SAINT TERESA OF JESUS

Feast Day: October 15

The Carmelite Order celebrates the feast of St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila) October 15th. St.Teresa does not need any introduction. She is famous among the laity and a shining luminary in the Catholic Church. She is one of the three women Doctors of the Church, with St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Catherine of Siena, being the other two. She is known as the Reformer of Carmel, along with St. John of the Cross, and founded the Discalced Order of the Carmelite family. The Teresian reform is not the only reform in Carmel. There were other reforms including the Reform of Touraine in France (17th century) and the Mantuan reform in Italy, which effected many changes in the Order. But St. Teresa's reform was the most well known partly because of her own charismatic personality and widespread influence. She was a very influential woman of her day and collaborated with powerful people .

She wrote books dealing with her Life and Prayer. To mention some of her famous works: The Life (autobiographical), The Way of Perfection (written for her Nuns) and The Interior Castle (on Prayer). There are a variety of commentaries written about these books and you can check them out at http://www.icspublications.com/.

I got to know St. Teresa in 1984 after I graduated from College.  My favorite reading is her Way of Perfection . It deals with the subject of prayer. I also like The Interior Castle when I am trying to analyze what mansion I may be in! Although the Way of Perfection was written for her nuns and is tailored to those living a solely contemplative lifestyle, one can use her counsels in this book to know about prayer and how to grow in the life of prayer. She summarized three preconditions for a life of prayer: Humility, Detachment and Charity. The entire book expounds on these three criteria.

One subject St. Teresa persistently wrote about was how to pray . In her own life, she had a terrible time praying, to be specific 18 years, of not being able to pray. In her autobiography, she stated that she needed the security of a book to get her focused. Even though most of the time she did not read the book, she needed the security of having it with her for reassurance. Because of her personal difficulties in praying, she is able to explain to us through her writings difficulties we ourselves often experience. She is very insistent about imagining Christ in His humanity. She imagined him in those moments when he was most alone because she figured she will not be turned away when he is so abandoned.

I thought of presenting a little of her thoughts on Mental Prayer or meditation. I used the article presented by Fr. Sam Anthony Morello OCD “Lectio Divina and the Practice of Teresian Prayer”.

Lectio Divina (or divine reading) is not particularly exclusive to Saint Teresa of Avila. It is an old form of monastic prayer used throughout many centuries. It is a monastic designation for meditative reading of the Scriptures. According to Fr. Morello’s book, there are four steps to lectio divina:

1. LectioMeaning “reading”, understood as the careful repetitious recitation of a short text of Scripture.
2. MeditatioMeaning “meditation”, an effort to understand the meaning of the text and make it personally relevant to oneself.
3. OratioMeaning “prayer”, a personal response to the text, asking for the grace of the text.
4. ContemplatioMeaning “contemplation.” It is gazing at length on something. The idea behind this element is that sometimes with God’s infused grace, one is elevated beyond meditation to an experiential contact with the divine presence, to God’s truth and benevolence.

Applying the Teresian flavor to the basic elements of lectio divina, we come to the following exercise:
1. Teresa’s “lectio” Reading the Word of God with Teresa
She counsels that when we start to pray, we must be aware of the following: who it is who is praying (we are creatures), who it is we are praying to (God), what we are praying for.
Attentiveness to what one is doing and saying is the first of Teresa’s advice.

2. Teresa’s “meditatio” - meditating with Teresa.
Saint Teresa counsels that one aid to prayer is to find a companion at prayer. She is referring to taking Christ as our companion in prayer. Whether one imagines Christ within oneself or before the Blessed Sacrament (although Jesus’ presence in the Blessed Sacrament is not imagined but a reality), or in the image of the crucifix. She teaches us to think of God as very near to us or as within us, dwelling in our depths. With Teresa we go where God is. Her advice is to locate God according to one’s inclinations. There is no one way we ought to pray. We pray as we can, not as we ought. Teresa also wants us to ‘think” of Christ. We address ourselves to him, or we try to “hear” his words in Scriptures addressed to us.

3. Teresa’s “Oratio” Prayerful expression with Teresa.Teresa’s prayer is full of affectionate expression to Christ. It is the prayer that comes out of a heart that begins to be filled with love. The heart can express itself in a million ways. But here we implement the Teresian principle of making Christ the object of that prayer. You can utter words that come spontaneously to you. This is the part where prayer becomes a conversation.

4. Teresa’s “Contemplatio” Contemplating with Teresa.After going through the steps of reading the text to feed the mind, meditating on the meaning of the text to move the heart and praying the words or other emotions that come to heart. Teresa describes a state of “resting” in the Lord. A new recollection of the soul, in its innermost core, is experienced. With Teresa, we rest in the presence and take a holiday from the work of meditation.

The fruits of contemplation for Teresa is shown in the growth of virtues. For her, the virtues are the flowers in the garden of the soul.

We have explained in summary the exercise of mental prayer according to Saint Teresa of Avila. We should endeavor to learn this exercise of mental prayer for our growth in the spiritual life.

Prayer:
"God our Father, by Your Spirit you raised up Saint Teresa of Jesus to show your Church the way to perfection. May her inspired teaching awaken in us a longing for true holiness. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen" 

