God deliver me from sullen saints

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Rob2

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St Teresa of Avila​

Celebrated on October 15th

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Foundress of the reformed (Discalced) Carmelites , St Teresa was born in 1515 to an aristocratic family in Avila. As a child she showed precocious piety by playing at hermitages with her younger brother. The pair once ran away from home, hoping to go to Morocco and die as martyrs.

After her mother’s death when she was just 14, Teresa went through a spell of being very interested in boys and clothes. She was sent to be educated by the Augustinian nuns and soon decided she wanted to become a nun. Her father at first objected, but later gave his consent and she entered a Carmelite convent at the age of 20.

The convent was a relaxed place, where many visitors came and went and the sisters were often allowed out in the town. Teresa struggled with her prayer life, abandoned it and then returned once again. After about 25 years of living the unreformed Carmelite life, she decided she wanted to found a community where the rule could be more strictly observed. In 1562, she established her new house of St Joseph of Avila with 13 nuns, living an austere life of prayer and work. The sisters never ate meat. Teresa made sure she did every job the others did - from cooking and cleaning to spinning and sewing.

With St John of the Cross, she helped reform the Carmelite friars and established 16 more Carmelite convents. St Teresa became a great teacher on prayer and contemplation. She wrote countless letters and several books including her autobiography, and the classics. ‘The Way of Perfection’, written for nuns and ‘The Interior Castle’.

St Teresa was know for her cheerfulness and sense of humour. She said: “God deliver me from sullen saints” .

She was canonised in 1622 and was the first woman saint to be made a doctor of the Church in 1970.
 
Dear Rob2

Thanks for posting this! St. Teresa of Avila is a saint sorely needed to be read more in this age of practical atheism, and “mediocre” or “soft” practice of true Catholic Christianity. I’ve read all her books and some more than once. 🙂

I began reading her writings, when I was in my early twenties and have appreciated her more as I have grown older. We need to re-read the classics after time in which we have our own experiences of God’s work in our lives. We need to “keep growing” spiritually as well as physically in chronological age!!!

At present, I’m reading (again) Volume II of the spiritual classic : “The Three Ages of the Interior Life” by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. in which he often refers to the writings of St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Holiness is not only for priests, and nuns nor are their writings only for clergy and religious. God calls ALL of us to holiness. Those of us, who are among the Laity of the Catholic Church, need to take our faith seriously, by God’s Grace! We need to live the promises made at Baptism whether spoken by our Godparents, if we were baptized as infants, or spoken by our own lips if we were baptized as adults.

St.Teresa of Avila, pray for us.
 
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Rob2 said:
St Teresa was know for her cheerfulness and sense of humour. She said: “God deliver me from sullen saints” .
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With the prospect of eternal life in heaven with Our Father, Our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Our Lady all the angels and saints why not be joyful!
MariaChristi said:
need to take our faith seriously,
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And this is why we should be uplifted!

Pray for us St Teresa.
 
Dear Lee,

I agree certainly that we need to be uplifted! 🙂 I also maintain that the saints while they were blessed to have that gift of Joy which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, remained always “serious” about their faith. One example of St. Teresa of Avila’s “humor” which also indicates the seriousness of her prayer is : when speaking to her sisters, she assured them of the two most important requirements of prayer: “Attention and Devotion”.

The saint further assured them that if we do not know to Whom we are speaking, and who is speaking, and what we are saying, then we may be moving our lips, but we are not praying! I’m not sure in which of her books, I read that but I know I laughed out loud because it is so true!

Saints were serious about life in Christ but not without a sense of humor. They have a beautiful balance given to them by God’s grace! What I sometimes hear and read today from modern speakers and authors is more like a mixture of the sacred with the profane and a certain way of referring to holy things as if they were trivial.

May God help us all to be true to our call from God to be holy as He is Holy! As Mother Angelica used to remind us: “Don’t miss the opportunity!”
 
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One of my very favorite saints! I don’t know too many who had the combination of practicality and good humor while also being a profound mystic like Teresa.

A story I love about her is the one where a benefactor came to her with a partridge he had killed and insisted that it was for her to eat. Teresa thanked him, prepared the bird, roasted it and was eating it when one of the more holier than thou nuns came by and said it was not fitting that an order dedicated to penance like the Carmelites should have a member enjoying her food so much. Teresa said, “Sister, there is a time for penance and a time for partridge”.
 
This topic prompted me to order Saint Theresa’s Interior Castle. 😀
 
A dear friend gave me VCR tapes of the eight-hour series on her life that is shown on EWTN at times.

Thankfully I can play VCR tapes as well as DVDs! It has English sub titles.

I feel the need to watch that series at least once every two years.

It is so well done it seems like I am there watching her life!
 
Dorothy said:
A dear friend gave me VCR tapes of the eight-hour series on her life that is shown on EWTN at times.

Thankfully I can play VCR tapes as well as DVDs! It has English sub titles.

I feel the need to watch that series at least once every two years.

It is so well done it seems like I am there watching her life!
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@Dorothy, what is the name of this series? Is it on DVD?
 
lilypadrees:

Please let me know if you got my response regarding the DVD of St. Teresa of Avila.

I still am having a hard time understanding this forum…I think I am allergic to technology!
 
Thank you so much, @Dorothy. I’ve ordered it. 😃 Can’t wait to see it.
 
Dorothy said:
lilypadrees:

Please let me know if you got my response regarding the DVD of St. Teresa of Avila.

I still am having a hard time understanding this forum…I think I am allergic to technology!
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You did very well with your response, @Dorothy. 👍 👍

You’ll get used to the way the forum works. :hugs:
 
Thanks for the technology encouragement, and I know you will get a lot out of the DVD.
 
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