Sister alies therese

FROM THE HERMITAGE
By Sister alies therese
“It has been said that ‘a person is enlightened,’ not ‘when they get an idea’, but ‘when someone looks at them.’ For God, to gaze is to love, and to work favors.’ These eyes are effective: ‘God’s gaze works four blessings in the soul: it cleanses the person, makes her beautiful, enriches and enlightens her.’” (The Impact of God, Father Iain Matthew, OCD)
If anyone has ever looked at you with eyes of love you know how disarming and how beautiful it is. Others have scorned you or ‘looked right through you’ and somehow you have been demeaned or rejected. Sometimes, though, it gets all mixed up!
“On their golden wedding a couple were busy all day with celebrations. They were grateful when evening came and they were alone on the porch watching the sunset. The old man gazed fondly at his wife and said, ‘Agatha, I’m proud of you!’ ‘What did you say? asked the old woman. ‘You know I’m hard of hearing,.. say it louder.’ ‘I said, I’m proud of you.’ ‘That’s all right,’ she replied a bit dejected, ‘I’m tired of you too!’ (deMello,1997)
Oops…
If we have learned to love, to share that love with others, and have learned to receive what others offer us, we have moved deeply into the mystery of the universe: unconditional love. Sometimes we jump at what we know or what we think we know, very conditional. Sometimes we offer ourselves to a kind of quick wisdom that lasts but a moment and then flits away. Clearly, whatever it is we need to learn to gaze at takes a lifetime. Perhaps it will be through art or writing, reading or hugging, trusting or praying that we will discover this gaze. It is this gaze that we want to desire to share with others.
“Some people will never learn anything because they grasp everything too soon. Wisdom, after all, is not a station you arrive at but a manner of traveling. If you travel too fast, you will miss the scenery. To know exactly where you’re headed may be the best way to go astray. Not all those who loiter are lost.” (deMello,1997)
Wisdom comes from various places. Like this five-year-old who, when asked, reported: “Solomon had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.” Really? Things can get very mixed up. Another child, a six-year-old, reported: “The first Book of the Bible is Guinessis in which Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.” OK? Really? Where do we get our wisdom information? We know when we stare blankly at the 24-hour news cycles we will get information or alternate facts, but will we be any the wiser?
The gaze of love is a theme frequented in mystical literature. In the 14th Century, Julian of Norwich explored this notion in her book Revelations of Divine Love. There are many examples in her writings but let’s consider this one in Chapter 50:
“But I still marveled … Good Lord, I see You, who are truth itself, and I know that we sin grievously all the time, yet You show us no blame … between these two contraries my reason was greatly belabored by my blindness … my longing endured as I continued to gaze at Him.”
In her book of 1993, Sister Wendy (d.2018) The Gaze of Love, Meditations on Art, she asks us to learn to look with love, not only at things, but at art, one another, and certainly in prayer. She says this: “Prayer is God’s taking possession of us. We expose to Him what we are, and He gazes on us with the creative eye of Holy Love. His gaze is transforming: He does not leave us in our poverty but draws into being all we are meant to become. How God gazes is not our business. We are only asked to let Him take possession. If we want God to be our all, then we shall want to do whatever pleases Him … holiness means seeing the world through God’s eyes.” This would be true wisdom, not just information or facts. These, as we’ve seen, can easily get us confused.
On the announcement board outside the Church we find: Morning Sermon: Jesus Walks on Water. Evening Sermon: Searching for Jesus. Oops. Gaze upon someone with love and as Valentine’s Day is just a day, make it when you can risk coming out from behind your barriers. Let yourself be loved into freedom!
BLESSINGS.

