“The Way of Perfection” – Part 7 of 10

Let’s read St Teresa of Avila’s “The Way of Perfection”.
Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD.
A Study Edition Prepared by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD.
ICS Publications, ISBN 978-0-935216-70-7

Chapter 29

In this chapter, St Teresa continues her discussion of mental prayer and emphasizes the importance of developing it as a habit. But first she makes an unexpected detour in which she urges her nuns not to worry about whether or not they enjoy the Bishop’s favor. This digressions seems like it is only distantly related to her discussion so far; but, her advice is important at this point because she reminds us that the fruits of a contemplative life are not always appreciated. This should not disturb us because we should always focus on what is lasting, not transient opinions. In fact, we should even go so far as to be unappreciated, looking inwardly for our reward from our Lord who will favor us to the degree we are despised by the world. These earthly favors, like being appreciated, divert the soul and are a lie.

“… Let each nun strive to do what she ought; if the bishop doesn’t show gratitude for what she does, she can be sure that the Lord will … Let us always direct our thoughts to what is lasting and pay no attention to things here below … Today the bishop will favor one Sister, and tomorrow he will favor you … Give no room to these thoughts … Cut them off with the thought that your kingdom is not here below and of how quickly all things come to an end.”

“But even this kind of remedy is a lowly one and not indicative of great perfection. It is better that this disfavor of your superior continue, that you be unappreciated and humbled, and that you accept this for the Lord who is with you. Turn your eyes inward and look within yourself, as has been said. You will find your Master, for He will not fail you; rather, the less you have of exterior consolation the more He will favor you.”

“O my Lord, if we truly knew You we wouldn’t care at all about anything, for You give much to those who sincerely want to trust in You! Believe, my friends, that it is a great thing to have knowledge of this truth so that you can then see that all favors here below are a lie when they divert the soul somewhat from entering within itself.”

St Teresa next returns to the main subject of the chapter which is the prayer of recollection. To be clear about what St Teresa means by recollection, she emphasizes that it is something we can “desire”, that is it is an act of our will and something we can initiate ourselves, unlike contemplation in which are faculties (intellect/imagination, memory, will) are suspended and therefore not something we can just make happen. This is important for what St Teresa will say later in the chapter, namely that, since we have control of our will in recollecting, it is something that we can perfect by practice and therefore make a habit. Recollection is not a suspension of the faculties, just their redirection inward to the soul.

“I would like to know a way of explaining how this holy fellowship with our Companion, the Saint of saints, may be experienced without any hindrance to the solitude enjoyed between the soul and its Spouse when the soul desires to enter this paradise within itself to be with its God and close the door to all the world. I say “desires” because you must understand that this recollection is not something supernatural, but that it is something we can desire and achieve ourselves with the help of God — for without this help we can do nothing, not even have a good thought. This recollection is not a silence of the faculties; it is an enclosure of the faculties within the soul.”

The next two paragraphs are of central importance for an understanding of Teresian recollection. When praying mentally, it is important that we focus our attention on God to whom we are speaking. Letting our minds wander while praying is like talking to someone while turning our backs on them. This happens, St Teresa says, because we don’t imagine him close to us, for if we did, it would be easy to look on his face. So, we want to form a habit of recollecting our senses, disengaging them from the world and drawing them inwards to focus on Him. Even if we do this for a moment during our busy life, it is so beneficial for us to remember we have Him with us always. The delight we feel helps us cultivate the habit. Knowing that he is close to us makes it unnecessary to struggle to speak to Him, to “shout” or repeat many vocal prayers. He’s so close to us he understands the subtle movements of our souls as if reading sign language.

“… we should see and be present to the One with whom we speak … for I don’t think speaking with God while thinking of a thousand other vanities would amount to anything else but turning our backs on Him. All the harm comes from not truly understanding that He is near, but in imagining Him as far away … Now, is Your face such, Lord, that we would not look at it when You are so close to us? … This alone is what I want to explain: that in order to acquire the habit of easily recollecting our minds and understanding what we are saying, and with whom we are speaking, it is necessary that the exterior senses be recollected and that we give them something with which to be occupied.”

