15 October 2024 - St Teresa of Avila - Tuesday of the 28th week in Ordinary Time

    At the beginning of this month, we celebrated the feast day of Therese of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun who lived in France in the late 19th century. She was named as a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II. Today, we celebrate another Carmelite nun who also has been named as a Doctor of the Church: Teresa of Avila from the 16th century in Spain. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain in 1515, two years before the actions of Augustinian monk Martin Luther that led to the Protestant Reformation in the Church. She was born in the era of the Spanish Conquistadors, the Spanish Inquisition, and right after the Moors were expelled from Spain. It was an era of great change and turmoil. Yet, with the Protestant Reformation threatening Catholicism, reform movements in the Church were not taken lightly. Teresa, a Carmelite sister, felt called by God to reform her religious order, to get them back to the humble roots of the monasticism of her order that she felt had become distorted throughout the centuries. She and her companion John of the Cross founded monasteries based on their reform measures, with the Discalced Carmelites, or barefoot Carmelites, becoming its own religious order. Besides being an important reformer in the Church, Teresa is an important theologian and mystic. She is also an important figure in the history of Spain.  There have been movements to name her as Spain’s patron saint, replacing St James. 

The book The Interior Castle was written in 1577 by Teresa as a guide for spiritual development through service and prayer. The Interior Castle was inspired by her vision of the soul as a diamond in the shape of a castle containing seven mansions, which she interpreted as the journey of faith through seven stages, ending with union with God. Teresa’s mysticism and her actions in living out her faith and in reforming the Carmelite order are an example to all of us as to how we can mix our prayer life and interior life with a life of service and action and living out our faith. What is interesting about Teresa of Avila is that in 1855 at the age of 40 she had a profound interior experience with Jesus that enacted a conversion within her. She identified greatly with St Mary Magdalene and St Augustine, two saints we strongly associate with repentance and conversion. Being a member of the secular Discalced Carmelite order, St Teresa is a very important saint in my life. 

As Jesus tries to get the Pharisees to see what should be of greatest importance to them on their journey of faith in our Gospel today, Teresa tried to do a similar thing to her fellow Carmelites. May we unite our prayers with the prayers of St Teresa of Avila today.