To first find and come to know yourself…
October 15, 2024
St. Teresa of Jesus
Dear Family of Mary!
Today is the feast of a wonderful saint, St. Teresa of Avila!
St. Teresa once wrote:
“It is a shame and unfortunate that through our own fault we don’t understand ourselves or know who we are. Wouldn’t it show great ignorance, my daughters, if someone, when asked who he was, didn’t know, and didn’t know his father or mother or from what country he came?
Well now, if this would be so extremely stupid, we are incomparably more so when we do not strive to know who we are, but limit ourselves to considering only roughly these bodies.
Because we have heard and because faith tells us so, we know we have souls. But we seldom consider the precious things that can be found in this soul, or who dwells within it, or its high value.
Consequently, little effort is made to preserve its beauty. All our attention is taken up with the plainness of the diamond’s setting or the outer wall of the castle; that is with these bodies of ours…
You have already heard in some books on prayer that the soul is advised to enter within itself; well, that’s the very thing I’m advising…insofar as I can understand, the door of entry into this castle is prayer and reflection.” (St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection.)
St. Teresa wanted her sisters to really understand the great dignity they possessed in their souls! But the only way to become acquainted with our soul, is through prayer and reflection, and the life of the Sacraments. Our Lady has been leading us all these years in that life of prayer and reflection. She knows so well the worth of the soul!! Here is a message to ponder:
December 2, 2013
“Dear children, with a motherly love and a motherly patience I am looking at your ceaseless wandering and how lost you are…
That is why I am with you.
I desire to help you to first find and come to know yourself, so that, then, you would be able to recognize and to admit everything that does not permit you to get to know the love of the Heavenly Father, honestly and wholeheartedly.
My children, the Father comes to be known through the cross. Therefore, do not reject the cross. Strive to comprehend and accept it with my help.
When you will be able to accept the cross you will also understand the love of the Heavenly Father; you will walk with my Son and with me; you will differ from those who have not come to know the love of the Heavenly Father, those who listen to Him but do not understand Him, those who do not walk with Him – who have not come to know Him.
I desire for you to come to know the truth of my Son and to be my apostles; that, as children of God, you may rise above the human way of thinking and always, and in everything, seek God’s way of thinking, anew.
My children, pray and fast that you may be able to recognize all of this which I am seeking of you.
Pray for your shepherds and long to come to know the love of your Heavenly Father, in union with them. Thank you.”
May we take Our Lady’s words to heart, and like St. Teresa, through prayer and reflection come to know who we really are, beloved children of the Father who will live forever with Him one day. It is a matter of our soul!!
In Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
Mary TV
