Enjoy Me

This week I commence giving a Retreat in Daily Living on the theme of Praying with the Mystics. The first person we will pray with is Teresa of Avila.

Teresa wrote some beautiful poems. Here is one I particularly like, called Laughter Came from Every Brick.

Just these two words He spoke
changed my life.

“Enjoy Me.”

What a burden I thought I was to carry–
a crucifix, as did He.

Love once said to me, “I know a song,
would you like to hear it?”

And laughter came from every brick in the street
and from every pore in the sky.

After a night of prayer,
He changed my life when
He sang,

“Enjoy Me.”

Sometime we take things so seriously I think we forget how much God just want us to enjoy His love for us, how much He wants us to enjoy just being with Him. The cross is part of our reality as Christians, but if we treat it as the only part, we turn our relationship with God into a burden, something to be endured, rather than something to relish. We would do well to hear the words God spoke to Teresa.