October 15, 2026
Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of
the Church
Lectionary: 470
Reading 1
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
to the holy ones who are in Ephesus
and faithful in Christ Jesus:
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.
In Christ we have redemption by his Blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us
the mystery of his will in accord with his favor
that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2a) The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing praise to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and melodious song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully before the King, the LORD.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The Lord said:
“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute’
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
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.”
When Jesus left, 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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101526.cfm
Commentary on
Ephesians 1:1-10
We begin today reading from the Letter to the Ephesians and
we will continue with it until middle of Week 30. In our Bibles, this letter
follows immediately on Galatians, but belongs to a later period in Paul’s
missionary life.
It is useful to be aware that the Pauline letters, from
Romans to Philemon, are arranged, not according to the date on which they were
written, but according to their length. Early editors would not have been too
clear on the chronological order of the letters. They did not have the editorial
tools which are available to us now.
Because of the general nature of its contents, the Letter to
the Ephesians is often thought to be a kind of ‘encyclical’ sent to several
churches in the region. Many of the best manuscripts do not have the name
“Ephesus” in the opening verse. Also, because of noticeable differences in
style and language compared to letters regarded as definitely from Paul, doubts
have been raised about the Pauline authorship of this letter. It is possible
that it was written by a disciple familiar with Paul’s teaching and issued even
after the Apostle’s death.
The letter is thought to date from late in the first century
AD, and seems to be addressed to a predominantly gentile church which already
has lost most of its links with Jewish traditions. Overall it is a letter
extremely rich in its ideas and that is why we will stay with it over the next
nine weekdays.
In commenting on the readings, for convenience we will
attribute the contents to Paul, because, although he may not have penned the
letter himself, it undoubtedly reflects his teachings.
In the opening sentence, the greeting is from Paul, who
calls himself an Apostle of Christ Jesus appointed by Christ. An ‘apostle’
(Greek, apostolos, from the verb apo-stello) is someone who has
been entrusted with handing on an official message—an ambassador or emissary.
This responsibility has come directly from God and, later in the course of the
letter, Paul will emphasise the role of God’s planning in the unfolding course
of events.
The letter is addressed to the “saints” (Greek, hagioi),
who are defined as those who are “faithful in Christ Jesus”. In fact, the word
“saints” was used at this time for all the baptised members of the community.
The word really denotes people who are set apart from others.
In our passage today we find the usual greeting, in words
that we now use in our Eucharistic liturgy:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Familiarity with such phrases can prevent us from fully
savouring the content of the greeting, which asks for “grace” and “peace”.
These are both key words in this letter: “grace” is used no
less than 12 times and “peace” occurs seven times. “Grace” (Greek, charis)
is the unmerited love of God as experienced in our lives and “peace” (Greek, eirene)
is that deep harmony between God, other people, our environment and ourselves.
We could hardly wish people richer gifts than these.
The words “Blessed be God the Father…” now introduce a
beautiful prayer of blessing which goes to the end of today’s reading and
continues up to the end of tomorrow’s reading as well. In the Greek, it forms a
single sentence (writers of classical Greek and Latin liked long sentences, but
in our writing style they need to be broken up). The prayer is what we call a
‘doxology’ because it is a paean of worship and praise for all that God has
done. The term comes from the Greek word doxa which means ‘glory’.
Paul speaks first of the blessings we have through the
Father (v 3), then of those that come through the Son (vv 4-13) and finally of
those through the Holy Spirit (vv 13-14). Today’s reading ends at verse 10 and
the rest will be read tomorrow.
It begins with praise for the Father, who is the source of
all the spiritual or “heavenly” blessings we have received through Jesus
Christ. The terms “heavenly places” or “heavenly realm” occur five times in
this letter; they emphasise that Christ is now in glory and they point to our
future sharing in his life. Paul calls them the “every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places”. In other words, these blessings are not just recent. God had
chosen us from the very beginning, long before our world came into existence.