“We must, then, disengage ourselves from everything so as to approach God interiorly and even in the midst of occupations withdraw within ourselves. Although it may be for only a moment that I remember I have that Company within myself, doing so is very beneficial. In sum, we must get used to delighting in the fact that it isn’t necessary to shout in order to speak to Him, for His Majesty will give the experience that He is present.”

“With this method we shall pray vocally with much calm, and any difficulty will be removed. For in the little amount of time we take to force ourselves to be close to this Lord, He will understand us as if through sign language. Thus if we are about to say the Our Father many times, He will understand us after the first. He is very fond of taking away our difficulty. Even though we may recite this prayer no more than once in an hour, we can be aware that we are with Him, of what we are asking Him, of His willingness to give us, and how eagerly He remains with us. If we have this awareness, He doesn’t want us to be breaking our heads trying to speak a great deal to Him.”

St Teresa closes the chapter by reminding us that recollection is an act of the will that we make, and so we have to train the will until it becomes a habit. This does requires some struggle, but St Teresa assures us that the effort is well worth it.

“… get used to praying the Our Father with this recollection, and you will see the benefit before long. This is a manner of praying that the soul gets so quickly used to that it doesn’t go astray, nor do the faculties become restless, as time will tell. I only ask that you try this method, even though it may mean some struggle; everything involves struggle before the habit is acquired.”

“I conclude by saying that whoever wishes to acquire it — since, as I say, it lies within our power — should not tire of getting used to what has been explained. It involves a gradual increase of self-control and an end to vain wandering from the right path; it means conquering, which is a making use of one’s senses for the sake of the inner life. If you speak, strive to remember that the One with whom you are speaking is present within. If you listen, remember that you are going to hear One who is very close to you when He speaks.”

While throughout the work St Teresa concentrates on vocal and mental prayer, she cannot help but at least broach the topic of contemplation since she sees it as a natural progression. While we cannot make contemplation happen, we certainly can prepare ourselves so the Lord can give it to us. The closeness to God we acquire in practicing recollection, makes us ready, if the Lord so desires, for contemplation.

“If then the Lord should desire to raise you to higher things He will discover in you the readiness, finding that you are close to Him.”

Chapter 30

St Teresa dedicates this chapter to asking the question, what exactly are we asking for when we pray. She begins by having us focus on the following lines of the Our Father, “Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come”, and wonders why, since God knows what we need before we even ask it, isn’t it enough to just say “Give us what we need?”. While this may have been sufficient for the Son who was totally surrendered to the Father’s will, it is not good for us to not carefully consider what we are asking for. Anyone who has had to undergo a great trial, like a serious illness or the loss of a loved one, knows that one of the most difficult prayers to make is “Thy will be done” in complete submission to the Father’s will. We can’t understand why God has sent us this great trial and we don’t want to accept it. Only as our faith matures can we begin to see the long term good that comes from the transient evil at hand.

[As I write these words, it has been less than two weeks since I lost my dog of over eleven years who succumbed to heart disease. As you can imagine, I prayed “God please cure my Daniel!” But could God make him eternal? Yes! He could, but that would just have made my dog into an idol for me, a creature that could be the focus of my eternal love rather than the Creator. The transient nature of all of life on earth, the fact that all our loved ones and we ourselves will die, forces us to look elsewhere for the Eternal. Intellectually this is easy to understand, but very difficult to internalize.]

“Couldn’t You, my Lord, have concluded the Our Father with the words: “Give us, Father, what is fitting for us”? … Between You and Your Father these words would have sufficed. Your petition in the garden was like this. You manifested Your own desire and fear, but You abandoned them to His will. Yet, You know us, my Lord, that we are not as surrendered to the will of Your Father as You were. You know that it was necessary for You to make those specific requests so that we might pause to consider if what we are seeking is good for us … If we aren’t given what we want, being what we are, with this free will we have, we might not accept what the Lord gives. For although what He gives is better, we don’t think we’ll ever become rich, since we don’t at once see the money in our hand.”