(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

Sister alies therese

FROM THE HERMITAGE
By Sister alies therese
It’s that time again: graduation, whether it is from Pre-K or, High school or college. Someone has become a dentist, a vet or doctor. Some folks also participated in other sorts of graduations — ordination, completing flight or art school, or a major promotion in the workplace. Some have even married or made solemn vows! Let’s just say that to graduate is to move with some new skill or commitment to the next level. Usually that also brings new responsibilities. And those responsibilities reflect a deeper you! Dr. Suess says: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You!”
External markers in our life are very important. They may take the form of a formal graduation. However, we need to pay attention to our inner markers, growing ever deeper, showing how we’ve matured, or learned some new life skill: how to forgive, how to laugh, or how to love, for example. It is more likely that our inner life is where we experience movement towards God. That is where we actually graduate and discover our process of becoming fully who we are. Or, as Dr. Suess says: “It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.”
Becoming is clearly our goal. We use the phrase: become the very best version of yourself. Sometimes the way to prove that we have progressed is by walking through the external markers of graduating or passing difficult exams. Other times, it is sneaking a peek at those inner markers. Perhaps it will be during prayer time, retreat time, alone time in the stillness, where we intuit somehow something has grown within and we’ve changed by becoming more ‘myself in God.’ Dr. Suess asks: “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
Our questions such as this move us forward and challenge us to allow God to enfold within us gifts we are to use to serve the community and grow in holiness. Recently we were reminded of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit when we celebrated Pentecost. Those gifts and many more mentioned throughout the Scriptures call us to stand out — to be witnesses, visible to others not for ourselves but for them to want to be like us in the doing of good deeds, the deeds of God. Consult Mt.5:16 on this.
There are others, too, whose deeds of prayer and sacrifice are more hidden. Yet they too, offer back to God the gifts they have received that others might live. Perhaps they will not see the outcome of these poor prayers or sacrifices but they will grow in trust and deeper in love with God so that they might continue their mission. We are all, however, called to an ever deepening love of God, allowing God to love us.
Mostly we are called to smile as we sacrifice for others. Dr. Suess says: “Life’s too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forgive the ones who don’t and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it’d be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.”
We need each and every person to continue to form the precious community of the Beloved. There are no hidden diplomas or degrees or even excellent exam results — only the promise of an on-going love to be shared and put at the service of an awesome God.
Dr. Suess wrote 46 books, the first in 1936 and it had 27 rejections before publication. He was very involved in anti-racist and inclusion work ncluding Horton Hears a Who, reminding us: “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”
He was never a doctor of anything but he did have lots of external markers to reward his work: two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Laura Ingalls Wilder and a Peabody Award. His simplicity, humor and challenge remind us of our call to grow and become ever more thoughtful, caring, and to lighten up and laugh a little, by expressing our joy on the journey. Perhaps your life will be marked with many markers both external and internal, perhaps not. Not to worry. You are not forgotten. Not only that but your smile and your light are designated by God to do good and to be seen that God might receive the glory.
I was reminded of this in Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? “When I was quite young and quite small for my size, I met an old man in the Desert of Drize. And he sang me a song I will never forget. At least, well, I haven’t forgotten it yet. He sat in a terribly prickly place. But he sang with a sunny sweet smile on his face: ‘When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad…you should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more, oh, ever so much more…oh muchly much-much more unlucky than you!…Thank goodness for all of the things you are not! Thank goodness you’re not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space…”
Great summer reading for all you brain-i-acs who need a little rest! Reinhold Niebuhr understood when he remarked: “Laughter is the beginning of prayer.” BLESSINGS.

(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

Sister alies therese

From the hermitage
By Sister alies therese
‘The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if ever you get here you will know what I mean…it was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof and neighed, and then cried: I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it until now…come further up, come further in!’ (The Last Battle, Chapter 15).
C. S. Lewis invites his readers to reflect ever more deeply upon heaven and the Easter story when in the very last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, he challenges the false and the phony in us and in our world to strip away the masks and costumes that we might live a fuller and more glorious life.
You might remember when Aslan the great lion is executed, taking upon himself the sins of a traitor, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This is his first written book but second in the series, a powerful analogy of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The witch and her “Deep Magic” reminded him that the traitor belonged to her and he stepped up and said, ‘Fall back, all of you and I will talk to the witch alone…you can all come back I have settled the matter. She has renounced her claim on your brother’s blood…’ Later that night the girls came to him and saw him, thinking him ill. ‘What is wrong, dear Aslan? Can’t you tell us? Are you ill?…No I am sad and lonely. Lay your hands on my mane so I can feel you are there and let us walk like that.’ They walked for quite a spell and then he said: ‘O children, children. Here you must stop. And whatever happens, do not let yourself be seen. Farewell.’” And he walked out to the crowd of haters gathered around the Stone Table and let himself be bound and shaved and muzzled. Then he was tied. She came to him, whet her knife, and delivered the blow after saying: “And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of my hands then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life, and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die.”
She knew nothing of resurrection.
“There, in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had grown again) stood Aslan himself… ‘aren’t you dead?…Not now!…Oh, you’re real, you’re real!’ And both girls flung themselves upon him and covered him with kisses!” And then he explained: ‘though the witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, in the stillness and the darkness before time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards…’
Shall we never forget that ‘magic’ that truth fundamental to all Christian belief: Jesus was raised from the dead. Death met its match. We, the traitors, are set free. It has only been two weeks since Easter Sunday…have we already forgotten, or have we been moving further up and further in?
Julian of Norwich, whose feast day is May 8, reminds us in her Revelations of Divine Love, that sin results in an abyss of nothingness and endless disorder. She emphasizes the immanence of God.
‘See, I am God. See, I am in all things. See, I do all things. See, I never remove my hands from My works, nor ever shall without end. See, I guide all things to the end that I ordain them for, before time began, with the same power and wisdom and love with which I made them. (3:11.199).’
Julian sees creation as gift and promise, according to Kerrie Hide, and God is the source and ground of all things, creation’s hope and destiny. ‘All shall be well, and All shall be well, and All shall be well. ‘What is impossible to you is not impossible to Me. I shall preserve My word in everything and I shall make everything well.’ (13:32.233).’
Perhaps she knew Aslan, the great lion? What they both tell us is to go further up and further in where we will discover where our real country is, where we really belong!
Blessings.

(Sister Alies Therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

Sister alies therese

Millennial reflections
By Sister alies therese
Lent has begun and we celebrate the glorious season of weeping. What? Really? Yes, and it will end with Easter where we challenge all the death-dealing we have pronounced evil and emerge on the other side of Holy Week weeping for joy!
What makes us weep? What moves the heart so profoundly that we cannot hold back the tears? I have wept at the deathbed of a young boy; in our torn community after an F4 tornado devastated us; at the awesomeness of the stars; at Pope Francis in Chile ministering to the women in prison or the people of the Amazon in Peru, and certainly in the face of my own sin and thoughtlessness. Continue reading →

Sister alies therese

from the hermitage
By Sister alies therese
Many of you will be familiar with the works of St. John of the Cross, OCD,: The Dark Night, The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Spiritual Canticle, Living Flame of Love and so on. However, have you read his other poetry? Particularly the Romances? Of these I am particularly fond and for our purposes would like to share Romances 7-9, “The Incarnation and the Birth.”
St. John of the Cross, OCD, (1542-1591) was not only a writer of spiritual works but he was considered one of Spain’s finest poets. A graduate of the Jesuit College in Medina del Campo, John received a solid formation in the humanities. In 1559-63 that meant six hours a day devoted to grammar, rhetoric, Greek, Latin, and religion. He then went on to study for the priesthood and took the Carmelite habit in1563. In 1567 he was ordained in the spring and sang his first Mass in his hometown of Medina del Campo in September. It was here he met Madre Teresa of Avila, OCD, who was setting up her second foundation for her nuns of the Reform. She was 52 and he was 25. John had wanted to transfer to the Carthusian Order for a deeper life of prayer and solitude. She offered it to him in her plan to restore the Primitive Rule.
The following summer he finished theological studies and became an assistant professor at the Monastery of Santa Ana in Medina. He met with Madre Teresa and became convinced, that the Reform was where he needed to be. Soon there were six men in Duruelo who formed the first community. Because they were barefoot they were soon referred to as Discalced Carmelites.
However, by 1577 the Calced and the Discalced friars were deeply at odds. They demanded that John renounce the Reform and he declined. The tribunal called him rebellious and contumacious and ordered imprisonment. He remained in a closet 6’x10’, no window, cold, and extremely hot in summer. They took away his hood and scapular; his food only bread, sardines and water; and three evenings a week he had to eat kneeling on the floor in the middle of the refectory. It was here he wrote, in his head, the Dark Night and other poems that would make him so famous. After six months in that little prison, he was assigned another warder who showed him some compassion. He received a change of clothes and paper and ink. He, however, took advantage of the new jailer and in 1578 he escaped to the Discalced nuns in Toledo who hid him.
He would be elected to this and that as he grew and matured the Discalced vocation. But it was later in life he somehow found time to write things down. In 1591, however, there were great difficulties and he was not elected to any post. John felt free and commented in a letter to Madre Ana de Jesus: “…this life is not good if it is not an imitation of His life.” Efforts were made to expel John from the Reform. This horrible process was never completed as John died in Ubeda, at 49, in the odor of sanctity without agony or struggle. His prayers seemed to be answered: “not to die as a superior; to die in a place where he was unknown; and to die after having suffered much.”
He wrote the Romances probably in 1578 in Toledo in prison. This little bit of historical context is important. A beautiful way to use these Romances is to read them aloud to one another. There are several translations. I like this one.
Romance 7. The Incarnation
Now that the time had come when it would be good To ransom the bride Serving under the hard yoke
Of that law Which Moses had given her, The Father, with tender love, spoke in this way:
Now You see, Son, that Your bride Was made in Your image, And so far as she is like You she will suit You well;
Yet she is different, in her flesh Which Your simple being does not have. In perfect love this law holds:
That the lover become Like the one he loves; For the greater their likeness The greater their delight.

Surely Your bride’s delight Would greatly increase Were she to see You like her, In her own flesh.
My will is Yours, the Son replied, and My glory is That Your will be Mine.
That is fitting, Father, what You the Most High, say; For in this way Your goodness will be the more seen,
Your great power will be seen And Your justice and wisdom. I will go and tell the world, Spreading the word Of Your beauty and sweetness And of Your sovereignty.
I will go seek My bride And take upon Myself Her weariness and labors In which she suffers so;
And that she may have life I will die for her, and, lifting her out of that deep, I will restore her to You.
Romance 8. The Incarnation (cont.)
Then He called The archangel Gabriel And sent him to The virgin Mary,
At whose consent the mystery was wrought, In whom the Trinity clothed the Word with flesh
And though Three work this, It is wrought in the One: And the Word lived incarnate In the womb of Mary.
And He who had only a Father Now had a Mother too, But she was not like others Who conceive by man.
From her own flesh He received His flesh, So He is called Son of God and of man.
Romance 9. The Birth
When the time had come for Him to be born He went forth like the bridegroom From his bridal chamber,
Embracing His bride, Holding her in His arms, whom the gracious Mother laid in a manger
Among some animals That were there at that time. Men sang songs And angels melodies
Celebrating the marriage Of Two such as these. But God there in the manger Cried and moaned;
And these tears were jewels The bride brought to the wedding. The Mother gazed in sheer wonder On such an exchange:
In God, man’s weeping, And in man, gladness, To the one and the other things usually so strange.
Many blessings during this Christmas season.

(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

Sister alies therese

Complete the circle
By Sister alies therese
Maybe you remember reading this article in the NY Times in 2015 (Lizette Alvarez, 7/14/15)? All about the drought in Puerto Rico? Right the drought. The drought was causing an already deep in debt Puerto Rico more than $15million per month. One of the worst droughts in Puerto Rico’s history! Carraizo, the major reservoir, dropped more than 18 feet. more than 160,000 residents had water off for 48 hours and then on for 24; another 185,000 going without water in 24 hour cycles; and 10,000 or more were on 12 hour cycles. Alvarez reported the drought was caused by El Nino and most of the reservoirs were within 30 days of running out of water.
When she interviewed Mr. Davila he said: “Friends are showering at work or taking luxurious 30 minute showers on days when the water is flowing, not paying much attention to how much we waste and what we can do without!”
Mr. Saldana of the Aqueduct Board was asked how long the drought would last…he pointed skyward and simply said: ‘Ask Him.’
Have you though much about ‘water scarcity?’ We have become so attached to the water bottle, cup, coke or favorite tea/coffee, we forget just how scarce drinkable water can actually be. In fact, I think out of all our resources across the globe, water is the one we will fight over most, even more than oil or food.
The human body can live for several days, if not weeks, without lots of food. However, we cannot live without hydration.
I found some interesting information online to share with you: Water scarcity: is a lack of sufficient water to meet the needs within a region. Every continent is affected today. Some 2.8 billion people lack access to clean drinking water.
Water shortage: may be caused by climate change, droughts, floods, pollution and overuse of water.
Water crisis: means that potable (unpolluted) water is less than a region needs.
Physical water scarcity: means there are inadequate natural water sources available. There is also a shortage of water available for sanitation.
The United Nations Millinneum Declaration aimed by 2015 to “halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford safe drinking water.” I’m not sure if that goal was reached but seems very important to do so.
Here’s a mouthful: there is 1 quadrillion acre-feet of water is on Earth. My mind boggles…and yet only 162.1 billion acre-feet is fresh water for human consumption. More than 1 billion people live in a stressed water condition – that is one in every six of us. Water stress is intensifying in China and India and in sub-Saharan Africa more than a quarter of the population is water stressed.
When there is change in climate the glaciers recede, there is reduced stream and river flow, and ponds and lakes shrink.
When there is water crisis it means inadequate drinking water for more than 884 million people across the globe. The World Bank reports that 88 percent of all waterborne diseases are caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Some countries seem to have so few choices.
Economic water scarcity is caused by lack of infrastructure investment to draw water from rivers, aquifers or other water sources, or insufficient human capacity to satisfy demand. This means people have to travel very long distances daily to fetch water often contaminated by domestic or agricultural waste.
In the U.S., 95 percent of our water is underground. As farmers in the Texan High Plains pump groundwater faster than rain replenishes it, the water table drops.
Then there’s our Puerto Rico. I did mention the drought. Now I must remind you that some few weeks ago Puerto Rico (along with Virgin Islands, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, even a bit of Mississippi) was hit with floods of water and the near drowning of the island, probably not what folks prayed for a couple of years ago during the drought.
How much do you use for a shower? Every day? Or a bath? How long do you leave water running while brushing your teeth? It actually makes a difference to our own state and to our friends across the world.
Water features big in the Hebrew Bible (ask Elijah, consult the Psalms) and even in the New Testament we find the first major action of Jesus’ ministry: His baptism in the Jordan. The woman at the well will hear from Jesus: ‘Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Jn. 4:14)
Have you ever considered that key to our sacramental system is water? This very water. Baptism…whether we are submerged in the Mississippi River, or baptized with a few little teaspoons, water is crucial. When someone becomes a Eucharistic Minister, I see them in the community feeding the hungry.
Our commitment to reversing some of this water scarcity has to do with our willingness to put our baptism to work. Whether we are helping build wells, reorganizing our thinking about our own personal use, or now being tested by the savageness of the waters of Hurricanes Maria, Harvey or Irma, we need to be much more thoughtful and prayerful. Puerto Rico has a lot to remind us of and their cries (also water) for help must not go unheeded. At this writing, still

