. Contemplative Haven: August 2006

Monday, August 28, 2006

Back in a Bit

I'll be away for a few days. Take good care of yourselves!

posted by Gabrielle at 1:28 AM |

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Fifth Mansions (Part 4 of 4)

The soul in the Fifth Mansions never rests, says St. Teresa, neither in spiritual consolations nor in the world. It is always "fruitful in doing good to itself and to other souls", but it has not yet found "true repose".

St. Teresa likens this stage to when, in earthly life, two people are "about to be betrothed"; we may see it as pre-engagement, when the couple has had a period of time getting to know each other, and are now deciding whether or not they will become engaged to be married.

In the Fifth Mansions, in the Prayer of Union, the Lord visits the soul, so that "she shall get to know Him better", and "He shall unite her with Himself." The soul is "fired with love", and does everything possible to make certain that the betrothal will take place. The soul's affection, though, must never be set "on anything other than Himself."

We must, at this time, withdraw from occasions of sin, for the devil will do his utmost to ensure that the betrothal does not take place: "For this purpose he will marshal all the powers of hell, for...if he wins a single soul in this way he will win a whole multitude..." We should "consider what a large number of people God can draw to Himself through the agency of a single soul..."

As previously mentioned, the devil cannot interfere in the Prayer of Union because God suspends our faculties, but he can interfere in our lives. Though desirous of doing the Lord's will, we can still be undermined and deceived. Although we are more withdrawn from the world, the devil can still find ways to visit us, St. Teresa warns.

St. Teresa reiterates that we must never have any confidence that we can avoid sin all by ourselves, but that we should beg the Lord to be continually with us. We must pay strict attention to whether or not we are progressing in the virtues, particularly for love of neighbour. But, she says, we can be assured that if God has brought us this far, He will not let us go easily: "His Majesty is so anxious for it [the soul] not to be lost that He gives it a thousand interior warnings of many kinds, and thus it cannot fail to perceive the danger."

"For it is unthinkable that a soul which has arrived so far should cease to grow: love is never idle, so failure to advance would be a very bad sign. A soul which has once set out to be the bride of God Himself, and has already had converse with His Majesty and reached the point which has been described, must not lie down and go to sleep again."

posted by Gabrielle at 12:18 AM |

Thursday, August 24, 2006

You Have Sustained Me

When Grace Abounds (Click here, then click on "Download Now", if you would like to hear it. By Eden's Bridge, on Celtic Worship 2 CD.)


When grace abounds
And my heart overflows with joy
My God will stand beside me
My God will stand beside me

When peace runs free
And pours into the cup of life
My God will stand beside me
My God will stand beside me

When in my pain I stumble
blindly in the night
My God will stand beside me
My God will stand beside me

When I seek rest
My God will stand beside me
My God will stand beside me
My God will stand beside me.

Our dear son is safely home from Afghanistan. Let us pray for all the sons and daughters who are not.

posted by Gabrielle at 10:53 PM |

Fifth Mansions (Part 3 of 4)

"...the silkworm has of necessity to die; and it is this which will cost you most; for death comes more easily when one can see oneself living a new life, whereas our duty now is to continue living this present life, and yet to die of our own free will."

If a soul does not attain the Prayer of Union, which is a supernatural gift of the Lord, do not give up hope, St. Teresa insists. There is "another" union, which is achieved "by not following our own will but submitting it to whatever is the will of God." This is true union with the Lord, and the Prayer of Union, if it occurs at all, proceeds from it. St. Teresa writes: "This is the union which I have desired all my life; it is for this that I continually beseech Our Lord; it is this which is the most genuine and the safest."

St. Teresa instructs us to "try to advance in the service of Our Lord and in self-knowledge." She gives examples of what to guard against as we try to progress in the virtues: self-love, self-esteem, censoriousness concerning our neighbours, lack of charity towards them, and failure to love them as we love ourselves.

Only two things are asked of us, St. Teresa says - love for God and love for our neighbour: "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."

Putting the emphasis on love of neighbour is the wisest choice, she tells us, for we can see more clearly whether we are really doing that or not. The more we love our neighbour, the more God increases our love for Him; love for neighbour has its root in the love of God.

Sometimes in prayer, St. Teresa remarks, souls have grandiose ideas of how they will serve the Lord, or how much they wish to suffer for Him. True union means we will practise what we promise, for there is no use imagining all these wonderful things in prayer if we turn around the next moment and rise up against the smallest of trials and offences.

