I have been a confirmed "disciple" of Leonard Cohen for more than a few years, and I love to listen to his sort of mystical ideas about life and Love.
My website http://www.loversofbeauty.com is my small way of promoting Love and Beauty. Thank you.
Lovers of Beauty
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st theresa
- Posts: 430
- Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:24 pm
- Location: Edmonton Alberta
Dubman
Imagine my surprise when I clicked on your site and there she was --st therese who folllows me every where. my name on the forum has been my online nick name for a number of years for reasons that only lovers of beauty can understand. Thank you for reminding me of how connected we all are.
Love and light
Imagine my surprise when I clicked on your site and there she was --st therese who folllows me every where. my name on the forum has been my online nick name for a number of years for reasons that only lovers of beauty can understand. Thank you for reminding me of how connected we all are.
Love and light
Nice site, Dubman.
And, st theresa, are you an aficionado of St. Therese of Lisieux (the French girl, aka the "Little Flower" shown on Dubman's site?) Have you read her autobiography, Story of a Soul? Highly recommended.
Or, as the spelling of your online moniker suggests, are you a follower of St. Theresa of Avila? She also wrote prolifically, and was close to St. John of the Cross, he being the author of The Dark Night of the Soul. Theresa defied the Spanish Inquisition to visit John in prison.
--Squidgy
And, st theresa, are you an aficionado of St. Therese of Lisieux (the French girl, aka the "Little Flower" shown on Dubman's site?) Have you read her autobiography, Story of a Soul? Highly recommended.
Or, as the spelling of your online moniker suggests, are you a follower of St. Theresa of Avila? She also wrote prolifically, and was close to St. John of the Cross, he being the author of The Dark Night of the Soul. Theresa defied the Spanish Inquisition to visit John in prison.
--Squidgy
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st theresa
- Posts: 430
- Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:24 pm
- Location: Edmonton Alberta
Squidgy
I am intrigued by both st therese and st teresa and even further by the latest st of the carmelites- a jewish philopsher who became a catholic nun and died in auschwitz. Named edith stein she later became Sister Teresa Benedicta--and now st teresa benedicta http://www.ewtn.com/faith/edith_stein.htm
My mother took the name of st teresa d'avila as her confirmation name and when I was 8, I had thought that I couldn't take the name of the same st so I chose ste therese of Lisieux as mine ---I recently read that there was some chance that my saint was an impostor (her sisters in the convent may have arranged for a shower of roses when she died) --haha but sister teresa benedicta--now there is a saint.
I am intrigued by both st therese and st teresa and even further by the latest st of the carmelites- a jewish philopsher who became a catholic nun and died in auschwitz. Named edith stein she later became Sister Teresa Benedicta--and now st teresa benedicta http://www.ewtn.com/faith/edith_stein.htm
My mother took the name of st teresa d'avila as her confirmation name and when I was 8, I had thought that I couldn't take the name of the same st so I chose ste therese of Lisieux as mine ---I recently read that there was some chance that my saint was an impostor (her sisters in the convent may have arranged for a shower of roses when she died) --haha but sister teresa benedicta--now there is a saint.
Yea...of course I respect all the saints; the great thing about St Therese of Lisieux was that she had no pretensions to greatness - no ambitions to excel at anything in particular - except to embrace every present moment with love. She "invented" a spirituality that could be within anyone's reach - to live a normal life but always conscious of the journey to our real goal which is Love, the source of everything good.
Edith Stein is someone whom I also feel very connected with, quite a different background from Therese. Edith Stein was a great intellectual former atheist philosopher who, after reading St Teresa of Avila, decided to convert.
It seems that Therese on the other hand had a strong conversion experience at around the age of 14, one of those moments when somehow a point of no return is reached, of not looking back, just wanting to focus on the rest of the journey.
Edith Stein is someone whom I also feel very connected with, quite a different background from Therese. Edith Stein was a great intellectual former atheist philosopher who, after reading St Teresa of Avila, decided to convert.
It seems that Therese on the other hand had a strong conversion experience at around the age of 14, one of those moments when somehow a point of no return is reached, of not looking back, just wanting to focus on the rest of the journey.
