Carmelite Spirituality – Page 3 – The Journal of a Secular Discalced Carmelite

“The Way of Perfection” – Part 3 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 10

This is an important chapter in which St Teresa focuses more closely on what detachment really means. It’s not merely distancing oneself from the world and an indifference to worldly affairs, something achieved by entering a monastery, but a detachment from one’s self-will. This, she says, is more important than all else, and equates it to the virtue of humility. While detachment from worldly things may open up a space for the possibility of humility, detachment from self-will is true humility which gives us “holy freedom of spirit”.

“Once we have detached ourselves from the world and from relatives and have enclosed ourselves here under the conditions that were mentioned, it seems that we have done all there is to do and that we don’t have to struggle with anything … if each Sister is not alert in going against her own will as though doing so were more important than all else, there are many things that will take away this holy freedom of spirit by which you can fly to your Maker without being held down by clay or leaden feet.”

“Here true humility can enter the picture because this virtue and the virtue of detachment it seems to me always go together. They are two inseparable sisters. … He has no one to fear because he doesn’t care if he loses everything, nor would he consider this a loss. The only thing he fears is displeasing his God …”

St Teresa gives some advise on how to progress in removing self-will: by considering how vain and transient all things are, thus turning our attention back to the Eternal. She also gives us an important insight when reflecting on humility: humility is transparent to the one who possesses it because we never focus on how far we’ve progressed in humility, rather on how much farther we have yet to progress. But while we may not notice our humility, others will.

“A great aid to going against your will is to bear in mind continually how all is vanity and how quickly everything comes to an end. This helps to remove our attachment to trivia and center it on what will never end … When we begin to become attached to something, we should strive to turn our thoughts from it and bring them back to God — and His Majesty helps.”

“It is true that these virtues have the characteristic of so hiding themselves from the person who possesses them that he never sees them or manages to believe that he has them even though he is told he does. But he esteems them so highly that he always goes about striving to obtain them, and he gradually perfects them within himself. Yet, they are so manifest in the one who possesses them that without his desiring it, these virtues are at once recognized by others who deal with him.”

St Teresa next moves on from detachment to mortification, in particular mortification of the body. But before she does, she highlights an interesting paradox: its only in detachment from things that you enjoy them, that is, only when our passions are rightly ordered will we take true pleasure in them.

“But what foolishness that I should set about praising humility and mortification when they were so much praised by the King of Glory and so confirmed by His many trials. Now, my daughters, this is the work that must be done in order to escape from the land of Egypt, for in finding these virtues you will find the manna. All things will taste good to you. However bad a thing may taste to those who are in the world, you will find it sweet.”

When it comes to the body, we can become attached to our striving for comfort, and there is no end to the excuses we make in this regard. Discretion in mortification is called for, because the goal is free ourselves from any bodily self-will and not some heroic asceticism. We can often achieve these mortifications by means that cannot cause us any harm, such as keeping silence.

“Now, then, the first thing we must strive for is to rid ourselves of our love for our bodies, for some of us are by nature such lovers of comfort that there is no small amount of work in this area … Be determined, Sisters, that you came to die for Christ, not to live comfortably for Christ. The devil suggests that you indulge yourselves so that you can keep the observance of the order; and a nun will so eagerly want to strive to care for and preserve her health for the sake of keeping the observance of the order that she dies without ever having kept this observance entirely for so much as a month, nor perhaps for even a day.”

“Sometimes [some people] feel a desire to do penances without rhyme or reason … subsequently the devil makes them imagine that the penances did them harm … We don’t keep some of the very ordinary things of the rule, such as silence, which isn’t going to do us any harm.”

“I find for myself that the Lord wishes that we be sickly; at least in my case He granted me a great mercy in my being sick; for since I would have looked after my comfort anyway, He desired that there be a reason for my doing so.”

“For if the devil begins to frighten us about losing our health, we shall never do anything. May the Lord give us the light to be right about everything, amen.”

St Teresa closes with an insight into the social consequences of an inordinate concern for bodily health. Since others cannot judge the seriousness of your ailment, you will, wittingly or unwittingly, abuse their charity:

“You will ask why the prioress gives [permission to be excused due to illness] … She has a scruple that she might fail in charity.”

Chapter 11

This chapter is a continuation of her discussion of mortification, and St Teresa warns against complaining about light illnesses. Habitual complaining is burden to those who live with you. Rather, when one has no attachment to the body, any inordinate complaining is experienced as self-indulgence and you will naturally refrain from it. If, however, you do pursue comfort, you will find no end to your bodily needs.

“It seems to me an imperfection, my Sisters, to be always complaining about light illnesses. If you can tolerate them, don’t complain about them. When the sickness is serious, it does the complaining itself; this is different and the sickness is immediately obvious. Consider that you are few, and if one has this habit of complaining, it wears everyone out if you have love for one another and there is charity.”

“If you have lost self-love, you will feel any self-indulgence so keenly that there is no fear you will take anything without necessity or complain needlessly.”

“A fault this body has is that the more comfort we try to give it the more needs it discovers.”

St Teresa also reminds us that we should be willing to bear some trials for our Lord because of our sins

“shouldn’t we suffer just between ourselves and God some of the illnesses He gives us because of our sins? And even more so because by our complaining the sickness is not alleviated.”

Regarding serious illness and death, St Teresa counsels us to practice self-forgetfulness and abandoning yourself totally to God, come what may. We can even “mock” (ie take lightly) our body and death. With determination and God’s graces, we can gain dominion over our bodies. The rewards are well worth it.

“There will be enough Sisters to look after what is necessary; forget about yourselves except in what concerns a definite need. If we do not determine once and for all to swallow death and the lack of health, we will never do anything. Strive not to fear them; abandon yourselves totally to God, come what may. So what if we die? If our body has mocked us so often, shouldn’t we mock it at least once?”

“And believe that this determination is more important than we realize. For little by little as we grow accustomed to this attitude we shall, with the Lord’s help, remain lords of our bodies.”

“May the Lord conquer him as He alone can. I truly believe that the benefits coming from this practice are not known except by one who already enjoys the victory. They are so great, from what I believe, that no one would feel he was undergoing trial if he could remain in this calm and dominion.”

She writes this despite having suffered much illness herself. Kavanaugh notes “Detachment from the body would be inauthentic if it would end up in a lack of compassion for others in their illnesses.”

Chapter 12

St Teresa begins this chapter with a hopeful message about interior mortification (interior = things we might be attached to inside ourselves). While it is a heavy burden, God does lighten the burden. As we grow spiritually, our whole life becomes an act of martyrdom. Our focus turns away from those things which pass, like our life here on earth, and our attention is directed to the Eternal. Focusing on God rather than ourselves frees us spiritually.

