Teresa of Avila: You are Christ's Hands

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You are Christ's Hands

Teresa of Avila, Teresa of Avila poetry, Christian, Christian poetry, Catholic poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry

by Teresa of Avila
(1515 - 1582) Timeline

Original Language
Spanish

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

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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

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A few weeks ago we featured another poem by Teresa of Avila. With the Christmas season coming up, I thought this one might be a good follow-up. I haven't been able to confirm whether or not this beautiful poem was actually composed by Teresa of Avila. It is popularly attributed to her, but I have not found an authoritative source that clearly identifies her as the author.

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 the Buddha) enacts blessings in the world. Our job is to let that sacred current flow through us unhindered.

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

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