And the complete fulfilment of these blessings will only be experienced after
our time on this earth. In the meantime we continue to experience them in this
life, hopefully in ever-growing degrees.
These blessings come from the Father “in Christ”, a phrase
which is used 12 times in this prayer alone and expresses our close union with
him as members of his Body.
Why were we were chosen (why us…why me)? Paul now gives a
number of reasons:
- We
are called to live “in Christ” and to be “holy and blameless”. Holiness is
the result—not the basis—of God’s choosing. It refers both to the holiness
imparted to the believer because of Christ and to the believer’s personal
sanctification (see 1 Cor 1:2). It is both our vocation and God’s gift to
us. Holiness is not our doing. And let us never say, “I don’t have a
vocation”. Every baptised person has been called from all eternity, truly
a sobering thought. The question each one of us needs to answer is: to
what role in the community am I being particularly called? (We will see
something of that later in the Letter.)
- We
are called—in a lovely phrase—to be “before him in love”. That phrase
makes a perfect summary of a Christian life; everything is there and the
rest is icing on the cake. ‘Love’ here is primarily the love God has for
us (agape), and that leads him to ‘choose’ us and to call us to be
‘holy’. At the same time, this love does not exclude our reaching out in
love for God which results from, and is a response to, his own love for
us.
- We
are called to “adoption as his children”. In a sense every person is a
child of God by virtue of creation, but through our baptism and our
special relationship through Jesus, we become adopted children of God, to
be in a special way brothers and sisters of Jesus and partners in his work
to establish the Kingdom. Jesus Christ, the only Son, is both the source
and the model of the way God has chosen for us to become holy, i.e. by
adopting us as his heirs.
- We
are called “to the praise of his glorious grace”. God’s grace is the gift
of being called to share God’s life through Jesus Christ. These are the
two themes that run through this account of God’s blessings: their source
is God’s liberality, and their purpose is to make his glory appreciated by
creatures. Everything comes from him, and everything should lead to him.
This we are to proclaim ‘from the housetops’ so that others too may open
themselves to this gift. This is what Jesus meant in another context when
he spoke of our being the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”
so that people may come to be drawn to the love and service of the Lord
(see Matt 5:13-16).
- And
lastly, by our being called to Jesus we have “redemption through his
blood”. This means that by his suffering and death on the cross Jesus has,
so to speak, bought back our freedom. The New International Version
Bible explains:
“The Ephesians were familiar with the Greco Roman practice
of redemption: Slaves were freed by the payment of a ransom. Similarly, the
ransom necessary to free sinners from the bondage of sin and the resulting
curse imposed by the law (see Gal. 3:13) was the death of Christ.”
This freedom comes through the forgiveness of our sins,
which in effect means a total reconciliation with God through what Jesus has
done for us. As we mentioned earlier when reading Galatians, the experience of
freedom is an important element in our Christian life.
Summing up, Paul refers to all this as the “riches of his
grace”, the abundance of freely-given love which has been “showered” on us in
God’s unique wisdom and insight. The word ‘grace’ (Greek, charis) as it
is used here, emphasises not so much the interior gift that makes a human being
holy; rather, it refers to the gratuitousness of God’s favour and the way he
manifests his glory. These are the two themes that run through this account of
God’s blessings: their source is God’s liberality, and their purpose is to make
his glory appreciated by creatures. Everything comes from him, and everything
should lead to him.
All this happens because of God’s “wisdom and insight”. That
wisdom is, in an extraordinary way, being shared with us:
[God]…has made known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ…
The word “mystery” is used here in a sense somewhat
different from our contemporary usage, which usually refers to something we
cannot understand. In Paul’s day, the Greek word mysterion was used in
the context of certain cults whose inner workings were only revealed to the
initiated. Paul uses the word here and in other letters to refer to truths
which were formerly hidden or obscure, but now have been revealed by God for
all to know and understand. For instance, it is used by Paul of the
Incarnation, the death of Christ and its meaning in God’s plan and God’s
intention for people everywhere—both Jews and Gentiles—to be his people.
