Angela Blardony Ureta, A.O.Carm

Today, we commemorate the feast day of one of the most remarkable women to have ever walked the earth, a Spanish contemplative nun who lived and died well over four centuries ago but whose words and deeds continue to impact us, especially those who have chosen to heed the silent call of Carmel.

Much had been said about Teresa of Avila – the great leader, mystic and reformer of the fifteenth century. Renowned scholars have written volumes of books and papers over the centuries about the depth of her theology and the complexity of her spiritual life. As one of the Church’s most popular and influential saints, she has inspired men and women to enter the religious life – particularly the monasteries and cloisters of Carmel – and to pursue a life dedicated to intimately knowing God. And from these followers of the great Teresa, there have been many martyrs, beatos and saints whom we now look up to as models of faith.

For us who are lay Carmelites, Teresa seems to be a more distant and looming figure than the “little flower” Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who is certainly a favourite patroness of millions all over the world, or perhaps the more contemporary personages like twentieth century Carmelites Blessed Titus Brandsma and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein).

What Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Blessed Titus Brandsma and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross have in common is that they were all great admirers of Teresa of Avila, whose impassioned writings had greatly influenced their own vocation and spirituality.

From a lay perspective, especially for us who are neither scholars nor theologians, who is Teresa of Avila? How do we demystify her? How do we make her accessible and relevant to our daily lives?

As a media practitioner, I believe that the biggest challenge we face when introducing a subject is making our topic understood by all – because the nature of mass media is that you cannot choose your audience.

So how do we propose to speak about Teresa of Avila today? By talking less about the illustrious and lofty saint, and more about the witty and sensible woman who was, by and large, a product of her times. We have to see Teresa from the background of her historical, social, cultural and political milieu in order to understand her better and appreciate her spirituality, which ripened over time in the context of her personal human experiences.

Teresa in history: Born at a crossroads of time

Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada was born within the fabled walls of Avila on March 28, 1515. At that time, Europe ruled the world and the Holy Roman Empire ruled the crowned heads of the continent. The West was expanding into Asia and the Americas, hoisting the cross on one hand and the sword on the other.

The person that was Teresa had been shaped primarily by the historical, political, cultural and religious landscape in which she lived. She was born at a crossroads in history, when the world teetered between the Renaissance Period and the Age of Discovery and Exploration. Like the promise of springtime after the long winter that was the Dark Ages, the Renaissance signified ‘rebirth’, a widespread reform in intellectual and artistic pursuits, which saw the historical world move from darkness to light, from ignorance to enlightenment. Emboldened by their newfound skills and knowledge, the kingdoms of Europe ventured into distant territories in a zealous (and often brutal) mission to claim souls for Christ and gold for the crown.

During this period, Spain and Portugal led Europe in exploring the world’s seas and in opening oceanic trade routes. Large parts of the New World became Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Meanwhile, the Protestant Reformation gave a major blow to the authority of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church, as religious conflicts came to dominate politics. In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire continued to expand, threatening the Christian colonizers. In the world of arts and sciences, the prodigious Italian painter Michaelangelo finished painting the Sistine Chapel, while Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a ‘heliocentric’ (sun-centred) universe but was met with strong resistance, although later proven to be correct.

Teresa was a product of this scholarly period; she could read and write, rare for women of her time. Born only 23 years after Christopher Columbus’ sail to Hispaniola under the Spanish flag, her life was in many ways intertwined with the early history of the Hispanic New World. She had at least two brothers who served as conquistadores in Peru, conquered by Francisco Pizzaro in 1533. And growing up hearing stories about the quest for gold and adventure in the New World, she harboured an intense desire to learn, to explore, to conquer the infidels and to die for the faith.

In 1542, the Roman Inquisition began, the same year that both Juan de Yepes y Alvarez (later known as John of the Cross) and Leonardo da Vinci were born. Teresa was then 27. (Two years earlier, the Society of Jesus was founded by her fellow Spaniard, Ignatius of Loyola, and in England, the apostate Henry VIII was king.)

