• October 15, 2026, Today’s Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET
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Friends of the Rosary,
Today, as on every October 15, the Catholic Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582), the first woman Doctor of the Church.
Born in Ávila, Spain, and dying in Alba, Spain, in the sixteenth century, with the help of St. John of the Cross, she reformed most of the Carmelite convents and founded seventeen. She endured intense criticism from her sisters, as she insisted that they live simply, in imitation of Christ’s poverty on the cross.
She shared, “Prayer means being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with him who, we know, loves us.”
On prayer, she reached the highest degree; through prayer, she obtained such knowledge of divine things.
At the age of eighteen she joined the Carmelite Order and chose Christ as her heavenly Spouse.
St. Teresa of Jesus, honored by the Church as the “seraphic virgin” (virgo seraphica) and reformer of the Carmelite Order, ranks first among women for wisdom and learning.
She is called doctrix mystica, doctor of mystical theology. Her writings are still considered classic works on mysticism, and all her later teachers have drawn from them, e.g., Francis de Sales, Alphonsus Liguori. Characteristic of her mysticism is a subjective, individualistic approach; there is little integration with the liturgy and social piety, and thus she reflects the spirit of the sixteenth and following centuries.
When she lost her mother at twelve, she implored Mary for her maternal protection. In 1533 she entered the Carmelite Order; for eighteen years she suffered physical pain and spiritual dryness.
Wonderful were the exterior and interior manifestations of her mystical union with God, especially during the last decade of her life.
As she was dying, she often repeated the words: “Lord, I am a daughter of the Church!”
St. Teresa composed the following well-known lines:
Let nothing affright thee,
Nothing dismay thee.
All is passing,
God ever remains.
Patience obtains all.
Whoever possesses God
Cannot lack anything
God alone suffices.
In today’s Gospel, the scribes and Pharisees make Jesus a scapegoat: They “began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.”
Ave Maria!
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
To Jesus through Mary!
Here I am, Lord; I come to do Your will.
Please give us the grace to respond with joy!
+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New York
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