Saint Teresa of Avila

Today is celebrated as the feast day of Saint Teresa of Avila.  This is a portrait of her painted by Peter Paul Rubens many years after her death.

Teresa died at Alba de Tormes in 1582.  She died either shortly before midnight on October 4th or early in the morning of October 15th.  This was the time when much of Europe was switching from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar and the transition required the removal of October 5 - 14 for that year.

In the twentieth century many women of intellect, including Beauvoir, tried to place Teresa within a pantheon of postmodern "subversives" against patriarchal power structures.  For her daughters in Carmel, and her thousands of followers over the last five centuries, Teresa's courage, wit, tenacity, and lively intelligence cannot be confined or defined by these academic theories.

Thoughts on an Annual Tradition

It's almost Halloween and so it's time for the annual "guess how much the pumpkin weighs" contests.  You find them all over the country - in stores and farmers' markets and parking lots.  Sometimes it's just a large pumpkin sitting on the back of a pickup truck. This one, like so many enormous pumpkins, seems to have almost collapsed under its own weight.  I wonder if this is the one that cartoon character Charlie Brown is waiting for - The Great Pumpkin!  Wait a minute!  I think that Cinderella didn't make it home on time and the glitzy golden coach was turned back into a splendid and real orange pumpkin.  A pumpkin like this one will make many pies and custards and make many people happy.