CMMB: Your Weekly Reflection in Prayer 10/14/2012

“I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her...Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands.”   Wisdom 7:7 & 11  October 14, 2012  St. Teresa of Jesus Virgin and Doctor of the Church  Dear Friends,  In the life and writings of St. Teresa of Jesus, known as Teresa of Avila (1515-82), we find a strong mixture of the mystical, the holy, the practical, and at times, the humorous. Feasting on a roast partridge, the sisters in her community were scandalized. But Teresa of Avila laughed and replied, “At prayer times, pray! At partridge time, partridge!” One of her prayers was: “From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.” Holiness was not a Sunday but an everyday affair. Thus she wrote, “Know that even when you are in the kitchen, our Lord moves amidst the pots and pans.” She is now one of the three women saints who are official teachers or “doctors” of the Church. She gives us much to think and pray about. She writes, “We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reasons for thinking so. But there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not!” Finally, we have her most famous prayer: Let nothing disturb thee, Nothing affright thee All things are passing; God never changeth; Patient endurance Attaineth to all things: Who God possesseth In nothing is wanting; Alone God sufficeth.   O God Who through Your Spirit raised up Saint Teresa of Jesus to show the Church the way to seek perfection, grant that we may always be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching and fired with longing for true holiness, through Christ our Lord.   Amen Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J., CMMB Board of Directors This is the one portrait of Teresa that is probably the most true to her appearance. It is a copy of an original painting of her in 1576 at the age of 61.