Teresa was a religious of only one cause, the only one of any religious: perfection, and for such divine purpose she offered herself, the testimony of her life, her hidden and bare humanity as the book where everyone, either woman or man, red or white, could find the utter truth behind every atom of reality. With this intellectual as well as spiritual sacrifice, she is not only undertaking the path of the Cross where Christ set out the wounds of his flesh as a testimony of a renewed human dignity, but also the example of the great Doctors and teachers of the Church: She dialogued with the world as St. Augustine did in his platonic style confessions (clearly shown in The Book of the Life); she imitated the love of St. Jerome for the scriptures and his Christological exegesis; who could be unaware of the similarities between her treatment of the virtues and that of St. Thomas Aquinas (especially in The Way of Perfection)? The doctrine of Teresa is not something “new” like those of the sixteenth century reformers, but a sublime actualisation of the same message, the very Good News which only revolutionary attempt finds its goal in the human spirit.

If someone wants to be “authentically” revolutionary, the best way to pursue this desire would be attending the God’s call towards a deep conversion of the very heart and human’s nature, and for such heroic work, perhaps there couldn’t be a better “red book” than the writings of St. Theresa of Avila.  Godzdogz: Dominican Friars – England & Scotland post by Br Rafael Jimenez O.P.