I recently led a talk on prayer from the lens of St. Teresa of Avila, the Doctor of the Church on Prayer. Below are my notes from the talk.
Where does our understanding come from?
St. Teresa of Avila (or *of Jesus) was a Carmelite Nun and a Doctor of The Church on Prayer.
She has 3 notable works that helped develop her teaching on prayer, The first is “The Life,” an autobiography of her life, specifically, (written more for her spiritual directors/confessors at the time so they could gain insight into her background to help her grow), but it also gives us insight into her understanding of prayer and the depth at which she was able to penetrate, she was 47 years old when she began writing this.
The second is entitled “The Way to Perfection,” which was written for her Carmelite sisters to help them further understand the beginning stages of prayer.
The final work, which is more spoken about, is called “The Interior Castle” or “The Mansions.” which was written in 1577, 5 years prior to her death. This book dives deeper into the final levels of prayer, as it was 20 years after her first work, her understanding and devotion to prayer was much deeper.
All of these works helped shape our understanding of prayer with which there are 10 total levels, 9 of which are achievable on earth and the 10th being only which we can do in Heaven.
Her work “The Life” is pretty comparable to St. Augustine’s “Confessions.” She writes about her life before her true conversion to Christ and what she now knows and understands having reflected on it. St. Teresa of Avila suffered numerous infirmities during her life, and all of this adds to her insight into prayer. If you truly want to be humbled and see a Saint through a Saints eyes, I recommend this book.
She gives the greatest and clearest accounts on prayer and all 3 of her works helped shape what is now The Church’s teaching. As you read from her first to her last work, you can tell how much she has grown to understand prayer. Much of the first book, while still speaking on the levels of prayer, isn’t quite clear on the distinctions between them. I will be utilizing all her works in conjunction to give us a greater fullness. Now that we have the basis for where our understanding comes from let’s move into the what of the matter.
What are the levels of prayer according to St. Teresa and thus, The Church?
(Lowest) Vocal prayer
Meditation
Affective Mental prayer
Acquired Recollection
Infused Recollection
Prayer of Quiet
Prayer of Simple Union
Prayer of Ecstatic Union
Prayer of Transforming Union (Highest)
How do we reach these levels and what does each entail?
As previously stated, her work “The Life” while focusing on her life, also gives great insight into the beginning stages of prayer. In this book St. Teresa uses an analogy of a gardener watering his garden to explain these stages of prayer, her books that came after help to build and distinguish these stages more deeply.
She writes in Chapter 11 of “The Life”: “Let us now consider how this garden can be watered, so that we may know what we have to do, what labour it will cost us, if the gain will outweigh the labour and for how long this labour must be borne. It seems to me that the garden can be watered in four ways:
1) by taking the water physically from a well, which costs us great labour;
2) by a water-wheel and buckets, when the water is drawn by a windlass (I have sometimes drawn it in this way: it is less laborious than the other and gives more water)
3) by a stream or a brook, which waters the ground much better, for it saturates it more thoroughly and there is less need to water it often, so that the gardener’s labour is much less
4) by heavy rain, when the Lord waters it with no labour of ours, a way incomparably better than any of those which have been described.”
Notice how St. Teresa mentions “the labor of the gardener” and how much he will have to labor at each stage. The first stages of watering the garden take the gardener much more labor that the final ones. Thus we see that the higher we ascend in prayer the less work we do and the more we rely on God.
The 1st way of watering the garden reflects the first 2 levels of prayer, which we have come to know as Vocal prayer and Meditation. During these two stages, we are fully engaging our faculties, at great laborious cost to us, but we receive what we receive through our own effort (and by God’s great mercy).
St Teresa continues in chapter 11, “Beginners in prayer, we may say, are those who draw up the water out of the well: this, as I have said, is a very laborious proceeding, for it will fatigue them to keep their senses recollected, which is a great labour because they have been accustomed to a life of distraction. Beginners must accustom themselves to pay no heed to what they see or hear, and they must practice doing this during hours of prayer; they must be alone and in their solitude think over their past life — all of us, indeed, whether beginners or proficients, must do this frequently.”
