A Great Daughter of the Church

I found this passage on our foundress, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582, feast day today) on catholicireland.net.  It was written by Eugene McCaffrey OCD about her in her historical context.  ‘Like ourselves, Teresa lived in the age of a great council. The Council of Trent opened in 1545 and continued intermittently till 1563. These years correspond to one of the most crucial periods in Teresa’s life – her own interior struggle to surrender herself whole-heartedly to God and her exterior struggle to begin the Carmelite Reform (with the foundation of St Joseph’s in Avila). It is not difficult to discern in God’s providence the profound relationship between the work of Trent and the efforts of Teresa. The object of the Council of Trent was not simply to counteract the Protestant Reformation, but to renew the life of the Church, externally through its doctrines and decrees, and internally through a thorough-going programme of Christian renewal. Teresa’s object was the reform, first and foremost, of her own life, and then of one particular religious family within the Church. 

Teresa understood prayer and contemplation only in terms of ‘service of the Church’. She was in every way a daughter of the Church. She strove with all her might to implement the spirit of the great Council by the reform of the one particular religious family under her care, her whole aim being to support, strengthen and build up the Body of Christ in whatever way this was possible for her. Not without reason, then, has she been called the ‘Saint of Trent.’’

Intercessions

Pope Leo as he undergoes an operation for cancer

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Theresa K, Elena

Ivy – sick child

Brian (recovering from Pneumonia)

Kevin (heart attack)

William Gove (in recovery)

Illness:  Katy Keeling, Noreen

David OCDS – housebound

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)

Mark – brain infection

Michael, Kira – vulnerable youngsters

Defence of the unborn and the elderly