I will ask St. Teresa of Avila to pray for Fr. Martin. She is such an interesting character: we only encounter her writings after God has already dropped her into the deep end of the mystic-saints swimming pool and so her description of her old self (popular and shallow: giving honestly good advice on prayer to others and if they followed it wholeheartedly they outstripped her who was not following it; attached to honors and respect, small comforts, and other people; she makes herself out to be a complete dud) is very different from how we would have assessed her from the outside or how she would have assessed herself when she was that old self or indeed how we assess ourselves (we are doing very well; look at all that we have given up to follow God, and all of the people we have helped to follow God, never mind whether he wants us (me) in entirety and not the elegantly plated slice that I have handed to him with a drizzle of chocolate and one sprig of mint.)
I will ask St. Teresa of Avila to pray for Fr. Martin. She is such an interesting character: we only encounter her writings after God has already dropped her into the deep end of the mystic-saints swimming pool and so her description of her old self (popular and shallow: giving honestly good advice on prayer to others and if they followed it wholeheartedly they outstripped her who was not following it; attached to honors and respect, small comforts, and other people; she makes herself out to be a complete dud) is very different from how we would have assessed her from the outside or how she would have assessed herself when she was that old self or indeed how we assess ourselves (we are doing very well; look at all that we have given up to follow God, and all of the people we have helped to follow God, never mind whether he wants us (me) in entirety and not the elegantly plated slice that I have handed to him with a drizzle of chocolate and one sprig of mint.)