St Teresa next presents us with what she admits is a speculative reflection on her part regarding why the two petitions “hallowed be thy name” is juxtaposed to “thy kingdom come”. She suggests that, in order for us to fittingly give God the honor He is due, He gives us His kingdom here on earth because we do not have the capacity to properly hallow his name on our own. How this works is not really explained, but from later chapters one can surmise that she’s referring to contemplation and its attendant inner peace — particularly in chapter 31. Perhaps in her mind, she equates this inner peace to the peace of a well governed kingdom where everyone cooperates with everyone else, or as she puts it, where “everyone hallows … His name”.

“Well, Jesus says that we may recite these words in which we ask for a kingdom like His to come within us: “Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come within us.” … I am reflecting here on what we are asking for when we ask for this kingdom … since His Majesty saw that we could neither hallow, nor praise, nor extol, nor glorify this holy name of the Eternal Father in a fitting way, because of the tiny amount we ourselves are capable of doing, He provided for us by giving us here on earth His kingdom.”

“Now, then, the great good that it seems to me there will be in the kingdom of heaven, among many other blessings, is that one will no longer take any account of earthly things, but have a calmness and glory within, rejoice in the fact that all are rejoicing, experience perpetual peace and a wonderful inner satisfaction that comes from seeing that everyone hallows and praises the Lord and blesses His name and that no one offends Him. Everyone loves Him there, and the soul itself doesn’t think about anything else than loving Him; nor can it cease loving Him, because it knows Him. And would that we could love Him in this way here below, even though we may not be able to do so with such perfection or stability.”

St Teresa realizes at this point that we need reassurance. She understands that life can be wearisome with all its trials, and that surrendering to the Father’s will amounts to carrying our cross. That’s why he quiets the soul and gives us a foretaste of what we will enjoy later. At this point, the Lord is starting to draw us into pure contemplation, and the transition in which He calms our faculties, she calls the “prayer of quiet”.

“… there are times when, tired from our travels, we experience that the Lord calms our faculties and quiets the soul … And to those to whom He gives here below the kingdom we ask for, He gives pledges so that through these they may have great hope of going to enjoy perpetually what here on earth is given only in sips … [this is] the beginning of pure contemplation; those who experience this prayer call it the prayer of quiet.”

St Teresa closes by extending her reassurance to even those who are not adapt at mental prayer. She tells the story of a nun who’s mind would wander if she didn’t practice vocal prayer but who was nonetheless raised to pure contemplation. This nun may not have been aware that she was being raised to union with God, but it was clear to St Teresa from her deeds and how she lived. In this way, St Teresa is echoing St John’s insight that “since the wisdom of this contemplation is the language of God to the soul, of Pure Spirit to pure spirit, all that is less than spirit, fails to perceive it.” (Dark Night of the Soul, 2.17.4) In other words, contemplative prayer is not something that is directly experienced because it is purely spiritual, and the senses, being inferior to spirit, cannot perceive it. Rather, contemplative prayer is transformative and can only be indirectly inferred by its effect on the soul.

“… it may seem to anyone who doesn’t know about the matter that vocal prayer doesn’t go with contemplation; but I know that it does … I know a person who was never able to pray any way but vocally … Once she came to me very afflicted because she didn’t know how to practice mental prayer nor could she contemplate … I saw that though she was tied to the Our Father she experienced pure contemplation and that the Lord was raising her up and joining her with Himself in union. And from her deeds it seemed truly that she was receiving such great favors, for she was living a very good life.”

Chapter 31

In the previous chapter, St Teresa briefly mentions “the prayer of quiet” as a transitional prayer between natural prayer, ie prayer where we make the effort to reach out to God by the exercise of our natural faculties, and supernatural prayer, ie prayer which is beyond our ability and where God does the work and our faculties are suspended/silenced. In this chapter, she expands on what is meant by the “prayer of quiet” and she gives some advise to those who experience it.
St Teresa begins by explaining that the prayer of quiet is supernatural and not something we can initiate on our own. In this prayer, God’s presence puts us at peace and he communicates himself to our soul as he did to Simeon who recognized the infant Jesus as the messiah. Just like Simeon understood that the infant was the Christ but did not understand how he understood, so too does the soul in the prayer of quiet see that it is near God who will give it contemplation without knowing how it knows.

