in the same way the spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness
for we do not know how to pray as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible
groanings name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit amen today we celebrate the memorial
to saint teresa of jesus also called saint teresa of avila the great carmelite reformer of the 16th
century virgin and doctor of the church in a way today's gospel is a a parable of her own life
and all of all of our
lives in a way because we are all on the vine and without if we're not on the vine we don't
bear any fruit and if we're on the vine the lord will come and prune us as it were so that we bear
more fruit saint teresa of jesus had entered the carmelites in the avila the monastery of
the incarnation which had a hundred and twenty sisters but at the time it was
a very small village an old town that they would be very sociable they would spend many hours in
the parlor with fancy ladies and gentlemen talking and discussing things and of course
this distracted them from prayer so the lord pruned her in a way taking these things away
from her showing her that this is not the way the religious life should be followed
So she began her reform of the Carmelite order,
became what we know as discalced,
because one of the prescriptions was that they would not wear shoes,
they would wear sandals.
So they became discalced.
Before that, Teresa had been led by the Spirit,
as we saw in today's first reading.
The Spirit teaches us how to pray with incredible groanings.
God, the Holy Spirit, shows us the way.
And St. Teresa was given the mystical gift of transverberation,
which is mystical marriage.
She said she saw a cherubim, an angel,
piercing her heart with an arrow.
This was the mystical marriage.
When it pierced her heart, the pain was so intense that she groaned.
But it was also so sweet
that she cried out in pain.
She said she would want it to last continuously.
And after that, she experienced so much love of God
that she said she would either rather die or just suffer for God.
She also made a vow that always to do that which is most perfect.
So we can see in the life of St. Teresa of Avila
the raising of a soul, as we see in today's first prayer.
How God raised up St. Teresa,
St. Teresa to show us the way of perfection.
And nobody shows us how to live the life of prayer
better than St. Teresa of Avila.
This is why she's called the doctor of spiritual theology.
She is to prayer what St. Thomas Aquinas is to dogmatic theology,
the teachings of the church.
She shows us how to pray.
And she does it in such a beautiful way
that we can all understand it.
She was not an educated woman.
She was a very simple woman.
In fact, she encouraged her sisters to live simply.
And when one young lady came with her own Bible
to join her order after the reform,
she told us she was not wanted
and to take herself and the Bible away
because what they were interested in
is just spinning and obedience.
Not learning.
Simple obedience.
And simple works like spinning the cloth and so forth.
Work that women can do
and work that women at that time were expert in.
So, as you can see, she's a very practical woman.
She also teaches us wonderful things about the life of prayer.
Her life, her autobiography,
The Way of Perfection,
and The Interior Castle
shows us the various stages of prayer.
Well worth for us to read.
If we want to truly understand prayer.
In her simplicity,
she also gives us practical norms to follow.
One particular one about distractions.
She alluded to distractions being like the lunatic in the house.
In your mind,
your mind is very distracted.
And the lunatic in the soul, as it were.
That you can't keep one or two thoughts together.
That you can't keep one or two thoughts together.
That you can't keep one or two thoughts together.
They just come spontaneously, one after the other.
And it's impossible.
Just like it's impossible to control a lunatic.
You can't control the distractions in your soul.
We just do the best we can.
Focus on God and ask the Lord to help us to pray better.
But the distractions will come.
It's the nature of our mind.
As we know, the stream of consciousness.
Literary writers would use that.
Showing how the mind would go from one thought to the next thought to the next thought.
And we wonder why it jumps like that.
It's just the nature of it.
That's why she called the mind the lunatic in the soul.
Because there are so many distractions.
So we're not to worry about them.
In fact, one of her daughters, St. Teresa of Lisieux,
would take those distractions and use them.
As a means of praying for the people who were distracted.
Sometimes God will inspire us in our mind to think of certain people.
Might even be during prayer.
We don't want to think about them.
We may not have thought about them for years.
All of a sudden we come to think about somebody and it's a distraction.
And to make it of good purpose, we can pray for that person.
So, and especially when we say from St. Augustine,
who tells us that God governs all thoughts.
He allows them to come to God.
To come to us.
He permits them or he wills them.
And we have to discern whether the thought is good or bad.
If the thought is bad, like a temptation, we get rid of it.
If it's good, we can use it.
And pray and go on to it and learn from it.
So St. Teresa gives us wonderful practical knowledge.
She's the great gift of the 16th century.
In the time when the church was,
experienced a golden age.
She was part of that because she reformed the convents.
So that they would live a life of perfection as religious.
And give themselves to prayer and discipline.
And her reform was very strict and austere.
Perpetual absence, silence,
not wearing shoes and much prayer.
And a very strict enclosure where the nuns
would not go out.
And that reform has continued even today to the Carmelites.
Still a vibrant force in the Catholic Church.
And thriving in various sections in America.
When few other religious orders are getting vocations,
the Carmelites and various foundations are turning people away,
as it were.
Filled up convents.
So it's a joy to celebrate this wonderful feast for a great,
great woman, a great saint, a great reformer of the 16th century.
So let us pray to Our Lady, especially as she asked at Fatima,
to pray and sacrifice for souls and that many vocations would come
to orders that would lead a life of perfection for the glory of the church
and for the salvation of souls.
May the Lord bless you.
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