#st. teresa of Avila

[austerity-audacity-asceticism]

Degrees of Prayer, according to St. Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Ávila, OCD was a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer. Sh was born in 1515 at the brink of the Reformation in Ávila, Spain. The first female Doctor of the Church, she has had a significant impact on how we currently understand contemplative prayer, what it means to have a personal relationship with God, and how we can continue the spiritual practices of monastic life even though we work and live in a secular society.

Her writings demonstrate not only rigorous discipline and contemplative prayer, but also a dry wit. She should also be the patron saint of the audacity, because I remember distinctly reading the Interior Castle for the first time and coming across her writing to her fellow Carmelites, "From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!"

We celebrate her feast day today, October 15. In honor of the first female doctor of the Church, this is a brief rundown of St. Teresa's Degrees of Prayer, with explanations that are not meant to be exhaustive, but to encourage you to read more of her writings, as I pale in comparison to the lucidity of her writing.

Meditation: Drawing Water from the Well

According to St. Teresa, this degree consists of prayer through active meditation. This requires focused effort and withdrawing from the world for a bit, so that we may not be distracted by the concerns and anxieties that plague our minds on a day to day basis. These beginners should aim to be be happy and free and confident. They should attempt great things in the pursuit of active meditation.

Reference: the Life of Teresa of Jesus, chapter 11 and chapter 12 and chapter 13

2. The Prayer of Quiet: The Waterwheel

After a soul has become accustomed to active meditation, St. Teresa encourages moving towards the prayer of quiet. She writes, "Here the soul begins to be recollected and comes upon something supernatural because in no way can it acquire this prayer through any efforts it may make." The fruits of this degree is the movement of the soul away from earthly delights, and into a sense of peace. The efforts of prayer ease, while the activity does not. This degree of prayer reveals grace to us more clearly, and fills us with a deep inner satisfaction. When a soul experiences the Prayer of Quiet, it seems that no greater blessing is possible. Because of this, while many people are given to the prayer of quiet, few people think to go beyond it.

Reference: the Life of Teresa of Jesus, chapter 14 and chapter 15

3. Union: Water Flowing from a Stream

In this stage of prayer, St. Teresa reflects that it now seems that its fruits are all a product of God's work, while one's faculties seem to be asleep. The stream of divine water flows freely into the garden of one's soul; this may happy whether one is in a state of contemplation, or active charity. The inner work and relationship of prayer seems to be continuing beneath the conscious surface. One's faculties fall asleep, and the soul becomes absorbed in union.

Reference: the Life of Teresa of Jesus, chapter 16 and chapter 17

4. Rapture: Heavenly Rain

St. Teresa describes this degree as the prayer of union, using the image of "heavenly rain that saturates the whole garden in abundance." She writes these experiences as short-lived and scarce, but the goodness received as incomprehensible. St. Teresa had other words for this degree: elevation, flight of the spirit, transport, ecstasy.

Reference: the Life of Teresa of Jesus, chapter 18 and chapter 19 and chapter 20 and chapter 21

"My chief aim is to cause souls to covet so sublime a blessing." - St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Jesus, pray for us.

Links to additional resources:

St. Teresa of Ávila – Who St. Teresa of Ávila Was, Her Feast Day, Carmelite Spirituality, Prayers & Quotes

Four stages of Mystical Prayer in Teresa of Avila

Summary of the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila - The Life of by Herself

The Interior Castle or The Mansions

[dashasaurus]

St. Theresa of Ávila pray for us 🩵

[momentsbeforemass]

Denying Communion

(someone asked me about denying communion, this is the story of the one time I did)

B is a recovering alcoholic.

I met B at my one of my parish internships, during formation. After mass one Saturday, B’s sponsor (an old friend) told me that B was trying again.

And that B was three days sober.

At the first mass that Sunday, I had one of the chalices of the Precious Blood. B was in my line.

When he got to me, I did something I had never done before. I put my hand over the chalice. I denied him Communion.

Before B could say anything, I said “It’s been three days.”

