ST. TERESA
The Church keeps the memorial of St Teresa of Avila, a Carmelite nun in 16th century Spain, this Saturday.
She is rightly called the 'Great Teresa.’ Why great? Because she personally reformed and renewed the Carmelite Order with the energy of a tornado, and at the same time achieved heroic sanctity herself.
As with all God's Saints, holiness did not come easily. As a young woman she had long bouts of what today we might call psycho-somatic illness. She got depressed. But with the help of God and the driving force of her own will, she rose above many weaknesses of mind and body, and served Christ with all the zeal of a true apostle. Although much favoured with visions and raptures, she also1007
had an invaluable streak of down-to-earth common sense. She knew that some visions can come from the devil, and so she sometimes threw holy water at them to see if they were from God or not. A deeply emotional woman, she had no time for any kind of sentimentality, and was quick to call a spade a shovel, whenever necessary.
One particular story about her has often been told. One day she was travelling in a horse-drawn carriage, and it overturned while crossing a river. Teresa was left standing up to her neck in cold, muddy water. She asked the Lord, "how could you treat me like this?" He apparently replied, "that's how I treat my friends". She responded, "no wonder you have so few!"
Deep love between two people produces great trust between them. Teresa learned to trust Christ in every detail of her life. She referred to Him in her spiritual writings as 'His Majesty'. One day, in a vision, His Majesty bound her to Himself in an indissoluble union known as the 'mystical marriage'. Thereafter, she enjoyed a perpetual vision of God the Blessed Trinity. Yet with characteristic wisdom Teresa once said, "if you pray better lying on a feather mattress, then do so".
Let us ask the great Teresa to pray to God for all religious women, without whose help the Church would be sadly lacking.
~ Fr. Paul Dobson
