The Way of Perfection: St Teresa of Avila

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Chapter 2.

On Money and Poverty.

St Teresa has been described as one of the greatest of all writers in the Spanish language and as far as I know the very woman writer.

I can well see why this is so, she keeps her chapters short and her teachings so very easily understood. Clear as spring water. It reminds me of meeting a very saintly lady at Mass one morning and her inviting me back to her house for a chat and a cup of coffee. Of finding her very funny and entertaining and full of the most incredible wisdom and experience. Though a lady of incredible holiness and depth of prayer she keeps it so hidden in her warm humanity.

She is primarily writing here for her Spiritual Daughter rather than others and it is good to bear this very much in mind. The ideals she sets forth are very good for Carmelite nuns but I don't think would sit so well for someone, say, with a large family to take care of. But nevertheless it reminds me of a big beautiful Christmas pudding from which we can all pluck out plums to feed on.

A couple of things that made me laugh. She says that God takes care of us but sometimes unwillingly. It does often seem like this, like being in a wrestling match with God. I know there are two things I have been praying for nearly my entire life and never gotten them. One of them was grace I really, needed and still need to fight sin. But it never came. I don't really know why but Our Lady said to me one time I was fighting heroically in this matter. So I guess God prefers me to me in there fighting all the time rather than simply winning.

Another grace I prayed for most of my life concerned light on something that is to happen in the Church in the future. But concerning this Our Lord simply told me that sometimes not knowing is better than knowing as far as the future is concerned.

Another funny thing she said is she hoped if her daughters built a big wealthy convent that she hoped the walls would fall down and kill them all. She is a scream.

She mentions something that a lot of folks on the internet and elsewhere could learn from and that is on the matter of begging for money. It appears impossible to go to any Catholic website or Institution were they are not out there begging with both hands big time for money. Its just everywhere. But Teresa said we should be careful to know when to say enough is enough. Not to be going overboard on the panhandling.

The biggest lesson I learnt form the saint in this Chapter is on the need for constant and deep Faith; Faith which arises from deep prayer.

St Teresa knew better than anyone what a Son of a Bitch life can be. That in order to at least put up with it we need to really truly believe that Jesus and Mary are walking right alongside us through every foot of it.

When we look at the rates of suicide of drug and alchohol addiction , the spirralling suicides and mental health problems we can see what becomes of us facing the storm of life without Faith.

 

Its interesting you know on this matter of poverty I think she took St Clare as her model.

 

The Fourth Chapter talks about the inward journey to holiness. St Teresa compares her Carmels to Fortresses against evil.

This reminds me of what one Prioress said in describing the vocation of a Carmelite, 'To hang on the Cross with Christ'. As St Paul said,

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

1 Corinthians 1:20-31


Its true to a greater or lesser extent for us all. Faith is a kind of Holy Madness, the belief in the unseen. We become like Christ a living and acceptable Sacrifice. But as one French write said the only failure in life is not to have been a saint.

But God is the only source and cause of our joy. When we give ourselves to Him we are already in heaven. To leave Him is already to be in a little hell.

How terrible it would be to be a nun in Carmel with no Faith.

 

Pure gold, right there

 

Chapter Four

Saint Teresa is writing to her nuns here, so I suppose a lot of what she writes is not really relevant to lay people. However she lists three things as being essential to progress in prayer.

1. The we love each other.

2. Detachment from all created things.

3. Humility.

Love

Jesus said that:

Matthew 5:23–24

23 "If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and
there remember that your brother has anything against you,
24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First
be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

So in other words if we hold any ill will towards anyone we'll nowhere in prayer. Just as the Our Father says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We just can't get past this. We hit a total brick wall if we don't forgive. It's a must. All progress in the Spiritual Life depends on this.

People speak of love all the time these days. But at best what they mean is a relationship were they get as much or more than they give. A kind of barter. Love in its highest form gives and does not count the cost. The whole of the Spiritual Life is really about learning to do this as Jesus and Mary did.

