School begins again tonight.

For the last several months, I've been taking night class as part of some post-baccalaureate work. It's mostly been re-taking Community College classes that I abandoned years ago and taking "easy-A" classes where I could pluck some low-hanging fruit from the GPA tree. Tonight starts something different: I'm taking a class at Avila University for some specific coursework. I'd rather not go into it too deeply on this blog, but if we hang out sometime, I'll tell you more.

I'm kind of excited and nervous to start this next phase in my academics. In a sense, I've been working to this point for a couple years now. In another, this is something that I've never done before. I was never a very good student--I couldn't really commit or focus on my studies, now I've really got to dig in and do something different.

Avila University is a private college in Kansas City. It's run by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, (St. Louis Province), a community of nuns that also run an all-girls high school in KC. I don't know much about these nuns and wonder if I'll have a chance to learn more about their order by going to the school.

The school itself is named for Saint Teresa of Avila, one of the most famous women in Catholic history and one of the few saints to carry the title "Doctor of the Church".

Teresa was born in Avila, Spain in 1515. She was raised by a rigid somber father and a fanciful yet pious mother who often told stories to their children about the great saints of Christian history. Teresa and her brother were thought to be innocent troublemakers, one day they decided to be like the great martyrs and saints--and decided to sneak away to "the land of the Moors and beg them, out of love of God, to cut off our heads there". It's a noble act to be killed in the name of Christianity, and these two souls figured no one kills Christians more certainly than Muslims. Their plan was foiled when their uncle spotted them sneaking out of the famous walls of the city of Avila and returned them to their father for a certain measure of discipline.

As a teenager, Teresa was pretty typical. She was into boys, clothes, flirting sneaking around behind her fuddy-duddy parents (some things never change). The life was enough for her father who sent a 16-year-old Teresa to the convent of some Augustinian nuns. She lasted about a year and a half at the convent, owing mostly to some health trouble before she left. The convent was less strict than her father, so when she left, Teresa lived with some relatives, including an uncle who taught her about the Letters of Saint Jerome. This inspired Teresa to re-try a religious life, figuring that she was such a sinner that a convent was the only place safe for a girl like her.

She joined the Carmelites and commenced a life of study and writing. She wrote lots of eschatological books about sin and redemption--some of which were well received and some were not. Today, her writings are considered the most amazing and remarkable mystical literature in the history of the Church. But in her day, she had an uneven reputation. She eventually ended up leaving her cloister, thinking that they'd become too lax. Teresa formed a new cloister of Carmelite nuns that was stricter than her previous convent that revived some old ignored Carmelite rules and added some other like ceremonial flagellation and forgoing shoes for wooden sandals, giving this new convent the name "Discalced Carmelites".

Teresa's convent (and the subsequent monastery founded by St. John of the Cross--a fascinating dude) did not have it easy in the beginning. The Carmelite cloister than she broke from was highly distrustful of Teresa's new community, and if not for the local bishop, would have certainly been closed. She was a rabble-rouser and was considered by the more mainstream Carmelites as a person that shouldn't be trusted. She saw amazing visions of Jesus throughout her life, some people thought these visions were diabolical tortures of the devil, though Teresa steadfastly maintained they were from heaven, she was subject to the infamous Spanish Inquisition and to the scrutiny of the King of Spain.

Her last days were miserable. Tired, sick and tormented by her superiors, she was persecuted alongside of her friends and fellow nuns of the convent. She was sent on various tasks around the Spanish countryside at the request of the Archbishop, eventually succumbing to illness and death on a useless trip to attend to a noblewoman during her childbirth, to arrive after the child had already been born. Theresa would pass away shortly thereafter.

Saint Teresa of Avila is revered as one of the finest mystics and writers of the Counter-Reformation. Known alternately as St. Teresa of Jesus, St. Theresa of Avila, the Roving Nun and Saint Terri, she is the patroness of Spain, headache sufferers, lace makers, children without parents and people ridiculed for their piety. She is the namesake of the Avila University. Her famous prayer is a plea to heaven as a guide in life, to correct for a wasted life and the rededication to a life to the Lord:

O my God! Source of all mercy! I acknowledge Your sovereign power. While recalling the wasted years that are past, I believe that You, Lord, can in an instant turn this loss to gain. Miserable as I am, yet I firmly believe that You can do all things. Please restore to me the time lost, giving me Your grace, both now and in the future, that I may appear before You in "wedding garments." Amen.

Amen, amen, amen!

Saint Teresa of Avila, ora pro nobis!