“Everything seems to be a heavy burden, and rightly so, because it involves a war against ourselves. But once we begin to work, God does so much in the soul and grants it so many favors that all that one can do in this life seems little.”

“… the whole matter … lies in losing concern about ourselves and our own satisfaction. The least that any of us who has truly begun to serve the Lord can offer Him is our own life … he must not turn his back upon the desire to die for God and suffer martyrdom … all life is short … there is no reason to give importance to anything that will come to an end. And who will not work hard if he thinks that each hour is the last? Well, believe me, thinking this is the safest course.”

In practice, this leads to interior mortification, which brings with it its own pleasure: not pleasure in the self, but pleasure in liberation from the self.

“So, let us try hard to go against our own will in everything. For if you are careful, as I said, you will gradually, without knowing how, find yourselves at the summit. But how extremely rigorous, it seems, to say that we shouldn’t please ourselves in anything when we do not also mention the pleasure and delight this going against our will carries in its wake and what is gained by it even in this life.”

St Teresa closes off the chapter with some modes, common to her time, but also applicable to ours, in which we might assert our self-will. We might focus on privilege, social standing (honor) or wealth. Rather, humility requires that we consider and imitate how the Lord emptied himself, something one can practice anywhere, not only in a monastery.

“Take careful note of interior stirrings, especially if they have to do with privileges of rank.”

“the perfect soul can be detached and humble anywhere … if there is any vain esteem of honor or wealth (and this can be had inside monasteries as well as outside, although inside the occasions for it are more removed and the fault would be greater), you will never grow very much or come to enjoy the true fruit of prayer. And this is so even though you may have many years of experience in prayer — or, better, I should say reflection because perfect prayer in the end removes these bad habits.”

“Clearly, a humble person will reflect on his life and consider how he has served the Lord in comparison with how the Lord ought to be served and the wonders the Lord performed in lowering Himself so as to give us an example of humility; and he will consider his sins and where he merited to be on account of them.”

As a remedy to these acts of pride, St Teresa recommends acts of humility, not just interiorly but exteriorly too. This is also an example for others to follow.

“do not strive only in an interior way … but strive also in an exterior way that the Sisters draw some benefit from your temptation … ask the prioress as soon as the temptation comes to give you orders to do some lowly task; or, if possible, do it on your own and go about studying how to double your willingness to do things that go contrary to your nature.”

St Teresa locates the danger in the small offenses against honor which grow and draw others into the rivalry. Rather we should cut this in the bud immediately and not indulge other’s feelings of being offended.

“… there is nothing so small in which there is so obvious a danger as this concern about honor and whether we have been offended … this concern begins in someone as something small and amounting to hardly anything, and then the devil stirs another to think it is something big, and this other will even think she is practicing charity by going and saying to the offended nun, ‘How do you put up with such an offense? …’ The devil puts such malicious talk on the other Sister’s tongue that though you barely overcome the offense, you are still tempted to vainglory, when in reality you did not suffer with the perfection with which you should have suffered … May no one be moved by an indiscreet charity to show pity for another in something that touches upon these false injuries, for such pity is like that of Job’s wife and friends.”

Chapter 13

St Teresa is still not done discussing the danger of honor and advises us how to recognize and over come it. Attachment to honor is a great spiritual danger, and its remedy is to unite it with the humiliation that Christ received and imitate him and his mother. The cross we bear, like the Cross of our Lord, is never reasonable.

“you should run a thousand miles from such expressions as: ‘I was right.’ ‘They had no reason for doing this to me.’ ‘The one who did this to me was wrong.’ God deliver us from this poor way of reasoning. Does it seem to have been right that our good Jesus suffered so many insults and was made to undergo so much injustice? I don’t know why the nun who doesn’t want to carry the cross, except the one that seems to her reasonable, is in the monastery.”

“Either we are brides of so great a King or we are not. If we are, what honorable woman is there who does not share in the dishonors done to her spouse even though she does not will them? In fact, both spouses share the honor and the dishonor. Now, then, to enjoy a part in His kingdom and want no part in His dishonors and trials is nonsense.”

“Let us, my daughters, imitate in some way the great humility of the Blessed Virgin, whose habit we wear, for it is embarrassing to call ourselves her nuns. However much it seems to us that we humble ourselves, we fall far short of being the daughters of such a Mother and the brides of such a Spouse.”

St Teresa next turns to the question of bad customs. The fact that we imitate one another is not in itself a bad thing, but it can lead to bad customs just as rivalry over honor can poison a community. She understands that it takes effort for a community to maintain its virtues, but its vices are propagate with little effort!

“And if we could understand what great harm is done when a bad custom is begun, we would rather die than be the cause of it. For such a death would be a bodily one, but the loss of souls is a great loss, and it doesn’t seem there is any end to the loss. Once some are dead, others follow after; and all, perhaps, are hurt more from a bad custom we have started than from many virtues. For the devil does not allow the bad custom to cease, but natural weakness causes the virtues to be lost.”

“For the devil does not allow the bad custom to cease, but natural weakness causes the virtues to be lost.”

For the remedy against the imitation of bad habits, St Teresa turns to the primitive rule of the Carmelites and reminds her sisters of their hermitic origins. The community was only there to support the solitary relationship of each member to God, and not more. The detachment is to be from all creatures, including the other members of the community, so there is little danger of too much closeness leading to the imitation of bad habits. It is a radical life, and not everyone is called to it, but for those who are, it is a heaven on earth.

“For the style of life we aim to follow is not just that of nuns but of hermits, and thus you detach yourselves from every creature. I see the Lord gives this favor of detachment in a special way to the one He has chosen for this life. Even though the detachment may not be entirely perfect from the beginning, it is seen that she is advancing toward it by the great contentment and happiness she finds in not having to deal again with anything of the world and by how she relishes everything about the religious life … Here we have a very happy life if one is pleased only with pleasing God and pays no attention to her own satisfaction. If a nun desires something in addition to pleasing God, all will be lost because that something cannot be had … interiorly it takes time to become totally detached and mortified, exteriorly it must be done immediately.”

Chapter 14

In this short chapter, St Teresa develops a thread from the previous where she advises that any nun that “is inclined to the things of the world and not seen to be making progress” should leave. Only those whose intentions are pure will pursue it with determination. Also, they must be intelligent enough to understand the charism of the order and the advise of those wiser than her. A nun with such intelligence will at least be able to give back to the community, even if she herself doesn’t advance much. Since this must be a deep understanding, not merely superficial, it takes time to discern.

