ABSTRACT
Teresa of Avila asks us to measure our spiritual progress by noticing the expansion of our capacity to love. In doing so, Teresa offers a holistic vision that integrates spirituality, theology, ethics and wise action in a world of suffering and injustice. This chapter accordingly mines Teresa’s understanding of the transformation of the human person in the mystical life for insights into living today in the many roles that we play as theological educators, pastoral gures and just plain people seeking human authenticity and spiritual vision. For in my experience as a teacher, spiritual director, retreat facilitator and mentor, Teresa’s example of how God comes alive in the person who gives herself over to partnership with God translates itself easily into the twenty-rst century.1
