St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila (of Jesus)

-Born: 1515 in Spain

-Her family: Her dad was really, really pious- strict kinda guy. Her mother was apparently a real girly girl who loved to read romance novel kinda things. Of course she would do it without her husband knowing because he wouldn't allow it! Teresa was one of 10 and her mother passed away when she was 15

-Childhood: She was courageous even as a child. Apparently at the age of 7 her and her brother decided to leave home and go into Moorish territory to be beheaded for Christ! But they got caught by their uncle who brought them home (haha). Not only was she courageous but she was a very outgoing, affectionate, and adaptable person as well.

-Teenage years: (I love this part) It seems that St. Teresa became quite the social butterfly in her teenage years. She was boy-crazy, vain, loved to gossip and picked up her mother's love for romance! In fact, her boy-craziness got to such an extreme in her pious father's eyes that he sent her to a convent!!! (haha)

-In the convent and beyond: After learning things from the nuns and doing some reading of scripture and other religious works Teresa, who had dreamed of getting married, began to wonder if the religious life was for her. Well (obviously) she stayed at the convent and became a Carmelite nun. Right after she became "installed" as a nun she wholeheartedly gave herself to prayer and penance. She had always been ill and got sick a lot and after a few years of continous illness her prayer life became kind of mediocre.

She had a hard time with meditation and this struggle apparently lasted her some 18 years. She was being held back by her desire to be appreciated by others which left her when she received a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ".

After this she began to see many visions and had a very "vivid experience of God's presence within her". Some of her friends and confessors said it was the devil and a few supported her. She became close friends with Jesus. !

On one of the sites I was looking at, it said that at one point she was too attached to her friends and God told her not to really converse with anybody anymore, but just to converse with angels and Himself. After this God became her #1 homie. One day, she was complaining about the way no one supported her (with her visions and all kinds of spiritual gifts they thought was from the devil..) and Jesus told her "Teresa, that's how I treat my friends." and she said "No wonder you have so few friends" (!!!!!!) lol. But since they were so few in number she felt they should be GOOD friends. So she was set to reform the convent which she did. 

There's a lot to this lady. But the main thing is that she is one of two women to be Doctors of the Church. Her teachings on prayer are the church's teachings on prayer. The whole idea of prayer being a conversation is hers.. i think.. or at least it came THROUGH her... anyways!

it goes something like this:

"For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything."

So anyways.. wow I actually WROTE, like from my MEMORY most of this so I feel tired already lol...

Living it out:

k first of all: HAPPY FEAST DAY TO ME AND ALL OTHER TERESA'S! yayyy haha

I tried to be close buds with Jesus today. I thought of Him a lot more and spoke to Him a lot more. And when I was in my STATS class (haha) I was thinking: "If you have a best friend wouldn't you want to take them around and introduce them to all your other friends? So if Jesus is your best friend..." So i had this kind of Epiphany today.. it was pretty cool! =)

Today I also read from the book of Sirach. It seemed appropriate because that book has some great stuff on Friendship.

OK, I remember making mental notes to myself a lot today but I don't remember half of them =/

Um, At Mass, we had a different priest today and he decided to give a homily which lead to another Epiphany haha. He said that it's not enough, or that you shouldn't think you're good to go if you just go to Mass, confession, tithe, and do all that stuff IF you don't love your neighbor. He said it in a way that made me realize that if we do that, we become just like those bad High Priests that Jesus encountered during his time here. So LOVE LOVE LOVE! Amen! =)

I really can't remember much else, if I do I'll just edit this post ^ -^

-Theresa