Lessons from Theresa of Avila

(On this Sunday — February 26, 2023 — I had the opportunity to preach the first in a series of sermons that Heidelberg UCC, York, PA is doing on the mystics. Today’s focus was on St. Theresa of Avila and what we can learn from her. Below is my sermon)

Theresa of Avila

What we can learn about how to have an authentic personal relationship with Christ, how we can connect to the Holy Spirit outside of traditional spaces and structures, how we can engage spiritual practices to make faith more relationship oriented that performative. How can we empower folks to engage God creatively, personally, and relationally?

The core question — what does Theresa of Avila have to teach us today? A woman born in the early 1500’s, The founder and reformer of a Carmelite order nuns in Spain. A Mystic. An avid writer. A woman who saw visions. A strong willed and confident woman of her time. Someone who whose life we claim was very different from our own. What in the world would she possibly have to teach us? Right?

Before we get to Theresa of Avila specifically, we need to deal with a more central question — why look at the mystics at all?

Who are the mystics? — they defy logic and reason. They are individuals who have direct communication and encounters with the divine or experience spiritual ecstasy. This is important because we are in a society that has an over emphasis on the left hemisphere of the brain when it comes to religion, politics, education, and more.