St. Teresa of Avila, virgin & doctor 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Ephesians 1:1-10

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, 

To the saints in Ephesus, to you who share Christian faith: receive grace and peace from God our Father and from Jesus the Lord. Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord, who in Christ has blessed us from heaven with every spiritual blessing.

God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and without sin in his presence. From eternity he destined us in love to be his adopted sons and daughters through Christ Jesus, thus fulfilling his free and generous will.

This goal suited him:  that his loving-kindness which he granted us in his Beloved might finally receive all glory and praise.  For in Christ we obtain freedom, sealed by his blood, and have the forgiveness of sins.

In this appears the greatness of his grace, which he lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding,  God has made known to us his mysterious design, in accordance with his loving-kindness in Christ. In him and under him God wanted to unite, when the fullness of time had come, everything in heaven and on earth.

 

Ps 98:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6

The Lord has made known his salvation.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 11:47-54

 A curse is on you, for you build memorials to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and now you can build!”

 (The Wisdom of God also said,) “I will send prophets and apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary.

Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all. A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.”  As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass him, asking him endless questions, setting traps to catch him in something he might say.

 

Gospel Reflection：

St. Teresa of Avila whose memorial we celebrate today is one who teaches us about the one fundamental law – to contemplate or rest in God’s love. This great contemplative followed in the footsteps of the prophets of the Old Testament.

Against all odds she taught that to be a true disciple of Christ one must love God above all. So often the world and its allurements beguile us into “loving”this world rather than being in love with God. St. Paul in the 1^st reading tells the Ephesians that we have been chosen from eternity to belong to God. God’s design is for us all to become Saints like St. Teresa. the path to sanctity begins with a longing for God.

St. Teresa often simply prayed by pronouncing the Holy Name “Senor!” with a heart that simply longed for God! Desire for God is the key to spiritual flight. We may not soar to the 7^th mansion like St. Teresa but we can be wafted to the heavens like St. Therese, the Little Flower, with childlike trust in our God of love even as we do our little and ordinary tasks with and for the love of God!