SHORT INTRODUCTION: 
Known to her family as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, she became the reformer of Carmel, mother of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars, "spiritual mother" (as is engraved under her statue in the Vatican Basilica), patron of Catholic writers (from 1965) and Doctor of the Church (1970), the first woman with Saint Catherine of Siena to ever receive this last title. She was born at Avila in Castile, Spain, on 28th March 1515 and died in Alba de Tormes, near Salamanca, on 4th October 1582 (a correction due to the Gregorian reform of the calendar that year, as the following day was officially 15th October). She was beatified in 1614, canonised in 1622 and her feast day occurs on 15th October.
Her life needs to be understood in the light of the plan which God had for her, with the great desires experienced in her heart, with the mysterious illness to which she was subject in her youth (and with the ill health from which she suffered throughout her life), and with the "resistance" to divine grace for which she blamed herself more than she should has. Running away from home, she entered the Carmel of the Incarnation in Avila on 2nd November 1535. As a result, partly of the prevailing conditions in the community and partly from her own spiritual difficulties, she had to struggle before arriving at what she called her conversion at the age of 39. But, benefitting from various spiritual directors, she then began to make great strides towards perfection.
In 1560, the idea first emerged of a new Carmel, where the Rule could be followed more closely, and this was realized two years later when the monastery of St. Joseph was founded without any endowments and "following the Primitive Rule": a phrase that needs to be clearly understood because both then and later it was a notion which was more nostalgic and "heroic" than practical. Five years later Teresa obtained from the Prior General of the Order, John Baptist Rossi, then visiting Spain, permission to increase the number of monasteries and a licence to found two communities of contemplative Carmelite friars (later to be called Discalced) who would be the spiritual counterparts of the nuns and, as such, able to help them. At the death of Saint Teresa, there were 17 monasteries of nuns in the Reform, and the communities of friars also quickly outstripped the original number, some founded with permission from the Prior General Rossi but others, especially those in Andalusia, established against his will, relying on the approval of the apostolic visitators, the Dominican Vargas and the young Discalced Carmelite Jerome Gracian (a close spiritual companion of Teresa, for whom she vowed to do whatever he asked her, as long as it was not contrary to God's law).
There followed a series of unedifying quarrels, made worse by the interference of the civil authorities and other outsiders, until in 1581, the Discalced were formed into a separate Province. Saint Teresa was then able to write, "Now all of us, Discalced and Calced, are at peace and nothing can hinder us from serving the Lord".
Saint Teresa is among the most important figures of all time for Catholic spirituality. Her works - especially the four best known (The Life, The Way of Perfection, The Mansions and The Foundations) - together with her more historical works, contain a doctrine which encompasses the whole of the spiritual life, from the first steps right up to intimacy with God at the centre of the Interior Castle. Her Letters show her occupied with a great variety of everyday problems. Her doctrine on the unity of the soul with God (a doctrine which was intimately lived by her) follows the Carmelite tradition which had preceded her and to which she herself contributed in such a notable way, enriching it as well as passing the tradition on, not only to her spiritual sons and daughters, but also to the whole Church which she served so unsparingly. When she was dying, her one joy was to be able to affirm that "I die a daughter of the Church".

SOURCE: CARMELITE WEBSITE

Novena to St. Teresa of Jesus- October 6

October 6th  is the beginning of our novena to Saint Teresa of Jesus (Avila).   Novena is a nine day act of prayers for the purpose of either petition or thanksgiving.   It recalls the nine days that the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin gathered in the Upper room in prayer from the time Jesus ascended to heaven until the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
For Carmelites and the devotees of St. Teresa, we thank God for the gift of this special Saint who gave herself for the life of the Church. Her famous last words: "I am a daughter of the Church" certainly spoke for her great love. We also invoke her, as part of the Church Triumphant, to continue to intercede for us who are still on this earth.  Below are the prayers we recite for our special intentions:

FIRST DAY:
by St. Alphonsus Liguori
"O most amiable Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for the great gift of faith and of devotion to the Holy Sacrament, which You did grant to Your beloved Teresa. We pray, by Your merits and by those of Your faithful Spouse, to grant us the gift of a fervent devotion toward the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar, where You O Infinite Majesty has obliged Yourself to abide with us even to the end of the world, and wherein You did so lovingly give Your whole self to us."
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be..)

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.
St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

Novena to St. Teresa of Jesus- October 7

SECOND DAY:
by St. Alphonsus Liguori

"O most merciful Lord, Jesus Christ! we thank You for the great gift of hope which You did grant to Your beloved Teresa. We pray You, by Your merits, and by those of Your holy spouse, to give us a great confidence in Your goodness, by reason of Your Precious Blood, which You have shed to its last drop for our salvation.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be..)

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

Novena to St. Teresa of Jesus- October 8

Third Day:
"O Most loving Lord Jesus Christ! We thank thee for the great gift of love which You did grant to Your beloved Teresa. We pray Thee by thy merits, and by those of Your most loving spouse, to give us the great, the crowning gift of Your perfect love."

Our Father.. Hail Mary.. Glory be..

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

Novena St. Teresa of Jesus- October 9 Day 4

"O most sweet Lord Jesus Christ! We thank thee for the gift of great desire and resolution which thou didst grant to thy beloved Teresa, the she might love thee perfectly; we pray thee by thy merits and by those of thy most generous spouse, to give us a true desire, and a true resolution of pleasing thee to the utmost of our power.

Our Father.. Hail Mary.. Glory be..

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

Novena St. Teresa of Jesus- October 10

"O most kind Lord Jesus Christ! we thank thee for the great gift of humility which thou did grant to thy beloved Teresa; we pray thee by thy merits, and by those of thy most humble spouse, to grant us the grace of a true humility, which may make us ever find our joy in humiliations, and prefer contempt before every honor.

Our Father.. Hail Mary.. Glory be..

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

Novena St. Teresa of Jesus- October 11

"O most bountiful Lord Jesus Christ, we thank thee for the gift of devotion toward thy sweet Mother Mary, and her holy spouse Joseph, which thou did grant to thy beloved Teresa; we pray thee, by thy merits, and by those of thy most dear spouse to give us the grace of a special and tender devotion toward thy most holy Mother Mary, and toward thy beloved foster father, Joseph.

Our Father.. Hail Mary.. Glory be..

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

Novena St. Teresa of Jesus- October 13

"O most beloved Lord Jesus Christ! we thank thee for the eminent gift of the desire for death which thou did grant to thy beloved Teresa; we pray thee by thy merits, and by those of thy most constant spouse, to grant us the grace of desiring death, in order to go and possess thee eternally in the country of the blessed."

Our Father.. Hail Mary.. Glory be..

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

Novena St. Teresa of Jesus- October 14

"Lastly, O dearest Jesus Christ! we thank thee for the gift of the precious death which thou did grant to thy beloved Teresa, making her sweetly to die of love; we pray thee, by thy merits and by those of thy most affectionate spouse, to grant us a good death, and if we do not die of love, yet, that we may, at least, die burning with love for thee, that so dying , we may be able to go and love thee forever with a more perfect love in heaven."

Our Father.. Hail Mary.. Glory be..

