132: St Teresa of Avila 11/16: Humility

When we read St Teresa, it is impossible to refrain from noticing the importance she gives to humility. For St Teresa humility is the foundation of spiritual life and prayer, without which nothing can grow. Humility 'persuades the Lord to give us all what we want from him'; humility 'conquers everything'; humility is truth; it is only through the growth in humility that we measure our progress in spiritual life. These are but a few of the examples Teresa uses to underline, at various times, the great humility of Our Lady, and to invite us to understand its empire over God and to draw us to imitate the Mother of God. Humility seems to be the outstanding element that triggers the Grace of God. According to her beautiful expression, it allows us to 'checkmate' God!

Here it is expedient to note that Chess was very much in vogue in the Spain of St. Teresa's day, and that she learned it when she was young before entering religious life. In her first version of the Way of Perfection called “Manuscript of Escorial,” in the first four paragraphs of Chapter 16 (see below) she uses the image of chess playing. Out of consideration for her nuns, however, and in order not to leave on record her knowledge of such a worldly game, thereby promoting bad habits amongst them, she tore them out of the manuscript.

The 'checkmate' allegory, it consequently should be recognised, is so expressive, beautiful and theologically very deep that it has rightly become famous, and from the time of Fray Luis de León all the editions have included it, which is an important reason for us to understand. The goal of the game of Chess is for one of the two players, using his pieces, to corner and capture his opponent's King. In this case the King is said to be 'in check', which means 'threatened with capture'. If the King has no way of removing the threat, it is to be considered 'captured' or 'dead', that is, 'Mate', the lucky player winning and the game being over. Checkmating the opponent thus wins the game. Figuratively speaking then, a checkmate is 'a situation in which someone has been defeated'. In St Teresa's own words it means: to 'corner' God, drawing Him to us and conquering Him, making Him ours. As can be seen the image is very powerful: being able to seduce God, and draw us into his grace is reminiscent of a “secret of the saints”. The most powerful piece of the game is called the Queen, which has the greatest flexibility of movement therefore greatly threatening the opponent's King. More will be explained about this important piece later.

It is beneficial for us, in our self-pride, to remind ourselves of this, that God himself is humble (learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart (Matthew 11:29)) - indeed it can be said that He is humility itself! In St. Teresa's writings she also constantly talks about spiritual life and progress in it, to attain, in the fulness of time, Union with God himself! Therefore it is inevitable for her to insist on humility, increasing humility being our goal until we are united to the Humble-God. This, it must be emphasized, entails extreme vigilance. The more we immerse ourselves in the spiritual life, the greater is our need to be attentive to humility. If our self-awareness reveals to us that there is a struggle, this would tend to denote that a deeply spiritual life is distant from us, and an urgent examination of the state of our humility is vital. Accordingly St.Teresa states that humility and knowing oneself go together. How, then, is our humility to be increased? The answer is obvious: by seeking the truth about ourselves. St Teresa even went so far as to coin the phrase: humility is the Truth. It must be recognised, above all, that there is a need for self-discernment regarding all that comes from God and a need to be grateful to Him for it.

Spiritual Life bears in itself an important fact: the necessity to receive an extraordinary number of graces ! Significantly, in order to receive these and, more importantly, in order to keep them, there is a great need for humility! Rain falls, it can even fall abundantly, but who collects the water? The heights of the mountain or the humble valley?

St.Teresa deals with this question by writing the book the Way of Perfection, primarily in reply to a request by her daughters of the first reformed monastery, to write them something on “contemplation”. This is the origin of the book the Way of Perfection. It is already blatantly obvious that “contemplation” is for St Teresa a pure gift from God, the essence of the supernatural given to us. In writing this book she handed on to them a very significant way of perfection to follow in order to receive the Grace of God, the very secret that triggers the Grace of God.

However, it is interesting to note Teresa's letter to them before writing the book. Here she indicated that if they wanted her simply to talk to them about the first steps in prayer, that is, 'meditation', this could be easily achieved, as all that was needed was her guidance on how to proceed, which they could then put into practice with relative ease. But since they requested she talk to them about the Gift of God (John 4:10) and how to receive it, the matter encompassed a totally different level of functioning. The book of the Way of Perfection becomes, subsequently, her full answer to their request. Ironically in almost the first half of it she seems to address something entirely different, for she talks about three virtues, amongst them humility. In fact, the reader can easily be puzzled by the fact that she fails to enter immediately into the core of the subject. In fact this gives a false impression. In order to explain her present choice of subject-matter and therefore the structure of the book, she takes the example of the game of Chess. As noted above above, for one to win in this game one has corner the opponent's King and threaten it. Ingeniously, then, the entire first half of her book is devoted by Teresa to 'set out the pieces of game [correctly]: “you may be sure that anyone who cannot set out the pieces in a game of chess will never be able to play well” (Way of Perfection 16:1-4). Thus in order to do so, she teaches the three fundamental virtues: humility, loving one another and detachment. She stresses that by practising these virtues with determination and in a 'perfect' way (as she describes it), that the human being is properly enabled to give himself sincerely and wholly to the Lord. It is the quality of the gift of ourselves to Him that makes the Lord surrender himself to us: He is conquered or, in other words, He is checkmated.

Working on the three virtues and especially on humility is the direct means by which we offer ourselves to Christ, and by this means, it is possible to attract Him to us. Referring to these virtues the saint says: I hope you do not think I have written too much about this already; for I have only been placing the board, as they say. [...] But you may be sure that anyone who cannot set out the pieces in a game of chess will never be able to play well, and, if he does not know how to give check, he will not be able to bring about a checkmate. (Way of Perfection 16:1-4) It is at this point that she begins to entrust to the reader the secret of the supernatural encounter with God using the allegory of Chess, namely, in order to win, we need to corner the opponent's King in a way that totally prevents movement or escape and then attack him (checkmate him). At this juncture he is 'mate' which means beaten (conquered), or as Teresa writes: “[...] if we play it frequently [exercising ourselves in the virtues], how quickly we shall give checkmate to this Divine King! He will not be able to move out of our check nor will He desire to do so.” (idem.) This secret she entrusts to us is all together searingly beautiful and utterly audacious, but in the language of Love – God's language – this is his modus operandi.