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st theresa
- Posts: 430
- Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:24 pm
- Location: Edmonton Alberta
In re-looking at this stuff I have discovered yet one more saint teresa whom I had just skimmed over previously but might be worth another glance- st teresa de los andes. Born in 1900 and died in 1920 , much like ste therese de lisieux she felt the passion to dedicate herself to love at an early age. Thanks dubman for bringing up this topic. 
Thank YOU Theresa. I think it's great to reflect on how everything is so inter-connected; I have always considered Leonard Cohen to be a mystic, with a very deep understanding of what life is really about.
He makes so many references to it, directly or indirectlly. Above all I get a very strong sense that LC places a very high value on sincerity, honesty and humility, and of course on Love.
He makes so many references to it, directly or indirectlly. Above all I get a very strong sense that LC places a very high value on sincerity, honesty and humility, and of course on Love.
Mother Theresa is soooo cool. Her dictum, "Anyway" is really something to live by. The calendar of saints is chock-full of bodacious women. Another of my favorites is 12th century Hildegarde of Bingen, who, among other things, invented sheet music. Before she devised a way to annotate sounds on paper, songs were learnt only by hearing another person sing them, hence, many songs just didn't survive. But Hildegarde created the precursor to today's five line, four space music bar, so music could be written down, to be read and performed later. She herself wrote music --amazing and beautiful chants that are just otherworldly!!-- and in the 21st century, you can buy her CDs!! (I have several.) She also kept detailed journals of herbal remedies that became a foundation of modern medicine.
People interested in St. Therese de Lisieux would enjoy the movie Household Saints about a young Italian woman so profoundly influenced by her she follows in her footsteps with comic and surreal complications. Lilli Taylor stars.
Admirers of Mother Teresa of Calcutta should recall that she is a hardline biblical literalist who opposed abortion, birth control and had other anti-modern ideas shaped by the Bible. Beside that, her life was incredible.
Admirers of Mother Teresa of Calcutta should recall that she is a hardline biblical literalist who opposed abortion, birth control and had other anti-modern ideas shaped by the Bible. Beside that, her life was incredible.
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st theresa
- Posts: 430
- Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:24 pm
- Location: Edmonton Alberta
Thank you lightning for your suggestion of the movie--I shall look for it the next time I find myself in a movie rental store. I saw a play about st teresa d'avila at a Fringe theater event (was it two years ago) in which she was portrayed as a lusty woman until she finally connected with the presence of Jesus and with no will on her part lost the desire for other men. Her writings might certainly lead one to think she must have had carnal knowledge of someone.
Of course that is not the only reason I identify with her
Of course that is not the only reason I identify with her
Strange that I have known about Therese for maybe 20 years but just recently I am completely smitten by her. I used to think that my fav person to have coffee with was Leonard Cohen, but now he has been been evicted from the top spot by Therese. Though I'd say Leonard wouldn't mind being present either.
Imagine having such an appetite for Love; it's a strong feeling to be at the "receiving end" of love from someone like Therese.
Imagine having such an appetite for Love; it's a strong feeling to be at the "receiving end" of love from someone like Therese.
Household Saints
This is a synopsis of this wonderful movie. It is out on DVD and you cn get it from Amazon.
Household Saints
10/01/1993
By Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
back
Saints are a great inconvenience. They interfere with the plans of ordinary people. When a modern family finds itself with a saint in its midst, there is a tendency to send for the psychiatrist. "Household Saints" is about Italian Americans in New York City who begin with a form of madness they are comfortable with, and end with a madness only a saint could understand.
Like many stories of miracles, this one begins with a pinochle game. The local butcher, Joseph Santangelo, has fallen in love with Catherine, the daughter of his card-playing buddy, Lino Falconetti (Victor Argo). The stakes in their game go higher and higher one night, until finally Joseph wants to play for the right to marry Catherine. Lino agrees, and loses, and goes home and orders his daughter to fix a nice dinner because the Santangelos are coming over.