The mystery or ‘hidden plan’ which he mentions here is
God’s:
…plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things
in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Paul uses a significant term here that not only has the idea
of leadership, but also was often used of adding up a column of figures. A
contemporary way of putting it might be to say that in a world of confusion,
where things do not ‘add up’ or make sense, we look forward to the time when
everything will be brought into meaningful relationship under the headship of
Christ.
The main theme of this letter is how the whole body of
creation, having been cut off from the Creator by sin, is decomposing, and how
its rebirth is effected by Christ, reuniting all its parts into an organism
with himself as the head, so as to reattach it to God. The human (both Jew and
Gentile) and the angelic worlds are brought together again through the fact
that they were saved by a single act.
Of course, this is all a mystery in the contemporary sense
too, something we will never fully grasp on this side of the grave. What Paul
is emphasising is the uncovering of an exciting aspect of God in his
relationship with his creatures, of which even God’s people up to this time had
hardly any inkling. The rest of this magnificent blessing-prayer will be
concluded in tomorrow’s reading.
Commentary on Luke
11:47-54
There are more strong words from Jesus against the Pharisaic
mentality. Today the charge is of hypocrisy:
Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom
your ancestors killed.
The people build monuments to remember the prophets of old,
but those same prophets were killed by their ancestors. On the one hand, they
are building the monuments as an act of atonement, while they themselves have
exactly the same attitudes as their ancestors. They do not listen to their own
teaching.
Jesus utters words which he identifies as “the Wisdom of
God”:
I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they
will kill and persecute…
It is not a quotation from the Old Testament or any other
book known to us. It could refer to God speaking through Jesus (the Word, the
Wisdom of God) or presenting, in quotation form, God’s decision to send
prophets and apostles, even though they would be rejected.
Jesus is basically saying that the mission of the Church
(his Apostles) is linked with the mission of the Old Testament prophets, who,
like Jesus’ disciples, suffered and, in some cases, died at the hands of their
contemporaries. Jesus, of course, himself will be one of them, the last and
greatest Prophet.
Jesus says the scholars of the Law carry with them guilt for
the killing of every good person and every prophet since the murder of Abel
down to that of Zechariah. The murder of Abel by his brother Cain is recorded
in Genesis (4:8), the opening book of the Old Testament, and that of Zechariah,
son of Jehoiada in 2 Chronicles (24:20-22). This latter book is regarded as the
closing of the Hebrew Testament by the Jews. It is like our describing the
whole Bible in terms of ‘from Genesis to Revelation’. Jesus was referring to
the history of martyrdom right through the whole of the Old Testament.
There is one final attack against the scribes and their way
of thinking and acting. They interpret the Law in such a way that they make it
inaccessible to the ordinary person. And, what is worse, they do not observe it
themselves:
For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not
enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.
They kept both themselves and the people in ignorance of the
true way to salvation and wholeness. As it is put in Matthew’s Gospel:
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 23:13)
One wonders how many of our Church leaders, teachers and
theological and moral ‘experts’ have not done exactly the same thing over the
years and down to the present day? How many Catholic parents and teachers have
made the Christian message basically inaccessible to the young, and then we
wonder why they have no interest in religion?
Not surprisingly, all these attacks only increased the
hostility of the Pharisees and the religious leaders against Jesus. They were
able to get him to speak on a multitude of religious questions hoping that he
would convict himself out of his own mouth. As far as they were concerned, they
were more than successful.
What they did not realise was that Jesus was operating from
a completely different vision of what life is really about. His new wine could
not fit into their old wineskins. The questions for each one to ask are: Do I
share the vision of Jesus? What does ‘Christianity’ mean to me?
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Thursday,
October 15, 2026
Ordinary
Time
Opening Prayer
Lord, our help and guide, make
your love the foundation of our lives.
