ST TERESA OF JESUS AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

DOES THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTION OF ST TERESA OF JESUS ASSIST THOSE OF ANOTHER FAITH TRADITION?

Whether a soul is seeking union with Christ the Lord or seeking, for example, nirvana through the 4 noble truths of Buddhism,  there are common disciplines, whether we seek the Way in Christ Jesus or we follow self-imposed disciplines on a path to interior peace. Some pathways have particular teachings which seem to be in common yet the ultimate goals are distinctly different. This would affect the guidance offered within a spiritual direction setting.

Practitioners of Buddhism for example follow a pathway which involves an understanding of the place of suffering in that tradition. One of its four noble truths focuses on the need to grow in awareness of suffering in the present in order that it may cease and have no power to destroy the future. In Christianity, the Holy Spirit gives the graces to recognize the power of suffering, interior and exterior, in the present, for the purgation of our souls. The Lord Jesus leads His children into an awareness of the beauty and power of offering our suffering and we learn that when it is offered to God through the Sacred Suffering Humanity of Christ, we join Him in His vicarious suffering for other by helping to carry the Cross. We are drawn into His Act of Redemption.  

In spiritual direction, and although the ultimate understanding of suffering is totally different, St Teresa of Avila provides a wisdom that is transferable and gives light to both the Christ-seeker or the Buddhist: "The blessings of suffering unlock....the power of patient endurance, no matter the hardship" (St. Teresa). For a Buddhist, her spiritual direction on God's virtue of endurance is revelatory and helpful because "endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but the final victory comes to the one who endures"(Buddha).

St. Teresa speaks to self-abandonment, the willing surrendering of all earthly attachments to cling to God alone. This too is one of Buddha's noble truths. Understanding the teachings of other faiths is essential when spiritual direction is involved. 

It is important  that the Spiritual Director understands the directee's chosen path and with deeper understanding can offer relevant insights rooted in the wisdom and the teachings of Teresa of Jesus.

  

St Teresa guides us on how to grow in self-knowledge, in our interior responses to life-suffering, our self-mastery, self-control, all nourished by humility. These are graces from God and these teachings and insights of Teresa that may bring light to someone on a path that is "corresponding" (Karl Rahner) to the Christian path. In the Interior Castle, she teaches us that the more a soul realizes its littleness and frailty, self-knowledge deepens as does  humility. She teaches the crucial need for self-knowledge, humility, meditation, surrendering to God all that attaches and burdens the soul. She teaches that  two important components of humility are to walk in truth and self-knowledge, "Spiritually, no matter how much we have matured, we must cultivate self-knowledge" (St Teresa).

For Teresa, humility is the foundation of spiritual life and prayer, without which nothing can grow. This is true also for a person traveling the path of Buddhism where: "... only a humble mind can readily recognize its own defilements of craving, aversion and ignorance, thereby embarking on the path of enlightenment and liberation".

Here, the wisdom of St Teresa offered in the First 3 Mansions of the Interior Castle can spiritually direct any soul into deeper  humility and self-knowledge. For a Buddhist, these are disciplines which take the soul into enlightenment. For the Christian seeking Christ Who dwells within the soul, these work together as we are led by the Holy Spirit into our own KENOSIS which involves the purging and subjugation of all within our de-formed nature that creates a barrier to our union with God.

  

When we focus on the KENOSIS of Christ at the Incarnation, we understand that He did not empty Himself of His Godhood. He emptied Himself of the glory that is His by Nature. In the call to our own KENOSIS, we ask the Holy Spirit to assist us in the self-emptying of our sinful nature to be filled with the Divine Likeness of the Nature of God (CCC 1702).

Our endless self-emptying alerts us to awareness of sin and humility deepens. Self-knowledge is born from this humility and in deepening self-knowledge, we are assisted in remaining faithful to our baptismal promises and to resisting temptations through self-discipline, offering our small sacrifices through Christ that others may be given new life.

Self-knowledge alerts us to the need to practice ascesis for spiritual reasons which is our Spirit-given desire for a deepening encounter with the Triune God Who dwells within us and in Whom all interior peace is found.

For a Christian seeking union with Christ within, this is "an exacting work, renewed effort at every stage of life" (CCC 234).

A soul may not be seeking the Indwelling God Present in the soul, but instead be seeking a pathway to interior peace and self-fulfillment through self-control, self-knowledge, self-mastery. This soul seems to be bravely embarking on such a journey alone. It is essential that the Spiritual Director understands their chosen path and is able to direct that soul with deep compassion. 