Knowing where we are on the path to union with the Lord is necessary, and thus requires self-knowledge. However, this is not something which should be entered into during our actual time of prayer, for then, St. Teresa cautions, prayer ultimately becomes nothing but self-absorption.

The Lord, she tells us, desires works, and we should never be afraid to interrupt our prayer for the benefit of others. We should, for example, "tend to the sick first", without being afraid of "losing any sense of devotion."

Some general counsels given by St. Teresa for souls in the Fifth Mansions are: take pleasure in hearing someone praised; be sorry for peoples' faults and try to conceal them from others; do violence to your own will; in everything possible, where it involves no sin, do the will of others; give up your own rights, and try to take on another's burden.

In short, St. Teresa instructs us, imitate Christ.

posted by Gabrielle at 8:42 AM |

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Fifth Mansions (Part 2 of 4)

In the Fifth Mansions, St. Teresa uses imagery of a silkworm to teach us about the soul. The silkworm, she says, starts as a seedlike entity which appears to be dead until the warm weather arrives. Then it begins to feed upon the leaves of the mulberry tree, and when full-grown, attaches itself to a twig, spinning its silk into a cocoon. It enters the cocoon as a large, ugly worm, is transformed, and emerges as a beautiful, white butterfly.

In St. Teresa's analogy, the silkworm is the soul; the warm weather is "the heat which comes from the Holy Spirit"; the twigs are general help from God, as well as such things as frequent confession, good books and sermons, all of which become life-sustaining nourishment for the soul. The cocoon, or house in which it is to die, is Christ, and it will die with the practice of penance, prayer, mortification, obedience and other good works. In the Prayer of Union, the soul is the worm in the cocoon, completely "hidden in His greatness", and "quite dead to the world", but when the soul emerges from this prayer, it has been transformed into a "little white butterfly".

Upon emerging, the soul is anxious to praise the Lord, is unable to understand why it was so blessed since it did not merit it, seeks penance, longs for solitude, desires to suffer trials, and is deeply distressed whenever it sees the Lord being offended.

Now comes a difficult, restless period in life; there is a real sense of conflict and sad confusion. In its cocoon, hidden in the greatness of God, the soul was happy, yet it wouldn't wish to be a worm again. Though it has been transformed into a butterfly by feeding on the things of the Lord, it cannot seem to find true happiness or rest - there are few places in the world for a transformed soul, and few ways for it to accomplish its desires. St. Teresa tells us, "this little butterfly feels a stranger to things of the earth". This discontentment is a trial, but one from a "noble source". It is a "sublime" trial, and so the soul, paradoxically, can enjoy peace at the same time, and "to a very high degree".

Another trial for the soul in the Fifth Mansions is sadness arising from the fact that it cannot perform greater things for the Lord, and also that it so often sees Him being offended. This is not the same kind of natural sorrow or grief that arises from meditating on the Passion or on how greatly humanity has offended God; this grief "seems to tear it to pieces and grind it to powder". This is a supernatural grief, given to a soul who has handed over its will to the Lord.

But why would the Lord desire to give a soul grief? What is His will in this matter? St. Teresa says that, "the soul shall go thence sealed with His seal". The soul has become like wax, and the "seal is impressed upon it". This supernatural grief, beyond all human understanding, is a tremendous gift from God, for, "He gives the soul something of His own, which is what His Son had in this life." And what did the Son have, the Son who:

"...saw everything and was continually witnessing the great offences which were being committed against His Father."

Grief. Unimaginable grief. Grief so deep that we can only be allowed a share of it through a supernatural infusion. We are given, in the Fifth Mansions, a participation in the interior sufferings of Christ.

posted by Gabrielle at 11:30 AM |

Friday, August 18, 2006

Fifth Mansions (Part 1 of 4)

Despite St. Teresa's misgivings that she will not be able to help us with the Fifth Mansions, she perseveres, desiring to tell us of its "riches and treasures and delights". Few people, she says, "prepare" themselves for the Lord to reveal the "hidden treasure" within; this treasure, Father Thomas Dubay tells us, is the Indwelling Trinity.

As love grows, there is a corresponding intensification of infused prayer, and the "absorption" found in the Prayer of Quiet is heightened in the Fifth Mansions, becoming the Prayer of Union. The Lord desires our love, and St. Teresa tells us to what degree: "He would have you keep back nothing; whether it be little or much, He will have it all for Himself."

