Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Teresa of Avila lived in the years 1515-1582. Her liturgical commemoration falls on October 15, the day of her birth to heaven, as sometimes we define the day of her death, although according to the calendar in force at that time, she died on October 4 (this difference in dates, in terms of time, is due to the fact that October 1582 was transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian). Teresa of Avila is also called Teresa "the Great" to distinguish her from St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, called "Little Teresa". She is the first woman to be declared a "Doctor of the Church"
Several important dates. Teresa was born in 1515 as the sixth of twelve children of her parents. At the age of 20, she entered the Carmelite monastery of Incarnations in her hometown, Avila. At the age of 47, she started the foundation of the monastery of St. Joseph and the reform of Carmelite Monasteries. She died on October 4, 1582 at the age of 67 in the Carmelite monastery in Alba de Tormes near Salamanca. There, in the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is her tomb. She was beatified in 1614 by Paul V, and canonized in 1622 by Gregory XV. St. Teresa is recognized by the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of Augsburg and the Anglican community.
Saint Paul VI by Apostolic Letter Multiformis sapientia Dei, September 27, 1970 proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church and a "teacher of Christian life". In this letter the Pope mentioned several saints of her contemporaries and later who were inspired by her life. I will only mention the more familiar (at least the more familiar names of saints to me mentioned by the Pope): first they are St. Peter of Alcantara and St. Francis Borgia,(her confessors and spiritual directors), then St. John of the Cross, St. John of Avila, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus Liguori - Founder of the Redemptorists, St. Anthony Mary Claret- the founder of the Claretians and St. Vincent Pallotti - the founder of the Pallottines.When Paul VI proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, he conferred on her the title of "Mystical Doctor". She deserved this title to the fullest because she left behind works that can be called classical mysticism. Saint Teresa the Great is not only a reformer of Carmel, but also the author of many books. Her writings style is simple and accessible. Her books have been translated into almost all the languages of the world.
Among many of her works, I will mention two to which we will refer in a moment. First, “The Life of Teresa of Jesus,”, referred as her autobiography. It is a work that tells what God has done in her. She tells her life as a "story of salvation" (each of us by God's grace is called to read our lives this way, as “story of salvation”). Secondly, and this is, in a sense, her life's work, crowning her achievements, " The Interior Castle, or The Mansions, (Spanish: El Castillo Interior or Las Moradas)", in which she presents the development of the Life of God in the life of man in the image of successively reached seven chambers.
I love so I am. Looking for the essence of prayer
Not all people can ponder. Therefore, thinking cannot belong to the essence of prayer, because if it were so, many people would not be able to pray, they would not be able to enter into a personal relationship with God. But everyone can love.
Teresa of Jesus is a prayer teacher in the Catholic Church. She has been in this role for over four centuries. And she continues in our days, proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI, who indicated that prayer is the center and the axis of her teaching. Therefore, we have the right to ask for her word - we, followers of Christ, and all those who seek a personal relationship with God
No está la cosa en pensar mucho, sino en amar mucho.
The thing is not to think a lot, but to love very much.
The above words of St. Teresa must first be situated in the context of the definition or description of prayer given to us by the foundress of Carmel: " Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. ” (The Life of Teresa of Jesus, 8: 5). It is easy to understand the power and meaning of this "very loving" that Teresa puts in the face of "thinking a lot", for which some doubtful prayer teachers argue. It can be said that the essence of friendship is opening up to another person, co-living (con-vivir) with another person, while thinking is the individual being left with his own thoughts, thus negating the prayer perceived as Teresa understands it.
To understand this better, let us turn to two texts of exceptional importance. In “The Way of Perfection" (Spanish: Camino de Perfección), the true catechism of prayer, Teresa pronounces with clarity what constitutes the essence of this prayer. She writes in chapter 26,3: “I am not asking you now to think of Him [Christ], or to form numerous conceptions of Him, or to make long and subtle meditations with your understanding.”
Everything is clear: "praying" does not mean "thinking," because when I think I am with my thoughts, with my feelings and considerations. It means: I am not going beyond myself. Teresa summarizes energetically: "I am asking you for nothing but to look at him." In this short formulation, Teresa condensed her understanding of the essence of prayer: they are two people who look at each other and who love each other.
No matter what they say, where they say, no matter how they say. Their attitude is important: they look at each other and pay attention to each other. It showed this reciprocity better in the Book of Her Life: "Look at him who is looking at you" (13:22). The verb "looks", used in the present tense, has God as the subject – the Saint indicates that God is always looking at us first: to look is to love. The command "see" (imperative) has as the subject of the praying person: notice, perceive, discover that someone is looking at you that you are loved.
Another text can be found in “Book of the Foundations”. Teresa refers to her own experiences: to a once-known group of spiritual people, teachers of prayer, "who think that the whole thing is thinking". She responds openly that "it is the grace of the Lord if one can always meditate on His works" and that "it is good to strive for it." But "not all imaginations are by nature capable of this [to think, ponder]." Therefore, thinking cannot belong to the essence of prayer, because if it were so, many people would not be able to pray, they would not be able to enter into a personal relationship with God. "But all [souls] can love." Teresa concludes: "Therefore, the benefit to the soul is not to think much, but to love very much" (Book of the Foundations 5: 2).
Love, on the other hand, is considered in the perspective of union with God by doing His will. Prayer, understood as friendship, fills life as a concrete, individual path of man, on which He wants to communicate with each of us. And always, on every path that the Lord leads man, "love is acquired" in unconditional service to one's neighbor and in obedience, also unconditional.
In prayer, charity, and obedience, God looks to nothing but the love of a person. This is how Teresa ends the Interior Castle: “The Lord does not look at the greatness of the works, but at the love with which they are made”.[...] "Only love is what gives value to all things, so the most necessary thing is that it should be so great that it does not prevent anyone from loving”.
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
On the attached photo is one of the greatest sculpture from the era of Baroque art, the marble ensemble known as The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (L'Estasi di Santa Teresa), located in the Cornaro Chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, was carved by Bernini (1598-1680)
Saint Teresa of Avila had many mystical experiences. She describes the piercing of her heart that was repeated many times in her autobiography, “The Life of Teresa of Jesus” (1515–1582). Her experience of religious ecstasy in her encounter with the angel is described as follows: “I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.”
Meaning of Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
The traditional interpretation of Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is relatively straightforward. The sculpture portrays the Saint's overpowering sense of spiritual pleasure in serving Christ. Bernini employs imagery which suggests sensual pleasure, but only in order to convey the tangible nature of Teresa's experience - a manifestation of her love of God and her yearning for spiritual union with him. The work is consistent with the aims of the Catholic Counter-Reformation art campaign, which sought to convey the mysteries of Catholicism as cogently as possible.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george