April 12, 2018: St. Teresa of the Andes
April 12, 2018: St. Teresa of Jesus “of the Andes”
(excerpt from Drink of the Stream: Prayers of Carmelites compiled by Penny Hickey)
Juana Enriqueta Josafina de los Sacrados Corazones was born in Santiago, Chile, July 13, 1900. Her parents were wealthy and aristocratic and has six children. Juana was the fourth and was affectionately called Juanita by her family. From the age of five, Juana never tired of listening to people talk about God or other religious subjects. She loved and excelled in horseback riding and was a real beauty. This led to vanity, which she worked very hard to overcome, along with other faults.
From the time she was six she attended daily Mass and said that “Jesus took her heart to be His own.” She yearned to receive Holy Communion, but was restricted because of her age. This was a time of purification for her. The night before her First Communion she went to the members of her family and begged forgiveness for any time she might have hurt them. She says that her First Communion was “truly a fusion between Jesus and her soul...” This was at the age of ten. Each time she received Communion Juana records that “Jesus spoke with her for a long time.”
She had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother and daily prayed the Rosary. Juana kept an intimate diary from the age of fifteen until she died. She suffered frequent and serious illnesses, but joyfully lived her faith even more seriously. Her diary reveals that Juanita saw her life as a composed of suffering and love. Her scholastic achievements were very notable, but she was most proud of being a “Child of Mary.” This gifted one was also a musician, playing the piano and harmonium and singing beautifully.
She made a vow of virginity at the age of fifteen and determined to enter Carmel. She loved parties and dancing, but she also had the desire to care for the poor. She prepared for her entrance to Carmel by corresponding with the prioress, opening her soul for guidance. The big day arrived on May 7, 1919, at Los Andes. She wrote to her family eight days later, “It is eight days since I have been in Carmel, eight days of heaven.”
This heaven was marked with serious illness, and during Holy Week of 1920 it reached its peak. Juanita, now Sister Teresa of Jesus, had contracted typhus. After receiving the last sacraments, she was permitted to make her religious vows in the Carmelite Order. On April 12, 1920, she went to sleep in the arms of her Lord. She had recorded earlier, “To die is to be eternally immersed in Love.”
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From the Spiritual writings of Saint Teresa of Jesus
“Jesus alone is beautiful; he is my only joy. I call for him, I cry after him, I search for him within my heart. I long for Jesus to grind me interiorly so that I may become a pure host where he can find his rest. I want to be athirst with love so that other souls may possess this love. I would die to creatures and to myself, so that he may live in me.
Is there anything good, beautiful or true that we can think of that would not be in Jesus? Wisdom, from which nothing would be secret. Power, for which nothing would be impossible. Justice, which made him take on flesh in order to make satisfaction for sin. Providence, which always watches over and sustains us. Mercy, which never ceases to pardon. Goodness, which forgets the offenses of his creatures. Love, which unites all the tendernesses of a mother, of a brother, of a spouse, and which, drawing him out of the abyss of his greatness, binds him closely to his creatures. Beauty which enraptures what can you think of that would not be found in this Man-God?
Are you perhaps afraid that the abyss of the greatness of God and that of your nothingness cannot be united? There is love in him. His passionate love made him take flesh in order that by seeing a Man-God, we would not be afraid to draw near him. This passionate love made him become bread in order to assimilate our nothingness and make it disappear into his infinite being. This passionate love made him give his life by dying on the cross.
Are you perhaps afraid to draw near him? Look at him, surrounded by little children. He caresses them, he presses them to his heart. Look at him in the midst of his faithful flock, bearing the faithless lamb on his shoulders. Look at him at the tomb of Lazarus. And listen to what he says of the Magdalene: “Much has been forgiven her, because she has loved much.” What do you discover in these flashes from the Gospel except a heart that is good, gentle, tender, compassionate; in other words, the heart of a God?
He is my unending wealth, my bliss, my heaven.”
-St. Teresa of the Andes
