Teresa in the Divine Office

Delighted to see that today’s Second Reading in the Office of Readings is an extract from our Teresa of Avila (The Way of Perfection).  These second readings are generally from the Early Fathers like St Augustine or St Leo the Great or St Cyril of Jerusalem or St Bede, though occasionally passages from a text from a more modern saint or from Vatican II will creep in.  So the Church does great honour to Teresa by considering her worthy to keep such noble company.  She writes with her usual verve in the extract chosen, which is devoted to the Lord’s Prayer, remarking that we often refuse to accept what God gives us in response to our prayers ‘simply because it is not exactly what we asked for’.  Then follows a typically earthy Teresian sentence: ‘We are the sort of people who cannot feel rich unless we feel the weight of the actual coins in our hand.’  I suppose that nowadays with the widespread replacement of coins by electronic tools, this will be less applicable because many people don’t carry much money anyway, but on the other hand they only feel rich when they have accumulated things – possessions like designer label clothes, luxury cars, houses, yachts, etc.  Many of us are inclined to think that our besetting problems will be solved by money.  Perhaps some of them will - but not problems of unhappiness, loneliness, self-indulgence, resentment, etc.  The anguish of these - as well as the more general anguish of so many victims of wars and natural disasters etc. - may well incite us to pray ‘Thy kingdom come’  

Intercessions:

Brian Davis – cancer

Cancer: Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Sue B, Theresa K

Siena, Elara – sick children

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David OCDS - housebound

Sophia – blind infant

Joy Smith OCDS – seriously ill