The Life of Holy Mother
Teresa of Jesus
The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus,
of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel.
CHAPTER 18
She treats
- of the fourth degree of prayer, and
- begins to explain in what high dignity
God holds a soul that has attained this state;
- this should animate those who are given to prayer,
to make an effort to reach so high a state
since it can be obtained in this world,
though not by merit
but only through the goodness of God.
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Discussion Topics
to keep in mind
as we read along:
1). How does St. Teresa describe
the 4th degree of prayer /
the Fourth water ?
[ Life: Ch. 18: # 12,5,4,18,20,8,21,16,
1,18,17,13,14,2]
2). St. Teresa stated that when she was granted
the grace of the 4th degree of prayer,
she thought of her unworthiness
due to "the great evils that I have done"
and her weaknesses.
She prayed that these blessings be given instead
to one who would "make a better use
of them, to the increase of Thy glory".
[ Life: Ch. 18: #7]
Why, then, give graces so high
to souls who have been such great sinners?
[ Life: Ch. 18: #5]
What insight did she later realize
regarding the graces granted by God
to herself?
[ Life: Ch. 18: # 6, 7; Ch19 #10, 11 ]
3 ). Regarding her explanation
of the 4th degree of prayer,
What does St. Teresa say
is her "object in writing"?
[ Life: Ch. 18: #10,8 ]
4 ). What did St. Teresa say about
the presence of God
in the 4th state of prayer?
[ Life: Ch. 18: #18,19,20 ]
5). How does St. Teresa describe
the action of the faculties
in the 4th state of Prayer?
[ Life: Ch. 18: # 2,3,14,15,16,17,19]
6) What did she say about
"elevation of the spirit/raptures
[Life: Ch18 #8,9]
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Chapter 18.
1. May our Lord teach me words
whereby I may in some measure describe
the fourth water. [1]
I have great need of His help--
even more than I had
while speaking of the last (third water)
for in that (third watre - third state of prayer)
the soul still feels
that it is not dead altogether.
We may thus speak, seeing that
to the world it is really dead.
But, as I have said, [2]
- it retains the sense
-- to see that it is in the world, and
-- to feel its own loneliness; and
- it makes use of that which is outward
for the purpose of manifesting its feelings,
at least by signs.
In the whole of the prayer
already spoken of,
and in all the states of it,
- the gardener undergoes some labour:
- though in the later states
the labour is attended
with so much bliss and comfort
of the soul,
that the soul would never willingly
pass out of it,--and
thus the labour is not felt
as labour,
but as bliss.
2. In this the fourth state there is
- no sense of anything, only fruition,
- without understanding what that is
the fruition of which is granted.
- It is understood that the fruition is
of a certain good
containing in itself
all good together at once;
all good together at once;
but this good is not comprehended.
- The senses are all occupied
in this fruition in such a way
that not one of them is at liberty,
so as to be able to attend to anything else,
whether outward or inward.
3. The senses were permitted before,
as I have said, [3]
to give some signs of the great joy
they feel;
but now, in this state,
the joy of the soul is incomparably greater,
and the power of showing it
is still less;
for there is no power in the body,
and the soul has none,
whereby this fruition can be made known.
Everything of that kind
would be a great hindrance,
a torment, and a disturbance of its rest.
And I say, if it really be
a union of all the faculties,
that the soul,
even if it wished,--I mean,
- when it is in union,--
cannot make it known;
- and if it can,
then it is not union at all.
4. How this, which we call union,
is effected, and
what it is,
I cannot tell.
Mystical theology explains it, and
- I do not know the terms of that science;
- nor can I understand what the mind is,
nor how it differs from the soul
or the spirit either:
all three seem to me but one;
though I do know that
the soul sometimes leaps forth
out of itself,
like a fire that is burning
and is become a flame;
and occasionally this fire
increases violently--
the flame ascends high above the fire;
but it is not therefore a different thing:
it is still the same flame of the same fire.
Your learning, my fathers,
will enable you to understand
the matter;
I can go no further.
5. What I undertake to explain is that
- which the soul feels
when it is in the divine union.
It is plain enough what union is--
- two distinct things becoming one.
O my Lord, how good Thou art!
Blessed be Thou for ever, O my God!
Let all creatures praise Thee,
Who hast so loved us
that we can truly speak of this communication
which Thou hast with souls in this our exile!
