St.Teresa and the Mother of Jesus

 An excerpt from Saint Teresa of Jesus and the Virgin Mary 

St Teresa's whole Marian experience is found scattered throughout her writings, from which we can put together a lovely mosaic of Mary. We will make use of three important traits of Teresian doctrine. a) Devotion to Mary and Marian mystical experience From the first page of Teresa's writings the Virgin Mary appears among the most important memories of her childhood. She recalls the devotion taught her by her mother Beatriz, which found expression in the recitation of the Rosary(8). The episode of her prayer to Our Lady after the loss of her mother at the age of 13 is very moving: "in my affliction I went to an image of our Lady and begged her with many tears to be a mother to me. It seems to me that though I did this in simplicity, it has been of much help to me; for I know that I have always found favour with this sovereign lady when I have commended myself to her and in the end, she has drawn me to herself"(9). Teresa then attributes to the Virgin the grace of a constant protection and in a special way the grace of her conversion: "She has drawn me to herself." Other texts from the autobiography reveal to us the permanence of the devotion to Mary: when she turns to the Virgin in her sufferings(10), when she remembers her feasts of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception(11) or the Holy Family(12) or her devotion to the Rosary(13).

Very quickly the devotion to the Virgin, like other aspects of the Saint's life, passed into an experience of her mysteries, when God made Teresa enter into contact with the mystery of Christ and all that pertains to it. In Teresa's mystical experience of the mystery of Our Lady there is, as it were, a progressive penetration into the most important moments of the Virgin's life, as we find it in the Gospels. Thus, for example, we have an intuition of the mystery of the overshadowing of the Virgin and of her humble and wise attitude at the Annunciation(14). We know of at least two mystical experiences Teresa enjoyed connected with the first words of Mary's canticle, the Magnificat(15) which, according to the testimony of Mary of St Joseph, Teresa used to repeat frequently "softly, in Castilian"(16).
She contemplates with amazement the mystery of the Incarnation: "The Lord wills to enter into the womb of his most holy Mother. Such is the Lord, he brings liberty with him, and thus he loves to make himself like us"(17). She contemplates the presentation of Jesus in the temple and finds the meaning of Simeon's words to the Virgin(18): "Do not think that when you see my Mother holding me in her arms, she enjoyed this happiness without grave torment. From the time that Simeon spoke these words to her, My Father gave her clear light whereby to see what I would have to suffer"(19). She thinks about the flight into Egypt and the hidden life of the Holy Family(20).

She had a special intuition of the presence of Mary in the paschal mystery of her Son, on the pain of her desolation and the joy in the Lord's resurrection. Teresa loved to contemplate Mary's fortitude and her communion with Christ at the foot of the Cross(21). In Concepts of the Love of God she describes the Virgin's attitude: "She was up, and not sleeping, but suffering in her most holy soul, dying a cruel death"(22). She had entered mystically into the sorrow of the Virgin when the Lord was placed in her arms "as it is portrayed in the fifth sorrow"(23) and had experience at Easter in Salamanca in 1571 of desolation and anguish (a dark night of the spirit) which made her remember the loneliness of the Virgin at the foot of the Cross(24). On this same occasion the Lord said to her, "On my resurrection I went to our Lady who was in great need.... and I stayed long with her for she was in very great need of consolation"25). 

http://www.helpfellowship.org/Articles%20of%20Interest/st_teresa%20and%20mary.htm

The Metaphor of the silkworm

                                      http://www.butterflyskye.com.au/butterfly.html

But to return to what I was saying. The silkworm is like the soul which takes life when, through the heat which comes from the Holy Spirit, it begins to utilize the general help which God gives to us all, and to make use of the remedies which He left in His Church -- such as frequent confessions, good books and sermons, for these are the remedies for a soul dead in negligences and sins and frequently plunged into temptation. The soul begins to live and nourishes itself on this food, and on good meditations, until it is full grown -- and this is what concerns me now: the rest is of little importance.
When it is full-grown, then, as I wrote at the beginning, it starts to spin its silk and to build the house in which it is to die. This house may be understood here to mean Christ. I think I read or heard somewhere that our life is hid in Christ, or in God (for that is the same thing), or that our life is Christ.[130] (The exact form of this[131] is little to my purpose.)
Here, then, daughters, you see what we can do, with God's favour. May His Majesty Himself be our Mansion as He is in this Prayer of Union which, as it were, we ourselves spin. When I say He will be our Mansion, and we can construct it for ourselves and hide ourselves in it, I seem to be suggesting that we can subtract from God, or add to Him. But of course we cannot possibly do that! We can neither subtract from, nor add to, God, but we can subtract from, and add to, ourselves, just as these little silkworms do. And, before we have finished doing all that we can in that respect, God will take this tiny achievement of ours, which is nothing at all, unite it with His greatness and give it such worth that its reward will be the Lord Himself. And as it is He Whom it has cost the most, so His Majesty will unite our small trials with the great trials which He suffered, and make both of them into one.

