AN “exceptional woman” and an “attractive model of total donation to God” is the portrait that Pope Francis painted of Saint Teresa of ávila, also known in her religious name Teresa of Jesus, in the letter sent to the Provost General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites for the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Saint of ávila.
On March 28 after joining in the yearly “hour of prayer for peace” promoted in all Carmelite communities throughout the world, the pontiff wrote to Fr. Saverio Cannistrà, recalling that the Saint Teresa’s anniversary coincided with the Year of Consecrated Life, in which she was and is among the most attractive examples.
In describing the figure of the saint, the Pope noted, in particular, the prayerful, missionary, ecclesial and communitary dimensions of her spirituality.
Saint Teresa is, first and foremost, he said, a “master of prayer.” Indeed “the humanity of Christ was central to her experience. Moved by the desire to share this personal experience with others, she describes it in a lively and simple manner, within reach of all.”
He emphasized that her prayer “was not one reserved to only one space or one moment of the day” but, on the contrary, “arose spontaneously on many different occasions. For this reason, Saint Teresa asks us by her example “to be persevering, faithful, even in the midst of aridity, of personal difficulties or of the urgent needs that call to us.” In the missionary and ecclesial dimensions, which have always distinguished the Carmelite religious family, “the saint opens new horizons for us, she convokes us for a great undertaking, in order to look at the world through Christ’s eyes, to seek what He seeks and to love what He loves.”
“Saint Teresa knew,” the pontiff affirmed, “that neither prayer nor mission could be sustained without an authentic communitary life. Therefore, she placed fraternity at the foundation of her monasteries.”
L’Osservatore Romano/News.va
1 comment
I wish this man would just find a center to himself and the Gospel …instead of this humanistic falder-all where he keeps treating His Church like a bunch of wayward over sensitive , bad-attitude , half – Catholics ….continually on the edge of leaving his Church because they are near total worldlings. Look – just say that males are to be Priests because that is what Jesus did and did for a reason . Then explain the reason and mention that it’s always been that way for 2000 years and that men are not better than woman and not the “boss” of woman . That women don’t need to be the “boss” either. Look he has plenty of sincere and faithful women who want nothing to do with the feminist activists in his Church and are not “chaffing at the bit” thinking his Church and the Lord are chauvinists.
jeeze Louise …. just stand up in righteousness and nobility ..stop crawling around on your knees to every activist and anti-freaking Christian that comes your way ….all they want to do is take it down …not build it up.