Saint of the Week: Teresa of Ávila

This weeks Saint is one beloved by much of the Western church. This week we remember Teresa of Ávila. She is known as one of the greatest mystics in the churches history. As a little girl she fell in love with reading the lives of the saints and ran away from home to search for Martyrdom with her brother. This attempt was foiled by their uncle who brought them home. When she grew older she became a Carmelite nun. In the convent she was frequently ill, but would experience moment of religious ecstasy. 

• Along with John of the Cross, she founded the Discalced Carmelites, a religious order
• She wrote the spiritual classic: Interior Castle
• She wrote to encourage Jews who had been forcible converted to truly follow Jesus; forceful conversion had been happened to her grandfather.
• She is known for the prayer “Lord, either let me suffer or let me die.”
• She is the first woman made a “Doctor of the Church” by the Roman Catholics

“Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one Glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing. “

and another

“One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer. “ 

Finally

“We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble.”