 Interior Castle  - Fifth Mansion- chapter II 

http://conservation.catholic.org/saints_2.htm

"Saint Teresa's writings contain a power rather heavenly than human,which is marvellously efficacious in reforming men's lives, so that her books can be read with benefit,
not only by those engaged in the direction of souls,
or by those who aspire to eminent sanctity of life,
but also by everyone who takes any serious interest
in the duties and virtues of a Christian — that is to say,
in the salvation of his own soul."

 From The Address By His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. To The Rev. Marcel Bouix, S.J., March 17, 1883.
https://archive.org/stream/minorworksofstte00tere#page/94/mode/2up

Poem 35. SONNET TO JESUS CRUCIFIED.

No me mueve, mi Dios, para quererte.

I am not moved, my God, to love of Thee

Because Thou pledgest heaven in reward, 

Nor is my soul by fear of death so awed 

As to be moved straightway from sin to flee.

        Thou mov'st my love, my God ! to see Thee hang 

Nailed to the cross, of men the scoff, the scorn, Doth move my love ! 

Thy body scourged and torn, Thy mocking and affronts, Thy dying pang ! 

It is Thy love that moves me in such way 

That did no heaven exist, I'd love Thee still ! 

Dread of offence would still my spirit sway 

Were there no hell — Thy gifts move not my will, 

For though I hoped no guerdon in repay,

      The same unaltered love my heart would fill !

St. Joseph the Tattletale

http://adventuresinavila.wordpress.com/

 Legend about St. Teresa and the statue of St. Joseph in her cell in the Incarnation convent.

St. Teresa would place the statue in her chair when she left on her various travels. Saint Teresa told the statue to keep watch of the convent while she was away founding other convents.
When she returned home, the statue would talk to her and tell her all that occurred in her absence.

Osuna's Remedy to the "wild horses" that plague us.

http://www.amazon.com/Francisco-De-Osuna-Spiritual-Spirituality/dp/080912145X

Also check : http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2011/07/for-thoughts-on-our-adversary-by-fray-francisco-de-osuna.html
                       and                 

http://www.contemplativespirituality.org/resrecollect.html

While St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross are considered the crown jewels of 16th century Spanish mysticism, both owe a large debt to their predecessor Francisco de Osuna. He was born around 1492 and was a Franciscan priest from southern Spain who taught in the years just prior to our Carmelite masters. The principal work he is known for is “The Third Spiritual Alphabet,” a treatise on recollection, the “narrow gate” we must walk with no exception.

Through Osuna, Teresa developed her teaching that humility is the basis for everything and that “entering within” is the means by which we find Christ in prayer. And we find many of the expressions she would later take as her own ... images like the wax seal and the hedge hog curling up as illusions to infused prayer. Further, Osuna’s way was primarily affective; the key ingredient behind the Teresian concept of mental prayer “as a loving conversation between friends.” :

But perhaps Osuna’s greatest contribution to St. Teresa was his relentless hammering away that the heart and mind must be kept in continual custody ... the remedy to the “wild horses” that so plagued her. Without first learning to quiet and still the faculties, the soul can never learn to hear the Master’s voice who speaks to us in the language of silence.
Like Teresa, Osuna describes our Lord as a gentleman who, “being very courteous, does not wish to enter into the houses of our hearts unless we ourselves are there to welcome him. So He knocks at the doors of our consent with his holy inspiration.” (p241) And it’s through distractions that we fail to welcome Him … each time we assent, we lose sight of Christ and our union suffers. So important is this Osuna declares “if you analyze evil, you will discover that it begins when the heart is distracted and scattered.” (p244) He then makes a variety of pleas that no doubt struck St. Teresa to the very core:
"Nothing is more fleeting in me than my heart; how often it abandons me to run after evil thoughts and how many times it offends God. Vain, restless, fickle, my heart runs away as it pleases, deaf to divine counsel. It cannot be contained within itself and changes more often than the most changeable thing. Distracted by an infinity of things, it roams here and there through countless experiences in endless search of rest. When my heart is totally miserable from all this effort, it reappears, drained of all repose, feeling no peace within but all out of sorts with itself, and then, fleeing once more in a confusion of wills, it changes advice, builds new things, destroys the old, rebuilds what it just tore down, reorders and rearranges things, again and again, because it no longer desires what it thought it desired, and so it never can stay in one place. (p246)"
He continues in a manner that foreshadows St. John of the Cross from “The Ascent”...

