From a young age, Blessed Alphonse Maria Eppinger had a great devotion to St. Teresa of Avila. Her life demonstrates the prayerfulness and interiority that characterized St. Teresa. In addition to St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Joseph, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the Sisters of the Redeemer claim St. Teresa of Avila as a patron saint of the Congregation. Sr. Katharina Pies offers this reflection on the beloved St. Teresa of Avila.
“From St. Teresa of Avila, her deep and intimate relationship with God, we learn to cultivate our interior lives in all that we do, to contemplate Jesus’ life and work with loving attention and to live Christ’s love in the world.”
-Spiritual Text of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Redeemer
St. Teresa was born on March 28, 1515 in Avila, Spain. She was a mystic, writer, and performer of the Carmelite Order. She entered the Carmelite Order and with time, had the great desire for a life of poverty and simplicity. St. Teresa founded a new order of Carmelites and taught her Sisters the importance of God’s love. “Love does everything, not to think much, but to love much,” she said. Throughout her life she had frail health and experienced Oneness with God and often was overwhelmed with Divining Love.
St. Teresa reflected the deep interior of an intimate soul inspired by the love of her life, Jesus, the Redeemer. Her relationship with Him brought forth her longing to let go of everything to move into the depth of giving herself to God.
St. Teresa inspires us as Sisters of the Redeemer to cultivate our interior lives in all that we do to contemplate Jesus’ life and work with loving attention to live Christ’s love in our world.
I carry a reflection by St. Teresa deep in my heart as a Redeemer Sister and in my ministry as a chaplain. “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world.”
I have experienced myself, especially as a certified nursing assistant and now as a chaplain what it means to be dependent on one another for tasks that we often take for granted. As a person with a chronic illness, I have personally experienced how humbling it can be to ask for help. In a world where isolation, quarantine, and loneliness are part of our lives, God wants to take us by the hand and carry us with redemptive love.
I look at St. Teresa of Avila and I am grateful; grateful to be God’s chosen one to share redemptive love through my life as a Sister of the Redeemer.