Quote of the day, 13 July: St. Teresa of the Andes

Let us praise the Lord and give Him thanks for the great favor He has bestowed on your little daughter. I have permission, and with God’s help, I will fly to the dear little dovecote on May 7.

My father gave me his permission last Sunday. Saint Joseph was the one who wrought this miracle.

Yesterday, I went to Communion for the first time since receiving his permission. I assure you that I could not keep from weeping in the face of such a great favor from my dear Jesus. I am at the peak of happiness and pain.

When I consider the favor Our Lord granted me and on the other hand, when I see my misery and unworthiness, I am filled with confusion. Then, I throw myself into the arms of the One who is all mercy and, casting myself there, remain completely surrendered to my celestial Bridegroom.

He does everything in me. All I do is love Him and this so imperfectly. I love Him and for Him I am going to give up everything. That everything, however, is such a small thing in comparison with the everything of His love.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 80

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: St. Teresa of the Andes is depicted in this collage against the backdrop of the Chilean Andes. Image credit: Carmelite Quotes

#familyLife #Jesus #mercy #StTeresaOfTheAndes #vocation

13 July: Saint Teresa of Jesus Fernández Solar (Not observed in 2025)

July 13
SAINT TERESA OF JESUS FERNÁNDEZ SOLAR
Virgin

Memorial
In the houses in Chile: Feast

Pastoral note: In the year 2025, this Memorial gives way to the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Juanita Fernández Solar was born at Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. From her adolescence she was devoted to Christ. She entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Los Andes on May 7, 1919, where she was given the name of Teresa of Jesus. She died on April 12 of the following year after having made her religious profession. She was beatified on April 3, 1987, at Santiago, Chile, and canonized on March 21, 1993, by Saint John Paul II and proposed as a model for young people. She is the first Chilean and the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be canonized.

From the Common of Virgins, except the following:

Office of Readings

Second Reading
Diario y cartas (Los Andes, 1983), 373, 359, 376

From the Spiritual writings of Saint Teresa of Jesus

Jesus alone is beautiful; He is my only joy. I call for Him, I cry after Him, I search for Him within my heart. I long for Jesus to grind me interiorly so that I may become a pure host where He can find His rest. I want to be athirst with love so that other souls may possess this love. I would die to creatures and to myself, so that He may live in me.

Is there anything good, beautiful or true that we can think of that would not be in Jesus? Wisdom, from which nothing would be secret. Power, for which nothing would be impossible. Justice, which made Him take on flesh in order to make satisfaction for sin. Providence, which always watches over and sustains us. Mercy, which never ceases to pardon. Goodness, which forgets the offenses of His creatures. Love, which unites all the tendernesses of a mother, of a brother, of a spouse, and which, drawing Him out of the abyss of His greatness, binds Him closely to His creatures. Beauty which enraptures… what can you think of that would not be found in this Man-God?

Are you perhaps afraid that the abyss of the greatness of God and that of your nothingness cannot be united? There is love in Him. His passionate love made Him take flesh in order that by seeing a Man-God, we would not be afraid to draw near Him. This passionate love made Him become bread in order to assimilate our nothingness and make it disappear into His infinite being. This passionate love made Him give His life by dying on the cross.

Are you perhaps afraid to draw near Him? Look at Him, surrounded by little children. He caresses them, He presses them to His heart. Look at Him in the midst of His faithful flock, bearing the faithless lamb on His shoulders. Look at Him at the tomb of Lazarus. And listen to what He says of the Magdalene: “Much has been forgiven her, because she has loved much.” What do you discover in these flashes from the Gospel except a heart that is good, gentle, tender, compassionate; in other words, the heart of a God?

He is my unending wealth, my bliss, my heaven.

Responsory

R/. I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ: I am racing to grasp the prize * since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus.
V/. I give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what lies ahead as I run toward the prize to which God calls me on high * since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus.

Prayer

God of mercy, joy of the saints,
you set the young heart of Saint Teresa ablaze
with the fire of virginal love for Christ and for His Church;
and even in suffering made her a cheerful witness to charity.
Through her intercession,
fill us with the delights of your Spirit,
so that we may proclaim by word and deed
the joyful message of your love to the world.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Juanita Fernández Solar | Credit: Discalced Carmelites

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

#DiscalcedCarmelite #JuanitaFernandezSolar #LiturgyOfTheHours #Memorial #StTeresaOfTheAndes #virgin

Quote of the day, 11 June: St. Teresa of the Andes

J.M.J.T.
June 11, 1919
My dear Luís:

May the love of Jesus take possession of your soul.

