St. Teresa of Avila
The Humanity of Christ
“To reveal to us great and hidden mysteries”
If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and
noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens
us and never abandons us. He is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we
expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that
these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred
humanity, in which God takes delight.
Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.
What more do we desire from such a good friend at our side? Unlike our friends in the world, he will never abandon us when we are troubled or distressed. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him near. Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of Siena. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s hands. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.
Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favours, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort. [From a work by Saint Teresa of Avila, virgin (Opusc. De libro vitae, cap 22,6-7.14)]
Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.
What more do we desire from such a good friend at our side? Unlike our friends in the world, he will never abandon us when we are troubled or distressed. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him near. Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of Siena. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s hands. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.
Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favours, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort. [From a work by Saint Teresa of Avila, virgin (Opusc. De libro vitae, cap 22,6-7.14)]
Someone sent me an article in the NYT (September 22, 2012
A21) "A Doctor's
Ministry, Bridging Science and Spirit" - which is extraordinary. Journalist Samuel G.
Freedman quotes Dr. Joseph Du;tkowsky:
"Some
people stand next to the ocean to feel the presence of God. I get to see the
likeness of God every day. I see children with some amazing deformities. But
God doesn't make mistakes. So they are the image." He goes on: "For years, when asked why I
chose this profession, I had no good answer until I came upon
the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Jesus and
his disciples come upon a man who was blind from birth. The disciples
asked Jesus, 'Did this man or his parents sin that he was born blind?' Jesus answered
that the blindness was not the result of the man or his parents' sin.
The man was born blind 'so the glory of God might be revealed.' Every day
in my work I find myself in the revealed glory of God.'"
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