Chapter 9 – SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Fr. Marie Eugene begins the chapter with the fact that the divine life in our soul develops like a grain of a mustard seed which, when upon the earth is the smallest of all the seeds, but it grows up and becomes larger than any other herb and puts out great branches. He covers how that growth takes place and by what signs it shall be recognized. It is a mystery which St. Teresa of Jesus tries to give us insight into with her writings.
Perfection consists in perfect union with God, transforming union or spiritual marriage. God is our end and to attain to Him is perfection. The soul is perfect in the measure in which it is near to Him. St. Teresa explains that these seven mansions are comprised of many more, both above and below and around. She also states that the sixth and seventh mansions might be fused in one – that there is no closed door to separate the one from the other. Fr. Marie Eugene states that seven is the perfect number and that the first can be considered as the point of departure; the third mansions is where the natural activity of the soul takes place which is aided by grace; the fifth mansion enlightened by the longing for transforming union. He states that the three other mansions are periods of transition or preparation. Dryness dominates the second mansion; the night of the senses in the fourth and the night of the spirit in the sixth. In these transition or preparation mansions, there are more stumbling blocks to be met. In the first phase – 1st to 3rd mansions – God assures the soul of His ordinary grace or general help. For the soul - attention to Prayer is predominant and correction of exterior faults. The soul exercises its apostolic mission with its natural activity aided by grace. In the second phase – 4th to 7th mansions –God intervenes progressively in the life of the soul taking the initiative away from the soul and imposes upon it submission and abandonment and finally establishes the perfect rule of God – making the soul a child of God and it now becomes moved by the Spirit of God. For the soul – self-surrender is necessary.
The action of God and the cooperation of the soul in such close dependence on each other produce a real transformation. St. Teresa used the analogy of a silk worm and how it is transformed from a worm into a butterfly. St. Teresa uses this analogy several times to show the transforming action of charity which divinizes as it develops, creates new virtues, perfects the natural powers and produces a new and perfect type of humanity, a soul transformed in God.
The mystery that surrounds the supernatural and its external signs explains why the inhabitants of Nazareth did not recognize the divinity of Jesus, any more than the high sanctity of Mary and of Joseph. Also mentioned was the holiness of St. Therese among her sisters in the convent. This is found with many of the saints – it sufficed to leave to grace the mystery that envelops it and to assure to the external manifestations of the supernatural the veil of simplicity which is the characteristic of the highest and most pure souls. St. Teresa states: “…in this life of ours, the soul does not grow in the way the body does, though we speak as if it did, and growth does in fact occur.” She also states, “No soul on this road is such a giant that it does not often need to become a child at the breast again. (This must never be forgotten: I may repeat it again and again, for it is of great importance.)” Life, pg. 80 Father Marie Eugene states that it is beyond a doubt that it is the action of God Himself that contributes most to the complexity of this problem or mystery of growth. The Holy Ghost gives to each one, grace in the measure that He has chosen. St. Teresa states, “…the Lord grants to one person less contemplation in twenty years than to others in one.” Life, pg. 237 She also states: “ But, O my God, how is it that even in spiritual matters we often try to interpret things in our own way, as if they were worldly things, and distort their true meaning? We think we can measure our progress by the number of years during which Who bestows on us measureless gifts, and Who can give more to one person in six months than to another in many years. This is something which I have so often observed, and in so many people, that I am amazed to find we can act so pettily.” Life, pg. 283
We thank God for these gifts given to us through the writings of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us!
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CHAPTER 8 – Teresian Spirit – Zeal for God and Souls
St. Teresa of Jesus was a mother of souls. Once she entered the “castle” herself, she was consumed with a desire to share this peace of soul with others. Even though her writings tend to the soul that is filled with desire to reach the summit, she holds out an invitation to those not quite ready to make the commitment. Fr. Marie Eugene states that St. Teresa does not abandon the souls that she cannot draw after herself because sin holds them fixed in the immobility of death but she looks back to them with a glance of tender kindness. He says that as she grows closer to God in prayer, so too, her charity for souls grows. She was consumed with the zeal of the Prophet Elijah when founding the reformed Convent of St. Joseph of Avila. St. Teresa was drawn by her own zeal for a strict cloister and intimacy with Jesus. As Teresa saw other souls interested in the same goal, she then realized that God had His own special design in it. Fr. Marie Eugene points out that St. Teresa was aware of the religious troubles that were spreading throughout the world and this fed the fuel to the fire of divine love. “At about this time, there came to my notice the harm and havoc that were being wrought in France by these Lutherans and the way in which their unhappy sect was increasing. This troubled me very much and as though I could do anything, or be of any help in the matter, I wept before the Lord and entreated Him to remedy this great evil.” It breaks my heart to see so many souls travelling to perdition, she continues. I would the evil were not so great and I did not see more being lost every day. (Way of Perfection, Ch 2) The zeal that St. Teresa had was compared to that of the prophet Elijah when he states, “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant. They have thrown down Thy altars, they have slain Thy prophets.” To work for the Church is the vocation of St. Teresa and the purpose of her Reform. The love of the Church is her whole life; so much so that at the end of her life, she says, “I am a daughter of the Church.” In order to understand the Carmelite vocation, it is important to understand this teaching of St. Teresa and that is: to live