TERESA: A PRAYER CENTERED REFORMER (Part 2)
Teresa s Experience
Saint Teresa had a profound spiritual experience of her own identity in relation to Jesus in which he assured her that just as she was “Teresa of Jesus” so was he “Jesus of Teresa.” With Teresa we are able to find grounds for our identification with Jesus in St. Paul’s assertion, “and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). In Revelation 3:20-where Jesus says to each of us, “Listen! I am standing at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me”-one who prays is assured of the nourishment and drink one needs in one’s prayer life. As we hear within ourselves these words, the Spirit of Jesus is enlightening us to follow the pathway into the interior of ourselves to our deepest center where God dwells-Father, Son, and Spirit.
We shall be reflecting on the role of prayer in our self-discovery in the light of the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila. Therefore, we must consider: Who was this sixteenth-century Carmelite nun whose writings speak to us today of a search into our identity and meaning in our lives? Why do her reflections on her journey into the center of herself invite us to accompany her as she learned through experience to enter into conversation with Jesus Christ, who invited her into a personal intimacy with him in prayer as her Friend?
Teresa’s Background
Teresa was born in the city of Avila on March 28, 1515, one of ten children of Beatrice de Ahumada, the second wife of our future Saint’s father, Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda. Alonso was a highly respected and respectable man who refused to own slaves and had special care for the servants in his household. He was generous in giving alms to the poor, of which there were many in Avila even in this “golden age.” Don Alonso also had a good library containing books in Spanish, which his children were encouraged to read. Teresa’ mother was a devout and devoted wife and mother, who trained her children in virtue. She had a special devotion to our Blessed Mother and to the rosary, which deeply influenced Teresa.
Teresa’s mother had borne ten children by the time she died at the age of thirty-three. Since she was often not well, she found recreation -much to her husband’s displeasure-in reading chivalrous novels, which she shared with Teresa. These tales provided her young daughter with a literary format and content that would prove beneficial as she developed her own style of writing. She and one of her brothers wrote their tale of chivalry a little later.
At the time of her mother’s death, Teresa was thirteen years old. She knelt before our Blessed Mother’s statue and begged Mary to become her mother. For the next three years, Teresa gradually lost her youthful piety. She became very interested in learning from a youthful cousin-whom her father could not prevent from visiting their home-the vanities and amusements an adolescent girl of her class would want to cultivate. When Teresa’s oldest sister left home to marry, her father, concerned about his favorite daughter’s coming under the influence of a young male cousin, took this opportunity to place her in the care of the Augustinian nuns in a convent of Our Lady of Grace in Avila.
(….to be continued everyday till end of article)
Article by Mary Eileen McNamara, OCD , titled “Saint Teresa of Avila: Prayer-Centered Reformer”, Published in Spiritual Life, Summer 2010.
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