OC: Optional Memorial

OCD: Memorial

 

Teresa Margaret was born in Arezzo in Tuscany in 1747 of the noble Redi

family, and entered the Discalced Carmelites in Florence on September 1,

1764.  She was given a special contemplative experience concerning the words

of St. John, "God is love."

She felt deeply that her vocation was to live a hidden life of love and

self-immolation.  That vocation was confirmed by her heroic exercise of

fraternal charity, but was soon completed:

she died in 1770, aged twenty-three.

 

From the Common of Virgins

 

Office of Readings

 

Second Reading

From the Decree of Canonization

 

Brief as it was, Teresa Margaret's whole life may be regarded as one

continual raising up of her guiltless soul to God.

 

In its innocence her soul turned spontaneously to God, and seemed able to

find rest in Him alone.  In her, utter purity was joined to profound

humility and she genuinely loved to be disregarded and despised. She did not

simply bear humiliations, she rejoiced in them.  Her purity of heart and her

lowliness of spirit earned for her a high degree of charity, and this

rapidly increased until her ardor became truly seraphic and she could hardly

speak of God without her face becoming suffused with joy.  Her love of God

went hand in hand with a deep love for her neighbor and especially for

sinners, on whose behalf she offered herself unreservedly to God as a

victim.  Her unassuming kindness and complete self-denial for the sake of

her sisters in religion, especially the sick, were such that she was

regarded as an angel of charity.

 

The fires of her love were fed principally by the Eucharist, and she looked

forward with longing to her Communions.  She was also especially devoted to

the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a devotion which did much to curb the advances of

Jansenism at that time in Tuscany.  She was utterly devoted to Our Lady,

whom she regarded as the model and protectress of her own virginal purity.

She was endowed to a high degree with the gift of contemplative prayer, and

daily grew closer to God, as though reflecting the glories of the eternity

she was fast approaching.

 

As her life neared its end this true daughter of the holy Mother Teresa and

faithful disciple of Saint John of the Cross was called upon through a

mystical martyrdom of the spirit, to resemble her crucified Spouse yet more

closely.  It was the very intensity of her love which caused this martyrdom;

for the more fervent love becomes the more unrelentingly it spurs the soul

on to further love, and since no love of ours can match God's infinite

lovableness, such a soul suffers exquisite torments from its insatiable

thirst for greater love, and seems to itself to be wrapped in impenetrable

darkness and to be totally lacking in love for God.  In fact the greater

love is, the less it seems to itself to be.  It is the soul that is truly

'nailed to the cross with Christ' by this supreme martyrdom of the heart

that wins for itself and for others the choicest fruits of redemption.

 

Such souls by their silent apostolate of suffering, love and prayer, are

foremost in the benefits they obtain for mankind and are the purest and most

exulted in the whole Church.

 

 

Responsory

R/.  Hear, O Israel:  the Lord our God is the one Lord."

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul

and with all your strength.

V/.  The Lord our God is a consuming fire, a jealous God is He. *  You must

love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with

all your strength.

 

Canticle of Zechariah

I am the way, the truth and the life:  no one comes to the Father except

through Me.

 

Prayer

Father,

You enabled St. Teresa Margaret Redi

to draw untold resources of humility and charity from the fountain-head, our

Savior.

Through her prayers

may we never be separated from the love of Christ.

Grant this through our Lord.

 

Canticle of Mary

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you:

remain in My love.

 

*******************

for Mass

 

Entrance Antiphon

God is love, and whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him.

 

Prayer

(same as above)

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord,

receive these gifts

in memory of St. Teresa Margaret Redi.

By this perfect sacrifice

make us grow in unselfish love for You

and for our brothers and sisters.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

 

Communion Antiphon

Your life is hidden now with Christ in God.  When Christ, your life,

appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord,

may our reception of the Body and Blood of Your Son keep us from harmful

things.

Help us by the example of St. Teresa Margaret Redi to grow in Your love on

earth that we may rejoice for ever in heaven.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

 

First Reading

Ephesians 3: 8-12, 14-21

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given,

to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all

men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created

all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be

made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.  This

was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus

our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our

faith in him.  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom

every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches

of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his

Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through

faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to

comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and

depth,  and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you

may be filled with all the fulness of God.  Now to him who by the power at

work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or

think,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all

generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Responsorial Psalm

R/. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

 

I will bless the Lord at all times,

His praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.

The humble shall hear and be glad.  R/.

 

Glorify the Lord with me.

Together let us praise His name.

I sought the Lord and He answered me;

from all my terror He set me free.  R/.

 

Look towards Him and be radiant;

let your faces not be abashed.

This poor man called; the Lord heard him and rescued him from all his

distress.  R/.

 

The angel of the Lord is encamped

around those who revere Him, to rescue them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

He is happy who seeks refuge in Him.  R/.

 

Revere the Lord, you His saints.

They lack nothing, those who revere Him.

Strong lions suffer want and go hungry

but those who fear the Lord lack no blessing. R/.

 

 

 

Gospel

John 15: 9-17

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you

keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my

Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to

you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.  "This is my

commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love

has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are

my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants,

for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called

you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to

you.