“I truly believe that the Lord highly favors the one who has real determination. Thus, the intention of the new member should be considered, lest she merely be looking for a secure future,”

“the Lord can bring this intention to perfection if she has good intelligence; but if she doesn’t, in no way should she be accepted, for neither will she understand why she is entering, nor afterward will she understand those who desire to lead her along the best spiritual path. For the most part those who have this fault always think they know more about what suits them than do those who are wiser.”

“When a nun with good intelligence begins to grow attached to good, she takes hold of it with fortitude because she sees that doing so is most appropriate. And if her intelligence doesn’t help her to attain a high degree of spirituality, it will be useful for giving good counsel and for many other services without being a bother to anyone.”

“This lack of intelligence is not so quickly noticed. For many speak well but understand poorly; others speak little and without polish but they have the intelligence for a great deal of good. In fact, there is a holy simplicity that knows little about the affairs and style of the world but a lot about dealing with God.”

Chapter 15

In this chapter, St Teresa narrows her focus down on a particular kind of mortification, not excusing yourself even if falsely blamed, and begins by self-ironizing in a manner that shows how self-aware she is! After making excuses for the disordered nature of the work and blaming her nuns for asking her to write it, she adds

“Now it is wrong for me to ask you to avoid doing what I have just finished doing, that is, making excuses. For I see that not making excuses for oneself is a habit characteristic of high perfection, and very meritorious; it gives great edification. And although I have often taught it to you, and by God’s goodness you practice it, His Majesty has never given it to me.”

And yet she fully recognizes that

“Indeed, it calls for great humility to be silent at seeing oneself condemned without fault. This is a wonderful way to imitate the Lord who took away all our faults. So, I ask you to take great care about this practice; it brings with it great benefits. I see no reason at all for us to try to excuse ourselves, unless, as I say, in some cases where not telling the truth would cause anger or scandal. When to excuse oneself will be recognized by those who have more discretion than I.”

St Teresa praises this virtue highly because it such a close imitation of our Lord. It can do no bodily harm and in fact needs no bodily strength, but looks only to God for strength.

“The truly humble person must in fact desire to be held in little esteem, persecuted, and condemned without fault even in serious matters. If she desires to imitate the Lord, in what better way can she do so? For here there is no need of bodily strength or help from anyone but God.”

“and let us do this penance, for you already know that I am rather strict when there is question of your doing too many penances. They can do harm to one’s health if done without discretion. In this practice there is nothing to fear.”

In fact, we really can’t complain because

“we are never, never blamed without there being faults on our part, for we always go about full of them since the just man falls seven times a day, and it would be a lie to say we have no sin. Thus even though we are blamed for faults we haven’t committed, we are never entirely without fault, as was the good Jesus.”

“O my Lord, when I think of the many ways You suffered and how You deserved none of these sufferings, I don’t know what to say about myself, nor do I know where my common sense was when I didn’t want to suffer, nor where I am when I excuse myself … Give me light and grant that I may truly desire to be abhorred by all since I have so often failed You who have loved me so faithfully.”

Rather the important thing is that we be faultless in the eyes of God, not man, and allowing yourself to be falsely blamed can even be a way of preaching Christ to others:

“What is this, my God? What do we expect to obtain from pleasing creatures? What does it matter if we are blamed a lot by all of them if in Your presence we are without fault? … For when you have no other gain than the embarrassment of the person who after having blamed you sees that you are in fact without fault and yet allow yourself to be condemned, that gain is extremely great … We must all try to be preachers through our deeds …”

St Teresa both consoles and warns her sisters that the good or evil they do will not remain a secret. If they are wrongly accused, then God will provide someone to defend you if it is necessary. It may seem impossible to someone who is not mortified, but you should actually rejoice at being blamed because of the benefit it has for your soul. You should not worry about being defended; rather, you should be indifferent about what they are saying about you, and have detachment from yourself.

“However enclosed you are, never think that the good or evil you do will remain a secret. And do you think, daughters, that when you do not excuse yourselves there will be lacking someone to defend you? … But I wouldn’t want you to be thinking about being defended, but that you rejoice in being blamed; and time will be the witness to the benefit you will see in your soul. For one begins to obtain freedom and doesn’t care whether they say good or evil of him but rather thinks of what is said as though it were another’s affair. … In the beginning it is difficult; but I know that such freedom, self-denial, and detachment from ourselves can, with God’s help, be attained.”

Closing Remarks: In these chapters, St Teresa is still not ready to teach us about prayer but continues to prepare us by discussing detachment and humility. While detachment from worldly goods opens up the possibility for humility, detachment from self-will is true humility and gives us “holy freedom of spirit”.

In practice, humility requires that we imitate how the Lord emptied himself. Exteriorly, we should take on lowly tasks and, interiorly, we should root out any sense of entitlement. Manifesting indignation because of some offense can poison a community, as can bad habits. St Teresa reminds her nuns that they are called to be hermits and practice detachment even from other members of the community. In this way the propagation of bad customs is mitigated. This is not a life for anyone, but only for those who can understand it and pursue it with determination.

St Teresa advises on the need to mortify our bodies which know no limit to their desire for comfort. The aim should be freedom from bodily self-will and not heroic asceticism. This can be done without danger of harm by such practices as keeping silence. Inordinate complaining about discomforts is disordered; rather, we should bear these trials because of our sins. Our whole life is to be one prolonged martyrdom in which we loose concern for ourselves and offer our life to God, even unto death. This has its own pleasure: not pleasure in the self, but pleasure in liberation from the self.

Finally, we should practice humility by not excuse ourselves when falsely accused. While this may be unjust, we can’t complain because we are never without some fault. In fact we should rejoice because it is beneficial for our souls to so closely imitate Christ who was falsely condemned. No good or evil deed remains hidden, so God will provide you a defense if necessary. Rather, we should remain indifferent to what others say about us.

“The Way of Perfection” – Part 2 of 10

Chapter 5

This chapter picks up where St Teresa ended with in the last chapter, on the importance of being able to change confessors and picking a good one. She give several arguments for why this is important in this chapter.
The first issue she addresses is that danger of too much familiarity between the confessor and the prioress, in which the honor of each prevents the nuns to talk to the one about the other, to the detriment of the soul.

“Nor may He allow a situation in which if the prioress gets along well with the confessor no one dares to speak either to him about her or to her about him. The result of this state of affairs will be the temptation to omit the confession of very serious sins for fear of being disturbed. O God help me, what harm the devil can cause here, and how dearly the nuns will pay for this restriction and concern about honor! For while they think that by dealing with no more than one confessor they are doing something great for religious life and the reputation of the monastery, the devil manages in this way to catch souls, since he cannot in any other.”

