Discussion of Ch. 4: Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila - The Life of Teresa of Jesus

THE LIFE OF THE HOLY MOTHER
        TERESA OF JESUS

The Life of St. Teresa of Avila

The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel

Discussion of  Chapter 4


Describes:
- how, with the assistance of God,
    she compelled herself to take the (Religious) habit, and
- and how His Majesty began
     to send her many infirmities
 - Our Lord Helps Her to Become a Nun.
- Her Many Infirmities.

   Questions / Topics
     being discussed:

1). What benefits did St. Teresa experience
        when she entered the convent?
          [ Life: Ch. 4: #2, 14 ]

2). What does St. Teresa teach regarding
         hesitating to act because of fear?
           [ Life: Ch. 4: #1, 2]

3a). What book does St. Teresa say she read?
          [ Life: Ch. 4: #8 ]

   b). How did it help her?
          [ Life: Ch. 4: #8 ]

4). St Teresa stated that as a young adult
     she was granted the grace of Union with God.

     "It is true that the prayer of union
             lasted but a short time:

      I know not if it continued
             for the space of an Ave Maria;
      but the fruits of it remained..."

      What was a result of this experience ?
         [ Life: Ch. 4: #9 ]

5a). How did St. Teresa pray?
          [ Life: Ch. 4: #10 ]

5b). What shortcomings did St. Teresa say
          she experienced in her prayer
           regarding the use of the faculties ?
           [ Life: Ch. 4: #10 ]

6a). What benefit will those receive
           who are able to meditate
           (with the aid of the faculties)  ?
         [ Life: Ch. 4: #11 ]

6b). What does St. Teresa say and advise
        regarding those unable to meditate
          with the labor of the understanding?
           [ Life: Ch. 4: #11, 12 ]

7).  St. Teresa continues to describe
       her prayer life, her inability to meditate, and
       her experience of aridity in prayer.
     Briefly list what she said helped her
       in her prayer?
       [ Life: Ch. 4: #13, 14 ]
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1). What benefits did St. Teresa experience
      when she entered the convent?
        [ Life: Ch. 4: #2, 14 ]

St. Teresa stated that when she "took the habit"

   - "Our Lord at once made me understand
        God helps those who do violence to themselves
      in order to serve Him.

   - At that moment, because I was entering on that state,
        I was filled with a joy so great,
     that it has never failed me to this day;

   - God converted the aridity of my soul
        into the greatest tenderness.

   - Everything in religion was a delight unto me"

   - She realized that in the convent
          she was now free
          from the demands of all those
             worldly vanities and affairs:

         "now and then I used to sweep the house
            during those hours of the day
          which I had formerly spent
            on my amusements and my dress;

         "and, calling to mind that I was delivered
            from (former) follies,
         I was filled with a new joy that surprised me,
            nor could I understand whence it came
            ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #2 ]

   - He has not omitted to reward me,
        even in this life,
      for every one of my good desires.

    My good works, however wretched and imperfect,
      have been made better and perfected by Him
    He has rendered them meritorious.

    As to my evil deeds and my sins,
      He hid them at once.

    He gilds my faults, makes virtue to shine forth,
      giving it to me Himself,
    and compelling me to possess it,
      as it were, by force".
      ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #14 ]
 ____________________________________
2). What does St. Teresa teach regarding
        hesitating to act because of fear?
        [ Life: Ch. 4: #1, 3]

St. Teresa teaches not to allow fear
  to prevent one from performing a service for God.

   "...for if a person lives detached
       for the love of God only,

   that is no reason for being afraid of failure,
       for He is omnipotent. ".