It is at this very moment that the core of the secret of the spiritual life and of the Prayer of the Heart is imparted to us:

It is the Queen which gives the King most trouble in this game and all the other pieces support her. There is no queen who can beat this King as well as humility can; for humility brought Him down from Heaven into the Virgin's womb and with humility we can draw Him into our souls by a single hair. Be sure that He will give most humility to him who has most already and least to him who has least. I cannot understand how humility exists, or can exist, without love, or love without humility, and it is impossible for these two virtues to exist save where there is great detachment from all created things. (Way of Perfection 16:1-2)

Our Lady's humility is the secret of the Spiritual Life. This humility is not only capable of receiving God, but is also capable of holding Him and of safeguarding all the received Graces, because growth is not concerned with receiving graces but of becoming capable of not losing them.

Here may we ask God to grant us Mary's humility, to give us Our Lady herself, to clothe us in Her garments, like those of a bride, and thereby attract Christ to make his home in us!

Prayer

“Graciously O Lord, Give me Our Lady's heart,

so I can have not my humility

but her all-powerful humility,

capable of attracting you to her,

and alluring you to dwell for ever in her.”

The following comprises the text from the Way of Perfection just paraphrased above:

“I hope you do not think I have written too much about this already; for I have only been placing the board, as they say. You have asked me to tell you about the first steps in prayer; although God did not lead me by them, my daughters I know no others, and even now I can hardly have acquired these elementary virtues. But you may be sure that anyone who cannot set out the pieces in a game of chess will never be able to play well, and, if he does not know how to give check, he will not be able to bring about a checkmate.

Now you will reprove me for talking about games, as we do not play them in this house and are forbidden to do so. That will show you what kind of a mother God has given you -- she even knows about vanities like this! However, they say that the game is sometimes legitimate.

How legitimate it will be for us to play it in this way, and, if we play it frequently, how quickly we shall give checkmate to this Divine King! He will not be able to move out of our check nor will He desire to do so.

It is the Queen which gives the king most trouble in this game and all the other pieces support her. There is no queen who can beat this King as well as humility can; for humility brought Him down from Heaven into the Virgin's womb and with humility we can draw Him into our souls by a single hair. Be sure that He will give most humility to him who has most already and least to him who has least. I cannot understand how humility exists, or can exist, without love, or love without humility, and it is impossible for these two virtues to exist save where there is great detachment from all created things.

You will ask, my daughters, why I am talking to you about virtues when you have more than enough books to teach you about them and when you want me to tell you only about contemplation. My reply is that, if you had asked me about meditation, I could have talked to you about it, and advised you all to practise it, even if you do not possess the virtues. For this is the first step to be taken towards the acquisition of the virtues and the very life of all Christians depends upon their beginning it. No one, however lost a soul he may be, should neglect so great a blessing if God inspires him to make use of it. All this I have already written elsewhere, and so have many others who know what they are writing about, which I certainly do not: God knows that.

But contemplation, daughters, is another matter. This is an error which we all make: if a person gets so far as to spend a short time each day in thinking about his sins, as he is bound to do if he is a Christian in anything more than name, people at once call him a great contemplative; and then they expect him to have the rare virtues which a great contemplative is bound to possess; he may even think he has them himself, but he will be quite wrong. In his early stages he did not even know how to set out the chess-board, and thought that, in order to give checkmate, it would be enough to be able to recognize the pieces. But that is impossible, for this King does not allow Himself to be taken except by one who surrenders wholly to Him.” (Way of Perfection 16:1-4)

131: St Teresa of Avila 10/16: The necessity of Mental Prayer

St Teresa in her works constantly refers to the Prayer of the Heart (Mental Prayer), that is, to the time and space given each day to the Lord, during which we are called to offer ourselves to Him. Preferably this should be twice a day, the time spent on it increasing progressively. Thus, it is advisable for the first three months two fifteen minute sessions a day, increasing subsequently, if possible with the advice of the Spiritual Director, to two thirty minute sessions a day, to be then increased to two forty-five minute sessions, the final stage being two sessions per day each lasting one hour. During this precious time, the Lord prolongs his action in us and pours into the deepest part of our being his Spirit of Love. Reading St Teresa reveals this practice to be truly essential for her, and that it is a mandatory condition without which christian life is non-existent. It is the greatest irony, meanwhile, that in the Church regular practice of the Prayer of the Heart is rare, while in some cases it is completely unknown! How can this contradiction be explained? Some argue as to the necessity and the viability of the Prayer of the Heart, while some even argue that there are many other forms of equally worthwhile prayer. Indeed, today some even consider the Prayer of the Heart as being a particular type of practice that belongs only to certain schools of spirituality, and that it does not as yet have universal status - even if it appears amongst the three main expressions of prayer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (see ccc n° 2700-2724).

In order to obtain a clear answer to this vitally important question it is essential, first, to address the very nature of the Prayer of the Heart. It is only when a clear light is shed upon this that it becomes possible to address the actual contradiction in question. If the Prayer of the Heart is reduced to a simple pious exercise that only few practise and if its content and what happens during it is ignored, if it is imposed (i.e. observance of the form) certainly a huge opposition to its practise might arise in many if it is said to be universal, namely, open to everyone.

