In
our psalm response today, the psalmist declares: “The Lord will not abandon his
people.” It is easy for us to have faith
in a statement like that when things are going our way. However, when we are going through difficult
times or sufferings, we might not believe in those words. I
thought about the saint we celebrate today: Teresa of the Andes. She
is one of several Carmelites named Teresa who have been canonized. There are also Therese of Lisieux, Teresa of
Avila, and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. We might wonder what interest could we in the
modern world could have in a young woman who was born in the year 1900 in the
distant country of Chile in South America and who died at only 19 years of age. Why would we still honor such a
young woman today in our lives of faith? Like
those other Carmelite nuns named Teresa, Teresa of the Andes vowed to dedicate
her life to serving God as a religious sister. However,
illness took her life at this early age. Yet, when she was canonized, Pope John Paul
II spoke about her joyful youthful enthusiasm and the example she gives to the
youth of our modern era. Today,
we celebrate Teresa of the Andes as a patroness of the youth. In
the 1990s a popular mini-series was made about the life of Teresa of the Andes
for Chilean national television. It also
has also played on EWTN here in the United States. A
popular Chilean “telenovela” (soap opera) star (Paulina Urrutia – who later was
the Minister of Culture for the country of Chile) played Teresa in this
production. It
has ended up being her most popular role, with people stopping her in the
streets and asking her for her blessings, associating her with the real Teresa
of the Andes. We
give thanks for the life of Teresa of the Andes, for her prayers and intercession. We
ask for her prayers especially for our children and youth today.
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