In this Prayer of Union, we are "fast asleep, to the things of the world, and to ourselves." We have no power to think, even though there may be a desire to do so. We do not have to struggle as before to suspend thought - God suspends it for us.

There is a strong love and desire, but we cannot understand what it is; sometimes, St. Teresa says, it is as if the soul has withdrawn from the body. The mind is "dumbfounded", and sometimes "neither hands nor feet can move." Father Dubay notes that here, St. Teresa is describing a type of ecstatic prayer, not as strong as the ecstasy or rapture which she will explain in the Sixth Mansions, but a milder type, which she says usually does not last as long as even half an hour. The Prayer of Union has its effects primarily on the interior, within the soul, while ecstatic prayer affects a person both interiorly and exteriorly. Sometimes there is a little slipping in and out of different types of prayer, and this is an example of being primarily in the Fifth Mansions enjoying the Prayer of Union, but slipping into the Sixth Mansions at times.

In the Fourth Mansions, after experiencing the Prayer of Quiet, one may wonder whether or not it had all been a dream, or just the imagination, or even be fearful that one had been deceived by the devil, who can transform himself into an angel of light. Not so in the Fifth Mansions, St. Teresa reveals, for in the Prayer of Union, all the faculties (imagination, memory and intellect) are suspended, along with the will. Here, in the Prayer of Union, she is quite certain that the devil cannot enter, because "His Majesty is in such close contact and union with the essence of the soul."

If we are still unsure as to whether or not we have attained the Prayer of Union, St. Teresa gives us a "clear indication", a "decisive one". The soul, she says, does not necessarily know this during the time of prayer, but "it sees it clearly afterwards":

"God implants Himself in the interior of that soul in such a way that, when it returns to itself, it cannot possibly doubt that God has been in it and it has been in God; so firmly does this truth remain within it that, although for years God may never grant it that favour again, it can neither forget it nor doubt that it has received it....This certainty of the soul is very material."

posted by Gabrielle at 9:20 AM |

Monday, August 14, 2006

Fifth Mansions "Quote of the Day"

Says St. Teresa of Avila:

"I think it would be better if I were to say nothing of the Mansions I have not yet treated, for no one can describe them, the understanding is unable to comprehend them and no comparisons will avail to explain them..."

Great. Just when I was on a roll.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:20 AM |

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Fourth Mansions (Part 2 of 2)

St. Teresa of Avila was a very busy woman, and often regretted not having time to review what she had written before continuing. Near the end of the section on the Fourth Mansions, she tells us that she really should have talked about the Prayer of Recollection before even mentioning the Prayer of Quiet.

What is the Prayer of Recollection? Father Thomas Dubay describes it as "an infused and gentle awareness given by God and not produced by human effort." St. Teresa teaches that it is the beginning of the "supernatural" overtaking our prayer, and does not depend on anything exterior. It is sometimes described as the gentle, infused prayer that God gives to help us make the transition from the active type of meditation done in the first three Mansions to the fuller infused contemplation which takes place later in the Prayer of Quiet. Without any human struggle one is drawn into oneself and desires solitude. The senses and the faculties gradually lose their hold because they have somehow heard the voice "of the good Shepherd". They recognize it because they have been in the Castle before, and are now drawn back into the soul. This can happen when one is not even thinking about God, but one becomes "markedly conscious" that one is going within.

St. Teresa advises that if we recognize this prayer taking place, we should try to stop using our reasoning powers and just listen to the Lord, for at this point, "the person who does most is he who thinks least and desires to do least." When the understanding is stilled, we are able to listen. However, she is adamant about not using force to attempt to still the understanding; she is very familiar with distractions and the wildness of the imagination. If it is too much of an effort to stop thinking, then "make requests of Him" and "remember that we are in His presence." She says that trying to use force is senseless anyway, for we invariably end up thinking even more, and since our faculties are God-given, until He brings us into a state of absorption it is better to use them than try to "cast a spell over them". She tells us that when our will desires to concentrate on the Lord, but our mind refuses to cooperate, the will must "abandon itself into the arms of love". Father Dubay reminds us that we are not hoping to receive, "a neutral state of awareness; we are receiving light and love from God, and there is a vast difference between a sterile, impersonal awareness and a living, lightsome loving. When God wants our mind to cease operating in its ordinary human manner, He gives a delicate but loving luminosity in such manner that all we have to do is receive."

