(1499-1569) Saint John of Avila was a priest, itinerant preacher, spiritual director, a proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 2012, and a model of the New Evangelization. He wanted to be a missionary to the West Indies and Mexico but instead became a traveling preacher in Andalusia (part of Spain previously ruled by the Moors). John was the spiritual advisor to powerhouse saints, like Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Francis Borgia, Saint Peter of Alcantara, and Saint John of God.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, “He who constitutes himself his own spiritual director is the disciple of a fool.” The same can be said of being your own sponsor in recovery. We can be blind to our own defects, and the best of people can fool themselves. Sponsorship and having honesty with another is an essential part of spiritual growth and overcoming our weaknesses.

“Those who imagine they can attain to holiness by any wisdom or strength of their own will find themselves after many labors, and struggles, and weary efforts, only the farther from possessing it, and this in proportion to their certainty that they of themselves have gained it” (Saint John of Avila).

Reflection by Brad Farmer