Also in 1542, Conquistador Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sailed from Mexico on the route of Ferdinand Magellan, and reached land on the other side of the globe four months later; he named the new colony ‘Las Islas Filipinas’ in honour of the prince, Don Felipe de Asturias.

By 1562, Teresa had begun reforming Carmel with John of the Cross – just two years before, Galileo Galilei and William Shakespeare were born. In 1582, the year she died at Alba de Tormes, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the new Christian Calendar. The day she passed away – October 4 – was the last Julian day in pontifical states, including Spain. This is why we now celebrate her Feast Day on October 15.

From these few examples we can see that throughout her entire life, Teresa lived in a world that was changing rapidly, even if societies and cultures struggled against transformation. Despite the world opening up around them, she lived in a land where social customs and religious traditions continued to be inflexible, and where she was often criticized for her non-conformist ways and revolutionary thinking. If not for her inborn charisma and irrepressible wit, this feisty nun would have ended up in the unforgiving flames of the Inquisition instead of founding convents. But such was not her fate.

In 1622, forty years after her death, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV, and in 1970 named the first female Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. She wrote books which include her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and her seminal work, El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle) – now integral components of Spanish Renaissance literature as well as of Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices, as she teaches us in her other important work Camino de Perfección (The Way of Perfection).

She is one of the patron saints of Spain and is the special protector of people with bodily ills and headaches, of lace makers, orphans, people in need of grace, women in Religious Orders, and individuals who are ridiculed for their piety.

A saint but not an angel

Many accounts on her life and works describe Teresa as an astute religious reformer and administrator, an inspired spiritual director, and an extraordinary mystical writer. Truly, she was a saint… but definitely, she was no angel.

The first forty years of Teresa’s life give no clue to the rich depth and productivity of the second half of her life. Her grandfather was a converted Jew who climbed his way into the aristocracy by marrying well; so did her own father. Motherless at age 14 and spoiled by a doting father, she was a vain, vivacious, exquisitely stylish young lady who was the centre of attention of any social function. She was known to be an excellent singer and dancer, and held everyone enthralled by her smart conversation. As she herself admitted in her later writings, she also liked to flirt with the young men who paid her court, so much so that she became so infatuated with a handsome cousin at age 16, prompting her father to pack her off to an Augustinian convent where she had limited access to male company.

Teresa was certainly unlike most privileged young ladies of her time. Raised at par with her male siblings, she was given basic education and was allowed to think for herself. Early on, she was able to make life choices that determined her future – a concession not available to the average sixteenth century woman. She knew she did not want to enter into an arranged marriage (as was the custom then) but neither did she wish to become a sorry spinster. So at age 21, against her father’s wishes, she professed vows as a Carmelite at the Convent of the Incarnation in Avila.

The convent was known for its leniency, permitting close personal relationships with those outside the convent and allowing worldly possessions within. Being overpopulated but penniless, the convent encouraged contact with the outside world, so as to bring in donations and alms for the nuns. At its parlour the lively aristocrat from Avila was, of course, one of those often called to amuse guests or to console capricious matrons.

Even inside the Incarnation, she used her noble title ‘Dona Teresa de Ahumada’. Enjoying the convent’s indulgences, she waned in her Christian devotion. Then she was forced by a serious, prolonged illness (worsened by partial paralysis from an attempted cure) to spend three years in relative quiet. She read books on the spiritual life. When she recovered and returned to the convent she resumed what to her later seemed only a half-hearted spirituality. Of these years, she wrote in her autobiography, “I voyaged on this tempestuous sea for almost twenty years with these fallings and risings”.[1]

When she was nearly 40, Teresa – who had found it hard to pray for the last two decades – had a profound religious experience. One day, while walking down a hallway in the convent, her glance fell on an image of Christ being scourged at the pillar. Almost instantly, her heart was pierced by the vision of his constant love throughout her desert period of infidelity.

