St. Teresa of Avila

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Thursday, 15 October 2026 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us, we are all called to keep in mind the commandments and ways of the Lord, distancing ourselves from sinful and wicked things, and doing our best to be holy and exemplary in our lives. We should be sincere in our faith and way of loving God and our fellow brethren, and not doing so because we have ulterior motives and desires, or because we want to be praised and adored for our actions and faith, which would otherwise lead us down the wrong path in life, a path of selfishness and sin instead of towards salvation in God. As Christians, it is very important that we show through genuine example what it truly means for us to live our lives well in accordance with God’s will.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Ephesus, we heard of the truth of how each one of us as Christians, having been called to be God’s people, and having received the adoption from Him to be His own beloved sons and daughters, each one of us are expected to live our lives in the manner that the Lord has taught and shown us through His Church. All of us have received the great grace from God, the forgiveness for our sins, and having been shown the great and tender love from God. And yet, many of us still preferred to choose ways that are contrary to God and His path, those ways which are not aligned to the teachings of the Lord and His Church.

If we listened well to what we heard in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the rebuke which the Lord Jesus spoke and directed towards the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, as many of them had not been truly obedient to God, and they had misused and abused their authority and position, to enrich and empower themselves instead of serving the Lord and the interest of the people of God. They made it difficult for many among the people of God to come close to God, as they imposed very harsh conditions, rules, regulations and practices which essentially deterred many people from following the Lord’s ways, as they made it very challenging for the ostracised and marginalised to follow God’s path

Not only that, the ways and the practices of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law themselves were not truly founded upon the firm foundations of faith. In fact, as mentioned earlier on this week, the Law itself had been changed, affected and corrupted over the many centuries since it was handed down through Moses from God to His people. Over all that time, the various oral traditions and additions, modifications and changes had accumulated such that the Law in its essence and practice was no longer the same Law which the Lord had revealed and intended for His people in the first place. They had become tools of prejudice, bias and marginalisation, serving the purpose and intent of the strong and the elites rather than being the means to help and lead the people of God on their journey towards Him, especially those same people who needed the Lord’s love and mercy the most, to whom the Law at the time became most prejudiced against.

The people and their elders persecuted the faithful and the many prophets and messengers who were sent into their midst in order to remind them and call them back towards the path towards righteousness. They hardened their hearts and minds against the Lord, and refused to listen to the reminders made to them in many occasions. Instead, they chose to indulge in worldly desires and in corrupt ways, that led them further and further into sin. All these were caused by their pride and ego, their ambitions and their unbridled desires which led to them falling further and ever deeper into the traps laid on them by Satan and all those seeking their destruction and downfall.

Instead of doing what the Lord had told them to do, and instead of loving one another as fellow brothers and sisters, all belonging to the same family of God, they used the Law as excuses to gain renown and fame for themselves. They preferred to satisfy their own desires for power, worldly glory, fame and more, rather than to do the will of God. They made it difficult for many of those who were in need of help from God, and who would have benefitted the most from God’s mercy and love, to come towards Him. That is why God chastised those elders and leaders who had not done and lived their lives the way that they should have done.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of a great saint and holy woman of the Church, one of the esteemed and honoured Doctors of the Church, namely St. Teresa of Jesus, also known as St. Teresa of Avila. St. Teresa of Avila was one of the founders of the Discalced Carmelites Order, which was born out of the extensive reform of the original Carmelite Order during the time of the Counter-Reformation. St. Teresa of Avila was born during the time when there were great changes and turmoils in Christendom, and she was brought up as a devout Christian by her mother and family, and after losing her mother at a rather early age of eleven, this experience further brought St. Teresa of Avila closer to the Lord, eventually desiring to join religious life and to commit herself to the Lord.

St. Teresa of Avila eventually joined the Carmelites and lived with great piety and dedication to God, committing herself to a life of prayer and self-mortification, resisting the temptations of the world and while experiencing many spiritual ecstasy and mystical visions that eventually led her even closer to God. She was known for her many other spiritual experiences and sufferings, which she endured patiently with faith, and her piety and examples became great inspiration for everyone both during her time and afterwards. Then, as mentioned, she became a great reformer of the Carmelite Order that she belonged to, seeing the laxity and worldly corruption that had crept up into her religious order and community, that many of the religious no longer committed themselves faithfully to the Lord in the manner that the founder of the Order intended to.

