St Teresa's beauty of character

We were discussing Chapter 10 of Teresa’s Way of Perfection in an OCDS meeting last night and couldn’t help smiling as our foundress teases her fellow Sisters in the convent about their failings.  She makes fun of those for whom headaches or minor ailments provide an excuse not to turn up at chapel prayer times, and she wonders at the fact that some of them make it their aim in entering the Order to prolong their lives as long as possible – instead of making it their aim to draw closer to God and prepare to meet him.  Reading such chapters as this makes me profoundly aware of the common humanity we share with sixteenth-century Spanish nuns and of the eternal weaknesses that bedevil human beings century after century.  But it also makes me profoundly aware of the beauty of character of our foundress, for her gentle humour is never far from the surface in her writing.  No wonder her nuns loved her – for she was and is eminently lovable.

Intercessions:

Brian Davis – cancer

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela) - cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David - housebound

Sophia – blind infant