“… I nonetheless want to explain this prayer of quiet … In this prayer it seems the Lord begins … to give us His kingdom here below so that we may truly praise and hallow His name and strive that all persons do so.”

“This prayer is something supernatural, something we cannot procure through our own efforts. In it the soul enters into peace or, better, the Lord puts it at peace by His presence, as he did to the just Simeon, so that all the faculties are calmed. The soul understands in another way, very foreign to the way it understands through the exterior senses, that it is now close to its God and that not much more would be required for it to become one with Him in union …”

“Simeon could have easily judged the babe to be the son of poor people rather than the Son of our heavenly Father. But the child Himself made Simeon understand. And this is how the soul understands here, although not with as much clarity. For the soul, likewise, fails to understand how it understands. But it sees it is in the kingdom, at least near the King who will give the kingdom to the soul.”

All supernatural prayer is characterized by some suspension of the faculties, since it is God and not our faculties that are doing the work. In the prayer of quiet, the faculties of the intellect and memory are very calm, while the will is completely suspended (“captive”). And while the intellect and memory are still free, nonetheless they don’t want to be occupied with anything more than God, so even saying a vocal prayer can be disturbing to them! The soul no longer feels that it is in the world and is so absorbed in satisfaction that it doesn’t think there is more to desire.

“A person feels the greatest delight … The faculties are still; they wouldn’t want to be busy; everything else seems to hinder them from loving. But they are not completely lost; they can think of who it is they are near, for two of them are free. The will is the one that is captive here … The intellect wouldn’t want to understand more than one thing; nor would the memory want to be occupied with anything else … It pains them to speak; in their saying “Our Father” just once a whole hour passes … they see that He is beginning to give them here His kingdom. It doesn’t seem to them that they are in the world, nor would they want to see or hear about anything other than their God. Nothing pains them, nor does it seem anything ever will. In sum, while this prayer lasts they are so absorbed and engulfed with the satisfaction and delight they experience within themselves that they do not remember there is more to desire …”

The prayer of quiet has a transformative effect on the soul which persists after the prayer is completed. For days afterwards, one doesn’t feel they are wholly in the world, and that their will is still suspended, while the remaining two faculties are dulled. Still one can go about one’s business while still in a contemplative state, thus joining both active and contemplative lives.

“When this quiet is great and lasts for a long while, it seems to me that the will wouldn’t be able to remain so long in that peace if it weren’t bound to something. For it may happen that we will go about with this satisfaction for a day or two and will not understand ourselves … and they definitely see that they are not wholly in what they are doing, but that the best part is lacking, that is, the will. The will, in my opinion, is then united with its God, and leaves the other faculties free to be occupied in what is for His service … But in worldly matters, these faculties are dull and at times as though in a stupor.

“… the active and the contemplative lives are joined … the will is occupied in its work and contemplation without knowing how; the other two faculties serve in the work of Martha. Thus Martha and Mary walk together.”

St Teresa finds it necessary at this point to remind us that this prayer really is a gift, and not something we can make happen or hang on to. In a paradoxical way, the best we can do to hang on to this favor is to remember that there is nothing we can do to hang on to this favor! We can only remain open to God’s grace by persisting in humility as the publican did when he prayed “God have mercy on me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

“… since they see themselves in that contentment and do not know how it came on them — at least they see they cannot obtain it by themselves — they experience this temptation: they think they’ll be able to hold on to that satisfaction and they don’t even dare take a breath. This is foolish, for just as there’s nothing we can do to make the sun rise, there’s little we can do to keep it from setting. This prayer is no longer our work, for it’s something very supernatural and something very much beyond our power to acquire by ourselves. The best way to hold on to this favor is to understand clearly that we can neither bring it about nor remove it; we can only receive it with gratitude, as most unworthy of it; and this not with many words, but by raising our eyes to Him, as the publican did.”

We can’t make the prayer of quiet happen, but we can dispose ourselves so that God can it if he wishes. St Teresa gives us some advice here: Pray in solitude. Pray gently without trying to make the prayer happen since any attempt by the will to make it happen will make it not happen. If the intellect is distracted, don’t try to settle it down since this would amount to exercising the will and preventing it’s suspension. Rather, you should just ignore the intellect’s unruliness. In the prayer of quiet, the will is self-forgetful and simply loves God without trying to understand anything; rather, it gives over any self-consideration to God who doesn’t forget to observe what is fitting for us.

