St. Teresa's Gift

October is the month of the Teresas:  October 1st, St. Therese of Lisieux, and October 15th, St. Teresa of Avila.  Both have been declared Doctors of the Church, both were Carmelites, both had a very practical approach to prayer and growth in the spiritual life. St. Therese wrote only one book, The Story of a Soul, while St. Teresa wrote several, her own Life, The Ascent of Mt Carmel, The Way of Perfection, Meditations on the Song of Songs, and her masterpiece, The Interior Castle.  Although blessed with visions, levitation and deep mystical prayer, her practical side enabled her to reform the Carmelite Order and open 16 convents of Discalced (shoeless) Carmelites besides the one at Avila.  She describes prayer in terms that everyone can understand: "Prayer, in my view, is nothing but friendly and frequent conversation with Him Who we know loves us." In even more graphic terms, she wrote, "Christ has not body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world.Yours are the feet by which he is to go about doing good.  Yours are the hands with which he is to bless his people."  Her gift is thus linking prayer with practical action. These verses from Psalm 73 describe her aptly and serve as a blueprint for the contemplative side of our active Marist spirituality:
I was always in your presence;/ you were holding me by my right hand./ You will guide me by your counsel/ and so you will lead me to glory. 
What else have I in heaven but you?/ Apart from you I want nothing on earth./ My body and my heart faint for joy;/ God is my possession forever.
To be near God is my happiness./ I have made the Lord God my refuge./ I will tell of all your works/ at the gates of the city of Zion. (Ps 73: 23-25, 27-28).
Bro. Rene