From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How There is no Security From Temptation [III]   
      
   Do you imagine that you can always have spiritual joys at will? My   
   Saints did not, but had many troubles, countless trials and great   
   desolation of soul. But they patiently endured all these things and   
   trusted in God rather than themselves, knowing that 'the sufferings of   
   this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be   
   won hereafter. (Rom.8:18) Do you wish to enjoy immediately what many   
   others have only won after much sorrow and struggle? Wait for the   
   Lord; fight manfully and with high courage.(Ps. 26:14) Do not despair,   
   do not desert your post, but steadfastly devote yourself body and soul   
   to the glory of God. I will give you a rich reward,(Matt.16:27) and   
   will be with you in all your troubles.(Ps. 91:15)   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 35   
      
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   July 13th - St. Teresa de Los Andes   
   (1900-1920)   
      
   Hitherto Chile has had no canonized saint to boast of. Pope John Paul   
   II remedied that on March 21, 1993, when he proclaimed the sainthood   
   of a young Chilean Carmelite, Teresa of Los Andes.   
      
   Teresa was not a figure from Chile’s colonial past. She was fully a   
   20th-century person. As the Holy Father would point out, her   
   significance was precisely an example of one old in wisdom but   
   contemporary in age.   
      
   Teresa was born in Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. Her parents   
   Miguel and Lucia Fernandez had her baptized two days later, with the   
   Christian name Juana (Joan or Jane); but her family and friends always   
   called her Juanita. The Fernandezes were able to afford her education   
   in a convent school conducted by the nuns of the Society of the Sacred   
   Heart.   
      
   From her earliest years, Juanita showed herself a devout child. She   
   was especially attracted to Our Lady, and when still very young she   
   made a promise to recite the rosary daily – a promise that she always   
   kept faithfully. Juanita also showed a precocious thoughtfulness for   
   the elderly and the poor. Once when she discovered that a certain   
   child was in need, she donated her own watch to be raffled off for the   
   benefit of the youngster.   
      
   Charitable tendencies, however minor, were signs of a deepening   
   spirituality. Juana, although a lively young woman, showed increasing   
   interest in the stories of women saints. The Carmelite mystics St.   
   Therese of Lisieux and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity had a special   
   influence on her. A religious vocation was in the making.   
      
   Towards the end of secondary school, in 1917, Juanita began   
   corresponding with the prioress of the convent of Los Andes, a   
   monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns. Her request to be received into   
   the order was accepted, and on May 7, 1919, she was clothed with the   
   habit, taking the same name as that of the great Spanish foundress of   
   the Barefoot Carmelites, St. Teresa of Avila: “Teresa of Jesus”.   
      
   “Big” St. Teresa of Jesus had had a fairly long life, dying at 67.   
   This “little” Teresa of Jesus was a nun for less than a year. The   
   details of her spiritual career are not yet widely known, but it must   
   have been one of intensive maturation.   
      
   Preaching at the Mass of her canonization, the Holy Father pointed out   
   the young nun’s deep sense of her calling to offer up in silence her   
   prayers and pains for the redemption of sinners. “We are co-redeemers   
   of the world,” she once wrote, “and the redemption of souls is not   
   obtained without the cross.” Her own cross was a heavy one. On April   
   2, 1920, she became gravely ill with typhus. Receiving the last   
   sacraments, she was also allowed to make her religious profession on   
   her deathbed, a month before her novitiate would have been complete.   
   She died on April 12.   
      
   Holiness will out, even if the holy one lives a cloistered life.   
   Devotion to this modern Teresa of Jesus grew apace after her death,   
   and her cause of canonization was introduced as early as 1947. John   
   Paul II saw in her a sign of contrast to today’s “Me Generation”. In   
   an epoch in which the word “love” is “too often profaned,” St. Teresa   
   of the Andes proves, said the Pope, “the perennial youth of the   
   Gospel”. From the time she was a child, St Teresa of Jesus spoke   
   familiarly with God and with His Mother Mary. She learned to be   
   faithful to the Lord, and to use her natural human talents   
   accordingly. She achieved a balanced life, serenity and maturity, all   
   of which are anxiously sought after in the world today.   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love   
   for one another.  (John 13:35)   
      
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   Some thoughts of St Teresa of Los Andes   
      
   "Who can make me happier than God? I find all things in Him."   
      
   I shall take great pains to work for the happiness of others... My   
   resolution: to sacrifice myself for others.... I must strive to be   
   more loving.   
      
   A believing soul possesses all things because it possesses God...   
   Everything changes when you look at this divine Sun... With faith,   
   sufferings are transformed.   
      
   When you are in love, everything is a joy; the cross is no burden and   
   you are unaffected by martyrdom; you live in heaven rather than on   
   earth.   
      
   How your life would be transformed if you went to Jesus often as to   
   your intimate friend! Let us take notice of our neighbour and serve   
   him, even though we find it repugnant to do so. In this way we will   
   find that the throne of our heart will be occupied by its Owner, by   
   God.   
      
   In the shadow of the Cross, all bitterness vanishes... Souls are   
   shaped on the anvil of sorrows.   
      
   To lovingly offer ourselves to the Father in order to accomplish his   
   adorable will. This I reckon is the plan of holiness.   
      
   God is thirsting for the love of His creatures. The same God is our   
   beggar. Let us give ourselves to Him. Let us not be mean... Let us not   
   look at what we are doing, but at the extent of our failure to   
   correspond to His love.   
      
   Always take the Most Blessed Virgin as your model. Speak to her, heart   
   to heart... Ask her to be your guide, to be your star, the lighthouse   
   which shines in the midst of the darkness of your life.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)