- St. Teresa of Jesus (St. Teresa of Avila) (1582). Doctor of the Church, Religious, Virgin. Patroness of headache sufferers. (Current, Traditional)
THEN a child of seven years, Teresa ran away from her home at Avila in Spain, in the hope of being martyred by the Moors. Being brought back and asked the reason of her flight, she replied, “I want to see God, and I must die before I can see Him.” She then began with her brother to build a hermitage in the garden, and was often heard repeating “Forever, forever.” Some years later she became a Carmelite nun. Frivolous conversations checked her progress towards perfection, but at last, in her thirty-first year, she gave herself wholly to God. A vision showed her the very place in hell to which her own light faults would have led her; and she lived ever after in the deepest distrust of self. She was called to reform her Order, favored with distinct commands from our Lord, and her heart was pierced with divine love; but she dreaded nothing so much as delusion, and to the last acted only under obedience to her confessors, which both made her strong and kept her safe. She died on October 4th, 1582.
REFLECTION: “After all I die a child of the Church.” These were the Saint’s last words. They teach us the lesson of her life to trust in humble, childlike obedience to our spiritual guides as the surest means of salvation.
WORD OF THE DAY
PASSION. Intense motion of a human appetite. Although commonly associated with bodily desires, such as anger or sex, passions can also arise in the spiritual faculties, as happens in envy and pride. Passions are essentially desires out of control because of fallen human nature. They are concupiscence in action. When passion arises spontaneously before the free will has acted, it is called antecedent and, as such, lessens human freedom and responsibility. When it is intentionally fostered by brooding or preoccupation, it is consequent passion because it comes after the free choice of the will. Consequent passion is morally culpable. (Etym. Latin passio, suffering, passion, affection.)
Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)
October, Month of the Rosary
Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for October, the Month of the Rosary. 15th Day — Mary’s Purification.