"Fleeing from heavenly to earthly considerations, my heart is open to vanity, curiosity carries it off, desire seduces it, delight deceives it, luxury sullies it, envy torments, ire disturbs and sadness wearies it, so that finally it is cast to all the vices, miserably unhappy and all because it chose to abandon the one God who could satisfy it. (p246)"
Osuna concludes: “I am not united with God and therefore am divided within myself.” (p247)

In these passionate laments, Osuna reveals the great need souls have to discipline their unruly hearts … the dangers of interior dissension being simply too great for souls walking the way of perfection. If “con-templation” means to be with God in His temple ... then interior battles like this are how we banish Christ from our very hearts. Thus, Osuna directs souls to continually quiet the understanding and put to rest the speculation, scrutiny and analyzing of the intellect to reach out to God in the loving simplicity of our hearts ... what St. Teresa would later describe as to “not think much, but love much".

 http://www.meditationsfromcarmel.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/carmelite_promises/Promise_3.pdf

Pope Benedict XVI catecheses on St. Teresa , doctor of the Church

When St. Teresa was journeying on her way to found her Carmels, she always carried a small statue of Jesus at the Pillar. https://carmelourladysdovecote.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/page/15/

                                   

 VATICAN CITY, FEB. 2, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Pope Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall. He initiated a new cycle of catecheses on the doctors of the Church, beginning with "one of the highest examples of Christian spirituality of all time," St. Teresa of Avila. 

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/on-st-teresa-of-avila

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our catechesis today deals with Saint Teresa of Avila, the great sixteenth-century Carmelite reformer proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Teresa entered the Carmel of Avila at the age of twenty. Maturing in the spiritual life, she embraced the ideal of a renewal of her Order and with the support of Saint John of the Cross she founded a chain of reformed Carmels throughout Spain. Her highly influential writings, which include the Autobiography, The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle, reveal her profound christocentric spirituality, and her breadth of human experience. Teresa considered the evangelical and human virtues the basis of an authentic Christian life. She identified deeply with Christ in his humanity and stressed the importance of contemplation of his Passion and of his real presence in the Eucharist. She presents prayer as an intimate friendship with Christ leading to an ever greater union of love with the Blessed Trinity. In her life and in her death Teresa embodied an unconditional love for the Church. May the example and prayers of Saint Teresa of Avila inspire us to greater fidelity to prayer and, through prayer, to greater love for the Lord and his Church, and more perfect charity towards our brothers and sisters.

On Friendship with Christ Jesus

                        
http://carmelourladysdovecote.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/st-teresa-of-avila-friendship-with-jesus/

“If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God takes delight.

Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.

What more do we desire from such a good friend at our side? Unlike our friends in the world, he will never abandon us when we are troubled or distressed. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him near. Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of Siena. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s hands. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.

Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.”

St. Teresa and the statue of Ecce Homo

                                                
                                         http://www.visionsofjesuschrist.com/weeping114.htm

It happened that, entering the oratory one day, I saw an image which had been procured for a certain festival that was observed in the house and had been taken there to be kept for that purpose. It represented Christ sorely wounded; and so conductive was it to devotion that when I looked at it I was deeply moved to see Him thus, so well did it picture what He suffered for us. So great was my distress when I thought how ill I had repaid Him for those wounds that I felt as if my heart were breaking, and I threw myself down beside Him, shedding floods of tears and begging Him to give me strength once for all so that I would not rise from that spot until He had granted me what I was beseeching of Him. And I feel sure that this did me good, for from that time onward I began to improve (in prayer and virtue).

Life , ch I

The Saint progressed rapidly in virtue following this experience and she soon began enjoying visions and ecstasies.