To this extent, together with several others, including St. John of the Cross and all those who shared her vision, St. Teresa of Avila resolved to establish the reformed Carmelite order, which would henceforth be known as the Discalced Carmelites, for their willingness and commitment to adhere more faithfully to the tenets and the practices of the original founders and intentions of the Carmelites, which is kind of similar to what we have been hearing in our Scripture passages earlier and discussed today. The Lord also intended to return everyone to the true intention and practice of the Law that God had granted and given to them, purifying the Law that had been misinterpreted and wrongly practiced in the past centuries by the people of God and their leaders, which had led them to the wrong path. In the similar way therefore, St. Teresa of Avila and the other reformers did the same, as they courageously went through the challenges and trials that they had to face amidst their attempts and efforts to establish the reformed Carmelite order.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the Scripture readings today and from the life and examples of St. Teresa of Jesus or St. Teresa of Avila, let us all therefore strive as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people to follow Him ever more wholeheartedly and worthily in all things. Let us all continue to do our best so that our whole lives, our every actions and deeds, our words and interactions with one another will continue to proclaim the glory of God, and not merely be paying lip service to God’s Law and commandments, or worse still, misusing them to serve our own selfish desires. May God bless each and every one of us, and may He continue to guide us in our journey through life and strengthen us in our every efforts and endeavours to glorify Him like His holy saints had done before us, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 15 October 2026 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 47-54

At that time, Jesus said to the teachers of the Law, “A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!”

“For that reason the wisdom of God also said : I will send prophets and Apostles and these people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the Sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.”

“A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.”

As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass Him, asking Him endless questions, setting traps to catch Him in something He might say.

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Thursday, 15 October 2026 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.

With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, the Lord!

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Thursday, 15 October 2026 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Ephesians 1 : 1-10

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, to you, who share Christian faith : receive grace and peace from God, our Father, and from Jesus, the Lord.

Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord, Who, in Christ, has blessed us from heaven, with every spiritual blessing. God chose us, in Christ, before the creation of the world, to be holy, and without sin in His presence.

From eternity He destined us, in love, to be His adopted sons and daughters, through Christ Jesus, thus fulfilling His free and generous will. This goal suited Him : that His loving-kindness, which He granted us His beloved might finally receive all glory and praise.

For, in Christ, we obtain freedom, sealed by His Blood, and have the forgiveness of sins. In this, appears the greatness of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding, God has made known to us His mysterious design, in accordance with His loving-kindness, in Christ.

In Him, and under Him, God wanted to unite, when the fullness of time had come, everything in heaven and on earth.

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Wednesday, 15 October 2025 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that God will reward those who are faithful to Him, and He will punish all those who are wicked and who oppress and manipulate those who are around them. The Lord is never blind or ignorant of everything that we have done, or have not done, and He always knows our hearts, our minds and thoughts, everything that we say and do and how we interact with each other. God knows everything about us and He wants to lead all of us to Himself, showing us how we can be truly holy and worthy of Him, through what He has taught us and through the good inspirations that His saints, our holy predecessors that had shown us the way to be truly devoted and faithful to God in our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Rome, in which the Apostle continued to speak about how one ought to live his or her life as a Christian, that is as a disciple of Christ, the Saviour of all, Whom St. Paul had reminded the faithful in Rome as being sent for all mankind, regardless whether one was a Jew or whether one was a Gentile or a non-Jew. All of them are equally beloved by God and all have the same chance at salvation and eternal life, because all of us are created by God out of love, and He loves all of us without exception, even to the greatest of sinners. He has given us all many opportunities to return to Him and to be reconciled with Him, ever ready to forgive us our sins.

