“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”
This one prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus, also known as St. Teresa of Avila, sums up the profound faith and knowledge of God she attained in her lifetime. During her lifetime, she became deeply aware of God’s utter faithfulness to His people! She was a Spanish nun, of the Carmelite Order, and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. Her life and her writings show that she experienced a deep intimacy with Christ.
In her book “The Interior Castle,” St. Teresa speaks to her own soul: “Be joyful, my soul… Don’t let any earthly thing be enough to separate you from your delight, and rejoice in the grandeur of God; in how He deserves to be loved and praised; that He helps you to play some small role in the blessing of His name; and that you can truthfully say – My soul magnifies and praises the Lord!”
St. Teresa was a woman “for others.” Though a contemplative and cloistered nun, she spent much of her time and energy seeking to reform herself and the Carmelites, to lead them back to the full observance of the primitive Rule. She founded over a half-dozen new monasteries. She traveled, wrote, fought—always to renew, to reform. In her self, in her prayer, in her life, and in all the people she touched, she was a woman “for others,” a woman who inspired and gave life.
St. Teresa of Jesus. Pray for us.
