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starwomyn 70F
5429 posts
5/7/2006 11:07 pm

Last Read:
5/12/2006 9:59 pm

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa



"…his great golden spear…filled with fire… plunged into me several times…penetrated to my entrails…a sweetness so extreme that one could not possibly wish it to stop." - St. Teresa


Abracadabra


starwomyn 70F
8876 posts
5/8/2006 9:36 am

The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582), a mystical cloistered Discalced Carmelite reformer and nun. The chapter describes divine visions, including one where she saw a young, beautiful, and lambent angel standing aside her body:

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.Chapter XXIX; Part 17, Teresa's Autobiography

Abracadabra