Why do Lutherans venerate Saint Teresa of Avila?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JesuXPIPassio
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

JesuXPIPassio

Guest
Why do Lutherans venerate Saint Teresa of Avila? She wasn’t pro-Lutheran or pro-Reformation. On the contrary, she was one of the saints who countered it.
 
JesuXPIPassio said:
Why do Lutherans venerate Saint Teresa of Avila? She wasn’t pro-Lutheran or pro-Reformation. On the contrary, she was one of the saints who countered it.
Click to expand...
Hmm, this is very interesting. My Lutheran aunt is the one who introduced me to her while I was visiting her in Spain. I thought she was just being respectful of my Catholic faith, since Avila is close to Madrid!

Do you have any sources to back up your claim that Lutherans venerate her?
 
JesuXPIPassio said:
Why do Lutherans venerate Saint Teresa of Avila? She wasn’t pro-Lutheran or pro-Reformation. On the contrary, she was one of the saints who countered it.
Click to expand...
Although it has been many years since I was a practicing Lutheran, I did grow up in the Lutheran Church. The only saints I ever heard mentioned were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I’ve never heard of a Lutheran venerating any saint. But like I said, it’s been awhile.
 
I’ve never heard of it, and I’ve been Lutheran for 25-plus years.
 
rick43235 said:
Although it has been many years since I was a practicing Lutheran, I did grow up in the Lutheran Church. The only saints I ever heard mentioned were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I’ve never heard of a Lutheran venerating any saint. But like I said, it’s been awhile.
Click to expand...
One thing I’ve learned, you can’t go by what you learned growing up. If my learning of my faith stopped when my formal education stopped, I’d be pretty ignorant!

God bless you on your journey. Your wife is pretty lucky, or maybe you are lucky to have a wife who helped bring you to the Faith.
 
JesuXPIPassio said:
Why do Lutherans venerate Saint Teresa of Avila? She wasn’t pro-Lutheran or pro-Reformation. On the contrary, she was one of the saints who countered it.
Click to expand...
We Lutherans commemorate the lives of many saints, remembering as examples of holiness and faithfulness. This is different from venerating them. While Catholics will recognize many of them, we do not limit our commemorations to those canonized by the Catholic Church, nor do we include all of them.

On the other hand we include, for example, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr., among others. It should be noted that we do not refer to these as capital “S” saints but we recognize them for their lives as saints in the kingdom.
 
gcnuss said:
We Lutherans commemorate the lives of many saints, remembering as examples of holiness and faithfulness. This is different from venerating them. While Catholics will recognize many of them, we do not limit our commemorations to those canonized by the Catholic Church, nor do we include all of them.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the correction. The point still stands though; why would Lutherans commemorate Saint Teresa of Avila if she was a critic of Lutheranism?
 
JesuXPIPassio said:
Thanks for the correction. The point still stands though; why would Lutherans commemorate Saint Teresa of Avila if she was a critic of Lutheranism?
Click to expand...
Is that the only thing she did - oppose Lutheranism? If it is, then you have made a good point.
My personal belief is that Pope John Paul II is perhaps the greatest Christian of my lifetime. I don’t think he was in favor of Lutheranism, however.

Jon
 
Lectio Divina is a prayer form developed by St Therese of Avila that focuses on a particular phrase or passage in Scripture, and then time is spent in reflection and love of God…in this prayer form, the Holy Spirit provides the contemplative new insights in the soul that fill it with grace and joy and closer union in God.

Just as Lutherans and others are returning to Mary, it wouldn’t surprise me that they would also return to traditional prayer forms.
 
KathleenGee said:
Lectio Divina is a prayer form developed by St Therese of Avila that focuses on a particular phrase or passage in Scripture, and then time is spent in reflection and love of God…in this prayer form, the Holy Spirit provides the contemplative new insights in the soul that fill it with grace and joy and closer union in God.

.
Click to expand...
Kathleen,
Do you have a link for this?

Jon
 
KathleenGee said:
Lectio Divina is a prayer form developed by St Therese of Avila that focuses on a particular phrase or passage in Scripture, and then time is spent in reflection and love of God…in this prayer form, the Holy Spirit provides the contemplative new insights in the soul that fill it with grace and joy and closer union in God.

Just as Lutherans and others are returning to Mary, it wouldn’t surprise me that they would also return to traditional prayer forms.
Click to expand...
I have participated in lectio divina. In my experience it is a very useful way of approaching scripture.
 
I have a Lutheran friend who is interested in deeper prayer, and she has asked me about St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux. I recommended some books to her.

She is very devout and it is easy to tell that she loves the Lord very much and takes her Christian faith seriously.

She also asked me about Lectio Divina, and wanted to know how to go about it.
 
Lectio Divina is not centering prayer.

Lectio Divina is active prayer using mental images and phrases of Scripture. Centering prayer is passive, being in silence, whatever comes to mind…

St. Therese developed her own form of lectio divina…that should take no more than 30 minutes, focus on a favorite passage from Scripture or reflect from Mass readings…and then when a certain point of thought comes, to stay with that in reflection, its message and let the Holy Spirit work to develop the thought or idea that then brings you into a new learning that is accompanied with love, and then thanking the Lord for the new insight.

Prayer must not be passive but always center on the will of the Father.

I searched and there are a number of sources explaining lectio divina and the steps…the Benedictines have written on the ancient form, and St Therese had her version. There are quite a few links so you should pick the one that suits you.
 
In my 30 years of growing up Lutheran (ELCA), I never once heard of St. Teresa of Avila. In fact, the only saint that my old church made any note of was St. Francis (pet blessings on his feast day). There is, however, a list of saints (a few notable protestants were listed…) in the back of the old Lutheran hymnal, including. “Mary, Mother of God” (August 15th), “Bishop of Rome (they don’t use “Pope” in the hymnal) John XXIII”, and other famous Catholic saints. I don’t recall seeing St. Teresa of Avila in the list, though.

On another note, they’ll even use blue altar cloth on the 2nd week of Advent for the Feast of the Annunciation. In my old church, they have the backdrop (what’s the word for it?) like in most Catholic churches, but a gold and mahogany colored curtain that they don’t change. They only changed the color of the altar cloth.
 
gcnuss said:
We Lutherans commemorate the lives of many saints, remembering as examples of holiness and faithfulness. This is different from venerating them. While Catholics will recognize many of them, we do not limit our commemorations to those canonized by the Catholic Church, nor do we include all of them.

On the other hand we include, for example, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr., among others. It should be noted that we do not refer to these as capital “S” saints but we recognize them for their lives as saints in the kingdom.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the explanation!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top