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

Interpreting Saint Teresa- Part 1

Patrick Burke, O.Carm

‘Oh, what a good friend You make, my Lord’

 

In her writings St Teresa of Avila reflected theologically on her own spiritual experiences. For her, mystical theology is a theology of love. Real prayer is nothing other than the expression of a relationship of friends. Time and again she mentions this as encouragement for persevering on the road leading to heaven. ‘And if he perseveres, I trust then in the mercy of God who never fails to repay anyone who has taken Him for a friend.’ she wrote in her Life. She added, ‘For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. In order that love be true and the friendship endure, the wills of the friends must be in accord’ (Life 8,5).

About her own experience, she wrote ‘A much greater love for and confidence in this Lord began to develop in me when I saw Him as one with whom I could converse so continually. I saw that He was man, even though He was God; that He wasn’t surprised by human weaknesses; that He understands our miserable make-up, subject to many falls on account of the first sin, which He came to repair. I can speak with Him as with a friend, even though He is Lord’ (Ibid. 37,5). This relationship of Teresa with Jesus was at once real and practical. In describing this experience, she could point out for ordinary people, such as her Carmelite Sisters, how different it was from the situation in the world around them. ‘I know that He isn’t like those we have as lords here on earth, all of whose lordship consists in artificial displays: They have to have designated times for speaking and designated persons to whom to speak. If some poor little creature has any business to be done, what roundabout ways they must go through and what trials and favours it costs them in order to get to speak to this lord.’ And regarding the King? For people who are poor or who don’t have noble connections, to speak to him or get near him is impossible.

At the beginning of such a relationship with Jesus as Teresa enjoyed, a path of prayer, words and images express our faith. Aided by reflections on the events of the gospels, one recites the usual prayers of our thinking and imaging. As one grows in faith and knowledge, the prayer life becomes more consoling and the friendship of which Teresa speaks becomes a reality in the sense of a presence of God, leading to deeper faith. For Teresa, the most important thing was imitation of Jesus and love of neighbour; more even indeed than the sublime heights of prayer, which she had experienced. St John of the Cross stresses this same point when instructing beginners of prayer. ‘First, have a habitual desire to imitate Christ in all your deeds by bringing your life into conformity with his. You must then study his life in order to know how to imitate him and behave in all events as he would’ (Ascent I, 13,3). Teresa would tell her Sisters not to bother about the ecstasies or mystic heights - but to sweep the corridors and wash the dishes.

The relationship of friends, in the sense that Teresa wishes to recommend, is basically rooted in and sustained by love. The great theologian, Hans von Balthasar, writing about prayer, states that ‘love wants to be in the presence of the beloved and love desires to have the beloved before its eyes.’ He is describing the noble aspirations of the human heart. But for the one who wishes to contemplate Jesus, the Beloved, it is necessary to employ the powers of his ‘inner senses’ to affect the image. ‘This picture’ he says ‘is not meant to be a realistic photograph, but love’s picture, solely concerned with love, the divine love of the Father, which is here manifested in the Son and in the concreteness of his whole earthly life.’ This would concur with the sentiment of Teresa. She explains in her Life (22, 1) how she had mistakenly followed a path of prayer which was not for her. It was based on ‘strong advice to rid oneself of all corporeal images and to approach contemplation of the Divinity.’ Later she describes the result. ‘When I began to experience something of supernatural prayer, I mean of the prayer of quiet, I strove to turn away from everything corporeal’ (Ibid. 22, 3). She appeared to get consolation and felt some benefit so that ‘there was no one who could have made me return to the humanity of Christ. As a matter of fact I thought the humanity was an impediment.’ She was to learn how great a mistake this was. She realised that she hadn’t the companionship of Christ to help her ‘in her trials and temptations.’ She records that the Lord had rescued her from the path she was following.

Once more the humanity of Jesus becomes important and she walks with Christ at her side. ‘Whoever lives in the presence of so good a friend and excellent a leader, who went ahead of us to be the first to suffer, can endure all things. The Lord helps us and never fails; He is a true friend. I see clearly, and I saw afterward, that God desires that if we are going to please Him and receive His great favours, we must do so through the most sacred humanity of Christ in whom He takes His delight. Many, many times have I perceived this truth through experience’ (Ibid. 22, 6). Once she had come to understand this truth, she studied then the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they had taken the same path. St Francis through the stigmata, St Anthony with the Infant, St Bernard, St Catherine of Siena etc. Now Teresa, instead of looking at Jesus outside in whose presence she walked, allows the life of Jesus to fill within; and with St Paul, she can say: ‘I live, now not I, but Christ lives within me’ (Gal.2,20).

 

Novena St. Teresa of Jesus- October 12

"O most loving Lord Jesus Christ! we thank thee for the wonderful gift of the wound in the heart which thou did grant to thy beloved Teresa; we pray thee, by thy merits, and by those of thy seraphic spouse, to grant us also a like wound of love, that, henceforth, we may love thee, and give our mind to the love of nothing byt thee."

Our Father.. Hail Mary.. Glory be..

O Jesus, who Teresa's beauteous soul
With thy love-dart didst fire,
Deep in my heart of hearts
Her own sweet longing love of thee inspire.

St. Teresa, pray for us.
That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
Graciously hear us, O God, our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa (our Mother) , so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion , through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. "

St Teresa of Jesus

Importance of Prayer

 "The soul is like a castle and the door to the castle is prayer."- St. Teresa of Jesus

"Behold, my God, my desires and the tears with which I beg this of you... have pity on so many souls that are being lost, and help your Church.  Don't allow any more harm to come to Christianity, lord.  Give light now to these darknesses."- Saint Teresa of Jesus
 
Saint Teresa of Jesus was primarily moved to form a new Community of Carmelites, the Discalced Carmelites, as a response to the damage created by the Reformation.  "At that time news reached me of the harm being done in France and of the havoc the Lutherans had caused and how much this miserable sect was growing.  The news distressed me greatly, and, as though I could do something or were something, I cried to the Lord and begged Him that I might remedy so much evil.  It seemed to me that I would have given a thousand lives to save one soul out of the many that were being lost there.... As a result, I resolved to do the little that was in my power, that is, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as i could and strive that these few persons who live here do the same." (Way of Perfection Chapter 1, no.2, page 41)

