"I would rather live without skin
than live without devotion
to the Blessed Virgin Mary."
~ Saint John of Avila ~
On May 10, we celebrate the feast day of one of the saints who helped form the foundations of my Catholic consciousness and was, in a small way, responsible for my leaving the Hindu (Vedanta) convent in the early 1990's so that I could become a Catholic nun. This did not happen in the manner that I imagined it would, since it was years before I was welcomed into the Catholic Church and I never became a Catholic "nun," per se, but the inspiration for monastic life remained with me for all these years, and I have been an independent lay hermit since 2003. The outward form of what I wanted for myself did not materialize, but I am living the spirit of the thing in a way that takes advantage of the gifts with which the Lord endowed me from birth. God brings all things to the good for those who believe.
Long after my conversion, I continue to look to the saints for clues about how to live a life that is intensely devoted to The Lord. It seems as if a good third of the saints I read about in my daily studies of the saints of the day have, at some point, become hermits, at least for a time. But this isn't true of the saint I chose today, except that I sense an inclination toward the hidden life by certain phases in which he was drawn toward it. But he was mostly known as a beautiful orator, teacher, and doctor of the church with missionary zeal. If you read his sermons and letters, his mental trend was somewhat mystical. His sermons were widely attended and usually packed the facility where they were given. He given the honorific title of "doctor of the church" in 2012 by Pope Benedict.
"Enlarge your little heart to the
immensity of love with which the
Father offered us His Son, and with
Him gave us Himself, the Holy
Spirit, and all things."
~ St. John of Avila ~
Whenever I read about the saints, I will compare the trajectory of their lives with mine, in the hope that I may learn something from them. Saint John of Avila and I both came from wealth. At least, my father was wealthy. He divorced my mother and then another woman and had a final wife that had me written out of his will after he got Alzheimer's so she could take my inheritance. Thereafter, he died a very suspicious death. When you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
Saint John of Avila was disconnected from the wealth of his parents when they died while he was still a college student and he sold the family property! He gave the proceeds to the poor and embarked on his clerical career. In my case, I was disconnected from my father's wealth by his avaricious third wife. In Saint John's, he sought poverty and created it for himself.
"He who relies on God does not
let himself be overwhelmed by
sufferings, anguish, death, or hell.
He who does not lean on Him,
how much fear he feels, how
worried he walks!"
~ St. John of Avila
I do believe that God loves the poor and desires that his beloved mystics also be poor so that we depend upon him. Either we are naturally poor, or we voluntarily opt for poverty, but the end is the same. We cling to God alone.
I hasten to add that in no way do I practice the "radical poverty" of Saint John. That is not my path. I am an artist and a writer, and the accoutrements of that type of career, and the instruments, tools and supplies that are needed for the painting and the writing, are many and varied. So I do not pretend to the total abandonment of resources to which Saint John aspired, nor do I believe this is the path for everyone. You may still actually cling to God alone while at the same time having in your possession those supplies that are necessary to your state of life. If you are a mother, for instance, it is not necessary to make your infant sleep on the floor on a rough hemp blanket. If you make and sell shoes, you don't walk around town barefoot. You get the idea.
Saint John himself lived in a style of radical poverty and advocated for it widely. This was the basis for his disapproval of the behavior of the "upper classes" of his day.
"Whoever has the truth and does
not profess it or behave according
to it is trapping the truth in injustice."
~ St. John of Avila ~
Saint John also had many years of progressively poor health at the end of his life, forcing him to go into semi-retirement. This is a situation one could bewail, or instead look upon it as a tremendous gift of the Lord, allowing us to be drawn into His arms, where we may rest during the last miles of our earthly walk.
The Lord gives us the blessing of chopping us down so that we remain with Him. The illnesses that create our lack of mobility and force us to remain with the Lord are a divine dispensation.
"The cause that in a greater measure
stimulates our heart to the love of God
is to consider deeply the love that He
had for us."
~St. John of Avila ~
Saint John was the type of person meant to be a leader and a teacher, so even though he was attracted to a small modest house in Seville with another priest in the early years of his life as a priest, he quickly attracted disciples, and this often happens with the doctors of the church that the Lord gifts with great oratory and teaching abilities.