“It is good to find more solitude so as to make room for the Lord and allow His Majesty to work as though with something belonging to Him. At most, a gentle word from time to time is sufficient, as in the case of one who blows on a candle to enkindle it again when it begins to die out. But if the candle is burning, blowing on it will in my opinion serve no other purpose than to put it out. I say that the blowing should be gentle lest the will be distracted by the intellect busying itself with many words.”

“… you’ll often see that you’ll be unable to manage these other two faculties. It happens that the soul will be in the greatest quiet and the intellect will be so distracted … it knows little about how to remain stable … Thus when the will finds itself in this quiet … it shouldn’t pay any more attention to the intellect than it would to a madman. For should it want to keep the intellect near itself, it will necessarily have to be somewhat disturbed and disquieted. And in this state of prayer everything will then amount to working without any further gain but with a loss of what the Lord was giving the will without its own work.”

“… for without effort of the intellect the will is loving, and the Lord desires that the will, without thinking about the matter, understand that it is with Him … [the will] doesn’t desire to understand how it enjoys the favor or what it enjoys; but it forgets itself during that time, for the One who is near it will not forget to observe what is fitting for it. If the will goes out to fight with the intellect so as to give a share of the experience, by drawing the intellect after itself, it cannot do so at all …”

While the prayer of quiet is supernatural, it is not yet contemplation because not all the faculties are suspended. There is still the tiniest of effort on our part to “swallow this divine food” — St Teresa here uses the metaphor of a suckling child. The transition to contemplation occurs because the supernatural delight experienced by the will draws the intellect in without any effort, for if it exerts itself, it will lose! This delight is supernatural in that it occurs internal to the will, not external, and so draws the intellect away from the world and inward to God.

“This is the way this prayer of quiet is different from that prayer in which the entire soul is united with God, for then the soul doesn’t even go through the process of swallowing this divine food. Without its understanding how, the Lord places the milk within it. In this prayer of quiet it seems that He wants it to work a little, although so gently that it almost doesn’t feel its effort.”

“… they feel this prayer within themselves, a quiet and great contentment of the will, without being able to discern what it is specifically. Yet the soul easily discerns that it is far different from earthly satisfactions … The delight is in the interior of the will, for the other consolations of life, it seems to me, are enjoyed in the exterior of the will … When the will sees itself in this degree of prayer so sublime (… very recognizably supernatural), it laughs at the intellect … when [it] goes off to the more foolish things of the world … In this prayer the will is the ruler and the powerful one. It will draw the intellect after itself without your being disturbed. And if the will should desire to draw the intellect by force of arms, the strength it has against the intellect will be lost.”

St Teresa equates the Father answering our petition for His Kingdom to granting the prayer of quiet. When we are in His Kingdom, we are no longer in this world, and so we are forgetful of the things of this world. This doesn’t mean complete detachment, but at least an awareness of what is lacking and the humility to grow in detachment.

“… let’s conclude by saying that to the soul placed in this prayer it seems the Eternal Father has already here below granted its petition for His kingdom. … For when this favor is granted by God, we shall forget the things of the world … I don’t say that all those who experience this prayer must by necessity be completely detached from the world. At least, I would like them to know what is lacking and that they humble themselves and try to go on detaching themselves from everything …”

Unfortunately some people think the goal of prayer is to simply recite a large volume of prayers in a day, like units of a commodity produced in a factory. This misses the point of prayer. It is not to say lots of words, but to raise “one’s mind and heart to God” (CCC 2559). For St Teresa, this ultimately means the prayer of union. For those that merely recite volume upon volume, even if God does offer them the gift of His Kingdom, they don’t receive it since they remain stuck on their mistaken ideas about prayer.

“When individuals do not respond by service that is in conformity with so great a favor … the Lord goes in search of those who do love Him so as to give more to them … For they are so fond of speaking and reciting many vocal prayers very quickly, like one who wants to get a job done, since they oblige themselves to recite these every day, that even though, as I say, the Lord places His kingdom in their hands, they do not receive it. But with their vocal prayers they think they are doing better, and they distract themselves from the prayer of quiet.”

