St. Teresa of Avila

Oct252020

Greatest Commandments

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor. Gospel of Matthew

The devil’s aim here must not be made light of, for he is trying to bring about a cooling of charity and love among the sisters, and if he could do this he would be working a great deal of harm. Let us realize, my daughters, that true perfection consists in the love of God and of our neighbour, and the more nearly perfect is our observance of these two commandments, the nearer to perfection we shall be. Our entire Rule and Constitutions are nothing but means which enable us to do this the more perfectly. Let us refrain from indiscreet zeal, which may do us great harm: let each one of you look to herself. As I have said a great deal to you about this elsewhere, I will not enlarge on it further.

This mutual love is so important for us that I should like you never to forget it; for if the soul goes about looking for trifling faults in others (which sometimes may not be imperfections at all, though perhaps our ignorance may lead us to make the worst of them) it may lose its own peace of mind and perhaps disturb that of others. See, then, how dearly perfection can be bought. The devil might also use this temptation in the case of a prioress, and then it would be more dangerous still. Much discretion is necessary here; for, if it were a question of her contravening the Rule and Constitutions, it would not always do to take a lenient view of the matter—she would have to be spoken to about it; and, if she did not then amend, the prelate would have to be told: to do this would be a charity. This would also apply to the sisters, where the fault was a grave one: to say nothing through fear that taking the matter up would be yielding to temptation would itself be to yield to temptation. However, to prevent deception by the devil, it should be strongly stressed that no sister must discuss such things with any other, for from this practice the devil can pluck great advantage and start habits of slander; these matters must be discussed, as I have said, only with the person whose concern they are. Here, glory be to God, we keep almost continuous silence, so that the opportunity does not arise; none the less, it is well that we should be on our guard. –St Teresa of Avila ‘Interior Castle’

spacer
Oct152020

We dare to pray

For though now—glory be to God!—I had no desire after vanities, I saw clearly in the vision how all things are vanity, and how hollow are all the dignities of earth; it was a great lesson, teaching me to raise up my desires to the Truth alone. It impresses on the soul a sense of the presence of God such as I cannot in any way describe, only it is very different from that which it is in our own power to acquire on earth. It fills the soul with profound astonishment at its own daring, and at any one else being able to dare to offend His most awful Majesty. –The Life of St Teresa of Avila

spacer
Nov042018

Higher Power in the face of weakness

O poor little butterfly! chained by so many fetters that stop thee from flying where thou wouldst! Have pity on her, O my God, and so dispose her ways that she may be able to accomplish some of her desires for Thy honor and glory! Take no account of the poverty of her merits, nor of the vileness of her nature, Lord, Thou Who hast the power to compel the vast ocean to retire, and didst force the wide river Jordan to draw back so that the Children of Israel might pass through! Yet spare her not, for aided by Thy strength she can endure many trials. She is resolved to do so—she desires to suffer them. Stretch forth Thine arm, O Lord, to help her lest she waste her life on trifles! Let Thy greatness appear in this Thy creature, womanish and weak as she is, so that men, seeing the good in her is not her own, may praise Thee for it! Let it cost her what it may and as dear as she desires, for she longs to lose a thousand lives to lead one soul to praise Thee but a little better. If as many lives were hers to give, she would count them well spent in such a cause, knowing as a truth most certain that she is unworthy to bear the lightest cross, much less to die for Thee.

I cannot tell why I have said this, sisters, nor what made me do so; indeed I never intended it. You must know that these effects are bound to follow from such trances or ecstasies: they are not transient, but permanent desires; when opportunity occurs of acting on them, they prove genuine. How can I say that they are permanent, when at times the soul feels cowardly in the most trivial matters and too timorous to undertake any work for God?

