TERESA: A PRAYER CENTERED REFORMER (Part 7)
HER MAJOR WORKS
The Major works of Saint Teresa are The Life, The Way of Perfection, and The Interior Castle. In these writings and in many of her letters, Teresa shares with us a key to understanding how the success of her work as a reformer in Carmel was completely dependent upon her prayer-centered life.
The Book of Her Life
The account of her life was written in obedience to a confessor who recognized the gift Saint Teresa had of being in contact with her own experience and of being able to write about it in an understandable manner. With remarkable clarity, our Saint compared the four stages in the development of a life of prayer to four ways in which a garden can be watered.
First Stage: Initially, the gardener must bring bucket upon bucket of water by hand from a deep well to the seeds and plants. Just so, the person who desires to learn how to pray must begin with the first phase. Place yourself in the presence of Jesus, the Divine Teacher. Select a text from Scripture that is meaningful for you. Enter into a conversation with Jesus, present within you, about what he was teaching his listeners. Apply Our Lord’s teaching to yourself. Make a resolution of how you can use your insights to help you to become more Christlike. Ask Jesus to give you the enlightenment, strength, and courage to be faithful in your daily life to the graces you have been given.
Second Stage: At the next level, the image of a waterwheel suggested itself to Teresa. At each new phase, place oneself in the presence of Jesus, the Divine Teacher. The person who is praying now enjoys a certain facility in meditating. Rather than having to haul bucket after bucket by hand to one’s garden, she/he has developed a pattern for her or his prayer that gives her/him a support. She/he now experiences special lights and consolations that make prayer easier than it was at first. The metaphor of a waterwheel supplying her/him with a much more abundant supply of water seems most appropriate.
Third Stage: Next the system of providing water by an irrigation system was a suitable image of what Teresa had experienced in her prayer life. At this third stage, Jesus increases the consciousness of the one who prays that he is within and is assisting one with graces to both know oneself better and to be able to love others as oneself. At this stage Saint Teresa would continue to emphasize the three signs of the Spirit’s action in the life of one who prays: the person practices humility, detachment, and love of others.
Fourth Stage: The fourth metaphor Teresa uses is abundant rain. At last there is nothing that is an obstacle to a person being open to receive the graces which Jesus’ Spirit now grants to the person in abundance. At last the pray-er’s will is one with God’s will. The person has reached the innermost regions of oneself where God alone dwells. Here God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are truly present as they have always been.
(….to be continued everyday till end of article)
Article by Mary Eileen McNamara, OCD , titled “Saint Teresa of Avila: Prayer-Centered Reformer”, Published in Spiritual Life, Summer 2010.
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