But also, St Teresa was worried that an appointed confessor may not be learned and able to advise her sisters on contemplative life. So they should be allowed to seek out and speak to learned persons:

“May she always ask permission from the bishop or the provincial that, besides speaking with the ordinary confessors, she and all the others might sometimes speak and discuss their souls with learned persons, especially if the confessors, however good, may not be learned. Learning is a great help for shedding light upon every matter.”

Here St Teresa was speaking out of personal experience with confessors since she herself had received bad counsel from some who didn’t know any better:

“It happened to me that I spoke about matters of conscience with a confessor who had gone through the whole course of theology, and he did me a great deal of harm by telling me that some matters didn’t amount to anything. I know that he didn’t intend to misinform me and had no reason to, but he simply didn’t know any more. And the same thing happened to me with two or three others, besides the one I mentioned.”

As a remedy to this, St Teresa recommended that her nuns have a “spiritual and learned person” as a spiritual advisor, since without good spiritual advise, the foundation of their lives as contemplatives would not be sound. This person did not have to be their confessor and if the confessor was not spiritual and learned, they could look for someone else:

“Having true light at our disposal for the sake of keeping the law of God with perfection is all our good; prayer is well founded on such light. Without this strong foundation and if the Sisters are not given freedom to confess and discuss their souls with persons like those I have mentioned, the whole building will be wobbly. [Thus they must speak to spiritual and learned persons. If the appointed confessor is not spiritual and learned, they should at times seek out others.]”

St Teresa was also sensitive to the fact that there are different paths to God, and that contemplative spirituality is just one such path which a given confessor may not be familiar with. So again, being able to seek out a spiritual director who was knowledgeable in the matter would be beneficial:

“For there are different paths along which God leads souls, and one confessor perhaps will not know them all.”

She even went so far as to suggest that having a spiritual advisor is a way of keeping confessors honest! Here she was probably again considering the bad advise she had received from those confessors she alludes to above.

“For even if the devil tempts a confessor so as to deceive him about some doctrine, he will be careful and consider with caution everything he does when he knows that you speak to others.”

In fact, St Teresa herself took her own advise regarding the issue — she came up with her advise about allowing the sisters to seek out spiritual and learned persons by herself seeking the advise of spiritual and learned persons!

“I have seen and understood what I have mentioned here, and discussed it with learned and holy persons who have considered what was most suitable for this house so that there would be progress along the path of perfection.”

Chapter 6

Chapter 5 was a conscious digression for St Teresa, but one which she says is very important. In this chapter she returns to the question of love which came up two chapters ago in connection with detachment and humility as necessary conditions for contemplative prayer and for the inward and outward peace recommended by our Lord. It is worth quoting the exert from chapter 4 again here:

“Before I say anything about interior matters, that is, about prayer, I shall mention some things that are necessary for those who seek to follow the way of prayer … if they do not possess them, it is impossible for them to be very contemplative … the practice of these three things helps us to possess inwardly and outwardly the peace our Lord recommended so highly to us. The first of these is love for one another; the second is detachment from all created things; the third is true humility, which, even though I speak of it last, is the main practice and embraces all the others.”

Previously St Teresa dwelt on a defective type of love, one which was excessive and “takes away the strength of will to be totally occupied in loving God”. But in this chapter, her focus changes to “the love that it is good for us to have, that which I say is purely spiritual.” Admittedly, she struggles to clarify “which love is spiritual, or when sensual love is mixed with spiritual love” but she trusts that “the Lord wills that it be well said.” All said, she does provide something of a definition. Perfect love comes with an experiential knowledge about the difference between loving the Creator and loving the creature:

“Now it seems to me that those whom God brings to a certain clear knowledge love very differently than do those who have not reached it. This clear knowledge is about the nature of the world, that there is another world, about the difference between the one and the other, that the one is eternal and the other a dream; or about the nature of loving the Creator and loving the creature (and this seen through experience, which is entirely different from merely thinking about it or believing it); or this knowledge comes from seeing and feeling what is gained by the one love and lost by the other, and what the Creator is and what the creature is, and from many other things that the Lord teaches to anyone who wants to be taught by Him in prayer, or whom His Majesty desires to teach.”

St Teresa refers to persons whom the Lord brings to this state as “majestic souls” who “are not content with loving … these bodies … however attractive”. Rather, they praise the Creature as the ultimate cause behind the beauty of the creature. As she puts it:

“Yes, it pleases them to see such bodies, and they praise the Creator; but, no, they do not stop there. I mean stop in such a way that they love these things. It would seem to them that they were loving something of no substance, loving a shadow.”

Having provided a general definition of perfect love, St Teresa continues for the rest of the chapter with practical ways in which “perfect persons” manifest this love:

They are not attached to the affection of others, but are not ungrateful and recommend them to God.

“All other affection wearies these persons, for they understand that no benefit comes from it and that it could be harmful. But this does not make these persons ungrateful or unwilling to repay the love of others by recommending them to God. They entrust to the Lord the care of those who love them, for they understand that the love comes from Him.”

They think they are loved by others for love of God, not because of some loveable quality in themselves. And they remain free from repaying that love (ie becoming attached), leaving repayment up to God.

“It doesn’t seem there is anything within themselves to love, and they immediately think they are loved because these others love God. They leave it to His Majesty to repay those who love them, and they beg Him to do so. In this way they remain free, for it seems to them that repaying the love is not their business.

Desiring love from someone is a seeking after satisfaction. But perfect persons seek no such consolation apart from God.

“Now, note well that when we desire love from some person, there is always a kind of seeking our own benefit or satisfaction, and these perfect persons have already trampled underfoot all the good things and comforts the world has to offer them. Their consolations are of a kind that even though they may desire them, so to speak, they cannot tolerate having them apart from God or from speaking of Him. For what benefit can come to them from being loved?

They realize that the suffering they once experienced at unrequited love is vain.

“they laugh at themselves because of the affliction they once suffered as to whether or not their love was repaid. Although our affection is good, the desire that it be repaid is very natural. But once we receive the payment, we realize that the pay is all straw”

Perfect love is detached from any expectation, but it is not detached from wanting to give. It is, in fact, the only true love.

“It will seem to you that such persons do not love or know anyone but God. I say, yes they do love, with a much greater and more genuine love, and with passion, and with a more beneficial love; in short, it is love. And these souls are more inclined to give than to receive. Even with respect to the Creator Himself they want to give more than to receive. I say that this attitude is what merits the name “love,” for these other base attachments have usurped the name “love.””

Perfect love is intent on the eternal and looks for the loveable in the soul of the other in the hope that they will be eternally together.

