Continuous and Contemplative Prayer

Homily for Saturday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila)

St. Teresa of Avila was born in 1515 and died in 1582. She lived during a time of great social and political change, much like our world today. During her lifetime, European explorers discovered the “New World.” Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral; Henry VIII split with the Catholic Church over the issue of divorce. St. Ignatius of Loyola founded his Society of Jesus, and the Council of Trent was called to respond to the Protestant Reformation.

In her native Spain, Teresa was engaged not just in contemplative, continuous prayer, but she also worked to reform her Carmelite Order to grow closer to God through prayer. In 2015, Pope Francis called the life of St. Teresa a role model for today. He said her prayer “arose spontaneously in the most diverse occasions… She was convinced of the value of continuous prayer, even if it was not always perfect.”

The Scriptures for today remind us of the importance of just such prayer. In his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul assures the members of the early church that he is praying for a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in the knowledge of God. Paul’s prayers are for the Ephesians to be open to the plan God has in store for them.

In today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus exhorts his disciples to have courage in the face of persecution, for the Holy Spirit will protect them. This short excerpt of the gospel is a part of a larger message in which Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about their lives, about what they will eat or wear because life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

We were taught to pray from an early age. Once we are old enough, we are also taught to enter into an intimate and contemplative relationship with God. It was through such a relationship that St. Teresa learned that Jesus depends upon us to spread the Gospel. More than six hundred years ago she wrote, “Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.” It is through our lives that Jesus continues to act in our world, a world that is greatly in need of the grace offered by God through the Gospel.