A monument to St. Teresa of Ávila is seen in Ávila, Spain. (Dreamstime/Felipe Caparros Cruz)
While in the confessional with a struggling novice in a lay consecrated community, the late Puerto Rican-born physicist, priest and writer Lorenzo Albacete recommended reading St. Teresa of Ávila s autobiography as penance.
When the young novice came upon the sections about Teresa s mystical episodes, she got really scared, saying to Albacete, This woman is kind of crazy! She s talking to Jesus, Jesus tells her what to do, she does it. . How does the church know that she was just not crazy? Out of all the crazy people throughout history that have claimed to talk to Jesus, how do you know the true one?