Detachment

St John of the Cross compares the soul to a little bird that wants to fly to the sky but is tied down to the ground. It doesn't matter if it is a great chain or a rope a only a little hair that is tying down the bird it still can't fly. There have been libraries of books written about obtaining detachment on thins like Penance, Fasting Self Discipline etc. Some of them very complicated. I found myself the best route to detachment is simply to pray. The more prayer the more detachment.

Humility.

Humility is simply to know the truth about yourself in relationship to God. That He is everything and we are nothing. He loads us down with gifts and all we have to do is open our arms to take them. I think people these days have a huge advantage in this. I would say pretty well any Catholic today has had a Conversion experience, usually a pretty radical one. We are in a place of Light were once we were in a place of Great Darkness. For a good dose of the Salt of Humility all we have to do is to look over our shoulders and recall how we once were and it brings us back down to Earth with a Great big thump.

I recall my Spiritual Director saying to me one time he had no idea how I sleep at nights.

He was right in a way. But once you hit total rock bottom the only place you have to go is Divine Mercy and that's the best door anywhere to knock on. It's a door that will always open; all we have to do is knock.

 

Robert is on fire now! Why do I post in this thread? Someone asked him: "What happened Robert? You've come out swinging!" He replied: "Reading [St.] Teresa of Avila"

 

Wow! That was something. He's absolutely right in what he says, imho.

 

I am not familiar with him. Much of what he says is very true and important. However...he is wrong when he says we are not clerics, we are not under obedience to our Bishops. He is also wrong in saying God's mercy is not infinite...then he corrects it by saying Gods acts of mercy are not infinite.

God's mercy is everlasting. It is untrue if a prophet says otherwise. We must chose to accept his mercy, but God will always have mercy on a repentant sinner...God does not change, He is mercy.

And we are certainly under obedience to our Bishop unless he orders something sinful. When anyone advocates disobedience simply because the Bishop may not be holy, it is a huge red flag.

The evil one can feign a great deal. One thing he will never advocate is obedience.

 

I took it that the obedience owed by a priest to a bishop is not the same as for a layperson. For example, my first line of obedience as a married woman is owed to my husband. I'm very open to correction on that point.

The other day something came up that was interesting; it went along the lines that disobedience actually comes from pride. For example, while Eve did disobey God (or was it Adam, since he informed her of God's conditions regarding the tree?) in the Garden, the actual sin was the pride that seeped into her from hearing that "she would be like God, knowing good from evil". She probably didn't even realize it was evil itself that was counselling her.

 

This post is truth. You are correct.

 

Well said. I was listening to the Grace Force most recent podcast earlier today while working around the house. Xavier Ayral was their guest. I know he has shown himself incorrect on some things but something he said struck me as so true and so full of insight I would like to share it. He said he is convinced that evil one's master plan is to get devout and faithful Catholics to be so scandalized by bad clerics and religious especially from the hierarchy in Rome that we will leave the Church. And then we are in the darkness. He passionately said " whatever happens we must not leave the Church!"
The slippery slope of leaving could begin with justifying disobeying a "bad" bishop on his judgement of an apparition or locution.

 

Thank you for posting this. It’s a true reflection and a great insight. I agree.

 

Since this thread is about St. Teresa who, after Our Lady and St. Joseph has been my favorite saint for over 30 years, I think it is appropriate to relay a story of how much the saint valued obedience even if her visions contradicted.

Here is a clip from an article at Catholic Exchange, and a link...

"When she was given a new superior who was 30 years younger than she was and only a Carmelite for six months, she swore obedience happily. When his orders contradicted visions she had of Our Lord, she obeyed her superior, and not the visions. Further visions praised her for doing so."

https://catholicexchange.com/st-teresas-heroic-obedience/

So the video in prior post that has a man saying he read St Teresa, and yet he says he advocates disobedience to a Bishop in favor of what a vision advocates...Well, it made me chuckle.

