Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
St. Teresa of Avila explains to her nuns why obedience is “the quickest or best means” for reaching perfection. She indicates that obedience and submission to superiors lead to mastery of one’s own will.
Reading time: 5 minutes, 922 words
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Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, who came to be Teresa's assistant and also an important figure in the establishment of the Teresian Carmel in France and the Netherlands, was illiterate when she entered Carmel as a lay sister. What Teresa singled out as essential was the intelligence to be able to grasp the meaning of the religious life and, in particular, the Teresian Carmelite style of life.
Reading time: 2 minutes, 447 words
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Father Jerónimo Gracián of the Mother of God was born on 6 June 1545 in Valladolid. Although he wasn't the first Discalced Carmelite friar, St. Teresa saw him as the ideal and made a personal vow of obedience to him.
Reading time: 2 minutes, 342 words
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St Teresa encourages her nuns to praise God because they "truly belong to our Lady." Teresa urges the nuns to imitate the Virgin, trusting in the merits of Christ and "of the Virgin, His Mother."
Reading time: 1 minutes, 228 words
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St Teresa's youngest brother Agustín de Ahumada left with the Spanish armada on 24 May 1546, bound for Peru. Here Teresa writes to her brother Lorenzo: "I am very concerned about Agustín... I pray a great deal for him."
Reading time: 3 minutes, 652 words
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On 23 March 1575 St Teresa of Avila made a private vow of obedience to Father Jerónimo Gracián: "not to hide any fault or sin" and to do all that he might tell her. She admits that in the beginning, "keeping this promise was hard for her."
Reading time: 2 minutes, 293 words
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St. Teresa of Avila always emphasized humility as the greatest virtue to be prized and practiced by her nuns, writing: "imitate in some way the great humility of the Blessed Virgin."
Reading time: 1 minute, 121 words
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St. Teresa implores her nuns to abandon themselves to God when it’s a matter of physical health. Don’t complain about mild issues; “when the sickness is serious, it does the complaining itself.”
Reading time: 2 minutes, 414 words
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We recall the beatification of Maria Teresa of St. Joseph on 13 May 2006. This founder of the Carmelites of the Divine Heart of Jesus said that St. Teresa of Avila was her “teacher and guide.”
Reading time: 1 minute, 165 words
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St. Teresa of Avila says that she was so devoted to the Nativity of Mary, that she wanted to renew her vows on the feast day. In 1575 she says that Our Lady appeared to her, and she renewed her vows in Mary's hands.
Reading time: 1 minute, 132 words
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Anne of St. Bartholomew was beatified on 6 May 1917. Remembering her service to St. Teresa of Avila at her life’s end; Anne wrote, “During the five days preceding her death at Alba, I was more dead than alive.”
Reading time: 1 minute, 249 words
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In St. Edith Stein’s biography of St. Teresa, Edith recounts the death of Teresa’s mother, which inspired her love of the Virgin: “The young person certainly surmised that she needed special protection.”
Reading time: 1 minute, 182 words
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St. Teresa of Avila favors meditating on the humanity of Christ: "We have him so near in the Blessed Sacrament... Behold Him here without suffering, full of glory, before ascending into heaven."
Reading time: 2 minutes, 427 words
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On the anniversary of the beatification of St. Teresa on 24 April 1614, we recall the indefatigable foundress who felt Christ present beside her. Bishop Báez reminds us that Jesus walks with us, too, along life’s pathways.
Reading time: 1 minute, 232 words
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St. Teresa understood Jesus’ appearing to the Apostles “without entering through the door” based on her mystical experiences. She noted, “in my opinion, there is no need of any door for Him to enter.”
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St Teresa reflects on the period in her life when she gave up the practice of prayer "under the pretext of humility." She says, "it seems to me that this was the way the devil began to tempt Judas."
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St Teresa of Avila leads us in a meditation on the Passion of Christ: "what a serious thing sin is, for it was enough to kill God with so many sorrows! My God... everywhere mortals wound you."
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On Palm Sunday, 30 March 1572, when receiving Holy Communion, St. Teresa experienced the sensation of blood filling her mouth. “I felt that my face and all the rest of me were also covered with this blood.”
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St. Teresa was born on 28 March 1515 to devout parents in Avila. St. Edith Stein describes her birth and background: “Teresa, a bold warrior for God, came from such a race of heroes” as the knights of Old Castile.
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St. Teresa of Avila was profoundly devoted to St. Joseph. Early in her autobiography, she tells how she took Joseph as her "advocate and lord" when she was seriously ill: "I have experience that he helps in all our needs."
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Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. ~ St. Teresa of Avila
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