Meditation for the Carmelite Order on the Feast Day of St Teresa of Avila, October 2023, Prof. Peter Tyler
I have been studying and writing about Teresa of Avila for most of my adult life but she never fails to surprise and amaze me – nor her ability to communicate to the most diverse people today. Take Juan for example. Juan is one of my students who was brought up in the Protestant Charismatic tradition. Although he lived in Spain he was naturally suspicious of anything that smelt of Catholicism – including 16th century mystics. Later in his academic career he wrote a Master’s thesis on grace and charismatic gifts and was astonished, as he completed his thesis, to discover that almost everything he had wanted to say was to be found in Teresa’s writings – he is now working on a doctorate devoted entirely to her writings.
Now how can that be the case? I think this is a tribute to this extraordinary woman for whom, I would argue, ‘her time has come’. In 1970 that visionary man, Pope St Paul VI, made her the first woman ‘Doctor of the Church’ and, as with so much of his ministry, I think he anticipated or intuited the greatness of her teaching to come. For it is as though she was still with us now, urging us to follow the Lord, whatever happens – nada te turbe – the words of the prayer famously attributed to her – ‘let nothing disturb you, let nothing trouble you – God alone suffices’ – solo Dios basta. ‘God alone suffices’, that is her talisman and watch-word and really the key to understanding her marvellous writings.
How then does she describe our situation as Carmelites, as Christians, as sinners, well, as human beings?In her most famous work, The Interior Castle, written towards the end of her life when most of what she had achieved was now in ruins, she states, rather surprisingly for the circumstances, that, as humans, we have a wonderful rich castle within ourselves, full of palaces, mansions, fountains and gardens: ‘each of us possesses a soul but we do not realize its value as made in the image of God, therefore we fail to understand the important secrets it contains’ (IC: 7.1.1). Yet, sadly, we are bewitched from it – we cannot see it or enter it. We are ‘full of a thousand preoccupations’. Our mind deceives us with obsession with these preoccupations, leading to darkness and delusion.
How then do we return to this palace to enjoy it? The gate to the palace, she suggests, is prayer, meditation and mindfulness. We have to change our attitude and adopt an attitude of acceptance, openness and humility:
Acceptance: Through prayer we discover our utter dependence upon God – the source (spring) and the sun. We must learn to accept the gift of God’s life to us.
Openness: We must learn not to be closed or ‘hemmed in’ in our relationship with God. We are to become ‘free-range contemplatives’ (my phrase, not hers): ‘it is very important that no soul which practises prayer, whether little or much, should be subjected to undue constraint or limitation’ (IC: 1.2.1). In this respect, a key goal for the wise woman of Avila is what she frequently calls ‘Spiritual Freedom’. If prayer, devotion and contemplation is leading us to a sense of isolation and dis-ease then, she gently counsels, we may want to revise our approach to such things.
Humility: An ancient Christian virtue. Like the bee in the hive, humility, she says, is our honey ‘without humility all will be lost’: ‘it is a very good thing – excellent indeed – to begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than flying off to other rooms’ (IC: 1.3). This will help us to stay rooted in the ground beneath us where God has planted us, rather than flying off to search for new projects, ventures and plans that, often as not, have the human ego at the centre rather than the heart of the Divine.
As we adopt these attitudes, however, she suggests that there will be various traps and dead-ends we will have to encounter. The first of these will be ‘interior voices’ that distract us when we engage in contemplation. In the First Mansion of the Interior Castle she describes these brilliantly. For example, we can begin to doubt the sincerity of our own calling: ‘What do people think of this religious business? Might they think I’m a bit odd?’ ‘Isn’t it better not to be too religious? They say it leads to danger, madness even!’ ‘I’ve done this sort of stuff for years. There’s nothing new to teach me!’ Teresa boils them down to two contributing factors – an obsession with material comfort (riches) and social reputation.
In this respect she always urges us to check the fruits of contemplation. Is it leading to openness to others, humanity and service or is it leading to tetchiness, irritation and feelings of superiority? We must be particularly aware of a certain lack of charity in helping others and a tendency to criticise others (IC: 5.3.6) and note our behaviour as much in small actions as large ones (IC: 5.3.9-10).
Finally, we notice that silence and gentleness are the handmaids of contemplation. We adopt a silent attitude to our bodies and those around us. This will help us tune in to the gentle voice of God as St Elijah did on Mount Horeb (IC: 4.3.2). Coupled with this, Self-Knowledge will be a key fruit of the contemplative life. Throughout, we are learning more about ourselves and the more we learn about ourselves, she suggests, the closer we get to God. For, in all things, she urges us to be gentle with ourselves, make sure we get good sleep and food and ‘when you meet any obstacle never use any violence’ (Letters). Finally, she says, be gentle with yourself as God is gentle with you – Happy Feast Day of St Teresa of Avila – Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Soul!
Peter Tyler is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spirituality and Director of the Centre for Initiatives in Spirituality and Reconciliation (InSpiRe, www.stmarys.ac.uk/inspire) at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London. His most recent book is The Living Philosophy of Edith Stein (Bloomsbury 2023).