Yea, even if they be good souls,
it is on Thy part great munificence
and magnanimity,--
in a word, it is Thy munificence,
O my Lord,
seeing that Thou givest like Thyself.
O infinite Munificence!--
how magnificent are Thy works!
Even he
whose understanding is not occupied
with the things of earth
is amazed
that he is unable
to understand these truths.
Why, then, give graces so high
to souls who have been such great sinners?
Truly, this passeth my understanding; and
when I come to think of it,
I can get no further.
Is there any way at all for me to go on
which is not a going back?
For, as to giving Thee thanks
for mercies so great,
I know not how to do it.
Sometimes I relieve myself
by giving utterance to follies.
It often happens to me,
either when I receive these graces,
or when God is about to bestow them,--
for, in the midst of them,
I have already said, [4]
I was able to do nothing,--
that I would break out into words like these.
6. O Lord, consider what Thou art doing;
forget not so soon
the great evils that I have done.
To forgive me,
Thou must already have forgotten them;
yet, in order that there may be some limit
to Thy graces,
I beseech Thee remember them.
O my Creator,
pour not a liquor so precious
into a vessel so broken;
for Thou hast already seen
how on other occasions
I allowed it to run waste.
Lay not up treasure like this,
where the longing after the consolations
of this life
is not so mortified as it ought to be;
for it will be utterly lost.
How canst Thou commit
the defence of the city, and
the keys of its fortress
to a commander so cowardly,
who at the first assault
will let the enemy enter within?
Oh, let not Thy love
be so great, O King Eternal,
as to imperil jewels so precious!
O my Lord, to me it seems
that it becomes a ground
for undervaluing them,
when Thou puttest them
in the power of one so wretched,
so vile, so frail, so miserable, and
so worthless as I am,
who, though she may labour
not to lose them,
by the help of Thy grace,--
and I have need of no little grace
for that end,
being what I am,--
is not able to win over any one to Thee,--
in short, I am a woman,
not good, but wicked.
It seems to me
that the talents are
not only hidden,
but buried,
when they are committed to earth so vile.
It is not Thy wont, O Lord,
to bestow graces and mercies
like these upon a soul,
unless it be that it may edify many.
7. Thou, O my God, knowest already
that I beg this of Thee
with my whole will,
from the bottom of my heart,
and that I have done so
more than once, and
I account it a blessing
- to lose the greatest blessings
which may be had on earth,
- if Thou wouldst but bestow these graces
upon him who will make a better use
of them to the increase of Thy glory.
These, and expressions like these,
it has happened to me often to utter.
I saw afterwards
- my own foolishness and
- want of humility;
for
- our Lord knoweth well
what is expedient, and that
- there is no strength in my soul
to be saved,
if His Majesty did not give it
with graces so great.
8. I purpose also to speak
- of the graces and effects
which abide in the soul, and
- of that which the soul itself
can do,
or rather,
if it can do anything of itself
towards attaining to a state so high.
The elevation of the spirit, or union,
comes together with heavenly love
but, as I understand it,
- union is a different thing
from elevation in union itself.
To him who may not have had
any experience of the latter,
it must seem that it is not;
and, according to my view of it,
even if they are both one,
-- the operations of our Lord therein
are different:
-- there is a growth
of the soul's detachment
from creatures
more abundantly still
in the flight of the spirit. [5]
I have clearly seen that
this is a particular grace,
though, as I say,
it may be the same,
or seem to be so,
with the other;
but a little fire, also,
is as much fire as a great fire--
and yet there is a visible difference
between them.
Before a small piece of iron
is made red-hot in a little fire,
some time must pass;
but if the fire be great,
the iron very quickly, though bulky,
loses its nature altogether
in appearance.
9. So, it seems to me,
is it with these two kinds of graces
which our Lord bestows.
He who has had raptures will,
I am sure,
understand it well;
to him who has not had that experience,
it must appear folly.
And, indeed, it may well be so;
for if a person like myself should speak
of a matter of this kind,
and give any explanation at all
of that for the description
of which no words ever
can possibly be found,
it is not to be wondered at
that I may be speaking foolishly.
10. But I have this confidence in our Lord,
that He will help me here;
for His Majesty knoweth
that my object in writing--
- the first is
to obey--
- is to inspire souls with a longing
after so high a good.