This is supplemented in her writing “The way to perfection” where in chapter 22 she writes “You must know, daughters, that whether or not you are practicing mental prayer has nothing to do with keeping the lips closed. If, while I am speaking with God, I have a clear realization and full consciousness that I am doing so, and if this is more real to me than the words I am uttering, then I am combining mental and vocal prayer. When people tell you that you are speaking with God by reciting the Paternoster and thinking of worldly things—well, words fail me. When you speak, as it is right for you to do, with so great a Lord, it is well that you should think of Who it is that you are addressing, and what you yourself are, if only that you may speak to Him with proper respect… Who can say that it is wrong if, before we begin reciting the Hours or the Rosary, we think Whom we are going to address, and who we are that are addressing Him, so that we may do so in the way we should? I assure you, sisters, that if you gave all due attention to a consideration of these two points before beginning the vocal prayers which you are about to say you would be engaging in mental prayer for a very long time. For we cannot approach a prince and address him in the same careless way that we should adopt in speaking to a peasant or to some poor woman like ourselves, whom we may address however we like.”
Notice how much emphasis she places on being attentive to what you are saying and how devoted you are while saying it. Thus both vocal and mental prayer go hand in hand for the Church practices vocal prayer throughout the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass yet every word holds distinct meaning. We must understand and be attentive with that which we are praying, for it to merit anything. To understand these truths we must look inward. And as we ascend further into the stages of prayer, it all looks more and more inward.
But in Chapter 12 of “The Life” St. Teresa warns us of trying to force our way into the next levels of prayer, here she says “..it is very important that we should not try to lift up our spirits unless they are lifted up by the Lord.”
For beginners in prayer it is important to become proficient in the first two to three stages of prayer for the next are formed through this very habit. The devil can easily manipulate sensations and feelings if we begin to ascend too quickly.
In Chapter 14 St. Teresa goes into the next stage of watering the garden. She writes “This state, in which the soul begins to recollect itself, borders on the supernatural, to which it could in no way attain by its own exertions. True, it sometimes seems to have been wearied by its work at the windlass — its labouring with the understanding and its filling of the buckets; but in this state the water is higher and thus much less labour is required than for the drawing of it from the well. I mean that the water is nearer to it, for grace reveals itself to the soul more clearly. This state is a recollecting of the faculties within the soul, so that its fruition of that contentment may be of greater delight. But the faculties are not lost, nor do they sleep. The will alone is occupied, in such a way that, without knowing how, it becomes captive. It allows itself to be imprisoned by God, as one who well knows itself to be the captive of Him Whom it loves”
This stage of watering the garden contains what we have come to understand as Affective mental prayer and Acquired recollection. In Affective mental prayer we come to pray out of complete love of God. We pray to Him who is Lord of our soul.
To explain the stage of Acquired recollection St. Teresa says.. “This quiet and recollectedness in the soul makes itself felt largely through the satisfaction and peace which it brings to it, together with a very great joy and repose of the faculties and a most sweet delight. As the soul has never gone beyond this stage, it thinks there is no more left for it to desire and, like Saint Peter, it wishes that it could make its abode here.It dares not move or stir, for it thinks that if it does so this blessing may slip from its grasp: sometimes it would like to be unable even to breathe.”
Notice how she mentions this quiet of the soul and the peace with which this stage brings. It is most easily understood (for me at least) through the adoring of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Your faculties are captivated by Our Lord, but this is only accomplished by someone who has control over his faculties. Acquired recollection is exactly that, “Acquired,” because it is still something we have to work for. This is the last stage of what man can achieve on his own.
To further supplement this stage and to build on what St. Augustine said, “neither in market places nor in pleasures nor wheresoever else I sought Him did I find Him as I did within myself.”
St. Teresa writes in “The way to perfection”… “All I want is that we should know and abide with the Person with Whom we are speaking, and not turn our backs upon Him; for that, it seems to me, is what we are doing when we talk to God and yet think of all kinds of vanity. The whole mischief comes from our not really grasping the fact that He is near us, and imagining Him far away—so far, that we shall have to go to Heaven in order to find Him. How is it, Lord, that we do not look at Thy face, when it is so near us?”
We now move on to Chapter 16 of “The Life” and to the 3rd way of watering the garden… “–that is, of running water proceeding from a river or a spring. This irrigates the garden with much less trouble, although a certain amount (of labor) is needed for the directing of it. But the Lord is now pleased to help the gardener, so that He may almost be said to be the gardener Himself, for it is He (God) Who does everything.”
