Category: Uncategorized

A Spanish Saint-St Teresa de Avila

by Victor, posted in Uncategorized

October is a great month, children are settling down to their classes at school, parents are getting used to the daily routine and church is celebrating many of its famous saints. There is St. Francis of Assisi, October 4th, St. Ignatius of Loyola October 17th, St. Luke October 18th, St. Jude October 28th and even Blessed John Paul II October 22nd. This is all bringing to the ultimate saint celebration on November 1st—All Saints Day.

Saints have such a powerful way to catechize even in today’s world. The lives that these saints lived have in such self-sacrifice and many paying the ultimate price of giving up their lives for their faith in Jesus is very incredible. They really teach young and old alike that living the life of a saint is really a gift.

St. Teresa of Avila is one such saint that had a gift for living a life with Christ. Ever since she was a young child she would sit with her brother Rodrigo and they would talk about how marvelous it was to be a saint. She had such great admiration for the lives of the saints. This admiration was probably given to her by her parents and her catechists. From an early age St. Teresa knew that she wanted to be like the saints that she wanted to live a life really close to Jesus. She is often referred to as St. Teresa of Jesus.

St. Teresa grew up in Spain in the 1500’s. She entered the convent when her mother died. While she loved the religious life she found it to be too distracting from what she really wanted to do and that is meditate on the salvation of Jesus. As a child, she loved reading romance novels that included stories about the handsome price navigating the castle similar to the ones all over her country. This prince would navigate the castle until he found his princess. The actual finding the princess was the main thing but the journey there is what made it all possible.

When she wrote her book “The Interior Castle,” she probably had that imagery in her mind. For Teresa the interior castle was a journey one took and within the main big castle there were many smaller castles. Each castle brought us more beauty and brought us closer to being in the Kingdom of God. This journey was mystical and beautiful and spiritual.

In our lives, we have to set time aside to allow us to be on this journey. We have to take time to break from what we do dedicate a small portion of week our day in search for that inner castle. As catechist we not only owe that to ourselves but to our students and their parents. But at times, everything we do in life can derail us and we find it hard to find the time necessary to be on that journey. St. Teresa knew that many of life’s daily events disrupt us and she left us with this beautiful prayer to helps us remember what is important in life.

Nada te turbe
Nada te turbe;
nada te espante;
todo se pasa;
Dios no se muda,
la paciencia

todo lo alcanza.
Quien a Dios tiene,
nada le falta.
Solo Dios basta.