The lovely poem on St. Teresa by Richard Wilbur that Bob Imbelli posted earlier today seems to me to have in mind the sculpture of St. Teresa in Ecstasy that was designed and made by Bernini for a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. Below are two images, one that show the work in some detail and another that shows it in a larger context in the chapel. The erotic character of the work has often been commented on, and not always reverently, particularly by people who are unfamiliar with the erotically charged imagery of the biblical and Christian tradition, ever since the Song of Songs. Teresas own description of the moment Berninis work represents makes use of erotic language, and in this she continues a long line of writers who knew that it is not only the body that experiences pleasure and delight. I wonder if the work does not illustrate the line with which John Donne ends his famous sonnet: "Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me."