Today, we celebrate St Teresa of Avila [also known as St Teresa of Jesus]. She was born in Avila, Spain, into a large family. Her father and mother, were devout and feared God. While she was still a child and not yet 9 years old she had the opportunity to read the lives of several Martyrs which inspired in her such a longing for martyrdom that she briefly ran away from home in order to die a Martyr’s death and to go to Heaven. When she was 20 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation, also in Avila. The fortuitous discovery of the statue of “a Christ most grievously wounded”, left a deep mark on her life. She died in Alba de Tormes (Spain). —«Let nothing disturb you, / let nothing frighten you; / everything passes, but God stays, / patience reaches it all; / he who has God nothing lacks: God alone suffices» (St. Teresa of Jesus).