Mother Angelica and St. Teresa of Avila


Mothers

Ever since I heard the death of Mother Angelica, one name constantly rings in my head is St. Teresa of Avila. I didn't know any similarity or connection between them. After a persistent, frequent, many reminders in my mind on Avila Teresa, I read a brief story about her to see was there any similarity between mother Angelica and St. Avila Teresa. To investigate why her name comes to the mind frequently?  To my surprise and joyful discovery, yes there many similarities between them, which I will let the theologian and spiritual scholars analyze or discover them.

But I would like to highlight a striking similarity between them, which was Infant Jesus devotion. They both were devoted to Infant Jesus. Here I place a paragraph from St. Avila Teresa story, which indicates the above similarity. Mother Angelica carried a small Infant Jesus statue in her pocket always. We know how much she was dedicated to Infant Jesus. Her dedication to Infant Jesus is founded upon the contemplation upon the love of Heavenly Father for humanity and all creations to send his only son, the Son of God to become a helpless infant. She constantly meditated upon that God's love for human as adored Infant Jesus in her heart.


Peter Paul Rubens 138.jpg

Saint Teresa and the Infant Jesus of Prague[edit]

Though there are no written historical accounts proving that Teresa of Ávila ever owned theInfant Jesus of Prague statue,[25] according to a pious legend Teresa once owned the statue and gave it to a noblewoman travelling to Prague.[26][27] The age of the statue dates to approximately the same era as Teresa.
It was thought that Teresa carried a portable statue of the Child Jesus wherever she went. Contemporary history cannot confirm that the Prague image was what she was thought to have owned. Catholic pious beliefs follow the local legend, certainly already circulated by the early 1700s.[citation needed]
Saint Teresa is also portrayed in the biographical 1984 film Teresa de Jesús, and shown in the movie protecting this infant statue in her many calamitous travels. In some scenes, the other religious sisters take turn in changing its vestments. The devotion to the Child Jesus spread quickly in Spain, possibly due to her mystical visions.[28] The Spanish nuns who established Carmel in France brought this devotion with them, and it became widespread in France.[29] Indeed, one of Teresa's most famous disciples, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux,[30] a French Carmelite, herself named for Teresa, had as her religious name "Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face".

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