This way of watering brings us into the next 2 levels of prayer. This stage moves us into the mystical, where we cannot enter but by God alone. The distinction between these two stages, namely Infused Recollection (the next step from Acquired Recollection) and the Prayer of Quiet is more strongly shown in St. Teresa’s final work where she writes about Infused Recollection more specifically saying “My own experience of this delight and sweetness in meditation was that when I began to weep over the Passion I could not stop until I had a severe headache; the same thing occurred when I grieved over my sins: this was a great grace from our Lord.”
This paragraph goes to explain a deeper distinction between Acquired and Infused recollection. It also helps to separate Infused recollection from the Prayer of Quiet, which she had more trouble doing in her early years (this could have been because she skipped certain stages).
St. Teresa describes the Prayer of Quiet, quite vividly in “The Life” where she says in Chapter 16 “This state is a sleep of the faculties, which are neither wholly lost nor yet can understand how they work… The faculties retain only the power of occupying themselves wholly with God; not one of them, it seems, ventures to stir, nor can we cause any of them to move except by trying to fix our attention very carefully on something else, and even then I do not think we could entirely succeed in doing so. Many words are spoken, during this state, in praise of God, but, unless the Lord Himself puts order into them, they have no orderly form. The understanding, at any rate, counts for nothing here; the soul would like to shout praises aloud, for it is in such a state that it cannot contain itself — a state of delectable disquiet.”
The Prayer of Quiet is the stage before what St. Teresa calls “The prayers of Union.” The Prayer of Quiet is the culmination of conjunction between our earthly life and the spiritual. She writes in Chapter 31 in “The Way to Perfection”… “It is a great favour which the Lord grants to these souls, for it unites the active life with the contemplative. At such times they serve the Lord in both these ways at once; the will, while in contemplation, is working without knowing how it does so; the other two faculties are serving Him as Martha did. Thus Martha and Mary work together.”
In this level we are completely captivated by the Divine Presence. God moves our soul, God moves our Will. He is our focus, our joy, our wholeness. When God Himself desires, He will move us from this level to the next level of prayer, as mentioned, “The Prayer of Union.”
There are various degrees of this prayer as mentioned in the beginning, Simple, Ecstatic, and Transforming.
As we approach St. Teresa’s teaching on these final degrees of prayer. She begins in Chapter 18 of “The Life” by trying to describe these heights of mystical prayer, explaining it from the lens of ascent of the former levels in which she writes… “In the whole of the prayer already described, and in each of its stages, the gardener is responsible for part of the labour; although in these later stages the labour is accompanied by such bliss and consolation that the soul’s desire would be never to abandon it: the labour is felt to be, not labour at all, but bliss. In this state of prayer to which we have now come, there is no feeling, but only rejoicing, unaccompanied by any understanding of the thing in which the soul is rejoicing. It realizes that it is rejoicing in some good thing, in which are comprised all good things at once, but it cannot comprehend this good thing. In this rejoicing all the senses are occupied, so that none of them is free or able to act in any way, either outwardly or inwardly”
She then continues further down with the final way of watering the garden. “Speaking now of this rain which comes from Heaven to fill and saturate the whole of this garden with an abundance of water, we can see how much rest the gardener would be able to have if the Lord never ceased to send it whenever it was necessary. And if there were no winter, but eternal warm weather, there would never be a death of flowers and fruit and we can imagine how delighted he would be. But during this life, that is impossible, and, when one kind of water fails, we must always be thinking about obtaining another. This rain from Heaven often comes when the gardener is least expecting it. Yet it is true that at first it almost always comes after long mental prayer: as one degree of prayer succeeds another, the Lord takes this little bird and puts it into the nest where it may repose. Having watched it flying for a long time, striving with mind and will and all its strength to seek and please God, it becomes His pleasure, while it is still in this life, to give it its reward. And what a great reward that is! For even a moment of it suffices to recompense the soul for all the trials that it can possibly have endured.”
St. Teresa more accurately depicts these final levels of prayer in “The Interior Castle,” where they begin in the Fifth Mansion… as the prayers of union are the heights of mystical prayer it is only fitting that St. Teresa start as she does in Chapter 1 of the Fifth Mansion…“OH, my sisters, how shall I describe the riches, treasures, and joys contained in the fifth mansions! Would it not be better to say nothing about them? They are impossible to depict, nor can the mind conceive, nor any comparisons portray them, all earthly things being too vile to serve the purpose. Send me, O my Lord, light from heaven that I may give some to these Thy servants, some of whom by Thy good will often enjoy these delights, lest the devil in the guise of an angel of light should deceive those whose only desire is to please Thee… I dare venture to assert that, if this is genuine union with God, the devil cannot interfere nor do any harm, for His Majesty is so joined and united with the essence of the soul, that the evil one dare not approach, nor can he even understand this mystery.”