"I want you to make a meal so good a man would get married to eat like that every night," he says. "I got news for you," she says. "Nobody gets married for the food." And particularly not her cooking, which is so haphazard that Joseph's mother insults the cooking right there at the table.
But Joseph (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Catherine (Tracey Ullman) do get married. And gradually they change. As young people they look like the "before" pictures in an ad for a beauty school. Catherine is particularly careless, with her lank hair and her tendency to spend the day locked up with a book. But eventually prosperity touches them. Joseph grows a mustache and goes to a better barber. Catherine tints her hair and uses makeup.
It is a constant trial, living with Joseph's shrill and hateful mother (Judith Malina), who spends Catherine's first pregnancy pumping her full of horrifying old wive's tales - superstitions about all the things that can lead to miscarriages or the birth of monsters. When Mrs. Santangelo finally dies, Catherine paints the dark old apartment in bright pastels and buys Tupperware, and the family enters the 20th century.
To them a daughter is born. Teresa (Lili Taylor) is a quiet, serious girl who grows up as a devout Catholic. She is attracted to that uncompromising thread of Catholicism that challenges her to become a saint. She prays, meditates and spends her days in penance and good works. She develops a special devotion to the her namesake, St. Teresa, known as the Little Flower of Jesus. She agrees with the saint that it is not necessary to do great things in the world to be holy; one can do God's work anywhere, and there is grace to be won by scrubbing floors.
Teresa is a child who would be completely understood by her superstitious grandmother. Her parents have become modernized, however, and while of course they are Catholics, they don't see any need to get carried away with things. When Teresa shyly announces her hope to enter the convent, her father explodes: "I don't want no daughter of mine lining the pope's pockets."
By now it is about 1970. Change is in the air. Teresa enrolls in college, where most students are on the floor in sit-ins, not prayer. She meets a young man named Leonard Villanova (Michael Imperioli), who explains that he has a Life Plan: "First, I get the St. John's law degree. Then I want a Lincoln Continental. I want a family and a town house on the upper East Side, and I want membership in all those clubs that always turned up their noses to the Italians." He plans a career in "television law." Teresa is impressed: "You mean like Perry Mason?"
"Household Saints" is a wonderful movie, without a second that isn't blessed by the grace of its special humor and tenderness. But the closing scenes are transcendent, as Teresa drifts away from the Villanova Plan and into a plan of her own, for loving Jesus. The fact is that modern people do worship false gods and that a life devoted to getting a big car and a town house is seen as eminently more sane than a life devoted to God. You can decide for yourself whether Teresa goes mad. In an earlier age, people would have known how to think of her.
This warm-hearted jewel of a movie was directed by Nancy Savoca, whose previous films are "True Love" and "Dogfight" (which also starred the priceless Lili Taylor). She treasures eccentricity in people. Another director might have started right off with the story of Teresa. But Savoca's subject is larger: She wants to show how, in only three generations, an Italian family that is comfortable with the mystical turns into an American family that is threatened by it. And she wants to explore the possibilities of sainthood in these secular days. That she sees great humor in her subject is perfect; it is always easier to find the truth through laughter.
Some people will question Teresa's devotion to the Little Flower. For me, the movie rang one bell of memory after another. I went to Catholic school in the 1950s - that age of Latin, incense and mystery before Vatican II repainted the Church in politically correct pastels. I know this movie is closer to the literal truth of those days than many non-Catholics will believe. When was it, I wonder, that it became madness to want to be a saint?
Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc.
Household Saints
10/01/1993
By Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
back
Saints are a great inconvenience. They interfere with the plans of ordinary people. When a modern family finds itself with a saint in its midst, there is a tendency to send for the psychiatrist. "Household Saints" is about Italian Americans in New York City who begin with a form of madness they are comfortable with, and end with a madness only a saint could understand.
Like many stories of miracles, this one begins with a pinochle game. The local butcher, Joseph Santangelo, has fallen in love with Catherine, the daughter of his card-playing buddy, Lino Falconetti (Victor Argo). The stakes in their game go higher and higher one night, until finally Joseph wants to play for the right to marry Catherine. Lino agrees, and loses, and goes home and orders his daughter to fix a nice dinner because the Santangelos are coming over.