It is also an important reminder for each one of us as St. Paul mentioned it in that same passage we heard today, that we do not judge and condemn others especially because we think that we are better or more deserving of God’s grace and blessings than those whom we are judgmental, biased and opposed against. All of us are sinners and we all have disobeyed God in some way or form or another, and we must be humble and willing to be open-minded and to listen to others speaking to us, lest we think that we can do no wrong or that we are in any way better or more deserving than the others. It is this attitude among other things which had caused so many divisions and problems in the Church even up to this day, pushing people away from the Lord and His Church instead of towards Him.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the continuation of the rebukes and woes which the Lord Jesus pronounced against the Pharisees, who were back then one of the very influential groups within the community of the people of God, the Jewish people, together with the Sadducees. The Pharisees were the intellectual and religious elites of the community, where they took great pride in their supposed superiority in piety and way of living their faith and lives, in the manner how they observed the Law and commandments of God. The Lord Himself rebuked the Pharisees for their great pride, ego and superficial faith, as well as their desire and craving for power and worldly glory.

Not only that but through their actions and attitudes, many among those Pharisees had also pushed people away from God, just as we have discussed earlier from our first reading passage today. They made it more difficult for those that they discriminated and were biased against to come towards the Lord, and they made it more difficult for many others as well for them to come towards God because of the excessive requirements and their very stringent and rigid application and interpretation of God’s Law and rules, the regulations and other things that made it hard for many people to be faithful to God. And in doing so, they have also forgotten and overlooked the fact that God gave His Law to His people to show them how they ought to love Him and to make it easier for them to come towards Him.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Teresa of Jesus, also better known by her other appelation of St. Teresa of Avila, named after her birthplace in Avila in Spain today. Her life may indeed be good source of inspirations and hope, strength and encouragement for all of us in how each and every one of us ought to be living up our lives. All of us are reminded that we are all called to follow the good examples of the saints, like that of St. Teresa of Jesus, who was the founder of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites. Together with St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Jesus was credited with the very important reform within the Carmelite Order, seeking to lead a more committed and virtuous religious life and observance, as compared to the then increasingly lax standards of the Carmelites.

St. Teresa of Jesus sought to reform the Carmelite order, and was also involved in the arbitration of certain other issues facing both her order and the wider Christian communities around her convent. St. Teresa of Jesus together with her companion, St. John of the Cross, continued to labour hard and well for the sake of the glory of God and the salvation and well-being of God’s people. They faced a lot of opposition from both within the Carmelite Order itself and from the community, but they pressed on with the reforms, and their hard works and efforts eventually bore fruit, for the benefit of both the religious order and the general Christian community.

St. Teresa also wrote very extensively on many articles on the faith, and all those writings and publications, books and works were what eventually led to her canonisation, and also the declaration that she was to be made one of the Doctors of the Church. Her many contributions and good works should serve as source of inspiration for all of us, in how each and every one of us should behave in our lives, and in what we should do as Christians, in doing the will of God and in putting our efforts in every moments of our lives to glorify God by our actions, words and deeds. This is what we have been called to do, brothers and sisters in Christ, to be 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect on what we have just discussed from both the life and works of St. Teresa of Jesus and also from our Scripture passages today, particularly with regard to how we ought to live our lives faithfully and genuinely as Christians. Let our actions, words and deeds at all opportunities and circumstances truly show that we are indeed Christians, the ones whom God had called and chosen to be His own, that through us many more people may come to believe in God as well. May the Lord bless our every efforts, good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 October 2025 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 42-46

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “A curse is on you, Pharisees! To the Temple you give a tenth of all, including mint and rue and other herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. These ought to be practiced, without neglecting the other obligations.”

“A curse is on you, Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted in the marketplace. A curse is on you, for you are like tombstones of the dead which can hardly be seen; people do not notice them, and make themselves unclean by stepping on them.”

Then a teacher of the Law spoke up and said, “Master, when You speak like this, You insult us, too.” And Jesus answered, “A curse is on you also, teachers of the Law. For you prepare unbearable burdens and load them on the people, while you yourselves do not move a finger to help them.”

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Wednesday, 15 October 2025 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 61 : 2-3, 6-7, 9

My soul finds rest in God alone; from Him, comes my salvation. He alone, is my rock and salvation; with Him as my stronghold, I shall not be overcome.

