A Course in Miracles by Foundation for Inner Peace

When she finally chose religious life, she did so because she though that it was the only safe place for someone as prone to sin as she was. On the other hand being a nun didn't seem like much fun. She'd watched a difficult marriage ruin her mother. Still, when the time came for her to choose between marriage and religious life, she had a tough time making the decision. At first she hated it but eventually she began to enjoy it - partly because of her growing love for God, and partly because the convent was a lot less strict than her father. When she was 16, her father decided she was out of control and sent her to a convent.

As a teenager, she cared only about boys, clothes, flirting, and rebelling. Some people have used this story as an early example of sanctity, but this author think it's better used as an early example of her ability to stir up trouble.Īfter this incident she led a fairly ordinary life, though she was convinced that she was a horrible sinner. When she was seven-years-old, she convinced her older brother that they should 'go off to the land of the Moors and beg them, out of love of God, to cut off our heads there.' They got as far as the road from the city before an uncle found them and brought them back. Later she said she was always afraid that no matter what she did she was going to do everything wrong.

Her father told her never to lie but her mother told her not to tell her father. This put Teresa in the middle - especially since she liked the romances too. Teresa's mother loved romance novels but because her husband objected to these fanciful books, she hid the books from him. Teresa's father was rigidly honest and pious, but he may have carried his strictness to extremes. Out of all of this change came Teresa pointing the way from outer turmoil to inner peace. Two years after she was born, Luther started the Protestant Reformation. Less than twenty years before Teresa was born in 1515, Columbus opened up the Western Hemisphere to European colonization. Teresa of Avila was born Teresa Ali Fatim Corella Sanchez de Capeda y Ahumada in Avila, Spain.

A Course in Miracles by Foundation for Inner Peace