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 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 14, so she took Mary as her mom.
At 20 she entered the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation in Avila. At 22 she experienced an illness that paralyzed her for three years. Then she turned to St. Joseph who obtained for her a miraculous healing.
She writes, “I took for my advocate and lord the glorious St. Joseph and earnestly recommended myself to him. I saw clearly that as in this need so in other greater ones concerning honor and loss of soul this father and lord of mine came to my rescue in better ways than I knew how to ask for. I don't recall up to this day ever having petitioned him for anything that he failed to grant. It is an amazing thing the great many favors God has granted me through the mediation of this blessed saint, the dangers I was freed from both of body and soul. For with other saints, it seems the Lord has given them grace to be of help in one need, whereas with this glorious saint I have experience that he helps in all our needs and that the Lord wants to us understand that just as He was subject to St. Joseph on earth -- for since bearing the title of father, being the Lord's tutor, Joseph could give the Child command -- so in heaven God does whatever he commands.”
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 deeper prayer and there was no one to teach her. So, Jesus appeared to her and taught her how to have a deep friendship with him in mental prayer or meditation. Teresa later wrote 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.”
Mental prayer is a conversation with God in which we speak to Him and listen to Him.
First, we speak to him from the heart and tell him whatever is on our minds and feelings. Then we want to listen to God. How do we do that? 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.
Am I living this or not? If I am not living this, then what is 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?
Jesus said that we not only need to hear the Word of God but we must also put it into practice. So every meditation must end with a resolution. A resolution is to choose something practical and concrete from our meditation to put into practice that day.
So mental prayer or meditation consists of 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 feelings, by disordered desires, and emotions: anger, fear, anxiety, lust, vanity, envy, pride, sloth, greed, gluttony…on and on. Feelings should not determine behavior. Thinking should determine behavior.
We have three powers of the soul. The intellect, the emotions, and the will. The intellect is supposed to determine behavior, not emotions. But we allow the feelings to rule. Feelings 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 do – 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. Without it, Jesus can’t transform us because we have to cooperate 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, and 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 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, etc. 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 do you want more than God?
Five
The second 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.
Teresa said, “I marvel at how important it is to be courageous in striving for great things along this path.” (Life 11, 11).