{"id":25869,"date":"2010-10-15T08:33:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T12:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/10\/saint-teresa-of-jesus-avila\/"},"modified":"2010-10-15T08:33:15","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T12:33:15","slug":"saint-teresa-of-jesus-avila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/10\/saint-teresa-of-jesus-avila\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Teresa of Jesus (Avila)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was a bit more conscious of today’s feast being of the great Carmelite saint, founder and Doctor of the Church, Saint Teresa of of Jesus (Avila). She has a particular hold on me because of her honesty and her extraordinary attention to human experience. This is especially true when you heed what Teresa is saying about friendship and those distinctions between the human friendship that what is shared with the Lord. The Office of Readings provided for us by the Church –and herewith published with my emphasis– reminded me of something that’s been on my mind for some time: am I mindful of Jesus right <\/i>now<\/i><\/u>? The sacred Liturgy is most direct in reminding us that salvation is given to us today. We are not saved at some point in the future, but right now. Eternal life doesn’t only begin when we give up the ghost, but we live in the Eschaton at this moment of existence. Don’t be fooled: Christ uses our human experience to manifest the promise of our divine destiny. So I ask you, Are you mindful of Christ right now? If not, why? What is distracting you? If so, in what ways are you paying mind to Him?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n

\"St<\/a><\/p>\n

Pay attention to what Saint Teresa is saying:<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
If<\/b>
\nChrist Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that<\/b> man can
\nendure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us.
\nHe is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we expect to please him and
\nreceive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to
\nus from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God
\ntakes delight<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Many, many times I have perceived this through experience<\/u>. The
\nLord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate
\nif we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A
\nperson should desire no other path, even if<\/u> he is at the summit of
\ncontemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through
\nour Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the
\nbest example<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
What more do we desire from such a good friend at our side?<\/b>
\nUnlike our friends in the world<\/u>, he will never abandon us when we are troubled
\nor distressed<\/i><\/b>. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him
\nnear. Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell
\nfrom his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and
\nembedded in his heart<\/u><\/i><\/b>. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully
\nconsidered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found
\nthat they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of
\nSiena. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s
\nhands<\/b>. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an
\nintimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Whenever we
\nthink of Christ we should recall the love<\/u> that led him to bestow on us so many
\ngraces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a
\npledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep
\nthis always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some
\ntime the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts,
\nall will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and
\nwithout effort.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was a bit more conscious of today’s feast being of the great Carmelite saint, founder and Doctor of the Church, Saint Teresa of of Jesus (Avila). She has a particular hold on me because of her honesty and her extraordinary attention to human experience. This is especially true when you heed what Teresa is … Continue reading Saint Teresa of Jesus (Avila)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[2074,1775,1789],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}