A plaster saint she ain't: A rambunctious teenager...a reluctant convent student who wound up running away from home back to the convent...a reformer who sought to bring discipline, purpose and equity back to a religious order that had become a class-stratified ecclesiastical Cinderella story, with nuns from rich families living a sort of nonstop debutante ball all day while their poorer sisters were kept segregated and marginalized...a teacher and spiritual director...an intellectual and mystic whose spiritual experiences and ideas often got her on the wrong side of the powers that be...a Doctor of the Church (posthumously, of course)...an individual crazy in love with Christ...and a tough broad with a sense of humor, who according to one story could even get away with back-sassing the Lord himself. (Teresa, on the lam from her latest tussle with the church authorities, falls off her ride. As she's sprawled in the road, cartoon stars spinning around her head, bemoaning her circumstances, she experiences Christ telling her, "This is what happens to my friends." Teresa to Christ: "That's why you have so few of them.") A right-on woman, in other words; someone good to know.
Almighty God, we praise you for the women and men you have sent to call the Church to its tasks and renew its life, such as your servant Teresa. Raise up in our own day teachers and prophets inspired by your Spirit, whose voices will give strength to your Church and proclaim the reality of your Reign; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Teresa of Avila by Janet McKenzie
2 comments:
They sang the Benedictus on Saturday morning to the tune of the solemn Magnificat tone (8g, I think?), in honor of Teresa.
And that's some serious homage, believe me.
It makes me wonder what she'd think about that.
Post a Comment