May our love for you express itself in our eagerness
to do good for others. You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 11: 47-54
Jesus said: 'Alas for you because you build tombs for the
prophets, the people your ancestors killed! In this way you both witness to
what your ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the
building.
'And that is why the Wisdom of God
said, "I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter
and persecute, so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet's
blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of
Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the
Temple." Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.
'Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of
knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves and have prevented others from going
in who wanted to.' When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began a
furious attack on Him and tried to force answers from Him on innumerable
questions, lying in wait to catch Him out in something He might say.
Reflection
Once again for the hundredth time,
today’s Gospel speaks about the conflict between Jesus and the religious
authorities of that time.
•
Luke 11: 47-48: Alas for you because you build
tombs for the prophets. “Alas for you because you build tombs for the prophets,
the people your ancestors killed! In this way you both witness to what your
ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the building.”
Mathew says that these were the Scribes and the Pharisees (Mt 23: 19). Jesus’
reasoning is clear. If the ancestors killed the prophets and the sons built the
tombs, it is because the sons approved the crime of their fathers. Besides
this, everybody knows that the dead prophet does not disturb anybody. In this
way the sons become witnesses and accomplices of the same crime (cf. Mt 23:
29-32).
•
Luke 11: 49-51: To ask for an account of the
blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world. “That is why the
wisdom of God said: I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will
slaughter and persecute, so that this generation will have to answer for every
prophet’s blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the
blood of Able to the blood of
Zechariah,
who perished between the altar and the Temple. Yes, I tell you, this generation
is lying in wait to catch Him out in something He might say.” Compared with the
Gospel of Matthew, Luke usually offers a brief version of Matthew’s text. But
here he increases the observations: “shed since the creation of the world, of
the blood of Abel.” He did the same thing with the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew,
who wrote for the converted Jews, begins with Abraham (Mt 1: 1.2.17), while
Luke goes back to Adam (Lk 3: 38). Luke universalizes and includes the Pagans,
then he writes his Gospel for the converted Pagans. The information about the
murdering of Zechariah in the Temple is given in the Book of Chronicles: “The
spirit of God then invested Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up
before the people and said, ‘God says this, ‘Why transgress Yahweh’s commands
to your certain ruin? For if you abandon Yahweh, He will abandon you. Then they
plotted against him and at the king’s order stoned him in the court of the
Temple of Yahweh” (2Cr 24: 20-21). Jesus knew the story of his people to the
minutest detail. He knew that He would be the next one on the list from Abel to
Zechariah; and up until now the list continues to be open. Many people have died
for the cause of justice and of truth.
•
Luke 11: 52: Alas for you doctors of the Law.
“Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge. You have not
gone in yourselves and have prevented others from going in who wanted to.” How
do they close the Kingdom? They believe that they have the monopoly on
knowledge in regard to God and to God’s Law and they impose on others their own
way, without leaving a margin for a different idea. They present God as a
severe judge, and in the name of God they impose laws and norms which have
nothing to do with the commandments of God. They falsify the image of the
Kingdom and kill in others the desire to serve God and the Kingdom. A community
which organizes itself around this false god “does not enter into the Kingdom.”
Neither is it an expression of the Kingdom, and prevents its members from
entering into the Kingdom. It is important to notice the difference between
Matthew and Luke. Matthew speaks about the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven
and the phrase is written in the verbal form in the present: "Alas for
you, lawyers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites, who close the Kingdom of
Heaven before men, because in this way you do not enter and you prevent others
from going in who wanted to enter (Mt 23: 13). The expression to enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven could mean to enter in Heaven after death, but it is possible
that it is a question of entering into the community, around Jesus and in the
communities of the first Christians. Luke speaks about the key of knowledge and
the phrase is written in the past tense. Luke simply shows the pretension of
the Scribes to possess the key of knowledge in regard to God and to the law of
God which prevents them from recognizing Jesus as Messiah and prevents the
Jewish people from recognizing Jesus as Messiah: You take possession of the key
of knowledge. You yourselves do not enter and you prevent others to enter.