As she said later, Jesus gently but powerfully revealed the cause of her spiritual collapse: her daily exposure to the trivial yet burdensome delights of sin. She wept all night and immediately broke with her past, undergoing a final conversion. After this, she began experiencing the profound mystical raptures that would cause her so much pain and ridicule, but at the same time, would bring her unspeakable joy and ecstasy as her existence became increasingly difficult.

In the last 20 years of her life, Teresa gave herself completely to personal spiritual growth and the renewal of the Carmelite monasteries. She spent her last years traveling the countryside establishing reformed (or ‘discalced’, meaning ‘unshod’, that is, ‘more simple’) Carmelite convents. She founded fourteen monasteries and died, quite literally, in the line of duty. On yet another mission of service at Alba de Tormes, her body exhausted and worn out by a lingering illness that led to profuse bleeding, Madre Teresa de Jesus died reciting verses from the Song of Songs.

Teresa in relation to other saints and great thinkers          

In 1562, Teresa met Fray Pedro de Alcántara, a Franciscan reformer whose saintliness inspired her to confide in him as her spiritual guide. Inspired by his attempt to restore his Order to its original barefoot poverty, Teresa took it upon herself to reform the Carmelites along similar lines.

In Salamanca she chose Padre Domingo de Bañez, an eminent Dominican theologian and an exponent and defender of Thomistic doctrine, as her director and confessor, showing her acute intellect and confidence even in the company of learned men.

In 1567, she met the young John of the Cross, whom she enlisted to extend her reform into the male side of the Carmelite Order. Inspired by the Spirit, she immediately talked to him about her reformation projects even if he was then just newly ordained and almost three decades her junior. She asked him to give up his entry into the Carthusians.

Meanwhile, saints from future generations like Francis de Sales and Alphonsus Liguori, both Doctors of the Church, not only greatly admired Teresa, but turned to her works for enlightenment and inspiration.

Philosopher Edith Stein went from being born a Jew to becoming an atheist and eventually, to conversion to the Roman Catholic Church after reading Saint Teresa’s autobiography. Stein became a Carmelite nun but was murdered by Nazis for her Jewish heritage in the gas chambers of Auschwitz during World War II. We now know her as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Teresa and the gift of ‘holy wit’

“From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, O Lord, deliver us!” This is probably one of the most popular quotes attributed to Teresa, one that tells us in one humorous yet evocative line her philosophy for life and faith.

Teresa mastered the art of living lightly and well; her devotion to Jesus Christ was matched only by her zest for life and her unbridled sense of humour. She prayed a lot, she laughed a lot.

Once when praying about her many trials and sufferings, she thought she heard God say, “But this is how I treat my friends.” With characteristic petulance, Teresa replied, “No wonder you have so few...”

A healthy sense of humour allows us to break but not shatter. Teresa had many outstanding qualities as a religious reformer and spiritual director, but for this lecture we narrow our focus in order to enjoy and profit from one of her most outstanding – though often overlooked – gifts: the ability to live by ‘holy wit’.

Teresa had her eyes focused on heaven while her feet remained firmly planted on the ground. She exhibited the twin qualities of humility and humour – a woman of many healthy contradictions that made her whole. She believed that finding the lighter side of things can also be holy if you are doing it to achieve God’s work.

Doing God’s work requires hard work and virtue: concern for others expressed in deeds and not mere talk; ego annihilation through a hardy obedience and detachment from self-satisfaction; trust and humility “in the presence of infinite Wisdom”. We must have a good sense of humour as well as a healthy dose of common sense.

     Indulgent yet austere, Teresa knew both pleasure and penance. She loved giving and receiving gifts, but also lived very simply in daily life. The story is told of her being invited to dinner at a patron’s house and of a guest making a snide remark about the nun enthusiastically devouring a partridge. She was said to have exclaimed: “When I fast, I fast; and when I eat partridge, I eat partridge!”