Chapter 32

St Teresa continues with her meditation on the Our Father in this chapter and moves on to the next lines, “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. She reminds us that the Son, in teaching us to pray “Our Father” brings us into the family of the Trinity. This doesn’t just mean that the Father has paternal obligations to us as his children, but also that we have filial obligations to the Father, and the model for those obligations is summarized in “your will be done” as Jesus prayed in the Garden. Our complete participation in the Divine will makes us the vehicle of the Father’s will being done on earth as the Son did when he carried the cross to Calvary.

“Now … that He has granted us so wonderful a favor as to make us His brothers, let us see what He desires us to give His Father.”

“‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ … Lord, if You hadn’t made the petition, the task would seem to me impossible. But when Your Father does what You ask Him by giving us His kingdom here on earth, I know that we shall make Your words come true by giving what You give for us. For once the earth has become heaven, the possibility is there for Your will to be done in me.”

St Teresa’s meditation here reminds us of that line in the Gospel of John where Christ promises “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7) The first part of this line can be read as saying, if you are in union with God, or as St Teresa puts it here, if you have been given the kingdom, then you are no longer willing with your own will but with God’s will, and so it will be done. But most people don’t understand that praying “your will be done” means trials, so St Teresa goes on to add

“I would like to question those who fear to ask for trials … about what they say when they beseech the Lord to do His will in them. Perhaps they say the words just to say what everyone else is saying but not so that His will be done.”

“His will must be done whether we like this or not … [so] take my advice, and make a virtue of necessity … I freely give mine to You [Lord] … For I have felt and have had great experience of the gain that comes from freely abandoning my will to Yours.”

Paradoxically, surrendering your will to His makes you a participant in His Divine Will that will be done regardless, so its not like you are not adding or subtracting anything. Rather, there is great spiritual merit in doing so. It is an expression of pure love for God. Still, knowing that surrendering one’s will is meritorious does not make it easy! So St Teresa continues

“… to say that we abandon our will to another’s will seems very easy until through experience we realize that this is the hardest thing one can do if one does it as it should be done … Don’t fear that it means He will give you riches, or delights, or honors, or all these earthly things. His love for you is not that small … Do you want to know how He answers those who say these words to Him sincerely? Ask His glorious Son, who said them while praying in the Garden … see if the Father’s will wasn’t done fully in Him through the trials, sorrows, injuries, and persecutions He suffered until His life came to an end through death on a cross.”

As St Teresa prepares to conclude this chapter she reminds us what this is all about: the total giving of ourselves to God is a necessary condition for perfect contemplation, without which we will never achieve union, that is, the our transformation into Himself. We then don’t have to worry about whatever trials He may want us to undergo, He will also give us the strength with the favor of His kingdom.

“… everything I have advised you about in this book is directed toward the complete gift of ourselves to the Creator, the surrender of our wills to His, and detachment from creatures … For we are preparing ourselves that we may quickly reach the end of our journey and drink the living water from the fount we mentioned. Unless we give our wills entirely to the Lord so that in everything pertaining to us He might do what conforms with His will, we will never be allowed to drink from this fount. Drinking from it is perfect contemplation …”

“In this contemplation … we don’t do anything ourselves. Neither do we labor, nor do we bargain, nor is anything else necessary — because everything else is an impediment and hindrance — than to say fiat voluntas tua … If You want it to be done with trials, strengthen me and let them come … grant me the favor of Your kingdom that I may do Your will …”

“… what strength lies in this gift! It does nothing less, when accompanied by the necessary determination, than draw the Almighty so that He becomes one with our lowliness, transforms us into Himself, and effects a union of the Creator with the creature.”

In this union, God finds delight in the soul and the two commune in intimate friendship. However, this does not dissolve the soul’s personality since God gives it back its own will and along with His own, and he even takes joy in doing what the soul asks of it because the soul does His will! This intimacy might be compared to the Trinity of three Persons, ie three centers of will, that act in union.

