Women On The Frontlines: A Call To The Secret PlaceSample

Teresa of Avila: Possessed by God’s Love

On March 28, 1515, a light flickered in a dark chapter in Spanish history. A tiny girl was born in southern Spain. She was given the name Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada.

Teresa of Avila was a beacon of light in an uncertain age, a messenger of the secret place of God’s presence who modeled Christ as a place of safety, comfort, and certain refuge. Throughout her life, her soul would often be caught away to be with God, where she would be filled with visions of the Lover of her soul.

One day, in her young life, something shocking put an end to everything worldly in Teresa’s life—she fell to the floor as if dead. Many believed that she lapsed into a coma, although little proof has been offered. Doctors found no pulse, and all attempts to revive her failed.

Thinking she was dead, the doctors left and a priest anointed her body with holy oil; prayers for the dead were recited and nuns set her body aside to stiffen before burial. The family made funeral preparations and a grave was prepared. Four days later, her father and her brother witnessed a supernatural fire as it hit her body. Her eyelids began blinking, her arms moved, blood rushed to her face, and she rose from the bed inexplicably. While everyone had been thinking that Teresa was dead, she was having a heavenly vision, seeing her family and communities of nuns.

Later, sent to a convent school, Teresa was still unwell and in pain, and she convalesced at the convent for several years, continuing to slip in and out of consciousness at times. Sometimes, it appeared as if no life inhabited her body for weeks and she lay on her bed like a beautiful corpse. Yet, each time, Teresa would recover her senses.

Though she had walked through a dark night of the soul with great physical pain and affliction, from this time on it seemed as though the tangible presence of Jesus was with her.

In her poetry, she writes:

Let nothing trouble you,
Let nothing scare you,
All is fleeing,
God alone is unchanging,
Patience,
Everything obtains.
Who possesses God nothing wants.
God alone suffices.