The Woman and the Wisdom

Taken from Tessa Bielecki's Teresa of Avila: Ecstacy and Common Sense

"St. Teresa was born with a warrior's heart locked inside a woman's body. This produced a tension in her so crucifying and yet so creative it tore her apart, then restored her to wholeness on the highest levels of human integration and intimacy with the Divine."

"Deep in her heart, she began to nurture a silent revolution."

"Through years of travel and trials, through enemies without and even within the Church and the Carmelite Order, through health that steadily worsened, Teresa's courage did not waver. Her warrior's heart was ever 'manly' and 'determined to fight.' She poured out all her energy and spent all her blood, her passionate love for Christ her King shining wherever she went."

"No wonder we have to pay what seems to us a high price," Teresa wrote. "The time will come when you will understand how trifling everything is next to so precious a reward."

"Her warrior's heart began to fail, and her pulse grew dim. She who had burned so long with the light of Christ, at last burned out for Him. She died on October 15, 1582, repeating over and over, 'I am a daughter of the Church.' "

WORDS OF THE FIRST WOMAN DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH:

• When you have trouble praying: "Go someplace where you can see the sky and walk up and down a little."
• "God and the soul understand each other....It's like the experience of two persons here on earth who love each other deeply and understand each other well."
• "Within us lies something incomparably more precious that what we see outside ourselves. Let's not imagine we are hollow inside."
• "May God deliver us from foolish devotions. Look at Christ who is looking at you."

CONCERNING HARD WORK AND VIRTUE:

• concern for others expressed in deed and not mere talk
• ego annihilation through hardy obedience and detachment from self-satisfaction
• trust and humility ' in the presence of the infinite Wisdom'
• have a good sense of humor and laugh at ourselves
• have a healthy dose of common sense
• eat well, get no less than six hours of sleep and take time to rest and recreate

Upcoming entries: Stages of the Royal Road along the spiritual path according to St. Teresa of Avila - BRAVADO; MISTAKES, RUTS AND ROADBLOCKS; DISILLUSIONMENT; SHATTERING; GLORY; DIVINE INTIMACY