After these early beginnings of infused contemplation in the Prayer of Recollection, the soul is generally then drawn into the Prayer of Quiet. St. Teresa says that in this prayer the faculties are not in full union with the Lord, but they become absorbed, and are "amazed as they consider what is happening to them." In the Prayer of Quiet, the will is somehow united with the will of God. Father Dubay explains that this can last even for a day or two; he says the will is in contemplation while the faculties of memory and intellect are operating quite normally, allowing us to carry out our daily business. St. Teresa remarks again on the dilation, or enlargement, of the heart: the more freely the water flows, the larger becomes the basin. She tells us that the soul becomes less constrained "in matters relating to the service of God", and has much more freedom. She describes some effects of the Prayer of Quiet: no longer being oppressed by the fear of hell, no longer having a servile relationship with God, more desire to do penance, a more lively faith and less fear of trials, being drawn more and more away from earthly delights, and a strengthening in all the virtues.

St. Teresa stresses that although we should "desire to attain the Prayer of Quiet", through humility, we should not expect to receive it. She reiterates that we should love God without any motive of self-interest, we should desire to suffer and imitate the Lord, realize that He is not obliged to bring us into this type of prayer, and not struggle uselessly in any attempt to achieve it for ourselves. All comes down to humility, receptivity and love, and yet, encouragingly, St. Teresa tells us that the fourth Mansion is "the one which the greatest number of souls enter."

posted by Gabrielle at 10:42 PM |

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Feastday of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross


"Approximately seven hundred Dutch Catholics of Jewish background, including some three hundred nuns and priests, were arrested along with Rosa and Edith. In 1950, when the official Dutch Gazette published the names of all Jews who had been deported from Holland on August 7, 1942, the following entry was found:

Number 44074: Edith Theresia Hedwig Stein, Echt
Born - October 12, 1891, Breslau
Died - August 9, 1942

There are no formal records of the Stein sisters at Auschwitz because the prisoners designated for death right from the train were never registered by camp records." (Excerpts from Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda)


"The burden of the cross that Christ assumed is that of corrupted human nature, with all its consequences in sin and suffering to which fallen humanity is subject. The meaning of the way of the cross is to carry this burden out of the world..." (Excerpt from St. Teresa Benedicta's Essay "Love of the Cross: Some Thoughts for the Feast of St. John of the Cross)

Edith Stein.

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Born on the Day of Atonement.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:22 AM |

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

In 1942





Yesterday, August 7th, she and her sister Rosa were ordered onto the train leaving Westerbork. She had been in Barracks 36.

The train stopped in the switching area of the railroad depot in Breslau, where she had been born. According to author Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda, "A minute or so later, a guard opened a sliding door on one of the cars. With dismay, Wieners [an eye witness] noticed it was packed with people who were jammed together, cowering on the floor. The stench coming from the car almost overpowered the men standing outside. Then a woman in nun's clothing stepped into the opening. Wieners looked at her with such commiseration that she spoke to him: It's awful. We have nothing by way of containers for sanitation needs. Looking into the distance and then across the town, she said, This is my beloved hometown. I will never see it again."

Today, August 8th, she is on that unbearable train, making it more bearable for others. Tomorrow, she will be dead. The train will have brought her here, to Auschwitz.

Bless all the hearts, the clouded ones, Lord, above all,

Bring healing to the sick.

To those in torture, peace.

Teach those who had to carry their beloved to the grave, to forget.

Leave none in agony of guilt on all the earth.

From a poem entitled "To God, the Father", written by St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) in 1939

posted by Gabrielle at 1:13 AM |

Saturday, August 05, 2006

A Wee Concern

Over the last number of months, on blogs of everyday layfolk, I have come across descriptions of personal experiences with God: encounters with the Lord involving locutions, intellectual visions, water, dreams, embraces, mists and breath, to name a few. I even wrote about one of my own, with the Sacred Heart.

Are we an oddball bunch of mystics? I don't think so. I think it's more likely that we've simply reached the point where we have had ample time to analyze the "by their fruits ye shall know them" aspects of these experiences, and we have decided to share some of them. Why? Perhaps in hopes that others will see that they are not out of the ordinary, and to show the mercy and compassion of the Lord.

My only concern, in the context of this series, is that people should not assume that such experiences are necessary.