St. Teresa was a true daughter of her times, and a true daughter of the Church.  Her dying words, "I am a daughter of the Church," summarized her mission and characterized her zeal and determination.  Her thought was that even though she was limited in her ability to work within the Church because of her being a woman of her times, she saw the importance of union with God as the only thing necessary to effect a change.  She surrendered herself to the desire that God was kindling in her heart and resolved to use prayer as the weapon of choice to battle the works of evil.  She was a true daughter of Spain in her love of the Catholic Church and saw in the Church's ecclesiastical arm the powerful means of confronting the works of the devil.  Her reason for the Discalced Carmelite nuns' existence is to pray for priests and those who govern the Church. "we must ask God that in this little castle where there are already good Christians not one of us will go over to the enemy and that God will make the captains of this castle or city, who are the preachers and theologians, very advanced in the way of the Lord.  Since most of of them belong to religious orders, ask God that they advance very far in the perfection of religious life and their vocation, this is the most necessary.  For as I have said, it is the ecclesiastical, not the secular, arm that will save us.  Since in neither the ecclesiastical nor the secular arm can be of any help to our King, let us strive to be  the kind of persons whose prayers can be useful in helping those servants of God who through much toil have strengthened themselves with learning and a good life and have labored so as now to help the Lord." (WP, Chap.3 no.2, page 48, Kieran &Kavanaugh) 

The battle St. Teresa of Jesus fought in her times is the same battle we are confronted with today.  The Church is confronted by the same fight on moral truths and values.  Prayer has never gone out of style.  Even though times have changed, and we have a great number of choices as far as serving the Church, the value of being people of prayer is most basic.  Unfortunately, our modern world has fallen into the extreme temptation of thinking that "action" is the only way to solve evil.  The heresy of work.  You and I know of some people who believe that.  Fortunately for us, we have the testimony of St. Teresa, who believed that our actions should proceed from a life of authentic prayer.

The Interior Castle- in a nutshell!

Interpreting Saint Teresa- Part 8

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

Teresa was now over twenty years in religious life and aged over forty. She had come through periods of very ill health and now was well. But she wasn’t happy about her spiritual life, always struggling to improve herself. In her Autobiography she admits that her intellect was so poor that it could never, never imagine heavenly and sublime things”. She says: “I had such little ability to represent things with my intellect that if I hadn’t seen the things, my imagination was not of use to me.” It seems she had no photographic mind. Then something special happened to her. One day as she entered the oratory, she saw a statue of the wounded Christ, the Ecce Homo of the Passion. It struck her forcefully. “I was utterly distressed in seeing Him that way for it vividly represented what He suffered for us. I felt so keenly how ungrateful I was for those wounds that I thought my heart would break. I threw myself at his feet with the greatest outpouring of tears” (Life 9, 1). Her reaction to seeing this statue may have been the result of a growing awareness of her need to do something about her prayer. “Since I could not reason this out, I strove to picture Christ within me.” She found more comfort in the garden scene of Gethsemane where Jesus was more alone and afflicted. There she strove to be His companion, a person in need -so that He had to accept her. She thought of the sweat and agony and desired “to wipe away the sweat He so painfully experienced.” Yet she admits: “There were many distractions that tormented me.”

She explains that her method of praying requires less dependence on reflection; yet it makes more progress, because “it advances in love”. It deepened her relationship with the suffering Christ. Those who follow this way, she says, “will find that a book can be a help for recollecting oneself quickly.” It was during this period of renewed spirituality that she got a copy of the Confessions of St. Augustine, probably the translation published in Salamanca in 1554. She was very fond of the great Saint, especially because he had been a sinner whom the Lord had healed. What he had done for Augustine He could do for her. One thing left her inconsolable:

Sinners like Augustine, the Lord had called only once and they did not fall again, whereas “in my case, I had failed so often that I was worn out.” As she read the Confessions, she prayed more to St. Augustine for help for herself. When she came to the account of his conversion and of the voice in the garden, it seemed to her that “it was I the Lord called. I remained for a long time totally dissolved in tears, feeling within myself utter distress and weariness” (Life 9, 8). She seemed to drain herself of her past, the times when she was weak, vain, when her love was fragile, her service mediocre. What happened seemed to be a decisive step towards the Lord. It was like a drastic conversion with effects in her external life; community room chats and pastimes immediately decreased; her prayer became more constant and her solitude increased.

Here was the beginning of the transformation that changed an ordinary nun into the contemplative that has become a Doctor of the Church. From then on Teresa felt that the Lord was Preparing her for exceptional graces, granting her great favors, especially in the life of prayer, without any merits on her part. In Chapter 10 of her Life she begins to tell about the favors she received in prayer. Sometimes as she pictured Christ within her “in order to place myself in His presence”, she experienced “the presence of God unexpectedly so that I could not doubt that He was within me or I totally immersed in Him”. She says that they call such an experience “mystical theology” (Life 10, 1), a term she probably found in Osuna’s Alphabet. The soul is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside itself. What she means is that the will loves but the intellect or memory or understanding do not function. Yet it does understand what God represents to it.

Where theology is accepted as a “knowledge of God”, speculative if it is a knowing obtained by reasoning and argument, mystical if it is a knowing obtained in the soul by God’s own action, it is taught only by God. Teresa is saying that she acquires the knowledge merely by being receptive rather than active or by reasoning. She acknowledges that “everything is given by God”; but you can help God as it were, “by considering our lowliness and the ingratitude we have shown towards God, the many things He did for us, His Passion with such terrible sorrows. If some love accompanies this activity the heart is touched with tenderness” (Life 10, 2). Teresa is explaining the graces the Lord had begun to give her in prayer.

 

Interpreting Saint Teresa- Part 7

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

“It happened to me that one day entering the oratory I saw a statue they had borrowed for a certain feast to be celebrated in the house. It represented the much-wounded Christ and was very devotional so that beholding it I was utterly distressed in seeing Him that way, for it well represented what He suffered for us. I felt so keenly aware of how poorly I thanked Him for those wounds that, it seems to me, my heart broke” (L 9,1).

 

After Teresa had made her profession in the Carmelite Order having completed her preparation and novitiate, she experienced a great sense of joy of being in the right place. She wrote in her Life that God “gave me such great happiness at being in the religious state of life that it never left me up to this day” (L 4, 2).

The Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila had a large community, made up of nuns canonically obliged to choir office and enclosure, as well as others who were bound to recite the Divine Office but not to the obligation of enclosure. In addition there were servants and relatives of the nuns, the total numbering about two hundred people. Some commentators writing of the situation of the Incarnation Monastery of the time when Teresa entered in 1535, then twenty years old, describe it in an unfavorable way from the point of view of religious life, although it was in fact quite austere. Each week had its days of fasting and abstinence. Silence was stressed in order to encourage and maintain a spirit of prayer. The Divine Office, celebrated solemnly and according to detailed rubrics, was demanding especially on those in their early years of religious life.

For the formation of the young religious, there was regular instruction on the spirit of the Carmelite Order and on devotion to Our Blessed Lady and the Carmelite Saints. Teresa admits that despite her satisfaction and even delight in her Carmelite life, her prayer life was lacking — she didn’t know how to meditate or engage in mental prayer.

Not long into her professed life, she began to be afflicted by strange illnesses. When at school in Avila she had become seriously sick, she had to return home to her father’s house. Now as a young nun her fainting spells returned. She states also that “I experienced such heart pains that this frightened any who witnessed them; and there were many other illnesses”(L 4, 5). Her father sought medical help and doctor’s remedies at Avila without any success. Eventually he brought her to the town of Becedas about 50 miles away, which was known for cures. This painful sickness, with at times excruciating pain, was to last for three years. The effect of the treatment and the potent medicines nearly killed her. “I was so shriveled and wasted away that my nerves began to shrink causing such unbearable pains that I found no rest either by day or by night (L 5, 7). After months of intense suffering and at death’s door, her father and her companions even prepared her grave. From 15th August 1539 she suffered a paroxysm, which lasted four days. Gradually she improved and the sharp continuous pains ceased. Teresa made the Sisters bring her back to the convent. “The one they expected to be brought back dead they received alive,” she wrote (L 6, 2). Her body was crippled with paralysis, a condition that lasted another three years. Since she felt that she would serve the Lord much better if she were in good health, she decided to seek a cure from the “heavenly doctors,” in particular earnestly recommending herself to St. Joseph. She always proclaimed later that anything she asked of the glorious Saint, he never failed to grant. Throughout her life, she credited St. Joseph not only with the cure of her body so that “I could rise and walk and not be crippled” (L 6, 8). but also that he was her teacher and master regarding prayer. She advised: “Those who cannot find a master to teach them prayer should take this glorious saint for their master, and they will not go astray” (L 6, 8).

It is clear that after this period of her terrible illness, during her early twenties, Teresa became more fervent in the practice of religious life, faithful to her duties though painfully sensitive to the sinfulness of her life, talking with others about prayer but in a very distracted context. She records how undisciplined her life was becoming. “Since I thus began to go from pastime to pastime, from vanity to vanity, from one occasion to another, to place myself so often in very serious occasions, and to allow my soul to become so spoiled by many vanities, I was then ashamed to return to the search for God by means of a friendship as is that found in the intimate exchange of prayer” (L 7, 1). She is really making a judgment on the social activities that were accepted as normal for nuns, clever and with good connections, in her sort of community —gossiping, gatherings, visiting etc. She acknowledged that all of this need not be harmful to a mature person but sees it as a major problem in any community trying to develop the spirituality of the individual members.

From her uncle, Teresa received a book, “Third Spiritual Alphabet”, first published in 1527 by the Franciscan friar, Francis De Osuna, treating of the prayer of recollection. For Teresa struggling to take off on a better understanding of “real” prayer that is beyond mere vocal prayer, Osuna’s basic scheme was a start. There were three stages (i) vocal prayer with the Our Father as the model, (ii) reflection and meditation, that is, prayer which consists of holy and devout thoughts on the passion or other mysteries of the Lord, of the Church etc; (iii) mental or spiritual prayer. Osuna distinguished the second and third levels by the resulting devotion. It taught persistence and fidelity for producing fervor, which causes a response in the individual of simple expressions of a felt love of Jesus. Teresa, in the account of her life at that time, had failed in moving from vocal prayer to meditation, to even imagining the humanity of Jesus. She explains that she had such little ability to represent things with the intellect that “if I hadn’t seen the things, my imagination was not of use to me” (L 9 ,6). While she seems to have failed with Osuna’s directives on her own, she realised that while she used a book, “I began to collect (my thoughts) and my soul was drawn to recollection” (L 4, 9). It is obvious that at this time Teresa was trying to put some order in her prayer life but all her arguments indicate that she was greatly confused or bewildered about her situation.

Following her months of terrible suffering and the experience of her “cure”, she became an exemplary religious for her community, although very conscious of the distracted atmosphere through the social life then permitted which prevented intimacy with God. In the context of her later life, it is clear that she judges herself rather harshly perhaps to emphasize the great graces she received and somehow disdained. She gives her judgment:

“During my life no good should be said of me. After my death there would be no reason for doing so” (L 10, 7).

For a time after her serious illness, the scars and effects of which she would carry to the end, she was worried about her prayer. She was always eager to talk to others about God but was easily distracted by the society and social life to which she had access. In a sense of being lost, though it is clear that she was exemplary in her community exercises, she is scrupulously sensitive to her sinfulness. She prays but how is not clear. Since this state continued for many years — at least eighteen according to herself -Teresa for many people remains an enigma. She herself describes her situation: “Since I thus began to go from pastime to pastime, from vanity to vanity from one occasion to another, to place myself so often in very serious occasions, and to allow my soul to become so spoiled by many varieties, I was then ashamed to return to the search for God by means of a friendship or as is that found in the intimate exchange of prayer. And I was aided in this vanity by the fact that as the sins increased I began to lose joy in virtuous things and my taste for them. I saw very clearly, my Lord, that these were failing me because I was failing You” (L 7, 1). While she could help her father in the practice of prayer, she herself was helpless in her own regard. In his final years and particularly before his death, her father displayed a saintly union with God despite his sufferings; and his Dominican confessor assured Teresa that “he was in no doubt but that her father had gone straight to heaven.” Though she was greatly encouraged by her father’s obvious happiness and relationship with the Lord, as he died (L 7, 5), she continued to judge herself harshly but tried to improve her practice of prayer. But what in fact was her practice of prayer? Teresa stated that in the long years of her early religious life, “except after Communion, I never dared to begin prayer without a book, with a book I began to collect them (my thoughts) and my soul was drawn to recollection” (L 4, 9). Without the aid of a book, she had to sustain the many thoughts (which was) “a battle and conflict between friendship with God and friendship with the world”. She explains her own difficulties and what she suffered so that “one may understand how if a soul perseveres in prayer in the midst of sins, temptations and failures of a thousand kinds the Lord will draw it forth to the harbor of salvation as it seems He did for me” (L 8, 4).

