St. Teresa of Avila on Prayer

October 15^th is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church. A 16^th century Carmelite who worked to bring reform to that religious order, she is a well-known mystic who was blessed with intimate union with God. In 1577, she was encouraged by a superior to pen a book on prayer in order to instruct her fellow sisters. As a result, the Interior Castle , one of the greatest theological works of all time, was written. St.

Teresa writes, “I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle . . . in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions. . . The door of entry into this castle is prayer and meditation.

It is important to note that while St. Teresa’s words were originally intended for those living a consecrated religious life, her teachings have meaning for each of us. Few of us will ever reach the summits of union with God that Teresa experienced. Those of us who live in the world are called to a different way of life and have different obligations. Yet, all of us are invited into a deep relationship with God. Our entire reason for being is to know, love, and serve God. Everything else: our relationships with others, the work of our hands, and the mark we leave on the world, flows from that. Prayer is the key to that relationship with God.

St. Teresa shares what she had been told by a very learned man – “Souls without prayer are like people whose bodies or limbs are paralyzed: they possess feet and hands but they cannot control them.” Without God’s assistance, we are truly powerless. St. Teresa offers great encouragement to the person beginning to pray in earnest. “All that the beginner in prayer has to do . . . is to labor and be resolute and prepare himself with all possible diligence to bring his will into conformity with the will of God.” She also knows that there will be times when we fail in our efforts. “If, then, you sometimes fall, do not lose heart, or cease striving to make progress, for even out of your fall God will bring good. . . .Provided we do not abandon our prayer, the Lord will turn everything we do to our profit.” However, it is important to acknowledge that we can never deserve anything from God. We can never earn His favor. All of His gifts are freely given. We need to love God without any selfish motives. We should not desire to receive consolations in prayer. Yet, “where there is true humility, even if God never grants the soul favors, He will give it peace and resignation to his will.

She also offers encouragement to those of us who get distracted while praying. “Do not imagine that the important thing is never to be thinking of anything else and that if your mind becomes slightly distracted all is lost.” It is still important to struggle through and keep praying. It is only through such dedication that God will give us “the strength which fits us for service. . . The Lord leads each of us as He sees we have need.”

As we celebrate St. Teresa’s feast day, let us reflect on the way she pointed us to God, and invited us into deeper communion with Him. Through her teachings on prayer, she helps instruct us on how to progress in the spiritual life.

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.

St. Teresa is known for the 'odor of sanctity', and that was mentioned in all my sources, but not the stigmata.

She was also well-known to have had a wound over the heart as a result of an ecstasy in which an angel pierced it with a dart.

"The Ecstasy of St. Teresa" by Bernini

Your source seems to be discussing many different phenomena as "stigmata" and doesn't necessary distinguish clearly between them - it seems to term anyone bearing any visible mark (not necessarily the Five Wounds) as a "stigmatist". So under that somewhat expanded definition St. Teresa qualifies - but her picture would not show wounds on her hands.

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