To Walk with Saints and Scholars

(aka Walking toward Resurrection)

3/29/26

“At Least Half the Earth is Sky” Photo by LKV Walsh

Tradition tells us that today – Palm Sunday – the rabbi Jesus entered Jerusalem. Tradition also tells us that he did so knowing full well what awaited him there. He was, in essence, walking toward death. It was the only way to resurrection.

I can’t consider Palm Sunday without returning to the words of St. Teresa of Avila from, “The Book of My Life.” The book is her spiritual autobiography written for her “confessor” in the 1500s as she was under The Inquisition. Now, of course, she is a Doctor of the Church – one of 38 in total and one of four who are female. From Witch to Wise One…and here is part of why. She says:

“How few holy madmen are alive today…we think we serve God better by being wise and discreet.

Maybe so, but I doubt it…

We think it is weird if a monk wears old, patched robes, and we fear a scandal if a nun slips into ecstatic states.

That is the way the world is today. We have forgotten the perfect love and the sublime rapture the saints experience.”

Yes, saints like her… and like Jesus. Holy madmen and sacred fools are busy making something beautiful. They are busy turning life into death and then death into life as well. And they start with simply walking toward…