In her book The Way of Perfection, in order to present the Prayer of the Heart, especially its supernatural nature, St Teresa uses the 'Our Father' as the canvas for her comments on it (see Chapter 27 onward). Significantly, when she starts explaining the meaning of 'Thy Kingdom come', she alludes to entry into the Supernatural state, namely, the beginning of the Direct and Personal Action of the Holy Spirit in us. Entering into the Kingdom, or receiving it, is described as being at the very heart of God's action in the Prayer of the Heart. Can this be argued as an option as some do? Is receiving the Grace of God something optional in Christianity? Is it to be assumed that there other ways in order to become Christian?

All Christians pray. But the ways to do so are many and varied. The Mass is the prayer par excellence. Thus, during the Mass, by saying 'lift up your hearts', the priest warns us and points out that there is more than one way of participating in the Mass: by lifting or not lifting up our hearts. This means that we can either participate in the Divine Action of the Mass by entrusting our heart to Christ who is 'seated at the Right Hand of the Father', or attend Mass while remaining immersed in earthly matters and concerns. In this latter case, while our bodies are physically inside the church, while attending Mass, our lips praying and singing, our minds and hearts are really engaged with the outside world, with earthly concerns, instead of being lifted up, of being engaged in Christ.

It must be acknowledged, then, that real prayer occurs 'in Christ', 'before the Father' and 'through the Holy Spirit'. The very movement of the Prayer of the Heart invites us into the Trinity, through the Son, and in doing so we find ourselves participating in the interchange of the Love of the Trinity. It is for this reason that it can be said that many 'practise the prayer of the heart' unknowingly. Many people, while saying their prayers, place themselves into the hands of Christ, and thereby they enter into a 'state' of prayer with their heart. Any vocal prayer - any prayer said audibly as in, for example, the Mass, Divine Office, Rosary - is not opposed to the Prayer of the Heart. They are simply two halves of the same fruit. St Teresa underlines this point with great clarity in her writings. She even gives the example of an old nun who asked Teresa's advice concerning the said nun's sadness at being unable to practise the Prayer of the Heart, and of only being able to pray vocally because her mind would ramble on in a restless way inhibiting her ability to focus. St Teresa listened to her, questioning her about her method of prayer and about her daily life, only to come to the clear realization that not only was this nun unknowingly practising the Prayer of the Heart, but that she was very advanced in it. The supernatural action of God was well and truly present and active within her – an invaluable and consoling piece of discernment given to us by St. Teresa through this example!

With these added nuances, the question needs to be asked: what is then St Teresa's advice? Should the Prayer of the Heart be made widely known? Or should we let the matter rest and rely on the fact that people might be practising the Prayer of the Heart regardless, knowingly or not?

These questions raise an important issue in the life of the Church. St Paul, in his letter to the Romans, says that belief will not follow if, the message has not been first announced (see Romans 10:14). This clearly stresses that it is a fundamental mission of the Church to teach Spiritual Life and the Prayer of the Heart and to form the faithful in them. The faithful cannot be abandoned to uncertainty, praying in a random way that might or might not invite Christ into their spiritual lives. In fact, The Lord announces most decisively and very clearly in the Gospel of St John, that He wants to treat us like friends and not like slaves (see John 15:15)! Not only this, but He goes on to explain the factors that go to make up friendship. For Jesus friendship is an intimate relationship where He confides everything to his friend, explains it thoroughly, and unveils it, clearly emphasized in Matthew 13:11, namely, He leads us from within through the Holy Spirit, to the fullness of the Truth, which is himself (John 16:13). This underlines the contradiction that we cannot reach holiness using the means that the Lord came to offer us if our practice of Spiritual Life is unsure and random manner. This would be tantamount to committing a grave sin, because it is essentially to tempt God! To tempt God is to place ourselves in a dangerous and unsure position, not going about it in the way God desires, yet expecting God to save us come what may!

Christ's mission of teaching spiritual life continues in and through the Church. Throughout the centuries, God has deliberately provided us with a vast amount of rich teachings on the Spiritual Life, to ensure his Church makes wise use of them. A simple example will suffice to illustrate this. The following dialogue from the Mass shows what Christ desires :

- Lift up your hearts

- We lift them up to the Lord

- Let us give thanks to the Lord

- It right and just...

The role of the Church, for instance, should consequently be to explain to the faithful the clear and precise sense of the spiritual content of the this dialogue. It is necessary for us to learn what is required of us when the priest invites us to lift up our hearts. To begin with, we have to learn where the Lord is situated when we are invited to lift up our hearts to Him. St Paul explains it when he says: Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1) However, who is Christ for us? He is our Dwelling Place our Temple, comes the answer in St. John 2:21. Moreover He invites us to dwell in Him (John 15:4). On a more personal level, then, what method can be used to lift up our hearts? Through recollecting ourselves, as St Teresa explains in the Prayer of Recollection (Way of Perfection chapters 28-29), or in addition if you prefer, by offering ourselves to Him (See the Act of Oblation of St Therese of Lisieux).

Pauline Levy Lazzarini, “Lift up your Heart”, 2008

If the act of lifting up our heart does not occur, Christ will not be able to come and take possession of it, in order to dwell within us and pour His holy Spirit into us! One will continue attending the Mass pro forma only being bodily present, but the Mass will not be lived 'at the level' of Christ. As can now be appreciated, 'participating in the Eucharist' is a profoundly spiritual act based on the teaching on the Prayer of the Heart.

The above-mentioned teaching is very bold, to say the least, and certainly not many it may be assumed will 'hear' it. But the Gospel itself is extremely audacious and there is a tendency to dilute it. The Lord himself said that God is Spirit, and whoever wants to worship Him has to do it in Spirit and in Truth (see John 4:24). In order to worship God who is Spirit, then, one has to be in Him! By the Incarnation and the Redemption the Triune God himself opened his heart to us so we could dwell in Him.

