Quote of the day, 7 March: St. Teresa of Avila

Our Father, who art in heaven

O Son of God and my Lord! How is it that You give so much all together in the first words? Since You humble Yourself to such an extreme in joining with us in prayer and making Yourself the Brother of creatures so lowly and wretched, how is it that You give us in the name of Your Father everything that can be given?

For You desire that He consider us His children, because Your word cannot fail [Allusion to Mt 24:35; Mk 13:31; Lk 21:33.] You oblige Him to be true to Your word, which is no small burden since in being Father He must bear with us no matter how serious the offenses.

If we return to Him like the prodigal son, He has to pardon us [Allusion to Lk 15:11-32.] He has to console us in our trials. He has to sustain us in the way a father like this must.

For, in effect, He must be better than all the fathers in the world because in Him everything must be faultless. And after all this He must make us sharers and heirs with You [Allusion to Ep 3:15; 2 Pt 1:4.].

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Way of Perfection, chap. 27, no. 2

Teresa of Avila, St 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Return of the Prodigal Son is an oil on canvas painting created by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669) around the year 1668. It is part of the European fine art collection in The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

“It was his home now. But it could not be his home till he had gone from it and returned to it. Now he was the Prodigal Son.”
― G.K. Chesterton

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Today's pick: The Prodigal Son Wastes his Inheritance (ca. 1636) - Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn. #art #Rembrandt #ProdigalSon

https://www.artbible.info/art/large/369.html