She continues later in Chapter 1 about the signs of the first degree of this level saying “Let us now speak of the sign which proves the prayer of union to have been genuine. As you have seen, God then deprives the soul of all its senses that He may the better imprint in it true wisdom: it neither sees, hears, nor understands anything while this state lasts, which is never more than a very brief time;it appears to the soul to be much shorter than it really is. God visits the soul in a manner which prevents its doubting, on returning to itself, that it dwelt in Him and that He was within it, and so firmly is it convinced of this truth that, although years may pass before this favour recurs, the soul can never forget it nor doubt the fact,setting aside the effects left by this prayer, to which I will refer later on. The conviction felt by the soul is the main point.”
As we read, the Prayer of Simple Union is just that. It is a state only God can bring upon us, in which He enters the soul, wholly, filling it with only Himself. How simple a gift this is, yet it is the most powerful moment we would have yet experienced. The very essence of Christian life is dedicated to seeing the face of God in Heaven, and yet, in this stage God comes to us and seeks a union of our soul with Him.
Moving on to the Prayer of Ecstatic Union, this level has also been known as “spiritual betrothal.” Having experienced God Himself entering wholly into the soul, it wishes nothing more than God from then on. This is more clearly explained in Chapter 1 of the 6th Mansion by St. Teresa where she says “…the soul, wounded with love for its Spouse, sighs more than ever for solitude, withdrawing as far as the duties of its state permit from all that can interrupt it, The sight it has enjoyed of Him is so deeply imprinted on the spirit that its only desire is to behold Him again.” end quote; But God in His infinite Love and desire for us in our entirety does not give us this so easily, she continues in chapter 1… “The soul is now determined to take no other Bridegroom than our Lord, but He disregards its desires for its speedy espousals, wishing that these longings should become still more vehement and that this good, which far excels all other benefits, should be purchased at some cost to itself. And although for so great a gain all that we must endure is but a poor price to pay, I assure you, daughters, that this pledge of what is in store for us is needed to inspire us with courage to bear our crosses.”
As such this Prayer of Ecstatic Union is laid with trials and other mystical phenomena, all of this is to make it so that we continue to pursue God in His glory. Due to these factors with which coincide with this level of prayer St. Teresa writes 11 chapters about this 6th mansion, describing the trials and phenomena that one may experience while pursuing Our Creator.
As to not lose track of the ultimate goal of this paper, I will but name some of the things St. Teresa says one can experience in this level of prayer…
-Trials accompanying divine favors
-Earthly outcries against one who has entered into this level. (ie.. friends leaving you, or the public lashing out against you for seemingly no reason; these are works of the great deceiver)
-The soul not desiring praise, even to the point of it causing one pain. (ie. commendation causes great suffering; this stems from a recognition of our fallenness and that anything good about us is God’s doing)
-Indifference to praise and blame
-A great love of enemies
-Bodily sufferings
-Anxiety from past sins
-Scruples and fears (also caused by the devil)
-Visions
-Flights of the spirit
Notice how many of these things can represent Christ’s cross to us. In this level of prayer God already has captivity of our will, but He is saying that we must accept and trust His way, by giving us the chance, however small, to follow Christ’s path to crucifixion.
If one bears their trials with great affection for our Lord, God grants them this next and final degree of the Prayer of Union. That which we know as the Prayer of Transforming union, is also known as “mystical marriage.” This enters us into the 7th mansion of the interior castle…
St. Teresa begins in Chapter 1 of this mansion… “You may think, sisters, that so much has been said of this spiritual journey that nothing remains to be added. That would be a great mistake: God’s immensity has no limits, neither have His works; therefore, who can recount His mercies and His greatness? It is impossible, so do not be amazed at what I write about them which is but a cipher of what remains untold concerning God. He has shown great mercy in communicating these mysteries to one who could recount them to us, for as we learn more of His intercourse with creatures, we ought to praise Him more fervently and to esteem more highly the soul in which He so delights. 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.”
