Christ:
he has brought the Kingdom of God and the messianic gifts, designed in
the first instance for Israel as its inheritance (cf. Mt 4:17; 12:28;
Lk 4:16-22). God's intention in selecting Israel was to form a people
of his own (cf. Ex 19:5) that would glorify him and proclaim to the
nations its hope in a coming Messiah. "God, with loving concern
contemplating, and making preparation for, the salvation of the whole
human race, in a singular undertaking chose for himself a people to
whom he would entrust his promises. By his covenant with Abraham (cf.
Gen 15:18) and, through Moses, with the race of Israel (cf. Ex 24:8),
he did acquire a people for himself, and to them he revealed himself in
words and deeds as the one, true, living God, so that Israel might
experience the ways of God with men. Moreover, by listening to the
voice of God speaking to them through the prophets, they had steadily
to understand his ways more fully and more clearly, and make them more
widely known among the nations (cf. Ps 21:28-9; 95:1-3; Is 2:1-4; Jer
3:17)" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 14).

St Paul emphasizes that even before the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the just of the Old Testament acted in line with their belief
in the promised Messiah (cf. Gal 3:11; Rom 1:17); not only did they
look forward to his coming but their hope was nourished by faith in
Christ as a result of their acceptance of God's promise. As later
examples of this same faith we might mention Zechariah and Elizabeth;
Simeon and Anna; and, above all, St Joseph. St Joseph's faith was
"full, confident, complete", Monsignor Escriva comments. "It expressed
itself in an effective dedication to the will of God and an intelligent
obedience. With faith went love. His faith nurtured his love of God,
who was fulfilling the promises made to Abraham, Jacob an d Moses, and
his affection for Mary his wife and his fatherly affection for Jesus.
This faith, hope and love would further the great mission which God
was beginning in the world through, among others, a carpenter in
Galilee--the redemption of mankind" ("Christ Is Passing By", 42).

13-14. If St Paul recognizes the magnificence of God's saving plan in
the fulfillment, through Jesus, of the ancient promises to the Jews, he
is even more awed by the fact that the Gentiles are being called to
share in God's largesse. This call of the Gentiles is, as it were, a
further blessing from God.

It is through the preaching of the Gospel that the Gentiles come to
form part of the Church: faith coming initially through hearing the
word of God (cf. Rom 10:17). Once a person has accepted that word, God
seals the believer with the promised Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 3:14); this
seal is the pledge or guarantee of divine inheritance and proves that < BR>we have been accepted by God, incorporated into his Church, and given
access to that salvation which had previously been reserved to Israel.
Here we can see a parallelism between the "seal" of circumcision which
made the Old Covenant believer a member of the people of Israel, and
the "seal" of the Holy Spirit in Baptism which, in the New Testament,
makes people members of the Church (Rom 4:22; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 4:30).
The "efficient cause" of our justification is "the merciful God, who
freely washes and sanctifies (cf. 1 Cor 6:11), sealing and anointing
with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is the pledge of our
inheritance" (Council of Trent, "De Justificatione", chap. 7).

A seal or pledge was the mark used in business to betoken or guarantee
future payment of the agreed price in full. In this case it represents
a firm commitment on God's part, to grant the believer full and
permanent possession of eternal blessedness , an anticipation of which
is given at Baptism and thereafter (cf. 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5). Through
Christ, St Basil comments, "Paradise is restored to us; we are enabled
to ascend to the kingdom of heaven; we are given back our adoption as
sons, our confidence to call God himself our Father; we become
partakers of Christ's grace, and are called children of light; we are
enabled to share in the glory of heaven, to be enveloped in a
plenitude of blessings both in this world and in the world to come
[...]. If this be the promise, what will the final outcome not be? If
this, the beginning, is so wonderful, what will the final consummation
not be?" ("De Spiritu Sancto", 15, 36).

