The Life of Holy Mother
Teresa of Jesus
The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus,
of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel
Discussion of Chapter 36
She continues
- the same subject;
- explains and tells things that have happened
to her which caused her to lose fear and
convinced her that the spirit
which spoke to her was a good one.
- The Foundation of the Monastery of St. Joseph.
- Persecution and Temptations.
- Great Interior Trial of the Saint, and
- Her Deliverance.
______________________
Discussion Topics/ Questions
1). St. Teresa described the planning
for the new Monastery
as done in haste and secrecy.
Yet, what conditions would have
caused her to abandon
her plans?
[Life: Ch36: # 3, 4, 12]
2). What did St. Teresa say was her
"aim from the beginning"
regarding receiving Nuns
into the new monastery?
[Life: Ch36: #5]
3). What was "a great consolation"
to St. Teresa, in her
planning and work?
[Life: Ch36: #5]
4). What were the temptations and
anxieties suggested by the devil
which St. Teresa experienced
regarding the founding of the
new monastery?
[Life: Ch36: #6,7]
5). What was St. Teresa's
"great resolution"
regarding suffering for God?
[Life: Ch36: # 8, 11, 12 ]
6). During the time of the
convocation of the assemblies,
regarding the founding
of the new monastery,
what was St. Teresa's fear?
What did she say about Faith?
[Life: Ch. 36: # 13, 15, 16 ]
7). How did the question
of an endowment
for the new monastery
evolve over time ?
[Life: Ch. 36: # 19, 20,21,25 ]
8). What did St. Teresa say
regarding following
the Carmelite rule
in the new monastery
and its special blessings ?
[Life: Ch. 36: # 24,26, 27,30,31 ]
___________________________
1). St. Teresa described the planning
for the new Monastery
as done in haste and secrecy.
Yet, what conditions would have
caused her to abandon
her plans?
[Life: Ch36: # 3, 4, 12]
She desired to found the monastery
for "the greater honour of God".
[Life: Ch36: #4]
"yet I wished to do so
only conditionally"
[Life: Ch36: #4]
She said she would follow through
with these plans
only so far as they
- did please God and
- was in accord with obedience
to her superiors.
The new monastery with its
strict enclosure and poverty,
would provide for the return
to the Order's primitive rule
"for my whole desire was that
its rule might be observed
in all perfection".
[Life: Ch36: # 12]
But
- If the new monastery
was not God's will,
she would abandon those plans.
- She also would not break her
vow of obedience to her superiors.
____________
~ She describe the haste and secrecy
in which the monastery
was planned:
"I saw that everything
depended on haste
...I was afraid I might be ordered
back to my monastery
at any moment".
[Life: Ch36: #3]
"my brother-in-law...
he had bought (the house)
for the purpose
of concealing our plan…"
~ She observed
her vow of obedience:
"I did nothing without
the advice of learned men,
in order that I might not break...
my vow of obedience…"
"As these persons considered
what I was doing
to be most advantageous
for the whole Order...
they told me
--though I was
acting secretly...
that I might go on.
If they had told me
that there was
the slightest imperfection
in the whole matter,
I would have given up
the founding
of a thousand monasteries,
how much more, then, this one!"
~ She would persevere in her plans
for the monastery only as far as it
- was God's will and
- would serve
- would serve
His greater honor and glory:
"I am certain of this;
for though I longed
to withdraw from everything
more and more, and
to follow my rule and vocation
in the greatest perfection
and seclusion,
yet I wished to do so
only conditionally:
for if I should have learnt
that it would be for
the greater honour of our Lord
to abandon it,
I would have done so...
in all peace and contentment.
[Life: Ch36: #4]
____________________________
2). What did St. Teresa say was her
"aim from the beginning"
regarding receiving Nuns
into the new monastery?
[Life: Ch36: #5]
St Teresa stated:
"It was our aim from the beginning
- to receive only those
who, by their example,
might be the foundation
on which we could
- - build up what we had in view,
great perfection and prayer and to
- - effect a work which I believed
to be for the service of our Lord, and
to the honour of the habit
of His glorious Mother.
[Life: Ch36: #5]
_______________________
3). What was "a great consolation"
to St. Teresa, in her
planning and work?
[Life: Ch36: #5]
St. Teresa said:
"It was also a great consolation to me
- that I had done that which
our Lord had so often
commanded me to do, and
- that there was one church more
in this city
dedicated to my glorious father
St. Joseph.