for the glory of God and the salvation of souls by our prayers for the Church. This entails our struggles as well as our joys in our loving union with Christ. St Teresa offers her daily duty in the convent as her works of reparation and service to the Church which is what we as laymen are called to do. Prayer was already the principal function of Carmel in the Church. This prayer must obtain for us “the qualities needed for the struggle” and preservation from the dangers of the world. St. Teresa, and the Carmelites who follow her, understood that we must pray for its leaders, its priests and for all those who defend our Church. She looked at this as a direct help to Jesus, Who is guiding these men to victory; but with the aid of our prayers in imitation of Our Lady! The apostolic role assigned to prayer contributes to its higher perfection. For if prayer is to be powerful, it must in fact be perfect. The efficacy of prayer depends especially on the degree of sanctity of the soul who prays. Thus, love for souls and the Church is an incentive to strive for union with God. “Let us strive to live in such a way,” says St. Teresa, “that our prayers may be of avail to help these servants of God.” We must understand that our prayer life and our charity for our neighbor and especially those who serve the Church, feed on each other by increasing our zeal for a greater union with God. This zeal opens up horizons of sacrifice that were unknown when desire was set only on intimate union with God. St. Teresa said, “To see God we must die.” Not only meaning the physical death but the mortifications necessary to truly give ourselves to God in prayer. Prayer for the Church finds its efficacy only in sacrifice. St. Teresa implemented sacrifices and austerities into St. Joseph’s convent. Soon, God allowed it that this St. Joseph’s should multiply and that the demand for new convents was to happen at the request of a Superior General by the name of Father Rubeo. The world was on fire and Christ was not loved as He should be. This was St. Teresa’s motivation to do as Fr. Rubeo had asked. Multiplying courageous Christians for prayer will save souls and contribute to the triumph of Christ and His Church. She had to sacrifice the sweet joys of solitude for the activity of opening new convents. She shared her zeal for God and His Church with these new souls and they too became contemplatives and intercessors whose prayers were all given to the Church. Following this, she dreamed of prolonging her conquering action by extending the Reform to the friars of the Order. She wanted them to be such that they could sustain her daughters, govern her convents, but also do combat for the Church and cross seas for the conquest of souls. Soon, a Father Gracian became the first Superior to the Discalced Carmelite Friars. SUMMARY: A work of reform and a spiritual doctrine sprang simultaneously from her soul: they are both fruits of the same living spirit that work together. All must be contemplatives seeking the summit of perfection by way of prayer. Fr. Marie Eugene points out that St. Teresa does not receive among her following those souls who would come only to learn the ways of prayer and the secret of divine intimacy – they must be dedicated to the service of Jesus Christ and His Church. They must thirst for the salvation of souls and be willing to make sacrifices to bring these souls to the Heart of Jesus. Without Fr. Marie Eugene saying so in this Chapter, it is the spirit of Mary – Our Queen and Mother. This is her sole desire – to please the Heart of Her Son by winning for Him the souls that He came to die for. Fr. Marie Eugene points out the example of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. She desired to win souls for God with her life of sacrifice and prayer. This is a Carmelite. He also uses the example of St. Teresa of Jesus, herself, when she moans and cries over the sins of the world and feels the pain of God over the lack of love the world has for Him. “I was so afflicted by the loss of so many souls that I did not know what to do. I withdrew into a hermitage and wept tears in abundance.” (Foundations – Ch. 1) St. Teresa and the Carmelites are to continue for the Church the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane. Fr. Marie Eugene points out that this spirituality of contemplation and an apostolate are solidly united; they are fused into one life of the soul and happily complete each other. They are two aspects of a harmonious whole, two manifestations of the same profound life. The soul must be united to God in order to work for the good of souls. Carmel forms spiritual souls who are still apostles with a consuming zeal when they have learned to remain constantly in the presence of the living God. This is one of the longest chapters in the book. There is a reason for this. One cannot make progress in the spiritual life unless one knows the enemy. This enemy does not want our progress. The devil hates God and therefore those who strive to love God. If we do not wake up each day and live our day knowing that we are entering into a spiritual battleground – then we will have many pitfalls and possibly be overcome by giving up the fight – not knowing that we were even in a battle!
St. Teresa did not view the devil as some mysterious, malicious power but a living being. She knew him on a personal level. In this chapter we will learn from her experience and her teaching about the nature and the power of the devil, the frequency and the modes of his intervention in the spiritual life, the means of discerning his presence and of resisting his attacks.
To these angels which are now evil spirits filled with hatred for God, God had given permission to intervene in the world. Since they are pure spirits, Satan and his angels can dominate the inferior world of matter and the senses. The devil knows the laws and reactions of the world. He can move them to action and use them intelligently for his own ends. It must be known that the fallen angels cannot penetrate into the higher faculties of the soul unless the will gives one entry. The spiritual relations of the soul with God are for them an impenetrable mystery. But by means of sensible impressions and images that are presented to the intellect and the will and have normally an influence on their activity, the devil can intervene indirectly in the activity of the soul and the spiritual life. These can be so subtle and so rapid that the soul can be easily deceived and not suspect the activity of an evil spirit. St. Therese of the Child Jesus relates that the mysterious illness from which she suffered at the age of nine, was produced by the devil who, she said, wanted to take revenge on her for the great harm that her family was to do to him in the future.
