Wisdom from Four Saint Teresas

Editor’s note: This homily was on the liturgical memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, October 15, 2026, at the Church of the Holy Innocents, New York City.

Today, the Church keeps the liturgical memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, one of the brightest lights to illuminate the darkness created by the Protestant Revolt. She was the indomitable reformer of the Carmelite Order and doyenne of spiritual theology, which is why Pope Paul VI named her a Doctor of the Church, along with that other formidable daughter of the Church, Catherine of Siena.

She was also a very practical woman, likewise not uncomfortable in making known her real feelings even to God. We recall the famous episode when, returning to her convent during a torrential rainstorm, she slipped down an embankment, landing in a pool of mud. The irrepressible nun looked up to Heaven and, with a degree of moxie, worthy of a New Yorker, admonished her Creator, “If this is how You treat Your friends, it’s no wonder You have so few of them!”

As I was reflecting on this valiant woman, I also began to think of her many female descendants, among whom three came to mind immediately – all of them taking the name of “Teresa,” so as to place themselves under her influence and patronage: Thérèse of Lisieux, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (better known as Edith Stein), and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They drank deeply from her well of wisdom.

It is no accident that, in Sacred Scripture, wisdom is often personified as a woman. Thus do we read in the Book of Proverbs:

Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine,
she has also set her table.
She has sent out her maids to call
from the highest places in the town,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who is without sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed. (9:1-5)

This exemplifies what Pope St. John Paul II identified as “the feminine genius.” Many of you know how often I have extolled the unparalleled contribution made to Catholic life in this nation for more than a century and a half by women Religious through their works of education and health care. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that it was the Sisters who made the Church in America great, much more than the priests.

With that in mind, let me help you imbibe some of the wisdom that has come to us from four Teresas.

Of course, we start with “Big Teresa,” our saint of the day.

On Knowing and Serving God

“In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give Him thanks.”

“We have to serve God in His way, not ours.”

On Christian Living

“However much we do to avoid them, we shall never lack crosses in this life if we are in the ranks of the Crucified.”

“We ought to act as if we were at war—indeed we are—and never relax until we have won the victory.”

“Life is to live in such a way that we are not afraid to die.”

On Prayer

“Let him never cease from prayer who has once begun it, be his life ever so wicked; for prayer is the way to amend it, and without prayer such amendment will be much more difficult.”

“How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer.”

And, in this time of great anxiety, who could not profit from her very calming prayer?

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

Now, let’s take our place at the table set for us by Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower–the Saint of the “Little Way”:

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

“Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.”

“If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”

“Perfect love means putting up with other people’s shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them.”

“Jesus does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”

“The world is your ship, not your home.”

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, the Jewish convert and martyr of Auschwitz, was a first-class philosopher and educator – a fact not known to many. She was also a staunch promoter of women, nearly a century before wacky feminists told women they had to become men to shine forth with their gifts.

On Truth and God:

“Anyone who seeks truth seeks God, whether or not he realizes it.”

“God is Truth.

On Love and Authenticity:

“Do not accept anything as truth that lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth.”

On Suffering and Sanctity:

“The way of the Cross is the way of salvation.”

“Whoever suffers for the truth becomes like Christ.”

On Women and Human Vocation:

“The world doesn’t need what women have, it needs what women are.”

“The woman’s soul is fashioned as a shelter in which other souls may unfold.”

“Each woman who lives in the light of eternity can fulfill her vocation no matter if it is in marriage, in a religious order or in a worldly profession.”

On Prayer and the Spiritual Life:

“Prayer is the highest achievement of which the human spirit is capable.”

Last but not least, we want to be fed by the commonsensical wisdom of Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

“Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”

“Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.”

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”

“I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.”

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.”

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

“Let us always meet each other with asmile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”

“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.”

“One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.”

“Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience.”

“There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.”

“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.”

“Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.”

Cardinal Newman often spoke of “personal influence,” epitomized in his cardinalatial motto, Cor ad cor loquitur (Heart speaks to heart). He also highlighted how each of us is “a link in a chain, a bond of connexion.” “Big Teresa” mothered three saintly daughters – all of whom have fed the Church with their holy wisdom. All of which impels me to share with you once more that beautiful meditation of Cardinal Newman on one’s place in the plan of Providence:

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.

O Adonai, O Ruler of Israel, Thou that guidest Joseph like a flock, O Emmanuel, O Sapientia, I give myself to Thee. I trust Thee wholly. Thou art wiser than I—more loving to me than I myself. Deign to fulfil Thy high purposes in me whatever they be—work in and through me. I am born to serve Thee, to be Thine, to be Thy instrument. Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used.

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, pray for us.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us.

St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

– That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ!