Written by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582, a Carmelite nun, prominent Spanish mystic, and religious reformer. This is an excerpt from E. Allison Peer’s book “The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus.
My soul was growing weary, and, though it desired to rest, the miserable habits which now enslaved it would not allow it to do so. It happened that, entering the oratory one day, I saw an image which had been procured for a certain festival that was observed in the house and had been taken there to be kept for that purpose. It represented Christ sorely wounded; and so conducive was it to devotion that when I looked at it, I was deeply moved to see Him thus, so well did it picture what He suffered for us. So great was my distress when I thought how ill I had repaid Him for those wounds that I felt as if my heart were breaking, and I threw myself down beside Him, shedding floods of tears and begging Him to give me strength once for all so that I might not offend Him…Knowing that the Lord was certainly within me, I would place myself at His feet, thinking that my tears would not be rejected. I did not know what I was saying, but in allowing me to shed those tears He was very gracious to me, since I soon forgot my grief.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [Galatians 5:24]
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