15 October 2020
With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,
as a plan for the fullness of time,
to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
From Ephesians 1: 1-10, NRSV
Today is the feast of St Teresa of Avila who, as a Doctor of the Church was someone who studied and reflected deeply on the insights she received about God’s love. Her writing is sometimes very dense as she tries to put into words something that is beyond them – awareness of the deep and passionate love God has for his people and his desire for them to respond to that love. This is a thread that runs throughout scripture and something that the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians is anxious to lay before them from the outset. God loves them and has a plan for them, born of love and revealed in Christ Jesus.
- How do you respond to these words?
- Why do so many people find it hard to believe in a God of love?
Today, you might also like to ponder some thoughts from Teresa of Avila:
“This Beloved of ours is merciful and good. Besides, he so deeply longs for our love that he keeps calling us to come closer. This voice of his is so sweet that the poor soul falls apart in the face of her own inability to instantly do whatever he asks of her. And so you can see, hearing him hurts much more than not being able to hear him… For now, his voice reaches us through words spoken by good people, through listening to spiritual talks, and reading sacred literature. God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us. Through a truth glimpsed fleetingly in a state of prayer he calls to us. No matter how halfhearted such insights may be, God rejoices whenever we learn what he is trying to teach us.”
― Interior Castle