The gift of the Holy Spirit, who, through faith, dwells in the soul of
the Christian in grace, represents, in this last stanza of the hymn,
the high point in the implementation of God's salvific plan. The Holy
Spirit, who gathered together the Church at Pent ecost (cf. Acts 2: 14),
continues to guide and inspire the apostolate of the members of the new
people of God down through the centuries. The Magisterium of the Church
reminds us that "throughout the ages the Holy Spirit makes the entire
Church 'one in communion and ministry; and provides her with different
hierarchical and charismatic gifts' ("Lumen Gentium", 4), giving life
to ecclesiastical structures, being as it were their soul, and
inspiring in the hearts of the faithful that same spirit of mission
which impelled Christ himself. He even at times visibly anticipates
apostolic action, just as in various ways he unceasingly accompanies
and directs it" (Vatican II, "Ad Gentes", 4).

God has acquired his new people at the cost of his Son's blood. This
people made up of believers in Christ has replaced the people of the
Old Testament, regardless of background. As the Second Vatican Council
puts it, "As Israel according to the flesh which wandered in the desert
was already called the Church of God (cf. 2 Ezra 13:1; Num 20:4; Deut
23:1ff), so too, the new Israel, which advances in this present era in
search of a future and permanent city (cf. Heb 13:14), is called also
the Church of Christ (cf. Mt 16:18). It is Christ indeed who has
purchased it with his own blood (cf. Acts 20:28); he has filled it with
his spirit; he has provided means adapted to its visible and social
union. All those who in faith look towards Jesus, the author of
salvation and the principle of unity and peace, God has gathered
together and established as the Church, that it may be for each and
every one the visible sacrament of this saving unity" ("Lumen Gentium",
9).



Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.


6 posted on 10/15/2004 7:32:36 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All

From: Luke 12:1-7


Various Teachings of Jesus



[1] In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had
gathered together that they trod upon one another, He (Jesus) began to
say to His disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy. [2] Nothing is covered up that will not be
revealed, or hidden that will not be known. [3] Whatever you have said
in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in
private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."


[4] "I tell you, My friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and
after that, have no more that they can do. [5] But I will warn you
whom to fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into
Hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! [6] Are not five sparrows sold for
two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. [7] Why,
even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of
more value than many sparrows."




Commentary:


3. Most Palestinian houses had a roof in the form of a terrace. There
people would meet to chat and while away the time in the hottest part
of the day. Jesus points out to His disciples that just as in these
get-togethers things said in private became matters of discussion, so
too, despite the Pharisees' and scribes' efforts to hide their vices
and defects under the veil of hypocrisy, they would become a matter of
common knowledge.


6-7. Nothing--not even the most insignificant thing--escapes God, His
Providence and the judgment He will mete out. For this same reason no
one should fear that any suffering or persecution he experiences in
following Christ will remain unrewarded in eternity.


The teaching about fear, contained in verse 5, is filled out in verses
6 and 7, where Jesus tells us that God is a good Father who watches
over every one of us--much more than He does over these little ones
(whom He also remembers). Therefore, our fear of God should not be
servile (based on fear of punishment); it should be a filial fear (the
fear of someone who does not want to displease his father), a fear
nourished by trust in Divine Providence.



Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.


7 posted on 10/15/2004 7:41:57 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All

FEAST OF THE DAY

Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada was born in Avila, in
what is now Spain, on March 28, 1515. She was the third child of a
noble Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda and his second wife, Doña
Beatriz, who died when Teresa was 14. Her father was a saintly and
literate man, and her mother was a pious and loving. After the death
of her mother she was sent to school under the Augustinian nuns in
Avila but left after 18 months due to illness. She remained with her
father and an uncle after leaving school, and they continued her
education.

Her uncle introduced her to the writings of St. Jerome, which instilled
in her the desire for the religious life, although she considered it a
safe route rather than a true calling. At first, when Teresa expressed
her desire to enter the convent, her father did not give her his
consent, so she left home in 1535 without telling him and entered the
Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation at Avila. On seeing this
determination her father relented, but leaving her family on those
terms was a heart-rending experience for Teresa, which she later
compared to death.

A year after taking her vows Teresa became very ill, and due to inept
medical treatment she was incapacitated for a lengthy period and
never fully recovered her health. It was during this period of illness
that she began practicing mental prayer. She was granted many
'interior locutions and visions', in which none of the 5 exterior senses
are involved. She considered herself unworthy of such favors but
God would increase his work in her when she resisted. Word of her
visions spread through Avila and troubled the people living there,
and attracted the attention of the Dominicans and Jesuits, including
St. Francis Borgia, who determined her veracity and counseled her
spiritually.