“It is true that what they see they love and what they hear they become attached to; but the things that they see are stable. As soon as these persons love, they go beyond the bodies and turn their eyes to the soul and look to see if there is something to love in the soul … Nothing could be presented to them that they wouldn’t eagerly do for the good of this soul, for they desire to continue loving it; but they know that if it does not love God very much and have His blessings, their loving it is impossible.”

Ultimately, perfect love is an imitation of the love of Christ, the love that lays down your life for a friend.

“Well now in the case of perfect love, if a person loves there is the passion to make the other soul worthy of being loved, for, as I say, this person knows that otherwise he will not continue to love the other. It is a love that costs dearly. This person does everything he can for the other’s benefit; he would lose a thousand lives that a little good might come to the other soul. O precious love that imitates the Commander-in-chief of love, Jesus, our Good!”

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is a continuation of St Teresa’s discussion of perfect love. Possibly because she had difficulties coming up with a comprehensive definition, she felt it necessary to flesh out a better understanding by multiplying examples:

8. Perfect love wants to see the other make spiritual progress and is always fearful at the possibility of eternal separation.

“It is not happy unless it sees that person make progress … It is always fearful lest the soul it loves so much be lost and the two be separated forever. Death here below matters nothing to it, for it doesn’t want to become attached to anything that in a mere moment escapes from one’s hand and cannot be grasped again. It is, as I said, a love with no self-interest at all. All that it desires or wants is to see the other soul rich with heavenly blessings.”

Perfect love is not disquieted at the trials of the other if they are good for the other, although it would gladly suffer trial for the other if the merit could be transferred:

“reason immediately considers whether the trial is good for the one loved, whether there is an enrichment in virtue and how that soul bears the suffering; it asks God to give the other patience and merit in the trials. If this love sees that the other person has patience, no distress is felt; rather it rejoices and is consoled. This love would much rather suffer the trial itself than see the other suffer it if the merit and gain that lies in suffering could be given to the other entirely — but not because this love is disquieted and disturbed.”

Perfect love is completely sincere, and will correct the other out of love for their immortal soul:

“These lovers cannot in their hearts be insincere with those they love; if they see them deviate from the path or commit some faults they immediately tell them about it. They cannot help but do so. And since they are not going to change their attitude, nor are they going to flatter or hide anything from the other, either that other person mends his ways or the friendship is broken. For these lovers cannot suffer such a thing, nor should it be suffered.

This level of intimacy can only be sustained within the bonds of perfect love, not with others in the world. If the lover cannot bear the correction, then the intimacy was not there in the first place and the friendship is broken.

“There is a continual war between the two attitudes these lovers have; on the one hand they go about forgetful of the whole world, taking no account of whether others serve God or not but only keeping account of themselves; on the other hand, with their friends, they have no power to do this, nor is anything covered over; they see the tiniest speck. I say that they bear a truly heavy cross.”

St Teresa herself benefited from the corrections of such people who had reached perfection:

“Love such persons as much as you like. They must be few, but the Lord does desire that it be known when someone has reached perfection … I know through experience. After the Lord, it is because of persons like these that I am not in hell, for I was always very attached to their praying for me, and so I strove to get them to do this. Now let us return to our subject.”

Perfect love is compassionate. Do not judge the weaknesses of others but remember your own weaknesses that were made strong by God’s grace. And do not be prideful and think that you gained fortitude through your own effort since this leads to coldness towards the weaknesses of others.

“If you are not like them, do not fail to be compassionate. And perhaps our Lord desires to exempt us from these sufferings, whereas in other matters we will suffer. And those sufferings that for us are heavy — even if in themselves they truly are — may be light for another. So in these matters let us not judge from ourselves, nor let us think that we are at a stage in which perhaps the Lord without our own effort has made us stronger, but let us think of the stage we were at when we were weaker.

“Consider that this advice is important for knowing how to sympathize with your neighbor in his trials, however small they may be. This is especially true in the case of those souls that were mentioned. Since they desire trials they make little of everything, and it is very necessary that they take the time to remember how they themselves were once weak and that if they are not weak now, their strength doesn’t come from themselves. For it could be that the devil by this means will make charity toward one’s neighbor grow cold, and make us think that what in reality is a fault belongs to perfection.”

Perfect love takes time for the other even in mundane activities, as long as the intention is pure.

“Strive also to take time for recreation with the Sisters when there is need and during the time set aside for it by custom, even though this may not be to your pleasure, for everything done with a pure intention is perfect love.”

Perfect love takes pity on the other, but shows discretion in what one ought to feel sorry about.

“Thus, it is very good that some take pity on others in their need. Let them take care that there be no lack of discretion in things that would go against obedience … And learn how to understand which are the things one ought to feel sorry about and take pity on with regard to the Sisters.”

Perfect love is tolerant of the other’s faults because it recognizes that we all have faults.

“Here love shows itself, and it is practiced well when you know how to suffer the fault and not be surprised; so the others will do with respect to your faults, for you may have many more than you are aware of.”

Perfect love strives to correct faults in others by fixing them in yourself and teaching by example.

“Recommend the Sister to God and strive yourself to practice with great perfection the virtue opposite the fault that appears in her. Make every effort to do this so that you teach that Sister in deed what perhaps through words or punishment she might not understand or profit by; and the imitation of the virtue in which one sees another excel has a great tendency to spread. This is good advice; don’t forget it.”

Perfect love does not give itself over to false intimacy, but love sincerely since this is truly aimed at the good of the other.

“Oh, how good and true will be the love of the Sister who can help others by setting aside her own advantage for their sake … Better friendship will this be than all the tender words that can be uttered, for these are not used, nor should they be used, in this house; those like, “my life,” “my soul,” “my only good,” and other similar expressions addressed now to one, now to another, of the Sisters. Keep these words of affection for your Spouse,”

Perfect love does its share of the chores, and rejoices to see a sister grow in virtue!

“Another very good proof of love is that you strive in household duties to relieve others of work, and also rejoice and praise the Lord very much for any increase you see in their virtues.”

Perfect love avoids being the cause of petty resentments, and strives to remedy them as soon as possible.

“If by chance some little word should escape, try to remedy the matter immediately and pray intensely. And if things of this sort against charity continue, such as little factions, or ambition, or concern about some little point of honor.”

St Teresa here echoes St Benedict’s Rule, that “grumbling” is a great danger to the peace of a monastery:

“Oh, how great an evil it is! God deliver us from the monastery where it enters; I would rather that the monastery catch fire and all be burned.”

Chapter 8

St Teresa once again returns to chapter 4 where she presented us with three conditions for contemplative prayer (love, detachment and humility), and having dealt with love in chapters 6 and 7, picks up the thread with her discussion on detachment in chapter 8. Detachment for her means embracing the Creator and not caring for the whole of creation. In withdrawing from the world, she tells us that God will infuse us with virtues with little struggle on our part.

