In Our October Eucharists: Holy Teresa of Jesus
Dear friends at Our Redeemer,
As we announced last month, we will be remembering a holy person by name in our Eucharistic prayers each month. Each person is taken from the Episcopal Church’s official sanctoral calendar—that is, the calendar we share of holy people’s deaths and remembrances.
In October, we will be remembering Teresa of Jesus. You might know her better as Teresa of Avila! Teresa of Jesus was the name she took as a nun, and Teresa of Avila is how most remember her as a saint. She is also a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, and is also a Doctor of the Church, a title given in the Roman church to people who have contributed significantly to theology and doctrine.
Teresa is one of my favorite saints; I got to know her through her writing in The Interior Castle, and later in her autobiography and in her letters. She is hilarious, brisk, brilliant, and humble. I was delighted when I first encountered her descriptions of her mind at prayer—they are now shared by many as classic descriptions of the ADHD mind!
She was full of opinions and struggles. She lived with (what we would call) migraines and chronic illnesses. She was a mystic who was intensely practical, and all her work and her writing was about drawing people closer to God. Her work was done in the shadow of the Inquisition, and she faced slander and accusation from fellow Christians in the Church for much of her adult life, without becoming bitter or cynical. She balanced clear-sightedness with a fierce sentimentality.
I commend her to you as a friend in the faith and teacher!
-Mtr. Emily Garcia
4 October 2024
from the official Episcopal calendar, Lesser Feasts and Fasts:
Teresa was born in Spain, near Avila. Even in her childhood, she took much pleasure in the study of saints’ lives, and she used to delight in spending times of contemplation, repeating over and over, “For ever, for ever, for ever, for ever, they shall see God.”
In her autobiography, Teresa tells that following her mother’s death, she became quite worldly. To offset this, her father placed her in an Augustinian convent to be educated, but serious illness ended her studies. During convalescence, she determined to enter the religious life and, though opposed by her father, she became a postulant at a Carmelite convent. Again, illness forced her to return home, but after three years, she returned to the convent.
Her prayer life during this period was difficult. She wrote: “I don’t know what heavy penance could have come to mind that I would not have gladly and frequently undertaken rather than recollect myself in the practice of prayer.” This early difficult experience would shape her later writings on prayer, in which she insisted that the spiritual life cannot be grounded in feelings and consolations.
In time, frustrated by the laxity of life in her community, Teresa set out to establish a reformed Carmelite order of “discalced” religious, who wore sandals or went barefoot. Despite many setbacks, she traveled for 25 years throughout Spain. Energetic, practical, and efficient, as well as being a mystic and ascetic, she established 17 convents of Reformed Carmelites. Even imprisonment did not deter her. Her younger contemporary John of the Cross became a close personal and spiritual friend.
Her sisters urged her to write down some of her teachings on prayer for them, which is how we came to have her works The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection. Many people at the time felt that mental prayer (as opposed to reciting the vocal prayer of the liturgy) was too difficult and too dangerous for women, but Teresa insisted that “Mental prayer is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with him whom we know loves us.”
Despite the demands of her administrative and missionary work, Teresa found time to write the numerous letters that give us rare insights into her personality and concerns. Her extensive correspondence often kept her awake at night until 3:00 in the morning, after which she would awaken at 5:00 for morning prayer with the community. Teresa found writing to be burdensome, and often protested that she would be much happier spinning or working in the kitchen. Once she sat down to write, however, she was eloquent and efficient. Her great work The Interior Castle was written in less than two months.
Her death in 1582, following two years of illness, was peaceful. Her last sight was of the Sacrament, brought for her comfort; her last words, “O my Lord! Now is the time that we may see each other.”