  "I would never counsel any one,
      to whom good inspirations
          from time to time may come,
     to resist them through fear
         of the difficulty of carrying them into effect;

  "When the act
         is done for God only,
    it is His will
         before we begin it

    that the soul,
               in order to the increase of its merits,
         should be afraid; and
               the greater the fear,
                      if we do but succeed,
               the greater the reward, and
               the sweetness thence afterwards resulting.
               ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #3]

  When she aspired to devote her life to God's service,
     she received courage from God to withstand the
   hardship of separation from her family:

     "the pain I felt
             when I left my father's house
        was so great,
      that I do not believe the pain of dying
        will be greater

     ...for, as I had no love of God
        to destroy my love of father and of kindred,
     this latter love came upon me
        with a violence so great that,

     if our Lord had not been my keeper,
         my own resolution to go on, would have failed me.
     But He gave me courage to fight against myself,
         so that I executed my purpose."
         ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #1 ]
_____________________________________

3a). What book does St. Teresa say she read?
         [ Life: Ch. 4: #8 ]

  St. Teresa stated that her uncle, Don Pedro,
    "gave me a book called "Tercer Abecedario"

               [The Third Alphabet],

     which treats of the Prayer of Recollection.
      (Francisco de Osuna's Third Spiritual Alphabet)
       ... [ Life: Ch. 4: #8 ]

3b). How did it help her?
        [ Life: Ch. 4: #8 ]

  St. Teresa used this book to help her
      as a guide to prayer.

  "I did not know
     - how to make my prayer,
     - nor how to recollect myself.

   I was therefore much pleased with the book,
   and resolved to follow the way of prayer it described
    with all my might.

  I began to spend a certain time in solitude,
    to go frequently to confession,

  and make a beginning of that way of prayer,
   with this book for my guide;
  for I had no...confessor who understood me...
  ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #8 ]
 ___________________________________

4). St Teresa stated that as a young adult

      she was granted the grace of Union with God.

                "It is true that the prayer of union
                     lasted but a short time: 
                 I know not if it continued
                    for the space of an Ave Maria;
                 but the fruits of it remained..."

       What was a result of this experience ?
          [ Life: Ch. 4: #9 ]
 
 St. Teresa said that she received the grace of
      becoming detached from temporal things.
 
      "I seemed to despise the world utterly;
          and so I remember how sorry I was
      for those who followed its ways...."
      ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #9 ]
  ____________________________________

5a). How did St. Teresa pray?
         [ Life: Ch. 4: #7 ]  

  St. Teresa described her prayer in this way:

   - "I used to labour with all my might
      to imagine Jesus Christ, our God and our Lord,
            present within me.

      And this was the way I prayed.

   - If I meditated on any mystery of His life,
         I represented it to myself as within me,

      though the greater part of my time
         I spent in reading good books,
       which was all my comfort;
        ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #10 ]

5b). What shortcomings did St. Teresa say
             she experienced in her prayer
              regarding the use of the faculties ?
              [ Life: Ch. 4: #10 ]

St. Teresa reported that she had difficulty using
    the understanding and imagination in her prayer:

     " for God never endowed me
       - with the gift of making reflections
                 with the understanding, or
       - with that of using the imagination
                 to any good purpose:

      My imagination is so sluggish, that even
         if I would think of, or picture to myself,
      as I used to labour to picture, our Lord's Humanity,
         I never could do it.
         ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #10 ] 
_________________________________

6a). What benefit will those receive
            who are able to meditate
            (with the aid of the faculties) ?
              [ Life: Ch. 4: #11 ]

St. Teresa said that
   he who can use his intellect in the way of meditation
          - on what the world is,
          - on what he owes to God,
          - on the great sufferings of God for him,
                his own scanty service in return, and
          - on the reward God reserves
                for those who love Him,
     learns how to defend himself
        against his own thoughts, and
        against the occasions and perils of sin""
        ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #11 ]

6b). What does St. Teresa say and advise
      regarding those unable to meditate
      with the labor of the Understanding?