Find rest in God alone, o my soul; from Him, comes my hope. He alone, is my rock and my salvation; with Him as my stronghold, I shall not be overcome.

Trust in Him at all times, my people; pour out your hearts before Him; God is our refuge.

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Wednesday, 15 October 2025 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Romans 2 : 1-11

Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you are able to judge others. For, in judging your neighbour, you condemn yourself, for you practice what you are judging. We know, that the condemnation of God will justly reach those who commit these things, and do you think that by condemning others, you will escape from the judgment of God, you, who are doing the same?

This would be taking advantage of God, and His infinite goodness, patience and understanding; and not to realise that, His goodness is in order to lead you to conversion. If your heart becomes hard and you refuse to change, then you are storing for yourself a great punishment on the day of judgment, when God will appear as just Judge.

He will give each one his due, according to his actions. He will give everlasting life to those who seek glory, honour and immortality, and persevere in doing good. But anger and vengeance will be the lot of those who do not serve truth, but injustice. There will be suffering and anguish, for everyone committing evil, first the Jew, then the Greek.

But God will give glory, honour and peace to whoever does good, first, the Jew, then, the Greek, because one is not different from the other before God.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all listened from the passages of the Sacred Scriptures in which we are reminded again that we should be truly faithful to the Lord in all things, and we should not be easily be swayed by the temptations and pressures of the world around us, all the temptations that may end up leading us astray and further away from God and His salvation. God has revealed the truth about His love, His teachings and Good News to us all through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and through His Son, God has taught us what we all truly need to do in order to follow and obey Him faithfully, and not to fall into the thinking that our knowledge, wisdom and intellect are better than the Wisdom of God, as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had once done.

In our first reading today, we heard from the continuation of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in Galatia, where the Apostle spoke of the matter of the Law and how the people of God there should truly follow and obey the Lord wholeheartedly and truthfully. For the context, we must understand that there were quite a few Jewish people living in Galatia and other regions and cities that St. Paul had been visiting, and as he addressed the faithful through his Epistles, there was the clear intention of him addressing the turmoil and disagreements that existed between the believers and converts that came from both the Jewish and non-Jewish background. Even among the Jewish people themselves, there were different ideas and disagreements on their beliefs, and they were bitterly divided on those matters at times.

As such, St. Paul wanted to highlight particularly the matter of the obligation of having to follow, obey and fulfil the Law of God, and how the faithful should not follow the ways of the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and all those who have strictly and rigidly interpreted the Law of God, emphasizing excessively on the details and the intricacies of the rules and rites that needed to be done, and in the process, they ended up falling into the trap of scrupulousness, focusing a lot more on the manner how the Law was to be obeyed and followed rather than on why they need to be obeyed and followed. Their preoccupation on the very extensive, strict and demanding set of the rules, Law and regulations prevented so many people from coming closer to God, and worse still, the prejudices they had against those they deemed to be less worthy than them became a major stumbling block as well. This is what St. Paul was speaking up against, in reminding the faithful that they ought to follow Christ and not man-made rules and regulations.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke the Evangelist in which the account of the Lord confronting a Pharisee who invited Him to have a meal at his place, for his preoccupation and obsession with the obedience and fulfilment of the rituals and details of the customs and practices of the Law of God, which had prevented him and many others among the Pharisees from being able to embrace the truth and the way which the Lord Jesus had brought into the world. This is in accordance to what St. Paul had also told the faithful in the Epistle earlier on, as we are reminded of the need to adhere faithfully to what the Lord Himself has shown and taught us, and not to fall into the trap of pride, ego and desire, ambition and scrupulousness which had befallen those Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

What the Lord criticised those Pharisees for were their scrupulousness and the excessive attention to details as mentioned, as they focused so much on the details and the extensive rules involved that they tend to overlook why those laws and rules were instated in the first place. Such as the matter mentioned in our Gospel passage today, where the Law of Moses dictated the washing of hands and bowls, which were in fact rules meant to help the people maintain a hygienic life and practices especially in the context of the time of the Exodus and the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan, when the people lived with each other in very close proximity, due to the relatively large number of people travelling in the camps of the Israelites. Such a law and rule was necessary at that time to prevent the spread of plagues and diseases among the people which could be fatal for many of them.