Not that I thought
I had done anything myself...
I always looked upon it
as the work of our Lord.
My part in it was
so full of imperfections,
that I look upon myself
rather as a person in fault
than as one
to whom any thanks are due.
But it was a great joy to me
when I saw His Majesty
make use of me,
who am so worthless,
as His instrument
in so grand a work".
[Life: Ch36: #5]
_________________________
4). What were the temptations and
anxieties suggested by the devil
which St. Teresa experienced
regarding the founding of the
new monastery?
[Life: Ch36: #6,7]
St. Teresa listed many temptations, doubts
and anxieties which she said
were suggested to her by Satan:
"He suggested to me
- that perhaps I had been wrong
in what I had done;
- perhaps I had failed
in my obedience,
in having brought it about
without the commandment
of the Provincial.
Satan also suggested
- whether the nuns
would be contented to live
in so strict a house,
- whether they could always
find food,
- whether I had not done
a silly thing,
what had I to do with it, and
when I was already in a monastery?
[Life: Ch36: #6]
- would have me ask myself
how I could think
of shutting myself up
in so strict a house,
- when I was subject to
so many infirmities;
how could I bear
so penitential a life, and
leave a house large and pleasant,
where I had been
always so happy, and
where I had so many friends?
- perhaps I might not like those
of the new monastery;
- I had taken on myself
a heavy obligation,
and might possibly end in despair.
He also suggested
- that perhaps it was he himself
who had contrived it,
in order to rob me
of my peace and rest,
so that, being unable to pray,
I might be disquieted,
and so lose my soul.
- Thoughts of this kind
he put before me;
and they were so many,
[Life: Ch36: #7]
_________________________
5). What was St. Teresa's
"great resolution"
regarding suffering for God?
[Life: Ch36: # 8, 11, 12 ]
St. Teresa said:
- that she had
"great resolutions
to serve our Lord, and
my desire
to suffer for His sake
- that if I carried
(these great resolutions) out,
I must not seek to be at rest;
- that if I had my trials,
they would be meritorious…
- that if I had troubles,
and endured them
in order to please God,
it would serve me
for purgatory.
- If I longed for tribulations,
I had them now;
and my gain lay in the greatest
opposition ( trials,tribulations)
[the greater was the opposition
I endured,
the greater would be my gain
- Peers translation ]
Why, then, did I fail in courage
to serve One
to whom I owed so much?
[Life: Ch36: # 8]
- I offered up to him
all I was to suffer,
rejoicing greatly
that I had the opportunity
of suffering for his honour and
of doing him service.
[Life: Ch36: # 11]
- rejoicing greatly at seeing
that I had something
to suffer for our Lord.
[Life: Ch36: # 12]
- for in all my troubles
He never failed to succour me"
[Life: Ch36: # 8]
_________________________
6). During the time of the
convocation of the assemblies,
regarding the founding
of the new monastery,
what was St. Teresa's fear?
What did she say about Faith?
[Life: Ch. 36: # 13, 15, 16 ]
St. Teresa said
that her fear was
- not for herself
- but that "the monastery
would be destroyed".
[Life: Ch. 36: #15 ]
"I was no more distressed
by what they said of me
than if they had said nothing;
but I was afraid
the monastery
would be destroyed:
that was painful;
I was therefore
extremely distressed
during the two days
on which those assemblies
...were held".
[Life: Ch. 36: #16 ]
Regarding Faith:
From her account, we read that
St. Teresa's humility, detachment,
and longing to suffer for God
led her to accept and
even rejoice at the persecution
which she endured.
"I understood clearly that
they were speaking the truth,
as when they said
that I was more wicked
than the other nuns.
[Life: Ch. 36: #13 ]
However, since she allowed
her peace to be destroyed
by the fear of the destruction
of the new monastery,
St. Teresa decries her lack of Faith.
"if I had had any faith
I should not have been
troubled at all.
But a slight failing
in one virtue
is enough to put all the others
to sleep.
In the extremity of my trouble,
our Lord said to me:
"Knowest thou not
that I am the Almighty?
What art thou afraid of?"
[Life: Ch. 36: #16 ]
She said that she was distressed
only by her fears for the monastery.
So, if she had Faith,
she would have remained in peace.
______________________
7). How did the question
of an endowment
for the new monastery
evolve over time ?