Regarding those unable to meditate with the
      labor of the understanding, St. Teresa said:

          If  they are not able
               to use the understanding in meditation,
          they will have difficulty in obtaining the benefits of
               discursive reflection and its deductions

          - "Persons in this condition
                must have greater purity of conscience
             than those who can
                make use of their understanding;
                 ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #11 ]

          - Spiritual Reading will provide
               -- the insights and instruction
                          that he may be unable to obtain
                          through discursive meditation.
               -- and help in finding recollection.

               Reading  may be needed
                   "as a substitute for the mental prayer
                          which is beyond his reach". ]

                   ...he who has not that power
                         (to meditate with the understanding)
                          is in greater danger, and
                -- ought to occupy himself much in reading,
                         seeing that he is not in the slightest degree
                         able to help himself.
                          ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #11 ]

                -- is of great service
                         towards procuring recollection
                    in any one who proceeds in this way;

                -- and it is even necessary for him,
                        however little it may be that he reads,
                    if only as a substitute for the mental prayer
                        which is beyond his reach.
                         ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #12 ]

        - "if they persevere,
                 by this way of inability to exert the intellect,
                    yet is the process more laborious and painful;

                 for if the will has nothing to occupy it, and
                   if love have no present object to rest on,
                      the soul is
                           without support and
                           without employment
                      its isolation and dryness
                           (will) occasion great pain,
                      and the thoughts
                            assail it most grievously.
                             ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #11 ]

                This way of proceeding is so exceedingly painful,
                   that if the master who teaches (prayer)
                   -- insists on cutting off the succours
                           which reading gives, and
                   -- requires the spending
                           of much time in prayer,
                           then...it will be impossible
                              to persevere long in it:
                   -- and if he persists in his plan,
                           health will be ruined,
                              because it is a most painful process.
                              ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #12 ]
 _______________________________________

7). In paragraph #9, St. Teresa continues to describe
         her prayer life, her inability to meditate,
         and her experience of aridity in prayer.

       Briefly list what she said helped her
         in her prayer?
         [ Life: Ch. 4: #13, 14]

St. Teresa stated that these things helped her:

~ that she didn't find a teacher
       who because of lack of understanding of her talents,
       would oblige her to discursively meditate
          with the intellect/understanding and
          with the imagination.

    She said this would have caused her many trials
       and have contributed to her aridity in prayer.

    - "it was the good providence of our Lord over me
           that found no one to teach me.

       If I had, it would have been impossible for me
          to persevere during the eighteen years
       of my trial and of those great aridities
          because of my inability to meditate.
          ....[ Life: Ch. 4: #13 ]

~ She used a spiritual book

     - to help recollect her thoughts

          "With ( a book),
              I began to collect my thoughts,


           and, using it as a decoy,
              kept my soul in peace,

            very frequently
              by merely opening a book
            there was no necessity for more

     - to help manage distractions in prayer.

           "During all this time, it was only after Communion
              that I ever ventured to begin my prayer
            without a book

            my soul was as much afraid to pray without one,
               as if it had to fight against a host (of enemies).

            With a book to help me,
                it was like a companion, and a shield
             whereon to receive the blows of many thought.
                I found comfort;

      - to inspire devotion

             "for it was not usual with me to be in aridity:
                but I always was so when I had no book;
              for my soul was disturbed, and
                my thoughts wandered at once.      .

             Sometimes, I read
                but little;
             at other times,
                much
             according as our Lord had pity on me.
              ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #13 ]

            "there could be no danger capable
               of withdrawing me
             from so great a blessing,
               if I had but
                   - books, and
                   - could have remained alone;"

~ the grace of God, and His great goodness

            "He has not omitted to reward me,
                even in this life,
             for every one of my good desires.

             My good works,
                 however wretched and imperfect,
             have been made better and perfected by Him
                 Who is my Lord:
             He has rendered them meritorious.

             He gilds my faults,
                 - makes virtue to shine forth,
                 - giving it to me Himself, and
                 - compelling me to possess it,
                     as it were, by force.
                     ...[ Life: Ch. 4: #14 ]
_______________________________