St. Teresa of Avila - plans for the birthday celebration in the works

It's not the big 5-0.

It's the fabulous
5-0-0.

That's right . . . St. Teresa of Avila is having a birthday!





The Church is already getting ready for the big event, though it won't occur until 2015. A commission of Discalced Carmelites is already preparing for the celebration of the 5th centenary of the birth of St. Teresa of Jesus. (Zenit News Agency)

St. Teresa of Avila - plans for the birthday celebration in the works

When They Doubt The Immaculate Conception

Have you ever watched a television program that changed your life? Well, that’s what happened to me – but it took more than five months for the full impact to hit me. It began on July 16, 2004 – five years ago today. I caught the tail-end of a Journey Home program (EWTN), and I was immediately drawn to that night’s guest. On a whim, I wrote Mary Beth Kremski and attempted to explain something that I didn’t completely understand myself – my growing desire to enter the Catholic Church.


I had been fascinated by Mrs. Kremski because she was a Third Order Carmelite – or at least that’s what the tag line at the bottom of the television screen said. I didn’t know what Third Order meant, but I knew that the authors of the books I had recently read were Carmelites. St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila – only they lived in the 1500s. I had no idea that there were Carmelites living and breathing today! What luck! I had to write her. I had so many questions.


We exchanged just one set of letters in August, and then the communication ended. I turned my attention to the local Catholic Church and decided to try RCIA class and see what would happen from there.



In December of 2004, the RCIA leader at my parish introduced the class to the Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception. I’ve come to the conclusion that our Blessed Mother was gently guiding me through this part of my journey, but at that moment in time, she seemed to be nothing more than one major stumbling block for me.


I announced to the entire class that I couldn’t accept that Mary was conceived without sin. I was willing to admit that Protestants had let the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction, relegating Mary to a minor role in the Christmas story, but I felt that was in response to excessive Catholic Mariology. I explained that, while I believed the Lord could do that for Mary, I was convinced it was highly unlikely that he did do it. At that moment, I didn’t even have enough faith to say, I believe, Lord help my unbelief.


The terrible thought hit me then. Where does one go when she believes in Apostolic Succession, the Papacy, Purgatory, the Communion of Saints, and all Catholic Teaching, except the Immaculate Conception? What was the name of that denomination? I felt like Peter when he said, where else can we go? This is a difficult teaching, Lord, but I’ve nowhere else to turn.


After many attempts to help me understand, my RCIA instructor mentioned that I had the option of placing a petition before the Blessed Mother. If I had sincerely given myself to the task of understanding and I still couldn’t embrace this teaching, he told me that I could always ask Mary to show me the Truth.


As an Evangelical, I had placed many petitions before the Lord. That was not a new concept. And I didn’t have a problem with asking Mary to answer my petition. I just didn’t think she would do it.



I knew a lot was riding on this petition. The Immaculate Conception was the one obstacle that stood between my father (a Presbyterian minister) and the Catholic Church. In fact, if he could have resolved this issue, I’m convinced he would have converted to the Catholic Church thirty years ago. Before I made my petition to Mary, I prayed, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you lead, even if it is down a road my father could not take. I just want to get this right. And so, I beg You NOT to answer the petition I place before Your Mother if this teaching shouldn’t be embraced.” Then I turned my heart to Mary and laid it on the line:


Mary,
If you are as the Catholic Church says and if you love me, please answer this petition. I want someone to communicate with me by your inspiration. I need the communication to encourage me in the faith, and I don’t want it to be from Catholic friends at the school where I used to teach or my Catholic in-laws. I don’t want it to be from anyone in my parish. All of them—well, I have shared this struggle with some of them, and they may know through earthly tongues that I need to be propped up. Mary, I want the message to come from you to the ears of one who could know no other way. Please choose someone who, for me, would represent the Universal Catholic Church. Then I will know I am right where I am supposed to be and that the Church’s Teachings are ALL correct, terra firma, especially the Teachings about you. Please answer my petition before the end of the year—I know, that’s just two weeks.


This petition is rewritten word-for-word from my journal entry for December 12, 2004, the day I said the prayer. I knew it was unlikely I would receive a response. Almost as unlikely as the Immaculate Conception, I thought.


Our Lady didn’t make me wait very long. In the mailbox the next day was a letter from the woman who had appeared on The Journey Home the previous July. I had not heard from her since August when her one and only letter arrived. BUT, in December of 2004 she decided to write me a second time to encourage me in the Faith and let me know she was praying for me. Her letter was dated December 8, 2004. Above the date, she had hand-written The Feast of the Immaculate Conception. With tears streaming down my face, I read her two-page, single-spaced letter.


I had been ready to abandon the journey. I knew it would drive me crazy to teeter on the fence for very long. That’s why I had put a time restriction on the Blessed Virgin. That letter sealed everything for me. Like Thomas when he touched the wounds of Our Lord, all my doubts were gone instantly.


Mary is my Mother! And like the truest mother, she loves me and knows me better than I know myself. After all, she knew the very thing I would ask of her before I even asked it. Mary Beth Kremski’s letter had been dated four days before I made the petition, arriving less than twenty-four hours after my request for help. Our Lady proved herself to be the Immaculate Conception and a Mother with impeccable timing.