I don’t think you’ll blame me for not answering your two little letters immediately, since my time is not my own. I gave away everything I had—even my own will! I must do everything Our Lord asks of me moment by moment, so that it’s only now that I’ve read your last letter. What a joy!

How happy I find myself in sacrificing everything for God! It’s all nothing in comparison with the way Our Savior sacrificed Himself from the cradle to the Cross and from the Cross to the point of annihilating Himself under the form of bread till the end of time. Oh, how great is this infinite love—a love unknown, a love not returned by most of humanity.

Luís dear, throughout these days I have kept you here with me in this retreat…. How I’d like to share with you what I feel, little brother of my soul. How I’d love to show you the lovely infinite, the horizon beyond creation that I experience and contemplate.

I love God now a thousand times more than I did before, because I hadn’t known Him. He reveals and makes Himself known to souls that really seek to know and love Him. Everything on earth, Luís, seems to shrink, to lose value before the Divinity which, like an infinite Sun, continues to shine upon my miserable soul with its rays.

Oh, if you could go to the depths of my soul even for an instant, you’d see me captivated by that Beauty, by that incomprehensible Goodness. How I’d love to bind the hearts of creatures and surrender them to divine Love!

You’ve never known the heaven that I, through God’s mercy, possess in my heart. Yes. I have a heaven in my soul, because God is there, and God is heaven.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 107 to her brother Luis (excerpt)
11 June 1919

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Andes mountains are always a stunning view in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The Cuernos del Paine are one of the features that await tourists to the nation’s Southern Patagonia region. Image credit: Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
When has God helped you recognize that He is living within you, creating a heaven in your soul?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#divineLove #happiness #heaven #retreat #StTeresaOfTheAndes

Marie du jour, 28 May: St. Teresa of the Andes

From the solitude of my cell, I will pray for you to the Virgin so idolized, that she may reveal herself as a true Mother for the brother I love so much.

United in thought here on earth, our united souls will find themselves together again forever there in heaven after this sorrowful exile has ended.

Then we’ll understand the value of our separation during this time of exile, which will have won our eternal communion there in that homeland where there’s true life.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 81 to her brother, Luis
14 April 1919

Note: Luis (affectionately known as “Lucho”) was the beloved brother and confidant of St. Teresa of the Andes. The two were inseparable during childhood and adolescence, and he cherished her deeply. Lucho was also a friend of St. Alberto Hurtado, the renowned Chilean Jesuit. Luis testified at two sessions during his sister’s beatification process, offering vivid personal memories that many found moving. The three surviving letters Teresa wrote to him are considered among her most beautiful and profound.

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This striking image of Chile’s national patroness, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was taken on her feast day, 16 July 2010. The feast is celebrated at the Votive Temple of Maipú, beloved by Chileans. The statue of the Virgin of Carmel is the focal point of the basilica, consecrated by St. Paul VI on 23 November 1974—nearly 70 years after the original votive church, commissioned by General Bernardo O’Higgins, was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Image credit: Municipalidad de Maipú / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How do I entrust those I love to the care of the Blessed Virgin—especially in times of separation or suffering?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#CarmelOfLosAndes #familyLife #OurLadyOfMountCarmel #solitude #StTeresaOfTheAndes #vocation

Quote of the day, 11 May: St. Teresa of the Andes

You who created me, save me. Since I’m unworthy to pronounce Your most sweet name because it would bring me consolation, I dare, being annihilated, to implore Your infinite mercy.

Yes, I’m ungrateful. I acknowledge this. I’m a rebellious bit of dust. I’m a criminal nothingness.

But are You not the Good Shepherd? Are You not the One who came in search of the Samaritan woman to give her eternal life? Aren’t You the One who defended the adulterous woman and the One who wiped away the tears of Mary the sinner?

It’s true that they knew how to respond to your tender looks. They recognized Your words of life. And I—how many times have I not been transported by Your love, how many times have I not felt Your Heart beating without my own by listening to Your melodious accents—yet still I don’t love You.

But pardon me. Remember that I’m a criminal nothingness, that I’m only capable of sin.

Oh, my adored Jesus, by Your divine Heart, forget my ungratefulness and take me to Yourself completely. Free me from all that’s going on around me. May I live by always contemplating You. May I live submerged in Your love, so that it will consume my miserable being and transform me into You.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Prayer, Retreat of September 1919

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2021, God, The Joy of My Life: A Biography of Saint Teresa of the Andes With the Saint’s Spiritual Diary, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Good Shepherd is an oil on canvas painting by American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), which was created ca. 1902–1903. It is part of the Art of the Americas collection at Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. Image credit: Google Arts & Culture via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Do I trust the Good Shepherd enough to let His mercy consume and transform my whole life?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#dust #love #mercy #prayer #repentance #retreat #sin #StTeresaOfTheAndes #tenderness

Marie du jour, 7 May: St. Teresa of the Andes

Carmel presents itself with all the attractions needed to fill my soul. Besides, Our Lord has manifested to me so many times that I am to become a Carmelite.

When I’m in prayer, Our Lord tells me that He has chosen me for that life which is so perfect and so filled with union with Himself because He loves me greatly among those chosen by his Divine Heart.

To Magdalene, He said, “You have chosen the better part,” although Martha served Him with love.

The Most Holy Virgin, my Mother, was a perfect Carmelite. She always lived contemplating her Jesus, suffering and loving Him.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Her Intimate Spiritual Diary, 47 (1919)

The Annunciation
Alexander Murashko (Ukrainian, 1875 – 1919)
Oil on canvas, 1909
National Art Museum of Ukraine

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2021, God, The Joy of My Life: A Biography of Saint Teresa of the Andes With the Saint’s Spiritual Diary, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How can I imitate Mary’s contemplative love—suffering and loving Jesus as she did?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#BlessedVirginMary #Carmelite #contemplation #love #perfection #silence #solitude #StTeresaOfTheAndes #suffering

Quote of the day, 15 April: St. Teresa of the Andes

I want you to know that I’d give anything to preach to the whole world blind abandonment into God’s hands.

Believe me, I’ve felt Him within me as I work along, since I’ve asked Him for nothing but what He wants and nothing more.

I’ve told my Jesus that He’s the Captain. Let Him give the orders. His soldier will follow Him to death, as long as He helps me with His grace.

Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Letter 86 to Mother Angelica Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, O.C.D. (excerpt)
20 April 1919

Note: Father Michael Griffin, O.C.D.—translator and editor of the Letters of St. Teresa of the Andes—comments on her correspondence with the prioress of the Carmel of the Holy Spirit at Los Andes, Mother Angelica Teresa:

At age seventeen, Juanita began corresponding with Mother Angelica Teresa in hopes of being admitted to the Carmel of Los Andes. All in all, she wrote Mother Angelica Teresa twenty letters. These letters shed great light on Juanita’s understanding of the Carmelite vocation and show how earnestly she wanted to become “the perfect friend and bride of the Lord’s heart” (L 51).

One is especially struck by the complete honesty and sincerity with which the aspirant allowed Mother Angelica “to read her soul” to the point that she can say, “Rev. Mother, you can’t complain that your little daughter doesn’t talk to you heart-to-heart” (L 30).

Assuring Mother Angelica of her great desire to enter the Order and to “be able to wear the habit of Carmel with honor” (L 36), she never hesitated to manifest her faults, some of which she felt could disqualify her from this beautiful vocation.

What were these possible impediments to her vocation? For one thing, Juanita did not feel she was holy enough. Furthermore, she was afraid she might not have the health required for such an austere vocation.

There is no doubt but that Mother Angelica was powerfully impressed with Juanita’s letters. In fact, she told Juanita she was a “born Carmelite.” Just how impressed she was can be garnered from a reading of the outstanding Circular Letter Mother Angelica wrote to the other Carmels immediately after Sister Teresa’s death. Mother Angelica was fully convinced “that her knowledge of the Carmelite vocation did not come from her intelligence and reflection alone. These thoughts came, she said, from an understanding which God put in her soul concerning the vocation to which He was calling her.”

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This striking image of Christ Pantocrator—inspired by the style of Viktor Vasnetsov—shows Jesus blessing with His right hand while holding the Gospel open in His left. The Slavonic text and iconographic details suggest it originates from a Russian or Serbian Orthodox church. Image credit: oleg_ru / Adobe Stock (Used under license).

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
What helps you trust Jesus as your Captain—even when you don’t know where He’s leading?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#abandonment #CarmeliteSpirituality #grace #SequelaChristi #soldier #StTeresaOfTheAndes #willOfGod

Quote of the day, 7 April: St. John Paul II

“I am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12)

Sister Teresa of the Andes—Teresa of Jesus, a Discalced Carmelite—is a light of Christ for the entire Church in Chile. She is the first canonized saint of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America and is now enrolled among the saints of the universal Church.

As in the first reading from the Book of Samuel, Teresa does not stand out because of her appearance or stature. The sacred text reminds us: “The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). And so, in a short life of just over 19 years—and in only eleven months as a Carmelite—God allowed the light of his Son, Jesus Christ, to shine through her in an extraordinary way. She now serves as a beacon and guide for a world that has grown blind to divine radiance.

To a secularized society that lives turned away from God, this young Carmelite from Chile—whom I joyfully present as a model of the Gospel’s enduring youth—offers the clear testimony of a life that proclaims to today’s men and women: in loving, adoring, and serving God, we find human greatness and joy, true freedom, and the fullness of our calling. From the silence of the cloister, the life of Blessed Teresa quietly cries out: “God alone suffices!”

And she proclaims this especially to young people, who are hungry for truth and searching for a light that gives meaning to life. To a generation bombarded by constant messages and the pressures of an eroticized culture—to a society that confuses real love, which is self-giving, with the hedonistic use of others—this young virgin of the Andes proclaims the beauty and joy that flow from hearts that are pure.

Now, from eternity, Saint Teresa of the Andes continues her intercession as an advocate for countless brothers and sisters. She who found her heaven on earth in espousing Jesus now beholds him face to face, and from that place of intimacy, she prays for all who seek the light of Christ.

Saint John Paul II

Canonization Homily for Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Sunday, 21 March 1993

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Photographer Juan Jose Napuri captures this stunning image of Laguna Torres in Torres del Paine National Park, a famous landmark of Patagonia in southern Chile. Image credit: peruphotoart / Adobe Stock (Asset ID# 304107267)

💠 Appreciate these quotes from the Carmelites?
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💠 Reflection question:
Where do you see Christ’s light shining in today’s world—and how are you called to reflect it?
Share your thoughts in the comments.

#canonization #Christ #contemplation #homily #light #purity #StJohnPaulII #StTeresaOfTheAndes #translation #youth

Quote of the day, 16 March: St. Teresa of the Andes

The Carmelite must ascend the Tabor of Carmel and be clothed with the garments of penance that will make her more like Jesus. And, as He, she wants to be transformed, to be transfigured in order to be converted into God.

The Carmelite must ascend Calvary. There she will immolate herself for souls. Love crucifies her; she dies to herself and to the world. She is buried, and her tomb is the Heart of Jesus; and from there she rises, is reborn to a new life and spiritually lives united to the whole world.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Her Intimate Spiritual Diary, 58

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2021, God, The Joy of My Life: A Biography of Saint Teresa of the Andes With the Saint’s Spiritual Diary, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The featured image is a detail from a stained glass window depicting the Transfiguration, located in the Church of Saint-Thurien in Plogonnec, Finistère, France. Created in the early 16th century, the window has undergone restorations in 1912 and 1956. Source details retrieved from pop.culture.gouv.fr. Image credit: Musée de Bretagne (Some rights reserved).

💜 Transformation comes through surrender. How is Christ calling you to be transfigured today?

#Calvary #Carmel #HeartOfJesus #immolation #penance #StTeresaOfTheAndes #Tabor #Transfiguration

Quote of the day, 14 March: St. Teresa of the Andes

Resolutions For 1917

To accept sacrifices interiorly without murmuring or being discouraged.

I must be more hidden.

I must strive to work for the happiness of others.

I will try to practice virtue in an amiable way for the sake of others. I must forget myself:

• By uniting myself to Jesus;
• In being charitable to my neighbor;
• In not giving my opinion unless asked;
• In suffering humiliations with joy by being nice to those who cause me humiliations;
• By living with Jesus in the depths of my soul, which must be His little home where He can repose. I will adore Him and offer Him mortifications, sufferings and humiliations. To live with God, isn’t this heaven on earth?

To live with Him in unity of thoughts, sentiments, and actions so that in looking at me the Father will find the image of His Son. And the Holy Spirit, in seeing the Father and Son residing in me, will make me His bride, and the three Persons will come to make their abode in me.

I must contemplate Jesus Crucified in my soul. I will imitate Him and receive the Blood of my Jesus at the foot of the cross, which I will preserve in my soul and which I must communicate to the souls of my neighbors so that, through the Blood of Christ, they may be washed clean.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Her Intimate Spiritual Diary (excerpt)

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2021, God, The Joy of My Life: A Biography of Saint Teresa of the Andes With the Saint’s Spiritual Diary, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Discalced Carmelites bear witness to the virtue of charity each and every day. You can find this photo and others like it in our 2020 slideshow of scenes from daily life at Maryton Carmel at Liverpool, England. Image credit: Maryton Carmel Liverpool and the Association of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (by kind permission)

#charity #DiscalcedCarmelite #familyLife #love #monasticLife #nuns #reconciliation #sacrifice #StTeresaOfTheAndes