Teresa wrote an account of her experiences in an autobiography and
in her book "The Interior Castle". She also founded 12 reform
minded communities Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Primitive Rule
and four male communities, with some assistance from St. John of
the Cross. She recounted the story of these in her "Book of
Foundations". She faced strong opposition throughout in this work
but with the help of Phillip II the Discalced Carmelite province was
approved and canonically established on June 22, 1580.

Shortly afterward on Oct. 4, 1582 she passed away. Due to the
reform of the calendar the following day was reckoned as October
15. Her body was transferred to Avila, but later conveyed to Alba,
where it is still preserved incorrupt. Her heart, showing the marks of
Transverberation, or piercing of her heart, is exposed there as well.
She was beatified in 1614, and canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory
XV and in 1970, was the first woman to be declared a doctor of the
Church. St. Teresa is a patron saint of Spain.


QUOTE OF THE DAY

Unless you strive after virtues and practice them, you will never grow
to be more than dwarfs. -St. Theresa of Avila


TODAY IN HISTORY

1790 Mother Bernardina and Frances Dickinson found a convent of
Discalced Carmelites. It was the first Catholic convent founded in the
United States.


TODAY'S TIDBIT

Transverberation is a word that means piercing. The experience of
Teresa's transverberation is described in the twenty-ninth chapter of
her autobiography.


INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray for all people buying a home.


8 posted on 10/15/2004 7:44:05 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All
Friday, October 15, 2004
St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin, Doctor of the Church (Memorial)
First Reading:
Psalm:
Gospel:
Ephesians 1:11-14
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-13
Luke 12:1-7

It is by humility that the Lord allows Himself to be conquered, so that He will do all we ask of Him.

 -- St. Teresa of Avila


9 posted on 10/15/2004 7:50:00 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All
American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

October 15, 2004
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."


10 posted on 10/15/2004 7:57:11 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation
Lk 12:1-7
# Douay-Rheims Vulgate
1 And when great multitudes stood about him, so that they trod one upon another, he began to say to his disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. multis autem turbis circumstantibus ita ut se invicem conculcarent coepit dicere ad discipulos suos adtendite a fermento Pharisaeorum quae est hypocrisis
2 For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: nor hidden that shall not be known. nihil autem opertum est quod non reveletur neque absconditum quod non sciatur
3 For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness shall be published in the light: and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers shall be preached on the housetops. quoniam quae in tenebris dixistis in lumine dicentur et quod in aurem locuti estis in cubiculis praedicabitur in tectis
4 And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. dico autem vobis amicis meis ne terreamini ab his qui occidunt corpus et post haec non habent amplius quod faciant
5 But I will shew you whom you shall fear: Fear ye him who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you: Fear him. ostendam autem vobis quem timeatis timete eum qui postquam occiderit habet potestatem mittere in gehennam ita dico vobis hunc timete
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? nonne quinque passeres veneunt dipundio et unus ex illis non est in oblivione coram Deo
7 Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. sed et capilli capitis vestri omnes numerati sunt nolite ergo timere multis passeribus pluris estis

11 posted on 10/15/2004 9:32:27 PM PDT by annalex
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To: All
Homily of the Day


Homily of the Day

Title:   Is the Great Inhibitor Inhibiting You?
Author:   Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:   Friday, October 15, 2004
 


Ephesians 1:11-14; Luke 12:1-7

The lives of most of us are inhabited and inhibited by a variety of fears: fear of abandonment, fear of embarrassment, fear of rejection, fear of pain, fears of losses and humiliations of all sorts. All too often we let those fears paralyze us and prevent us from growing into our best selves. And sometimes they can even lead us to give in to what we know is wrong. “I’ll lose my job,” we say, “my friends, my position in the community, my life, unless I bend and do what my conscience tells me I shouldn’t.”

Most of the time, fear leads to sins of omission — not doing what our hearts tell us we need to do. Jesus knew that about us and He talks to us about it in today’s Gospel. “Get some perspective,” He says. “Sparrows are a dime a dozen, and yet God knows every time one of them crashes. Aren’t you worth more that a whole flock of sparrows?” Indeed we are, and we have to trust in the full extent of God’s fatherly affection for us.

