Saint Teresa was a virgin, mystic, nun, reformer of the Carmelite order, and foundress of the Discalced Carmelites. When she was a girl, her father sent her for a time to live in an Augustinian convent, until she became ill about a year or so later. During her illness, she began to contemplate the prospect of living a religious life, and eventually decided to join a convent of Carmelite nuns, which her father strongly opposed. After she turned twenty-one, she did join, and her father gave up opposition to it. She was known to be a woman of prudence, charity and personal charm, and so many people came to be devoted to her charism. She struggled, though, with personal prayer until her early forties. Persevering in prayer, she found that she more and more enjoyed being in the presence of the Lord, and really began to grow in friendship with him.
“You are worth more than many sparrows,” Jesus tells us in today’s gospel. This Teresa truly took to heart, resulting in a friendship with God that was her strength and a glorious inspiration for others. And so today, we might examine our own prayer life, our own relationship with our God. And we pray that that friendship would be as wonderful as Teresa’s was.