Reflections of Lent in the Spirituality of Teresa of Avila
St. Teresa of Avila (d. 1582) did not write explicitly about the season of Lent, but the Lenten themes that we have been exploring over the past month and a half weave their way through her writing. In this extended Lenten At the Table blog, I will summarize six major themes of her spirituality.
A recent book makes the claim: “We live in an age of the celebrity.” [1] It offers an alternative for our culture, which is to return to what I like to call “centuries-deep” teachings and insights from the great cloud of witnesses in the history of churches around the world.
One of those is Dr. Teresa, the first of only four women to be named a “doctor of the church.” Teresa was a 16th-century Spanish nun, mystic and spiritual writer, and reformer of her Carmelite order. She made it her mission to restore contemplative forms to this order in the Catholic Church.
In 1567, she met a young mystic and poet named Juan de Yepes, whom we know as St. John of the Cross. Together, they established another order called the Discalced Carmelites in 1580 in Spain. This order devoted themselves to prayer, lived in cloistered monasteries, and practiced a contemplative life. They also conducted spiritual retreats for laypeople. A contemporary scholar today said of her that her prayers were “Of one who knew our Lord and Savior better than almost anyone—even among the saints.” [2]
A spiritual director in her community
If she was a celebrity, she didn’t know it and she didn’t concern herself other than as a faithful follower of Jesus. She wasn’t named a doctor of the church until 1970.
I will summarize six major themes of her spirituality, unpacked in quotes taken mainly from The Interior Castle or The Way of Perfection. Each of these quotes is rich and profound enough to contemplate their meaning for your life, perhaps even in conversation with a mentor or other spiritual friend.
Teresa of Avila was, above all, a spiritual director in her community. Her words read as wisdom and guidance for the spiritual lives of her community.
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A spirituality of contemplative prayer
- “God is not only most high, He is also the all-near as well.”
- “I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions … the door of entry into this castle is prayer and meditation: I do not say mental prayer, rather than vocal, for, if it is prayer at all, it must be accompanied by meditation. If a person does not think Whom he is addressing and what he asking for, and who it is that asking and of Whom he is asking it, I do not consider that he is praying at all even though he be constantly moving his lips.”
- “Authentic prayer changes us, masks us, strips us, indicates where growth is needed.”
- “There is no life more real than the interior life of the soul.”
- “For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.” “We will advance more by contemplating the Divinity than by keeping our eyes fixed on ourselves.”
- “[Satan] works like a noiseless file, and we must be on the lookout for him from the beginning.”
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A spirituality of love
- “True perfection consists of love of God and neighbor and the better we keep both of these commandments, the more perfect we will be.”
- “If you would progress a long way on the road and ascend to the mansions of your desire, the important thing is not to think much, but to love much. And to do then whatever most stirs you to love.”
- “I do not come to you with great thoughts of profound insights for the God of my soul consists not in thinking much, but in loving much.”
- “The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor, the more your love of God will increase.”
- “Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.”
- “It is love alone that gives worth to all things.”
- “But here the Word asks only two things of us. Love for His Majesty and love for our neighbor. It is for these two virtues that we must strive, And if we attain them perfectly, we are doing his will and so shall be united with him.”
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A spirituality of the ordinary
- “God walks among the pots and pans.”
- “Thank God for the things I do not own.” (I first came across this quote from Kathleen Norris as she struggled her way through an airport with luggage).
- “Whoever possesses the present moment possesses God. Whoever possesses the present moment, possesses everything. The present moment is enough. Don’t let anything trouble you.”
- “Let us think of certain other souls who do eventually enter the castle. These are very much absorbed with worldly affairs; but their desires are good; sometimes, though infrequently, they commend themselves to our Lord, and they think about the state of their souls, though not very carefully, full of a thousand preoccupations, as they are, They pray only a few times a month, and as a rule, they are thinking all the time of their preoccupations, for they are very much attached to them, and, where their treasure is, there is their heart also.”
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A spirituality of action
- “First prayer, then action.”
- “Christ has no body but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet and loves with me here. The spirit breaks down the wall of our souls and lets in not. Just Heaven, but the whole world.” The Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila
- “Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible”
- “…You must not build upon foundations of prayer and contemplation alone, for unless. you strive after the virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarves.”
- “In fact, all of your theological concepts may only serve to cool the fire of love in the will.” Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life
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A spirituality of companionship and mentoring
- “Keep company with good and holy people.”
- “It is a great advantage for us to be able to consult someone who knows us, so that we may learn to know ourselves.”
- “Much harm may result from bad company and we are inclined by nature to follow the worse rather than what is better.:”
- “I have learned what great advantage comes from a good companionship.”
- “I would advise those who practice prayer, especially at first, to cultivate friendship…with others of similar interests.”
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A spirituality of self-reflection
- “If you did something wrong, don’t punish yourself, change.”
- “Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.”
- “Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”
- “It is a dangerous thing to be satisfied with yourself.”
- “Take life and yourself lightly.”
- “Let the truth be in your hearts, as it will be if you practice meditation, and you will see clearly what love we are bound to have for our neighbors.”
- “May the Lord lay his hand on all that I do, so that it may be in accordance with His holy will; this is always my desire, although my actions may be as imperfect as I myself am.”
- “Let us make the best possible use of our feet first and learn to know ourselves. And yet, it seems to me that we will never know ourselves unless we seek to know God. Glimpsing his greatness, we recognize our own powerlessness; gazing upon his purity, we notice where we are impure; pondering his humility, we see how far from humble we are.”
- “Let us think of certain other souls, who do eventually enter the castle. These are very much absorbed and worldly affairs; but their desires are good; sometimes, though infrequently, they commend themselves to our Lord. They think about the state of their souls, though not very carefully, full of a thousand preoccupations, as they are, they pray only a few times a month, and as a rule, they are thinking all the time of their preoccupations, for they are very much attached to them, and, where their treasure is, there is their heart also.”
- “So, we suffer terrible trials because we not understand ourselves; and we worry over what is not bad at all, but good and think it is very wrong…. Most of these trials and times of unrest come from the fact that we do not understand ourselves.”
Practice: If one of these themes or quotes finds resonance in your spirit, spend some time writing about it your journal or notebook.
Keith Anderson, D.Min., is a Faculty Associate for Spirituality and Vocation at VantagePoint3 and President Emeritus of Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and is the author of several books, including Reading Your Life’s Story (IVP, 2016), A Spirituality of Listening (IVP, 2016), and Spiritual Mentoring (IVP, 1999). Keith’s newest book, On Holy Ground: Your Story of Identity, Belonging and Sacred Purpose, will be released soon from Wipf & Stock Publishers. In his writing, teaching, and mentoring, Keith seeks to set a table for people looking to enter the “amazing inner sanctuary of the soul” in the most ordinary and extraordinary moments of life.
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[1] Ben Lansing & D.J. Marotta, Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place
[2] Fr. Peter Thomas Rohrback, Conversation with Christ, intro.
[3] Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church (Central City, Kentucky) – stained glass, St. Theresa of Ávila detail