In the Sixth Mansions, St. Teresa speaks at length of such things; Father Dubay outlines them in Fire Within: ecstasy, rapture, transport, flight of the spirit, impulses, wounding, the betrothal and sometimes levitation.

Now, it is not that these phenomena cannot occur in any of the Mansions, because they can, and do. However, it is in the Sixth Mansions that St. Teresa discusses them, and so in this overview of Interior Castle, that is where they will be presented and discussed as well.

I would just like to ensure that anyone who may be reading this series does not equate the early stages of infused contemplation with having to "feel" any special presence or "experience" anything tangible. In fact, some people spend their whole lives in the practice of contemplative prayer and never experience any of these phenomena. It is entirely up to God - when, where and if.

posted by Gabrielle at 7:29 PM |

An Ounce of Encouragement



Based on the first three Mansions, let's ask ourselves some questions. Are we aware that we have spiritual lives? Do we pray? Are we conscious of sin, and seek forgiveness when we fall short? Have we set aside excessive, unnecessary involvement in worldly pastimes? Do we seek quiet time with the Lord, with the intention of a closer union?

If so, then why should it be difficult to believe that we are entering, or are already in, at least the Fourth Mansions? Although there are different levels of infused contemplation, let's look at some descriptions which may help us at this point:

"The beginnings of this contemplation are brief and frequently interrupted by distractions. The reality is so unimposing that one who lacks instruction can fail to appreciate what exactly is taking place. Initial infused prayer is so ordinary and unspectacular in the early stages that many fail to recognize it for what it is. Yet with generous people, that is, with those who try to live the whole Gospel wholeheartedly and who engage in an earnest prayer life, it is common." (Thomas Dubay, Fire Within)

"For contemplation is naught else than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion from God, which, if it be permitted, enkindles the soul with the spirit of love." (St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul)

"Mystical contemplation is an intuition of God born of pure love." (Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience)

Can we remain humble, and yet admit to ourselves and possibly to a spiritual director, that we are making spiritual progress? I believe we can. Would we not be hurting Him otherwise? Would we not be denying the existence of His love, His offerings of intimacy and His gifts in our lives?

posted by Gabrielle at 3:42 PM |

Friday, August 04, 2006

Fourth Mansions (Part 1 of 2)

In the first three Mansions, relative to prayer, St. Teresa only briefly mentions recollection and vocal/mental prayer accompanied by meditation. This is prayer in the "human mode", as Father Thomas Dubay puts it. Here in the Fourth Mansions, St. Teresa tells us that "we now begin to touch the supernatural", and Father Dubay explains that by this, she is referring to "the inner experiences of infused contemplation."

St. Teresa tells us that the "poisonous creatures" seldom enter the Fourth Mansions. The bulk of the work of separating ourselves from these things has been done in the first three Mansions. However, she teaches that temptations can actually "do the soul good" for two reasons: if we do not experience temptations with which we have to do battle we may fall into spiritual pride, and Satan can then mislead us concerning consolations we might be receiving; also, without temptations, "the soul would be deprived of all occasions of merit."

The importance of knowing the difference between "sweetness in prayer" and "spiritual consolations" is also stressed. St. Teresa describes sweetness in prayer as coming from our meditations, our petitions and our virtuous works. God has a hand in this, she says, but it mainly comes out of our own nature. It is an emotional kind of satisfaction, similar to pleasant emotions which arise from many rewarding worldly activities or events, which "have their source in our own nature and end in God."

Spiritual consolations, however, "have their source in God, but we experience them in a natural way". Spiritual consolations "enlarge the heart" in a way that sweetness in prayer does not.

Here we are introduced to St. Teresa's famous water imagery. She offers us another metaphor: the soul as a large basin. On the one hand, the basin can be filled with water which is brought to it, from the source, through many conduits and by human skill; that is, we can work at prayer, through the conduits of words, thoughts, or meditations on created things and we will receive a "sweetness" in prayer, but the human effort which it requires creates spiritual "noise", and "fatigues the understanding".

On the other hand, if the basin is at the source, the water is always flowing, always noiselessly filling the basin with no need of conduits, and this is "spiritual consolation". She tells us it is "accompanied by the greatest peace and quietness and sweetness within ourselves", and so, St. Teresa calls it the "Prayer of Quiet".

posted by Gabrielle at 1:16 AM |

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Back from Vacation!






A picture says a thousand words.







Women Tending the Laundry
Camille Pissarro (1887)

posted by Gabrielle at 12:00 AM |