•
Luke 11: 53-54: The reaction against Jesus. The
reaction of the religious authority against Jesus was immediate. “When He left
there, the Scribes and the Pharisees began a furious attack on him, and tried
to force answers from Him on innumerable questions, lying in wait to catch Him
out in something He might say.” Since they considered themselves the only true
interpreters of the Law of God, they tried to provoke Jesus on questions of
interpretation of the Bible so as to be able to surprise Him in something He
would say. Thus the opposition against Jesus and the desire to eliminate Him
continues to grow. (Lk 6: 11; 11: 53-54; 19: 48; 20: 19-20; 22: 2).
Personal Questions
•
Many persons who wanted to enter were prevented
from doing it and they no longer believed because of the anti-evangelical
attitude of the priests. Do you have any experience regarding this?
•
The Scribes began to criticize Jesus who thought
and acted in a different way. It is not difficult to find reasons for
criticizing anyone who thinks differently from me. Do you have any experience
regarding this?
Concluding Prayer
Yahweh has made known his saving power, revealed his saving
justice for the nations to see, mindful of his faithful love and his constancy
to the House of Israel. (Ps 98: 2-3)
Saint Teresa of Ávila, Virgin
and Doctor
Teresa was born on 28 March, 1515, of a noble Castilian
family at Ávila, in central Spain. As a child, Teresa showed piety beyond her
years. On one occasion she ran away from home with a younger brother with the
intention of going to Morocco and dying as martyrs. Their uncle spoiled their
plan when he spotted the two children outside the city walls.
Following the custom of her social class, she was educated
at home up to the death of her mother, which happened when Teresa was just 14.
She then developed the usual teenage interests of romantic affairs and
fashionable clothes. Her father then sent her to be educated by Augustinian
Sisters in Ávila. About 18 months later, she became ill and spent her
convalescence reading the letters of St Jerome. This resulted in her desire to
become a nun. Her father was at first opposed to the idea, but then consented
and Teresa, then 20, entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation in Ávila.
However, she soon became ill again from malaria. She was
sent home to her family for medical treatment, but three years later, returned
to the convent.
At this time the convent had a large community of about 140
nuns and had become somewhat lax in its following of the Carmelite rule. The
convent parlour was often visited by the gentry of the town, and the nuns were
even allowed to leave the enclosure of the convent. In this rather easygoing
atmosphere, with not much time given to solitude or the observance of religious
poverty, Teresa at first tried to live a life of prayer, then abandoned it. But
following her father’s death, she took it up again for the rest of her life.
Teresa’s charm, cheerfulness, prudence and care for others were greatly
admired, not least by those who came to visit the convent. Her own spiritual
life was deepened by her prayer life. In 1555, she experienced an inner
conversion when she identified herself with two famous penitents, Mary
Magdalene and Augustine. The latter’s Confessions had a deep influence
on her. She had both Dominicans and Jesuits as spiritual directors.
On the feast of St Peter in 1559, Teresa became firmly
convinced that Christ was present to her in bodily form, though invisible. This
vision lasted almost uninterrupted for more than two years. In another vision,
an angel drove the point of a golden arrow repeatedly through her heart,
causing an indescribable happiness and pain. (This is dramatically represented
in the famous sculpture by Bernini—The Ecstasy of St Teresa in Santa Maria
della Vittoria in Rome.) The memory of this experience would inspire her for
the rest of her life, and was the motivation behind her lifelong desire to
identify with the sufferings of Jesus, expressed in her prayer: “Lord, either
let me suffer or let me die.”
Unfortunately her mystical experiences, including visions,
became known and she was subjected to ridicule and even persecution. It was a
time when such experiences subjected one to the investigations of the
Inquisition—St Ignatius Loyola would have similar experiences. However, up to
the year 1560 she received support and encouragement from Peter of Alcántara.