I look to the insights of Catholic Theologian Karl Rayner to better understand a theological response to walk with this soul into interior peace. This person is someone not overtly Christian but one who is seeking spiritual direction to try to follow a path,  for example, of self-forgetfulness, not in a nihilistic manner but to learn the reality of emptiness and to increase their own capacity for compassion. Rahner recognized the beauty of the Spirit of God at work in those who do not recognize His Presence and who are not striving to find Him. By the grace of the Holy Spirit however, this person lives the fragrance of Christ's Presence by seeking and spreading peace and compassion and acceptance. Rahner proposed that such souls are moved to choose to live lives of goodness, "according to their conscience," yet who do not name the Source of the loving inclinations which are nothing less than reflections of Christ, Himself Present but to whom that awareness of Himself  has not been given. Rahner refers to these souls as "anonymous Christians" in whom the Spirit of God provides the possibility for salvation of a corresponding faith for non Christians. 

As Spiritual Directors, therefore, we attend to their seeking with holy listening and great reverence for the Spirit of God active in their souls in His hidden Presence. 

When offering Spiritual direction to someone of another faith, I hear the Lord's cry, "That all may be one". This calls me to respond to that longing of the Savior. Knowing the power of prayer and the call to evangelize, I would silently petition the Lord, continually praying that He bless them with an awareness of His Spirit which is the only necessary knowledge and call them to Himself  

                   "... that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:11).

GIFTS OR GIVER

Looking at the final 3 Mansions in St. Teresa of Jesus' INTERIOR CASTLE, what is more important for discernment....mystical experiences or growth in love and self-forgetfulness? 

When we desire to grow in love and self-forgetfulness, our desire is of and for God. We are not seeking the gifts of God which may include mystical experiences. We are seeking the Giver. 

The motives for seeking spiritual direction become very quickly apparent if a directee is seeking only God's gifts.  

Purification of motives during passage through the first 3 Mansions will begin when we offer little sacrifices; take extra time in prayer when time is not easily available. There are multiple other acts of self discipline which  reveal the interior discomforts brought about by disordered desires. Self-knowledge deepens as humility draws the Holy Spirit to gift His virtues. The gifts that God chooses to shower on the soul on the journey into union with Him may involve gifts. All of God's gifts lead us into self-forgetfulness and deeper love of Him. No matter the shape of the gift, be it one in a package of interior or physical suffering , or a gift that is mystical, it is for Him to fashion but always for the salvation of the soul and for the glory of God. Our journey into holiness in Him will help us to discern how to better serve Him with love through the gifts received.

A Carmelite's Vocation through Suffering

When God gifts us a share in His suffering, emotional, physical or spiritual, a Carmelite begins to look within and is beckoned to pray for souls as well as for the alleviation of the suffering. St John of the Cross tells all Carmelites that we should never try to take away the suffering of another because God is doing mystical things through that gift. His words can be very challenging because of what appears to be an uncaring teaching.

There are many ways of sharing the heavy burden of the suffering which others are enduring.

Through prayer, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, (the Principal Educator in our spiritual journey), we learn that we may walk the journey of pain with those who are suffering, we may pray with and for them, shoulder their burden with them. We may offer them our hidden presence, offer hidden sacrifices for them which are known and seen only by God. This is vicarious suffering. We may never have met those we pray for; they may live miles from where we live or they may live just up the street; they may have gone Home to God or they may yet to be born.

Prayer and love are not bound by time or place.

Christ draws us into His Ultimate Sacrifice, invites us to plead for others by uniting our small sacrifices with His Act of Redemption, and He hears and answers each prayer petition. Then He waits to reward us for what He gave us the power to do in the first place.

The ultimate example of vicarious suffering offered in endless love from the Cross is Jesus and through His saints, we witness how He shares the power of His suffering with His saints. When St. Therese, our Little Flower, prayed and suffered within the four walls of the monastery, the Holy Spirit enlightened her mind to see that her vocation was love. She gave her Fiat to that vocation and her suffering intensified. Through her sacrificial and hidden prayer the power of her suffering reached depths unseen and unknown, even to her community.

She longed to be a missionary, calling souls to the Love of the Savior from every corner of the world. Her sacrificial prayer took her to every place where Christ was suffering in souls. She never left the Carmelite convent yet thousands of souls were won for Him.

She saw and was distressed by the behavior of priests on her journey to Rome so her prayer for priests became a driving force in her short life. She was given to understand that these men are chosen by God to bring us His Sacred Body and Blood in the Eucharist and the battle for their souls is terrifying. When the devil wins the soul of a priest, many sheep are in spiritual danger. She called praying for priests "Bulk buying" because keeping the shepherd safe means keeping the sheep safe.

Now, over 100 years after her returning to God, her vocation of love, of spending her heaven doing good on earth is clear to any who ask her intercession. Her life of terrible suffering and intense prayer has borne over a century of spiritual fruit. From deep in the Heart of her Beloved she continues to reply to a call from a broken child. She answers a cry from Vietnam as quickly and easily as one from France or Alaska. She hears our heartfelt prayers for the souls of priests ...and in our prayer, her pleading of a 100 years ago on their behalf now becomes her missionary work once more. Time and geography are irrelevant and her missionary zeal lives with and through and in every pulse of the Savior's Great Heart in His world, working endlessly through us in whom the Indwelling God lives and loves (Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity).

