Friday 14 August 2015

121: St Teresa of Avila's Message: Introduction 0/16

This year we celebrate the quincentenary of the birth of St Teresa of Avila (1515). The celebration lasts from the 15th of October 2014 to the 15th of October of the current year. The span of these twelve months will most assuredly see us blessed with many special graces.



Since I have had the grace of teaching St Teresa of Avila for more than twenty years now, a few months ago a number of people suggested I write something on her, in her honour. The present book is the result of my efforts and includes many pertinent points for today's Church. The following sixteen chapters constitute the outline of these points:






















I hope that reading the present offering to the literature on St. Teresa will whet the reader's appetite to go on to read her actual works – her Autobiography for instance. This I consider would fulfil a significant part of my purpose in writing the book.


Here, I would like to express my warmest and deepest gratitude to Francesca Crocker, who tirelessly and patiently worked to improve my written English in order to make it understandable and more elegant. Without her help this book would not have seen the light of day.

St Teresa of Avila's Important Dates


1515
0
Birth : 28 March
1528
13
Loses her Mother
1535
20
Entering the Incarnation Monastery 2Nov
1554
39
Conversion
1556
41
Spiritual Betrothal
1559
44
1st vision of Christ 29 June
1560
45
Transverberation: April
Vision of Hell: Sept
Project of Foundation.
1st Relation
1561
46
1st Reformed Monastery (S. José)
1562
47
Life
Inauguration of the first Monastery: 24 August
S José1 (from now on the small numbers indicate her foundations)
Starting Way of Perfection 1 et 3
1563
48
Constitutions
1565
50
Finishes Life.
Way of Perfection Val.
1566
51
1st Version of her Meditations on the Song of Songs
1567
52
Medina del Campo2.
Meeting John of the Cross
1568
53
Malagon3
Valladolid4
Foundation of Duruelo 28 Nov (Carmelite brothers).
1569
54
Exclamations
Toledo5
Pastrana6

1570
55
Salamanca7
1571
56
Alba de Tormes8
Prior at the Incarnation
Starts 2nd version of the Meditations on the Song of Songs
1572
57
Spiritual Marriage
1573
58
Book of Foundations
Book Way of Perfection Val. End
1574
59
Segovia9
2nd version of the Meditations on the Song of Songs
Index of Valdès
1575
60
Beas10
Seville11
1576
61
Stopped in her Foundations..
Way to visit the monasteries.
Caravaca12
1577
62
Interior Castle. Persecutions
1579
64
End of Persecutions
1580
65
Villanueva de la Jara13
Palencia14
1581
66
Soria15
1582
67
Granada16
Burgos17
Dies at Alba de Tormès 4 Oct at 9 pm
1614

Beatified
1622

Canonisation
1970

Paul VI Declares her 1st Woman Doctor of the Church



Her Books

St Teresa wrote four major books, namely, Autobiography, Way of Perfection, Interior Castle, Foundations, some minor books known as Relations, Constitutions, Comment on Song of Songs, How to Visit a Monastery, Poems,... and a full collection of Letters.

If what is sought for is her teaching on the Prayer of the Heart, this can be found in the three following books: Autobiography, Way of Perfection and Interior Castle, a brief outline of which follows.

1- In her Autobiography she describes four ways of doing the Prayer of the Heart, and offers a first-hand account of her life and particularly of her spiritual life.

2- In the Way of Perfection, we find explained the foundations of spiritual life, namely the three virtues of humility, love and detachment, as well as one of her best descriptions on how to practise Recollection (chapters 26, 28-31). It is the main book for formation in the spiritual life.

3- In the Interior Castle we find a more mature and structured book, where she takes us by hand and leads us from the initial stages in this process to the very last ones, the Spiritual Marriage. The book describes the journey of growth, taking the example of a Castle that symbolises the human being, the soul, and at its very centre the Groom's room is to be found.The aim of the entire journey is to reach this room.

As a simple piece of advice, I would like to recommend a start be made with her Autobiography when reading St Teresa. When St Benedict of the Cross (Edith Stein) read this book, she exclaimed: this is the Truth.

Another way of familiarising oneself with St Teresa, as Father Louis de Leon said, is to visit one of her monasteries and meet the nuns - one can almost see her alive and breathing in her nuns.

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