After 25 years of Carmelite life, which she felt was not
living up to the ideals of the Order, she desired to set up a community where
the original rule would be strictly observed. Her proposal met with strong
opposition from both church and civil authorities. But she went ahead and set
up the community of St Joseph in Ávila in 1562. Here 13 nuns lived in
conditions of strict poverty and enclosed solitude. On moving to the new
convent, Teresa got papal approval of her commitment to absolute poverty and
renunciation of all property. Her plan was a revival of earlier, stricter
rules. These were supplemented by new regulations such as the use of the
‘discipline’ (a small whip) to be used three times a week, and ‘discalceation’
of the Sisters, that is, the substitution of leather or wooden sandals for
shoes. For the first five years of the new foundation, Teresa remained in
prayerful seclusion, engaged mostly in writing.
The Ávila convent would be the first of 16 similar convents
set up during Teresa’s lifetime. It would also inspire the setting up of other
reformed communities in other countries and in the generations that followed.
The characteristics of this life were material simplicity, signified by the
coarse brown wool habit and leather sandals. The lifestyle of manual work,
supplemented by alms, provided the income for this way of life, which included
a diet that totally excluded meat. Teresa, though the superior, took her turn
at sweeping, spinning and other household chores. The convents were small and
poor yet built in such a way that the personal needs of the community could be
met.
Teresa was no mere idealist, but a very down to earth person.
Her combination of common sense, prudence and trust in God’s Providence,
together with a great capacity for work and organisation, overcame the many
obstacles she had to face. In choosing candidates for this challenging way of
life, she emphasised intelligence and good judgement (she once declared: “God
preserve us from stupid nuns!”). It was her conviction that intelligent people
can better be aware of their faults and, at the same time, see the need to be
guided. This, she felt, would not be the case with the less-able and
narrow-minded who could become complacent and see no need for change.
During the late 1560s, Teresa was also active in the reform
of the Carmelite friars in association with John of the Cross. This reform, as
in the case of her own convents, met with much opposition from the Calced
(unreformed) Carmelites. Eventually the reformed (or Discalced) Carmelites were
recognised as a separate structure from the unreformed. In Teresa’s lifetime
and later, the Discalced friars would prove invaluable as spiritual directors
of the Sisters.
In her teaching on prayer, Teresa’s work would be
complemented by the more theological approach of John of the Cross. Her own
writings, though in a more colloquial style and written under obedience,
emphasise various kinds of prayer which can endure over a long period, but can
be the stepping stones to true mystical prayer. Her books include her own life
story, Libro de las Fundaciones (the story of her Foundations), The
Way of Perfection (written for nuns) and The Interior Castle.
In 1582, she founded her last convent at Burgos, but died on
her way back to Ávila at Alba de Tormes on 4 October of that year—she was 67
years old. Her body was buried and still rests there.
Forty years after her death, in 1622, she was canonised and
she is revered as the ‘Seraphic Virgin’. The Spanish Cortes Generales made her
patroness of Spain in 1617, and the University of Salamanca had earlier
conferred the title ‘Doctor ecclesiae‘ (Doctor of the Church) to
be distinguished from the Holy See’s ‘Doctor of the Church’ given in 1970, the
first woman to be so honoured. The mysticism in her works exerted an influence
on many theologians of the following centuries, such as Francis de Sales, Fénelon,
and the Port-Royalists.
A contemporary portrait, painted in 1570 by Fray Juan de la
Miseria, survives at Ávila. Her usual emblems are a fiery arrow or a dove above
her head.
The ideals and way of life established by her survive in the
numerous small communities of Carmelite Sisters, who witness to the importance
of contemplation in our modern world. Her written works are spiritual classics
read by Christians of all kinds.
Although she died on 4 October, her feast is on 15 October
because in 1582, on the very day after her death, the Gregorian reform of the
calendar was adopted, and ten days were permanently omitted from the month of
October.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary/f1015s/
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