When God Sent Me a Saint

By: Missionary Team

During my freshman year, there was an opportunity to go to a girls’ overnight retreat at my school. My friends and I all decided to go. As we sat at the lunch tables on the last day of the retreat, we were handed some little things to bring home with us. One thing we received was a saint holy card that we could pray with. They were chosen for each girl by complete random. I remember it being given to me and looking down at it. It was St. Teresa of Avila. At the time, I knew nothing about her. Other than noting that she was a nun; she apparently had no other significance to me.

Ever since that day, I still have her saint card sitting underneath the glass of my desk. For the longest time, I had no idea who this saint was, but I knew it meant something that I had received her holy card. I just didn’t know why.

By the time I was eleven or twelve, I had started having headaches almost every day. I’m not quite sure how I managed to get them, but I remember coming home after school with one. I can’t remember how severe they were, but they must have gotten bad as my mom had a priest pray over me. During my high school years, I had them on and off, but they never got too bad.

A couple of months ago, they started to come back. But they came off a lot worse than they had ever been and I wasn’t quite sure why they were so intense. It came to the point where I was asking for advice and lots of prayers. Someone told me to pray for the intercession of St. Teresa of Avila, who is the patron saint of headaches. That was the moment that everything really started to fit together.

As it took me years to actually look into the sainthood of St. Teresa of Avila, I found out that she struggled with many very painful migraines and headaches, hence being the patron of them. However, we had a lot more in common than I actually thought.

After looking into her life, I found out that St. Teresa struggled big time with distractions in prayer. She wrote, “This intellect is so wild that it doesn’t seem to be anything else than a frantic madman no one can tie down... all the trials we endure cannot be compared to these interior battles.” As for me, it has always been a challenge to stay focused in prayer. As I read this quote, I felt a huge connection to her. I realized that I was not the only one who found it extremely difficult.

Knowing that she had hope through it gives me hope as well. As she writes about its difficulty, she also shares in the beauty of prayer, even if it doesn’t come easy. “For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much so do that which stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything.”

Four years ago, I had no idea that St. Teresa would play such an important role in my life. Little did I know that that little holy card was sent by God. I now see how God noticed me. He knew I was lonely back then. Looking back, I was really lonely during high school. He knew that I was suffering. He understood the pain of the headaches. Yet, He sent His servant to walk with me, even if I didn’t know it. God loves so much in the silence.

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!