+ Teresa of Avila was born in March of 1515, daughter of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda and Dona Beatriz. She grew up reading the lives of the saints and playing a “hermit” in the garden. Crippled by disease in her youth, which led to her being well educated at home, Teresa was cured after prayer to St. Joseph. Her mother died when she was 12, and she prayed to Our Lady to be her replacement. Her father opposed her entry to religious life, so she left home without telling anyone, and entered a Carmelite house at 17, taking the name Teresa of Jesus. Seeing her conviction to her call, her father and family finally consented. Soon after taking her vows, Teresa became gravely ill, and her condition was aggravated by the inadequate medical help she received; she never fully recovered her health.
At
this time Teresa began receiving visions, and was examined by
Dominicans and Jesuits, including St. Francis Borgia, who pronounced her
visions to be holy and true. She considered her original house too lax in its
rule, and so she founded a reformed convent (discalced: shoeless) of St.
John of Avila. Teresa founded several houses, often against fierce
opposition from local authorities. She was a mystical writer writing The Way of Perfection and Meditations on the Song of Songs. She
met and became friends with St. John of
the Cross; they encouraged each other along the way of spiritual
perfection.
Teresa
died October 4, 1582, of natural causes, in the arms of her secretary
and close friend Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew. Her body is incorrupt, and
her relics preserved at Alba. Her heart shows signs of Transverberation
(piercing) and is displayed too. She was canonized in 1622 along with St. Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier and Philip Neri, and was one of the first women to be named Doctor of
the Church, by Pope Paul VI in 1970. She is patron of the sick, and those who
are ridiculed for their piety.
Teresa
knew intensely the reality of how the spiritual life of the
individual is directly and irrevocably intertwined with that of Jesus as the branches of the vine are vitally related
to the root! For Teresa of Avila life was Christ, and, for love of him, a
life of aiding others in their spiritual growth and journeys was her true
vocation; and this she did in spite of physical conditions that plagued her
with illness. It was the hope of glory,
illumined by the flame of faith,
planted in her heart at her own baptism, and then renewed at her religious
profession, that encouraged Teresa along the way, and she counted on the
prayers to God that only the Holy Spirit
himself could emit as groans in the heart of the Father to make her efforts
successful.
May
we revel in our intimate relationship with God today,
count on the Spirit’s prayer on our behalf, and then, nourishing the gift of
faith already bestowed on us, by the Eucharistic meal, prove our love for God
by the way we deal with others as he would!
Your
words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
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