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Christian : Catholic 16th Century	About Teresa of Avila Timeline (1515 - 1582)
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Original Language Spanish	You are Christ's Hands
Commentary by Ivan M. Granger   Recommended Books All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time, by Robert Ellsberg The Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila Including the Relations: The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, by Teresa of Avila / Translated by David Lewis Collected Works of St Teresa, by Teresa of Avila The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila: Volume Three, Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD / Translated by Otilio Rodriguez, OCD The Essential Mystics: Selections from the World's Great Wisdom Traditions, Edited by Andrew Harvey More >>	Christ has no body now on earth but yours,      no hands but yours,      no feet but yours, Yours are the eyes through which to look out      Christ's compassion to the world Yours are the feet with which he is to go about      doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.     -- from The Essential Mystics: Selections from the World's Great Wisdom Traditions, Edited by Andrew Harvey Amazon.com
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I haven't been able to confirm whether or not this beautiful poem was actually composed by Teresa of Avila or not. It is popularly attributed to her, but it is not included or even mentioned in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, which I assume has all of her known writings. It may be similar to the popular Prayer of St. Francis, which is a profound prayer-poem, but not actually composed by St. Francis of Assisi.

Whether this was composed by Teresa of Avila herself or by an anonymous Christian poet, this is one of my favorite prayer-poems. It is a prayer of supreme spiritual maturity. It is not someone imploring Christ to come and fix everything in the external way imagined by so many fundamentalist sects; rather, it recognizes the presence of the Divine within each of us and our sacred responsibility to embody that compassion and service to the world. Each one of us is the vehicle through which Christ (or Ishwara, or however you name the personal form of the Divine) sends blessings. Our job is to get out of the way and let that sacred current flow through us unhindered.

"Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now..."

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