Question about a St. Teresa quote

[RedHawkCircles]

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours, no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.” -St. Teresa of Avila

This has always been one of my most favorite quotes. However, the line “Christ has no body now on earth but yours,” seems a little strange to me. Christ’s body is present in the Eucharist. Was St. Teresa forgetting about the Eucharist here (, I doubt this), or is she talking about some sort of self/Eucharistic “body of Christ” connection that I’m not fulling grasping in this quote?

God bless to anyone reading!

 

[asteroid]

Maybe she meant physically present as opposed to sacramentally present.

Maybe she was just being poetic to demonstrate her point, rather than writing a book of exact theological terms.

 

[Magicsilence]

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours, no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.” -St. Teresa of Avila

This has always been one of my most favorite quotes. However, the line “Christ has no body now on earth but yours,” seems a little strange to me. Christ’s body is present in the Eucharist. Was St. Teresa forgetting about the Eucharist here (, I doubt this), or is she talking about some sort of self/Eucharistic “body of Christ” connection that I’m not fulling grasping in this quote?

God bless to anyone reading!

Well, she means that Christ does not literally appear to help people, he uses other people.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours, no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.” -St. Teresa of Avila

This has always been one of my most favorite quotes. However, the line “Christ has no body now on earth but yours,” seems a little strange to me. Christ’s body is present in the Eucharist. Was St. Teresa forgetting about the Eucharist here (, I doubt this), or is she talking about some sort of self/Eucharistic “body of Christ” connection that I’m not fulling grasping in this quote?

God bless to anyone reading!

Can you tell us where this quote comes from?

Most of the time you need to read such things in context.

 

[Lillith]

We are the body of Christ…the Church.

 

[batteddy]

And it is exactly because of recieving the Eucharist (his literal body) that we can become his mystical body on earth.

By communion with the (literal) body, we become the (mystical) body.

 

[Elzee]

I think the context of the quote is that he has no human body on earth, and we, his body, the Church, do his work through our human hands, feet, etc. We are called to manifest his love in tangible ways.

 

[asteroid]

Can you tell us where this quote comes from?

Most of the time you need to read such things in context.

You know what? That’s a very good question.

I’ve had a look in Volume 3 of the Collected Works of Teresa of Avila which contains the section ‘Poems’. It isn’t there. Apparently it isn’t anywhere to be found in the three volumes.

From what I can make out, it is attributed to Teresa but no one now knows for sure when or even if she wrote it.

Here’s one page. There are other similar web pages but nowhere will you find that Teresa definitely wrote the prayer or did so at a particular time.

Anyhow, whoever wrote it, it’s good.

 

[Della]

You know what? That’s a very good question.

I’ve had a look in Volume 3 of the Collected Works of Teresa of Avila which contains the section ‘Poems’. It isn’t there. Apparently it isn’t anywhere to be found in the three volumes.

From what I can make out, it is attributed to Teresa but no one now knows for sure when or even if she wrote it.

Here’s one page. There are other similar web pages but nowhere will you find that Teresa definitely wrote the prayer or did so at a particular time.

Anyhow, whoever wrote it, it’s good.

Everywhere I looked on the web I found this quote attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, but no one gives the source for it–which of her writings it comes from. I finally gave up! If anyone has the time or knows where she wrote it, I’m sure we’d all like to have it. Thanks!