Greetings, hope all goes well.

In every age there always seems to be one person who stands out and brings  great changes on an aspect of our society or even our religious practice.

Such a person is one we remember today. Tressa of Jesus, or maybe better known as St. Teresa of Avila. She along with her companion St. John of the Cross, also a Carmelite, was instrumental in bringing about a great reform to the Carmelite Order.

St. Teresa once said, “Often the Lord allows a fall so that the soul will be be made humble, and when it returns to the right way of acting and grows in self-knowledge, it advances further in the service of our Lord, as we see among the many saints.”

In the church of Santa Maria della Victoria, in Rome, there is a most beautiful statue by Lorenzo Bernini called the “Ecstasy of St. Teresa.” It is a statue of Teresa as she experienced an image of an angel that pierced her heart with a long golden spear. She writes that the pain was both excruciating as well as divine.

With St. John they both brought about the reform of the Carmelite order and today are known as the Order of Carmel, Discalced (meaning “without shoes”.)

Though St. Teresa was a very holy person, she saw that the Church was in need of reform and that she felt that God was calling her to partake in that reform.

Reform does not mean that one has to tare down that which is and build anew. It means taking that which already exists but brings it back to that which God may have intended it to be in the first place. That is why it is so important to understand the history of the Church which throughout the two thousand years, it has undergone many reforms. It is most important for us to remember that our Church is a living organism and must continue to grow. If it does not it will surly die. And we are all part of those reforms be they small or great. Peace.

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, osf and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.