The Power of St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila is one of my favorite saints. She has been here with me, inspiring me since the very beginning of My Saint My Hero. She experienced true union with Christ and lived in spiritual communion. This is my life goal, and she accomplished it! As soon as I understood this, I wanted to read and learn as much as I could. 

St. Teresa shares with us her journey to a perfect union in her writings. I love the saints because they knew true peace in Christ and tell us all how we, too, are called to this union. It is said that during St. Teresa of Avila's meditation on the prayer "Come Holy Spirit Come," her heart was inflamed by the fire of God's love, and it truly pierced her heart. After she died, the doctors found laceration marks on her heart as if it was "burned." She is a mystic, a reformer, a teacher, and a doctor of the church. Her writings are just as profound today as they were 500 years ago.  

One of my dear friends, Tina, recently read one of St. Teresa of Avila's books, and her experience was precisely what St. Teresa is all about—a burning love for God that ignites deep in our souls. Tina is not catholic, and she was unaware of the burning heart of love, yet she felt it. 

This is the power of a saint and a mystic—they continue to create miracles on Earth while in heaven. St. Teresa of Avila is an inspiration to live life in union with Christ now, and she is also a true example of a saint performing miracles in our lives by their prayers and actions in heaven. I imagine St. Teresa of Avila looking upon Tina and saying, "Yes, my friend, the love burning in your heart is real; let it ignite the world on fire with love." 

I asked Tina to share with you her experience with St. Teresa of Avila: 

St. Teresa of Avila inspires me. Her passion, love, dedication to sharing her spiritual gifts, and the way she communicates with me directly, lights the fire inside my heart. It affirms that the love I have experienced in my meditations is real, deep and although so small, there are ways for me to grow and people I can learn from. St. Teresa of Avila was a real woman who lived six hundred years ago and she is here teaching me today. 

I am deeply grateful for her wisdom.

I'm not Catholic and I've never read a book by a Saint until now. As I read The Interior Castle, and treasure St. Teresa of Avila's commitment to helping her Carmelite sisters see what's possible for them, it feels like she's speaking to me also. She's taking me through the glass castle and each of the seven dwellings, showing me how to help my soul progress and develop a deeper relationship with God. It feels so personal and so daring because she was living at the time of the Inquisition. 

She couldn't hold herself back from sharing what God had asked her to share.

She speaks often that spiritual gifts require humility, and it's made me question on a daily basis how to be more humble. She explains to us that when we sit in silence with God, over and over, he is there to embrace us, embracing us with an all-encompassing love. She inspires me to live differently, with more kindness, passion, service, love, humility, and I find myself these days asking the question – isn't she showing us, through her writings, teachings, passion, love, commitment, connection what we are all here to do? —Tina 

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us! 

—Amy D'Ambra/MSMH Founder and Co-Owner