“Now let us talk about the detachment we ought to have, for detachment, if it is practiced with perfection, includes everything. I say it includes everything because if we embrace the Creator and care not at all for the whole of creation, His Majesty will infuse the virtues. Doing little by little what we can, we will have hardly anything else to fight against; it is the Lord who in our defense takes up the battle against the demons and against the world.”

Her path is not one of heroic asceticism in which we forcefully struggle to free ourselves from our vices, but rather of gently making room in our hearts for God by clearing it of worldly clutter.
St Teresa understands that created things are a hindrance to unity with God, and she is very grateful that her monastery provides her sisters with separation from everything:

“With regard to externals, obviously we are separated here from everything. [I think the Lord wants all of us He has gathered together in this house to withdraw from everything so that His Majesty may unite us to Himself here without any hindrance. O my Creator and Lord! When did I merit such honor? For it seems You went a roundabout way to bring us closer to Yourself. May it please Your goodness that we do not lose through our own fault this nearness to You.] O Sisters, understand, for the love of God, the great favor the Lord has granted those whom He brought here.”

Here St Teresa is not merely referring to detachment from material possessions, but also detachment from people. She extends her gratitude for the smallness of St Joseph’s with only twelve nuns and the prioress, compared to the Incarnation where she lived previously with more than 180 other nuns! The din of too many people in one’s life can also a hindrance to unity with God. This is something of a harkening back to the primitive rule of the Hermits of mount Carmel.

“Instead of keeping me where there were so many living together and where my wretchedness would not have been so clearly seen during my lifetime, You have brought me to a place where, since there are so few nuns, it seems impossible for this wretchedness not to be known. That I might walk more carefully, You have removed from me all opportunities to conceal it. Now I confess there is no longer an excuse for me, Lord, and so I have greater need of Your mercy that You might pardon any fault I may have.”

In that quiet where there is only the bare soul and God, every imperfection is made manifest. St Teresa counsels her sisters that this life isn’t for everyone, and that if a sister want to find consolation in hiding her soul in her relationship with others, then St Josephs is not for her:

“In other places there is the freedom to find relief by being with relatives; here if some relatives are allowed to visit, it is that they might find relief by being with us. But the nun who desires to see them for her own consolation, if these relatives are not spiritual persons, should consider herself imperfect. She ought to believe that she is not detached, not healthy; she will not possess freedom of spirit; she will not possess complete peace. She needs a doctor; and I say that if this attachment is not removed and she is not cured, she is not meant for this house.”

The attachment to find consolation in others is likened by St Teresa to a spiritual illness:

“She needs a doctor; and I say that if this attachment is not removed and she is not cured, she is not meant for this house. The best remedy I know is that she not see them until obviously she is free and obtains this freedom from the Lord through much prayer. When it is clear that she considers these visits a cross, it will be all right for her to see them, for then she will be of benefit to her relatives and not be harmed herself.”

Chapter 9

St Teresa dedicates this chapter to detachment from relatives, which she sees as an occasion for the religious to remain rooted in the world. How is one fleeing the world if one remains rooted in it because of one’s relatives:

“I don’t know what it is in the world that we renounce when we say that we give up everything for God if we do not give up the main thing, namely, our relatives.”

This is not that our relatives are mischievous, but rather that their concerns are rooted in the world and “having too much to do with” them draws us into their world of familial reciprocity, and away from God.

“In this house, daughters, great care should be taken to recommend them to God; that is right. As for the rest, we should keep them out of our minds as much as possible, because it is a natural thing for the will to become attached to them more than to other persons.”

“For since these seek to be repaid by God, they do things for us. Those who seek to be repaid by us soon grow tired, since they see that we are poor and unable to help them in any way. And although this may not be universally so, it is now more usually so; for, after all, the world is the world.”

Our relatives is what makes us cling most to the world. It helps to embrace Jesus with determination, for in him everything is found and everything is forgotten. It helps to withdraw bodily until we come to know this truth.

“All that the saints counsel us about fleeing the world is clearly good. Well, believe me, our relatives are what clings to us most from the world, as I have said, and the most difficult to detach ourselves from … what helps is that the soul embrace the good Jesus our Lord with determination, for since in Him everything is found, in Him everything is forgotten. Yet, it is a very great help to withdraw even bodily until we have come to know this truth.”

Closing Remarks: Before entering into a discussion on contemplative prayer, St Teresa felt it necessary that her sisters have the correct disposition. As she explains, without love for one another, detachment from all created things and true humility, it impossible to be very contemplative and possess the peace recommended by our Lord. Previously, she began her discussion of love with warnings against the dangers of excessive love, a love marked by a disordered attachment to others. In these chapters, she turns her discussion to the question of perfect love and detachment.

Perfect love entails an experiential knowledge of the difference between loving the Creator and loving His creatures. Detachment does not mean that we abstain from loving one another; rather, that we love one another in loving God, for the sake of loving God who loves them, and with the same self-sacrificial love with which God loves. To love a creature in isolation from loving his or her Creator, we are imbuing the finite object of our affection with expectations of God — we make them into an idol which is sure to disappoint. Properly ordered love is always directed to the Eternal through his creatures.

Jan 17, 2021. Second Sunday of Ordinary Time.

“The Way of Perfection” – Part 1 of 10

Introduction by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD

There are two textual sources: the Valladolid text and the expanded Escorial texts.

“We have indicated whatever is taken from Escorial and introduced into our main text from Valladolid by enclosing it in brackets. Where there are two versions of the same passage, yet with significant differences, we give a translation of the Escorial version in a note.”

The text is made up of a prologue and 42 short chapters. In this lecture I’ll go over the prologue and chapters 1 through 4.

Prologue

Why did St Teresa come to write “The Way of Perfection”? She tells us in the prologue that the Sisters at the monastery of St Joseph, which she founded, heard that she had written her Autobiography. But her censor did not feel that it was appropriate for the sisters because it contained her mystical experiences. But they pressed her to write a book on prayer and the result was “The Way of Perfection”. St Teresa wrote it as an act of obedience to them.

“The Sisters … have known that I received permission … to write some things about prayer. … The Sisters have urged me so persistently to tell them something about it that I have decided to obey them.”

Before we jump into the text, we should be aware that St Teresa can be hard to interpret at times, because, by her own admission, her writing is not systematic. One has to resist the temptation of over interpreting her in an effort to systematize her writing. My approach in these lectures will be to lift themes from each chapter and illustrate them with quotes.

