St. Teresa of Avila exemplifies St. Paul’s exhortation: “Brothers and sisters: I
am not ashamed of the Gospel. It
is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…For in it is
revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as
it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”
Teresa
wrote one of my favorite books—one of five books every Catholic should read—The Interior Castles. She writes in a vivid yet tender way as
she describes God as a friend to whom we should not walk to, but run to. God is at the center of the seven rooms (castles, mansions)
in our souls, and it is our job to draw near to Him.
One
of the great images of the book is the temptations we all face. She describes them as lizards and
reptiles that try to scare us from entering deeper into the castle. At times they even try to coax us away
from progressing. Last night I was
paging through this book and I saw a note I had written, “What are my reptiles?” It is a good question. When we can name what distracts us from
God we can better overcome these obstacles. What are your reptiles?
Finally,
I appreciate how St. Teresa gives a tool to track spiritual progress. Most of us, if we were asked to
describe where we are at spiritually, would respond, “Not nearly far enough.” While this is true, we don’t often
recognize the growth that has
occurred in our own faith journey.
Reading through her book showed me that, while I am certainly not in the
seventh room, I am through the first
few. You are all here at daily
Mass. You got up this morning and
made through a cold rainy day to come to Church. This shows that you have
experienced conversion in your life and are
progressing spiritually.
On
the Memorial of Teresa of Avila we pray for the grace to advance in our
spiritual lives to God, Who is our best friend. As we do so we ask St. Teresa of Avila—pray for us.
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