Yet Teresa was very vigilant against being selfish and self-indulgent, fussing about her health, her need for rest, her desire for tranquillity and order. She advised her young nuns to take care of their health but not to give in to every little malady, or else “the body grows fat and the soul weakens”.

She was idealistic, but also very practical, sensible and down to earth. “God deliver me from people so spiritual they want to turn everything into perfect contemplation,” she once said in relation to the extreme discipline and lack of mirth of a young friar.

Teresa, who dreamed big and always saw the positive side of any situation, also knew how to lighten the load by not taking everything seriously. As she quipped to a young nun who wanted to stifle any entertaining comments that occurred to her during recreation time: “It is bad enough… to be stupid by nature without trying to be stupid by grace.”

She had a romantic nature that was tempered by a clear and rational mind… and also a sharp tongue. To a prioress who complained of a nun’s love for books, her spiky reply was, “Better a bookworm than a fool!” On another occasion, when some of her contemplative nuns complained about doing manual work, she gave her now famous quotation: “Know that if it (the work) is in the kitchen, the Lord walks among the pots and pans.”

And in The Way of Perfection, she gives a clear example on why sensible action is just as important as pious contemplation:

“Saint Martha was holy, but we are not told that she was a contemplative. If she had been absorbed in devotion all the time, as Magdalene was, there would have been no one to prepare a meal for the Divine Guest.”

Teresa and prayer

Prayer, for Teresa, is a “solitary converse, with Him who we know loves us”. She was a renowned mystic, yet remained pragmatic.  She took supernatural occurrence with down-to-earth humour and slight scepticism of the ‘here and now’.

Teresa underlined the need to cultivate lofty thoughts, which are greatly helped by spiritual guidance from a suitable confessor, reading spiritual books, and the regular practice of prayer. She saw prayer not as a passive activity but as a rugged and robust exercise. And like any exercise, you have to do it religiously and without fail, whether you like it or not. For those times when we feel empty or unsure, she recommends a simple and highly personal method: “Look at Christ who is looking at you.”

Although she was the life of any conversation, Teresa was known to spend long hours in prayer and silence. On one occasion, she heard how some of her nuns were warned by hostile priests not to engage in deep contemplation as they may be “tricked by the enemy”. To this, the unfazed foundress retorted: “Prayer is the duty of the religious, God forbid that it should be dangerous. Cease troubling about these fears. This is not the time to believe everyone; believe only those whom you see modelling their lives on the life of Christ.”

For Teresa, prayer is the source of Christian life and the wellspring of all moral virtues. Prayer is not everything, but without prayer, nothing else is possible. Under this umbrella of prayer, God works in mysterious, often unpredictable, ways, and the soul works strongly.

Her understanding of disengagement from the world is not necessarily ascetic. On the contrary, her idea of genuine suffering comes from being fully present in the world and serving others. Spiritual progress is measured neither by self-imposed penance nor by the sweetest pleasures of mystical experiences but by growth in constant love for others and an increasing desire within for the will of God.[2]

As she wrote in Life:

“God and the soul understand each other… It’s like the experience of two persons here on earth who love each other deeply and understand each other well.”

Keeping our gaze on God

Like men and women of our generation, Teresa of Avila suffered from bouts of despair, especially as she was forced by age to weaken and slow down. “There come days in which one word alone distresses me, and I would want to leave the world because it seems everything is a bother to me,” she confesses in her memoirs.

Despite the eminent stature she occupies in the Church today, we have to remember that while she was founding her reformed convents, Teresa was actually a sickly old woman who travelled great lengths on rough roads and bad weather, often with little food and even less sleep.

In her writings Teresa openly talked about her failing health, her memory loss, her inability to do what she was instructed, even her shortcomings as an author. As she narrates and itemizes her own weakness, she calls herself “gloomy” and “ill-tempered” and admits that she often gets so angry she wants to “eat everyone up, without being able to help it”. As her disillusionment grows, she describes herself as a “helpless little bird with broken wings” or “a stupid little donkey grazing”.