We see even in the writings of St. John of the Cross in his Dark Night, he states: “As the devil sees that he cannot succeed in thwarting them in the depth of the soul, he does what he can to disturb and disquiet the sensual part, to which he is able to attain – now by means of afflictions, now by terrors and fears, with intent to disquiet and disturb the higher and spiritual part of the soul by this means, with respect to that blessing which it then receives and enjoys. At other times, when the spiritual communication is not made in any great measure to the spirit, but the senses have a part therein, the devil more easily succeeds in disturbing the spirit and raising a tumult within it, by means of the senses, with these terrors.” It is also mentioned here that the devils can cause disquiet among a group of souls, a society, a community, a parish, etc. This was expressed by St. Teresa when she explains the turmoil that the devil stirred when she started the Reform. She as well as the community were agitated by her first convent, St. Joseph of Avila, The devil had guessed the importance of the work that was beginning and his zeal for destroying it appears to us today well justified.
In the Living Flame by St. John of the Cross, he points out how the devil, “ takes his stand, with great cunning, on the road which leads from sense to spirit, deceiving and luring the soul by means of sense, and giving it sensual things, as we have said, so that it may rest in them and not escape from him.”
A testimony from St. Teresa from her Life p. 205, “From long experience, I have learned that there is nothing like holy water to put devils to flight and prevent them from coming back again. They also flee from the Cross, but return; so holy water must have great virtue. For my own part, whenever I take it, my soul feels a particular and most notable consolation. In fact, it is quite usual for me to be conscious of a refreshment which I cannot possibly describe, resembling an inward joy which comforts my whole soul. This is not fancy, or something which has happened to me only once; it has happened again and again and I have observed it most attentively.” “And so we all used to carry a little gourd of holy water, suspended to our cincture, and she wanted to have hers.”
In the Dark Night, St. John confirms this by stating that the white vestment of faith protects the soul from the devil. Faith lifts the soul above the domain of the senses, over which the devil can exercise power, and introduces it into the supernatural world which he cannot enter. By the soul lifting itself to God, it is protected from the temptation of the devil. We must immediately send acts of faith to God when the soul begins to be tormented. Once this becomes a habit, flight from the enemy will be spontaneous and will have beneficial results.
The Chapter ends with the understanding that God allows the evil one to tempt us and try us in our lives in order to strengthen us, to prove us, to humble us, to increase our merits, to make our virtues more pure and strong, and to make our progress toward Him more rapid. TERESIAN ASCETICISM – Chapter 6
Fr. Marie Eugene begins this chapter reminding us of the quote of St. Teresa that she makes to her parents when she returns from fleeing to the area of Spain where the Moors were persecuting the Christians and says: “To see God – we must die.” This chapter is about how we are to give up ourselves to Christ and His Church. We must proceed through this chapter knowing that God is all powerful, all knowing and all loving. He is able to supply all our needs. He does not like mediocrity. He wants us to give Him our all. “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” Matt. 23:35-38. As much as we try to tell ourselves that this is impossible; we must remember that God has demanded it of us and if He demands it – He can supply all that we need. We must have faith and believe this. He wants us to obtain that same intense love which He has for us and He cannot just give it to us – we must SHOW Him that we truly seek it and want it. We must labor for it! We find in the Way of Perfection, Chapter 12: “Prayer cannot be accompanied by self-indulgence.” This self-indulgence shows God that we are truly not serious about being with Him. This chapter tells us that in order to arrive at perfect union with God, we must submit to an energetic and absolute asceticism. In order for this asceticism to be efficacious and proportionate to human strength, it will have to be adapted to that strength and progressive. Therefore, we will cover Absolute Asceticism, Adapted Asceticism and Progressive Asceticism.
Teresa continues to ask her sisters to endure all without complaining. She says that generosity is necessary from the very beginning of the spiritual life. This is difficult on its own. We must pray for the graces necessary to understand what it was that Jesus endured for us in His Life, Passion and Death. We are called to take up our cross and follow after Him. “Many never manage to finish their course because they do not “embrace the Cross from the beginning.” (Life, Ch. 11) “The aim of all my advice to you in this book is that we should surrender ourselves wholly to the Creator, place our will in His hands and detach ourselves from the creatures.” (Way of Perfection, Ch. 32) It is stressed that St. Teresa does not mean to condemn people to Hell who do not abide by her advice. She merely states that one will remain in the lower parts of the mansions if we do not strive for more. One cannot make it to the summit of contemplation without labor. When one deceases from this life, one dies at different stages of spiritual growth. Our eternal happiness will be experienced differently by everyone according to his surrender and embracing of his own particular cross. She says in the Seventh Mansion that we must be branded with the sign of the Cross. St. John of the Cross is of the same mindset. In his book, The Ascent of Mt. Carmel. He states that there are three ways open to the beginner. First, is the way of the soul that is led astray, and follows the search for the goods of earth: liberty, honors, knowledge and comfort. The Second is called the way of the imperfect and leads towards the goods of heaven; glory, sanctity, joy, wisdom; but because it seeks them, the soul finds them less abundantly and it does not scale the mountain of perfection. The third way is going straight to the summit where there is a narrow path on which the Saint has written four times over; “nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.” This path leads to the fullness of the gifts of God to the banquet of divine Wisdom. This is interpreted in the following way: “In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything, desire to have pleasure in nothing. In order to arrive at possessing everything, desire to possess nothing. In order to arrive at being everything, desire to be nothing. In order to arrive at knowing everything, desire to know nothing.” Ascent, Book 1 Ch. 13. In plain language – God will provide – do not worry – just surrender! It is clear that the slopes of Carmel are steep and we are advised not to concentrate on the road traversed or how high or hard it is to climb but to contemplate on Our Lord Jesus Christ – our ultimate goal - union with Him. Our only support to get there is the staff that is the cross. “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” Matt. 16:24 ---- There is no other way than the way to Calvary! “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things before entering into his glory?” Luke 24:26. The disciple is not above his Master. The world hated me and it will hate you. They will persecute you as they have persecuted me…I am sending you forth as sheep among wolves.” Matt. 10. We try to forget that Christ announced no other victory than that of the Cross on Calvary. If someone comes to you, preaching an easy doctrine, even if he were an angel and worked miracles to support it, do not believe him. Put your trust in austere penance and detachment from all things.” St. John of the Cross Maxim 124 Fr. Marie Eugene beautifully reminds us that to find the immolated Christ we can go to the Eucharist. The Eucharist gives us the superabundant life of the Christ Who does not die and announces to us through His Passion, His sufferings, the necessity of participating in His sacrifice, of completing what is lacking to His Passion for the application of His merits to our souls.