[Life: Ch. 36: # 19, 20,21,25 ]
- Although St. Teresa had resolved
to found the new monastery
without an endowment,
the authorities (assembly)
required an endowment for
the monastery's existence.
"At last they resolved
they would tolerate us
if we were endowed, and
in consideration of that
would suffer us to remain".
[Life: Ch. 36: # 19 ]
- To pacify those opposed
to the new monastery,
St. Teresa thought that she might
accept an endowment
for an initial period only
but later give it up.
"I was so distressed...
that I thought
it would not be amiss,
till the people were pacified,
to accept an endowment,
but afterwards to resign it".
[Life: Ch. 36: # 19 ]
- Because an endowment
was made the final requisite
for the monastery's existence,
St. Teresa then thought
that it must be God's will:
"At other times, too,
wicked and imperfect as I am,
I thought that perhaps
our Lord wished it to be so,
seeing that, without accepting it,
we could not succeed; and
so I consented
to the compromise.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 19 ]
- Through prayer,
St.Teresa learned God's will
was to found the monastery in poverty
as originally planned,
and not to accept an endowment.
"The night before the settlement
was to be made,
I was in prayer...
when our Lord said to me
that I must do
nothing of the kind;
for if we began
with an endowment,
they would never allow us
to resign it.
The same night, the holy friar,
Peter of Alcantara,
appeared to me.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 20 ]
he merely said that
I was on no account
to accept an endowment, and
asked why it was
I did not take his advice.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 21 ]
it was a sign
- that our Lord would be
exceedingly honoured
in the monastery,
- seeing that Satan
was so earnest against it and
- that I was by no means
to consent
to an endowment.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 20 ]
- St. Teresa then acted to
decline the endowment after all:
"the next day
told the nobleman...
( Don Francisco de Salcedo?)
what had taken place, and
charged him not to consent
to the endowment,
but to let the lawsuit go on.
He...was... greatly pleased;
he told me afterwards
how much he disliked
the compromise.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 21 ]
- Eventually the lawsuit against the
new monastery was dropped.
The monastery was allowed to
proceed without an endowment.
"the people began to have
a great devotion
to the monastery;
more nuns were received, and
our Lord began to stir up those
who had been
our greatest persecutors
to become great benefactors,
and give alms to us.
In this way
they came to approve of
what they had condemned; and
so, by degrees, they
withdrew from the lawsuit,
... they now felt it
to be a work of God,
since His Majesty
had been pleased
to carry it on in the face
of so much opposition.
And now there is not one
who thinks that
it would have been right
not to have founded
the monastery:
so they make a point
of furnishing us with alms;
for
without any asking
on our part,
without begging of any one,
our Lord moves them
to succour us; and
so we always have
what is necessary for us,
and I trust in our Lord
it will always be so.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 25 ]
__________________________
8). What did St. Teresa say
regarding following
the Carmelite rule
in the new monastery
and its special blessings ?
[Life: Ch. 36: # 24,26, 27,30,31 ]
St. Teresa said:
"We keep
the rule of our Lady of Carmel,
not the rule of the Mitigation,
but ( we keep the primitive rule)
as it was settled
by Fr. Hugo Cardinal of Santa Sabina,
and given
in the year 1248,
in the fifth year
of the pontificate
of Pope Innocent IV
All the trouble we had to go through,
will have been endured
to good purpose.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 27]
- "It is the greatest consolation
to me to find myself among
those who are so detached.
- Their occupation is to learn
how they may advance
in the service of God.
- Solitude is their delight;
and...being visited...is a trial,
unless it helps them to kindle
more and more
their love of the Bridegroom.
- Their conversation
is of God only;
[Life: Ch. 36: # 26]
- "the arrangement made for those
who long to be alone
with their Bridegroom, Christ,
in order to live for ever in Him.
[Life: Ch. 36: # 30]
- This is to be the perpetual aim
of those who are here,
-- to be alone with Him alone"
[Life: Ch. 36: # 31]
- "While praying in the church...
I saw Christ...
placed a crown on my head, and
thanked me for
what I had done for His Mother.
- On another occasion,
when all of us
remained in the choir
in prayer after Compline,
I saw our Lady
in exceeding glory,
in a white mantle,
with which she seemed
to cover us all.
I understood by that
the high degree of glory
to which our Lord would raise
the religious of this house".
[Life: Ch. 36: # 24]
End of Discussion of Chapter 36 |