Through his Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension Christ, then, prepares a Dwelling Place for us in himself, in his heart. By this He imparts to us the knowledge that He does not remain in situ - that is, at the right hand of the Father. On the contrary, He comes to us, in order to embrace us, lift us, so that He might dwell in us. In this way He allows us to access Him in his own domain. This eminently lays bare what it means to be 'in the world' (John 17:14-18) and to live in the Trinity, rooted in Christ, at one and the same time. This is what it means to be Baptised, that is, to be immersed in Christ, to take root in Him.

The following verses aptly voice Jesus' answer when we lift up our heart to Him, the culminating point of the Prayer of the Heart:

"In My Father's House are many dwelling places […]

If I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and will take you to Myself,

that where I am, there you may be also. » (John 14:2-3)

By Baptism, Christ dwells within our heart. But this is not meant to force us to remain continuously immersed in Him, begging the question that we ask ourselves whether we are within his heart, or outside of it. This is the very reason for his plea not to leave Him alone in our heart, but to return to Him through renewed loving acts of our free will and dwell with Him. To dwell in Christ is obviously not something that comes automatically because of our Baptism. This latter rather opens the way for us, but does not ensure we remain in Christ ! It is up to us to express our free will in order to be reintroduced into Him. This is why Christ keeps insisting with the words: dwell in me as I dwell in you (John 15:4). It is as if He is saying to each one of us: 'I dwell in you by the virtue of your Baptism, but now, I invite you to use your free will, and I myself opened this way for you to come and dwell in me' (Hebrews 10:19-20)!

Although all that has been outlined is not optional, it is still difficult to practise, or better said, it is challenging because we discover that Christ will not force himself upon us, but that the ultimate responsibility is ours, and that it is we ourselves who need to be involved in the process. As St Augustine says, we are the co-authors of our salvation. Expressed succinctly it declares that If God did not ask our permission to create us, we will not be saved without our taking part in it. The realization of the enormity of this responsibility, may lead to the the impression that a deeply spiritual life, or this aspect of the Gospel, is for some privileged persons only.

St Teresa like us as regards the aforesaid, is very well aware that all the Baptised are called to holiness! But meeting with Christ, hearing his Call and really listening to Him, she would agree, is quite another challenge. Her agreement would be endorsed by Teresa herself having gone through this selfsame process of discovery. Indeed, she is particularly aware that discovering Christ in one's life is something different, it is a special grace of which we are all unworthy.

In this light, then, listening to St Teresa's teaching increases our awareness of the enormous chasm between the general theory, that is ’all are called to be holy’, and the practice of it, namely how this can become a reality for random persons, through a real meeting with Christ. For this specific person, it is important to offer the richness of the teaching on how to pray the Prayer of the Heart, because without it, the call to holiness remains totally inert.

127: St Teresa of Avila 6/16: The Supernatural

There is a word that St Teresa repeatedly uses with the word 'contemplation' or 'pure contemplation', namely, 'supernatural', defined as meaning 'beyond the capacity of mere human nature', or better still: 'the direct personal action of the Holy Spirit'. It covers the same spectrum covered by the 'Particular help of the Grace of God'. In other words it is the Grace of God.

One simple example will serve to enhance the understanding of this, to be found in the the Gospel scene where Jesus outlines for the rich young man the real conditions necessary for following Him. He then comments to his disciples: 'it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24). The disciples in turn are greatly astonished, because all human beings – and therefore they themselves – are rich in one way or another. One can be materially poor, but still continue to desire riches, and this is, in Jesus' eyes, to be rich: For where our treasure is, there our heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). This elicits a radical cry from the disciples summing up this great difficulty in following Jesus, when they lay bare to Jesus the honest truth saying: [if these are the conditions to follow you] who [then] can be saved? (Matthew 19:25) At this very juncture Jesus underlines the enormous chasm that lies between what fallen human nature can do, without the aid of the new Gift of the Grace of the Holy Spirit that Jesus came to bring us, and what God can accomplish in the human being, with this same Holy Spirit: But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26). This underlines effectively that what God desires and is able to perform in us is beyond our own feeble capacity. The normal action of the Grace of God is consistently miraculous, because it is beyond our reach, beyond our capabilities, hence its definition as 'super-natural'. Some more recent debates and books in the last century have even lobbied toward stopping the use of the word. At times Theology can in this way become so abstract that it loses track of reality resulting in sterility, in becoming incapable of doing any good, incapable of producing 'edible fruits', and in finally causing us to go astray from a fundamental dimension of Christian life: the Action of the Holy Spirit in us.

It cannot be emphasised more that the direct and personal action of the Holy Spirit in the person is the 'supernatural'. This word appeared more frequently in Theology during St Teresa's time, therefore, having met many great Theologians and having received from them the explanation of the specific action of God in us, she employed it as they did. The beginning of the Fourth Mansion gives ample evidence of this:

Now that I commence writing about the fourth mansions, it is requisite, as I said,to commend myself to the Holy Spirit and to beg Him henceforth to speak for me, that I may be enabled to treat these matters intelligibly. Henceforth they begin to be supernatural and it will be most difficult to speak clearly about them, unless His Majesty undertakes it for me, as He did when I explained the subject (as far as I understood it) somewhat about fourteen years ago. (Interior Castle, Fourth Mansions, Chapter 1,1)

Her humble attitude is apparent in that she recognises when God starts to work in us, his action is beyond our capacity and beyond our understanding. This, in turn, necessitates the intervention of God himself in Teresa's mind in order to help her recognise, understand and explain His Grace. A closer look at the word 'super-natural' reveals this: 'super' means beyond or superior to us, more elevated, while 'natural' i.e. our nature, illustrates what we can accomplish by our own efforts i.e. what the human being can do only with the 'general help of the grace of God'. Or to express it as a former chapter does: to reach the meeting point with God, half-way between Christ and us in order to allow Jesus to grab us: Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him (Matthew 14:31).