 

Interpreting Saint Teresa- Part 6

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

From all these occasions and dangers God delivered me in such a way that it seems clear He strove, against my will, to keep me from being completely lost, although this deliverance could not be achieved so secretly as to prevent me from suffering much loss of reputation. Life 2:6

Throughout the Church, St Teresa of Avila is readily acknowledged as one of the great spiritual women who has come to the fore in the history of Christianity. For the ordinary followers of Christ she is an outstanding figure of holiness that continues to inspire people; and to encourage everyone who wishes to grow in their closeness to Christ. But the fact is that the Teresa that is known to most people is the Carmelite nun of fifty years and more who wrote about the God who abandoned divine status, even becoming defenseless and rejected, in order to present the love of God in our everyday world.

Her early years as a teenager and particularly the first decades of her life as a Carmelite nun, portray her as an ordinary person of her time with peculiar struggles, but normal struggles, that anyone might have had to face. When Teresa began to write the “Book of her Life”, she was nearly fifty years old. Because she had been experiencing some mystical graces, which she tried to have explained to her by “professional” expert counselors, she was obliged to give an account of her life which reflected nothing more than one would expect of a person of her time and society. She failed to describe the mystical life she had begun to experience. Later she wrote in her Life: “For a long time, even though God favored me, I didn’t know what words to use to explain His favors; and this was no small trial.” (L 12, 6)

At the instigation of Garcia de Toledo, an outstanding Dominican authority who seemed to know her well and who received the first copy of her book, she included several additional chapters. Later she explains this: “For it is one grace to receive the Lord’s favor; another, to understand which favor and grace it is; a third to know how to describe it” (L 17, 5).

Teresa gives a clear account of her youthful years in her book, but it is in the hindsight of her older experience and surely with an eye on the people who will read it - the Inquisitors. We know from her biographers what she was like as a teenager. “Cheerful and friendly whom people found pleasing to hear as well as look at”. She admitted that when she was about thirteen years old her religious fervor began to grow cold. She became more interested in romantic tales of chivalry and in cultivating her natural feminine charms. After her mother’s death in November 1528, she caused an upset in the family by her affection for her cousins, sons of her aunt, Dona Elvira de Cepeda, and her friendship with some relative, not identified, that would not enhance Teresa’s piety. The vain company and dangerous enticements that she was entangled in caused great worry to her father, Don Alonso. However, when in 1531 his eldest daughter married, he used the occasion to find a solution. He entrusted Teresa to the care of the Augustinian nuns of Our Lady of Grace in Avila. Teresa was sixteen at the time. She recognized God’s hand in this. She says in her Life that “from all these occasions and dangers God delivered me in such a way that it seems clear He strove, against my will, to keep me from being completely lost although this deliverance could not be achieved so secretly as to prevent me from suffering much loss of reputation and my father from being without suspicion.” (L 2, 6)

When Teresa was at school in Avila, there was a Sister in charge of the girls who was gentle and friendly, Dona Maria Briceno. A woman of deep prayer, she made a lasting impression on Teresa. With reference to her, Teresa says: “I understand the great profit that comes from good companionship” (L 2, 5) and further on: “Beginning then to like the good and holy conversation of this nun, I was glad to hear how well she spoke about God, for she was very discreet and saintly” (L 3, 1). Teresa acknowledged that the influence of this nun was such that she began to get rid of the habits that the bad company had caused. She began to turn her mind to the desire for eternal things. Over the year and a half that Teresa stayed at the convent school, she gradually lost the resistance that she strongly felt within herself against becoming a nun. In fact she began to recite many vocal prayers and besought everyone to pray that God might show her “the state in which I was to serve Him”. However fervent she appeared to have become, she states “I still had no desire to be a nun and I asked God not to give me this vocation” (L 3, 2). By the end of her time at school, the thought of being a nun was more favorable to her, although it was not for that convent because she considered the virtues practiced there to be extreme. In her Life she states that “I looked more to pleasing my sensuality and vanity than to what was good for my soul” (L 3, 2).

Because she became seriously ill, Teresa had to return to her father’s house. When she got better, she was brought to see her sister who lived in a little town, not far from Avila. On the way they visited her uncle, her father’s brother, Don Pedro Sanchez de Cepeda. He prevailed on her to stay with him for a few days. He was a holy man whose talk was mostly about God and the vanity of the world. He asked his niece to read to him which she did, though she admits that she did not like the books, although she pretended otherwise. The few days she spent with Don Pedro made a lasting impression on her. (Later he retired to the Monastery of the Jeronimites. It was there he died). While the thought of becoming a nun was still not attractive, she saw that the religious life was “the best and safest state, and so little by little I decided to force myself to accept it” (L 3, 5). During the following months she tried to convince herself that the nun’s way was the best. Her reasoning was all wrong and her choosing was motivated more by servile fear than by love (L 3, 6). However when she informed her father of her intention, he flatly refused her. Even after her persistence, she got his final answer: “After his death she could do whatever she wanted but not now. His attitude was quite understandable since Teresa had been ill for most of the time with high fever and “great fainting spells”.

Despite this setback, she went with her brother Antonio when she was twenty to the Convent of the Incarnation in Avila to see a Sister, Juana Suarez, who was a friend of hers. She entered the following year to begin her postulancy, a period of probation. What this cost her she readily recalls. “When I left my father’s house, I felt that separation so keenly that the feeling will not be greater, I think, when I die.” One year later, on 2 November 1536 Teresa received the habit of the Carmelite Order and began her novitiate. It was a moment of great joy. Of God, she says: “Within an hour, He gave me such great happiness at being in the religious state of life that it never left me up to this day, and God changed the dryness my soul experienced into the greatest tenderness” (L 4, 2).