The asceticism that tends to absolute detachment must proceed progressively, by degrees; if not, it will fail completely. A prudent and enlightened director must regulate this progress by considering the actual strength of a soul. Know that God is a God of love and compassion. He has the most perfect patience and will tenderly guide your soul to Him. He is not forceful but gentle towards your needs which He knows best. We must have profound trust in Him! It is stressed that a time for making resolutions is critical to growth and progress. It is not recommended in this book, but it is in our Rule that we are asked to take time out each year for a retreat; possibly the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The Miles Christi priests do offer retreats throughout the year for both men and women which last an entire weekend but are profitable for the soul to advance in its generosity with God. CHRIST JESUS IN THE TERESIAN PRAYER
St. Teresa suggests that in order for mental prayer to be fruitful, we must first examine our conscience, confess our sins and sign ourselves with the Cross. Then, she asks that we look for the best companion to pray with and this is Jesus Himself. She says: “ Believe me, you should stay with so good a Friend for as long as you can before you leave Him. If you become accustomed to having Him at your side, as if He sees that you love Him to be there and are always trying to please Him, you will never be able, as we put it, to send Him away.” Way of Perfection p. 107-108 This method is for all and it is helpful at all stages in bringing Christ into our lives. She states that this method should be the beginning, the middle and the end of prayer. It is a safe road until the Lord leads us to other methods which are supernatural. She says that everyone must make his prayer with the person of Christ until God raises the soul higher.(seventh mansion) She explains that we do not have to have an imagination that pictures Him present. We only need to use our faith, our belief that He is near and this is sufficient. She says that this gaze of faith is always possible. She says: “If words do not fail you when you talk to people on earth, why should they do so when you talk to God. Do not imagine that they will – I shall certainly not believe that they have done so if you once form the habit.” Way of Perfection p. 109 She says that in all the states of the spiritual life one must return to the humanity of our Lord and never withdraw from it as long as grace does not lead us elsewhere. In this she could invoke the authority of Christ: For the Lord Himself says that He is the Way; the Lord also says that He is light and that no one can come to the Father save by Him; and he that seeth Me seeth my Father! John 14:6 In other words, the humanity veils the divinity only for those who, like the apostles before the Ascension, are timid in faith. For those, on the contrary, who believe firmly in the divinity and have already reached higher stages of prayer, following the example of the Blessed Virgin, the sacred humanity brings a help to that faith. The Word became incarnate in order to save us and to also put Himself within our reach, to adapt His teaching to the duality of our nature which is made up of body and spirit. Jesus dwelt among us, embodied in this nature. St. Teresa states: “We are not angels and we have bodies. To want to become angels while we are still on earth.. is ridiculous. As a rule, our thought must have something to lean upon, though sometimes the soul may go out from itself and very often may be so full of God that it will need no created thing to assist it in recollection. But this is not very usual when we are busy, or suffering persecutions or trials, when we cannot get as much quiet as we should like, and at seasons of aridity, we have a very good friend in Christ.” Way of Perfection p. 140 We can only progress in prayer by using the mediation of Christ. This mediation is more especially necessary after the contemplative graces of the fourth Mansions. If the soul does not then go back to Christ, it will not find liberty of spirit and will make no progress. “I believe myself that this is the reason why many souls, after succeeding in experiencing the Prayer of Union, do not make further progress and achieve a very great spiritual freedom.” Life, Ch. 22 p. 138 The error they make, we can guess, is to abandon Jesus Christ and they will certainly not go higher. “At any rate, I can assure them that they will not enter these last two mansions; for if they lose their Guide, the good Jesus, they will be unable to find their way; they will do well if they are able to remain securely in the other Mansions.” Mansion VI, p. 305 Fr. Marie Eugene points out the practices of little St. Therese. She liked to meditate on the Infant Jesus in the crib, or being carried up to Heaven in the arms of Jesus. Also, she would meditate on the holy wounds of the Holy Face of Jesus. This was the “elevator” that lifted her soul quickly to the summit of the mountain as she had hoped and longed for. THEOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION Fr. Marie Eugene points out that in the early paradise, our first parents, endowed as they were with the supernatural gift of grace, talked familiarly with God and attained to Him without an intermediary. Their sin separated them from God and left between divinity and humanity an impassable abyss. God then put into effect a new plan to replace the one that sin rendered ineffectual. In this new plan, the Incarnate Word is the universal and unique Mediator. God, Who had created everything by His Word, decrees that all will be restored by the Word Incarnate. According to the word of Scripture, He has been made “a Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech”. Heb. 7:17 During the course of His public life, our Lord revealed and explained progressively His mediation: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”John 14:6 By Him alone the divine light and grace can descend here below; by Him alone we have access to the throne of the Father of light and mercy. Most beautifully, Fr. Marie Eugene explains that His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity can be found in the Eucharist. “I am the bread of life…He who eats My flesh and drinks My Blood has life everlasting. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood you shall not have life in you.” John 6:48-55 The words are clear: one can have life ONLY by communion with Jesus Christ. He states that the other sacraments themselves have efficacy only by their relation to the Holy Eucharist; such as Baptism, which has efficacy only by the vow of the baptized to receive the Eucharist. --- Holy Communion transforms. Jesus comes as a conquerer to transform us into His light and His charity. “I am the vine, you are the branches… If anyone does not abide in me, he shall be cast outside as the branch and wither; and they shall gather them up and cast them into the fire…without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5-6 All our supernatural life is linked to our union with Jesus Christ. Separated from Him, we are nothing. This unity is the reason for the Incarnation and the Redemption – it is vital for our souls and for the Church. The Church is Christ diffused in His members. By this holy humanity of Christ, the Word lays hold on and draws after Him all men who let themselves be taken captive by His grace. The whole Christ extended and complete is placed, by His unity with the Word, under the eternally fruitful paternity of the Father of light and mercy; and with Him breathes forth the Love that is the Holy Spirit Who, as Spirit of the Father and the Son, becomes in consequence the Spirit of the Church and ours. Such is the plan of God that envelops us, and the design that He wants to realize in us and by us. We shall belong to Christ Jesus or we shall not have supernatural life. Fr. Marie Eugene ends the chapter by describing that St. Teresa leads us in the Interior Castle by way of Jesus. The first three mansions are fixed untiringly on the good Jesus. The fourth and fifth mansions manifest the Wisdom of the Word. The sixth mansion shares in the sorrowful mysteries of Christ while waiting until it participates in the triumph of His Life in the transforming union of the seventh mansion. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us! MENTAL PRAYER
The foundation of the spiritual life is the twofold knowledge: to know God and to know oneself in the light of God. This is what assures our true success in the progress of perfection. In the Interior Castle, St. Teresa says that the door of entry into the castle of our soul is prayer and meditation.
In solitary silence, we are called to habituate ourselves to live constantly in the company of the good Master who has called us. St Teresa stresses that it is the mission of Carmelites to pray for the Church, to maintain within it a high level of prayer, and to teach other souls the ways of prayer. So for Carmelites, prayer is not only the means of perfection, an exercise of the spiritual life; it is the essential occupation that must fill the day. She advanced as long as she was faithful to prayer, and the periods of least fervor were marked by a relaxation in that exercise. Since all Christians are called to this union with God in prayer, St. Teresa addresses all Christians when stating that mental prayer is as necessary as vocal prayer from which it cannot be separated. Mental prayer is identified with every vital movement of grace in our soul. This grace is filial and should always lead us to God. She warns in her book, Interior Castle – Mansion 1, that souls can be so infirm and so accustomed to busying themselves with outside affairs that nothing can be done for them, and it seems as though they are incapable of entering within themselves at all. Therefore, it is necessary as laymen to set aside time for God – as a necessity like eating. Prayer fortifies convictions and sustains generous resolutions to work and to suffer for our salvation and others. Prayer transforms the soul into the very image of God. This way of prayer is not a way of perfection exclusively for Carmelites but for all souls seeking God in contemplative prayer.
Mental prayer is differentiated by the different modes of the divine action in each soul, in the variety of diversities of temperaments, the differences of age and development and in the actual dispositions of the souls who are praying. Contact with God is established in the depths of the soul in those regions where God dwells and where supernatural love is poured out in us. In the measure that this love is strong and active, the friendly exchanged with Him will be frequent and intimate. Mental prayer is also a personal prayer. Even in the form of public prayer, or when it is the prayer of a group in unison, it remains a solitary converse with God in each individual soul because of the soul’s intimate contact with Him. Fr. Marie-Eugene stresses that the friendly union with God in prayer and the affectionate relations with a human friend are both inspired by love but the two loves are not in the same order. The first is supernatural and the second is natural. It is then thanks to the certitude of faith, yet through the obscurity that it leaves that we can have this friendship with God who, according to St. Teresa. “we know loves us.” That God loves us is certain; that we have contact with Him by faith is a certain truth; but supernatural penetration in God can be effected without leaving us any light, any feeling, any experience whatever of the riches that we have drawn from it. He uses the passage in the Bible about the woman who by faith reaches for the hem of the garment of Jesus knowing that she will be healed if she just touches Him. We too, with faith should be confident that when we reach out in prayer to God – He will give us His riches within our souls which we cannot see or touch. Every contact with God by faith is always efficacious! He ends this section with a quote from St. Therese: “With me prayer is an uplifting of the heart; a glance towards heaven; a cry of gratitude and love, uttered equally in sorrow and in joy. In a word, it is something noble, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites it to God. Sometimes when I am in such a state of spiritual dryness that not a single good thought occurs to me, I say very slowly the “Our Father” or the “Hail Mary”, and these prayers suffice to take me out of myself, and wonderfully refresh me.”
Mental prayer which, for Saint Teresa, is the essential exercise of the spiritual life, must normally develop with it until it reaches perfection. In the book of her Life she gave a well known classification of the degrees of prayer, illustrated by the gracious comparison of the four ways of watering a garden.
He states that the first three mansions in the Interior Castle cover information about the first degree. The second degree (Prayer of Quiet) and the third degree (sleep of the powers) are in the fourth mansion. The fourth degree are covered at great length in the fifth through seventh mansions. Prayer grows in its perfection by its degree of love. Prayer then will be perfect when the soul is transformed in love and has all of its energies strong and supple, altogether attuned to the delicate touches of the Spirit of God. St. Teresa of Jesus believes that it is of the highest importance for the soul to know itself. She says: “Would it not be a sign of great ignorance, my daughters, if a person were asked who he was, and could not say, and had no idea who his father or his mother was, or from what country he came? Though that is great stupidity, our own is incomparably greater if we make no attempt to discover what we are, and only know that we are living in these bodies.” Life, Peers, Ch. 1 p. 80. She states that this self-knowledge must never be neglected because we would suffer terrible trials because we do not understand ourselves. We would not so effectually advance towards God without knowing the structure of the soul, its possibilities, its deficiencies, the laws that regulate its activities. In the sixth mansion of Interior Castle, she came to the understanding that our Lord dearly loves the virtue of humility because God is Sovereign Truth and to be humble is to walk in truth for it is absolutely true to say that we have no good thing in ourselves but only misery and nothingness, and anyone who fails to understand this is walking in falsehood. He who best understands it is most pleasing to Sovereign Truth because he is walking in truth. She also states in the Interior Castle, first mansion, “However high a state the soul may have attained, self- knowledge is incumbent upon it, and this it will never be able to neglect even should it so desire.” Therefore, she states, “However sublime your contemplation may be, take care both to begin and end every period of prayer with self-examination.” Object of the Knowledge of Self All that is quoted so far shows that St. Teresa wants to know herself only in order to attain to God more surely. It is almost exclusively in the light of God that she is going to ask for the necessary bread of self-knowledge. God must be at the same time the end and the beginning of the knowledge of self. Psychological Knowledge She discovers that imagination or thoughts are not the same as understanding. She wondered why the understanding was more timid in the soul than thoughts which seemed to be numerous. She explains the distinction between the two as exterior and interior, between sense and spirit. She states: “Just as we cannot stop the movement of the heavens, revolving as they do with such speed, so we cannot restrain our thought. And then we send all the faculties of the soul after it, thinking we are lost, and have misused the time that we are spending in the presence of God. Yet the soul may perhaps be wholly united with Him in the Mansions very near His presence, while thought remains in the outskirts of the castle, suffering the assaults of a thousand wild and venomous creatures…” She concludes that “it is not good for us to be disturbed by our thoughts or to worry about them in the slightest…” Spiritual Knowledge It is only under the light of God that we can explore the triple domain of the spiritual knowledge of self.
Thus the double knowledge of the all of God and the nothingness of man is fundamental for the spiritual life. It creates in the soul a profound humility that nothing can disturb; it places the soul in an attitude of truth which attracts all the gifts of God. This knowledge also helped St. Teresa to have a profound respect for the greatness of God. 2. Supernatural riches Now we look at the supernatural riches that are made available to this soul of nothingness. All souls are called to be perfect as its heavenly Father is perfect. St. Teresa says that the soul’s capacity is much greater than we can realize. She wishes now to talk about the sublime dignity and beauty of the soul – “the palace occupied by the King”. She says the soul is “a castle made of a single diamond or of a very clear crystal.” The Christian ought to know his dignity. He ought not to be ignorant of the value of the many special graces he has received. In the Way of Perfection, we find St. Teresa stating: “If God gives a soul such pledges, it is a sign that He has great things in store for it. It will be its own fault if it does not make great progress.” Truth moves us to gratitude towards God and urges us to be faithful to graces received. 3. Evil tendencies St. Teresa now brings us to the reality that there are forces which work against us and the graces which God wants us to have. We cannot disregard the venomous poisons which are all around us because they constitute one of the most important objects of the knowledge of self. Man discovers in himself concupiscence, the disordinate strivings of the senses; pride of mind and of the will, or the lusting of these two powers for self-independence. St. John of the Cross points out certain effects of these evil tendencies, especially the privative one of eliminating God and God’s action wherever they prevail: “For it is the same thing if a bird be held by a slender cord or by a stout one; since, even if it be slender, the bird will be as well held as though it were stout, for so long as it breaks it not and flies not away.” St. John also tells us in detail how these unruly desires cause torment, fatigue, weariness, blindness and weakness in the soul. How to acquire knowledge of self? It is the light of God that discovers to her what she is, the value of the supernatural riches and the harmfulness of evil inclinations. Therefore: It is the light of God that the soul learns to know itself. St. Teresa asks the soul not to seek to know itself by analyzing itself directly, but to search itself under the light of God. She says in the first mansions of the Interior Castle: “As I see it, we shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God, let us think of His greatness and then come back to our own baseness; by looking at His purity we shall see our foulness; by meditation upon His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble. She says that we must be careful not to focus too much on ourselves and its failures. We must not have a false humility to make us very uneasy about the gravity of our past sins. This would be an avenue for Satan to make us melancholy or sad. She says that we must never take our eyes off of Christ. We must add here that even though Our Lady was perfect, the Church gives her to us as our perfect model. She never took her eyes off of Christ. Mary had perfect humility which never disturbs or troubles the soul. It is accompanied with peace, joy and tranquility. We have the Sacraments to find Jesus and ask His pardon