Florida Council of Catholic Women/Province of Miami at P. O. Box 1811, Labelle, FL 33975 US - St Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa of Avila

            St. Teresa of Avila is the Doctor of prayer.  She was born on March 28 and baptized Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, at Avila, Castile, Spain. Teresa was canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. Feast day: October 15. St. Teresa of Avila was a child; she wanted to be a nun. Teresa in her early teens lost her mother which seemed to change Teresa. At the age of 16, Teresa went through some rough times. Hating to defy her father knowing that he would not give his consent to become a nun,  she secretly entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in Avila, Spain at the age of 20.  

            Saint Teresa’s favorite prayer was the Our Father. Teresa lived a holy life and comfortable life. She surrendered herself to living a life of obedience to God’s commandments and the rule of the Order. How many of us surrender ourselves to all of the commandments? Not just one or two that we choose to obey but all ten of them.

            St. Teresa wanted to change things among the nuns.  There was too much laxity, needless talking and ease in the convent. So she started a movement of renewal that would transform the convent and started a change around the world to start new convents and monasteries.

            None of this was possible without Teresa’s dedication to prayer, Mary the mother of Jesus and St Joseph, husband of Mary, who cured her when she was young. St. Teresa’s patron was St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, who is the protector of those dedicated to prayer because he is the Protector of God’s Church. St. Teresa prayed the rosary whenever she could. She had poor health and suffered from migraines. Despite this, Teresa was kind, funny and had a radiate smile.

            St. Teresa was challenged even more as she was empowered by God to do different things that you would call “normal” for the role of a nun. St Teresa was called to do some things outside the convent which upset many people. Nuns were supposed to stay at the convent and not be visible. Teresa felt she was called to start new convents and monasteries and renew old ones. She was determined to start new foundations for women and men. Traveling throughout Spain she recruited John of the Cross to help her with the friars of the same order because of her bad health.

            St. Teresa’s writings, letters and correspondences upset some people and even what you would call the “higher ups”. She made many enemies which would accuse her of heresy. These terrible thoughts could have led her to be burned as a witch. Throughout Spain the shock was felt when the news came that Teresa was accused as being a fraud. At the age of 67, St. Teresa’s health failed. 

            St. Teresa was dedicated to prayer, execution of her vows and the 10 commandments. This dedication she would take to the highest state of prayer. She teaches us that prayer is a journey and a road to and with God. The road may be rocky but we must know that God will be there to carry us through those rough times. St. Teresa says that no soul on this road is such a giant that it does not often need to become a child at the breast again. This means that we need to be nourished by our Mother of the Church who offers us a wide variety of prayer.

            Just be prepared and aware; St. Teresa assures us that Jesus treats His friends with the heaviest crosses. That is why He has so few friends. Special graces are given to those who generously carry the heavy cross, pray daily and come to him.

Let us pray as St. Teresa did: “There is no greater aid to holiness than frequent Communion. How marvelously the Lord shows His power therein.”

(This beautiful prayer by St. Teresa was found in a pamphlet in the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, Washington DC for a Communal Prayer Service. The service was lead by Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington.)

A Prayer after Individual Confession

Let us pray:

Although I have often abandoned you, O Lord, you have never abandoned me. Your hand of life is always outstretched towards me, even when I stubbornly look the other way. And you gentle voice constantly calls me, even when I obstinately refuse to listen. When the sins in my soul are increasing, I lose the taste for virtuous things. Yet, even at such moments, Lord, I know I am failing you and failing myself. You alone can restore my taste for virtue. There are so many false friends willing to encourage sin. But your friendship alone can give the strength of mind and resist and defeat sin.

What a good friend you are, Lord! You are so patient, willing to wait as long as necessary for me to turn to you. You rejoice at the times when I love you, but do not hold against me the time when I ignore you. Your patience is beyond my understanding. Even when I pray, my mind fills with worldly concerns and vain daydreams. Yet you are happy if I give only a single second of honest prayer, turning that second into a seed of love.

Oh Lord, I enjoy your friendship so much, why is it not possible for me to think of you constantly?

Taken from the Magnificat Publication, April 2004:

“O  my Lord, how you are the true friend, and how powerful! When you desire you can love, and you never stop loving those who love you! All things praise you, Lord of the world! Oh, who will cry out for you, to tell everyone how faithful you are to your friends! All things fail; you, Lord of all, never fail. Little it is, that which you allow the one who loves you to suffer! O my Lord! How delicately and smoothly and delightfully you try to rigor the person who loves you so that in extreme trail he might understand the greatest extreme of your love. O my God, who has the understanding, the learning, and the new words with which to extol your works as my soul understands them? All fails me, my Lord; but if you do not abandon me, I will no fail you. Let all learned men rise up against me, let all created things persecute me, let the devils torment me; do not fail me, Lord, for I already have experience of the gain that comes from the way you rescue the one who trusts in you alone-Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Chruch, reformed the Carmelite Order.                                 Amen. 

Other Resources:

“The Interior Castle”; St. Teresa of Avila; New translation and introduction by Mirabai Starr

NCCW Leadership Training Video Series; The Three Women Doctors of the Church

Available from NCCW publications at www.nccw.org

The Arlington Diocesan Council of Catholic Women Presents: Feminine Spirituality and The Women Doctors of the Church - Contact Liz Schiavone (703)471-4047 or Virginia Berg (703) 241-1129