This is the vocation of a Carmelite. As we pray for one another, may we always remember the words of our fellow Secular Carmelite Discalced, Saint John Paul II: "Suffering is an invitation to be more like the Son in doing the Father's Will".

With the glorious help of these two Carmelites, may we offer the gift of our pain and climb on to the Altar with the Willing Victim of Love, our Master, and win thousands of souls for God.

Prayer soars beyond place and time.

" ... Love is all things, and that, because it is eternal, it embraces every time and place." (St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face)

"Behold, I am with you always, yes, to the end of time." (Matthew 28:20)

Anna Rae-Kelly OCDS

God's Power in Holy Powerlessness

Every second of the three days spanning the Passion and Death of the Lord holds eternal significance. This means that every second as we wait, seemingly powerless on this Holy Saturday, a mystical sacrificial waiting is taking place. Where there is prayerful sacrifice offered through Him in our pain and sorrow as we wait for His rising from the dead, God transforms each of our sacrifices into Sacrament. Our sacrificial and silent waiting for Him throughout Holy Saturday therefore becomes a sacramental waiting which we may offer for the souls of many. 

In this way, God enters our powerlessness and makes it Holy. 

Thoughts to Pray Through in Holy Week

(Adapted from retreat given by Fr Liam OCD)

Did anything in particular stand out in the Retreat?

Yes. The sessions were profoundly thought-provoking. There are many that I'd like to share but for now, maybe just a couple of statements, and even out of context the Holy Spirit may touch souls through them…

** Christ on the gibbet is the poultice, gently and silently extracting poisons from my soul.

** On the Cross, and through gentleness and powerlessness, Jesus forces the devil to reveal himself. The shocking fury of his lie is revealed in all its horror and hate for Christ's love, present in all humanity. When we look at the  tortured Figure on the Cross, we see the depths of that hatred.

** On the tree, Christ names, neutralizes, cleanses all evil, in all of humanity, for all time . He holds the maximum voltage of all humanity's evil and rips apart the veil of lies and hiddenness that the devil uses to retain power over us and to utterly destroy souls.

** My flesh, in all my filth, becomes Christ's Flesh and Jesus shows me how to die praying. HE MAKES THE BRUTALITY OF DEATH INTO AN ACT OF PRAYER, OF ADORATION TO THE FATHER. GOD IS GLORIFIED IN CHRIST'S DEATH. DEATH BECOMES AN OBLATION WHERE LOVE IS POURED INTO ALL HATE, ALL LIES, ALL VIOLATIONS OF INNOCENCE, ALL MANIFESTED IN JESUS' BRUTALIZED NAKED BODY.

** His suffering is necessary to reveal the Truth and in Him, suffering becomes transformative. TO LIVE IN COMFORT, IN LIES, IN COMPROMISE CAN NEVER BE A TRANSFORMATIVE LIFE. ONLY IN “THE THICKET" OF SUFFERING IS OUR SOUL TRANSFORMED.  And there, we meet Him.  

**  THROUGH HIM, OUR SUFFERING IS TRANSFORMED INTO SACRAMENT. WE ARE UNITED IN HIM AND WITH HIM, WE PURCHASE SOULS FOR HIM. IN HIM, WE GIVE OUR ACT OF OBLATION TO OUR FATHER.

OUR PETITIONS RAISED IN PRAYER AND THE HANDS THAT MAKE THEM PURE

The Mother of God grasps our heartfelt, disordered, tarnished petitions. When the purity of her hands touch them, all the discoloration and tainted motives hidden in them are made clean. Our Mother then presents them in their purest form to the holiness of God.

SHE DOES NOT OFFER GOD A SOLUTION TO OUR PETITIONS. WE KNOW THIS BECAUSE AT THE WEDDING FEAST AT CANA, SHE SAW A NEED, SILENTLY HELD IT  AS SHE CARRIED IT TO HER SON THEN SIMPLY TOLD HIM,

 "THEY HAVE NO MORE WINE". 

SHE THEN LEFT THE PETITION THERE, WITH HIM.

SHE WAITED FOR HIS REPLY.

And so it is when she receives our petitions. She quietly holds them, makes them pure, speaks them to her Son. 

And she waits.

He replies.

Mary then dispenses His graces and His reply is made manifest in our lives. "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I do will it. Be clean." (Matthew 8:2)

The Mighty Powerlessness of a Carmelite...

The utter rejection, imposed by the cruel intentions of another or others, becomes a holy weapon in the hidden prayer of a Carmelite. Through the suffering, offered into the Wounds of the Holy Victim on the Cross, the Carmelite has a mighty weapon to use against Satan to win souls back for the Savior to give to Our Father.