BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261006T184824Z UID:129-1016076@holyhermits.com.au DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261101 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261101 CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20250926T122145 DESCRIPTION:St. Teresa of Ávila\, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus.  Or iginal name Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada. \nBorn March 28\, 1515 in Ávila\ , Spain.  She died October 4\, 1582 in Alba de Tormes. Spain \nShe was canonised 1622\;  Feast day October 15. \nLife\nOne of the great mystic s and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church\, and author of spiritu al classics.\nShe was the originator of the Carmelite Reform\, which resto red and emphasised the austerity and contemplative character of primitive Carmelite life.\nSt. Teresa was elevated to doctor of the church in 1970 b y Pope Paul VI\, the first woman to be so honoured.  \nHer mother died i n 1529\, and\, despite her father’s opposition\, Teresa entered the Carm elite Convent of the Incarnation at Ávila\, Spain. Within two years her h ealth collapsed\, and she was an invalid for three years\, during which ti me she developed a love for mental prayer. After her recovery\, however\, she stopped praying.\nShe continued for 15 years in a state divided betwee n a worldly and a divine spirit\, until\, in 1555\, she underwent a religi ous awakening.  \nIn 1558 Teresa began to consider the restoration of Ca rmelite life to its original observance of austerity\, which had relaxed i n the 14th and 15th centuries. Her reform required utter withdrawal so tha t the nuns could meditate on divine law and\, through a prayerful life of penance\, exercise what she termed “our vocation of reparation” for th e sins of humankind.\nIn 1562\, with Pope Pius IV’s authorisation\, she opened the first convent (St. Joseph’s) of the Carmelite Reform. A storm of hostility came from municipal and religious personages\, especially be cause the convent existed without endowment\, but she staunchly insisted o n poverty and subsistence only through public alms.  \nJohn Baptist Ross i\, the Carmelite prior general from Rome\, went to Ávila in 1567 and app roved the reform\, directing Teresa to found more convents and to establis h monasteries. In the same year\, while at Medina del Campo\, Spain\, she met a young Carmelite priest\, Juan de Yepes (later St. John of the Cross\ , the poet and mystic)\, who she realised could initiate the Carmelite Ref orm for men. A year later Juan opened the first monastery of the Primitive Rule at Duruelo\, Spain.  \nDespite frail health and great difficulties \, Teresa spent the rest of her life establishing and nurturing 16 more co nvents throughout Spain.\nIn 1575\, while she was at the Sevilla (Seville) convent\, a jurisdictional dispute erupted between the friars of the rest ored Primitive Rule\, known as the Discalced (or “Unshod”) Carmelites\ , and the observants of the Mitigated Rule\, the Calced (or “Shod”) Ca rmelites.\nAlthough she had foreseen the trouble and endeavoured to preven t it\, her attempts failed. The Carmelite general\, to whom she had been m isrepresented\, ordered her to retire to a convent in Castile and to cease founding additional convents\; Juan was subsequently imprisoned at Toledo in 1577.  \nIn 1579\, largely through the efforts of King Philip II of Spain\, who knew and admired Teresa\, a solution was effected whereby the Carmelites of the Primitive Rule were given independent jurisdiction\, con firmed in 1580 by a rescript of Pope Gregory XIII.\nTeresa\, broken in hea lth\, was then directed to resume the reform. In journeys that covered hun dreds of miles\, she made exhausting missions and was fatally stricken en route to Ávila from Burgos\, Spain.  \nTeresa’s ascetic doctrine has been accepted as the classical exposition of the contemplative life\, and her spiritual writings are among the most widely read.\nHer Life of the Mo ther Teresa of Jesus (1611) is autobiographical\; the Book of the Foundati ons (1610) describes the establishment of her convents.\nHer recognised wr itten masterpieces on the progress of the Christian soul toward God throug h prayer and contemplation are The Way of Perfection (1583)\, The Interior Castle (1588)\, Spiritual Relations\, Exclamations of the Soul to God (15 88)\, and Conceptions on the Love of God.  \nFor Teresa\, prayer is the source of Christian life and the wellspring of all moral virtues. Prayer i s not everything\, but without prayer\, nothing else is possible. By praye r does the soul continue the journey. And through prayer\, God works\, in mysterious\, often unpredictable ways\, as the soul works strongly also. W ithout the soul's active compliance\, God will not move (though human effo rt cannot do what God alone must do).    \nQuotes from St. Teresa of Ávila\nLet nothing Disturb you\, Let nothing frighten you\, Though all th ings pass\, God does not change. Patience wins all things. But he lacks no thing who possesses God\; For God alone suffices.  \nChrist has no body now on earth but yours\, no hands\, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks out his compassion to the world. Yours are the fee t with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.  \nThe surest way to determine whether one posses ses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured\, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase.  \nPrayer is an act of love. Words are not needed.  \nThey deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures\, and in the enjoyment of Him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and sub jection of our will - with our thoughts\, words and actions - to the will of God. \nSt. Teresa of Avila | Interior Castle: Prayer of Quiet/Consolat ions – Water from the Source — The Contemplative Life. \nPocasts:\nMy stic Visionary: Teresa of Avila\nProfessor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by the former Archbishop of Canterbury\, the Right Reverend and Right Honoura ble Rowan Lord Williams\, to discuss St Teresa of Avila’s remarkable lif e and legacy.\nReferences  \nSaint Teresa of Avila | Biography\, Facts\, Prayer\, Feast Day\, &\; Works | Britannica\nTeresa of Avila | Christi an History | Christianity Today\nTOP 25 QUOTES BY TERESA OF AVILA (of 286) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com) LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T122145 LOCATION:Remember SUMMARY:Holy Hermit Teresa of Avila URL;VALUE=URI:https://holyhermits.com.au/events/holy-hermit-teresa-of-avila /2026-11-01 ATTACH;FILENAME="Santa_Teresa_escritora,_Manuel_Ponce_de_León_y_Falcón.jp g";FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2023/08/03/22/0 9/57/fd379550-9d35-4e93-979d-1b8294e0a644/Santa_Teresa_escritora,_Manuel_P once_de_Le%C3%B3n_y_Falc%C3%B3n.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR