Quote of the day 15th July 2016

"Teresa of Ávila’s reforms of the Carmelite movement came as a response to the crisis of the European Reformation, to what she called “a world in flames”.

They also took place as new possibilities of trade were being opened up beyond Europe, the other side of the Atlantic – her brother, fighting with the Spanish army, sent her some of the first potatoes from the New World.

Theresa of Downing Street has inherited a strangely similar set of challenges and opportunities. And no doubt it won’t be long before she also recalls Saint Teresa’s prayer:

“O my Lord, how true it is that those who work for you are paid in troubles.”

(Giles Fraser, writing in the Guardian about the new PM's background)

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