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October 15
Friedrich Nietzsche, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Teresa of Avila, and the Montreal Protocol
David Barnhart
October 15, 2025
Sea wall at Lyme Regis, 2011. Own photo.
On this day in 2016, most of the world’s countries amended the Montreal Protocol to phase out hydrofluorocarbons in order to heal the ozone hole over the Antarctic. This agreement, first signed in 1987, has been described as “the single most successful international agreement to date.” In today’s polarized world, it is hard to imagine our own country being able to come together around a shared mission for planetary survival—but if we did it once, we could do it again.
Today is the birthday, in 1844, of Friedrich Nietzsche. In religious circles, he is probably most famous for saying “God is dead,” but one of his greatest contributions to philosophy and religion is a critique of self-interested moralizing. Like Jesus, he had a low tolerance for hypocrisy.
Today also marks the death, in 1918, of Sai Baba of Shirdi, an unusual saint for both Hindus and Muslims. He rejected caste and religious orthodoxy, never explicitly stating which group he “belonged” to.
It is the Feast Day of Teresa of Avila, Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic, who wrote, among other things, The Interior Castle, in which she compares the mystical life with God to exploring the rooms in a magnificent, diamond-like castle. She has been an inspiration to many Christians and those across faith traditions who pursue the life of contemplative prayer.
Reflection:
Sai Baba of Shirdi said:
“If you are wealthy, be humble. Plants bend when they bear fruit.”
and
“Unless there is some relationship or connection, nobody goes anywhere. If any men or creatures come to you, do not discourteously drive them away, but receive them well and treat them with due respect. Sri Hari [God] will certainly be pleased if you give water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked, and your verandah to strangers for sitting and resting. If anybody wants any money from you and you are not inclined to give, do not give, but do not bark at him like a dog."
In her autobiography, Teresa of Avila wrote:
“I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, or such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in Him. This was in no sense a vision: I believe it is called mystical theology. The soul is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside itself. The will loves; the memory, I think, is almost lost; while the understanding, I believe, thought it is not lost, does not reason—I mean that it does not work, but is amazed at the extent of all it can understand; for God wills it to realize that it understands nothing of what His Majesty represents to it.”
Prayer (from Saint Teresa of Avila):
“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”