ABSTRACT
Among the many of us writing to celebrate and honor Mary Giles, I may be the only one of her direct colleagues on the campus of California State University at Sacramento where she has spent her teaching life. So, rather than join the rest who write to honor her scholarship, her huge contributions to studies of mysticism, Spanish literature and religious thought, women's spirituality and expression, I will write of her as the inspired teacher I have known.The Humanities Department of our University will find it impossible to replace Mary Giles, and they know it. For over thirty years she has brought an aesthetic and intellectual range, depth, discipline, integrity, and concern for the well-being of students and for collegial responsibility that very few of my other colleagues have consistently maintained. Nothing deflected her commitment. Where others of us have become dispirited by the ever-increasing emphasis upon administration and cost-effectiveness, Mary only required more of herself, of her students. She gave to them with a rectitude and lack of sloppiness which I always found invigorating. These attitudes prevailed in all domains of campus life-in her office consultations, in committee work, in attention to the fine detail and demanding nature of what we labeled Advanced Study Courses. No faculty I know adhered so strenuously to the concept behind those courses-that students from all disciplines needed to be able to analyze well and then to express their ideas well. I know that I found myself unable to promote the high quality of writing that Mary strove for from often poorly prepared students. She offered extra writing classes voluntarily so they might witness their own improvement. I remain humbled by her efforts.As a lecturer, Mary was and remains the embodiment of the dignity, beauty, and grace of her subject matter. Always minutely prepared, she exulted in being the messenger of spiritual depth, both intellectual and emotional, of her busy, fragmented students. They acknowledged her commitment-first to the material itself, second to the potentiality of each person, and finally to her mission between the two.Someone in these pages will mention Mary's editorship of Studia Mystica during the years when she was a full-time Professor. I want only to add that as her partner in this wonderful project, I saw how she handled the many extra demands such stewardship required. I was and remain flattered that 7
THE MYSTICAL GESTURE she asked me to be her Poetry and Art Editor, and I accepted readily. Now I can take this opportunity to thank you, Mary, for allowing me to participate, with you, in something so close to my interests and my heart.Despite the fact that our University never really supported or rewarded us with financial aid or released time, we carried on and we loved it. Mary was a marvel of precision and vision, of punctuality and sensitivity. She was as attentive to the authors as she was to their submissions and vice versa. To her, they were one thing.I followed her lead always, though she gave me full discretionary powers. We consulted and, if we disagreed on the poems or the art, she was generously trusting enough to let my choice stand. The twelve-year experience was one of the finest parts of my own professional life. Through Studia Mystica we met spectacular people, with many of whom we sustained private correspondences and several of whom we met in person.In Taos and Santa Fe one winter we spent time with some unique, unforgettable contributors to the journal. An image remains with me. After pancakes at the truckstop somewhere in the high, snowy desert, we drove in companionable silence, gratified each by the work we were doing and respecting the conversations we had recently had, on higher into the empty spaces, attuned to our inner natures but loving one another. Perhaps, I believe, in prayer.
