Teresa of Avila, the 16th century saint, is remembered today. It seems that she combined Mary and Martha in her life and spirituality. She taught and wrote on prayer and contemplation and also founded a reform movement. She is recorded as cleaning and scrubbing each new convent house she opened reminding her sisters that ‘the Lord walks among pots and pans’. The prayer by which she is perhaps best known expresses a serenity which was hard won through years of spiritual struggle.
Let nothing upset you,
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything is changing;
God alone is changeless.
Patience attains the goal.
Who has God lacks nothing;
God alone fills all needs.
