Learning from Teresa of Avila

October 15th was the feast day of Teresa of Avila. And I missed it, partly because I was so occupied with the concerns of this world, the pull of World Food Day and the aching desire to pray for those impacted by ebola. But I did not want to let the week go by without highlighting this amazing woman, so I thought that just as I started the week’s posts with a meditation so I would end it.

I have always found inspiration from the lives of those who have gone before us.  Their footprints provide places for me to stand and words and prayers encourage and strengthen me as I too seek to move forward into the ways of God.

Teresa of Avila is one such person.  In many ways she was a very ordinary person – struggling with some of the same life challenges we struggle with today.  But out of that struggle came a rich inner prayer life that continues to inspire many today. Like the prayer abovewhich I posted on Light for the Journey on October 15th.

One of my favourites however is the following prayer which speaks to me as I contemplate how I can respond the many challenges our communities and our world face.

Read it through several times.  Listen to the beautiful musical rendition at the end of the post.   Allow their truths to take root in your heart.  I prayed this prayer several times this morning as I considered the plight of of those infected or quarantined because of Ebola.  As you read this prayer and listen to the music may you too consider what action God may ask of you as a result of reading and meditating on them

“Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ looks compassion into the world.
Yours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world.”

Music by David Ogden