Centering Prayer Reflections
WAX AND SEAL
Indeed the soul does no more in this
union
than does wax when another
impresses a seal on it.
The wax doesn't impress the seal
upon itself:
it is only disposed of by being soft.
And even in order to be disposed,
it doesn't soften itself
but remains still
and gives its consent.
O, goodness of God
everything must be at a cost to you!
All you want is our will
and that there be no impurity in the wax.
excerpt from Meditations with Teresa of Avila by Camille Campbell
St. Teresa once described herself as a woman so deeply in love that there was not a moment when she was not occupied with her beloved, be it thinking of him, working for him, speaking to him, talking or writing about him. Perhaps her greatest gift to the Church is not what she did or the particular things she wrote but simply the witness of a woman for whom God was an overriding passion.
And this reveals to us that God is such that he can be loved like that: that he is real, living, personal; that Jesus can become the beloved of a human heart. Is there any greater incentive to faith than contact with someone of burning faith; any greater support in darkness than the shining certitude of one who really knows him?
As Teresa lived as one saw him "as invisible." (Heb. 11:27)
excerpt from Daily Readings with St. Teresa of Avila by Ruth Burrows