When Christ 'grabs' our heart and settles it deep within his heart, immersing it in the Fire of His Love, this is a supernatural action that only He can perform, freely. The individual, any individual is strictly incapable of entering into God's very domain let alone move in it by his own volition: the Kingdom of God is in verity the Kingdom of God ! Emphatically this is beyond the capacity of the human being for it consists in super-natural action alone. Consequently, when Jesus starts preaching He speaks about this newness that He is introducing, a newness that is completely original in the history of humanity: the Kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 4:17). The meaning does not entail our entering at will, but it means that the Gift of God, the door that beckons us into the Life of the Trinity is at hand. This reinforces the reason for Jesus' repetition of the teaching on how to enter the Kingdom and on the conditions of entering it. The kingdom is not something about the future, after death. It is present right now, and has been for the last 2000 years, at hand, at the door of our heart.

To enter it and move in it is something that belongs to the sovereignty of God, and has conditions. It is God's space, God's life, God's intimacy that is at stake. It is a unique reality and Jesus came to gain open access to it for us, to make it available to us.

To those who dislike the word 'super-natural', or if the word has unwelcome connotations, another word can be substituted providing it faithfully translates the sovereign freedom of God and the elevation of his saving action in us. In fact we see Jesus many times in the Gospel extending his helping and saving hands and healing not only the bodies but also the souls of his contemporaries. This saving hand, this Divine Energy (the Holy Spirit) that emanates from Him (think of the woman who touched his clothes from behind), is something that is beyond human capability. It is miraculous. If God does not always heal the body, He always wants to heal, sanctify, purify and transform our soul and our spirit. In a way, we can say that each of his miracles on the body can be understood also as a deeper miracle for the Soul: the blindness is not only the blindness of the body, it is first and foremost the blindness of the Soul, the incapacity to see God's light and life in it. The withered hand symbolises the withered quality of the soul mired in its own diseased will that is incapable of acting according to God's will. Paralysis, leprosy ,... are all first and foremost illnesses of the soul that Jesus with his 'super-natural' action wants to heal and bring to life. God's life is a gift that initially is beyond our reach.

By contrast, since God created us free, it can be said that He 'swore to himself' not to interfere in our freedom. To Him, we are sacred beings, made in his image and likeness, capable of saying 'yes' or 'no' to Him. In this sense we are 'super-natural' for Him, namely, different from his nature, beyond his being. It's as if He were addressing these words to us: I wait at the door of your heart, I do respect your free will, and I consider that you are 'beyond' what I would allow myself to reach!

Given this revealing insight into the magnanimous and loving heart of God, the fact remains that the action of God, his intervention in us is by definition more elevated than our own limited capacity. Putting it bluntly, it is quite beyond our means!

It is true that St Teresa talks about 'pure contemplation' or 'contemplation' pure and simple. But in her eyes and in the eyes of her experience it is the same thing as 'supernatural'. They are synonymous! Contemplation, too, is a reality seldom used today. However, without the supernatural dimension, or if preferred, without the Direct Personal Action of the Holy Spirit, there simply would be no christianity! This is exemplified admirably with the Apostle Paul (see Acts 19:1-7) when he meets some men, and in no uncertain terms notices the absence of signs of the action of the Holy Spirit (speaking in tongues and prophesying), begging the question he asks of them: Whose Baptism have you received? Their reply: 'John's one' confirms in St. Paul's eyes what he felt: not only had they not received Jesus' Baptism, but they had also not yet experienced an encounter with the Holy Sprit! In haste, he baptises them.

It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men.'(Acts 19:1-7)

A beautiful, simple, and yet transcendent lesson on the supernatural Action of the Holy Spirit it must be said! As St Paul himself had crossed the divide between what is possible to man and what to God, he guided them also to make the crossing. In addition, this illustrates that there is a dividing line between being non-christian and becoming christian, namely, experiencing the Grace of God. It is, admittedly, true to say that one can be legitimately baptised, only for the Action of the Holy Spirit to lie dormant within one, thereby denying access to his supernatural action: Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given to you by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery (1 Timothy 4:14)

St. Paul enlarges on this more fully when he says later:

Wherefore I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began(2 Timothy 1:6-9)

The above-mentioned episode involving St. Paul mirrors St Teresa's case perfectly. She had lived for almost forty years without the in-depth experience of God's Action within her. She had been baptised, confirmed, consecrated as a nun, but had had little and sporadic experience of the 'super-natural', the 'Holy Spirit', of, in fact, 'Christian Contemplation'.

That this might cause us discomfort as Christians, as Catholics, might be a question to ask ourselves. This might certainly be the case. Would it come as a surprise to us? The answer might surprisingly be in the affirmative! St Teresa, too, was just as surprised by the newness of the Action of God. She could flawlessly assess the difference between a life with or without that New Action of God in her. However, do not be deceived into thinking that life was untroubled afterwards! It created quite a stir, not only within herself but in those around her, and it soon became obvious that she had to clarify, for her own sake, what was happening within her. Fortunately this clarification was also to be most beneficial for the entire church. Having had the humility and honesty to expose to the Church what was happening to her reaped a huge reward: her experience became for others a possible yardstick for a real christian life. One can read her Autobiography and see the turmoil created in her by the Action of God, not to mention the creativity it generated in her: the reform of an entire religious order and all the persons coming into contact with it, both priests and lay persons. Furthermore, since 1970, her teaching has been recognised officially for the entire Church, while she is considered the 'mother of spirituals' - as it is stated on her statue in St Peter's in Rome.

Again, let us remind ourselves that when we say that her teaching is for everybody, that we mean the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit is for everybody, that her way is for everybody, and that we do not mean that the extraordinary phenomena (levitations, locutions, the external manifestations of ecstasy,...) are for all... No. Here we are talking about the normal spiritual growth of the Christian, up to the point where one reaches Union with Jesus and the fullness of Love, i.e. Holiness! In fact Holiness is not just for some only. It is for all.