Whether lay or religious, we are likely to reach a stage in our lives and in our work when we no longer feel as capable or as effective as we were years back. Or, we begin to question why we are doing these things in the first place – what have we accomplished that is of any relevance to the world?

Discouragement quickly follows, as we no longer understand ourselves and our real motivations. We become weak and cowardly on the moral level and see that “our natural bent is toward the worst rather than the best”. We find ourselves so physically limited and incapable of greatness that we are even greatly affected by “changes in the weather and the rotating of the bodily humours”.

All around us and in ourselves we see deception, duplicity, and lies. As Teresa notes, the world is a mockery, a joke, “as good as a play”. We are stunned by our experience of impermanence, instability and insecurity. We try to protect ourselves because we are afraid of the truth that haunts our sleeping and sometimes even our waking hours, the truth that the Buddhist and Hindu traditions call samsara: Everything changes, passes, and dies—and so will we. But as Teresa wrote in her famous bookmark prayer: “Todo se pasa” – all things are passing. “Solo Dios basta” – God alone suffices!

Teresa continues to inspire us even four centuries after her death. Her teaching has the power to see us through a lifetime and will endure hundreds of years after us, because the wisdom she shares is timeless and perennial.

Wherever you find yourself today, whether you are delighted or disillusioned, filled with wonder or wounded, shining or shattered in this modern world that is constantly changing and moving rapidly towards its own destruction, Teresa has a word of wisdom just for you: “All our troubles come from not keeping our eyes on Christ!”

References

Auclair, M.: Teresa of Avila. New York: Pantheon Books. 2004.

Hutchison, G.: Teresa of Avila: Living by Holy Wit. Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press. 1999.

Smith, J.V.: The Way of Perfection: A Simplified Version. Manila: National Book Store Publishers. 1977.

ChristianHistory.net: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/innertravelers/avila.html?start=2

[1]        http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/innertravelers/

         avila.html

[2]        http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/innertravelers/

         avila.html?start=2

On the 15th of October, the feast of St. Teresa, a solemn Eucharist was celebrated in Avila to mark the closing of the 5th Centenary of the birth of the Carmelite saint. The Archbishop of Valladolid and President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Ricardo Blásquez, led the celebration, with many bishops and priests concelebrating. The concelebrants included the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., and the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Fr. Saverio Cannistrà, O.C.D., Following the Eucharist, the participants walked in procession with the statue of St.Teresa to the church on the site where she was born. 

Among the many participants there was a group of pilgrims from Australia, led by Dennis Andrews, O.Carm, the Provincial of Australia and Timor Leste, Fr. Greg Burke. O.C.D. and Paul Sireh, O.Carm.

While the Prior General was in Avila he took time out to visit the Monastery of Fontiveros (John of the Cross’ birthplace) and the interprovincial novitiate community in Salamanca, where he gave a talk on what is happening in the Order, to a very sizeable group of novices.  The previous evening the novices led a prayer vigil in the church of the Discalced Carmelites in Salamanca.

As well as that, in the monastery of the Discalced nuns in Alba de Tormes, on the 14th of October a solemn novena began to mark the closing of the Centenary. Fr. Alejandro López-Lapuente, O.Carm., from the community in Salamanca, led the celebration of the Eucharist and preached on the 14th and 16th of October. 

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Paranavaí, Brazil, was held 10 October 2015. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. Derly de Paula Moreira, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:   Sr. Edna Maria Lopes de Sousa, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. Maria do Carmo da Conceição , O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. Edna Maria Lopes de Sousa, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. Edna Maria Lopes de Sousa, O.Carm.
• Sacristan:  Sr. Derly de Paula Moreira, O.Carm.