“… since I don’t know what I’m going to say, I cannot say it in an orderly way. I believe this lack of order is best since writing this book is a thing already so out of order for me.”

Chapter 1

“The Way of Perfection” was written in the midst of the bitterness of the Protestant Reformation that she felt was betraying Christ. St Teresa was compelled to do something about it, so she resolved to do what she could: to strive for spiritual perfection, to pray for the Church, and to urge her Sisters to do the same.

“The news [of the Lutherans in France] distressed me greatly … I resolved to do the little that was in my power … to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could and strive that these few persons who live here do the same. … Since we would all be occupied in prayer for those who are the defenders of the Church …, we could help as much as possible this Lord of mine who is so roughly treated by those for whom He has done so much good; it seems these traitors would want Him to be crucified again and that He have no place to lay His head.”

The Reformation was painful for St Teresa and she lamented the souls lost to it. For her, the spiritual well-being of souls was of such importance that she felt it was central to prayers of her monastery, not the worldy goods than many came to ask prayers for. It might be surprising that St Teresa would start a book about praying on this topic, but before she even starts to discuss prayer, she locates its place in the economy of the soul and the Church.

“… my heart breaks to see how many souls are lost. … This is why He has gathered you [my Sisters] together here. This is your vocation. … these must be the objects of your petitions — not, my Sisters, the business matters of the world. For I laugh at and am even distressed about the things they come here to ask us to pray for: to ask His Majesty for wealth and money …”

Chapter 2

St Teresa returns to her discussion of the Reformation in the next chapter, and takes an aside to discuss poverty in this one. This is typical of her writing style: perhaps because her mind was on the “wealth and money” her patrons come to ask prayers for, or perhaps because she was discussing the evangelical counsels, her mind came to focus on poverty. Despite the disjoint style, her insights are valuable even abstracted from the body of the rest of the work.
To understand poverly rightly, St Teresa counsels her Sisters to center our lives on God as our greatest good, and not to worry further because everything will then necessarily fall into place. One might think that this is reckless and could lead to evils, like starvation, but any ill that comes of it is transient. We should never place any created good as first because any created good is always of lesser value than God who is our greatest good.

“Your eyes on your Spouse! He will sustain you. Once He is pleased, those least devoted to you will give you food even though they may not want to, as you have seen through experience. If in following this advice you should die of hunger, blessed be the nuns of St. Joseph’s! … Leave this worrying to the One who can move all … His words are true; they cannot fail; rather, heaven and earth will fail. Let us not fail Him; do not fear that He will fail you. And if some time He should fail you, it will be for a greater good. … It would be a good exchange to give up everything for the enjoyment of everlasting abundance.”

To achieve spiritual freedom, she cautions us that you can not only be attached to the worldly goods you have, but also to the goods you do not have. So its not just about being poor in an exterior way, but being detached inwardly. This is what it means to be “poor in spirit”.

“The less there is the more carefree I become. The Lord knows that, in my opinion, it distresses me more when we have a large surplus than when we are in need. … to worry about money would amount to … making ourselves poor in an exterior way but not being poor in spirit … where there are too many cares about whether others will give us alms, sooner or later these cares will become habitual.”

Paradoxically, poverty of spirit is precisely the detachment from worldly goods so that they don’t have power over you; rather, you have power over them. This is the spiritual freedom to please God exclusively.

“Poverty of spirit is a good that includes within itself all the good things of the world. … it gives once again to one who doesn’t care about the world’s good things dominion over them all. What do kings and lords matter to me if I don’t want their riches, or don’t care to please them if in order to do so I would have to displease God in even the smallest thing?”

St Teresa ties money to vainglory, a mark of success in the world to cultivate the admiration of others. This is yet another form of enslavement.

“In my opinion honor and money almost always go together; … Poverty that is chosen for God alone has no need of pleasing anyone but Him.”

Spiritual poverty can also be understood as humility, the awareness of our total dependence on God. Since God provides through others and we should not be negligent in thanking them, because in thanking them, we are showing our gratitude to God.

“The Lord also desires that, even though it comes from Him, we show gratitude to those persons through whose means He gives this food to us. Do not be negligent about showing gratitude.”

Chapter 3

St Teresa begins the chapter by picking up the theme of how to respond to the Protestant Reformation. Warfare cannot stop the heresy, so another approach is required. Using the metaphor of a lord who withdraws into a stronghold, she gives us her approach: begin first by growing spiritually yourself.
This is useful advise in our own times with the culture war that’s waging today. People will turn to activism when they should first put their own lives in order. Otherwise, not only will you spread your disorder to the world, but you won’t even know what to fix and where to begin!

“Human forces are not sufficient to stop the spread of this fire caused by these heretics, even though people have tried to see if with the force of arms they could remedy all the evil that is making such progress. It has seemed to me that what is necessary is a different approach, the approach of a lord when in time of war his land is overrun with enemies and he finds himself restricted on all sides. He withdraws to a city that he has well fortified and from there sometimes strikes his foe. Those who are in the city, being chosen people, are such that they can do more by themselves than many cowardly soldiers can. And often victory is won in this way. At least, even though victory is not won, these chosen people are not conquered. For since they have no traitor, they cannot be conquered — unless through starvation. In this example the starvation cannot be such as to force them to surrender — to die, yes; but not to surrender.”

Her choice of words here are critical: “Human forces are not sufficient”. Yes focus first on your spiritual growth, but realize that it will not ultimately come from yourself, but from God on whom we are totally dependent.

The entire chapter revolves around the theme of growth in spiritual perfection to combat the world. Here’s a couple of ways in which I paraphrased the metaphor:

1) The Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, is always in spiritual warfare. So the Body must remain strong. The Body has many parts and we are its parts. You can best make the Body strong by making yourself strong.

2) The battle against the world begins in our own hearts, against our own vices and imperfections.

“Since in neither the ecclesiastical nor the secular arm can we be of any help to our King, let us strive to be the kind of persons whose prayers can be useful in helping those servants of God who through much toil have strengthened themselves with learning and a good life and have labored so as now to help the Lord.”

St Teresa’s words here are pertinent, “whose prayers can be useful in helping those servants”. Here she is specifying what her part of the Mystical Body she and her Sisters are occupying. Their prayers are for the preachers and theologians who are the front line defenders of the Church as we can see from the next quote:

“I don’t think that as yet you understand well how much you owe the Lord for bringing you here where you are so removed from business affairs, occasions of sin, and worldly occupations. … These persons [the preachers and theologians] must live among men, deal with men, live in palaces, and even sometimes outwardly behave as such men do. Do you think, my daughters, that little is required for them to deal with the world, live in the world, engage in its business, and, as I said, resemble it in its conversation, while interiorly remaining its strangers, its enemies; in sum, not being men but angels?”

