The Feast of St Teresa of Avila

"Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” (Luke 11: 52).

Thursday 15th October 2020, 28th Week in Ordinary Time is the feast of a great woman: St Teresa of Jesus, popularly known as St Teresa of Avila. (1515 - 1582). Spanish Carmelite and great Reformer. She was a mystic and great spiritual writer. She is one of the four women to be proclaimed Doctor of the Church.

What do you make of our key Scripture for today with regard to St Teresa whose feast we celebrate today? Coincidence or prophetic? There are so many doctors or scholars of the law in the Church but there are only 35 Doctors of the Church. What is the difference? Look at the life and work of St Teresa of Avila and compare it to the academic doctors of theology in the Church you know.

The teaching of Teresa aims at bringing you to Jesus. She wants you to know Jesus more, so that you can love Him and serve Him more. Teresa and other Doctors of the Church are deeply interested in your eternal destiny. The academic doctors of theology are often speculative and not explicit of their intentions to evangelize. This is why the scholars of the law did not take the criticism of Jesus lightly:
"When he [Jesus] left [after criticizing them], the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say." (Luke 11: 53 - 54].

Here is one of the great maxims of St Teresa of Avila. I read it every morning so that the truth will penetrate my soul:

"Let nothing trouble you,
let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing;
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who possesses God lacks nothing: God alone suffices."  (St Teresa of Avila).

St Teresa of Avila pray for us.

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