Here a valid objection can be to raised as to whether there is any truth in the assertion that these heights can be fearful to more than one person, and that there is no way to discern between 'what is for everybody' and 'what is specific to this or that person, classified so to speak as 'extraordinary'. Arguably this is so - but to put it bluntly, one cannot take off to the moon on a bicycle. In order to reach God we need a rocket, we need the deployment of the Power of the Resurrection, we need the Action of the Holy Spirit. To find a discreet tranquil christian way will bear no fruit. A reasonable, 'good catholic', morally sound, faithful, charitable, helping here and there, does not necessarily lead anywhere, because what Christ wants to realise in us is a radical change and in order to do so, He sends the Holy Spirit!

Anyone can follow a 'reasonable way'. One has but to remember the description St Teresa makes in the Third Mansions of her Interior Castle: the human being finds himself comfortable in it and leads a good christian life. But crucially the Love of God (the Holy Spirit) has not made him exceed the bounds of all reason. A reading of St. Teresa, here, is revealing. She starts by stating a fundamental condition must be fulfilled in order to cross the red line of the supernatural, from the Third to the Fourth Mansions - we need to surrender totally to God, to submit our will in all things to the will of God:

Believe me, the question is not whether we wear the religious habit or not, but whether we practise the virtues and submit our will in all things to the will of God. The object of our life must be to do what He requires of us: let us not ask that our will may be done, but His. If we have not yet attained to this, let us be humble, as I said above. Humility is the ointment for our wounds; if we have it, although perhaps He may defer His coming for a time, God, Who is our Physician, will come and heal us. (3^rd Mansions 1:8)

Then, she describes what we would call the 'life of a good catholic':

The penances performed by the persons I spoke of are as well regulated as their life, which they value very highly because they wish to serve our Lord with it - in which there is nothing to blame - so they are very discreet in their mortifications lest they should injure their health. Never fear they will kill themselves: they are far too sensible! (3^rd Mansions 1:9)

Would such a committed catholic be to blame? Yet St. Teresa categorically does blame the person! She finds this way of being christian too 'reasonable', or as today's parlance would label it: 'having everything under control'. These christians do not commit grave sins, they go to Mass, they help in the parish, they even have their mortifications. Is this enough in the eyes of God? What is lacking? This is Teresa's view:

Their love is not strong enough to overcome their reason; I wish it were - that they might not be content to creep on their way to God: a pace that will never bring them to their journey’s end! (3^rd Mansions 1:9)

The key expression here is: 'love is not strong enough to overcome their reason'. The Spanish says love is not foolish enough to unhinge them, “hinges” denoting their security, comfort, supports, bearings. This type of person is convinced that his is the way to be a 'good catholic'. It is similar to what St Paul says in his first Letter to the Corinthians where he speaks about the foolishness of the Cross that is God's Wisdom. Reason can deceive us into living a life based on reason that is the enemy of God. Ironically the person appears to be doing very well, yet he or she does not have any inkling that this falls far short of what it is to be Christian! In fact the experience of the Love of God does not erupt in him. Meeting the Risen Lord has not yet taken place! A living relationship with Him, face to face, has not yet occurred! There is no opposition between the two states, but significantly they just belong to two completely different realms.

One can see St Teresa as an exalted person. But this is an unfair judgment on her. One has to only to consider how much she achieved during her lifetime: how many monasteries she has founded in her life (please see the outline at the beginning of the book) and how many sufferings she endured by the grace of God! There is not a day in her life when she was not at the mercy of pains in her body or in her head! In all fairness, then, let her be judged impartially, and let us understand that what she says is of the utmost importance for us! Let us remember, after all, that she did not write her books because she enjoyed writing, for she had other duties to perform as a nun. Instead she wrote about serious matters, done out of pure obedience to her confessors. Incredibly, too, she only wrote, in haste, in her spare time - against common belief, a nun's day is a full day.

Holiness and our endeavours to reach holiness, as we have considered, are serious matters. The journey and the means that lead us to holiness are as important as holiness itself, because without them the entire structure of our christian life would collapse. A sound understanding of what we can do and what God alone can do and wants to do, is of the utmost importance for our spiritual life. It is God who traces out our journey, and nobody else. If we fail to learn how to entrust ourselves totally into the hands of God, if our yardsticks are of poor quality, if our understanding of Christianity is impoverished then nothing will make us take off, rocket-like, towards God!

It is only the Action of the Grace of God in us that will help us both to realise this and to reach our goal.

Note: It is of utmost importance to notice the need to distinguish clearly between what falls within the domain of Psychoanalysis/Psychology and that appertaining to Spiritual Theology. Today, more than at any other previous time, there is a great temptation to replace Spiritual Theology (already in a seriously weakened state) by Psychology or Psychoanalysis, or even Personal Development and Therapies of all sorts, including 'meditation' and methods of that ilk. Nowadays it is no longer possible to distinguish the difference between what can be achieved by the actual tools of these sciences and therapies themselves (and sometimes we have to have recourse to these, when needed), from what can be achieved through the Grace of God. The weakness of Spiritual Theology today is of no help at all in realising this distinction. Consequently a huge vacuum is generated by this failing. The deeply spiritual analysis of St Teresa of Avila (and St John of the Cross) of the human being under the light of God's action is undeniably, therefore, of urgent need and is a real guide in our challenging times. We need to have a thorough knowledge of what God can do and what He desires to do and to transform in us. Otherwise we replace his work in us by a poor imitation of this.

122: St Teresa of Avila 1/16: Is Mysticism for Everybody?

In the history of mankind there are people whose lives are given to everybody as an example to follow, imitate and emulate. Think of St Augustine in his Confessions, think of St Francis of Assisi, or even closer to us St Therese of Lisieux. The light of these people is not meant to remain hidden under a bushel, but it is placed by God on the lampstand (Matthew 5:15) so they can shine forth, or better said, the Light of the Risen Lord can shine through them. St Teresa of Avila is a saint of this nature, offered to everybody as an example: her life, her journey are full of teachings for us. All the graces she received were certainly for her, but filter in addition through her, to her nuns, and to all of us. The fact that Pope Paul the Vlth declared her "Doctor of the [universal] Church" is a sign that in her life there is encapsulated an important teaching for all of us.

