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Saint for Today - St Teresa

10/15/2014

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SAINT TERESA of AVILA
Virgin, Reformer of the Carmelite Order
(1515-1582)

"By their fruits you will know them," says Our Lord of those who claim to be His followers. The fruits which remain of the life, labors and prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila bear to her virtue a living and enduring testimony which none can refuse to admit. She herself wrote her life and many other celebrated spiritual works, and much more can still be said of this soul of predilection, whose writings and examples have led so many souls to high sanctity.

Born in 1515 in the kingdom of Castile in Spain, she was the youngest child of a virtuous nobleman. When she was seven years old, Teresa fled from her home with one of her young brothers, in the hope of going to Africa and receiving the palm of martyrdom. Brought back and asked the reason for her flight, she replied: "I want to see God, and I must die before I can see Him." She then began, with her same brother, Rodriguez, to build a hermitage in the garden, and was often heard repeating: "Forever, forever!" She lost her mother at the age of twelve years, and was led by worldly companions into various frivolities. Her father decided to place her in a boarding convent, and she obeyed without any inclination for this kind of life. Grace came to her assistance with the good guidance of the Sisters, and she decided to enter religion in the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation at Avila.

For a time frivolous conversations there, too, checked her progress toward perfection, but finally in her thirty-first year, she abandoned herself entirely to God. A vision showed her the very place in hell to which her apparently light faults would have led her, and she was told by Our Lord that all her conversation must be with heaven. Ever afterwards she lived in the deepest distrust of herself. When she was named Prioress against her will at the monastery of the Incarnation, she succeeded in conciliating even the most hostile hearts by placing a statue of Our Lady in the seat she would ordinarily have occupied, to preside over the Community.

God enlightened her to understand that He desired the reform of her Order, and her heart was pierced with divine love. The Superior General gave her full permission to found as many houses as might become feasible. She dreaded nothing so much as delusion in the decisions she would make in difficult situations; we can well understand this, knowing she founded seventeen convents for the Sisters, and that fifteen others for the Fathers of the Reform were established during her lifetime, with the aid of Saint John of the Cross. To the end of her life she acted only under obedience to her confessors, and this practice both made her strong and preserved her from error. Journeying in those days was far from comfortable and even perilous, but nothing could stop the Saint from accomplishing the holy Will of God. When the cart was overturned one day and she had a broken leg, her sense of humor became very evident by her remark: "Dear Lord, if this is how You treat Your friends, it is no wonder You have so few!" She died October 4, 1582, and was canonized in 1622.

The history of her mortal remains is as extraordinary as that of her life. After nine months in a wooden coffin, caved in from the excess weight above it, the body was perfectly conserved, though the clothing had rotted. A fine perfume it exuded spread throughout the entire monastery of the nuns, when they reclothed it. Parts of it were later removed as relics, including the heart showing the marks of the Transverberation, and her left arm. At the last exhumation in 1914, the body was found to remain in the same condition as when it was seen previously, still recognizable and very fragrant with the same intense perfume.

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Thought for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost

10/5/2014

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  The Need Supernatural Charity

“On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets” (Matt., 22:40)

One of the most outstanding characteristics of Christ’s teaching is its great simplicity. In fact, He compressed His entire moral doctrine into two brief commandments, as today’s Gospel points out: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and soul... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

We should realise however that in these words Our Lord was referring to supernatural charity-charity based on the goodness of God as made known to us through revelation. Moreover, we should also realise that true Christian charity requires that the love of God and the love of neighbour be bound together. Either one is impossible without the other. A person who would claim to love God and would not have love for his neighbour would not be truly loving God. In the words of St. John, “He who says that he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in the darkness still” (I John, 2:9). On the other hand, one who would love his fellowmen and not truly love God, might indeed be practising natural humanitarianism or philanthropy, but he would not be practising Christian charity.

If we practice Christian charity, we shall be living the supernatural life of grace. For all the commandments are rooted in charity. I£ we examine the commandments we shall find that they prescribe obligations toward God, ourselves, and our neighbour. But if we truly love God and our neighbour as ourselves, we shall fulfil all these obligations, not indeed from a merely natural motive, but from the highest of all motives, the desire to do the will of God, who is worthy of our love in the highest measure because He is the infinite good.

There are many persons who are kindly and generous toward their fellowmen, and willing to help them in their needs because they are naturally sympathetic. But this is not Christian charity. True Christian charity finds God Himself in our fellow men and out of love for Him strives to help them in their necessities. This virtue of Christian charity is sadly needed in the world today, because there is so much hatred, so much envy and personal ambition, that the love for others out of a truly supernatural motive is well nigh forgotten.

Practical Application

When you manifest kindness and generosity toward your fellowmen, be sure that the motive is supernatural. The people of the United States are deeply sympathetic toward those of other countries who are not so fortunate as themselves. It is doubtful that this is supernatural charity to any great extent, but Catholics at least should strive to make their assistance to those in need true Catholic charity.

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