From July 23 to August 9 in Lima, Peru, a formation course was carried out for students and young formators in the Americas. The meeting covered issues in the field of academics, spirituality and psychology, as well as workshops on leadership, several pastoral experiences in poor areas of Lima and some cultural visits. Keynote speakers were John Welch, O. Carm., USA; and Carlos Mesters, O.Carm., Brazil, who spoke of the great Carmelite saints and the great figures of Mary, Elijah and Elisha. This first course was organized by Raul Maraví, O. Carm., General Councilor of the Americas, at the request of superiors, commissaries and delegates from the Americas. This meeting was attended by 23 friars from 10 different nations in the hemisphere, who enjoyed the internationality of the Order and a great fraternal atmosphere.

Also, from 26 to 31 October, the IV ALACAR Congress will be held in San Salvador, El Salvador (Central America), bringing together representatives of the O.Carm. and OCD families of Latin America: friars, nuns, religious and laity. The conference will focus in Saint Teresa of  Jesus on the occasion of the V centenary of her birth. Both Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., Prior General of the Carmelite Order, and Fr. Saverio Cannistrà, OCD, Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, will be speakers at this important gathering.

Pope’s Prayer Intentions for October 2015

Universal: Human trafficking - That human trafficking, the modern form of slavery, may be eradicated.

Evangelization: Mission in Asia - That with a missionary spirit the Christian communities of Asia may announce the Gospel to those who are still awaiting it.

Lectio Divina October - Octubre - Ottobre 2015

The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Carpineto Romano, Italy, was held 21 September 2015. The following were elected:

• Prioress:  Sr. M. Noemi Malagesi, O.Carm.
• 1st Councilor:   Sr. M. Paola Ricci, O.Carm.
• 2nd Councilor:  Sr. M. Valentina Rossin, O.Carm.
• 3rd Councilor:   Sr. M. Rosa Fois, O.Carm.
• 4th Couniclor:   Sr. M. Carla Zinno, O.Carm.
• Director of Novices:  Sr. M. Valentina Rossin, O.Carm.
• Treasurer:  Sr. Anna Luisa Voltazza, O.Carm.
• Sacristan:  Sr. M. Mihaela Catana, O.Carm.

The Provincials, Commissaries and Delegates General of the European Geographical Area met together in Rome from the 16th to 18th September 2015. Having reflected on the current situation of the Order in each of the provinces, they discussed in detail the question of collaboration in the area of initial formation. A common European novitiate having been established in Salamanca, Spain, some years ago, they have now agreed to prepare the way for the establishment of a European International formation community for initial formation in Rome. Apart from their work in general assembly and in regional groups, the provincials were addressed by the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, Fr. John Keating, Councillor General for Europe and Fr. Míċeál O’Neill, Prior of St. Albert’s International Centre in Rome, who also acted as chairman for the meeting. They also issued the following message to all Carmelite communities in Europe:

The Carmelite Provincials of Europe, meeting in Rome, from the 16th to the 19th of September, and fully aware of what is happening  to the thousands of refugees who seek to find a welcome in our countries, make an appeal to all our communities, to live in the spirit of our constitutions (No.114). “Social reality challenges us.  Attentive to the cry of the poor, and faithful to the Gospel, we must take our stand with them, making an option for the “little ones”. (...) to bring to our brothers and sisters a word of hope and salvation from their midst, more by our lives than by our words ... ; (...) allegiance to Jesus also means allegiance to the poor and to those in whom the face of Christ is mirrored preferentially.” Mindful that in the beginning we too were pilgrims, and urged by our contemplative and prophetic charism, we invite each community, to the extent that each one can, to be open to the kind of solidarity that this humanitarian situation demands and that the Church asks of us too.

Rome, 18th of September, 2015

With the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus we come to the summit of the commemoration of this great Carmelite saint. Various news of CITOC-online has reported the initiatives celebrated in many Provinces of the Order. In addition, during the General Chapter of the Discalced Carmelites, our Prior General presided at the Eucharist in the “Holy place”, the birthplace of Saint Teresa. He was accompanied by Fr. Xavier Cannistrà, Superior General of the Teresian Carmelites who was just re-elected as Superior General. In this issue of our magazine, we dedicate a large part to this Saint of Carmel: a biography of her life, an article on her characteristics, and finally a portrayal of her as a woman of prayer.

