October begins with the Feast of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (aka The Little Flower or Therese of Lisieux).  The middle day of the month is dedicated to Saint Teresa of Jesus (aka Teresa of Avila).  I have the privilege of serving as priest for Saint Therese Little Flower (STLF) Parish in urban KC as well as for Saint Teresa’s Academy (STA) High School that honors Teresa of Avila; and I get called upon to also assist at Avila University.  These saints, therefore, have a special place in my life and ministry.  They also provide a spirituality based on their namesakes and influenced by the Sisters of Saint Joseph that sponsor two and are associates in the other.

Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite mystic who lived in Spain during the sixteenth century during the Protestant Reformation when the church operated in defensive and confusing ways.  Her father’s side of the family was Jewish but her grandfather, forced by the Spanish Inquisition, converted to Christianity.  Inspired by the lives of saints, Teresa tried to run away when she was seven to fight the Moors and be martyred for her faith.  Her mother died when she was eleven.  Sent to live with nuns, she resisted becoming one, though later joined the Carmelite order in a convent built on an old Jewish burial ground in Avila.  While still young, she nearly died from an unknown illness that kept her in bed for a year during which time she experienced bouts of spiritual ecstasy and credits her recovery to Saint Joseph.  Brilliant, beautiful, and courageous, she gained notoriety as a writer, reformer, founder, and powerful spiritual example.  In the 1970s, she was named the first female Doctor of the Church.

Therese of Lisieux lived in France in the eighteenth century.  Like the Spanish saint, her mother also died when she was a little girl, only four; along with her five sisters (who all became nuns) she was raised by her dad.  Christened Marie Francoise Therese, she emphasized the name that honored her heroine, Teresa of Avila.  She later joined the same religious order.  Carmelites are known for a spirituality of the heart, a deep and longing desire for divine interaction—they view prayer as the doorway to God.  Teresa’s famous books, Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection, highlight the desire for communion with God.  Therese’s autobiography, Story of A Soul, does the same.  Their contemplative nature engages the immense mystery of what we call God but, as Therese’s writings illustrate, we reflect the tremendous mystery in the little ways through our daily choices and actions that add up to make the kingdom of heaven a reality on earth.  Therese only lived to be twenty-four; she didn’t recover from her illness as Teresa did, but her impact was just as profound.  Though she never left the Carmelite cloister, she was named the patron saint of missionaries.  She, too, is one of only four female doctors of the church (there are thirty-one men on the list), an honorary designation to saints who influenced ecclesial doctrine by their stellar living and teaching.  She is considered by many as the most popular saint of the twentieth century.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta (aka Mother Teresa) lived in the twentieth century.  She is not from Calcutta but Albania; her birth name was not Teresa but Agnes (Anjeze).  She was just eight when her father died and she, like Therese, was raised by a single parent.  Her desire from a young age was to become a missionary so she joined a religious order of missionary sisters and chose the name that honored her heroine, The Little Flower.  Mother Teresa’s little ways reflected those of the young French saint, while her courage, wisdom, and notoriety reflected also their Spanish predecessor.  The final saint that I’ll mention in this blog post is Teresa of the Cross (aka Teresa Benedicta), another twentieth century woman of brilliance and deep faith.  She is probably better known by her birth name, Edith Stein, who was Jewish and became a great scholar and professor of philosophy.  Born in modern-day Poland the same decade that Therese of Lisieux died, she, like the others, was the youngest child in her family, and raised by a single parent after one of them died while she was a young girl.  Edith converted and was deeply impacted by the life of Teresa of Avila.  She honored her and Therese by joining the Carmelites and by changing her name to theirs.  She was, unfortunately, captured by the Nazis during World War II and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp.  Many church leaders believe that she will be the fifth female saint to be designated a doctor of the church.

These women present a beautiful and power example for all Christians and other people, too.  Their pursuit of God’s way in their life, their desire to create a church that better reflects the love of Jesus, their wisdom and insights that inspire us, their selfless dedication for the downtrodden, and their deep holiness are characteristics that could motivate our modern world.  Maybe their intercession from heaven and the institutes in Kansas City that bear their names will help us to imitate their message and unite us closer to holiness.