Teresa was born at Avila in Spain in 1515 and entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation there at the age of twenty. ¹² She was not a prodigy of holiness. Her own account of her early religious life describes years of divided attention, and the books she later wrote about prayer are credible precisely because she wrote them as somebody who had found it difficult.

In 1562 she founded the first reformed Carmel at Avila, returning the order to a stricter and simpler observance. ¹ In 1568, with Saint John of the Cross, she established the first house of Discalced Carmelite friars at Duruelo. ¹ In 1580 she obtained papal authorisation for her reformed Carmels as a separate autonomous province. ¹

That is eighteen years of founding houses, arguing with authorities, and travelling badly on Spanish roads. She is not a contemplative who withdrew from practical life; she is a contemplative who ran an organisation.

Teresa wrote four major works: The Book of Her Life in 1565, The Way of Perfection in 1566, The Book of the Foundations between 1573 and 1582, and, in 1577, The Interior Castle. ¹ The last describes the soul as a castle of many rooms with God in the innermost one, and it remains the map people are handed when they want to know where they actually are in prayer.

Her definition of prayer is the sentence to take away. Prayer, she wrote, "means being on terms of friendship with God frequently conversing in secret with him who, we know, loves us." ¹ Not a technique, not a performance, and not primarily a request - a friendship, which is built the way friendships are built, by spending time.

Benedict XVI drew the practical conclusion out of her: "Time devoted to prayer is not time wasted, it is time in which the path of life unfolds." ¹ For anybody who cannot justify the half hour, that is the answer.

Teresa was canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. ¹ In 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church - she and Catherine of Siena were the first two women given the title. ¹² The Church did not merely approve her holiness; it ranked her teaching on prayer among the writings the whole Church should learn from.

The feast of Saint Teresa of Avila is celebrated on October 15. ²

When you do not know how to pray. Start with her definition and nothing else: conversing in secret with the one who, we know, loves us. ¹ There is no method to master before you are allowed to begin.

When prayer feels like wasted time. "Time devoted to prayer is not time wasted, it is time in which the path of life unfolds." ¹ Teresa is the saint for people whose real objection to prayer is that it is not productive.

When you cannot tell where you are. The Interior Castle exists because Teresa thought people needed a map of the stages of prayer. ¹ If you suspect you are stuck, she is the writer who assumed you would be and wrote accordingly.

When the practical work is crowding out the interior life. She founded houses, argued with superiors, and travelled for eighteen years while writing the century's best books on contemplation. ¹ The two are not competitors, and she is the proof.

When you started late or badly. Teresa's own account of her first years in religious life is not a success story. She became the Church's teacher of prayer anyway, and said so in print so that nobody would think it had come easily.