Friday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Saints: Saint Teresa of Avila, Virgin, Doctor (1515-1582)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 12 The Celebration of the Solemnity of Lauds

Mass: Rm 4:1-8; Resp Ps 32; Lk 12:1-7

Exult, all you upright of heart.

To be a servant of love is a dignity so great that it delights me in a wonderful way to think about it.

(Saint Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life, 11,1)

We commemorate another remarkable saint today, Saint Teresa of Avila, also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus. I was privileged to have a semester long course on this great saint, so she is a favorite. Saint Teresa of Jesus is one in an illustrious group of women Doctors of the Church. The others who join her are Saint Catherine of Siena (Feast on April 29), Saint Therese of Lisieux (Feast on October 1), and Saint Hildegard of Bingen (Feast on September 17). 

If you read one book about Saint Teresa of Avila, a good one to pick up is The Book of Her Life. It is in Chapter 1 where the reader learns something of Teresa's childhood and formation in the faith from her father, "a man very charitable with the poor and compassionate toward the sick, and even toward servants" (1,1), and her mother who "also had many virtues" (1, 2). Her mother "suffered much sickness in her life ... was extremely modest", and "although very beautiful, she never gave occasion to anyone to think she paid any attention to her beauty" (1, 2). Teresa's mother "was gentle and very intelligent. Great were the trials she suffered during her life. Her death [at the age of 33] was a truly Christian one" (1, 2). In all, the children were "three sisters and nine brothers. All who resembled their parents in being virtuous" (1, 3). However, Teresa did not include herself in their company, for she relates, "I am ashamed when I recall the good inclinations the Lord gave me and how poorly I knew how to profit by them" (1, 3).

Not daunted and not held back from the service of God, Teresa and her favorite brother read the lives of the saints. They desired to be martyrs and "agreed to go off to the land of the Moors and beg them, out of love for God, to cut off our heads there"! (1, 4). However, they didn't have the means to fulfill that mission and it seemed that their parents were their "greatest obstacle" (1, 4). So the two of them, if not able to be killed for God then, made a plan to be hermits. Teresa goes on: "And in the garden that we had in our house, we tried as we could to make hermitages piling up some little stones which afterward would quickly fall down again. And so in nothing could we find remedy for our desire" (1, 5). Teresa gave alms and sought out solitude to pray her many devotions, especially the rosary, to which her "mother was very devoted" (1, 6). She also liked to play with her friends too, and enjoyed it immensely when they pretended they were nuns in a monastery (1, 6).

Teresa goes on as you will read. Teresa's mother died when Teresa was around 12 years old. It was then that Teresa found solace in Our Lady and "besought her with many tears to be her mother" (1, 7). The story doesn't end there, as many of you already know. I just find her childhood especially interesting as I was with the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah early this morning, where the Lord calls Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you (Jer 1:5). We just never know what God has in my mind for us. Let's turn to Saint Teresa of Avila for inspiration and intercession. Pope Benedict XVI, expounding on Saint Teresa of Avila (St. Teresa of Jesus) in his General Audience of February 2, 2011 (see www.vatican.va website or Holy Women by Pope Benedict XVI, p. 135), said this:

Dear brothers and sisters, 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 THE CHRISTIAN BE VALIANT.

(Saint Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, 1, 13)

SAINT TERESA OF AVILA,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Back at Paul and Sue's in Mt. Angel, OR.

© Gertrude Feick 2021