I believe it is because our Lord, for its greater good, then leaves the soul to its natural weakness, which at once convinces it so thoroughly that any strength it possessed came from His Majesty as to destroy its self-love, enduing it with a greater knowledge of the mercy and greatness of God which He deigned to show forth in one so vile….. St Teresa of Avila ‘Interior Castles’

 

spacer
Jun032018

A saint the world, a saint of contemplation

In their totality of pursuit, saints have the happy but rare gift of combining in their persons qualities that seem to be opposed to one another. Fanatics may have one natural virtue to an eminent degree, but they lack its balance the opposite. Mediocre people have no outstanding qualities, and so there is nothing to balance. The activist may think himself the cutting edge of the future, but if he is not a mystic, he is frightfully narrow–and part of the narrowness is that he may not possess even a small suspicion of his myopia. St Teresa was magnanimous: she sought in lived the whole picture. On the one hand she did an amazing amount of work both in the monastery and on the road, and yet on the other hand she loved long periods of prayerful solitude. Rare indeed is the man or woman who, as Vatican II puts it, is “eager to act and yet devoted to contemplation”. Teresa was wholeheartedly both. She likewise combined a tender love for her family and would not waste time in idle talk with them. She could say as her father neared death that “it seemed my soul was being wrenched from me, for I loved him dearly”. She so loved him and the others in her family that she would not lead them into the guilt of idle chatter for which we shall give a count on judgment day–which is to say that she really loved her relatives as very few people do. Her balance was likewise evident in her ability to combine a great deal of asceticism and penance in her personal life with a willing and appreciative reception of comfort from dear friends. To Gratian she wrote that “I was thinking of what a comfort it would be to me if my daughter Maria de San Jose were here: she write so well, and she is so clever and gay, that she could do something to lighten my burdens”. During her many travels, Teresa saw to it that her companions on the road with combine times of silent prayer and the cover carts with periods of healthy fun and conversation. Seldom does one meet an individual who is unashamedly ascetic and yet warmly appreciative of human comfort, who can enliven a conversation with wit and joy and then can turn to a long solitude of deep prayer afterward. For most of us it is at best a question of one or the other, not both. A saint is indeed a rare work of divine art. –Father Thomas Dubay, S.M. “Fire Within: St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, and the Gospel”

spacer
May042018

Avilas

Prayer for Perseverance

Loving God, and Sustainer of all Life,
You who care for us today will take care of us
Tomorrow and every day.
The spiritual journey pushes us forward—
Deep into the mysteries of patient persistence
In spite of our human expectations.

Hear our pleas and come to the aid
Of those You have called to the service of Your Church.
Strengthen their hands to do Your work.
Give their eyes clarity of visions to see You in all things.
And revive their thirsting spirits
With reminders of Your constant Presence.

Drawing wisdom
From those who have journeyed before us—
Moses and Miriam,
Sarah and Abraham,
Jacob and Rebecca,
Elizabeth and Zachary,
Mary and all the Apostles,
Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross,
And all holy men and women—
May they learn courage and perseverance,
Be at peace and never lose heart. Amen.

From the handbook of Holy Hour Prayers put forth by the Avilas of the Diocese of Cleveland

spacer
Aug262017

We dare to pray

For though now—glory be to God!—I had no desire after vanities, I saw clearly in the vision how all things are vanity, and how hollow are all the dignities of earth; it was a great lesson, teaching me to raise up my desires to the Truth alone. It impresses on the soul a sense of the presence of God such as I cannot in any way describe, only it is very different from that which it is in our own power to acquire on earth. It fills the soul with profound astonishment at its own daring, and at any one else being able to dare to offend His most awful Majesty.  –The Life of St Teresa of Avila

spacer
Aug172017

Authenticity

It is not a brilliancy which dazzles, but a delicate whiteness and a brilliancy infused, furnishing the most excessive delight to the eyes, never wearied thereby, nor by the visible brightness which enables us to see a beauty so divine.  It is a light so different from any light here below, that the very brightness of the sun we see, in comparison with the brightness and light before our eyes, seems to be something so obscure, that no one would ever wish to open his eyes again.  It is like most pellucid water running in a bed of crystal, reflecting the rays of the sun, compared with most muddy water on a cloudy day, flowing on the surface of the earth.  Not that there is anything like the sun present here, nor is the light like that of the sun: this light seems to be natural; and, in comparison with it, every other light is something artificial.  It is a light which knows no night; but rather, as it is always light, nothing ever disturbs it.  In short, it is such that no man, however gifted he may be, can ever, in the whole course of his life, arrive at any imagination of what it is.  God puts it before us so instantaneously, that we could not open our eyes in time to see it, if it were necessary for us to open them at all.  But whether our eyes be open or shut, it makes no difference whatever; for when our Lord wills, we must see it, whether we will or not.  No distraction can shut it out, no power can resist it, nor can we attain to it by any diligence or efforts of our own.  –The Life of St Teresa of Avila

spacer