I will speak of nothing
that I do not know by great experience:
and so, when I began to describe
the last kind of water,
I thought it more impossible for me
to speak of it at all
than to speak Greek.
It is a very difficult matter;
so I left it, and went to Communion.
Blessed be our Lord,
who is merciful to the ignorant!
Oh, virtue of obedience!
it can do everything!
God enlightened my understanding--
at one time suggesting the words,
at another showing me
how to use them;
for, as in the preceding state of prayer,
so also now,
His Majesty seems to utter
what I can
neither speak
nor understand. [6]
11. What I am saying is the simple truth;
and therefore
whatever is good herein
is His teaching;
what is erroneous,
clearly comes out
of that sea of evil--myself.
If there be any--
and there must be many--
who, having attained
to these states of prayer
whereunto our Lord in His mercy
has brought me--
wretch that I am!--and
who, thinking they have missed their way,
desire to treat of these matters
with me,
I am sure that our Lord
will help His servant
to declare the truth more plainly.
12. I am now speaking of the water which
- cometh down from heaven to fill and
- saturate in its abundance
the whole of this garden with water.
If our Lord never ceased to pour it down
whenever it was necessary,
the gardener certainly would have
plenty of rest;
and if there were no winter,
but an ever temperate season,
fruits and flowers would never fail.
The gardener would have his delight therein;
but in this life
that is impossible.
We must always be careful,
when one water fails,
- to obtain another.
This water from heaven comes down
very often
when the gardener
least expects it.
13. The truth is that,
in the beginning,
this almost always happens
after much mental prayer.
Our Lord advances
step by step
to lay hold of the little bird, and
to lay it in the nest
where it may repose.
He observed it
fluttering for a long time,
striving
with the understanding
and the will, and
with all its might,
to seek God and to please Him;
so now it is His pleasure to reward it
even in this life.
And what a reward!--
one moment is enough to repay
all the possible trials of this life.
14. The soul,
while thus seeking after God,
is conscious,
with a joy excessive and sweet,
that it is, as it were,
utterly fainting away in a kind of trance:
breathing, and
all the bodily strength, fail it,
so that it cannot even move the hands
without great pain;
the eyes close involuntarily, and
if they are open,
they are as if they saw nothing;
nor is reading possible,--
the very letters seem strange,
cannot be distinguished,--
the letters, indeed, are visible,
but, as the understanding
furnishes no help,
all reading is impracticable,
though seriously attempted.
The ear hears;
but what is heard is not comprehended.
The senses are of no use whatever,
except to hinder the soul's fruition;
and so they rather hurt it.
It is useless to try to speak,
because it is not possible
to conceive a word;
nor, if it were conceived,
is there strength sufficient
to utter it;
for all bodily strength vanishes,
and that of the soul increases,
to enable it the better
to have the fruition of its joy.
Great and most perceptible, also, is the
outward joy now felt.
15. This prayer,
however long it may last,
does no harm--
at least, it has never done any to me;
nor do I remember,
however ill I might have been
when our Lord had mercy upon me
in this way,
that I ever felt the worse for it--
on the contrary,
I was always better afterwards.
But so great a blessing,
what harm can it do?
The outward effects
are so plain as to leave no doubt possible
that there must have been some great cause,
seeing that it thus robs us
of our bodily powers with so much joy,
in order to leave them greater.
16. The truth is,
it passes away so quickly
in the beginning--
at least, so it was with me--that
neither by the outward signs,
nor by the failure of the senses,
can it be perceived
when it passes so quickly away.
But it is plain,
from the overflowing abundance of grace, that the brightness of the sun
which had shone there
must have been great,
seeing that it has thus made the soul
to melt away.
And this is to be considered;
for, as it seems to me,
the period of time,
however long it may have been,
during which the faculties of the soul
were entranced,
is very short;
if half an hour, that would be a long time.
I do not think
that I have ever been so long. [7]
The truth of the matter is this:
it is extremely difficult
to know how long,
because the senses are in suspense;
but I think that at any time
it cannot be very long before
some one of the faculties recovers itself.
It is the will that persists in the work;
the other two faculties quickly
begin to molest it.
As the will is calm,
- it entrances them again;
- they are quiet for another moment, and
- then they recover themselves once more.
