Discussion of Ch. 5 of the Autobiography of St Teresa of Avila - - The Life of Teresa of Jesus

THE LIFE OF 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

 Chapter 5

 Describes:
She continues to speak
- of the great infirmities she suffered
  and the patience God gave her to bear them,
- and how He turned evil into good,
  as is seen from something that happened
  at the place where she went for a cure.

- Illness and Patience of the Saint.
- The Story of a Priest Whom She Rescued
  from a Life of Sin.

Questions / Topics being discussed:

1). What problem did St. Teresa encounter
        with a Confessor
        - whose "instructions to me were lax, and
        - (who) left me more at liberty" ?
           [ Life: Ch. 5: #6, 7 ]

2). What priests does St. Teresa name as
      having helped/ counseled her?
      [ Life: Ch. 5: # 8 ]

3). St. Teresa told of how she acted
           frivolously and blindly
        but with good intentions.
     What did she say regarding the dangers of
        acting badly but with good intentions?
         [ Life: Ch. 5: # 9, 12 ]

4). What book(s) does St. Teresa say helped her?
        [ Life: Ch. 5: # 16 ]

5). What was "this grace, among others,
        which His Majesty bestowed on" Teresa?
         [ Life: Ch. 5: # 20 ]


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1).  What problem did St. Teresa encounter
           with a Confessor
             - whose "instructions to me were lax, and
             - (who) left me more at liberty" ?
                [ Life: Ch. 5: #6, 7 ]

St. Teresa said that she was misled
   by herself and
   by these Confessors because:

        - "...That which was a venial sin,
               they told me was no sin at all;

        - of that which was most grievously mortal,
               they said it was venial.
               ...[ Life: Ch. 5: # 6 ]

          This did me so much harm,
               that...I...speak of it here
          as a warning to others,
               that they may avoid an evil so great;

       - for I see clearly that in the eyes of God
               I was without excuse,

         that the things I did
               being in themselves not good,
         this should have been enough
               to keep me from them.
                ...[ Life: Ch. 5: # 7 ]
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2). What priests does St. Teresa name as
         having helped/ counseled her?
          [ Life: Ch. 5: # 8]

St. Teresa stated that she was helped and counseled by:
   - Padre Vicente Barr, a theologian of repute,
            who was also her father's confessor,
      and by the
   - Jesuits (Society of Jesus)

  "I continued in this blindness...
      more than seventeen years,

   till a most learned Dominican Father
      undeceived me in part,

   and those of the Company of Jesus
      made me altogether so afraid,
   by insisting on the erroneousness
      of these principles,..."
     ...[ Life: Ch. 5: # 8 ]

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3). St. Teresa told of how she acted
             frivolously and blindly
          but with good intentions.
       What did she say regarding the dangers of
             acting badly but with good intentions?
              [ Life: Ch. 5: # 9, 12 ]

Regarding the dangers of acting badly
  but with good intentions, St. Teresa said:
In trying to be loyal to a friend
      (whom she knew to be in error),
  she may have put herself in danger of temptation,
      - of an occasion of sin, and
      - of offending God.

- "Cursed be that loyalty which reaches so far

    as to go against the law of God.

    It is a madness common in the world...

    We are indebted to God
        for all the good that men do to us,
    and yet we hold it to be an act of virtue
        not to break a friendship of this kind,
    though it lead us to go against Him.

   Oh, blindness of the world!

   Let me, O Lord, be most ungrateful to the world;
       never at all unto Thee.
   But I have been altogether otherwise through my sins.
    ... [ Life: Ch. 5: # 9]

- "When I knew... (of his troubles),
       I began to show him greater (solicitation):
    my intention was good,
       but the act was wrong,

    for I ought not to do the least wrong
       for the sake of any good,
    how great soever it may be.

    I spoke to him most frequently of God;
      and this must have done him good
      ...[ Life: Ch. 5: # 12 ]

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4). What book(s) does St. Teresa say helped her?
        [ Life: Ch. 5: # 16 ]

St Teresa stated that the Story of Job
     in the book, "St. Gregory's Morals"
  helped her in preparing
     to suffer and to cultivate patience.

"It was a great help to me to be patient,
     that I had read the Story of Job,
 in the Morals of St. Gregory

 (Our Lord seems to have prepared me thereby);

  and that I had begun the practice of prayer,
     so that I might bear it all,
  conforming my will to the will of God.

  All my conversation was with God.

  I had continually these words of Job
     in my thoughts and in my mouth:

  'If we have received good things of the hand of our Lord,
    why should we not receive evil things?' [Job 2;10]

   'Si bona suscepimus de manu Dei,
      mala quare non suscipiamus?'

   This seemed to give me courage.
     ...[ Life: Ch. 5: # 16 ]

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5). What was "this grace, among others,
        which His Majesty bestowed on"  Teresa?
        [ Life: Ch. 5: # 20 ]

        "This grace, among others,
              did His Majesty bestow on me,

        that ever since my first Communion
               never in confession
        have I failed to confess anything,
               I thought to be a sin,
        though it might be only a venial sin.
         ...[ Life: Ch. 5: # 20 ]
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