 

Interpreting Saint Teresa- Part 5

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

I often say that however small the point of honor may be, the concern for it is like that of sound coming from an organ when the timing or measure is off; all the music becomes dissonant. This concern is something that does damage to the soul in all areas, but in this path of prayer it is a pestilence.

(Life 31, 21)

It is clear from the many studies of St Teresa that, she was unique in the development of the spirituality of the religious of her day, she was also a product, though not typical, of the social and political world that was characteristic of the turbulent 16th century, in particular in Spain. Attitudes that are perfectly normal and so accepted in our modern world were then the cause of longstanding and narrow prejudices that pervaded a slowly changing society.

                                                    Google: Avila

In medieval Europe, Spain existed as a vast structure of small kingdoms, Christian or Muslim, independent though generally living in uneasy peace. Over the centuries there was a gradual annexation or ‘reconquista’ of the areas controlled by Muslim rulers, reaching a climax in 1492 with the capture of the Moorish City of Granada in the south. In the former Muslim areas where scholarship and architecture flourished, there was a Jewish population, cultural and prosperous. Fierce anti-Semitism existed from the end of the 14th century pressurizing the Jewish families to convert or be expelled. Over the years the conversos, the families who had converted, improved their social position by marrying some of the old aristocracy. Growing in wealth and political influence, they became in time objects of hatred and suspicion. Decrees were passed against them, barring certain posts in civic life and in the universities and even in Religious Orders. More than at other times, what was termed ‘purity of blood’ or limpieza de sangre, referring to intermarriage, was demanded for a family’s reputation.

While Teresa was aware of her Jewish blood, she doesn’t appear to know much about her ancestry. Her family was among the minor nobility and her father was one of the wealthiest in Avila. While their members appear in her writings as normal, serious and religious people, they must have been affected occasionally by social and racial tensions that sometimes erupted. Her father, Don Alonso Sanchez (which seems to have been a recognisable converso name in some places) at his first marriage added to it his wife’s family name “de Cepeda”. When widowed after a brief first marriage, he followed the same custom in marrying into a distinguished Castilian family Dona Beatriz de Ahumada. Teresa was to call herself ‘Dona Teresa de Ahumada’ until she was forty-seven.

The important thing for the Church is that her Jewishness colored her spirituality and challenged her instinctively of relationship with Christ, her Lord. It is the key to certain themes in her writings, such as honor. Modern culture treats honor in the context of self-respect, honesty, uprightness and fidelity. At Teresa’s time, the honor of the family was preserved by observing standards and public image, so that it was necessary to withstand all that would denigrate or seek to degrade its members, even to the point of vendettas and killings. When one reads the numerous references of Teresa to “honor” in her writings, (considered by some of her critics as “a disproportionate concern”), it is clear that her observations have to be understood not objectively but rather in the context of lineage and of her mentality towards “limpieza”, the good or bad blood. In her society failure to refute accusations or defend oneself, automatically indicated a loss of honor.

In the practical situations and sometimes in the legislation of religious communities, there was discrimination against conversos or against reformed penitents, but also when superiors or officials vacated their offices in accordance with the Church Law. Writing in a passage on the petition “Forgive us, Lord, our debts as we forgive our debtors” Teresa observes: “It seems that like children we are making houses out of straw with these ceremonious little rules of etiquette. Oh, God help me, Sisters, if we know what honor is and what losing honor consists in. Now I am not speaking of ourselves . . .but of myself at the time when I prized honor without understanding what it was. I was following the crowd” (W. 36, 3). Further in n.4 of this Chapter, she alludes to practical situations that she was to abhor. “(The devil) also invents his own honors in monasteries and establishes his own laws. There people ascend and descend in rank just as in the world. Those with degrees must follow in order, according to their academic titles. Why? I don’t know.” Openly she declared “Well now among ourselves; the one who has been prioress must remain ineligible for any lower office; a preoccupation about who the senior is - for we never forget this - and we think at times we gain merit by such concern because the Order commands it” (W. 36, 4).

The humanity of St Teresa comes through the irritation she must have felt at the attitudes and practices of some Sisters who were affected by the concern of rank, prestige, education, family etc. “All of our perfection”, she reminds them, “doesn’t consist in the observance of what has to do with our honor. The fact is that since we are inclined to ascend - even though we will not ascend to heaven by such an inclination - there must be no descending. O Lord, Lord! Are You our Model and Master? Yes, indeed. Well then, what did Your honor consist of, You who honored us? Didn’t You indeed lose it in being humiliated unto death? No, Lord, but You won it for all” (W. 36, 5).

For Teresa, love of God “doesn’t consist in great delight but in desiring with strong determination to please God in everything, in striving, insofar as possible, not to offend Him, and in asking Him for the advance of the honor and glory of His Son” (Int. Castle IV, 1, 7). “We are striving to be joined with God through union, and we seek to follow His counsels coming from Christ, who was weighed down by injuries and testimonies against Him and we desire our honor and credit to remain intact? It’s not possible to reach this union, for we aren’t taking the same road. The Lord comes to the soul if we make the effort and strive to give up our rights in many mailers. Some will say: “I have no occasion to practice this detachment from my rights, nor does any come along.” I believe that the Lord will not want anyone with the determination to practice this detachment to lose so much good. His Majesty will ordain so many things by which the soul can gain this virtue that it will not want so many. All hands to the task!” (Life 31, 21).

 

Interpreting Saint Teresa- Part 4

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

“It's as though Jesus tells the Father that He is now ours since the Father has given Him to us to die for us; and asks that the Father not take Him from us until the end of the world; that He allow Him serve each day.”

(The Way 33, 4)

 St Teresa in commenting on the petition of the Our Father, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is quite practical and blunt when she tells her nuns: “Look, daughters, His will must be done whether we like this or not, and it will be done in heaven and on earth. Believe me, take my advice and make a virtue of necessity” (The Way of Perfection, 32, 4). For Teresa, our human will is the faculty by which we form an attitude to what is around us and create a relationship which reflects our wanting, our desires and our hopes. The will of God is the mind that was in Christ. “He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross’ (Phil.2, 5). Such a will is rooted in love - love of God and love of neighbor. This inevitably involves a suffering we cannot control. Since it is God’s will, it results in openness to God rather than planned self-directed desires. The thrust of Teresa’s writing was directed toward the complete gift of ourselves to the Creator, the surrender of our wills to His and detachment from creatures. “Unless we give our wills entirely to the Lord so that in everything pertaining to us He might do what conforms with His will, we will never be allowed to drink of the living water.” (W. 32, 9).