Another great figure of more recent times was beatified on May 23, 2015, in El Salvador: Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. His beatification, so long-awaited, gives us the opportunity to present two articles on his love and pious devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and a presentation of Carmel in El Salvador.

It was a great honor for the whole Order that Fr. Bruno Secondin, O.Carm, preached the retreat to Pope Francis and members of the Roman Curia. We are excited to share an article in which he shares with us this unique experience.

The history of Carmel has always responded to the challenges resulting from the changes of the historical moment.  An example of this is the report on the merger of the two Institutes of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Carmelite Sisters of Grace. This issue also features another article on Carmelite nuns, presenting a look at the reality of our nuns in Asia.

In addition to these articles, and other information from around the world, we present a selection of top news, some of which was already published in CITOC-online, as we catch a glimpse of the current activities of the Order.

please click here to read in pdf format

To undertake (prayer [JH]) is a matter of life and death for all Christians. And no one, however lost he may be, should set it aside if God has awakened him to so great a good.

Camino de perfección 16:3

The continuation of the book is therefore entirely dedicated to prayer. However, Teresa has trouble finding a good starting point. What she actually wants to discuss is contemplative prayer (contemplación), but she realizes that not everyone is called to this. In this respect we can only trust in God’s grace. This is why it is better not to have a qualitative judgment on the different types of prayer and humbly to accept what the Lord in His goodness gives us (Camino de perfección 16:18). In the continuation Teresa does, however, make clear that prayer is not a goal in and of itself. We don’t come to prayer by reciting standard formulas but by inwardly directing ourselves towards God and placing our trust in Him alone. Then God Himself will lead us to the source of living water. According to Teresa this source is located in the centre of our soul and when we drink from this source, we are assuaged with a thirst that pulls us ever deeper into the infinite longing of God (perfection).

How right and true, as words coming from the mouth of Truth Itself, that such a person will not thirst for anything in this life – although thirst for the things of the next life increases much more than can ever be imagined through natural thirst!

How thirsty one becomes for this thirst! The soul understands the great value of this thirst, and even though the thirst is a most painful, wearying one, it brings with it the very satisfaction by which it is assuaged, in such a way that it is a thirst unquenchable except in earthly things. Indeed, this thirst slakes in such a way that when God satisfies the thirst, the greatest favour He can grant the soul is to leave in it this same need – and a greater one – to drink the water again.

Camino de perfección 19:2

For Teresa the inner goal of prayer is that we come into contact with God and learn to trust this Source within ourselves more and more. The way in which this is brought about is of secondary importance to her. Since God works in mysterious ways in this regard, it is not our place to determine this. What is important is that we open ourselves for God in prayer, trusting that He is truly leading us on a path that He alone knows. This is why the way of prayer is a royal road and on it we should not shrink or be irresolute:

For when you are about to gain the treasure – or steal it, since the Lord says that the violent take it away (Matthew 11:12) – by a royal road and by a safe road, the road chosen by our King and all His elect and saints, they will tell you that there are so many dangers and so many things to fear.

Camino de perfección 21:5

We travel the road of prayer, when we, in our longing, orient ourselves towards God and do not doubt that we are seen by God in this. This is why, according to Teresa, vocal prayer (oración vocal), as an expression of this inner orientation, cannot be separated from mental prayer (oración mental) or this inner orientation itself. For this it is not necessary to use long prayers. A simple Lord’s Prayer or Hail Mary suffices to direct our attention and enter into contact with the Source of our life:

Is it too much to ask you to turn your eyes from these exterior things in order to look at Him sometimes? Behold, He is not waiting for anything else, as He says to the bride, than that we look at Him. In the measure you desire Him, you will find Him. He so esteems our turning to look at Him that no diligence will be lacking on His part.

Camino de perfección 26:3