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Scientific and Spiritual Rendition of Face of St. Teresa of Jesus Sculpture and Photo by Jennifer Mann |
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
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St. Teresa of Jesus, OCD
March 28, 1515 - October 4, 1582
OPENING PRAYER
Beloved St. Teresa of Jesus, on your Feast Day we remember your lessons which tumble down to us through the centuries. We praise you, our sister, whose wisdom, courage, and humor flow, bringing renewed life to the garden of our souls. With passion and grace, you transcended the limits imposed on you and became a timeless teacher of how to pray. You exemplified the exquisite balance between active service and quiet contemplation. Teach us to be passionate about helping others in our troubled world, at the same time that we cultivate joyous intimacy with our Beloved who is only a whisper away. We ask your vision to identify and bless holy friendships with those who help us focus on our spiritual life, and continuing courage to engage in efforts to make changes in our world to bring peace to all sentient beings. Amen adapted from Mirabai Starr
VIDEO 1 About St Teresa of Avila
https://youtu.be/vd0dpiodpCE
Prayer Courage Oneness
Prayer transforms our life.
READING 1 PRAYER AS RELATIONSHIP
An earlier “Moment,” focused on the worldwide breadth of impact, historically, geographically, and spiritually of Teresian sanctity (Upper Room ICC, November, 2023). A Christ-mystic; poet; monastic reformer; prolific chronicler of spiritual and lived mysticism; she is the author of unmatched spiritual canon on Prayer. Prejudice, sexism, and clericalism are still battled today, but finally in 1970, hundreds of years after her death, St. Teresa was formally proclaimed as “Doctor of the Church” (first female), due primarily to her superlative instruction and writing on prayer, and life-giving effort to expand understanding of prayer to both religious and secular persons in her world.
In every age and culture, with vastly different worldviews, persons seeking a more profound spiritual life have sought instruction on how to develop an increasingly closer connection to the Divine. From far corners of the world came the answer: engage in prayer. What are the secrets of how to gain more intense closeness to the Holy One through ritualistic and spontaneous types of prayer?
POEM 1 The Mystic’s Journey A Free Verse Poem by Dan
In the quiet corners of a Spanish convent,
A woman named Teresa sought the divine.
Not in grand cathedrals or holy relics,
But in the still, silent chambers of her heart.
Her prayers were not mere recitations,
But intimate conversations with her beloved One.
She found Him not in the heavens above,
But dwelling deep within her very soul.
Through her, we learn that the path to union
Lies not outside, but within ourselves.
And so, we embark on our own mystic journey,
Guided by the wisdom of St. Teresa of Avila.
Carmelite Nuns in Mental Prayer Simplycatholic.comREADING 2 PRAYER FIRST, THEN ACTION
Seeking and practicing the silent mental prayer described by St. Teresa makes no sense to someone who is not invested in enhancing their relationship with the Holy One, the Great Mystery. Prayers of petition, thanksgiving, and liturgical worship in community can be engaged in with little conscious focus on the Holy one who dwells within us and throughout the universe. Not so mental prayer. It is by definition in Teresa’s view, “nothing but friendly conversation with Him Who we know loves us. The important thing in mental prayer,” she says, “is not to think much but to love much.”
Mental prayer becomes the way when the cataracts of unknowing drop from our eyes and we realize the gift of God dwelling within our soul. Referring to her earlier years in religious life, St. Teresa regretfully wrote: “I think that if I had understood then as I do now that this Beloved One really dwells within a little palace of my soul, I should not have left Him alone so often and never allowed his dwelling place to get so dirty. Mental prayer, you see, is nothing but our side of friendship with God—our “yes” to God’s call and invitation.”
In addition to teaching on mental prayer, St. Teresa wrote letters prolifically. There were 468 letters written between 1546 and 1582. Her correspondence was most extensive, including bishops, archbishops, kings, ladies of rank, gentlemen of the world, abbots, priors, nuncios, her confessors, her brothers and sisters, rectors of colleges, fathers-provincial of the Society of Jesus, nuns and superiors of her convents and monasteries, learned doctors of different religious orders, and even most eminent saints, such as St. Peter of Alcantara, St. Francis Borgia, St. John of the Cross, & etc. (translators preface) If a person would only read her most advanced works, such as The Interior Castle, one would be left with the impression that all she did was contemplate with much sighing, levitating, and other overtly mystic behavior! Others might think our Saint to be grave, sober, austere, solemn, and scrupulous. Not so. Her letters translator further indicates that St. Teresa possessed great humor, love, tenderness and humility. She boldly rejected applicants who indicated a sad, melancholy, depressed attitude as she despised “gloomy nuns.” Here are examples of her other prayers.