So what exactly is it that God promises to those who trust Him? Is it immunity from injury and bad luck? Unfortunately, no. What God promises is that whatever happens, including the most dreadful of disasters, He will not leave us alone and unassisted. He will stand by us and walk with us and give us what we need to do what is necessary. We may well have to surrender our lives, but God will not allow us to be crushed or destroyed. He will never allow us to lose our selves.

In the end, we have nothing, absolutely nothing to fear, if we walk with Him and trust Him. That is God’s promise and He always keeps His word.

12 posted on 10/15/2004 10:10:27 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation
The Word Among Us

Friday, October 15, 2004

Meditation
Luke 12: 1-7



According to Jesus, we have a heavenly Father who knows us intimately and cares for us deeply—much more than he cares for a flock of sparrows, whose every need is provided! The truth is, God loves us far more than we will ever realize in this life! And that’s why Jesus tells us over and over again in the gospels not to be afraid: God always cares for his people!

So why do we have so much trouble believing this?

Perhaps it’s because we all face a variety of trials and difficulties in our lives. There are times when problems seem to mount up, so much so that we begin to feel overwhelmed and lose touch with our heavenly Father’s promises. Occasions of human loss or tragedy can also fill us with sorrow and obscure our vision of God’s care for us. Perhaps we have been disappointed or even hurt in a relationship, or get terribly distracted by the pressures of life or the lure of the world.

Nevertheless, in the midst of all of these things—even more powerfully when we find ourselves in them—God is with us! He never leaves us or forsakes us. Even when it feels as if he has, Jesus assures us that nothing in our lives escapes the loving notice of God. Never, never, never give up hope in God! He has so many ways of helping us and giving us more than we can ask or imagine. As we grow through trials and difficulties, through loss and pain, we come to learn ever more deeply how God always provides exactly what we need when we need it. Our Father is loving, compassionate, and faithful in everything. Nothing can ever separate us from his love. He is far too committed to us to let that happen.

If you are facing difficult times ahead or are already in them, know that God your Father loves you immensely and will see you through them faithfully. You may not come out completely unscathed, but it is through such times that you will see the love, mercy, and compassion of God shine through. “Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:7).

“Father, thank you for never leaving me and promising to be with me always. I love you and want to follow you all the days of my life.”


13 posted on 10/15/2004 10:19:11 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation
One Bread, One Body

One Bread, One Body

All Issues > Volume 20, Number 6

<< Friday, October 15, 2004 >> St. Teresa of Avila
 
Ephesians 1:11-14 Psalm 33 Luke 12:1-7
View Readings
 
THE DOWN PAYMENT
 
“You too were chosen; when you heard the glad tidings of salvation, the word of truth, and believed in it, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit Who had been promised. He is the Pledge of our inheritance, the first Payment against the full redemption of a people God has made His own, to praise His glory.” —Ephesians 1:13-14
 

St. Paul had a strange title for the Holy Spirit. He called the Spirit “the Down Payment.” The Lord has promised us new life, freedom, joy, peace, love, power, authority, healing, victory, communion with Him, forgiveness of sins, resurrection from death, and eternal life. He has promised us even much more, but these are just a few highlights.

How do we know these promises are true? Primarily we know this because Jesus said so, and His word is true. He also lets us personally experience some of what He’s promised. He does this through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is our Down Payment. For example, because the Spirit healed me or healed through me, I’m sure that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ (Rm 8:35). Because the Spirit has given me the gift to praise the Lord in another language, I know the Bible is true. Because the Spirit gave me peace in the midst of the storm, I know I’m going to heaven.

The Spirit is a Down Payment that confirms us. Even in a confused, doubting, secular society, we’re confirmed that the Lord will fulfill all His promises because the work of the Holy Spirit is “the first Payment” (Eph 1:14).

 
Prayer:   Father, renew my Confirmation (see 2 Tm 1:6-7).
Promise: “Fear nothing, then. You are worth more than a flock of sparrows.” —Lk 12:7
Praise: St. Teresa was the  first woman recognized as a Doctor of the Church.

14 posted on 10/15/2004 10:22:21 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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