The two inseparable sisters

Chapter 10 of The Way of Perfection!  Teresa of Avila at her best! We were discussing it in an OCDS meeting I was present at last night.  “humility and the virtue of detachment … always go together.  They are two inseparable sisters.  These are not the relatives I advise you to withdraw from; rather, you should embrace them and love them and never be seen without them.”  I love the idea of these two sisters that we take around with us for company.  And there is Teresa’s gentle humour: she warned her nuns earlier about getting too involved with their relatives’ affairs, and now she tells them that these virtues are to be their real sisterly relatives.  Metaphor and humour – these are two features of Teresa’s writings that have made her so readable to so many down the centuries.  It reminds me of Our Lord himself – last week’s gospel reading about the person with a whole huge plank in his eye rebuking someone because of the tiny speck in his.  Our Lord makes his point with a truly unforgettable combination of metaphor and humour - and with a simplicity that even a child can understand.

Intercessions:

Brian Davis - cancer

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – seriously ill

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David - housebound