Daily Prayers for October 15

Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582)

In sixteenth-century Spain, where women had little voice, Teresa of Avila stood out as a spiritual giant, reforming her Carmelite order, founding seventeen new communities, writing four books, and challenging countless men and women to grow in the life of prayer. As attested to by her writings and by her friends and disciples (including John of the Cross), Teresa’s own prayer life was perhaps her most important gift to the church. “Prayer,” she wrote, “is nothing but friendly intercourse, and frequent solitary converse, with Him who we know loves us.”

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you

as the day rises to meet the sun.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Come, let us sing to the Lord : let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Song “O Mary, Don’t You Weep”

Let nothing disturb you, nothing dismay : All things are possible. God does not change.

Psalm 81:13 – 16

Oh, that my -people would listen to me! : that Israel would walk in my ways!

I should soon subdue their enemies : and turn my hand against their foes.

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him : and their punishment would last for ever.

But Israel would I feed with the finest wheat : and satisfy him with honey from the rock.

Let nothing disturb you, nothing dismay : All things are possible. God does not change.

Ezra 4:7, 11 – 24 2 Co-rin-thi-ans 4:13 – 5:10

Let nothing disturb you, nothing dismay : All things are possible. God does not change.

Teresa of Avila said, “Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and that there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.”

Prayers for Others

Our Father

Purify our hearts, O Lord, to long for the one true thing and be distracted by nothing. Amen.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.