and beg Him through the prayers and intercession of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel for the graces we need to grow in holiness. We want to live in imitation of her. We want to love Jesus above all thing and to depend on Him for the graces we need to reach perfect union with Him. St. Teresa only wanted to know herself to serve God better and to attain to Him who is the friend of order and of truth. May we never give up the fight for Truth and may we always seek the Truth – truth to know that God is a loving Father who wants us all to depend on Him like a little child. Truth to know that this little child has faults and failings that can only be healed by God Himself through our yes to His grace. May we seek to do His Will so that we can grow closer to Him each and every day for all eternity PS – The St. Louis DeMontfort – To Jesus Through Mary Consecration has a 33 day Preparation in which the second week is devoted to “Knowledge of Self”. As Carmelites, we are asked in the Old Rule to follow this teaching which is to seek Christ with the help of Mary. It is the surest, fastest way to acquire perfection which we are all called to. May Our Lady of Mt. Carmel pray for us and lead us to Her Son Jesus Christ!! As the Moors were invading Spain in the 1500's, Teresa of Jesus as a child, went off towards the country with her brother Rodrigo in the hope that there they would have their heads cut off. Her uncle went out to seek them and brought them back to their anxious parents. She explained, “I went because I want to see God, and to see Him we must die.” As she grew up at home, she built little hermitages in the orchard. She finally enters the Carmel and God reveals His presence to Teresa in fleeting graces of union. This only increases her desire for God. She writes:
“Remember how St. Augustine tells us about his seeking God in many places and eventually finding Him within himself. Do you suppose it is of little importance that a soul which is often distracted should come to understand this truth and to find that, in order to speak to its Eternal Father and to take its delight in Him, it has no need to go to Heaven…We need no wings to go in search of Him but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us.” (Taken from her Life) The whole of Teresian spirituality is in this movement towards God Who is present in the soul, seeking to be united perfectly with Him. These are the essential elements:
Active Presence of Immensity On a natural level, God created all things and by a continual act sustains His creatures in order to maintain it in existence. The participation of the divine nature which is grace, is the highest work wrought by the presence of immensity. God is then present substantially in the soul of the just to whom He gives both natural being and the supernatural life of grace. He sustains us, but not as a mother sustains and carries her child in her arms; He penetrates us and envelops us. God is the soul of our soul, the life of our life, the great reality in which we are, as it were, immersed; He penetrates all that we have and all that we are by His active presence and His vivifying power; “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28 Objective Presence By the presence of immensity, God reveals His presence and His nature by His works. To the soul that has become His child by grace, God opens up His intimate life, His life in a Trinity, and has the soul enter to share in it like a true child. To these new relations created by grace there corresponds a new mode of divine presence that we shall call “objective presence”; because in this, God is embraced directly as the object of our knowing and our love. “If any one love me,…my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him.” John 14:23 Localization of the Objective Presence in the Center of the Soul The presence of God is localized in the most profound part of the soul, in the center, the room or palace occupied by the King. It is at the center of the castle that the soul will properly experience the active presence of God, the sanctifier. It is in the center that it will go to find Him and to be united perfectly with Him.
Thus the reign of God is established in the soul; the transforming union is effected by the invading of grace which progressively conquers, transforms and subjects the soul to God within. By freeing itself of the senses and its own egoistic tendencies, by obeying lights and motions that are more and more spiritual and interior, the soul deepens within until it belongs completely to Him who resides in its finest point. Such is the spiritual life and its movement.
St. Teresa in her Interior Castle states: “The desire of glorifying God completes this submission. These souls have now an equally strong desire to serve Him and to sing His praises, and to help some soul if they can. So what they desire now is not merely not to die but to live for a great many years and to suffer the severest trials, if by so doing they can become the means whereby the Lord is praised, even in the smallest things.” This union answers to the dearest desires of God Himself. God-Love needs to give Himself and finds His joy in this, a joy according to the measure of His giving. In all creation, God can give nothing more perfect than grace, so that the creature can participate in His nature. Hence, there is no joy for God superior to that which He finds in the diffusion of His grace. What will be God’s joy when He finds a soul that leaves Him entirely free, and in which He can pour out His love in the measure of His desire! The confidences made by our Lord to certain saints indicate this joy of God. Conclusion: This unity, imposed by God on man as his supernatural end, has its value already here on earth. The effective power of the soul in the supernatural world is according to the measure of its unitive charity. A saint like St. Teresa, who has arrived at spiritual marriage, normally obtains much more from God by one sigh of the soul than do many imperfect souls by long prayers. With St. Teresa, her desire of drawing from the infinite ocean of God’s love as directly as possible and with all the power of her being united herself perfectly with God, lifting up her soul and this gave her spirituality its force and its dynamism, its direction and its end. St. Teresa calls us to accept the condition of giving ourselves completely to Him in order to be transformed by His love and to do His Will. MARY’S WILL Mary’s life is a great example for us to imitate because She was the only one who fully understood and imitated the strength of the will of Jesus – Her Son. Jesus wished only and completely the will of His Father and therefore so did Mary. Mary’s life is one of strength because She was so united to the Most Blessed Trinity. We see in Scripture her strength of will throughout the events of Mary’s life. In the presence of the Angel Gabriel, She accepted an almost infinite responsibility on which depended the future of Earth