Summary: <br> Day 7: SURRENDER<br> St. Teresa you have said<br> <br> Myself surrendered and given,<br> The exchange is this:<br> My Beloved is for me,<br> And I am for my Beloved.<br> When the gentle Hunter<br> Wounded and subdued me,<br> In love’s arms,<br> My soul fallen;<br> New life receiving,<br> Thus did I exchange<br> My Beloved is for me,<br> And I am for my Beloved.<br> The arrow he drew<br> Full of love,<br> My soul was made one<br> With her Creator.<br> Other love I want not,<br> Surrendered now to my God,<br> That my Beloved is for me,<br> And I am for my Beloved.<br> —On Those Words “Dilectus Meus Mihi”<br> This beautiful poem is the result of Teresa’s reflection on Songs 2:16: “My Beloved belongs to me and I to him.” In her verse, she expresses a fundamental truth of the interior journey: God himself initiates and sustains the relationship, and invites us to surrender to Him in faith. Our efforts of self-renunciation, sacrifice, and humility about which Teresa constantly discusses in her writings are our personal response to this love. In renouncing ourselves, we allow the Lord to unite us to Himself. <br> Let us not tire of making our sacrifices of love, but instead take courage, sure in the knowledge that we are already loved.<br> St. Teresa speaks to us today saying:<br> “Christ has no body now but yours.<br> No hands, no feet on earth but yours.<br> Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.<br> Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.<br> Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.<br> Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.<br> Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”<br> O God, who through your Spirit<br> raised up Saint Teresa of Jesus<br> to show the Church the way to seek perfection,<br> grant that we may always be nourished<br> by the food of her heavenly teaching<br> and fired with longing for true holiness.<br> Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,<br> who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,<br> one God, for ever and ever.<br> St. Teresa, pray for us:<br> That we may become worthy of the promises of Jesus Christ.<br> reflection written by Fr. Emiel Albalahin, O.Carm. Used by permission via the Curia Generalizia dei Carmelitani Please visit <a href="http://www.ocarm.org/en/">http://www.ocarm.org/en/</a><br> The prayer offered by Dr. Matthew Bunson and Kris McGregor<br> Audio versions of the “<a href="https://www.discerninghearts.com/catholic-podcasts/the-interior-castle-mp3-audio-download/">Interior Castle</a>” and “<a href="https://www.discerninghearts.com/catholic-podcasts/way-perfection-st-teresa-avila-audio-mp3-audio/">The Way of Perfection</a>” by St. Teresa of Avila<br> <br>
