Friday, October 15, 2021

 

Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

(Romans 4:1-8; Luke 12:1-7)

St. Teresa of Jesus is not to be confused with St. Therese of the Child Jesus.  The former lived in sixteenth century Spain; the latter in nineteenth century France.   Both were Carmelite nuns, and both have been named “Doctors of the Church.”  Teresa of Jesus, however, lived a long life in which she accomplished the reform of her order and the writing of many books.  Therese of the Child Jesus spent all of a short adult life at the Carmel in her hometown where she wrote her insightful and inspiring autobiography.

St. Teresa of Jesus (or of Avila as she is often called) developed a doctrine of prayer worthy of attention.  She used the metaphor of drawing water for irrigation in her discourse.  The first water comes with much labor as if one were drawing bucket from a well and carrying it into the field. It is the attempt to speak to God and meditate on one’s own.  This prayer often leads in aridity and fatigue.  The second water is a gift from God who allows the pray-er, after concentrating her faculties, an experience of communication.  It is as if God were granting the one praying a mechanical device to carry the water.  The third water is a significant deepening of the “prayer of quiet.”  But the fourth water is qualitatively richer.  As rain seems like a gift from heaven, in the fourth water the soul is completely passive.  Nevertheless, it experiences the joy of full union with the Lord.

In today’s gospel Jesus indicates the need to connect with God.  God is to be feared, Jesus indicates, if we deliberately flout His will.  Nevertheless, God loves us and will take care of us if we allow Him.  It behooves us, then, to develop a close relationship with God through prayer.

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