Mother Teresa of Ávila, Discalced Carmelite, is about to die in her Monastery in Alba de Tormes (Salamanca). Having received Holy Communion and the Extreme Unction (Anointing), the foundress of the Discalced Carmelites gives thanks to God continually. Her last words: O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another. Your will be done… Thanks for making me a daughter of the Church. It was October 4, 1582. She was 67 years old. Teresa became Saint Teresa of Jesus with her canonization by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622. St. Paul VI proclaimed her the first woman Doctor of the Church on September 27, 1970.
Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in Avila (Spain) on March 15, 1515. She had two more sisters and nine brothers. Her father was a holy man and her mother, very honest. The family used to pass days of winter and summer in Gotarrendura (Avila Province), where the family had some land and a rural house. It is here where Teresa, 13 years old, lost her mother. The death of her mother at 33 was a most painful and shocking experience for her. After her mother was buried in Avila, Teresa felt deeply lonely. What to do? She went to a chapel where the image of Our Lady of Charity (now in the Cathedral) was venerated. With a child's innocence and total sincerity, and with many tears, she knelt before the image and ask our Lady to be her mother. She writes: "This has been valuable to me, because I have found this Virgin to be sovereign in what I have commended to her" (Life, cha. 1, no. 7). Teresa was also very devoted to St. Joseph, her “father and lord,” who helped her in every need and difficulty (cf. Life, 6, 5). She was not a friend of many devotions; yes, of few devotions and much devotion.
Teresa de Ávila is very human, graceful and gracious: authentic. Her sincerity, her humility, and poverty, her carrying the cross joyfully - and everything permeated by prayer - are really admirable and attractive. She loved to present herself as a miserable sinner, as “nothing,” a worm… Teresa looked always for wise and holy theologians and confessors to guide her in her spiritual life. Among them: Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, secular priests and lay women and men. Her works were written out of obedience to her confessors. The mystic would have preferred to talk of her many sins than of the great mercies God bestowed on her.
Main works of St. Teresa of Jesus: Life (Libro de la Vida), her incredible autobiography; the Way of Perfection (Camino de Perfección), her most read book; the Mansions of the Interior Castle (Moradas del Castillo Interior), which is the apex of her mystical experience, and the Book of Foundations (Libro de las Fundaciones), the enchanting drama of her painful and joyful foundations throughout Spain. She also wrote many charming Letters and some significant Poems. It is important to note that Teresa wrote her admirable books not only under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but guided by him directly, or by His Majesty: “Many things I wrote about are not from my head but because my celestial Master told me” (Life, 39, 8; cf. Ib. 14, 8).
Her charism (discalced nun) is a renewed, reformed charism, a new way of living religious life radically by going back to its roots: “Place your eyes in the lineage we came from, those holy Prophets.” She tells the brothers and the sisters - all of us believers: “Let us be fast in serving the Lord” (Foundations, 29, 32). Serving him with determined determination, “great determination” (cf. Mansions, 2nd., 1, 6; Life, 11, 13), imitating the determination of Jesus (Way of Perfection, 16, 9).
Mother Teresa -La Santa - teaches repeatedly that the greatest perfection is not in extraordinary mystical phenomena like interior gifts, ruptures, visions and the spirit of prophesy, which she experienced often, but “in having our will in conformity with the will of God” (Foundations, 5, 10), in total obedience to him.
Mother Teresa the Foundress suffered terribly to carry out her sixteen new foundations of discalced nuns (plus two without her physical presence), and fourteen of discalced men, with St. John of the Cross (and others). She always went ahead, because she was firmly convinced that the Lord would always help her - as it was.
