10/15/2012 – Monday of 28th week in ordinary time – St Teresa of Avila – Virgin and Doctor of the Church – Luke 11:29-32

        Just last night, I got back from the men’s Cursillo retreat that we had at Camp Breton Green at the Duncan Gray Center in Canton, Mississippi.  It is the first Cursillo retreat we have had in a year and a half in our diocese.  And since a lot of the men working as members of the team on this retreat are friends of mine from St Richard or from the prison ministry team, I had really been looking forward to this weekend.  As we hear Jesus scorn the people for wanting signs, I thought about the way that the participants of the Cursillo retreat program work hard to incorporate works of piety, study, and Christian outreach into their lives of faith as they progress along their pilgrimage journey.  

         I must admit that today we celebrate one of my favorite saints – St Teresa of Avila.  A mystic, a reformer of the Carmelite order, an earthly and pragmatic realist living in the time of the Spanish Inquisition – Teresa is a complex figure indeed who is not easy to categorize.  She was the first woman named as a Doctor of the Church – named as such by Pope Paul VI at the same time that he named Catherine of Sienna to such a distinction.  Her ecstasies and raptures were the subject of a famous statue by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.  And I love her sense of humor and her love of life, exemplified by her famous quote – “there is a time for penance, and a time for partridge.” 

         And while some say they won’t believe without a sign, Teresa saw a greater need – the need for us to live out our faith and to put our faith into action.  So, even though she is know for her mystical visions, Teresa of Avila is also responsible for the following quote, telling us how we are Christ’s body here on earth:

“Christ has no body now, but yours.

No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which

Christ looks compassion into the world.

Yours are the feet

with which Christ walks to do good.

Yours are the hands

with which Christ blesses the world.”

         This wonderful Spanish saint from the 16^th century, from the time of the Protestant Reformation, still calls out to us to live out our faith in the modern world.  Thank you, St Teresa of Jesus, for the way you call out to us to live out our faith and live with courage, zeal, and hope.