                         St. Teresa of Avila's Crucifix
                                     

Three Valuable quotes from St. Teresa

“May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.”
― Teresa of Ávila

Let nothing disturb you,Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”
― Teresa of Ávila

 “

This Beloved of ours is merciful and good. Besides, he so deeply longs for our love that he keeps calling us to come closer. This voice of his is so sweet that the poor soul falls apart in the face of her own inability to instantly do whatever he asks of her. And so you can see, hearing him hurts much more than not being able to hear him… For now, his voice reaches us through words spoken by good people, through listening to spiritual talks, and reading sacred literature. God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us. Through a truth glimpsed fleetingly in a state of prayer he calls to us. No matter how halfhearted such insights may be, God rejoices whenever we learn what he is trying to teach us.” ― Teresa of Ávila, Interior Castle ( 'Second Dwelling' , I)

The only way not to fall is to cling to the Cross

http://ascentupmountcarmel.blogspot.in/2013/02/st-teresa-of-avilas-quotes.html

7. It is now nine months, more or less, since I wrote this with mine own hand; since then I have not turned my back on the graces which God has given me; I think I have received, so far as I can see, a much greater liberty of late. Hitherto I thought I had need of others, and I had more reliance on worldly helps. Now I clearly understand that all men are bunches of dried rosemary, and that there is no safety in leaning on them, for if they are pressed by contradictions or evil speaking they break down. And so I know by experience that the only way not to fall is to cling to the cross, and put our trust in Him who was nailed thereto. I find Him a real Friend, and with Him I find myself endowed with such might that, God never failing me, I think I should be able to withstand the whole world if it were against me.

8. Having a clear knowledge of this truth, I used to be very fond of being loved by others; now I do not care for that, yea, rather, their love seems to weary me in some measure, excepting theirs who take care of my soul, or theirs to whom I think I do good. Of the former I wish to be loved, in order that they may bear with me; and of the latter, that they may be more inclined to believe me when I tell them that all is vanity.

9. In the very grievous trials, persecutions, and contradictions of these months, [4] God gave me great courage; and the more grievous they were, the greater the courage, without weariness in suffering. Not only had I no ill-feeling against those who spoke evil of me, but I had, I believe, conceived a deeper affection for them. I know not how it was; certainly it was a gift from the hand of our Lord.

Life :11:7 -9

I begin to read St. Teresa of Avila.

https://carmelourladysdovecote.wordpress.com/2013/06/
St. Teresa of Avila , the great Doctor of the Catholic Church confesses:

I had many friends to help me to fall; but as to rising again, I was so much left to myself, that I wonder now I was not always on the ground. I praise God for His mercy; for it was He only Who stretched out His hand to me. May He be blessed for ever! Amen.

This is where I am going to start off. 

Reading her autobiography, 'Teresa of Avila: the Book of my Life' translated by Mirabai Starr proves to be quite an experience. Along with this book I am reading St. Teresa's 'Way of Perfection' and 'Interior Castle'.

I am sure this great Saint is going to help me rise up by pointing out to me the outstretched Hands of my Saviour Jesus .

Here are some minims I gathered from Google search. 

Less than twenty years before Teresa was born in 1515, Columbus opened up the Western Hemisphere to European colonization. Two years after she was born, Luther started the Protestant Reformation. Out of all of this change came Teresa pointing the way from outer turmoil to inner peace.  http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=208

Wikipedia gives a brief. Here it is.

St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) a Doctor of the Church,. Her writings are viewed as fundamental teachings in Christian spirituality.

She practiced contemplative prayer for periods of one hour at a time, twice a day. St. Teresa believed that no one who was faithful to the practice of meditation could possibly lose his soul.

St. Teresa taught her nuns to meditate on specific prayers. Her prayers described in The Way of Perfection involve meditation on a mystery in the life of Jesus and are based on the faith that "God is within", a truth that Teresa said she learned from St. Augustine.

In her Life, she wrote that she taught herself from the instructions given in the book, The Third Spiritual Alphabet - by Francisco de Osuna - which relates to Franciscan mysticism. Her starting point was the practice of "recollection", i.e. keeping the senses and the intellect in check and not allowing them to stray. In her meditations, one generally restricts attention to a single subject, principally the love of God. In The Way of Perfection she wrote: "It is called recollection because the soul collects together all the faculties and enters within itself to be with God". She would use devices such as short readings, a scene of natural beauty or a religious statue or picture to remind her to keep her focus. She wrote that in due course, the mind naturally learns to maintain focus on God almost effortlessly.

St. Theresa viewed Christian meditation as the first of four steps in achieving "union with God", and used the analogy of watering the garden. She compared basic meditation to watering a garden with a bucket, Recollection to the water wheel, Quiet (contemplation) to a spring of water and Union to drenching rain.