"Nada te turbe" Teresa of Avila

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the life of Teresa of Avila. She was born in Spain in 1515 at the start of the Reformation and lived until 1582 to see the beginnings of the Counter Reformation in the Council of Trent. She was a contemplative, mystic and reformer and one of the first women recognized as a Doctor of the Church. She did much to bring the Carmelite order back to its original rule and had much success in turning around the carmelite monasteries that were becoming too worldy. She wrote many volumes of poems, books and letters. Her exhumed body nine months after burial was incorrupted and gave off a beautiful perfume of an odor that filled the monastery. She was canonized in 1622 and made a Doctor of the Church in 1970.

"Let nothing upset you, let nothing startle you. All things pass; God does not change. Patience wins all it seeks. Whoever has God lacks nothing: God alone is enough"