To be "witnesses of God" in our
society, "often lacking in spiritual values" and dedicate "time to
prayer every day " on the "path to God, to seek his friendship," which
is not "a waste of time, rather a time that opens us up to the path of
true life, to love of God and the Church to "a real love for our
brethren".
This is the teaching that the life and work of St. Teresa of
Avila, the first of the "Doctor of the Church" to whom Benedict XVI
announced he will dedicate a “short cycle” of his lessons in the
upcoming general audience .
Teresa of Avila, in the words of the Pope, is "one of the greatest exponents of Christian spirituality of all time", a " true
teacher of life for the Christian faithful of every era " and "in our
current society often lacking in spiritual values, she teaches us to
really feel this thirst for God that exists in our hearts
Her spirituality is "profound and articulated", which "first
proposes the Gospel virtues as the basis of all Christian life and human
existence in particular, the detachment from earthly goods and
evangelical poverty"; "love for one the other as an essential element of
community and social life , humility as love of truth, determination as
the fruit of Christian audacity, theological hope, which she describes
as the thirst for living water. Neither does she forget human virtues:
affability, truthfulness, modesty, kindness, happiness and culture.
Secondly, Saint Teresa proposes a profound harmony between the great
biblical figures and listening to living the Word of God. "
Teresa, the Pope recalled, was born in Spain, in Ávila in 1515
to, as she herself writes in her autobiography, " virtuous, God-fearing
parents". She had nine brothers and three sisters. At less than 9 years
of age, her reading of the lives of the martyrs involved her to such a
degree that she runs away from home to die a martyr and go to heaven: "I
want to see God," she tells her parents. Some years later she reveals
that she found two truths in her childhood reading: "everything that
belongs to the world passes from here and only God is forever, forever,
forever."
Her familiarity with of spiritual books, especially of
Franciscan spirituality, "teach her meditation and prayer." At age 20,
she entered the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation in Avila.
Three
years later, she became seriously ill, so as to remain in a coma for
four days.
"Even in the fight against her illness the Saint sees the
battle against weaknesses and resistance to the call of God."
In 1543,
"she loses the closeness of her family”: her father dies and all her
brothers emigrate to America one by one. In the Lent of 1554, at 39
years, Teresa reaches the culmination of her struggle against their own
weaknesses. The accidental discovery of the statue of " a very wounded
Christ," a leaves a strong impression on her life.
"Parallel to her interior maturation, Teresa begins to concretely develop the idea of reforming the Carmelite Order: with
her bishops’ support she founded the first reformed Carmelite convent
in 1562 in Avila.
On receiving the approval of the superior general, she
would go on to found a total of 17. Her meeting with St. John of the
Cross is of fundamental importance, with whom, in 1568, at Duruelo, near
Avila, she founded the first convent of Discalced Carmelites.
In 1580
she obtained from Rome the erection in autonomous province for her
reformed Carmelites, the starting point of the religious order of
Discalced Carmelites.
Teresa ended her earthly life is while engaged in
its foundation. In 1582, in fact, after founding the Carmelite convent
in Burgos and while making her return trip to Avila, she died the night
of October 15 in Alba de Tormes, humbly repeating two phrases: "In the
end, I die as a daughter of the Church" and "My spouse, now is the time that we shall see each other!".
"A life consumed within Spain, but spent for the whole Church." She was
beatified by Pope Paul V in 1614 and canonized by Gregory XV in 1622,
she was proclaimed "Doctor of the Church" by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
"Teresa of Jesus had no academic training, but has always valued the
teachings of theologians, scholars and spiritual teachers. As a writer,
she always stuck to what she had personally experienced or had seen in
the experience of others, in short based on experience. "
Among her major works the first to be mentioned is her
autobiography, titled Book of Life, which she calls the Book of God's
mercy. Composed in the Caramel in Avila in 1565, "the work often shows
her dialogue of prayer with the Lord. It is a fascinating read, because
the Saint not only tells, but shows how she revived the experience of
her deep relationship with God. "
In 1566, Teresa wrote the Way of
Perfection, which she called the Admonishments and advice by Teresa of
Jesus to the her nuns. She offers them “an intensive program of
contemplative life to serve the Church, at founded on the virtues of the
Gospel and prayer. Among the most valuable passages , her commentary on
the Our Father, a model of prayer”.
The mystic’s most famous writing is
the Interior Castle, written in 1577, at her full maturity.
It is a
reinterpretation of her own journey of spiritual life and at the same
time, a codification of the possible conduct of the Christian life to
its fullness, holiness, under the action of the Holy Spirit".