less than 70 percent of the folks in Puerto Rico have useable water. Blessings.
(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

Guest Column
By Sister alies therese
“A woman, so says Anthony deMello,SJ, went to the doctor with a very bad summer cold and nothing he gave her seemed to cure it. She was so frustrated. The doctor suggested the following: go home, take a hot shower and before drying yourself stand in front of the A/C, stark naked. ‘Will that cure me?’ No, but it might give you pneumonia and that I can cure!”
How many times have you tried to solve one problem by applying another answer? Life can get very confusing if we mix and match too many things. This includes our spiritual life as well as all the other aspects of our lives. On the other hand sometimes an ‘out of the box’ thought might just open up a new horizon!
Most of the time patience is required for obtaining answers to our deepest questions. We can repeat the answers of others, and I’m not implying they aren’t ‘correct,’ or we can search for a way to say it to ourselves that expresses our own experience. The ‘who am I, where have I come from, where am I going?’ type questions face us at each turn of age. Our transitional times of say 16, 25, 40, 60 or 80 years, for example, bring to bear different responses…not necessarily a different ‘answer’ but a deeper way, one would hope, of considering the matter. Allowing ourselves to pay attention to our hearts and the Heart of God invites us to grow deeply.
What do you do with disappointment? Here’s a word among many that describes how you might feel about your reality. Here are some responses I received: I get angry’ I get frustrated; I get worried; I blame myself; I blame others; and yet the most refreshing was: I get on with it!
Disappointment links us to not being in control, even when we thought we had done everything we were ‘supposed to’…and still ‘it’ didn’t work out. Perhaps it is a relationship or some task. Perhaps we felt we were a disappointment to parents or spouse?
Each day we have the opportunity to face our disappointments and to turn them into something even more fruitful. I was disappointed not to see Saturn or Jupiter because of the rain, but I saw a most magnificent light show crack across the purpled sky. Children are often disappointed because they are told one thing and then the adults do otherwise. Sometimes this cannot be helped…sometimes it can.
There are many stories from Scripture that show shades of disappointment. They also show a new beginning. Finding Jesus in the temple, for example, reminds us to pay attention to what is most important. Mary and Joseph were so worried and disappointed that Jesus was not with them on their journey home. They had to travel a whole day back to the city to find Him and when they did, He was doing something very unexpected, teaching. They were disappointed He had not been with them (was it really fear He was lost?)…they rejoiced at finding Him. Often being away from the Lord and coming back together brings the sweetest blessings.
If you run into disappointment: breathe. After that begin to ask yourself some questions: what is most important? How should I proceed? And, is God best served by this project/whatever? If indeed God has closed that door…look for the window He has cracked open. If it is of God you need not be disappointed for very long. Trust He will show you the way forward.
Our growth in faith is much like this. Is it easier to say ‘yes I believe’ when we are younger or older? The building of a spiritual life is critical as we journey because it is there we meet our Lord and there we face ourselves. It is within this growing body of both knowledge and experience that we discover how the plan of God shepherds us forward to final and full union. We have been given that ‘playbook’ in our Scriptures, the writings of saints and holy folks from over the centuries. Let’s take the opportunity every day to explore those writings and learn to apply them to our lives. It may not be as outrageous as standing naked in front of the A/C…but in fact it has much better promise of a ‘cure.’
The Book of Proverbs, full of such wisdom and wit, remind us of this:
“Trust wholeheartedly in God, put no faith in your own perception; in every course you take, have God in mind: God will see your paths are smooth. Do not think of yourself as wise, fear God and turn your back on evil: health-giving, this, to your body, relief to your bones.” (Prov3:5ff)
(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)