Feast Day and a new knitting design up ....

Today is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila [1515-1582] (also known as St. Teresa the Great for her writings and actions which reformed the Carmelites ... St. Therese of Lisieux, Edith Stein, and Mother Teresa chose her as their patrons).  St. Teresa of Avila is also one of the few "doctors of the Catholic Church", which means:

that the writings and preachings of such a person are useful to Christians "in any age of the Church." Such men and women are also particularly known for the depth of understanding and the orthodoxy of their theological teachings.  Catholic Online

There are only 33 "doctors", only three of whom are women (St. Teresa, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Therese of Lisieux).  St. Teresa's writings are amazingly complex and yet filled with such truth and beauty.  Rick has studied her Interior Castle and her Way of Perfection.  I tend to go more for explanations of her works such as The Four Teresas and movies about her life and writings: St. Teresa of Avila  and John of the Cross (which is a great one for showing how much they influenced each other).

St. Teresa of Avila, you knew what God wanted you to do dispite criticisms and calumny from your fellow Carmelites.  Help us always to do the good and avoid the evil, discerning God's will and making His will our priority.  St. Teresa, pray for us!

On a completely secular-note, I have another knitting design up at Knit Picks:  Fun Felted Saddlebag is a beautiful purse that uses two-color knitting, steeking and slip-stitch patterning to make this one a wonderful, practical excerise of your knitting skills.  The end result is a gorgeous, useful bag -- I'm using mine as a knitting bag! 

Check out this one and all my knitting designs on Knit Picks or in my online  Ravelry Shop!

Review: The Four Teresas: Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisiuex, Teresa Benedicta and Mother Teresa

I love to read books and give my personal, unedited and not always charitable opinion on said literary work.  Some of these books come to me free with the promise of posting a review (good, bad or indifferent, these publishers or store owners just want to get a review out there) ... while others I bought or borrowed and feel called upon to review.

This particular book by FUS alumna, Gina Loehr, is one of those that was sent free for a review.  Well, did I hit the jackpot on this one!  Titled The Four Teresas, this book is part biography, poor spiritual reflection, and part catechesis all rolled into one.  The book's theme links the four Teresas with Jesus's two greatest commandments (as noted in Matthew 22: 37-39): 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Loehr takes this scripture passage, explaining just how to live this command from the Lord, by detailing the lives of four Catholic holy women:

1. Therese of Lisieux as a prime example of loving God with all your heart
2. Teresa of Avila as a prime example of loving God with all your soul
3. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein) as a prime example of loving God with all your mind
4. Mother Teresa of Calcutta as a prime example of loving your neighbor as yourself

Loehr gives a wonderfully complete biography of each of these wonderful role models.  Than she links their spirituality, life and works to the part of Jesus's commandment.  And finishes the section with a reflection on how we, today, in whatever walk of life can emulate these ladies.  She shows where the saints had failings ... just like we do ... but how they took those failings and fulfilled, joyfully and completely, God's will for each.

An interesting side-note is that all four Teresas are linked not only in name, but also in spiritual chrism (three were Carmelites and the fourth, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, credited St. Teresa of Avila for her vocation and how she carried it out), and in fighting for what they believed to be God's will.  They were strong women ... willing to buck society and family to do what they knew was right.

This is a book that I'll turn to again and again for inspiration when I'm feeling the need for some spiritual sustenance.  Loehr's writing is accessible and makes the lives of these amazing women seem accessible to one and all.  I highly recommend this one!

---

This book was sent as part of The Catholic Company's review program.  I was required to write a review, but all comments above are my own honest opinions of the work reviewed.  For further information about The Four Teresas or to puchase a copy, please see The Catholic Company's website.

Feast Day: St. Teresa of Avila

Now, this is a cool saint ... she's one of only three women Doctors of the Church ... yep, that's how profound are her writings.  Dh studied her extensively in grad school and still loves reading about her.  I never studied her but everytime I read a quote, I think "yes, exactly!"  For instance the quote I attached the above icon ...

With the Lord by our side, there is nothing we cannot do.  Separated from Him, we will collapse ...

 

Cool, eh?

Today we learned about St. Teresa (1515-1582, Avila, Spain)  ... and her many gifts to the Church, not least of which would be the reform of the Carmelite order in Spain.  She was one tough woman who didn't take lightly anything that would lead souls away from truly loving God.  We also colored the page Waltzing Matilda so graciously posted for all while we talked about visiting Avila back in 2000 for our Jubilee Year pilgrimage.  It was hot (July in Spain!) and dry and dusty and trains were delayed ... and yet, Avila was cool, clean, and gorgeous! 

I wanted to find a fun recipe to try for this feast.  The yemas -- candied egg yolks -- just didn't sound like anything my family would like and yet that was the only sweet that was associated with St. Teresa!  I decided to do an online search of Spanish recipes and found a great-sounding recipe for polvorones, traditional special-day cookies (often made for Christmas) ... I tweaked the recipe just a tad and must have done the right thing because dh and ALL three of the kids ate almost the whole plate after dinner!  They loved them and dh said it was probably the best cookie I've made!

So, yemas step aside and let's do polvorones for St. Teresa of Avila!  Here's the recipe I made:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 3/4 cup almonds (raw)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preparation:

This polvorones or Spanish almond cookie recipe makes approximately 16 (2-inch round) cookies.  We made heart-shaped as I still can't find my biscuit cutters!

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Measure and pour flour out onto a cookie sheet. Place in oven and "toast" the flour. Occasionally move the flour around on the sheet, so that it toasts evenly. Leave in oven for about 8 minutes. Remove and set aside.  At the same time, place raw almonds in a glass pie pan and toast till fragrant (about 8 mins). Remove and place almonds into a food processor. Process almonds until they are finely ground.
Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees.

Cream butter, egg yolk, sugar and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour and finely ground almonds and continue mixing. The dough will be very crumbly!

Place a sheet of waxed paper on a cutting board or other flat work surface. Press the dough together to form  ball. Then press the dough onto the waxed paper. Carefully flatten it down to about 3/4-1 inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies and a spatula to move cookies to cookie sheet for baking.

Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes at 250 degrees. Turn off heat and leave cookie sheet in oven, allowing cookies to cool completely before removing them.

 

That's it ... for "the best cookies I've ever made!"  I think next time I'll try using powdered sugar in lieu of the granulated as I think that will make them even more melt-in-the-mouth!

 

Blessings and hope you had a wonderful St. Teresa Day!