Anyone who has studied St. Teresa and St John of The Cross (who are doctors of the Church because of thier teaching on prayer and mysticism) will realize visions, loucutions, apparitions etc. must be given no importance if one is to advance in the spiritual life. And certainly the path of obedience and dark faith are the sure way.

These two saints certainly had a great deal of mystical experiences. Both strongly caution that these must be given NO importance, and God is not offended if we do so. If they are from God they have their effect whether we give them notice or importance or not. And even if they are from God, there is no gain and even danger in becoming attached to them if we hold on to them, mull over them, or share them anyone other than our spiritual director.

If they are from our imagination the danger comes when we give them importance.

If they are from an evil source we give them power by not ignoring them.

This forum is filled with many beautiful Catholics. But there are many who are very misguided in regards to the spiritual life, and the countless posts on dreams. visions apparitions, seers etc. testifies to this reality. I used to be curious about all this as well, so I certainly understand.

The sure path is one of faith and obedience. Anyone with a curiosity about these matters will find great benefit by reading The Assent of Mt. Carmel by John of the Cross...at least book 1 and two.

Happy Easter!

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!

 

If Mystical experiences are of no importance then Our Blessed Lady was silly for paying attention to the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation and sillier still for going around talking about it , for if she didn't had would we know about it?

The same thing with Moses with the Burning Bush, multiple episodes with the Prophets or in the New Testament St Paul being called up to heaven or even Pentecost.

 

The lives of the saints are full of Mystical Experiences many of which heavily effected the way the Church s today in very many ways.

The Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, Lourdes, Fatima and so.

Mother Angelica is a good example, her life seems to have been paved with the supernatural.

Padre Pio, too.

 

Imho, the real problem today is that there is no real help with these experiences when they do happen, so the default position is to be told to ignore them so they'll go away. Well, that doesn't work regardless of whether they are from Heavenly sources or evil sources, but especially evil ~ the tempter knows a defenceless soul......This has been a contributing factor in the rise of occult practices, imho.

 

I didn't say mystical experiences are of no importance.

What both St Teresa and St. John of the Cross teach us is that we are not to dwell on them or assign them any importance when we experience them IF we want to advance in the spiritual life.

St John teaches us that God does grant these experiences to attract us. However if we are to advance past the 4th or 5th mansion we MUST do everything we can to not be attatched to them. And that includes not seeking them out, mulling over them, telling everyone about them etc. or not submitting them to a competent spiritual director. If Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross knew the importance of spiritual aridity in these matters, how are we more competent than them? If we don't and embrace the darkness of faith, the saint warns, any contemplative will not advance. This includes rejecting locutions etc.

I don't have the Assent to Carmel in front of me at the moment but I will quote relevant words from the saint with links to the chapters when I do.

 

Ignoring them is exactly the correct responce, along with reporting them to a spiritual director, without examining them further.

If they are from God, they have thier effect immediately, and it is not dependant on the examining by the recipient. We must also not hold on to them and become attached to the way the grace is communicated...for that opens a door for the evil one to counterfeit similar experiences.

I challenge anyone to read the Assent of Carmel if they disagree.

If you then disagree with the saint on this, realize you are disagreeing with a doctor of the Church, who was proclaimed a doctor precisely because of his teaching on the spiritual life.

 

With all due respect, and I sincerely mean that, the part about reporting them to a spiritual director made me laugh out loud. Finding a trustworthy spiritual director in some places is like searching for the elusive pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

My greatest prayer is that more people come to realize just how bad catechesis has been in some areas of the world over the past decades.......If one has never learned that putting on the "whole armour of God" isn't just nice talk, but a spiritual necessity, telling them to just ignore things is not going to help. So many just don't believe in a spiritual reality, so when they say "we are in the world but not of the world", they really don't understand what that means.