On 31st October, the Bishop of Middlesbrough, Rt Rev Terence Drainey, spoke to York Carmelite Spirituality Group about the great Carmelite Saint and Doctor of the Church, Teresa of Jesus of Avila. Some 30 participants packed into the home of the Corpus Christi Carmelites on York’s Lawrence Street to listen to him.

Bishop Terry spoke of how he had come to know and appreciate Teresa and her writings. Whilst Spiritual Director at the English College in the Spanish town of Valladolid, Bishop Terry had picked up the translation of her works by E Allison Peers and found Teresa’s writing style so absorbing and accessible that he could hardly put the book down.

Speaking of the visit of the relics of St Thérèse which had taken place in the Diocese earlier in the month, Bishop Terry said he hoped that people’s encounter with the life and message of ‘The Little Flower’ would encourage people to get to know the life and message of the woman she was named after, Teresa of Jesus, who has so much wisdom to share about deepening a relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Bishop Terry spoke about the major episodes in the life of St Teresa: her childhood years and teenage piety, her long period of dryness in the Incarnation Monastery in Avila, her desires for reform and renewal, and her mystical experiences during what she called the ‘Transverberation’.

The meeting concluded with Lectio Divina meditation on the Bible, and a blessing from Bishop Terry.

For more information about St Teresa, and about the Carmelite Spirituality Group in York (including its calendar of events for 2010), please visit www.carmelite.org or consult the diary page of the Catholic Voice.

Johan Bergström-Allen

Carmelite Projects and Publications, York