From the start when we look at her, we have to say, that it is not uncommon to find a gap between what really happened in her life – often recounted by her - and what people think and project about her. We know that many times she had fallen into ecstasy, fallen onto the floor, that she was subject to levitation, transverberation, spiritual marriage,... Seeing the extraordinary graces she received, popular opinion is attracted, but often retains what is secondary to these graces. As a consequence, some might hastily conclude: "this is not for me", or even worse: "this woman is not really of sound mind".

It seems advisable, therefore, to look at both sides of the coin regarding what really happened. One has to recognise that she never really sought the extraordinary external effects of the graces she received, that she often felt very embarrassed about receiving graces in public, being the object of laughter, accusations and denigration from many. However, there was a reason for this to happen: God wanted to show his Mercy in her and wanted to tell us what His Grace can achieve in us.

It is very important to understand that what St Teresa went through is not that uncommon. If the description she offers of the Graces she received seems a bit exaggerated we need to understand the reason: she acts like a magnifying glass for us, greatly enlarging the effect so we can perceive it. God was “zooming in” on her soul to show us the effects of His Grace in her, with the hope of the same effect resulting in us. Why so? Because God has the earnest desire to give himself to us, to give us "grace upon grace" as Saint John puts it in his Prologue (John 14:16), or without measure (John 3:34) as he says in his Gospel.

It is good, now, to take the opportunity to distinguish what is in St Teresa’s experience of God “for everybody” and what is rather more exceptional, “for her only” or for lesser numbers of people. The majority of the Graces she received are “for all”. I suggest putting them into three categories:

1- What we can do in our lives without the personal direct intervention of the Holy Spirit.

2- What God achieves through direct intervention on His part.

3- Some secondary effects of the Grace of God in her.

It is not difficult to sort out the graces because 1 and 2 are quite frequent: “1” covers the first part of her life, till the age of thirty-nine, till her “second conversion”; “2” is what will happen in her life from that moment on up to her death. Therefore it is more important to pay closer attention to “2” because this is what really interests us, this is God’s message to the Church: the necessity of His Grace, of His action in us, and the goal His action is achieving: a journey of sanctification in order to reach “Union with Christ” and to serve Him, as the Apostles and Disciples did.

It is true that just mentioning St Teresa’s name triggers the notion of “mysticism” and can put off many of us. “Mysticism” did not always have a good press in the Church, while many think that it certainly does not embody the mainstream of Catholic experience. But God through St Teresa seems to say the contrary to us: mysticism is the common way for Him. Let us examine this more closely.

First let us clarify one point about her initial intention: has she sought after all these graces? Definitely not. She often felt embarrassed, as if she were standing out from the courting fame: some even told her that this was from the Devil, so her suffering can only be imagined. She certainly would have preferred to be away from such manifestations of the Grace of God. So what is their meaning? And why are we attached to a popular vision of her and do not search for what happened to her spiritually, as she relates it in the book of her Life?

Mysticism often alludes to a very powerful and intimate relationship with God, a life filled with plentiful received Graces. In what we put under “mysticism”, therefore, we need to distinguish between two kinds of graces: on the one hand the “normal” ordinary graces destined for “everybody” and focused on within St Teresa’s writings, and on the other hand “extra-ordinary” ones that are not destined for everybody. In fact, we are all invited by Christ to have a personal relationship with him (CCC 2558) and to receive grace upon grace (John 1:16), to experience the Risen Lord and grow spiritually until we reach Union with Him – undeniably the case for “everybody”!

Let us examine the lives of the Apostles for a start: their entire mission rests on the fact that they were the Lord’s companions and that they saw Him Risen. He sends them the Holy Spirit, who will be constantly present with them and guiding them. They are essentially witnesses of the Risen Lord. This is so evident in the book of the Acts of the Apostles and in the life of a man like St Paul who received powerful graces. Why then do we give credit to St Paul and not to what the Lord achieved in St Teresa’s life, and wants to achieve in the life of each one of us?

Some people, in their negation of “mysticism”, go to the point of saying that St Therese of Lisieux is different from St Teresa, that she never received extra-ordinary graces, and that therefore the way God offers through St Teresa’s life is an extra-ordinary life, not for everybody. Let us not be deceived by such inaccurate statements. First, it is important primarily to take into account all the graces St Therese mentions in her writings. It is true that she seems psychologically “stronger”, therefore she does not faint easily as St Teresa does, but the core of what she receives is identical to what St Teresa received.

Furthermore, thinking that they are different (or worse that they have different spiritualities) leads very easily to errors in the reading and understanding of their lives. This is seriously unhealthy. The great advantage with St Therese is that strictly speaking all that is extraordinary (and not the core) in mysticism is clearly discarded. This is not the case with St Teresa. Therefore in order to read St Teresa’s writings to greater advantage, we can comfortably discard all that is extraordinary in the Action of God in her and deal with the rest: much will remain, and it is the essence of her work.

To be fair, it is true that for the average reader it is very difficult to sort out the graces. What is extraordinary, then, in mysticism and in St Teresa’s life? Levitation to start with, i.e. where her body is elevated from the floor while receiving a strong grace. Next, the visible part of the grace of transverberation (when an Angel pierces her heart with a fiery arrow).Then certain exterior manifestations of her ecstasies: falling on the floor and fainting. Or Certain visions she received. All these could be discarded, as not being destined for the everyday Christian. But let us keep all the rest.