"I want you to make a meal so good a man would get married to eat like that every night," he says. "I got news for you," she says. "Nobody gets married for the food." And particularly not her cooking, which is so haphazard that Joseph's mother insults the cooking right there at the table.
But Joseph (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Catherine (Tracey Ullman) do get married. And gradually they change. As young people they look like the "before" pictures in an ad for a beauty school. Catherine is particularly careless, with her lank hair and her tendency to spend the day locked up with a book. But eventually prosperity touches them. Joseph grows a mustache and goes to a better barber. Catherine tints her hair and uses makeup.
It is a constant trial, living with Joseph's shrill and hateful mother (Judith Malina), who spends Catherine's first pregnancy pumping her full of horrifying old wive's tales - superstitions about all the things that can lead to miscarriages or the birth of monsters. When Mrs. Santangelo finally dies, Catherine paints the dark old apartment in bright pastels and buys Tupperware, and the family enters the 20th century.
To them a daughter is born. Teresa (Lili Taylor) is a quiet, serious girl who grows up as a devout Catholic. She is attracted to that uncompromising thread of Catholicism that challenges her to become a saint. She prays, meditates and spends her days in penance and good works. She develops a special devotion to the her namesake, St. Teresa, known as the Little Flower of Jesus. She agrees with the saint that it is not necessary to do great things in the world to be holy; one can do God's work anywhere, and there is grace to be won by scrubbing floors.
Teresa is a child who would be completely understood by her superstitious grandmother. Her parents have become modernized, however, and while of course they are Catholics, they don't see any need to get carried away with things. When Teresa shyly announces her hope to enter the convent, her father explodes: "I don't want no daughter of mine lining the pope's pockets."
By now it is about 1970. Change is in the air. Teresa enrolls in college, where most students are on the floor in sit-ins, not prayer. She meets a young man named Leonard Villanova (Michael Imperioli), who explains that he has a Life Plan: "First, I get the St. John's law degree. Then I want a Lincoln Continental. I want a family and a town house on the upper East Side, and I want membership in all those clubs that always turned up their noses to the Italians." He plans a career in "television law." Teresa is impressed: "You mean like Perry Mason?"
"Household Saints" is a wonderful movie, without a second that isn't blessed by the grace of its special humor and tenderness. But the closing scenes are transcendent, as Teresa drifts away from the Villanova Plan and into a plan of her own, for loving Jesus. The fact is that modern people do worship false gods and that a life devoted to getting a big car and a town house is seen as eminently more sane than a life devoted to God. You can decide for yourself whether Teresa goes mad. In an earlier age, people would have known how to think of her.
This warm-hearted jewel of a movie was directed by Nancy Savoca, whose previous films are "True Love" and "Dogfight" (which also starred the priceless Lili Taylor). She treasures eccentricity in people. Another director might have started right off with the story of Teresa. But Savoca's subject is larger: She wants to show how, in only three generations, an Italian family that is comfortable with the mystical turns into an American family that is threatened by it. And she wants to explore the possibilities of sainthood in these secular days. That she sees great humor in her subject is perfect; it is always easier to find the truth through laughter.
Some people will question Teresa's devotion to the Little Flower. For me, the movie rang one bell of memory after another. I went to Catholic school in the 1950s - that age of Latin, incense and mystery before Vatican II repainted the Church in politically correct pastels. I know this movie is closer to the literal truth of those days than many non-Catholics will believe. When was it, I wonder, that it became madness to want to be a saint?
Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc.
I agree that Leonard is a Mystic. His life has been a walk through fire and he has shared that pain, and the pleasure of being without the pain, with all of us who experience his work. He has a sense of humour that cracks me up.
He appears to be at peace now he must have done a lot of work to achieve that. Of course I assume this, opinion.
He appears to be at peace now he must have done a lot of work to achieve that. Of course I assume this, opinion.
Cheers & DLight
Tri-me (tree-mite) Sheldrön
"Doorhinge rhymes with orange" Leonard Cohen
Tri-me (tree-mite) Sheldrön
"Doorhinge rhymes with orange" Leonard Cohen