In reading about his life, a rhythm of first being drawn to a small hidden residence and then being called out into the world by his disciples and his superiors in religion shows itself to have been a tension string on which the music of his spiritual work was played.
"You think that by worrying too much
you will be able to keep up. Woe to the
man who does not lean on God but lives
thinking whether it will rain a lot or
whether it will not rain!"
~ St. John of Avila ~
There were several phases in which he was preparing for one mission but was called away from that by his superiors, such as his planned-for but not taken mission to Mexico. He was talked out of that in order to do missionary work (which later earned him the appellation of "the apostle of Andalusia") in response to the urgings of the Archbishop of Seville and the Inquisitor General.
I don't think they anticipated that he would put himself under the critical eyes of the Inquisition by advocating strongly for church reforms and by his bitter invective against the behavior of the rich aristocracy, however! Having a talent as an inspiring orator was fine, as long as the wealthy benefactors of the church were not antagonized!
"Remember what you have done
offending God and what you have
failed to do in his service; go to
the confessor and throw away all
your sins, sweep and clean your
house."
~ Saint John of Avila
I find echoes of the American condition of the church in what happened next for our dear saint because he was imprisoned on a charge of exaggerating the dangers of wealth and insinuating that the doors of Heaven were closed to the rich! Doesn't that sound like something Donald Trump would do if he could? He would love to send people to prison for any sort of criticism of the wealthy class. So, we live in similar circumstances at the moment, with the exception that our beloved Catholic Church has almost none of the worldly power that it did during St. John's era.
"The good preacher and the good
confessor must go to the front. No
one should say a good word without
first putting it into practice."
~ St. John of Avila ~
Saint John was ultimately exonerated and released from prison, whereupon he returned to teaching and preaching from a base in Cordoba. He also established schools and colleges in nearby cities. His University of Baeza became a model for the schools of the Jesuits. Wherever he went, a community seemed to want to spring up in his footsteps, but he encouraged his disciples to go and join the Jesuits! As accomplished and overflowing with spiritual gifts as he appeared to be, he was also humble hearted. He must have been a remarkable person to see and hear with one's own eyes and ears
Saint John was ill from his early 50's, (which is also the approximate age of my disability, though mine was at age 49, and it had been announcing itself for the previous 10 years.) He went into a somewhat retired condition at that time and died almost 20 years later, at age 70. He was buried in the Jesuit Church of the Incarnation in the town of Montilla, Province of Cordova, where there is a sanctuary to his memory.
He left behind a considerable amount of written material, including 82 sermons and a large number of letters. I find it fascinating that among the letters we find saints among the recipients, such as Juan de Ribera, Thomas of Villanova, Ignatias of Loyola, John of God and my favorite, Teresa of Avila! His was a prodigious talent that affected everyone from the clergy he helped to reform, to students of religion for whom he established schools and colleges, and to the laity who he attempted to catechize. I don't often find a saint who has such a wide range of talents. He was a remarkable man.
"I know of nothing better than to
meditate on the fact that our Lord,
with Whom we are to treat, is both
God and man, and to think over the
reasons for which He comes down
upon the altar."
~ Saint John of Avila ~
I plan to make a note to myself to review his letters to Saint Teresa of Avila and see if there is anything in there which could inspire me in my efforts to bear down on my spiritual life during this final lap of this race.
I also recommend familiarizing yourselves with this beautiful saint because, no matter what arena in which you are living your life, I suspect that he may have something inspiring for you!
In the meantime, I pray for you, as I hope you pray for me.
Speaking of prayer, here is a lovely prayer asking God to help us follow the example of Saint John of Avila:
"Almighty God, You chose St. John
of Avila from among your faithful to
show his brothers the way that leads
to You; grant that his example may
help us to follow Jesus Christ, our
teacher, so that one day, together
with our brothers, we may reach the
glory of your eternal kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son,
Amen"
God bless you all!
Silver Rose
(By the way - I am tired of being plagiarized and having my work stolen for the use of other persons, so please remember that, although you may read my work for free in this blog, entirely without any payment for all research and my creativity, you may NOT copy it, in whole or in part, without my express written permission. You may reach me by writing a comment on this blog or contacting me on Facebook. ASK for permission and it will not be unreasonably refused.)