However, the Pharisees and the others who interpreted these rules and laws very strictly and on a very literal level, putting very big emphasis on the details of what ought to be followed. They spent so much focus on how far the washing and cleaning ought to be, right up to the elbows and then how many times the hands and the bowls ought to be washed and cleaned. This was just one among many other rules and regulations that those Pharisees and teachers of the Law fussed excessively about, and hence, this was what the Lord Jesus was criticising and rebuking the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law against so that they would realise the folly and error of their ways, and not to mislead the people of God any further with their unhealthy and incorrection attention and focus on the letter of the Law and the details rather than the true meaning and purpose of the Law.

Ultimately, the Law of God was meant to help and direct God’s people towards Him, and this Law is the Law of love meant to teach and show them all how to truly love the Lord their God wholeheartedly and fully. The Law was never meant to restrain or put heavy burdens on the people of God. Rather, it was given and taught to us to ensure that we may know that we ought to exist for the Lord and we should put Him at the very centre of our lives and existence, and we should do our best so that our lives may truly proclaim His glory and that we will always be ever more faithful to His cause, learning how to love Him and to love our fellow brothers and sisters, as that Law has always been intended to be. The Law of God is the Law of Love, meant to show us how we all ought to love God and one another.djer

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of a great saint and holy woman of the Church, one of the esteemed and honoured Doctors of the Church, namely St. Teresa of Jesus, also known as St. Teresa of Avila. St. Teresa of Avila was one of the founders of the Discalced Carmelites Order, which was born out of the extensive reform of the original Carmelite Order during the time of the Counter-Reformation. St. Teresa of Avila was born during the time when there were great changes and turmoils in Christendom, and she was brought up as a devout Christian by her mother and family, and after losing her mother at a rather early age of eleven, this experience further brought St. Teresa of Avila closer to the Lord, eventually desiring to join religious life and to commit herself to the Lord.

St. Teresa of Avila eventually joined the Carmelites and lived with great piety and dedication to God, committing herself to a life of prayer and self-mortification, resisting the temptations of the world and while experiencing many spiritual ecstasy and mystical visions that eventually led her even closer to God. She was known for her many other spiritual experiences and sufferings, which she endured patiently with faith, and her piety and examples became great inspiration for everyone both during her time and afterwards. Then, as mentioned, she became a great reformer of the Carmelite Order that she belonged to, seeing the laxity and worldly corruption that had crept up into her religious order and community, that many of the religious no longer committed themselves faithfully to the Lord in the manner that the founder of the Order intended to.

To this extent, together with several others, including St. John of the Cross and all those who shared her vision, St. Teresa of Avila resolved to establish the reformed Carmelite order, which would henceforth be known as the Discalced Carmelites, for their willingness and commitment to adhere more faithfully to the tenets and the practices of the original founders and intentions of the Carmelites, which is kind of similar to what we have been hearing in our Scripture passages earlier and discussed today. The Lord also intended to return everyone to the true intention and practice of the Law that God had granted and given to them, purifying the Law that had been misinterpreted and wrongly practiced in the past centuries by the people of God and their leaders, which had led them to the wrong path. In the similar way therefore, St. Teresa of Avila and the other reformers did the same, as they courageously went through the challenges and trials that they had to face amidst their attempts and efforts to establish the reformed Carmelite order.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the Scripture readings today and from the life and examples of St. Teresa of Jesus or St. Teresa of Avila, let us all therefore strive as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people to follow Him ever more wholeheartedly and worthily in all things. Let us all continue to do our best so that our whole lives, our every actions and deeds, our words and interactions with one another will continue to proclaim the glory of God. May God bless each and every one of us, and may He continue to guide us in our journey through life and strengthen us in our every efforts and endeavours to glorify Him like His holy saints had done before us, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 11 : 37-41

At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to have a meal with him. So He went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not wash His hands before the dinner.

But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil. Fools! He Who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.”