The communities Mother Teresa founded centered on a life of prayer and virtues. She describes the soul as an interior garden, virtues as the flowers, and prayer as the water. I would not desire another kind of prayer but the one that would make me grow in virtues (Letter ,23-X-1576, 8); There is no building of so much beauty as a clean soul filled with virtues” (Way of Perfection, 28, 9). An advice: We always try to look at the virtues and good deeds that we see in others, and cover up their defects with our great sins (Life, 13, 10). True prayer requires fasting, discipline and silence because. “A comfortable life and prayer do not match” (Way of Perfection, 4, 2); poor sisters and comfortable life is not the way (Ib. 11, 3). Teresa asks for moderate penances and opposes harsh and rigid penances (Ib. 15, 3), which she calls “indiscrete penances” (Ib. 19, 9).
Only three things really matter, according to Teresa: love among the sisters, detachment from the world, and true humility, which although I mention last, it is the first and embraces all (Way of Perfection, 4, 4). She writes magnificently on humility. After finishing, she comments: “How well I write it, and how poorly I do it.” “Believe me, an act of humility is more valuable than all the science of the world” (Life, 15, 8).
The key to a holy and happy life is love: love as way and goal. One who loves God, loves, wants, favors, praises and defends all that is good (cf. Way of Perfection, 40. 3). La Santa underlines that the Rule and Constitutions are nothing if not means to love God and neighbor, the two commandments of true perfection (cf. Mansions, first, 2, 17).
St. Teresa of Jesus is a contemplative and active nun: “Believe me that Martha and Mary are to be together to host and have him [Jesus] within always, and do not give him bad hospitality by not giving him to eat” (Mansions, 7th, 4, 14).
She is Master of Prayer in theory and in practice. When St. Paul VI proclaimed her Doctor of the Church, the Pope underlined “her noble and sublime teaching on prayer.” Prayer is not thinking much, but loving much” (Foundations, 5, 2). Teresa says that to leave prayer is to lose the way (Life, 19, 11). Good prayer is grounded on humility, and on “the way of love” and also on “the way of the cross.” (Cf. Life, 10, 5; 11. 1; 15. 13). Prayer is the royal way to heaven; “Never leave prayer; there is always remedy for those who pray.” She loved the Holy Eucharist deeply and treasured holy communion (cf. Life, 38, 21).
What matters is that prayer is humble: all kinds of good prayer are humble. Vocal prayer is good as long as one realizes who is speaking, to whom he or she is speaking, and what she or he is saying. Teresa’s emblematic definition of mental prayer: A dialogue of friendship (falling in love with God), being alone (solitude), many times (frequently), with the One we know that loves us (Life, 8, 5). The Lord is el amigo verdadero, the true friend (Life, 25, 17). The ladder of perfection - of holiness - is ascended through vocal, mental, contemplative - and unitive prayer, and up to spiritual marriage.
What method of prayer is the best for you, for me? Teresa answers: If contemplating and having mental and vocal prayer and healing the sick and serving in the things of the house and work in the lowest kind, everything is serving the Guest …, does it matter doing one thing or another?” (Way of Perfection, 17, 6). Therefore, “Do what most awakens you to love” ((Interior Castle, 4th, 1, 7).
The fruits of good prayer are good deeds. From good prayer come always the birth of deeds, deeds” (Interior Castle, 7th, 4, 6). Teresa asks her nuns to be “preachers of good works” (Way of Perfection, 15, 6). This means concretely, abandoning sin, taking up the cross joyfully, practicing virtues, above all, humility, detachment and love as charity, which gives life to all the virtues. Teresa writes: “The Lord never fails,” and His Majesty pays well - better than the kings if the earth (cf. Way of Perfection, 18, 3).
La Santa Madre read “many spiritual books” (Ib. 14, 7) that helped her much. Her best book? His Majesty, Jesus has been the true book, where I saw the truths (cf. Ib. 26, 6). “The witnessing of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross tell us that the union with God in love is possible for all (John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Ineunte, 33).
Let nothing disturb you, / Let nothing frighten you; / All things pass away, /
God never changes. / Patience obtains all things; / He who has God /
finds he lacks nothing, / God alone suffices (St. Teresa of Ávila).
(Fausto Gomez Berlana OP)