Interpreting St Teresa of Avila (XIII)

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

Second Degree of Prayer

When St Teresa, using the analogy of watering the garden, described the different grades or ways of praying, she was conscious that some twenty years before as a novice or young professed, she was struggling to develop her prayer life. She acknowledged that she failed God during this period by not seeking support from the pillar of prayer: “I suffered the battle and conflict between friendship with God and friendship with the world” (Life, 8,3). In time she realised that if one makes an effort, God bestows his mercies and favours, lavishly repaying anyone who has taken him as a friend. She realises she has been specially blessed that the love for her Lord causes her to focus in a very human way on who He is - a friend. “Oh, what a good friend You make, my Lord... You wait for others to adapt to Your nature, and in the meantime You put up with theirs” (L.8,6).

In all of this instruction, she uses the term ‘mental prayer’ and explains what she means by it: “For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends: It means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. In order that love be true and the friendship endure, the wills of the friends must be in accord.” (L. 8,5). When she had begun the practice of prayer, especially as she advanced in a conscious relationship with her ‘friend’, she was at times tormented, realising that “I wasn’t what I should have been”. It was at one of these times that on entering the oratory, she saw the statue that had been borrowed for a coming; feast. This statue portrayed the wounded and suffering Christ, so that when she saw it she was greatly distressed, such was the impact of realising Christ’s sufferings. “it seemed to me, my heart broke,” she records “I threw myself down before Him with the greatest outpouring of tears”. This was a dramatic time in her life but adds; “From that time I went on improving” (L. 9,3). She explains the way she prayed after this experience. “Since I could not reflect discursively (through meditation) with the intellect, I strove to represent Christ within me, and it did me greater good, in my opinion, to represent Him in those scenes where I saw Him more alone. It seemed to me that being alone and afflicted, as a person in need, He had to accept me. I had simple thoughts like these.” (L. 9,6).

Like any normal person, distracting thoughts tormented her (to use her own phrase). Teresa recognised that where there is no discursive reflection (that is using the intellect to recall the teaching of Jesus or of Gospel events) the use of a book can be a great help in recollecting ourselves. She admits that she had little ability “to represent things with my intellect” and never to think of Christ within herself. She was like those who are blind, she says, who spoke with a person because they know the other person is with them.

After she had received a copy of ‘The Confessions of St. Augustine’, a saint she readily admired and appreciated, she read it critically with regard to herself. Certainly she began to spend more time with the Lord in the prayer she knew. It seemed, as she notes, “His majesty began to favour me”. She received grace so that “when I represented Christ within me in order to place myself in His presence . . . that a feeling of the presence of God would come upon me unexpectedly so that I could in no way doubt he was within me or I totally immersed in Him” (L. 10,1). This is what she alludes to in The Way of Perfection (28,2), where she writes; “Consider what St. Augustine says, that he sought Him in many places but found Him ultimately within himself.” She herself added: “However softly we speak, He is near enough to hear us. Neither is there any need for wings to go to find Him. All one need do is to go into solitude and look at Him within oneself. Beseech Him as you would a father; tell Him about your trials, ask him for a remedy against them.” (L. 28,2). Teresa writes in a conversational mode - light, but as in any conversation, the meaning proceeds from an idea involving thinking deeply and broadly on important issues or the truth of our statements. For her meditation may be defined as a mindful praying, using reasoned reflections, especially on some of the great teaching of Jesus and the mysteries of His life and death. It is interpreted especially as conversation with God, and she asserts in different places that in prayer, whether mental or vocal, we talk to God so there must be some interior communication. At the beginning of the ‘Interior Castle’, she states: “insofar as I can understand, the door of entry to this castle is prayer and reflection” (I.C. 1.1,7). If it is to be prayer at all, the mind must take part in it.

What is now termed ‘discursive prayer’ or meditation is the prayer of beginners, the first level of mental prayer. It is ordinary and active and ultimately depends on our own efforts, with the help of grace. Although very natural, it is in itself an enormous achievement since it develops an intimacy with God. In ‘The Way of Perfection’ (26,3) Teresa explains how one proceeds to recollect oneself in trying to concentrate on some incident in Christ’s life. “In the measure you desire Him, you will find Him. He so esteems our turning to look at Him that no diligence will be lacking on His part.”

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