17. In this way, some hours may be,
and are, passed in prayer;
for when the two faculties begin
to drink deep, and
to perceive the taste of this divine wine,
they give themselves up
with great readiness,
in order to be the more absorbed:
they follow the will, and
the three rejoice together.
But this state of complete absorption,
together with the utter rest
of the imagination,--
for I believe that even the imagination
is then wholly at rest,--
lasts only for a short time;
though the faculties do not
so completely recover themselves
as not to be for some hours afterwards
as if in disorder:
God, from time to time,
drawing them to Himself.
18. Let us now come to
that which the soul feels interiorly.
Let him describe it who knows it;
for as it is impossible to understand it,
much more is it so to describe it.
When I purposed to write this,
I had just communicated, and
had risen from the very prayer
of which I am speaking.
I am thinking of
what the soul was then doing.
Our Lord said to me:
It undoes itself utterly,
My daughter,
in order that it may give itself
more and more to Me:
it is not itself that then lives,
it is I.
As it cannot comprehend
what it understands,
it understands
by not understanding. [8]
19. He who has had experience of this
will understand it in some measure,
for it cannot be more clearly described,
because what then takes place
is so obscure.
All I am able to say is,
- that the soul is represented
as being close to God; and
- that there abides a conviction thereof
so certain and strong,
that it cannot possibly help believing so.
All the faculties fail now, and
are suspended in such a way
that, as I said before, [9]
their operations cannot be traced.
If the soul is making a meditation
on any subject,
the memory of it is lost at once,
just as if it had never been thought of.
If it reads,
what is read is not remembered
nor dwelt upon;
neither is it otherwise with vocal prayer.
Accordingly, the restless little butterfly
of the memory
has its wings burnt now, and
it cannot fly.
The will must be fully occupied in loving,
but it understands not how it loves;
the understanding,
if it understands,
does not understand
how it understands--
at least, it can comprehend nothing
of that it understands:
it does not understand,
as it seems to me, because,
as I said just now,
this cannot be understood.
I do not understand it at all myself.
20. In the beginning,
it happened to me
that I was ignorant of one thing--
I did not know
that God was in all things:[10]
and when He seemed to me to be so near,
I thought it impossible.
Not to believe that He was present,
was not in my power;
for it seemed to me, as it were,
evident that I felt there
His very presence.
Some unlearned men used to say to me,
that He was present
only by His grace.
I could not believe that,
because, as I am saying,
He seemed to me to be present Himself:
so I was distressed.
A most learned man, of the Order
of the glorious Patriarch St. Dominic,
delivered me from this doubt;
for he told me
- that He was present, and
- how He communed with us:
this was a great comfort to me.
21. It is to be observed and understood
that this water from heaven,--
this greatest grace of our Lord--
always leaves in the soul
the greatest fruits,
as I shall now show.
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1. See ch. xi. § 11.
2. Ch. xvi. §§ 7, 8.
3. Ch. xvii. § 5.
4. § 3.
5. See ch. xx. § 10; and
Relation, viii. § 10.
6. See ch. xiv. § 12.
7. See Anton. a Sp. Sancto,
Director. Mystic. tr. iv. § 9, n. 72.
8. Thomas à Jesu,
De Contemplatione Divina,
lib. v. c. xiii.:
"Quasi dicat:
cum intellectus non possit Dei immensam
illam claritatem et incomprehensibilem
plenitudinem comprehendere,
hoc ipsum est
illam conspicere ac intelligere,
intelligere se non posse intellectu
cognoscere:
quod quidem nihil aliud est quam Deum
sub ratione incomprehensibilitatis videre
ac cognoscere."
Philip. à SS. Trinitate,
Theolog. Mystic.
Disc. Proem. art. iv. p. 6:
"Cum ipsa [S. Teresa] scire vellet,
quid in illa mystica unione operaretur
intellectus, respondit [Christus] illi,
cum non possit comprehendere
quod intelligit, est non intelligere
intelligendo:
tum quia præ claritate nimia
quodammodo offuscatur intellectus,
unde præ altissima et
supereminentissima Dei cognitione
videtur anima potius Deum ignorare
quam cognoscere."
9. Ch. x. § 1, and ch. xviii. § 16.
10. See Inner Fortress, v. ch. i. § 11.
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