Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
On October 15, the Church commemorates Saint Teresa of Avila (d.1582). Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in Avila, Spain, in 1515, of noble and pious parents. Raised by them in the fear of the Lord, she provided admirable evidence of her future holiness from an early age.
When her mother died, Teresa begged the Virgin Mary to take her mother's place. Mary granted her heart's desire. From then on, Teresa always felt the protection of the Mother of God as her true daughter.
In her twentieth year, she joined the nuns of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel; for eighteen years, through serious illnesses and trials of all kinds, she advanced in holiness by means of penance and faith.
The zeal of her charity drove her to work for the salvation, not of herself alone, but of all. It was thus that, under the inspiration of God and with the approval of Pope Pius IV, she set about restoring the Carmelite rule to its original severity, first for women, then for men.
The traditional ties between the Rule and the Virgin Mary, presented as a model to be imitated, were re-established. For this reason Teresa usually referred to the Carmelite Rule as the “Rule of the Virgin” or the “Rule of Our Lady of Mount Carmel”. The founding project of Carmel has a clear Marian imprint.
This is why Teresa of Jesus (Teresa of Avila), who experienced Mary's powerful intercession early in her life, suggested the Blessed Virgin as Mother and Patroness of the Order, as a model of prayer and self-sacrifice on the path of faith, as an example of a woman given over body and soul to listening to and contemplating the Word of the Lord, always docile to the motions of the Holy Spirit and associated with Christ's Paschal Mystery through love, pain and joy.