She continues… “When our Lord is pleased to take pity on the sufferings, both past and present, endured through her longing for Him by this soul which He has spiritually taken for His bride, He, before consummating the celestial marriage, brings her into this His mansion or presence chamber. This is the seventh Mansion, for as He has a dwelling-place in heaven, so has He in the soul, where none but He may abide and which may be termed a second heaven”
St. Teresa then describes what exactly this final level brings… she writes “By some mysterious manifestation of the truth, the three Persons of the most Blessed Trinity reveal themselves, preceded by an illumination which shines on the spirit like a most dazzling cloud of light. The three Persons are distinct from one another; a sublime knowledge is infused into the soul, imbuing it with a certainty of the truth that the Three are of one substance, power, and knowledge and are one God. Thus that which we hold as a doctrine of faith, the soul now, so to speak, understands by sight, though it beholds the Blessed Trinity neither by the eyes of the body nor of the soul, this being no imaginary vision. All the Three Persons here communicate Themselves to the soul, speak to it and make it understand the words of our Lord in the Gospel that He and the Father and the Holy Ghost will come and make their abode with the soul which loves Him and keeps His commandments.”
The first fruit of this final Prayer of Union is this…“she seems no longer to exist, nor does she wish to be of any account in anything—anything! unless she sees that she can advance, however little, the honour and glory of God, for which she would most willingly die.”
The soul’s one and only wish is to glorify God by any possible way it can, by our life. Nothing else matters to the soul.
The second fruit, she writes “… is a strong desire for suffering, though it does not disturb her peace as before because the fervent wish of such souls for the fulfilment of God’s will in them makes them acquiesce in all He does. If He would have her suffer, she is content; if not, she does not torment herself to death about it as she used to do. She feels a great interior joy when persecuted, and is far more peaceful than in the former state under such circumstances: she bears no grudge against her enemies, nor wishes them any ill. Indeed she has a special love for them, is deeply grieved at seeing them in trouble, and does all she can to relieve them, earnestly interceding with God on their behalf.”
She continues… “Such a soul, thoroughly detached from all things, wishes to be either always alone or occupied on what benefits the souls of others: she feels neither aridity nor any interior troubles, but a constant tender recollection of our Lord Whom she wishes to praise unceasingly.”
The Final insight into prayer by the Doctor herself
After discussing these fruits further she then moves into chapter 4 where she goes on to give a recollection of everything she has brought together…“if her mind is fixed on Him, as it ought to be, she must needs forget herself: all her thoughts are bent on how to please Him better and when and how she can show the love she bears Him… This is the end and aim of prayer, my daughters; this is the reason of the spiritual marriage whose children are always good works. Works are the unmistakable sign which shows these favours come from God, as I told you. It will do me little good to be deeply recollected when alone, making acts of the virtues, planning and promising to do wonders in God’s service, if afterwards, when occasion offers, I do just the opposite. I did wrong in saying, ‘It will do me little good,’ for all the time we spend with God does us great good. Though afterwards we may weakly fail to perform our good intentions, yet some time or other His Majesty will find a way for us to practise them although perhaps much to our regret. Thus when He sees a soul very cowardly, He often sends it some great affliction, much against its will, and brings it through this trial with profit to itself…”
She continues… “Do you know what it is to be truly spiritual? It is for men to make themselves the slaves of God—branded with His mark, which is the cross. Since they have given Him their freedom, He can sell them as slaves to the whole world, as He was, which would be doing them no wrong but the greatest favour. Unless you make up your minds to this, never expect to make much progress, for as I said humility is the foundation of the whole building and unless you are truly humble, our Lord, for your own sake, will never permit you to rear it very high lest it should fall to the ground… This, my sisters, is what I would have us strive for—to offer our petitions and to practice prayer, not for our own enjoyment but to gain strength to serve God. Let us seek no fresh path; we should lose ourselves in ways of ease. It would be a strange thing to fancy we should gain these graces by any other road than that by which Jesus and all His saints have gone before. Let us not dream of such a thing: believe me, both Martha and Mary must entertain our Lord and keep Him as their Guest, nor must they be so inhospitable as to offer Him no food. How can Mary do this while she sits at His feet, if her sister does not help her?”
She finishes this work on prayer with this second to last paragraph… “In short, my sisters, I will conclude with this advice; do not build towers without a foundation, for our Lord does not care so much for the importance of our works as for the love with which they are done. When we do all we can, His Majesty will enable us to do more every day. If we do not grow weary, but during the brief time this life lasts we give our Lord every sacrifice we can, both interior and exterior, His Majesty will unite them with that He offered to His Father for us on the Cross so that they may be worth the value given them by our love, however mean the works themselves may be.”
A Holy Legacy 