Happy Feast of St. Teresa of Avila! Over the past couple of months, I've posted pictures from Avila a few times, but here is another:

Irish Mom Writer is on the left, with my husband on the right. :) I wish my hand was not on top of the statue's writing hand (see her quill pen?) -- I should have her hand over mine, that she may guide me!

Here is the door through which she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila to become a nun:

Here is the block of wood she used as a pillow. Would it be disrespectful to comment, "No wonder she was subject to headaches?" Makes me feel like quite a sissy!

This is the chapel of the monastery...the Sisters lived behind the grille, and looked through it at the main altar for Mass:

 Here is the main altar of their chapel. St. Teresa spent 27 years here, then left to found stricter convents that adhered more closely to the original Carmelite idea. She later came back here as Prioress:

 She died in the reformed Carmelite Convent of the Annunciation at Alba de Tormes, shown here:

Here is her tomb, and the separate reliquary containing her arm:

This reliquary contains her heart:

It's hard to know what thoughts to offer, on such a great saint's day! A Doctor of the Church, an expert on mental prayer, a "bestselling" woman writer, a reformer when the world had become lax, a woman full of courage and ingenuity, a lover of Jesus Christ? There is simply too much to say about her!

So instead, I'll offer this very simple and sweet explanation of how to begin to meditate, from the great lady herself:

"As you know, the first thing must be examination of conscience, confession of sin and the signing of yourself with the Cross. Then, as you are alone, you must look for a companion -- and who could be a better companion than the very Master who taught you the prayer that you about to say? Imagine that this Lord Himself is at your side and see how lovingly and how humbly He is teaching you -- and, believe me, you should stay with so good a friend as long as you can before you leave Him. If you become accustomed to having Him at your side, and if He sees that you love Him to be there, and are always trying to please Him, you will never be able, as we put it, to send Him away, nor will He ever fail you...Do you think it is a small thing to have such a Friend as that beside you?"

100 years ago today....The Great Miracle of the Sun at Fatima took place here in this plaza...which was then a field where the three children grazed their parents' sheep. You can see people doing the thanksgiving pathway on their knees...

"As the cloud gradually melted from sight Lucia cried out: 'Look at the sun!' Those within sound of her voice turned their gaze upward and soon seventy thousand pairs of eyes were scanning the Heavens. The vast crowd saw the sun change in color from golden to silver hue and also found that they could look without shading their eyes. The rain suddenly stopped and there, before the astonished gaze of that great concourse of people, the sun, like a gigantic magic lantern, began to emit long beams of multi-colored light, green, red, purple, yellow and blue. As they stood, awed by the incredible spectacle that painted earth, cloud and sky with sunshine such as human eye had never beheld before, the sun began to revolve speedily, performing a whirling dance in this maze of multi-colored light. Three times it paused and three times the whirling was resumed. For twelve minutes in all, that crowd of 70,000 people was privileged to witness the stupendous and incredible miracle of the sun...
"Then came the awe-inspiring finale. Like a gigantic wheel that had been torn loose by its dizzy whirling, the sun suddenly came hurtling towards the earth, closer and closer with every terrifying second. Down, down, towards the crouching and terror-stricken crowd from whom fervent acts of supplication and pleas for mercy were mingled with acts of genuine contrition. All thought that this was the end of the world but the end was not yet. Stayed by the Divine Hand, the sun suddenly stopped in its headlong flight to earth and, as the multitude looked on, resumed its accustomed place in the Heavens, whence it shone forth peacefully as before."

~ Rt. Rev. William C. McGrath, P.A., Fatima: Hope of the World, imprimatur 1945.

Now, thousands gather here for nightly processions...and we got to participate in one in June.

I would like to share the thought today, that, on October 13, 1917, Our Lady had utter confidence in Her Son's unlimited power. She couldn't make the sun twirl of her own human strength. But she leaned on His Omnipotence with perfect faith, and He performed this miracle through her.

We too, can lean on Him. He can do anything, and if it's for our ultimate good and happiness, He will do anything. Now, does that mean that I can go out in the backyard, point out the sun, and it will begin wildly flailing about the sky? Maybe not, but it would only be because God, in His Infinite Wisdom, knew that this was not what was best for me and my family.

St. Teresa of Avila tells us that we are assured of success in our search for Him and eternal life, as long as we (the weak link in this chain) never give up!

Image of St. James with Our Lady of the Pillar in Burgos Cathedral, Spain

Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar! I just love this story...of how St. James was feeling discouraged in his mission, and Our Lady appeared to him to cheer him! It is actually not an apparition, but a manifestation...because the Blessed Virgin was still living in Ephesus in the home of St. John at the time. She "merely" bilocated to Saragossa, Spain to encourage James to keep working for the salvation of souls. She showed herself on top of a pillar, and that pillar is preserved in that place to this day!

There is also a tie-in to today's American holiday of Columbus Day. When Christopher Columbus's sailors were becoming discouraged on that long first voyage across the Atlantic, he made a deal with them. If land was not sighted by the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar (today), he would turn back. To the great benefit of many Americans, they found land at 2 a.m. on October 12th, and the rest, as they say, is history! Our Lady thereby encouraged her faithful son Christopher Columbus in his desire to bring the light of the Faith to the Indies (or new lands), as she had encouraged St. James.

A Basilica has been built over the site of Our Lady's coming to Spain:

And I had the privilege of kissing the small exposed oval of the pillar in this basilica, in 2005:

And finally, a few words of encouragement for us today:

"The desires of the Heart of Mary are likewise concerned about our own individual improvement in spirit; for this, above all else, is the wish of her Beloved Son...And these aspirations of the Queen of Heaven can easily be fulfilled. Nothing extraordinary, nothing great or melodramatic is required. Just a simple performing of daily tasks, but into this performance is injected a verve, an eclat, which perfects these duties and renders them simple and easy in the extreme. This enthusiasm arises from our imitation of Mary -- our own dear Mother."

~ David P. McAstocker, SJ, Herself, imprimatur 1934.