With tears in his eyes, he corrected me. “No. Today is four.”

I choked up. And could barely sputter “God bless you,” as he headed back to the pews.

I bring this up, because today’s Gospel is all about things that come between us and God.

And the call of God, for us to help each other.

When someone decides to deal with whatever has come between them and God, God will always help them.

Part of that help? You and me. God will use us to help them.

Even if our own lives aren’t perfect. Even if you and I are also struggling with something that’s come between us and God.

Be open to God’s call. Let the Holy Spirit move you.

Even if it seems weird in the moment.

Even if you don’t know what to say.

Even if you’ve never done it before.

Be the hands that help.

Today’s Readings

[dramoor]

"Death is what I live without You, life of mine."

~St. Teresa of Avila

(Image via facebook)

[filmcentury]

When the soul looks upon this Divine Sun, the brightness dazzles it. … And very often it remains completely blind, absorbed, amazed, and dazzled by all the wonders it sees.

St. Teresa of Ávila (1515 – 1582), Spanish mystic, theologian, and Carmelite nun, quoted in The Book of Her Life (1875)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (December 14)

December 14 is the liturgical memorial of Saint John of the Cross, a 16th-century Carmelite priest best known for reforming his order together with Saint Teresa of Avila and for writing the classic spiritual treatise “The Dark Night of the Soul.”

Honored as a Doctor of the Church since 1926, he is sometimes called the “Mystical Doctor,” as a tribute to the depth of his teaching on the soul's union with God.

The youngest child of parents in the silk-weaving trade, John de Yepes was born on 24 June 1542 in Fontiveros near the Spanish city of Avila.

His father Gonzalo died at a relatively young age, and his mother Catalina struggled to provide for the family.

John found academic success from his early years but failed in his effort to learn a trade as an apprentice.

He instead spent several years working in a hospital for the poor and continuing his studies at a Jesuit college in the town of Medina del Campo.

After discerning a calling to monastic life, John entered the Carmlite Order in 1563.

He had been practicing severe physical asceticism even before joining the Carmelites and got permission to live according to their original rule of life — which stressed solitude, silence, poverty, work, and contemplative prayer.

John received ordination as a priest in 1567 after studying in Salamanca but considered transferring to the more austere Carthusian order rather than remaining with the Carmelites.

Before he could take such a step, however, he met the Carmelite nun later canonized as Saint Teresa of Avila.

Born on 28 March 1515, Teresa had joined the order in 1535, regarding consecrated religious life as the most secure road to salvation.

Since that time, she had made remarkable spiritual progress. During the 1560s, she began a movement to return the Carmelites to the strict observance of their original way of life.

She convinced John not to leave the order but to work for its reform.

Changing his religious name from “John of St. Matthias” to “John of the Cross,” the priest began this work in November 1568, accompanied by two other men of the order with whom he shared a small and austere house.

For a time, John was in charge of the new recruits to the “Discalced Carmelites” — the name adopted by the reformed group, since they wore sandals rather than ordinary shoes as sign of poverty.

He also spent five years as the confessor at a monastery in Avila led by St. Teresa.

Their reforming movement grew quickly but also met with severe opposition that jeopardized its future during the 1570s.

Early in December 1577, during a dispute over John's assignment within the order, opponents of the strict observance seized and imprisoned him in a tiny cell.

His ordeal lasted nine months and included regular public floggings along with other harsh punishments.

Yet it was during this very period that he composed the poetry that would serve as the basis for his spiritual writings.

John managed to escape from prison in August 1578, after which he resumed the work of founding and directing Discalced Carmelite communities.

Over the course of a decade, he set out his spiritual teachings in works such as “The Ascent of Mount Carmel,” “The Spiritual Canticle” and “The Living Flame of Love” as well as “The Dark Night of the Soul.”

But intrigue within the order eventually cost him his leadership position, and his last years were marked by illness along with further mistreatment.

John of the Cross died in the early hours of 14 December 1591, nine years after St. Teresa of Avila's death in October 1582.