“Not content with having made this soul one with Himself, He begins to find His delight in it, reveal His secrets, and rejoice that it know what it has gained and something of what He will give it. He makes it lose these exterior senses so that nothing will occupy it. This is rapture. And he begins to commune with the soul in so intimate a friendship that He not only gives it back its own will but gives it His. For in so great a friendship the Lord takes joy in putting the soul in command, as they say, and He does what it asks since it does His will.”

St Teresa concludes by reminding us that union is far beyond our strength and it we try to reach it, we will only be discouraged. Only a humility in which we experience, not merely intellectualized, our smallness and God’s greatness, can open us up to the gift of perfect contemplation.

“Only humility can do something, a humility not acquired by the intellect, but by a clear perception that comprehends in a moment the truth one would be unable to grasp in a long time through the work of the imagination about what a trifle we are and how very great God is … don’t think that through your own strength or efforts you can arrive, for reaching this stage is beyond our power; if you try to reach it, the devotion you have will grow cold. But with simplicity and humility, which will achieve everything, say: fiat voluntas tua.”

Closing Remarks: St Teresa makes it clear throughout her work that to be a contemplative means a rigorous life of prayer, not something readily valued by the world. Nonetheless, the reward is nothing less than union with God!

The first step in this prayer journey is the prayer of recollection, so-called because you recollect your senses from the world and turn them inward to encounter God within your soul. You don’t go looking for God somewhere out there, far away; rather, you begin by imagining our Lord very close as you speak to Him, maybe even picturing His face. Praying to God while our mind wonders is like being distracted when talking to a friend and turning your back on him! Picturing Him close helps us focus.

Recollecting is a natural process since you have complete control of your faculties. And like any exercise of our faculties, it is something that you can habituate by repeated effort. It may be hard at first to start praying this way if you are not used to it, but it won’t take long before you find delight in it. In time, you will start recollecting automatically during the day, even for brief moments, because you find it so delightful to easily be with God!

As you pray mentally, you should consider carefully what you are asking for. Just saying “Give me what I need” is not sufficient because we are not that surrendered to God’s will. Are you sure you can handle the trials? Rather, in praying the Our Father, we ask for His kingdom which is that inner peace we need to carry our cross as we surrender completely to his will.

As the Lord quiets the faculties and begins to draw you into contemplation, you enter the prayer of quiet. This is the beginning of supernatural prayer because it is not something you can initiate yourself. God’s presence captivates the will, while the intellect (aka imagination) and the memory are still free, but very subdued. They don’t even care to pray vocally as they don’t want to be disturbed! In this prayer, the soul knows it is very close to God but doesn’t know how it knows. The will simply loves God without trying to understand anything. It is completely absorbed in God in self-forgetfulness.

The prayer of quiet has a transformative effect on the soul which lasts even after the prayer ends. Your will remains suspended and you go about your work as if you were not fully in the world. It is important to remember that this is a gift which is given to you. You can’t make it happen and you can’t hang onto it. The best you can do is be open in humility. While supernatural, the prayer of quiet is not yet contemplation because not all the faculties are suspended, but it leads into it. The delight experienced by the will during the prayer of quiet draws in the intellect without any exertion on the will’s part, for if the will were to act to pull the intellect in, it would no longer be totally absorbed in God and lose!

Next, consider what you are asking for when you pray “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. As part of God’s family, we have obligations to the Father as he has to us. The model of obedience here is Jesus praying in the Garden, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39). The degree to which you are willing to say “yes” to the trials God sends your way is the degree to which you channel the Father’s will on earth. Paradoxically, surrendering one’s will to God is simultaneously accompanied with an experience of great difficulty and gain. But you might as well make a virtue of a necessity because evading God’s will is impossible!

Keep your eye on the goal, union with God, our transformation into Himself. Unless you totally surrender your will to the Divine will, union cannot happen. This is terrifying, but remember that God will give us his kingdom to have the strength to withstand any trial, as Christ did. In union, the soul and God live in intimate friendship as a bridge and bridegroom, with a unified will while not loosing their individual personalities. It is a gift far beyond what you can achieve naturally, so only humility can predispose you to accept it from God.