The Life and Teachings of St. Teresa of Avila

In preparation for the celebration of the 500 years birth anniversary of St. Teresa of Avila on March 28, 2015.

On Sufferings and Reading of Good Books

It seemed that God gave St. Teresa an illness, which in her time could not be diagnosed, to be her lifelong companion in her spiritual journey.

When Teresa finally chose to join the convent of the Encarnacion of the Carmelite nuns in Avila she did so because she had a very good friend who was already in the convent, Juana Suarez. She joined the Carmelite convent without her father knowing about it. She was recounting in her autobiography, how heartbroken she was in leaving her father’s house at dawn to enter the convent like a young lady eloping with her lover.

As soon as she took the habit of a religious, she confessed in her book that within an hour God gave her great happiness at being in the religious state of life and it never left her until the day she died. God also gave St. Teresa another favor – suffering. Soon after she entered the Carmelite convent, her fainting spells, heart pains and fits of high fever recurred, but this time with greater intensity. There were times when she was left unconscious. She suffered excruciating bodily pains which she likened to the torment of her body being bitten and torn to pieces. This illness also stayed with Teresa until her death.

Perhaps, one of the things that made St. Teresa a great saint was her attitude towards suffering. She looked at her suffering as a favor from God, for allowing her to share in the passion of her Spouse, the Lord Jesus Christ. She treated it as a lesson in obedience to the will of God. With it she experienced a more intimate relationship with God and she lost all fear of death. And so instead of misery there was joy in her heart. Such was also the attitude of another great saint in modern time, St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who for fifty years suffered the pains of the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ, and whose feast day we just celebrated in September 23. Whenever we are suffering physically, psychologically, and emotionally it would be of great comfort to remember these saints and ask them to pray for us.

It was in the suffering of her illness that St. Teresa stumbled on another lifelong companion in her spiritual journey – goods books. She was introduced to this spiritually rewarding recreation by her uncle when she was on her way to Beceda to see a healer. Her uncle gave her a book, The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Osuna. In the absence of a spiritual Master to teach her, the books became Teresa’s spiritual Master. The knowledge and wisdom that she gained from these books served as pump primers in her prayer of recollection and meditation. The good books were like water that quenched her spiritual thirst and food that satisfied her spiritual hunger.