Suspicion, mistreatment, and humiliation had characterized much of his time in religious life, but these trials are understood as having brought him closer to God by breaking his dependence on the things of this world.

Accordingly, his writings stress the need to love God above all things — being held back by nothing, and likewise holding nothing back.

Only near the end of his life had St. John's monastic superior recognized his wisdom and holiness.

Though his reputation had suffered unjustly for years, this situation reversed soon after his death.

He was beatified by Pope Clement X on 25 January 1675. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on 27 December 1726.

He was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1926.

In a letter marking the 400th anniversary of St. John's death, Pope John Paul II — who had written a doctoral thesis on the saint's writings — recommended the study of the Spanish mystic, whom he called a “master in the faith and witness to the living God.”

John of the Cross was a great saint who was a reformer, a mystic, and one of the great Spanish poets.

He has inspired many other holy men and women to pursue God into the mysterious heights and depths of divine love.

[myblissfulness]

How is it, Lord, that we are cowards in everything save in opposing Thee?

[foreverpraying]

Praying by Von Behr

"May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be." St. Teresa of Avila

[eternal-echoes]

[daughter-of-mary]

It is a known fact that St. Teresa of Avila prayed every time and everywhere, even when she was on the toilet. One day the devil decided to mock her for praying while she was on the toilet. The devil insinuated that what she was doing was not only inappropriate, but also disgusting. Full of wit with a tinge of humor, she answered him, “What comes out of my mouth in prayer is for God; what comes out of the other end is for you.”

[dramoor]

“Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”

~St. Teresa of Ávila

Quinten Metsys, Virgin in Prayer (1466 -1530). Oil on oak panel, 43 x 31 cm. Private collection.

[momentsbeforemass]

“I’ll be happy when…”

“Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, it might have been.”

The first time I discovered this line from Whittier, it was on a tombstone of a long-dead Senator. I knew his story.

His was a life of high office and important matters. An honorable career, with much to be proud of. Somehow, it was never enough for him.

Time and again, he sought the Presidency. The one office he really wanted. Time and again, he fell short.

After his last failed attempt, he retired from public life and died soon after. Friends and family said he died of a broken heart at what he saw as his final failure.

I’m sure that line was chosen to call to mind what a great President he could have been.

But for me, it was sad in another way. It revealed someone who was so focused on what he didn’t have, that he tied his happiness, his peace to something he never achieved.

While most of us will never run for President, all of us at one time or another have tied our peace to things we didn’t have. We do it when we tell ourselves things like “I’ll be happy when I get a better job,” “I’ll be happy when I get a new car,” “I’ll be happy when I get a bigger house.”

Setting ourselves up to be disappointed. Not only if we don’t get it. But even if we do.

Because once we tie our peace to something like that, it’s hard to get it back. All too often, we just keep pushing it on to the next thing. And the next thing. In an endless cycle.

Which is not how God ever meant for us to live. Focused on things. Living outside of the only part of our lives that we ever really own. Today.

St. Teresa of Avila knew this well. And knew exactly how to break the cycle. It’s why she said,

“May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. 

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. 

May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.”

Today’s Readings

[timotey]

When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!

St. Teresa of Ávila

[carfleo]

St. Teresa of Avila

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[thecatholiccrusade]

Barefoot and Bold — How St. Teresa of Avila Shook the Church

St. Teresa of Avila, born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada in 1515, was a prominent Spanish mystic, writer, and reformer of the Carmelite Order. Her life and works have left an indelible mark on Catholic spirituality and continue to inspire millions worldwide. Novena to St. Teresa —October 6-14 Early Life and Religious Calling St. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, to a wealthy family. From a…

[compassionmattersmost]

A Christian Mystic is Also a Yogi: Bridging the Spiritual Traditions

In the quiet corners of monasteries, amidst the echo of chanting monks, and within the solitude of wilderness hermitages, Christian mystics have, for centuries, sought to experience a profound union with the Divine. They have traveled inward, transcending the boundaries of ego, and have entered into a sacred communion with God. Their journey is one of deep contemplation, marked by an ascetic…