Teresa begins Chapter 33 of The Way of Perfection by stating that “Jesus understands what a difficult thing it is He offers us. He knows our weakness, that we often show that we do not understand what the Lord’s will is. We are weak and He is merciful.” In fact we are slow to let go our own mentality because of our selfish purposes. She cites the case of a rich person living in luxury who is told to be moderate at table so that the hungry may have something to eat; and he replies with a thousand excuses for not understanding this. Or a backbiter, told that it is God’s will that he love his neighbor as himself, becomes annoyed and cannot understand. But Teresa reminds us too of a religious who has grown accustomed to freedom and comfort that he should remember his obligations and keep in mind that it is God’s will that he be faithful to his vows. It seems so difficult to do God’s will.

So Teresa explains. “Once Jesus saw the need, He sought out a wonderful means by which to show the extreme of His love for us, and in His own name and in that of His brothers He made the following petition: “Give us this day, Lord, our daily bread.”

Teresa devotes the three following chapters (33-35) to the Eucharist, explaining how we could not even begin to do God’s will without the companionship and faithful presence of Christ who prays with us to the Father. This presence that is required is not merely the individual’s spiritual communion or the result of personal devotion. Recognizing the difficulty people have in doing God’s will, she sees that it was necessary for us to see His love and courage in order to be awakened -not just once but every day. “Thy will be done” is addressed by Jesus to the Father: and Teresa says that “since by sharing in our nature He has become one with us here below, He reminds the Father that because He belongs to Him the Father in turn can give Him to us.” (Way, 33,5). And so Jesus says our bread”. He doesn’t make any difference between Himself and us.

Teresa then considers the word “daily”. The petition has the words “Give us this day our daily bread”, referring to one day which “lasts as long as the world and no longer.” She sees the Eucharist as the Blessed Sacrament, which witnesses to God’s desire to be with us. “Since the Father has given us His Son and sent Him into the world, the Son, just because He wants to, desires not to abandon us but to remain here with us, to the greater glory of His friends and the affliction of His enemies.” (34.2). The Sisters are to receive the Blessed Sacrament and to “ask the Father together with the Lord to give you your Spouse this day so that you will not be seen in this world without Him.” She explains that “receiving Communion is not like picturing with the imagination as when we reflect upon the Lord on the Cross or on other episodes of the Passion. In Communion the event is happening now, and it is entirely true. There’s no reason to go looking for Him in some other place farther away. Since we know that Jesus is with us as long as the natural heat doesn’t consume the accidents of bread, we should approach Him. If when He went about in the world the mere touch of His robes cured the sick, why doubt, if we have faith, that miracles will be worked while He is within us and that He will give what we ask of Him, since He is in our house?” (34,8)

For Teresa herself the post-Communion meditation and thanksgiving were in fact the heart of her prayer life. Since God desires to be with His creation, the Eucharist is for her the one true and contemporary sign of this reality linking the theology of the Cross to the Eucharistic presence.

Interpreting Saint Teresa- Part 3

Patrick Burke, O.Carm

 

‘Do not be frightened by the many things you need to consider in order to begin this divine journey which is the royal road to heaven.'

(Way, 21, 1)

While St Teresa of Avila focused her spirituality on the human Jesus, it was done in the context of the wider picture of growth in the spiritual life that involves the whole self. In her book The Way of Perfection she makes it clear that she did not feel constrained by the attitudes of some Ecclesiastics who belittled women for trying to improve their prayer life. On the contrary, she strove to encourage and enlighten them to aspire to their full capacity ‘without giving oneself airs’. Even in a light-hearted way she deplores the objections that were expressed about women: ‘it’s not for women for they will be susceptible to illusions’; ‘it’s better they stick to their sewing’; ‘they don’t need these delicacies’; ‘the Our Father and the Hail Mary are sufficient.’ (W. P. 21,2) However, Teresa wholeheartedly agreed with this last statement, adding ‘The prayers from the mouth of the Lord’ are sufficient.

Constantly in dialogue with her nuns, she writes to encourage them to develop and to aspire to better things and to learn to pray in such a way that the whole self is involved. There was a practical difficulty for the ordinary Christian trying to find out how Christ, the Word-made-Flesh, comes into their lives and their world, since the only spiritual books available were in Latin, and in fact spiritual books in the vernacular were banned by the Inquisition. Indeed Teresa, with tongue in cheek, several times assures her nuns that ‘No one will be able to take from you the ‘Our Father and the Hail Mary” (21, 5).

In setting out to teach about prayer, she explains that this is simply a recognition that God is accessible to the ordinary individual; that God, unlike the nobles of her time, looks on the person, because ‘here below, people in paying honour don’t take into account the persons themselves, but their wealth.’ (22, 4) With God every person is important. If someone should raise objections or discourage them, the Sisters are to tell them ‘that you have a rule that commands you to pray unceasingly - for that’s what it commands us - and that you have to keep it.’

She explains how our own development, our own appreciation and knowledge of ourselves comes through Jesus. For Teresa, Christ is our primary teacher. In The Way (chap. 6) she describes her vision of what perfect love might be. Basically it is the imitation of the love of Jesus, lived with Christian maturity in our daily lives. In a centering on Christ one discovers the richness of one’s own self, endowed continually by God with creative grace that ensures human growth in understanding and love. In 1988 Pope John Paul in a homily spoke about seeking this ‘interior equilibrium’. “It is a question of gradually and patiently coming to know what dwells within us, of harmonizing the various components of our person which makes us original and unrepeatable. Holiness passes by way of reconciliation of soul and body’.” Commentators point out the closeness of Teresa’s vision to that of St Augustine. Later in The Way she refers to the holy Doctor specifically, saying ‘that he sought Him in many places but found Him ultimately within himself’(28,2). She dismisses the fainthearted with ‘there is no need to go to heaven in order to speak with one’s Eternal Father or find delight in Him, (28.2). All one need do is to look at Him within one’s self and not turn away from so good a Guest but with great humility speak to Him as a father.