and even of Heaven. For us and in obedience to the Father, She kept silent Her pregnancy from St. Joseph so that it would be in Scripture for us that She conceived of the Holy Spirit. This took tremendous strength of will because She saw the pain and sorrow that St. Joseph was going through and could only offer this to the Father with Her prayers. She did not complain of no room in the inn and the lack of welcome for Jesus at Bethlehem; as well as not being frightened by the perspectives hinted at by the old priest Simeon. She did not protest the orders to flee into Egypt from Herod. She was always docile to the will of the Father in imitation of Her Son. She needed strength of will to endure the agony of that unexplainable disappearance of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem. For thirty years She was at the side of Her Son, watching Him grow in stature, wisdom, grace and sensed every day that the hour was drawing nearer when He would be a “sign of contradiction” to His people. She willingly endured the sword that would pierce Her own Heart. She had strength of will to assist at His Passion, to follow Him up to Calvary even though His own Apostles hid in fear. She stood bravely at the foot of the cross to see Him die before Her very eyes. She received Him into Her arms when He was taken down from the cross and personally cleaned His every wound before His burial. Not one complaint, not one bitter feeling against those who did this to Her Son. She never dreamed of escaping this or any of the trials. She did not cry out like Peter, “God forbid! That will never happen.” She embraced the will of the Father for good that would come of all of this suffering. Do we? There was never a hero or a martyr with the courage of Mary. Her reply to the Angel Gabriel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to Me according to thy word” expresses Her attitude at every moment of Her life. She lived in perfect imitation of Her Son Who was in perfect union with the Father. The courage of Her Son sustained Her own courage, as did the joy of suffering for Him, and with Him for the glory of the Father and the redemption of all men, who were Her children. Now a look at our own wills and what we can learn from this lesson. We are weak, capricious and changeable. We are wounded by original sin and by our own actual sins. Things change from moment to moment and therefore we are incapable of perseverance. The wills of Jesus and Mary were determined by the will of God, the Father. If we always turned to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and asked them for guidance and strength to do the will of the Father; we would be able to achieve constancy of will. Our love for Jesus and Mary and souls would give us the courage to do what it is the Father in Heaven wants of us. The more intimate our union with our Lord and His Mother is, the stronger will our wills be in doing what it is that is right and beneficial. A resolution for this year may be to spend more time in prayer. Prayer, done well, will help us to imitate Jesus and Mary and therefore please the Father. Our Lady has constantly asked for the rosary. Many promises are given to us through this prayer that takes us through the great Mysteries of the Life of Jesus and Mary. We are guaranteed to grow in grace and knowledge with this daily rosary. If we already pray one – increase it to two. That may take a full 45 minutes to an hour of your day. In imitation of Mary, may we give God our first fruits – not our left-overs. May we choose to love God above all things and make greater time for prayer in order to unite our own will more closely to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Venerable Fr. Marie-Eugene's whole life was marked by the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost and Our Lady. He started the Secular Institute, Notre Dame de Vie in 1932. He died on Easter Monday, March 27, 1967, the very day on which he loved to celebrate the Easter joy of Mary, Mother of Life. Fr. Marie-Eugene, we beg your intercession to ask Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to bless The Traditional Lay Carmelites of Fatima for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Every Friday, I will post chapter summaries of his first book which he wrote for the lay people who were in his Secular Institute. This book is called, "I Want to See God". It was written pre-Vatican II but has been put back into print in 1998 and is available on Amazon. The summary of the first chapter is: I WANT TO SEE GOD – Chapter 1 Notes The Book of Mansions
She was then 62 years old. 15 years earlier, she had founded the first convent of the reformed Carmelites, St. Joseph’s in Avila. 10 years earlier – she had extended the reform to the friars. In 1571 – She was appointed the Prioress of the convent of the Incarnation Where she had been for 28 years prior to the reform. She met opposition but re-established regularity and won their hearts. She was freed of this charge in 1574 and returned to founding more foundations. The non-reformed Spanish Carmelites presented their grievances against the Teresian Reform to the friars. The chapter declared that the reformed groups must be treated as rebels; that the reformer, Teresa of Jesus, must stop her foundations and remain in one convent of her choice. She chose the convent in Toledo for retirement. In 1577, the Calced friars took into custody St. John of the Cross. In 1577-1578, the Carmelite Reform went through hours of agony. She was asked to write on prayer but felt she could not as she thought she said it all. With God’s grace, the Interior Castle was written June 2 – Nov. 29, 1577 – six months.
Breakdown of the Interior Castle Book (Not in this book but FYI) The First Mansions Chapter I. Description of the Castle Chapter II. The Human Soul The Second Mansions Chapter I. War The Third Mansions Chapter I. Fear of God Chapter II. Aridity in Prayer The Fourth Mansions Chapter I. Sweetness in Prayer Chapter II. Divine Consolations Chapter III. Prayer of Quiet The Fifth Mansions Chapter I. Prayer of Union Chapter II. Effects of Union Chapter III. Cause of Union Chapter IV. Spiritual Espousals The Sixth Mansions Chapter I. Preparation for Spiritual Marriage Chapter II. The Wound of Love Chapter III. Locutions Chapter IV. Raptures Chapter V. The Flight of the Spirit Chapter VI. Spiritual Jubilation Chapter VII. The Humanity of Our Lord Chapter VIII. Intellectual Visions Chapter IX. Imaginary Visions Chapter X. Intellectual Visions Continued Chapter XI. The Dart of Love The Seventh Mansions Chapter I. God's Presence Chamber Chapter II. Spiritual Marriage Chapter III. Its Effects Chapter IV. Martha and Mary
It was under the influence of her double grace as spouse of Christ and mother of souls that she gave to Christian literature one of its masterpieces among the treatises on spirituality. |
Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene
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