We must teach others about Christ … We missionaries should not, therefore, let a day go by without our talking of Christ to others. To know that only a small number of people know the true God should be a source of torment for us.
Welcome to "North American Sanctity," a series on holy men and women, boys and girls, saints and those on the road to sainthood, from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Some will be familiar, others less so; but all are inspiring!
By Kimberly Bruce
Blessed María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament (feast day: July 22) is the foundress of the Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament with communities in the United States and around the world, including a male offshoot, the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church.
Cardinal Angelo Amato, who presided over her beatification at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on April 21, 2012, said Bl. María possessed a “perennial smile that adorned her extraordinary virtuous life,” and exuded “the perfume of holiness, made of profound faith, firm hope and immense charity.”
Just one look
Mother María was born Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa on July 9, 1904, in Ixtlán del Rio, Nayarit, Mexico, the fifth of eight children to her parents Eustaquio Arias Arróniz and María Espinosa y López Portillo.
At age 20, after reading a book about St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Manuela said, “I not only found my vocation, but God in a very special way in me.”
The following month, in October 1924, Manuela attended a National Eucharistic Congress in Mexico (a precursor of the one under way now in Indianapolis) and experienced a profound encounter with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She revealed, “Jesus the Eucharist, passing by me dropped one of those looks that have the power to move, to transform: Follow me.” This, she said, was her “moment of conversion.”
Thereafter, Manuela wished to enter a convent but was unable due to the political unrest in Mexico and the subsequent Cristero War and persecution of Catholics.
Answering the call
At long last, in June 1929, Manuela entered the Monastery of the Poor Clare nuns, who, at the time, were living in exile in Los Angeles, California. “[A]fter many interior sorrows, given the growing desire of my soul to be his and all his, I was finally able to enter,” she said.
Upon reception of her habit, she received her new name: María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament. She declared, “I give myself with the greatest confidence and without reserve to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.”
The following year, on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12, 1930, Sr. María had a spiritual encounter with the Mother of God. Before an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady spoke these words to her:
For the works of the apostolate, I promise to place on your lips the persuasive words which softens hearts, and in them the grace needed: by the merits of my Son, I promise to give all those with whom you have some relation, even if it is only in spirit, sanctifying grace and final perseverance.
Serving God
Saint Faustina also had an experience with the Mother of God, who stood before her with the Infant Jesus. She recalled, "The Blessed Mother was telling me to accept all that God asked of me like a little child, without questioning; otherwise it would not be pleasing to God,” to which St. Faustina responded, “Do with me as You please; I am ready for everything, but You, O Lord, must not abandon me even for a moment" (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 529).
Sister María remained a cloistered nun for the next 16 years but had a growing desire to become a missionary to “conquer many souls for God.”
In 1945, she left her community with a group of her sisters, with the blessing of their bishop, to begin a new community. On June 22, 1951, with full permission from the Holy See, they officially became the Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
To her community, Mother María Inés said:
We must teach others about Christ … We missionaries should not, therefore, let a day go by without our talking of Christ to others. To know that only a small number of people know the true God (Love) should be a source of torment for us. It should urge us not to spare any suffering, any inconvenience. It should spur us to do everything, anything to make God known and loved by all the inhabitants of the world.
In 1979, Mother formed the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church and the lay missionary group, Van Clar. On Dec. 9, 1980, she was blessed to receive an audience with Pope St. John Paul II at the Vatican.
Seven months later, on July 22, 1981, Mother passed away from a painful illness from which she had suffered for the last nine months of her life. She was 77.
Miracle!
The miracle attributed to her intercession was the 2001 healing of 15-month-old Francisco Javier Carrillo Guzmán who had drowned in his family’s pool near Guadalajara, Mexico. The boy fully recovered, thanks to those who had called upon Mother María Inés to aid their prayers.
Since Mother’s death, new missionary groups have sprung up around the world exemplifying her missionary charism: the Mother María Inés Priests (2004); the Institute of Inesian Consecrated Missionaries (2009); and the Eucharistic Family (2010).
More than 6,000 pages of her spiritual writings have been left to the Church.
A prayer, prepared by the Pontifical University Urbaniana in conjunction with the Missionary Institutes, invites us to follow Mother’s example:
Grant us Lord to follow the example of your servant María Inés Teresa Arias. Help us to imitate her life of simplicity and the joy of contemplation and action, her love of Mary and the Church. Give us the same missionary spirit and the ardent desire to extend the reign of Christ to all peoples. Amen.
Blessed María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, pray for us!
Next in the series: Blessed Ángel Darío Acosta Zurita, July 25
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