Monday 15th. October - Feast St. Teresa of Avila

[BarbaraTherese]

**Monday 15th. October **
Feast of St. Teresa of Avila (Memorial)

http://www.catholicculture.org/liturgicalyear/pictures/10_15_teresa.jpg
catholicculture.org/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2007-10-15

At the age of eighteen Teresa joined the Carmelite Order. With the help of St. John of the Cross she reformed most of the Carmelite convents and founded new ones. She was a saint, virgin and mystic and Doctor of The Church.

St. Teresa’s Teaching on the Grades of Prayer
Jordan Aumann

Online Texts of some of St. Teresa’s writings:
Interior Castle or The Mansions

Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of The Order of Our Lady of Carmel

Way of Perfection

 

[LilyM]

What an awesome saint and extraordinary person - St Teresa, Doctor of the Church, pray for us!

 

[Biblioassistant]

St. Teresa was one of the most interesting persons ever. She was a mystic who lived as close to God as anyone could and sometimes went into prolonged states of extasy. Yet she was practical, down to earth and had a wonderful sense of humor.

When she was faced with the holier than thou, she said “God deliver us from gloomy saints” I agree:thumbsup:

 

[Zooey]

She is my absolute favorite saint!! There is no one who even comes close to her wonderful writings on prayer…and her sense of humor was incredible.
St Teresa of Jesus, pray for us.

 

[water]

She is my absolute favorite saint!! There is no one who even comes close to her wonderful writings on prayer…and her sense of humor was incredible.
St Teresa of Jesus, pray for us.

In few months, I’ll be ready to read a book about her - “The Interior Castle - St. Teresa of Avila with an Introduction” by Beverly Lanzetta. I am currently finishing up the Diary of St. Faustina.

PS: I could possibly finish the first chapter today to get to know more about the saint before her feast day comes.

 

[St_Gabriel]

Just finishing reading her life and Interior Castle. She was amazing.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

It is written of St. Teresa, and it comes through in her writings, that she was down to earth and practical, with keen insight into psychology especially that of women…and yes she had a witty and often very dry sense of the funny…I love her observation"Lord, deliver me from gloomy saints".
While she wrote for enclosed contemplative nuns in the 17th century, with little effort and common sense her writings can be translated into 21st. century life and experience.

She was amazing!

Blessings and Peace with Joy…Barb

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

St. Teresa of Avila is my patron saint. I haven’t paid as much attention to her as I should these last few years. So, last year I decided to read up on her in a biography that I had purchased a few years before. I would read it sporatically, but toward the end of the book I really started “getting into it” and read it almost non-stop. When I got to the end, I felt I really knew her a lot better. But she had the last laugh, I think, because she was trying to tell me something… without even making the connection I had finished the book on October 15th. I had to laugh when I realized it. I suspect she was urging me on as I read the book, so I would finish it on her feast day. St. Teresa… what a character!

St. Teresa of Jesus, Pray for us!

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Lovely story, Prayer Warrior! I think I can safely predict without too much fear of error, that your patron saint and her writings will come to mean more and more to you.

I first read St. Teresa of Avila and John of The Cross as a result of a family I used to babysit for when I was in my twenties. They had these huge volumes of books titled “The Writings of St. Teresa of Avila” and also “The Writings of St. John of The Cross”. I started to read one - I cannot recall which and totally mystified by the writings, wondered what on earth they could be “on about”. So I borrowed them…and was totally astounded by their writings and could hardly understand a word of them, arriving at the conclusion that since they both lived in the 17th century it must be some now defunct spirituality . I did not even know, I dont think back then, the word “mystic” with the slightest comprehension at all. It just never was in my vocabulory.
My patron saint is St. Therese of Lisieux who had said something that had mystified me “this was not the Prayer of Quiet” (when I first read her in my teens) and I wondered too what she was “on about”. Off and on it would come back to my mind. Much later in a Catholic Bookstore I picked up a book randomly and read the opening chapter as “The Prayer of Quiet” based on St. Teresa’s understanding. So I went back to St. Teresa and this time began very dimly to understand. That was all back in my young twenties - now I’m 62 years young.
It is wonderful in many ways to reflect back on our journey with The Holy Spirit and how He has acted and is acting in our lives…praying He will stay ever with us preserving us from serious sin and hence in the state of Grace and open to His Promptings at least in potential. And if I should fail again, Lord, please bring me swifty to heartfelt repentance and to the Confessional and reconciliation with You and Your Church and be restored to that state prior to ever having committed the sin or sins in the first place. What an amazing matter is the Sacrament of Reconcialiation - Message of Mercy.

Here is a link to some quotations from St. Teresa…others may be able to add more:
Some quotes from St. Teresa:

brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/saint_teresa_of_avila.html

Here is one that reflects Teresa’s humour and also her very easy familiarity with Jesus…and one of my favourites besides “Lord preserve me from gloomy saints”. It is is said that in her many travels across Spain by donkey, she fell off it one day into a stream and getting up said to The Lord “Well, if this is the way You are going to treat Your friends, then don’t complain if You have so few!” Both the “gloomy saints” quote and also “so few friends” quote has carried me through many a dark day with a smile on my face.
Besides bringing a smile, these quotes all tell us something very profound indeed!

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Just finishing reading her life and Interior Castle. She was amazing.

… …

 

[Zooey]

One story that I love about her…This was when she was quite well known, for her deep spirituality, and there was a emissary from the Bishop who came to her convent to see her.
The sister who answered the door told him, that “Mother Teresa is in the chapel”, and I suppose he was having visions of seeing her, deep in prayer…Anyhow, he slipped in quietly, so as not to disturb her …and she was on her hands & knees, scrubbing the floor.
He exclaimed:“Mother!! What are you doing!???!”
She stopped for a moment, looked up at him, & said, matter of factly:“I’m scrubbing the floor.”
He spluttered, “But–but–but why??”
Teresa said, returning to her work: “Why?? Why, because it’s dirty!!”
Can’t you just hear her thinking : “Men!!”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

One story that I love about her…This was when she was quite well known, for her deep spirituality, and there was a emissary from the Bishop who came to her convent to see her.
The sister who answered the door told him, that “Mother Teresa is in the chapel”, and I suppose he was having visions of seeing her, deep in prayer…Anyhow, he slipped in quietly, so as not to disturb her …and she was on her hands & knees, scrubbing the floor.
He exclaimed:“Mother!! What are you doing!???!”
She stopped for a moment, looked up at him, & said, matter of factly:“I’m scrubbing the floor.”
He spluttered, “But–but–but why??”
Teresa said, returning to her work: “Why?? Why, because it’s dirty!!”
Can’t you just hear her thinking : “Men!!”

…http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_1_72.gif…

…re the male of the species…http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_12_3.gif…but then they can’t understand us either!!!

Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut demonstrating St. Teresa’s quite humble and practical turn of mind…as well as being hilariously funny!
There is another profound and rather funny story about St. Teresa. As we know her Order was penitential. One day she had been staying with a wealthy woman on her travels with another one of her Sisters. This Sister came across her in the garden eating chicken. The Sister was covered with confusion and dismay : “Mother, eating chicken!!!???” Yes, Sister, if The Lord gives me chicken, then I eat chicken and enjoy it. Her hostess had give her some chicken.
St. Teresa, one of our greatest mystics, obviously, was out to impress no one with her actions, nor her words either at times. She was the essence of a humble and little soul covered in dismay by her early experiences of unusual phenomena convinced she was totally unworthy:thumbsup: