Quote of the day, 19 March: Saint Teresa

Once, when in need, for I didn’t know what to do or how to pay some workmen, St. Joseph, my true father and lord, appeared to me and revealed to me that I would not be lacking, that I should hire them. And so I did, without so much as a penny, and the Lord, in ways that amazed those who heard about it, provided for me.

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Book of Her Life: Chapter 33, no. 12

Teresa of Avila, St 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Saint Joseph holds a bouquet of Easter lilies, lilium longiflorum. Image credit: arley_design / Adobe Stock (Asset ID#: 1260853483).

#apparition #Providence #StJoseph #StTeresaOfAvila #TeresianReform

Mother Teresa,

I received your letter, and since the undertaking you are asking me to comment on is of such service to the Lord, I wanted to entrust it to my humble prayers and sacrifices. This has been the cause of my delay in responding to you.

Now I say, in the name of the Lord himself, be encouraged in such a great endeavor, for He will assist and favor you. On His behalf, I assure you that within 50 years, your order [the Discalced Carmelites] will be one of the most illustrious in the Church of God, which will preserve you, etc.

From Valencia,
Luis Beltrán

Saint Louis Bertrand

Note: In this 1561 letter to Saint Teresa, Saint Louis Bertrand offers his advice concerning the foundation of the first Carmelite monastery of the Discalced reform, the Carmel of St. Joseph in Avila. The following year, Louis Bertrand began a fruitful mission in the Americas and the Caribbean, while St. Teresa established her first reformed monastery in Avila. Louis Bertrand died at age 55 on 9 October 1581, one year before the passing of St. Teresa. The fulfillment of Louis’ prophecy concerning the growth of the Teresian Carmel within 50 years was submitted as proof of his sanctity during his cause for canonization. We are grateful to Father Ivan Mora Pernia, O.C.D. for providing the text of St. Louis Bertrand’s letter.

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

Featured image: Dominican photographer Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. captured this portrait of Saint Louis Bertrand, which is found in the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. Image credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/08/sanluisb-ltr2stj/

#DiscalcedCarmelites #Dominican #encouragement #foundation #letter #prayer #prophetic #StLouisBertrand #StTeresaOfAvila #TeresianReform

Four years later, or, I think, a little more than that, a Franciscan friar happened to come to see me, whose name was Fray Alonso Maldonado, a great servant of God, who had the same desires for the good of souls as I, but he was able to transfer them into deeds for which I envied him greatly [Alonso Maldonado (c.1510–c.1600) had been a Franciscan missionary in Mexico (1551–1561). He became a defender of the rights of the indigenous people and pleaded their cause in Madrid and Rome before the king and the pope.]

He had recently come back from the Indies. He began to tell me about the many millions of souls that were being lost there for want of Christian instruction, and before leaving he gave us a sermon, or conference, encouraging us to do penance.

I was so grief-stricken over the loss of so many souls that I couldn’t contain myself. I went to a hermitage [located in the monastery garden] with many tears. I cried out to the Lord, begging him that he give me the means to be able to do something to win some souls to His service, since the devil was carrying away so many, and that my prayer would do some good since I wasn’t able to do anything else.

I was very envious of those who for love of our Lord were able to be engaged in winning souls, though they might suffer a thousand deaths. And thus it happens to me that when we read in the lives of the saints that they converted souls, I feel much greater devotion, tenderness, and envy than over all the martyrdoms they suffered.

This is the inclination the Lord has given me, for it seems to me that He prizes a soul that through our diligence and prayer we gain for Him, through His mercy, more than all the services we can render Him.

Well, going about with such great affliction, while I was in prayer one night, our Lord represented Himself to me in His usual way. He showed me much love, manifesting His desire to comfort me, and said: “Wait a little, daughter, and you will see great things.”

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Foundations, chap. 1, nos. 7–8

Again, it was her burning desire for the salvation of souls that led Teresa to new action. One day [in 1566] a Franciscan from the missions visited her and told her about the sad spiritual and moral condition of people in heathen lands.

Shaken, she withdrew into her hermitage in the garden.

“I cried to the Savior, I pleaded with him for the means of winning souls for him because the evil enemy robs him of so many. I asked him to help himself a little by my prayers, because that was all I could offer him” [Foundations, 1:7].

After petitioning like this for many days, the Lord appeared to her and spoke the comforting words, “Wait a little while, my daughter, and you will see great things” [Foundations, 1:8].

Six months later came the fulfillment of this promise.

Saint Edith Stein

II.2.13 Love for Love: The Life and Works of St. Teresa of Jesus, The spread of the reform

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Saint Francis and the Poor is an oil on canvas painting executed in 1788 by Spanish artist José Camarón, (1731–1803). From the collections of the Prado Museum, it is on display elsewhere. Image credit: Copyright ©Museo Nacional del Prado (Used by permission)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/03/edith-stj-francisc/

#foundations #Franciscan #mission #prayer #souls #StEdithStein #StTeresaOfAvila #TeresianReform

SEQUENCE HYMN

Inter spinas
quae crescis lilium
serva puras
mentes fragilium
tutelaris.

All-chaste lily
rising despite the thorn,
strengthen, help us,
so feeble, soon forlorn,
great protectress.

SCRIPTURE

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

Matthew 14:22–32

READING

On the day the brief was presented, while I was anxiously waiting, I was all troubled and couldn’t even pray vocally. For they had come to tell me our Father’s life was in danger. It wasn’t allowed for him to leave the monastery and there were so many rumors. I heard these words: “O woman of little faith! Be calm, for things are going very well.”

It was the feast of the Presentation of our Lady, in the year 1575. I resolved within myself that if the Virgin would obtain from her Son that we see both our Father and ourselves freed from these friars, I would ask our Father for an indult that in all of our monasteries of the discalced nuns this feast could be celebrated with solemnity

When I made this resolve I didn’t recall what I had heard in the vision I’d seen, that the Father would establish a feast. Now in turning back to read this little notebook, I have wondered if the feast could be this one of the Presentation.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Spiritual Testimonies, 55

PRAYER

O Most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel,
Fruitful Vine, Splendor of heaven,
Blessed Mother of the Son of God,
Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity.
O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein
that you are my Mother.

O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth,
I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart
to succor me in this necessity.
There are none that can withstand your power!
O help me and show me herein that you are my Mother.

(Here mention your requests)

Our Lady, Queen & Beauty of Carmel,
pray for me and obtain my requests!
Sweet Mother, I place this cause
in your hands!

Our Father…

Hail Mary…

Glory be…

Queen, Beauty of Carmel, pray for us.

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.

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

All scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.

Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/10/olmcnovena24-5/

#anxiety #calm #faith #FlosCarmeli #intercession #novena #OurLadyOfMountCarmel #prayer #ProtectorOfCarmel #StTeresaOfAvila #TeresianReform #thorns #trust