The Soul is the House of God - Teresa of Avila

Abstract

‘Soul, you must seek yourself in Me’ is an unusual mystical poem by Teresa of Avila, through which she speaks to the soul from a divine perspective. God invites the soul to discover its true
identify by taking a deep plunge into itself. Such soul-searching will reveal that we do not live out of ourselves, but out of God who gives us life and whose gaze brings us forth. We live entirely on grace. Our life comes forth from God’s life. Our soul is the space where this realization can take place, so that we can enter into a relationship with the life that flows through us. Normally, we think that we find shelter within God. Teresa, however, turns this around and lets God say that we are his shelter. In the dynamic of love God expresses his deepest essence in us. The human being forms God’s being!