Bear One Another's Burdens

   "The responsibility of love is that we bear one another's burdens.
But this responsibility, which is not an eternal one, leads doubtless
to an eternal blessedness in which there will be no burdens for us
that we will be required to bear for one another.
   Now, however, while we are in this life, that is, on this journey,
let us bear one another's burdens so that we can achieve that life
which is free of every burden."
--St. Augustine--Eighty-three Diverse Questions, 71

Prayer: Lord, inspire me with love, that I may teach sweetness. Give
me patience, that I may teach discipline. Enlighten my understanding,
that I may teach wisdom.
--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 118 (17), 4

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October 15th - Saint Teresa of Avila

Virgin, Reformer of the Carmelite Order (1515-1582)

"By their fruits you will know them," says Our Lord of those who claim
to be His followers. The fruits which remain of the life, labors and
prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila bear to her virtue a living and
enduring testimony which none can refuse to admit. She herself wrote
her life and many other celebrated spiritual works, and much more can
still be said of this soul of predilection, whose writings and
examples have led so many souls to high sanctity.

Born in 1515 in the kingdom of Castile in Spain, she was the youngest
child of a virtuous nobleman. When she was seven years old, Teresa
fled from her home with one of her young brothers, in the hope of
going to Africa and receiving the palm of martyrdom. Brought back and
asked the reason for her flight, she replied: "I want to see God, and
I must die before I can see Him." She then began, with her same
brother, Rodriguez, to build a hermitage in the garden, and was often
heard repeating: "Forever, forever!" She lost her mother at the age of
twelve years, and was led by worldly companions into various
frivolities. Her father decided to place her in a boarding convent,
and she obeyed without any inclination for this kind of life. Grace
came to her assistance with the good guidance of the Sisters, and she
decided to enter religion in the Carmelite monastery of the
Incarnation at Avila.

For a time frivolous conversations there, too, checked her progress
toward perfection, but finally in her thirty-first year, she abandoned
herself entirely to God. A vision showed her the very place in hell to
which her apparently light faults would have led her, and she was told
by Our Lord that all her conversation must be with heaven. Ever
afterwards she lived in the deepest distrust of herself. When she was
named Prioress against her will at the monastery of the Incarnation,
she succeeded in conciliating even the most hostile hearts by placing
a statue of Our Lady in the seat she would ordinarily have occupied,
to preside over the Community.

God enlightened her to understand that He desired the reform of her
Order, and her heart was pierced with divine love. The Superior
General gave her full permission to found as many houses as might
become feasible. She dreaded nothing so much as delusion in the
decisions she would make in difficult situations; we can well
understand this, knowing she founded 17 convents for the
Sisters, and that 15 others for the Fathers of the Reform were
established during her lifetime, with the aid of Saint John of the
Cross. To the end of her life she acted only under obedience to her
confessors, and this practice both made her strong and preserved her
from error. Journeying in those days was far from comfortable and even perilous, but nothing could stop the Saint from accomplishing the holy
Will of God. When the cart was overturned one day and she had a broken
leg, her sense of humor became very evident by her remark: "Dear Lord,
if this is how You treat Your friends, it is no wonder You have so
few!" She died October 4, 1582, and was canonized in 1622.

The history of her mortal remains is as extraordinary as that of her
life. After nine months in a wooden coffin, caved in from the excess
weight above it, the body was perfectly conserved, though the clothing
had rotted. A fine perfume it exuded spread throughout the entire
monastery of the nuns, when they reclothed it. Parts of it were later
removed as relics, including the heart showing the marks of the Transverberation, and her left arm. At the last exhumation in 1914,
the body was found to remain in the same condition as when it was seen previously, still recognizable and very fragrant with the same intense
perfume.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul
Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882)


Reflection:
 The devotion of Saint Teresa of Avila to Saint Joseph, virginal
father of Jesus, is proverbial. She said she had never asked anything
of him without receiving what she requested. In the 18th century
the Carmelite churches named for him numbered over one hundred and
fifty. Let us imitate this holy Foundress and invoke Saint Joseph for
our needs, both spiritual and temporal.

Bible Quote:
For which cause I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift
of God, which is in thee through the laying on of my hands. For God
gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and
discipline. Be not ashamed therefore of the testimony of our Lord, nor
of me his prisoner: but suffer hardship with the gospel according to
the power of God;
--St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy (2 Tim 1:6-8)  DRB


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IDLE TALK

 A sin that is most common and very little recognized is the sin of
idle talk. Let us ponder what the Holy Bible has to say on this
subject and then adjust our lives accordingly. From the Holy Bible:
“But I tell you that of every idle word men speak, they shall give
account on the day of judgment.  For by thy words thou wilt be
condemned” (Matt. 12:36-37). What is the general rule about the use of
the tongue? “But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and
slow to wrath. For the wrath of man does not work the justice of God”
(James 1:19-20).  What does idle talking lead to? “ But avoid profane
and empty babblings, for they contribute much to ungodliness and their
speech spreads like a cancer" (2 Tim. 2:16:18).

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