The rest could still seem extra-ordinary, but in fact it is not. The Grace of God is an action of God in us which is greater than our own capacities (With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. (Mt 19:26)), and in this sense the Grace of God is by definition extra-ordinary, or better said: super-natural, i.e. above the normal capacity of our faculties. It elevates our way of doing things to a divine level. Let us not reduce the Grace of God and what it achieves in us. When God acts in us, His action has a real effect on us. If some consider that this “mysticism” is not part of christian life, they are emptying Christianity of of its essential constituent: the experience of the Risen Lord.

Here a valid objection of many arises: “but we live by faith and in faith”!

It is important, then, for us to go back once more to the experience of the Apostles and of the Saints. This is our criterium, the way we should measure our faith, and what constitutes a life of faith. If “faith” means absence of the experience of the Risen Lord and forgetting the experience of the Holy Spirit, then there is a serious problem. This is the basic attitude of the individual, moved by the Grace of God, open to the direct Action of the Holy Spirit. One has only to re-read the Gospel and make a note of all the passages that allude to an experience of the Holy Spirit to see that, if removed, nothing will be left.

Here further objections may arise: Christ said in St John’s Gospel: blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (John 20:29) and St Paul mentions that we live our life in faith i.e. without seeing! For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror ; then we shall see face to face. (1 Cor 13:12). Are these objections really truer?

St Paul can talk with authority. He underwent the experience of the Risen Lord, he heard His voice, he received hundreds of Graces, he was taken to the third heaven (see 2 Cor 12:2),... Therefore, let us be prudent in our reading of the texts, and let us view them together in a coherent way, not quoting one text while forgetting the others. Between the very narrow idea some have of “faith” and the experience of St Paul and the Faith he preaches, there is an abyss. Let us be objective.

For St John (blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed) the same applies: does he not talk about the necessity to receive “grace upon grace” (John 1:16)? Does he not speak about the fact that God gives his Holy Spirit without measure (John 3:34)? What we need to understand in the text (blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed), is not the negation of the experience that the act of faith brings to us, but the priority of that act over the experience: believe first, and secondly you will see, you will have the experience. On the one hand we cannot put experience before faith, and on the other hand, the act of faith, opens us to the action of the Grace of God and therefore offers an experience of God: if you believe, you will see the glory of God. (John 11:40)

In the Gospel of St John, in fact, “to believe” is a progressive journey: from the faith of the first disciples in the first chapter, through their faith in Cana of Galilee, up to the Faith of St. John at the foot of the Cross seeing Jesus’ side opened, there is growth and progress. This is the teaching of St John. Believing leads to a vision of the Glory of God. First we see Jesus, in his human nature, secondly we believe that in Him there is more than just what we first see or notice. Then with the act of faith we enter deeper within Him, in order to reach new layers/dimensions of His Divine being. Finally we have the experience of His Divinity, leading to the experience of the Risen Lord. This is the core of St John’s Gospel, underlined in his first conclusion: “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his Name.” (John 20:30-31) What is written is a journey of growth in Faith, a Faith that leads to the experience of the Divine Life, during this lifetime.

The fact that the experience during this lifetime is not a total vision, can be universally acknowledged, but from that assertion to discarding the existence of a journey of growth, would be to offer an impoverished reading of the Gospel.

Returning to St Teresa once more, it can be said that her experience of Jesus is a way for everybody to undergo. Of course, by saying that one seems to go against the mainstream! To offer a mysticism like hers to everybody seems unsettling. But St Teresa is adamant in sending a clear message to the entire Church because what is at stake is the core of Christianity. If one removes the experience of the Risen Lord and the experience of the Holy Spirit that comes with it, what will remain? The same applies to her life: if we remove all the graces the Lord gave her, out of His pure mercy, we empty her life completely of its meaning and purpose. Her achievements become but a human endeavour.

The fact that she seems to go against the trend is not her fault. St Paul in a similar way, when talking to the Greeks in the Areopagus was going against the trend: when he mentioned the Resurrection of Jesus they laughed at him and stopped listening to him. Christianity at its core is an openness to the One who is Present amongst us, acts, loves us, and is searching for us. Christ offers his friendship, his Love! For some, Christ is absent, away, dead! This is not the case for St Teresa and for Christians: on a daily basis they have an experience of him: otherwise christians would be a collection of liars.

This, emphatically, is christian life and indeed talking this way puts people out of their comfort zone. Some easily take St Teresa for a mentally or psychologically deranged person. But let us not forget what happens to St Paul after his experience of the Risen Lord, when he talks to his fellow Jews. Will they listen to him? When he will talk to the Gentiles, in Greece, will they listen to him? Is he trying to cajole them? If we remove from Christianity the “experience of the Risen Lord as something common offered to all Jesus’ followers” we empty it completely.

To this the objection may be raised that many do not have this experience and are surprised to hear this. It seems excessive!

But Teresa did not actively seek out such an experience, she did not even know it existed. She was a nun for almost twenty years without this experience, at least without a steady growth spiritually. And God in His infinite Mercy took pity on her, shook her powerfully so she could completely turn all her being towards Him and start to receive a great abundance of graces. When we read her then, we find her very sincere. She cannot lie. Her authenticity endorses more forcibly what she has to say. Those almost twenty years of having a “normal” life as a consecrated person speak loudly to us, because they highlight all that comes afterwards. Her life is an invitation sent by Jesus to each one of us to receive what she received, to learn how to prepare ourselves - removing all obstacles - in order to receive the Lord. It is a matter of experience: to dive into the pool is exceedingly more useful than to discuss at length the nature of its water!

St Teresa offers us a huge challenge, a challenge that is capable of changing our Christian lives. All her life is here to tell us the difference between before and after meeting the Risen Lord. In this light it resembles St Paul’s life a little. As with him, it was certainly a huge effort for her to accept the challenge and undergo the journey. But she learned to let the Lord lead her, to be attentive to Him and to receive His Graces.

It will not be to our detriment if we lose hold of our resistance and make an attempt and follow her example. On the contrary – the adventure starts here!