EXAMPLES OF ST. TERESA’S PRAYERS
LYRIC VIDEO 1 Christ Has No Body Now But Yours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF7Yb9fobCg
READING 3
It took two decades in Carmel of a peripheral, wishy-washy relationship with Christ and a near-death experience for St. Teresa to understand this concept. “Living with a lukewarm spiritual life, Teresa often gave up mental prayer entirely, blaming her illness for her lack of enthusiasm. But in her forties, she was encouraged by her confessor to take up prayer again. She did, but with great difficulty, and an hour of prayer became a grueling task of counting the minutes. She was constantly met with distraction.” She later recalled, “I was more anxious for the hour of prayer to be over than I was to remain there. I don’t know what heavy penance I would not have gladly undertaken rather than practice prayer.”
Her definition of prayer became the nucleus of her teaching. Her greatness in the spiritual world is based on demystifying what prayer is, and how to foster this relationship with our Beloved over our lifetime.
As her understanding deepened of how to “be” in this relationship of communication with her Beloved, she burned to spread the word about what and how to progress in the spiritual life. This intensity exploded into the reform movement of the Carmelite Order, and to take on a young friar 26 years her junior, John of the Cross, to help her expand the Carmelite charism to men as well. As a gifted writer and speaker, her ideas, feelings, and personal growth were spread with intense fire and zeal. To certain nuns of her convent who objected that mental prayer was beyond their ability she wrote: ‘I am not asking you now to think of Him or to form numerous conceptions of Him, or to make long and subtle meditations with your understanding. I am asking only to look at Him. It is as simple as that.’
LYRIC VIDEO 2 Let Nothing Disturb You
MEDITATION:
Dear St. Teresa, you understood that prayer is often difficult
and full of distractions, especially for beginners. We take to
heart your advice to have a "determined determination" to never
give up, emphasizing that spiritual progress is a lifelong effort; it
is the effort made in spite of “dryness” that brings eventual
success. We will follow your direction to put into action Jesus’
words: “When you pray, go into your room and close the door,
and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Mt 6:6)
Arinspiredpencil.com
IN CLOSING: EXPERIENCING HER GLORIOUS HUMOR!
Growing Older
Holy One, You know better than I myself
that I am growing older and will someday be old.
Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking
I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.
Release me from craving to
straighten out everybody’s affairs.
Make me thoughtful but not moody;
helpful but not bossy.
With my vast store of wisdom,
it seems a pity not to use it all;
but You know, Lord,
that I want a few friends at the end.
Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details;
give me wings to get to the point.
Seal my lips on my aches and pains;
they are increasing, and love of rehearsing them
is becoming sweeter as the years go by.
I dare not ask for improved memory,
but for a growing humility and a lessening cock-sureness
when my memory seems to clash
with the memories of others.
Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.
Keep me reasonably sweet, for a sour old person
is one of the crowning works of the devil.
Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places
and talents in unexpected people;
and give, O Lord, the grace to tell them so. Amen.
(By St Teresa of Avila)
REFERENCES AND RESOURCES
Alvarez, T. (2011). St. Teresa of Avila: 100 Themes on Her Life and Work. ICS Publications, Washington, DC. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD.
Avila, T. (2008). Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life. New Seeds, Boston. Translated by Mirabai Starr.
de Osuna, F. The third spiritual alphabet. 1981. (Mary E. Giles, trans.) Paulist Press. New York.
Foley, M., Teresa of Avila, & Rodriguez, O. (2012). Saint Teresa of Avila The Book of Her Foundations: A Study Guide. ICS Publications.
Giles, M. E. (1981). Francisco de Osuna: the third spiritual alphabet. Paulist Press.
Griffin, M. (1985). Lingering with my Lord: post-Communion experiences of St. Teresa of Avila. Alba House.
Kavanaugh, K., & Rodriguez, O. (1980). The collected works of St. Teresa of Avila. Vol. 1 & 2. Washington, ICS - Institute for Carmelite Studies.
Sackville-West, V. (2011). The eagle and the dove: a study in contrasts: St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Bello.
Sinetar, M. (2007). Ordinary people as monks & mystics: lifestyles for spiritual wholeness. Paulist Press.
Starr, M., & Bielecki, T. (2008). Teresa of Avila : the book of my life. New Seeds.
Underhill, E. (1999). The essentials of mysticism and other essays. One World Publications.
Wolcott, B. (2007). The flame that enkindles all [Master’s Thesis].
WEBSITES
https://heartsawake.org/spirituality/teresian-charism/
https://www.simplycatholic.com/st-teresa-of-avila/
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-teresa-of-avila/
PHOTOS, VIDEOS, ARTWORK
The study that made this reconstruction possible was carried out at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Australia. The Australian sculptor Jennifer Mann was in charge of creating the bust, harmoniously combining all available data sources: Anthropomorphic measurements; X-ray images; a pictorial portrait of the saint painted when she was 50 years old; historical descriptions, particularly of Mother Mary of St. Joseph.
https://heartsawake.org/spirituality/teresian-charism/
How did St. Teresa of Ávila describe the human soul? | Simply Catholic
