Finding Teresa - the nun & my dress

After Typhoon Rai/Odette hit us in December 2021, I found this old photo.

I was inspecting hundreds of personal photos that survived the Category 4 storm, and I came upon this one. I know this photo well, but I never realized there was an image of St. Teresa standing behind us. This is one of my most unexpected discoveries of Teresa. Looking at this picture made me think that perhaps she has been with me all along — since I was a child.

Months before the storm, I had received a very great favor on the day of her feast day, October 15. That day marked the end of a very difficult situation my family had been suffering for over a year. A friend who was devoted to St. Teresa reminded me that it was her feast day. It moved me so, when she said the saint had surely been looking out for me.

In this picture I look miserable and askew. I complained about the headband, the heat, the skirt, my shoes. I was so vexed because my mother required me to wear the dress she made for this event. I was not fond of dresses. There ensued a scolding from my mother to pull myself together for the camera. 

The young nun was about to have her investiture, and my parents were sponsors. The congregation was the Daughters of St. Thérèse — hence the presence of her statue.

God bless this young nun. Look at her — so serene, so content. I hope that in my lifetime I will see her again. 

Teresa once wrote to her nuns who were suffering grave difficulties in the convent — to pray without ceasing, that they had not yet been given up to the point of martyrdom, and not to complain too much over difficult matters.

Maybe this phrase is useful whenever something happens to us and it gets unbearably painful. Even the saints, at the point of death were always praising Our Lord.

You have not been given up yet to the point of martyrdom.

Just as a harmless dress should never vex me again.

*Footnote : Letter to the Carmelites of St. Joseph's Convent at Seville, 31 January 1579

*Written in Oct 15, 2023, feast day.