St. Teresa of Avila
One
Today is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, along with St. John of the Cross she is one of the most important teachers of the spiritual life.
Teresa was born in Spain in 1515 and died in 1582. My daughter Teresa and I were blessed to be in Avila on this day in 2015 for the 500th birthday party of Teresa.
When St. Teresa was seven, she talked her cousin into running away from home to be martyred by Muslims. Her uncle caught them at the edge of town and brought them back. Her mother died when she was fourteen, so she took Mary as her mother. At twenty, she entered the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation in Avila. At twenty-two, she experienced an illness that paralyzed her for three years. Through the intercession of St. Joseph, she was able to walk again. This miracle resulted in her great devotion to him.
The two most important things Teresa sets before us is the goal of life, which is transforming union with Jesus, and the best means to the goal, which is daily mental prayer.
Teresa explains that mental prayer or meditation is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.
Two
The need for mental prayer
The biggest problem Teresa faced was that the nuns in the convent were kept so busy that there was no time for mental prayer and there was no one to teach her how to go deeper in prayer. Jesus did not fail her. He came to her, and he taught her how to have a deep friendship with him in prayer.
What do we mean by mental prayer?
There are three basic stages of prayer:
Vocal prayer, that is, speaking to God in formal prayers or with your own words. But friendship must be a two way street, so we not only want to speak to God, we also want to listen to Him.
Mental prayer or meditation, in which we listen to God. In mental prayer we read or listen to something from the Word of God found in Scripture, Tradition – that is, the writings of the saints, or the Magisterium – the teaching of the Church. Then we need to think about it or reflect on it so that we can understand it and love God for it. But we also need to apply that truth to our life. Ask yourself, “Am I living this or not? If I am not living this, then what habitual or root vice(s) are preventing me? Pride, vanity, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust…And what occasions of sin, what circumstances prompt me to fall into this vice or sin?” It is essential to learn two things by thinking about the Word of God: We learn about God and we learn about ourselves!
A resolution. And Jesus said it is not those who hear the Word that are his friends, but rather those who do what He says. That is why every time of prayer must end with a resolution. A resolution is to choose something practical and concrete to remember or to do that day based on your meditation to stop a vice and practice the conquering virtue.
So mental prayer or meditation consists in three R’s: Read, Reflect and a Resolution. The Rosary is meant to be a meditation, not a rote saying of words while the mind wanders. Therefore, we need to follow this path during our Rosary.
Three
Are we engaging our mind when we pray?
The basic problem we face is that we are controlled by disordered desires and emotions: anger, fear, anxiety, lust, vanity, envy, pride, sloth, greed, gluttony…on and on. And these determine our behavior rather than truth and goodness.
We have three powers of the soul. The intellect, the emotions, and the will. The intellect is supposed to determine behavior, not emotions. Thinking should determine what we say and do. But we allow the feelings to rule. Feelings are good but they are good servants and very bad masters. So how do we get the intellect to take charge? It all begins with mental prayer.
In mental prayer we do something we rarely dom we think. We think about what God is saying. We think about what is right and wrong, good and bad. Then we make the decision to do it when we make our resolution at the end of mental prayer.
By reading, reflecting or thinking about the Word of God and resolving to do it we put the intellect back in charge and the emotions in their proper place and our soul begins to work as God designed it.
But if we never think in prayer – if we don’t get the intellect working – then disordered emotions – vices – will always rule us.
This is why the Great Teresa said that mental prayer was the infallible means to transformation. And without it – Jesus can’t transform us because we are cooperating with him.
Four
Teresa tells us there are two essential traits we need to grow closer to God .
The first is total surrender to God.
The rich young man in the Gospels captured the imagination of Teresa. Here was someone who really had their life together, kept all the commandments, wanted to inherit eternal life, but there was a major problem, he was prevented from deep friendship with Christ because of his disordered attachments, he was attached to his wealth, which he could not let go of to receive the infinite treasure of Christ – so and he went away sad.
To reach the goal of life, transforming union with Jesus, an unavoidable condition is required: total surrender to God. We must say to God, "Let Your will be done in me in every way.” (Life 11, 12).
But we are afraid to say to God, “I am all yours – do with me and whatever is dear to me whatever you want.” We hold back from giving ourselves to God because we think our happiness, safety and security lies in our health, relationships, wealth, ect. And because we do not give ourselves unreservedly to God, we prevent God from giving himself to us. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.
What are you afraid of losing if you let go completely to God?
Five
The 2nd condition for growth is Courage
Teresa insists again and again. She writes, “Have great confidence, for it is necessary not to hold back one's desires, but to believe in God that if we try we shall little by little, even though it may not be soon, reach the state the saints did with His help. For if they had never determined to desire and seek this state little by little in practice they would never have mounted so high. His Majesty wants this determination, and He is a friend of courageous souls if they walk in humility and without trusting in self.” (Life 13, 1-3).
Courageous souls make more progress in a short time than cowardly souls over many years.
Courage is the willingness to sacrifice lesser things for the sake of greater. Ultimately the rich young man was a coward because he sacrificed the greatest thing – Jesus – for the much lesser – his wealth and comfort.
Every moment we spend with Jesus in prayer, we sacrifice what is lesser for what is the greatest.
Teresa said: I marvel at how important it is to be courageous in striving for great things along this path.
(Life 11, 11).
Let us end with the resolution to never miss even one day in friendship with Jesus in meditation and a resolution to never be a cowardly soul.