TAKE FIVE FOR FAITH: ST. TERESA OF JESUS

Image via Wikipedia TAKE FIVE FOR FAITH:  Daily renewal for busy Catholics

Saturday, October 15 FEAST OF TERESA OF JESUS, VIRGIN, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH What’s behind the next door? At the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila, Spain, you can still walk through the doorway that Saint Teresa of Avila used to enter the Carmelite convent in 1536. She used the same doorway when she left the convent in 1562 to begin the reform of the Carmelite order. She had thought and prayed deeply about both decisions. She then crossed the threshold and lived into those decisions. It didn’t mean she was 100-percent sure about how the Spirit would teach and guide her along the way. But she trusted in the Spirit and took giant steps into her future and the future of the church. What doorway is the Spirit asking you to walk through today? How can you rely on the Spirit to help you take steps into your future? TODAY’S READINGS: Romans 4:13, 16-18; Luke 12:8-12 (472) “For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

St Teresa of Avila

Let us always be mindful of Christ's love

If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God takes delight.

  Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.

  What more do we desire from such a good friend at our side? Unlike our friends in the world, he will never abandon us when we are

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troubled or distressed. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him near. Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of Siena. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s hands. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.

  Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favours, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.

[From 'Office of Readings']

 

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