When They Doubt The Immaculate Conception

How Evelyn Underhill Made Me Catholic

(One of my favorite quotes by Evelyn Underhill)

From The Spiritual Life

Hodder & Stoughton

[The Spiritual Life] consists in being drawn, at His pace and in His way, to the place where He wants us to be; not the place we fancied for ourselves. (39)

-Evelyn Underhill

If you follow Catholic by Grace articles or blog postings, you know how much I love St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.

But how did this Protestant preacher's kid stumble upon these two great Saints?

A long time ago, I read a series by Susan Howatch. It was part of the research I did for an article on Christian fiction (for Protestant venues) - and Susan Howatch had this habit of posting a quote at the beginning of each chapter. While the series was pure fiction, the quotes were by real people. One of her "quotables" came from an Anglican by the name of Evelyn Underhill. After I finished the series, I went looking for books by Underhill.

I found it interesting that Underhill had great affection for contemplatives, and she kept mentioning someone by the name of St. John of the Cross. So, after I read Howatch, I went to Underhill. After I read Underhill, I went to St. John of the Cross. And after I read St. John of the Cross, I went to St. Teresa of Avila.

And then, I went to the doors of the Catholic Church and asked that life-changing question. "How does one become Catholic. . . because I think that's what I'm supposed to be doing right about now."

*Another interesting fact about Evelyn Underhill is that she wanted to become Catholic, but at the request of her Anglican husband, she did not follow through on this desire. Thankfully, my husband did not stand in my way. And a few years later, he made the journey Home as well.

How Evelyn Underhill Made Me Catholic

The Our Father - a rose by any other name

Basilica of St. Francis Xavier

Dyersville, Iowa (Home of Beckman High School)

As Protestants, we called it The Lord's Prayer. It was just one more way we were different from Catholics. It seemed I was always noticing the differences - and always assuming we (Protestants) had it right. Even saying the words "The Our Father" seemed odd as they fell from my lips.

I had plenty of opportunity to try on the new title when I was hired as the new Spanish teacher at a Catholic high school in rural Iowa. After all, we had to open every class with prayer, and the teacher usually did the leading.

In short order, I implemented a new assignment. "We are going to learn the Our Father and the Hail Mary in Spanish. And we will be opening every class with one of these prayers."

I was there two years (180 days each year). I had five or six classes of students each day. That means I said those prayers around two thousand times!

I don't really think it matters what we call the prayer . . . a rose by any other name and so forth. . . but I do see the value in the simple act of saying the prayer.

I used to think it was a rote prayer and too many Catholics said it without feeling a thing. But I have come to love these prayers, along with the Rosary.

There are times when I do not know what to pray or how to pray. There are times my own mind runs out of ways to say what I am feeling in my heart, but I find that I still long to be with the Lord and talk with Him. When I am just not ready to get off my knees, when I want the conversation between us to go on even though I have run out of words, I simply slip into the prayer Our Lord loved most.

If I try, I can even still do it in Spanish. It's silly, I know, but I think my patron saint, St. Teresa of Avila (herself from Spain), must be smiling about then. I can almost imagine what she's saying. . .

That preacher's kid with the minor in Spanish. . . she's finally Catholic! It only took about two thousand Spanish Our Fathers!

The Our Father - a rose by any other name

The Next Chapter. . .

As wonderful as it was to have my husband enter the Church (after thinking it would never happen), I found myself wondering, "What next?" I realized that most of the writing came out of the disequilibrium that ensues when only one converts. Until his conversion, I had transferred that frustration into writing about the Faith and explaining how I went from "there" to "here." Now that my husband was Catholic, I didn't have anything to write. There was a kind of "done-ness" that followed his conversion. The peace and unity in the home sort of eradicated the energy that had generated so many articles.

I decided to spend some time reading what the writing-saints had to say about the writing life. I’ve discovered an interesting thing about them. For the most part, saints like St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Liseux didn’t really want to write. Their superiors told them to do it, and so they did it. For them, writing was never about putting themselves in print. It was only about obedience and fidelity to what God wanted them to do.

So I asked myself, what am I supposed to be doing as an act of obedience and fidelity to God?

I’m realizing there is a definite advantage to the team approach now that my husband is also Catholic. Together, we have come to the humbling conclusion that we have much to learn from the faithful Catholics we know and the sermons Our Lord preached. Most Catholics do not sit at the computer and write articles. They are out there. Feeding the poor. Speaking for the voiceless. Clothing the needy. They are about the business of spreading the Gospel message by what they do, not by what they write. Their lives are the Gospel message.

Through Catholic Charities. St. Vincent de Paul Centers. Catholic Relief Services. Quilting circles. Priests for Life. Centers for young mothers, for the homeless, and for the under-served in our communities. The have-gots sharing with the have-nots. The Catholic faithful ministering to those labeled by society as a fetus or an illegal alien or a welfare case. All those places where religion is made real by action. Where contemplation is rooted in charity and charitable work is the fruit. What comes next? I'm still not sure, but I think it may be saying yes to whatever comes - and whatever remains.

The Next Chapter. . .