Bible study for adults in my church has started out with a bang! The pastor has begun our study with the review of mystics. Our first candidate is St. Theresa of Avila - and what a character she seems to be! Although her teachings are filled with levity, just in two short Sundays I have already felt the calling to follow her, feeling the need to develop better skills are prayer, a better reading and understanding of the bible, and a more robust contented feeling overall with my spirituality.
St. Theresa has a very fascinating concept with regards to building one's inner relationships with God. She compares it with the building of a castle, one floor at a time. Her short guide "Interior Castle" is highly recommended. I have just began to read it - in fact I had just ordered it online in my last blog.
I hold in my lap a book entitled "The Illustrated World Encyclopedia of Saints", in which St. Theresa of Avila is described as a visionary and a reformer. Her writings are said to be "a testament to her great personal devotion and her thoughts on a life of prayer and contemplation."
Although I don't at this time intend to become a saint, I do hope to achieve some of the skills that St. Theresa is trying to teach in her readings. We shall see I guess.
