Midweek Devotion 15 October 2025

Reading

Psalm 42:1-2

As the deer longs for the water-brooks,

so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;

when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

Devotion

From the Author

"The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa," created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is a renowned Baroque sculpture that captures a moment of divine rapture experienced by Saint Teresa of Ávila.  The sculpture is housed in the Cornaro Chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, Italy.  St. Teresa (1515-1582), a Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic is one of my all-time favorite saints.  Today is her feast day.

The sculpture features golden light breaking from above and beyond, overwhelming Teresa who writes in a sensual repose while an angel with a spear stands over her.  From her autobiography:

"I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying."

I have had a handful of such experiences, the last on 26 October, 2024 at 12:50pm, Central time.  It was mind-blowing.  Perhaps you too, dear reader, have some sort of intense experience of the presence of God?  Or perhaps your experiences of God are much more subtle?  If you care to, send me a note, about some time you were especially conscious of God.  How did you feel?  How did your life change as a result?  Be ready this week, for as Jesus says in Matthew 7:7,8 (echoing Jeremiah 29:13) "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

Prayer

O God, who by your Holy Spirit moved Teresa of Avila to manifest to your church the way of perfection: Grant us, we pray, to be nourished by her teaching, and enkindle within us a keen and unquenchable longing for true holiness; through Jesus Christ, the joy of loving hearts, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Lesser Feasts and Fasts)