St Teresa pushes connection between the necessity for the strength of spiritual perfection before doing battle with insight: those who defend the Church will have everything thrown at them. Not only will they need interior fortitude to withstand the onslaught, but also they cannot have any worldly attachments since they will not be able to conceal them and these imperfections will be used against them.

“And if they [the preachers and theologians] are not interiorly fortified through an understanding of the importance of trampling everything underfoot, of detachment from things that come to an end, and of attachment to eternal things, they will show some sign of this lack no matter how much they try to conceal it. … Now I wonder who it is that teaches people in the world about perfection, not so much that these people might seek perfection …, but that they might condemn others. … So, then, do not think that little help from God is necessary for this great battle these preachers and theologians are fighting; a very great deal is necessary.”

Chapter 4

St Teresa begins with a discussion of “prayer without ceasing”. She doesn’t really specify what she means here by “unceasing prayer”, but her focus in this chapter is on preparation for prayer rather than prayer itself. Fr Kavanaugh adds some comments in the Interpretative Notes to this chapter which are useful in understanding what St Teresa is getting at:

“Unceasing prayer (1 Thes 5:17), to which the nuns were called also by their Carmelite rule, could not be produced through mere human effort. Teresa felt it more as a gift along with Christ’s peace.” (Kavanaugh).

On this interpretation, “unceasing prayer” might not be the mere product of our effort, but we can make ourselves disposed to it by fasts, disciplines and silence:

“Our primitive rule states that we must pray without ceasing. If we do this with all the care possible — for unceasing prayer is the most important aspect of the rule — the fasts, the disciplines, and the silence the order commands will not be wanting. For you already know that if prayer is to be genuine, it must be helped by these other things; prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.”

St Teresa specifies three things necessary for prayer and to possess peace: love, detachment and humility. She continues:

And Kavanaugh ties these three things to “unceasing prayer” in his notes:

“The peace that Christ offers, and is so necessary for unceasing prayer, comes through a complete remaking of those who pray: in their relationship with others (love-charity); in their attitude towards possesions (detachment-hope); and in their attitude towards self (humility-faith).” (Kavanaugh)

While St Teresa treats of all three throughout the work, in the remainder of this chapter, she focuses on love. Echoing 1 Peter 4:8 “Love covers a multitude of sins” she writes:

“About the first, love for one another, it is most important that we have this, for there is nothing annoying that is not suffered easily by those who love one another. … But, because of either excess or defect, we never reach the point of observing this commandment perfectly.”

It might be surprising that St Teresa warns against excess love — warning against a deficit of love makes sense — but she goes on to clarify that excess love for another person is just an attachment to a creature and not God, and though one falls short of observing the commandment perfectly:

“those who are interested in perfection have a deep understanding of this excessive love, because little by little it takes away the strength of will to be totally occupied in loving God. … For these great friendships are seldom directed toward helping one love God more.”

St Teresa gives some examples of what bad things can come of friendships based on inordinate love:

“It gives rise to the following: failing to love equally all the others; feeling sorry about any affront to the friend; desiring possessions so as to give her gifts; looking for time to speak with her, and often so as to tell her that you hold her dear and other trifling things rather than about your love for God. For these great friendships are seldom directed toward helping one love God more. On the contrary, I think the devil gets them started so as to promote factions in religious orders. For when love is in the service of His Majesty, the will does not proceed with passion but proceeds by seeking help to conquer other passions.”

I found St Teresa’s point about promoting factions interesting. Seeking the affection of others, somewhat like being attached to honor which St Teresa warns us about in Chapter 2, can be understood as either a desire to be loved (ie. included in the in-group) or fear of being excluded (ie. excluded from the in-group). This attachment is precisely the dynamics of factions.
The inordinte love is an attachment and enslaves our wills to creatures rather than to God. St Teresa counsels us to break these friendships off delicately.

“Let us not condescend, oh daughters, to allow our wills to be slaves to anyone, save to the One who bought it with His blood. Be aware that, without understanding how, you will find yourselves so attached that you will be unable to manage the attachment. … To break away from these friendships … great care is necessary at the outset of the friendship. This breaking away should be done delicately and lovingly rather than harshly.”

Here words here are interesting: “without understanding how”. Often times, our attachments sneak in unconsciously, without our even being aware of their being formed by repeated habit. We might become conscoius of them later when they rear their ugly heads, but because of their unconscious nature, we often don’t even know they are there! And may not even know when God removes them!

As indicated in a footnote to the text, St Teresa went through a couple of revisions as she struggled to differentiate “spiritual love” from one mixed with passion. The idea she was trying to express is best summarized by the following quote:

“I want to speak now about the love that is spiritual, that which is not affected by any passion; where passion is present the good order is thrown into complete disorder.”

She closes the chapter by advising that we take counsel with good confessors and make remedy as soon as possible, emphasizing again how dangerous such friendships can be:

“And if we deal with virtuous persons discreetly and moderately, especially confessors, we will benefit. But if you should become aware that the confessor is turning toward some vanity, be suspicious about everything and in no way carry on conversations with him even though they may seem to be good, but make your confession briefly and bring it to a conclusion. And it would be best to tell the prioress that your soul doesn’t get on well with him and change confessors. That would be the most proper thing to do — if you can do it without hurting his reputation.”

“In similar cases and others as well, in which the devil could ensnare one in many difficulties and in which one does not know what counsel to take, the best thing to do is try to speak with some learned person … Make your confession to him and do what he tells you to do about the matter … Failing to provide a remedy cannot be allowed; for unless the devil is quickly cut short, the effect will not be something of minor importance when he begins to interfere.”

“Keep in mind that this is a very important point, for such friendship is dangerous, harmful, and a hell for all the Sisters. I say that you must not wait until you recognize that serious evil is present, but you should in the beginning cut the relationship short by every possible and knowable means. In good conscience you can do so.”

Closing Remarks: St Teresa wrote “The Way of Perfection” for her sisters who asked her to teach them somthing about prayer. Surprisingly she starts by talking about the Protestant Reformation! Just like in our times, and throughout history, the world is broken. She takes this as her launching point to locate the place of prayer in her spirituality:

We tranform the world by allowing ourselves to be transformed by God. But you can’t do this on your own because as fallen creatures we’re broken and we wouldn’t even know where to start to fix ourselves or the world. If we just “act”, we will wind up spreading our disorder more and not fixing anything. Like Mary’s openness to God two thousand years ago allowed Him to enter the world and transform it, so now our openness to God in prayer will fix our broken world today.

Christmas Eve, 2020.